The Missionary Review of the World — February 1890
PROTESTANT MISSIONS A Ht:NDRED YEARS AGO AND NOW
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XIII. No.2.-01d Series.–FEBRUARY.–VoL. III. No. 2.-New Series.
I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS. PROTESTANT MISSIONS A HUNDRED YEARS AGO AND NOW RESPO:NSIBILITY AXD ENCOURAGEMENT. BY REV. JAMES JOHNSTON, F. S. S., LONDOX, E:NGLAXD.
In our pamphlet, "A Century of Protestant .Missions," we fixed ou the year 1786 as the period of their commencement, and. we have seen no reason to alter that date as a fair approximation. Foul' of the greatest missionary societies ill the world can trace their 'origin to within a few months, if not to that very year; not in the formal organization of their outward framework, but to what is the true birth of missions, the union of spirit for prayer on behalf of the heathen, and the earnest desire for their conversion by the preaching of the Gospel. Not only the fathers of the Baptist Missions, but the founders of the Church Missionary Society, and the London Missionary Society, had their spiritual birth at that time; and the Rev. Dr. Coke was sent out to found missions among the heathen in our colonies in the West Indies that year by vVesley and his fellow laborers.
Missions, like their ~Iaster, are born f!'Om above. . Born of the Spirit, and that was the period of the Epiphany of the missionary spirit, which is ever latent in the Christian Church, though it may long lie dormant, and even seem to die. .
It has often been in my heart to follow up that pamphlet, "Century of Protestant Missions," which was of set purpose written to arrest thought on the great work which still remains to be done in the vast unoccupied fields of the heathen world, by another, showing the means for a much greater work in the future, and the encouragements to prosecute it with new vigor and hope. "A CentUl'y of Christian Progress," which came ont in an ill complete form, owing to the pressure of other duties, was confined to oue aspect of the subject; and the limited time at my disposal will ollly allow me now to put together a few facts, which may, with God's blessing, stimulate aud strengthen the Churches of Christ; in the words of Carey, "to attempt great things for God, and to expect great thing~ from God." I.-THE lI11SSlON ~'IELn.
Let us glance at that field, which" is the world." The first thing that strikes us is the great increase of our knowledge of the world and its inhabitants. A hundted years ago the vast regions of heathenism were comparatively a blank to the minds of most Christians. Of the hundreds of millions in China, we knew little beyond the meagre inf()rmation to be gathered f!"Om the journals of The Polos, and of Roman Catholic Missions, and from a few traders on the coast, ignorant of the language of the people. Vast tracts of India were untrodden by the feet of our countrymen, whose almost sole concerns were trade and conquest. Africa was a terra incognito beyond a few miles from Egypt and the Cape, except for a few bold but imperfect explorations up the Nile and the Niger. Our maps of the interior were either a blank or a blunder-deserts and plains, wbere lakes and rivers, a~d mountains ha,'e been discovered, with a teeming population and fertile soil.
This vast increase of our knowledge acts ill a two-fold way on the Christian Church. First, it excites interest in, and sympathy for, the poor and the perishing; and second, it awak.ens a sense of responsibility for those with whom we seem by our knowledge to be brought into personal relations. The qnestion, ""Vho is my neighbor?" acquires a new meaning and a wider scope. Our fellow man who has fallen among thieves, is now found by the Samaritan spiI"it in the Church, not on the way down from Jerusalem to the neighboring city, Jericho; he is found wounded by sin".and robbed of his Divine inheritance by the idolatries of heathenism and the deceptions of the false prophet in all lands.
This feeling of sympathy and sense of responsibility are greatly intensified by the facilities for eagy and rapid communication with all parts of the world. It makes us realize that we are now in that period of prophetic history, when "many shall run to alll~ fro, and knowledge shall be increased." The whole world is now at our door. It is only a few weeks easy travel by land or sea to reach the most distant parts. By post and telegraph we know daily what takes place in the most remote regions. ';Ve seem to hear the sounds of sorrow and woe in the dark places of the earth, and to feel the anxious beating of the hearts of the thousand millions of the world's inhabitants wh'o are ignorant of God and of His Christ.
n.-THE OPENINGS IN THE MISSION FIELD.
If we compare the world a hundred years ago with what it is now, the calls to work and sense of responsibility will be intensified a thousand fold. When our Protestant missions began China was hermetically sealed. It was death to preach the Gospel in Japan. India was closed against all missionaries; even our own countryman, Carey, had to seek shelter on a little plot of ground owned by a foreign power. South America was tabooed by the Church of Rome. T~e difficulties experienced by African travelers were enough to deter the most adventurous, and Asia Minor was inaccessible, while Mohammeda.nism stood in its pride and independence.
These countries from which the missionary was thus excluded were peopled by the highest and most advanced races outside the pale Qf the Christian Church. Almost the only peoples accessible to the missionary were the inferior and debased races, inhabiting the soft and enervating islands of the South Seas, or the freezing latitudes of the Polar regions; races living under conditions inimical to a high development, and, in most instances, races which were dying out under the double pressure of native vices and the evils attendant on modern «ivilization. Along with these, missionaries had access to certain tribes of Africa, on their native soil, or transplanted to America and· the 'Vest India Islands, under the degrading influence of slavery.
These were not the races whom the wisdom of man would have selected, and but for the overruling providence of God shutting up the new energies of the awakened Church to the degenerate and apparently hopeless specimens of the human family, they would proba.bly have been thought beneath or beyond the reach of the Gospel remedy. That such beings have not only been delivered .from idolatry by the simple prea'ching of the Gospel, but made to shine with the beauty of holiness, giving all the evidences of a nature regenerated by the spirit of God, and abounding in the fruits of righteousness; the strongest proof of the Divine origin and power of Christianity on the one hand, and the clearest demonstration of the disinterested character and aim of Protestant missions on the other. There was nothing to be gained by the churches from conquests over such as these, save the blessing of the Lord on those who obey His commands, and thus enjoy His favor.
But now the whole world is open to missionary enterprise; we can not even name the countries which have been thrown open. It would occupy too much of your space. There is only one isolated little nook from which missionaries are absolutely shut out-the one exception which confirms the rule, and, if we mistake not, even that one exception is likely soon to cease to be one. By her insults to Britain's power and attacks on British interests, Thibet is preparing the way for the overthrow of her clerical exclusiveness.
There is one feature of the great change which has come over the world during this last century, for which the Church is not sufficiently grateful; of which, in fact, no one seems to take note, viz.: that among the nations of the earth thet'e is not one Kingdom ruled over by an independent idolatrous Ruler. The small States in India, under Hindu Rulers, are no exception. They are all under British dominion or influence. EYen .Assam, Tonquin, Corea, and such like powers, are directly uuder the influence or control of the Briti~h, French or Chinese governments; and even the last is monotheistic in its national worship. Thibet, the one apparent exception~ is under Chinese protection. The tribes under the yoke of naked savages we do not reckon among the nations and kingdoms of the world. This overthrow of idolatrous rulers is not the work of Christian missions; but it has been chiefly brought about by Christian powers~ and is surely a part of the Di vine purpose for preparing the way of the Lord. 'l'hat the rulers of all civilized or semi-civilized nations- ill fact, all nations with anything corresponding to or resembling civil government-are monotheists, is well fitted to encourage the mission- ary spirit, and the hopes of the Church. He who has put down the idolatrous power will fulfill His prophetic word, «the idols he will utterly abolish."
HL-THE ENLARGElIIENT AND INCREASED RESOl7RCES OF THE CHURCH.
The altered position of the church in relation to the heathen world, is a cheering fact, and should be a powerful factor in the future. A hundred years ago the numbers of professing Christians of all the three great sections of the Christian Church, were less than 200 millions, now they are over 430 millions; and of this great increase in a hundred years, by far the larger share falls to the Pro- testant Church. vVhile the Roman Catholic and Greek churches only doubled their numbers, the Protestants multiplied nearly foul' fold.
The numbers, as given in our" Century of Christian Progress," stand thus: 1886, Increase 4 fold. less than 2 fold', 1786, 137,000,000 205,000,000 2 fold, Protestants. ' …..•…. 37,700,000 89,000,000 Roman Catholics …… 117,000,000 Greek Church, … , …. 46,000,000 200,700,000 431,000,000 In our brochure, "A Century of Protestant Missions," we called attention to the fact, that while Protestant missions had gathered three millions into the fold of Christ ill a hundred years, the heathen hall increased, by the ordinary birth rate, by 200 millions, in the same time. But if we take the entire increase in the nominally Christian population, which was in the same period 230 millions, we alter most materially the relative numbers, and find that the Christian is rapidly overtaking the heathen and :Mohammedan popUlation of the world. . In 1786 the entire population of the world was probably about ·1,000 millions, of which profesl'ling Christians were 200 millions, forming 20 per cent. of the whole, and 25 per cent. of the 800 millions of heathens and Mohammedans. In other words, the Christians were 1 in 4 of the heathen and Mohammedans. In 1886 the population of the world was estimated at 1450 millions, but the Christians of all ~enominations had risen to 430 millions, that is, 43 per cent. of the 1000 millions of the heathens and Mohammedans, or about as 1 in 2, .or more nearly 1.02!-.
If we take only the Protestant population at the two period,s, the relative change is more striking still. In 1786 the 37 millions of Protestants were to the 960 millions of heathen and Mohammedan population only 4 per cent., or as 1 in 26. In 1886 the 137 millions were to the 1313 millions, 10 per cent., or as very nearly 1 in 10. But the gain is not only in numbers; in learning and science, in wealth and power the gain is greater fat·.
Take this rapid and great increase in the nnmbers and resources .of the church in connection with the opening up of the whole world to evangelistic enterprise, and have we not a clear instruction of the ~esign of God? The one condition, without the other, would have had little significance. If the world had been open, but the church poor and weak and few in numbers, there might have been an excuse for indolence, although the memory of Pentecost and the little company in the upper room, might have inspit'ed even a feeble few to sttempt great things in the name of a risen Redeemer. If the church had been large and strong, but the world closed, she might have taken it as a plea for attempting little. But when we see an open world, .easy of access, and a church so prosperous and powerful, there is not the shadow of an excuse for idleness. There is every encouragement, snd the loudest call to a supreme effort for the evangelization of the world. The heathen are calling, God is commanding His people to srise in His might, and to take possession of all nations, in His name. It is at her peril that the church of Christ neglects the call of Provi- (lence, which is the voice of God.
IV.-FACILITIES FOR lIUSSION WORK NOW, AXD A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
The advantages for a new crusade are inconceivably greater in .our day, as compared with what they were in the days of our fatherR. Then the work was new and untried. The few specimens of work (lone were not models of wisdom, or examples of success. Some were .of value as a wal'l1ing, rather than encouragement. Everything was new and strange, all had to be built up-the very foundations had to be dug. Can we wonder that mistakes were made? It would haye been a miracle if they had not. The condition of the savage tribes smong whom they began was so entirely different from anything in bome experience, we can only wonder at the co.)urage, and faith, and wisdom, of the early founders of our missions.
The tools with which they were to work had to be invented and nlade. Languages had not only to be leal'l1ed, they had to be fashioned and clothed in the forms of written speech. The fleeting sounds from the lips of savages had to be coined into visible words, snd construed in harmony with the strange usage8 of people innocent of grammatical rules. Dictionaries had to be made out of the crude materials of these hitherto unformed tongues, requiring the greatest nicety of ear, and the utmost accuracy in reducing sound to its equivalent in words; and last, but not least, the translation of the Word of God had to be made unto these newly formed languages, and fickle and restless savages had to be taught to read the sacred page.
The amount of this kind of work that has been accomplished is. almost incalculable and incredible. All this is clear gain, which does not need to be repeated in these languages, which now number probably 400, in all parts of the habitable globe. New missionaries, going to these nations and tribes, find their work in acquiring the language of the people comparativaly easy-a clear gain to the church in time and money and men; making spiritual results, under God, more easy and rapid.
Compare also the present with the past in respect of the numberof laborers with which we start this new era in missionary effort. Our fathers had to begin with a mere handf~l of laborers, untrained and inexperienced, with no knowledge of the habits and customs and modes of thought of the various peoples among whom they werll to· work. They had no native helpers or preachers to assist them in theirwork. Everything was against them. The possibility of the preach· ing of the Gospel saving and sanctifying such depraved natures as· those of cannibals, was an untried problem. The natural way would have been, like the first Moravian missionaries, to prepare them by education and civilization for the Gospel message. But, with a sublime faith in the Divine commission to preach the Gospel to ever.1f creature, they went forth with no weapons of modern science or learning, but with the sword of the Spirit, and with that they fought and conquered.
Now, how different are the conditions in the mission field, with 7,00(} European and American missionaries at work, half the number ordained ministers, and nearly all of them educated men and women, acquainted with something like 400 languages, or distinct dialects. But what is a greater advantage than these for aggressive work, ~re the native evangelists, now making little short of 30,000, and of these, nearly 3,000 are educated native pastors, placed over congregations of their countrymen. Greater than even these advantages, arc the three million of converts, two-thirds of whom are either active or passive witnesses for Christ iu the midst of their heathen countrymen -lights, all the more conspicuous from the darkness which surrounds them.
Take in connection with these advantages in the mission fields of the world, the vast increase in the number and resources of missionary societies at home, with the augmented means, their more complete organization, their knowledge and experience of the methods.
DR. PIERSON'S JIlISSIONARY CRUSADE IN SCOTLAND
which have heen lllostowned of God for the conversion of the heathen, their closer touch with the churches, the increase of missionary spirit in England and America, the great wealth in the hands of Christian men, the favorable disposition of most of the ruling powers of the world,-and we have a condition of matters such as could not have been dreamed of a hundred ycars ago, and which lays an immeasurably greater responsibility on the Christian conscience and on the churches of Christ; while they are fitted to put doubt and unbelief to shame, and to inspire the greatest courage and hope in the breast of missionaries abroad, and Christians at home. Surely God is speaking loudly to all, to seize the present opportunity, and make a supreme effort for an advance along the whole line.
We close with a word of wal'lling. There is a danger of trusting to the great increase of knowledge, and numbers, and wealth, and :power. We do well to remember the words, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." We have enough to h-Jmble us in looking to our sinful neglect in the past, when we tr.ink of the generations of men we have allowed to go down to the grave in darkness, while we had the light. We have enough to Bol.emnize us, when we look to the work which lies before us in the future; not only the one thousand millions of heathen and Mohammedans, Christless and hopeless, but the hundreds of millions of the Greek and Roman Catholic churches, corrupting the truth of God and dishonoring the Lord who bought them. Let our attitude be that of humble, earnest, prayerful effort, and devout, hopeful expectancy, trusting "in the living God who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."
DR. PIERSON'S MISSIONARY CRUSADE IN SCOTLAND.
[It is known to most of our readers, that in compliance with the earnest request of the leading friends of missions in Scotland, our Associate has gone there to complete the work he began after the rising of the London Conference on Missions in 1888. We give below the first of a series of letters on his mission and its results, which will appear in successive numbers ·of the REVIEW. If all of them shall possess the extraordinary interest of the first, they will surely be read with heartfelt interest and gratitude to God. We invoke the prayers of our readers in behalf of Dr. Pierson in this mission of love, for such it is, May the reflex influence of this mighty wave of missionary interest on the other side of the ocean reach our shores, and mark a new era in the history of the cause among us !-J. lI1. S.] Jfy Dear Dr. Sherwood: EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, Nov. 27, 1889.
There was no need of coming to Scotland to " kindle the flame of a Missionary Revival," as the brethren of the Committee were pleased to suggest. It is quite obvious to me that a revival of missions is already in progess, and that all I can hope to do will be to feed ancl fan a flame already burning.
The good ship Etruria had a very rough passage, through a very "choppy" sea. 'Ve were rolled to and fro, and tossed up and down, and found it quite har.} to keep ollr.~elvei> in 0111' berths at night ,or maintain our standing, or even our sitting, on deck by day. N evertheless we landed at Liverpool quay at about 7 o'clock on Saturday evening, November 16th. The brethren came to meet and greet Ufl, and bid us " Welcome in the name of the Lord," and cheered us as a similar embassy comforted Paul at the "Three Taverns." There is no disposition either in England or Scotland to allow our sojourn to be one of idle lounging or pleasure seeking. Ve found arrangements made at Liverpool for a series of meetings, beginning with one on the very night of our arrival. In fact, no time could be spared even to attend to "customs," and so leaving our kind host with }frs. Pierson to look after the luggage, I was hurried off in a cab to Gordon Hall, where a large and select company of the Christians of Liverpool were gathered to offer a cordial welcome. Canon Burbidge was in the chair, and the familial' face of ~lr. Reginald Radcliffe beamed close at his side. At this meeting I made a brief address on the "Present Aspect of }fissions," and was greatly cheered by observing a very manifest spirit of prayer prevailing. This was my first impression, and that impression has been constantly emphasized and intensified during these eleven days.
As I intimated, my sojourn on this side of the water is not likely to suffer by lack of employment. I left Liverpool for Edinburgh on Wednesday morning, November 20, having already held in that city seven meetings, closing with a grand and enthusiastic gathering in great George Street Chapel, which will hold easily two thousand people. The attendance at all these meetings evinced an intelligent and hearty sympathy with the }fissionary cause, and furnished an auspicious forecast and foretaste of the gratifications in store. In Edinburgh, on the night of OUI' arrival, a marvellous assembly convened in the Hall of the Church of Scotland, Principal Cairns in the ohair. Rev. Dr. Lowe, Chairman of the Committee, having direction of the meetings, remarked to me that no more significant gathering had ever met in Edinburgh. The various denominations, which have been divided by conscientious differences of opinion, and have sometimes waged wars, not without much bitterness, came together with a profound and sincere sympathy, to further the common cause of a world's Evangelization. }fen that had met in the arena of theological and ecclesiastical controversy, and engaged in fierce conflict, came into that Hall on a common footing of cordial good will, rallying around a humble advocate of world·wide missions, forgetful of all past issues and minor differences in the one absorbing object-giving the gospel to tMs generation.
The Chairman was Dr. Cairns, a very proper man about whom to gather; It has been said of him that "no man carries under his hat, through all Scotland, a bigger brain." Eminent as a preacher, a writer, a teacher, an ecclesiastic, he is eyen more conspicuous as a. Christian. His charity is pre-eminent, and in the atmosphere of its gentle glow, the ice of antagonism and apathy may well mdt away. The students made a sort of cartoon, not long since, in which they represented "Principal Cairns' introduction to the Devil." He is made to say to his Satanic Majesty, that he has "heard very unfavor- able reports touching his moral character," but that he has "no doubt these reports are very much exaggerated, and that on furthel' acquaintance they will be able to get on together very well." The jest, as Horace intimates, hides behind a laugh a serious truth; for the dear Doctor is always looking for and hoping for the best from everybody.
The object of this first meeting was to express a hearty welcome from all the bodies represented, and to assure me of the most cordial co-operation in the purpose of this Mission Tour of the (;hurches. The welcome was given with all the enthusiasm of true Scotchmen. These people are not so easily moved as some, but when they do move it is with great momentum. Meeting after meeting followed, the details of which space does not allow m.e to give; suffiJe it to say, that, as in Liverpool, they have followed each other in quick succession, on Thursday in the great Synod Hall, on Friday in the Free Assemhly Hall, mainly for )Vomen, on Saturday morning in Moncrieff Hall, fO!' the students, when even the standing room was all in demand; then after two sermons on Missions, the Sabbath evening found me confronting an immense audience at the U. P. Synod Hall, where the most marked movement of the Spirit of God which I have ever witnessed in such a gathering, subdued and melted all hearts. My subject that night was" Individual Responsibility with reference to Missions," and as the duty and privilege of individual giving', and especially prctyill[J, was urged, and the grand promises to prayerful souls were arrayed before us, a sudden hush fell upon the whole assembly; there was a. painful silence, and many bowed in tears before God. As fOI' the speaker, it was with him as with Daniel, when, in his vision beside the Hiddekel, "there remained no strength in him." (Daniel, x :8.) The sense of the divine presence was positively overwhelmillg; no man could produce such an impression; it was manifestly of God, and all felt it to be the gateway of Heaven.
Such a meeting has but one explanation. Ever since it was known that this Mission Tour of the Churches was determined on, and that arrangements were definitely made, there has been an unusual spirit of prayer. Those who on their hearts bear the precious interests of God's kingdom, in this land of Martyrs and Missionaries, began praying in secret and praying in little circles, for a mighty manifestation of God's presence and power. Instead of looking to any man, there has been a disposition to fix the eye of faith and prayer on God alone, and those that honor Him, He will hOllOI'. Of all the meetings I have ever attended, I remember not one in which God more plainly set all human instruments aside, to speak for Himself in the language that has no human speech as its expression and can be heard only by ears open to the still small voice. Some persons were so moved that they had to leave the hall. When the meeting adjourned all left in silence, and since then, token after token of the blessing keeps coming to our knowledge. The next day we received a note in a lady's hand, enclosing the money which would buy "one pail' of four-button kids," in response to an appeal which I made to Christian women to forego luxuries for the Lord's sake, and turn the money to His treasury. The same day brought a half sovereign, the expression of like self-denial; and a letter, enclosing two pounds, ten shillings, the proceeds of a bracelet, sold for the I"ord's sake. These are but a few signs of God's presence and of a coming harvest of missions. Every day brings increasing encouragement. "Ye can only praise God, and give glory to Him.
With Sabbath evening's meeting the series of gatherings in Edinburgh closed for the present, fifteen meetings in all since the Etruri(t anchored in the Mersey River, eight days before. 'Yith Monday we began, accompanied by Mrs. Edge, recently returned from Canton, China, and Rev. Henry'Rice, on a furlough from: Madras, India, to visit cities and towns in the neighborhood of this Scotch Athenl'l. On Monday we held two meetings in Leith, on Tuesday in Peebles and bnerleithen, and to-day in Dalkeith. The afternoon meetings are principally for the women, and the evening assemblies, held in the largest available places, are crowded to overflowing. 'Ve were told yesterday that meetings so large have not been known even in times of great political excitement. Surely God is marching on, and a new departure in missions is at hand.
'Ve cannot bring this letter to a close without remarking upon the grand men and women who in this great Scotch metropolis are arrayed on the side of Christian faith and Christian Missions. 'Ye seem to be back in the times of old when there were "giants on the earth in those days." Think Qf a series of meetings in the interest of }Iissiom~, held day after day, with such men as Principals Cairns and Rainy, and Sir 'Villiam Muir, in the chair; when such men as Rev. Dr. Andrew 'l'hompson, George Smith,LL.D., Dr. 'Velsh, Professors Laidlaw, Blaikie and I.indsay, and 'l'homas Smith, D.D.; Reverends 'Vm. Balfour, tVm Stevenson, 'Vm. Robertson, John McMartrie, Dr. Norman McLeod and Dr. Alison; Duncan McLarew, Esq., and John, Smith, Esq., Professors Calderwood and Johnstone and A. R. Simpson, M.D.; with Reverends W m. Grant and R. Craig, and I . ord Kinnaird, from I"ondon, Principal Simon, Mrs. ,Jane .Millel', representing the Friends, and a host of others, came together to OffCl' the right hand of fellowship in behalf of all branches of the Presbyterian Church, the Baptist~, Episcopalian~, Friends, etc. The Committee having in charge the details of my Tour of the Churches have made singularly complete and satisfactory arrange- ments. They have secured one or two 1'Iissionairies, now at home from their fields, to accompany me. Mrs. Edge is a ready and accomplished speaker and gives vivid glimpses of Chinese home life and sociallif~, showing the marked influence of the gospel in modifying and transforming especially the women and girls of the Celestial Empire. Rev. Henry Rice is one of the most fluent, intelligent and strik~ ing speakers on Missions that it has been my good fortune to hear. He touches with rare skill the salient points of Missions, and gives both picturesque and impressive views of East Indian religions and customs. His book, recently published, on " Native Life in India," printed by the London Religious Tract Society, compresses into a brief Rpace an immense amount of interesting and instructive matter. He is full of missionary zeal, and zeal according to knowledge. It is with not a little gratification that we add such a man to our REVIEW list of Editorial Correspondents, and announce a series of articles as ab.out to appear in these pages from his instructive and attractive pen.
The details of these meetings we have given to some degree, because these pages will be read not only in Great Britain and the United States and Canada, but in far off lands where Christ's Godly messengers are telling the old, old story. Such a movement at the great centers of Christendom will be felt at the outermost bounds, as a mighty heart throb pulses warm life blood to the extremities of the body. And we bid all missionaries in God's name, "Be of Good Cheer." There is a revival of missiollary knowledge and zeal at home, and it means blessing abroad. The key note struck at the opening meeting was" the gospel to be published through all the world in this generation," and this thought seems to be taking possession of the most earnest, prayerful and consecrated men and women on both sides of the sea. God has given us a thousand facilities unknown to our ancestors. lIe has thrown open the doors to the nations and challenged us to enter in and possess the land. "Vhat are we waiting for? AU things are now ready. A united movement all along the lines-more men and women to the front, and the Church of God backing them up with more money and prayer and sympathy; more Godly parents giving their children to God and to Missions from the cradle; morc enterprise for God, pushing the conquests of the cr08S as we push seculal' and scientific endeavor for objects infinitely less i~portant – who can tell what glorious and speedy results may follow a true awakening of the Church of God to the duty and privilege of proclaiming the gospPl to every creature!
THE CHARITIES OF GERMANY
THE CHARITIES OJ!' GERMANY.
BY REV. A. n. BRADFORD, D.D, ~rO~TGLAIR, X. J.
[We offer no apology for embracing "C'harities" in the gospel of Missionary work. The mission of the Master did not overlook them-nay, specially honored them. The Church of Christ has ever been foremost in this work, The true Missionary will find work to do wherever the poor, the suffering, the unfortunate and criminal classes are found, and they are found in great numbers in, Christian lands as well as in heathen. We are sure this paper will be read with ini!erest,-J, M. S.] I Christianity has been called "the romance of the poor." What- ever controversies have marked the history of the Church, and how- ever deeply stained its pages may be with tears and blood, from the first its progress may be traced in the development of charities. It created charity. Paganism had no place for the aged, the infirm, for children without friends. It peopled its schools of gladiators and houses of prostitution from those who, in our time, are beautifully called "the children of the public." Charities are the necessary fruit of Christianity. ,'rhe world has not yet grasped the significance of the incamation-God entering into human conditions to save the outcast and the sinful. 'Vherever Christ has been preached, instantly there have arisen institutions whose object has been the amelioration of human suffering. Philanthropy and Chl·ist.ianity are inseparable.
Lecky, in his History of European Morals, says: "The high conception which has been formed of the sanctity of human life, the protection of infancy, the elevation and final emancipation of the slaveclasses, the suppression of barbarous games, the creation of a vast and multifarious organization of chllxity, the education of the imagination by the Christian type, constitute together a movement of philanthropy which has never been paralleled or approached in the Pagan world." * One form of Christianity devotes its energies to making conver- sions; another form seeks by Christian nurture to place around the children of the poor and vicious such conditions as shall make the new life a second and better nature.
Dr. Channing, in an eloquent passage, says: " Society has hitherto employed its energies chiefly to punish crime. It is infinitely more important to prevent it. And this I say not for the sake of those alone on whom the criminal preys. I do not think only or chiefly of those who suffer from crime. I plead also, and plead more, for those who perpetrate it. In moments of clear, calm thought, I feel more for the wrongdoer than for him who is wronged. In a case of theft, incomparably the most wretched man is he who steals, not he who is robbed. What I want is not merely that society shall protect itself against crime, but that it shall do all that it can to preserve its exposed members from crime. It ought not to breed monsters in its own bosom. If it will not use its prosperity to save the ignorant and the poor from the blackest vice, then it must suffer, and deserves to suffer, from crime. If the child be left to grow up in utter ignorance of duty, of its Maker, of its relations to society, in an atmosphere of profaneness and intemperance, and in practice of falsehood and fraud, let not the community complain of its crime. It has quietly looked on and seen him, year after year • '.,1. II, p,lUO, arming himself against its order and peace; and who is most to blame when at last he deals the guilty blow?"
The conception of Christianity which recognizes in it a gospel for the whole life of man, for man physical as well as spiritual-this gospel of a healthful environment as well as of free forgiveness-is day by day coming into fnIler recognition.
The subject of Charity in Germany is too large for one paper, and. therefore this is chiefly limited to those forms of philanthropy which are known as "Child-saving." 'rhe one exception is that universal chai'ity at Kaiserswerth which could not, with propriety, be classified in any department of philanthropic work but seems rather to embrace them all.
The work of child-saving was begun in Germany in 1695, by August Hermann Franke, in the city of Halle. Franke was a German minister and teacher, and Professor in the University of Halle. "He commenced with a capital of three dollars and a half. ,Vhen he received it, he said: 'With this I must do a great work.'" Halle is a beautiful city of about 70,000 inhabitants, ill N orthel'l1 Germany. It is best known as the seat of one of the largest German Universities. It has always been a center of evangelical theology. It must be rememc bered, however, that that term is more inclusive ill Germany than in America. The University has been a favorite with American students, especially in its theological department. Halle is distinguished not only for its institutions of learning, but equally for its orphan asylums, which Ol'iginated as fullows: It was the custom for beggars, on certain days, to seek alms at private houses. Not satisfied with merely giving them bread for their bodies, Franke began to catechise them, both the old and the young. He discovered among them such utter ignorance of religion that he began to think of providing a school for them. "He opened a little school in his study; in less than a year he found the place too small. He was pained, however, to see that the children's home-life destroyed what his school had builded up. He therefore formed the idea of taking the entire training of a few children upon himself. A house was purchased for this school; twelve were received into it. The next year a new house was purchased."
Rapidly the institution grew. There was no capital, and yet the work flomished. Faith and prayer were his capital. Franke himself said: "From week to week, from month to month, has the Lord crumbled to me, even as one crumbles the bread to little chickens." A Home for Unmarried Women followed the Orphan Asylum; then a Home for Widows. Around these centers schools were founded in which students of the University became teachers. One curious means of help was devised by an eminent physician who gave the institutions the receipts for some very valuable remedies. The sale of the medicines added greatly to the revenue of the charities. They were widely sold in Germany, and even in America and Africa. Another auxiliary enterprise was the Orphan House Book Establishment, conducted by a man named Elers, who put his income at the disposal of the Orphan House, and was content to receive clothing and food. The work among the orphans and the poor at home was followed by Missionary and Bible work in Germany and foreign lands.
There is little about the managem'ent of these charities to distinguish them from others. Dormitories, laundries, school rooms, and play grounds are everywhere the same. The difference between institutions of this kind is chiefly in the system. The congregate and the cottage systems both have their advocates. The Asylums at Halle belong to the former class. His friend Elers once asked Franke as to who had taught him this work. His reply was, "My mother's love." The secret of his marvellous career is in that answer. When King Frederick William first saw the Orphan House, 1713, and was conducted through the book-stores and the warehouses, he was amazed; and he asked Elers how much he got out of all tIllS r " Your Majesty," replied Elers, "only just what you see." Then the King clapped Franke upon the shoulder and said, "Now I see how he accomplishes so much. I have no such servants."
The establishment still remains, and its influence is boundless. The buildings are a quarter of a rile in length, and six stories high, built around an oblong court-yard. In the court-yard is a bronze statue of Franke, by Rauch. In the Asylum are sheltered about 500 children, while schools, a labratory, a printing office, and many charitable associations find a home under its hospitable roofs. If Franke had been a soldier and displayed such courage and zeal, his country would have built him a splendid monument in the capital. If he had been a Romanist, he would have been enrolled among the saints. He was both a soldier and a saint, but he needs no monument and no canonization, for his works do follow him.
The ancient city of Erfurt is picturesque and quaint. It is chiefly celebrated because of its connection with the history of Luther. There he was a monk and a professor. There he had that terrible inward conflict which ended with his discovery of the Bible in the library of his monastery. In that old church he preached. There are still the cells in which he lived and worked. '1'he very place where he found the Bible is still in good preservation. If you would find that old church and monastery ask almost anybody for the "Martinstift." The monastery has been born again. It is now a school, and a home for poor children taken from the streets and prisons. The principle of management is not different from that of other institutions of the kind, and the advantages offered are not so numerous as in some other homes. As in the asylums at Halle, the congregate system is in uSe. Two things especially distinguish this home and school. First, it is not only for children from the street, but from the prisons also. A prison with children in it is a school where criminals are trained. This was clearly recognized by Rector Charles Reinthaler, who founded the Martinstift in 1819. The second fact which distinguishes this institution is that it is the noblest monument to Luther in all Germany. Germany honors Luther as Scotland honors Bruce; His figure in the attitude of a preacher, or a doctor of philosophy, is at Eisenach, at Eisleben. at Erfurt, at Wittenberg; but this home for the homeless, which is nobler than any bronze, is his most appropriate memorial; for it is an unfailing benediction to those who are as desolate as he was in Eisenach, where Frau von Cotta was charmed by the sweetness of his voice, and divided with him her living.
Vienna is, in many respects, the most beautiful, and I think in all respects, the most corrupt capital in EUI·ope. Its buildings surpass even those of Paris. St. Stepheu's is hardly inferior to Notre Dame, and the Votive Church is, in its way, quite as wonderful as La Made- leine. The University buildings are the most splendid for the.purpose in the world.
Two facts conspire to make "child-saving" especially imperative and especially difficult in Vienna. It is imperative because of the vast number of illegitimate, and consequently neglect.ed children. There are about 50,000 women in Vienna licensed to lives of shame, and, perhaps, as many more who are not licensed but whose lives are equally illicit. The number of homeless children where such moral conditions prevail is always large; and to care for them without increasing vice or diminishing the con- sciousness of responsibility on the part of those who bear children, is always difficult. The difficulty is increased by the poverty of the lower classes. There are rumors of dynamite conspiracies in Vienna. They were to have been expected. People who are oppressed, as the poor are there, . will sometimes break their chains and rebel. Women who work all day on buildings, doing what we call hod-carrying, get 40 cents; masons get 75 cents a day. Women who make shirts get 75 cents a dozen. Farm-laborers are cared for, and get from ten to twenty cents a day for doing what, in this country, in harvest time, a man would get $4 for doing. Meat costs about the same there as in New York, but meat is not for the poor. Nowhere in the world is woman's labor so poorly paid. Women in the postoffice and telegraph departments get from $5 to $7.50 a month, and "find themselves." They never have a home furnished with their work; that favor is only for men, and rarely for them. On the other hand, there are numerous day-nurseries, or creches, provided by the government, where the children of the poor may be placed while the parents are at work. Crime and suffering are compulsory where such wage~ are paid.· When pe0ple thus treated learn their power, the existing social order always trembles. That time has already come in Vienna.
Seeking what was being done in that city of splendor and infamy to relieve or to prevent pauperism and crime, I was directed to the Waisenhaus, a Roman Catholic institution, under the direction of " The Brothers of Christian Love." This, in its equipment, is the most complete institution of the kind I have ever seen. It is supported by its endowments. The congregate system is in. use. It has four dormitories, and provides a home for three hundred and sixty boys. After the uniform excellence of the appointments, that which especially distinguishes the institution are the facilities afforded for education. For instance, in the musical department I counted six pianos and three organs, in as many rooms. In other rooms were other instruments. The Museum of Natural History, one of the best equipped in the city and filling a;n immense space, is in daily use. The wash rooms are as interesting as the school rooms. Each boy has his towel and his box: of toilet articles, and the neatness and order are perfect. The older boys rise at five, and those younger a half-hour later. Their study-hour is from quarter before six to quarter before seven. A very large proportion of these boys are waifs. They have no idea of any other home. No motives of love inspire them. The poorest learn trades, and the higher class prepare to be clerks or to enter the army. The fact that they do not know their parentage does not indicate that their parentage is unknown; on the other hand, it is often known, and it is no contradiction to speak of waifs of "higher" and" lower" classes. The order and advantages of the institution were well nigh perfect. The Brothers were exceedingly courteous, and yet there was something about them which was positively repellant. I left the place feeling that it was not good to be there. "The Brothers of Christian Love" are evidently affected by the moral atmosphere around them. The Superior, for instance, spoke of woman, and of unfortunate children, lightly and flippantly. He seemed to have no profound appreciation of the misery he was seeking to relieve. I may do him injustice. Individuals often receive the censure which belongs to the social order. The Waisenhaus is a wonderful institution, but splendor of equipment and perfection of organization can never compensate for the absence of moral earnestness. Thus one of the most splendid charities in Europe made on me the impression of being simply a great machine for providing for illegitimate children. "The Brothers of Christian Love" may be the noblest and most self-sacrificing of men, but the environment of corrupt social life seems to have affected their ways of looking at things. if not· their characters and principles of work. It could hardly be otherwise.
The location of Hamburg is as beautitul as are the buildings of Vienna, and its residences, especially around the Alster Binnen, are worthy of this location. It is the commercial center of Germany, to that Empire what Glasgow and Liverpool are to Great Britain. A few miles out of Hamburg, at Horn, is the Rauhe Haus, which divides with Kaiserswerth the glory of being the most prominent charitable institution in the nation. It consists of a series of buildings around a small park. Each house is a home by itself. The dor- mitories and school rooms have nothing peculiar about them. "Vhat especially impressed me there was the attention given to industrial training, and to the religious nurture of the children. There is a ~ystem of mutual education going on all the time. The teachers, ", Brothers" they are called, who have charge, a,re preparing for other work. They are to be city missionaries and are serving their apprenticeship with children from the lowest and vilest city wards. A man who knows a street boy knows a city's darker side. The boys are training the men and the men are trainiJlg the boys. The " Brothers" remain, I think, for three years.
Three characteristics distinguish the Rauhe Haus. It is a congeries of families, each with its 110me and home-life; it provides industrial education of a very thorough kind; and is a place for the training of city missionaries as well as outcast children. It has it higher department called the Pensionate, where those fitted for it receive the same instruction as in the best German Gymnasia. This institution was founded by Dr. John Henry Wichern and his mother, in November, 18;:13. Dr. Wines says: "The fundamental idea of the Rauhe Haus is that of the famil:y, and it is the mother of all those child-sa,ing institutions, of which the number is continually increasing, that have since been organized on the family plan." Perhaps the finest example of the perfection to which this plan may be carried, is the village of Girls' Homes, at lIford, Essex, neal' London, which is a part of the wonderful sPl'ie~ of charities founded by Dr. Bernardo. There are thirty beautiful brick houses built around a small park, each with its own "Mother," and family from the London slums. But the Rauhe Haus antedated Dr. Bernardo's Homes by at least forty years.
Some one asked Dr. ",Yichern how he was able to produce such wonderful changes in the conduct of children under his care. His reply reveals the secret of his success: "By the word of God and music." The religious training of the children is given the first place. Everything is made bright and beautiful. When possible, each child has its own flower bed; flowers help in the work of educa-. tion. Dr. Wichern once said that "the man who cannot play and enter into the plays of chhhood with his whole heart, is unfit to be an assistant in a child-saving institution." I cannot better describe the spirit of this institution than by quoting words spoken at a public meeting held in Hamburg prior to its opening, by Syndic Sieveking. He said: " The children's institution was not to be a workhouse, nor an orphanage, nor a place of punishment, nor a house of correction; but an institution that allied itself to the family, to the gospel, to the forgiveness of sins, to the first and last thought, that is to the essential nature and work of Christianity." * It is impossible even to mention all the names of the distinguished workers in the field of Charity in Germany. Pestalozzi, the founder of the Kindergarten, did a noble work, but in it the religious element was lackin£,. "At the age of eighty he saw for the first time what he had been striving for for his whole life, when, in 1826, he visited the institution of the venerable Zell'er at Beuggen. When the children of that institution presented him with a beautiful wreath, as they sang one of their sweet hymns, Pestolozzi said.to Zeller: 'This is what I wanted to accomplish.' His mistake was that, in his school at Stanz, there was no place for religious instruction." t In these child-saving institutions in the German Empire, there are' fewer girls than boys. Some of these Homes are managed by the State, and children are sent to .them as punishment; but these must not be confounded with what is done by individuals. There were about three hundred and sixty of the institutions in 1880. Wurtemburg leads all the German States in this work.
" The Deaconess Institution of Rhenish",Yestphalia," at Kaiserswerth, is the most remarkable charity in.Germany, if not in the world. On a dismal day in August I visited Kaiserswerth. The ride from Cologne by train is about one hour to Calcum, and then about a halfhOllr by carriage. The country around is flat and damp, like most of • Wines' State Prisons and Child·Saving Institutions, p. 74. t Wines' Child-SaVIng Institution, p. GOO. that along the lower Rhine. We were set down at the post-office, and then sought the institutions. We could find little besides; they make the town. There is a famous Roman Catholic church, but it attracts little attention. But first, how did we come to be interested in Kaiserswerth? By reading the lives of Elizabeth Fry, Agnes Jones, and Florence Nightingale. Elizabeth Fry unconsciously inspired its ol'lgm. Florence Nightingale and Agnes Jones both resided there and received the instruction and studied the examples which were to stimulate their lives of heroism and sacrifice. A young German pas- tor, Fliedner by name, was settled in Kaiserswerth about fifty years ago. A period of financial depression compelled him to seek foreign help for the continuance of his work. He went to England. He met Elizabeth Fry who was in the midst of her career in the London prisons. From her words and example, Fliedner was moved to go home and attempt the same work. Soon after his return a degraded woman, named Minna, a discharged prisoner, came to him for help.
There was no room in his own house, but there was a little summer- house adjoining. He gave her a home in that, where she could be under the watchful eye of his wife. Soon another homeless and abandoned woman came to him. She, too, was sheltered in the sum- mer-house. There was no place for them to sleep except an attic in the same building, to which they climbed by a ladder. When they reached this place of rest the ladder was removed. That was the beginning of the Deaconess Institution at Kaiserswerth. Now it contains the following departments of philanthropic work: The Mother-house and Hospital where the deaconesses chiefly reside; the Penitentiary where women discharged frolll prison find a home until they can get a new start for a better life; the Training College for teachers, with an infant school; the Orphanage; the Lunatic Asylum for women; the House of Evening Rest for deaconesses no ionger able to work; Paul Gerhard's Home for women, chiefly invalids; a school f()r the training of deaconesses; a school for girls; numerous hospitals, etc., etc.
The exterior of the buildings is severely plain and simple. Many of them are connected. The halls are apparently endless. All is quiet, cleanly and cheerful. In one room children are taught; in another, babies are tended; in another, the sick are nursed; in another, girls just out of prison are trained to industrious and virtuous habits; in another, surgical operations are performed; another is a chapel; another is a parlor for old women; all around are little bed-rooms; and in all is the appearance of a charming and beautiful home. Our guide through these institutions was Sister Charlotte Drude, a tall, gaunt, angular, but exceedingly attractive German woman who has been long in the Sisterhood. Her hospitality and enthusiasm were boundless, and her love for philanthropic work an inspiration. The present Director at Kaiserswerth is Julius Disselhoff, a son-in-law of the founder; and a son, a second Pastor Fliedner, is the chaplain.
Kaiserswerth has literally reached around the world. It is now fifty years old. The Training-school for Nurses, at Salem, near Rati- gen; an Orphanage at Altdorf; a Boarding-school at Heldern; the :Martha'sJIome at Berlin, with infant and elementary school attached; the :Martha's home at Dusseldorf, with infant school; the Home for Prisoners, and the Asylum at Brandenburg; the Convalescent Home for Deaconesses and Children at ""Vallbaum, are all owned by the same society and managed and served by these Sisters. Outside <>f Germany, there is the Talitha-cumi Hospital and School at J erusalem; the School and Orphanage at Smyrna; the Hospital at Alexandria in Egypt; the Orphanage and Boarding-school at Beyroot, in Syria; a Boarding-school in Florence; and minor stations in almost all lands. The Deaconess work of modern times was begun at Kaiserswerth. It has increased marvellously. In 1880 there were fifty-three Central Deaconess institutions, with more than forty-eight hundred Deaconesses working in more than fifteen hundred different places. They were like angels on German battle fields. They nurse, and they preach; they bind wounds, and tell "the old, old. story." For both <>ffices they are trained. No vows are taken. At the consecration to the office, the new Deaconess _promises to be true to her calling, and to live in the fear of God and according to His holy Word. They nurse over 50,000 patients annually, and consequently preach Christ to at least the same number. Theyare the most persuasive preachers, for their message goes to hearts already opened by gratitude. They can leave when they choose, to go to their friends, to marry, to do what they will. Few choose to return to society. Those who wish to become Sisters pass through a course of preparation extending over five years, under the direction of those with whom they are later to be associated. They can be sent anywhere, but may decline any service. N one do decline. They realize that their place is in the midst of the world's suffering, and they covet the hardest posts, like soldiers in battle.
The rooms for the Deaconesses are plain, but comfortable. One into which we were shown was decorated with flowers for a Sister who was, in a few hours, expected home from work in a foreign land. She was worn out and sick, and was coming home to rest; and it was a place as sweet and inviting for one weary with anxiety and labor as the most exacting could desire. The Sisters receive no pay fOJ: anything they do. Their only reward is the consciousness of serving Christ and humanity. They are cared for while they live, and buried when they die; God takes care of the rest. Some belong to the nobility, some to the middle classes, some to the poor, and all to the Kingdom of God.
This Deaconess institution has started others like it in different parts of the world, and thus its work is both direct and indirect. In England and the United States similar Sisterhoods are already in operation, and the sphere of woman's work in the amelioration of human ills is without discernible limit. The seed sown by Pastor Fliedner has grown beyond his most sanguine dreams. Incidentally he came in contact with Florence Nightingale and Agnes Jones. The
THE JUBILEE OF THE NEW HEBRIDES MISSION
former has revolutionized the war-hospitals of England and all the colonies, and effected sanitary reforms wherever the English armies have gone. The latter, in a few short years of service in the Liverpool workhouse hospital, effected reforms among workhouse hospitals hardly less remarkable in their way than those of her more illustrioU'S sister. The influence of these women is felt in almost all institutions for child-saving and for the alleviation of pain, and the reform of criminals in Great Britain and America. The mustard seed which Fliedner planted is already a great tree whose branches reach into all lands.
No attempt has been made in this paper to compare the methods of charity in Germany with those among English-speaking people. In many respects they are radically different, but in more respects alike. It is enough to say that charity is the expression of love, and love is not limited by social or racial distinctions. Its forms of manifestations are everywhere the same, and so charity employs substantially the same methods and works toward the same ends among all people.
THE JUBILEE OF THE NEW HEBRIDES MISSION.
BY REV. ROBERT STEEL, D.D., SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WAI~ES.
In November, 1839, fifty years ago, the" Apostle of Polynesia'~ -John Williams-gave his life in an eNdeavor to pioneer the gospel of Jesus Christ in the islands of the New Hebrides. He had heard of the savage cannibals of Eromanga, and of the many atrocities committed by them; but as he knew the effects of Christianity on some of the Polynesian isla-nds, he was anxious to extend its blessings .to other groups. He had awakened an immense interest in South Sea Missions by his visit to England and by the publication of his "Missionary Enterprises." No book of its class ever created so great a sensation. The Archbishop of Canterbury, after perusing it, declared that it read like a new chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Peers and Peeresses not only read it, but sent their donations to aid the work of evangelization in Polynesia. The press reviewed it with favor. In a few years 40,000 copies were sold. John 'Villiams became the hero of the hour, and many sympathizing friends breathed their benedictions as he sailed away on his new mission for the extension of the gospel among the isles of the Pacific. It was not long after his return to the scenes of his triumphs in Raratonga and Samoa that he set his heart on a visit to the New Hebrides. It had been one of his philanthropic utterances: "It is our duty to visit surrounding islands. For my own part, I cannot content myself within the limits of a single reef." He, therefore, took twelve native teach('rs as pioneers and sailed in the Oamden, under Captain Morgan, for the New Hebrides in 1839. As the vessel neared the group he was all anxiety as to whether the savages would receive him in a friendly spirit, and allow the landing of a few of the teachers to prepare the way of the Lord. The first island of the grOtlp at which the vessel touched was Futuna, a huge rock which rises up 2,000 feet above the sea. The natives there were friendly, but there was not opportunity for making arrangements to locate teachers. It was otherwise at Tanna. The harbor of Port Resolution was a safe anchorage, and had been visited by European traders. The chief promised protection to the Samoan teachers, and three were left. To Mr. Williams this was a notable event. lIe wrote of it in his journal thus: "This is a memorable day, a day which willbe transmitted to posterity, and the record of the events which have this day transpired will exist after those who have taken part in them have retired into the shades of oblivion."
He little thought that the very next day would be rendered still more memorable, not indeed by the landing of teachers, but by his own martyr death at Eromanga, on the 20th of November, 1839. He landed, along with Mr. Harris, a young man sailing in the Camden, and seriously thinking of giving himself to missionary work. CaptainMorgan and Mr. Cunningham also landed. All seemed pleasant at first, and the party proceeded inland along the banks of the river at Dillon's Bay. Suddenly a shout was heard. The natives became hostile, and it was necessary to seek safety in the boats. Captain Morgan and Mr. Cunningham were nearest to the shore and got into their boat. Mr. Harris was struck and fell into the river. Mr. 'Vil- Iiams was clubbed just as he reached the bay. No help could be given, and their friends in the boat saw the natives spear and kill both Williams and Harris. Arrows flew around the boat, and the men had to pull for their lives. The bodies of the martyr pioneers were dragged into the bush by the infuriated cannibals for their horrid feast. When the vessel reached Samoa great sorrow was awakened by the heavy·tidings of the death of John ·Williams. From island to island the wailing cry arose, "Aue Williamu! Aue Tawa!-Ala~, Williams! Alas, our Father I"
But as of old, "the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the <lhurch." It was at once resolved by the mission brethren in Samoa that another effort should be made to place Christian teachers on blood-stained Eromanga. The Rev. T. Heath offered to lead the forlorn hope on the condition that if he also fell, another man should take the colors. He succeeded in his effort, and in 1840, six months after the death of 'Villiams, two Christian Samoan teachers were landed. A veteran survivor of that eventful period, the Rev. A. ,Yo Murray, author of the "Martyrs of Polynesia," "The Bible in the Pacific," and other works on missionR, visited the island in 1841, when Mrs. Williams was on boanl the mission vessel on her way to England and saw the scene of her devoted husband's death in the cause he loved. The teachers were fOl:nd alive, but they had a tale of living martyrdom to relate, and had experienced so many sufferings and hardships that they had to be removed. In England, after the sad intelligence of the death of the heroic vVilliams, it was also resolved by the directors of the London ~lissionary Society to· endeavor to plant the standard of the Cross at once as near as possible to the spot where the apostolic pioneer had fallen. Two young missionaries, with their brave wives, were forthcoming, ready to take their lives in their hands and go on the perilous enterprise. Messrs. Nisbet and Turner reached Tanna in June, 1842, and got what seemed a hopeful reception from the chiefs and natives of Port Resolution. "But," Dr. Turner says, "we had not been twenty-four hours on shore until we found that we were among a set of notorious thieves, perfect Spartans in the trade, and like the ancient code of Lycurgus, the crime seemed to be not the stealing, but the being found out." For seven dreary months the little mission party tried all their arts of conciliation in vain. Difficulties increased, and their lives were in imminent danger. At last, in dead of night, they had to seek safety in an open boat, but they were driven back. It was a critical condition for them to occupy; but providentially a trading vessel called the next day, and they got a passage to Samoa, where for many years they rendered fruitful service to the work of missions, and in the closing years of their residence trained many native teachers ana pastors and aided the work of translation and revised translations of Scripture, till thcy carried through the press an edition of the whole Bible with references in the language of Samoa. The London Missionary Society'S vessel from year to year sailed through the New Hebrides group, and the deputies on board, as Mr. Murray minutely testifies, watched for opportunities of locating teachers on several islands. Much is due to the brave enterprise of these devoted brethren in connection with the New Hebrides .Mission, and it becomes us, as we recall the work of fifty years ago, to record the fact that it was the London Missionary Society that pioneered the gospel to these islands where, in subsequent years, the Presbyterian missionaries had their trials and triumphs. It was their vessel that conveyed the first Presbyterian missionary. It was one of their missionaries that stayed with him during his first year. By their deputies he was visited and cheered from time to time. The Jubilee honors and rejoicings of the mission mu~t, therefore, be shared by that great society.
The first resident missionary on the New Hebrides was a Presbyterian-the Rev. John Geddie. He was a native of Banff, in Scotland, but had been taken in his infancy to Nova Scotia, where he became, in course of time, a student for the ministry. He was licensed to preach when he was only twenty-two years of age, and was ordained as a pastor at Cavendish, in Prince Edward Island, within a year thereafter. He was connected with a church compara- tively small and poor, and unable to afford more than a scanty income, often much in arrear', to its ministers, yet he had the courage to pro- pose that a Foreign Mission should be adopted. It is recorded that when he made known his views" there was not a man in the church who thought it practicable. Many looked upon it as utterly chimeri- cal, and were ready to pour contempt upon it as folly, while even his f~iends received the proposal with a smile of incredulity." The Church had in all only thirty congregations in the Provinces, and most were poor and str·uggling. Mr. Geddie, however, persevered, and in the course of a few years, carried his motion in the Synod. Vhen the proposal to seek a missionary was made, it was carried only by a majority of one! The attention of the Board was directed toward the islands where John Villiams laid down his life, and at length it was agreed that New Caledonia should be the field of their mission. That island had been named by MI'. Villiams to the Secession Church in Scotland as a sphere that might be occupied by their agents. Mr. Geddie belonged to that branch of the Presbyterian Church in Nova Scotia. He offered himself to the work~ and was accepted. He knew how little could be expected in the way of support; but he was not to be daunted. After visiting all the congregations of the Synod, and endeavoring to excite a prayerful and liberal. interest in the mission, he stw.died medicine for a time. In November, 1846, he sailed along with his wife and family. He was detained at Boston for two months before he found a vessel sailing for the Pacific, and even then the port to which a passage could be got was Honolulu, in the Sandwich Islands, far from the contemplated sphere in the South Seas. Six dreary months were spent in rounding Cape Horn ere they reached Honolulu, and seven weeks passed before a passage could be got to Samoa. Mr. Geddie had, however, an opportunity of seeing the working of the IIawaian Mission, and afterwards that of Samoa. Vhen he reached the latter place, he found that no opportunity could be got to reach New Caledonia 01' the Loyalty Islands for six or seven months, when the mission vessel John TVilliams wottld call. Besides, there then seemed no opening in these islands, as the energetic Bishop of New Zealand (Dr. Selwyn) had expressed a wish to conduct missionary work there. One of the islands of the New Hebrides afforded a single gleam of hope, and Mr. Geddie, with the advice of brethren at Samoa, agreerl to undertake a mission there. The venerable MI'. Murray, who still sllrvives, was a chief adviser and helper of Mr. Geddie during this period. It was proposed that one of the Samoan missionaries should accompany Mr. Geddie for a year, and the Rev. Mr. Bullen was chosen to do so, but amidst preparation for the expedition Mr. Bullen died. The Rev. T. Powell at the last moment offered to go with Mr. Geddie, and they left in July, 1848., They reached the most southerly island of the New Hebrides-Aneit- yum-where some native teachers had been settled, but what was the surprise of the mission party to find eight Roman Catholic priests and eight lay brothers already established in the island! The mission vessel then cruised throughout the group, calling at the stations where native teachers had be~n left. It was hoped that Mr. Geddie might find a home on the island of Fate. An awful tragedy had, however, taken place there the previous year when the British Sovereign had been wrecked. The crew were all saved with one exception. The natives appeared at first to treat them kindly, but it was only to allay suspicion. The whole of the survivors, twenty-one in number, each being placed between two savages in a march, on a given signal were brutally massacred, and their bodies, divided among the villages, were cooked and eaten by the cannibal people. It was selfevident that a missionary could not at that time be safely settled in that quarter. The mission vessel returned to the South, and Mr. and Mrs. Geddie, with an assistant, found an opening at Aneityum, where they settled under the protection of the chief at the harbor. The Rev. 'r. Powell remained with them for a year. The Roman Catho- lic priests and brothers left soon after and never returned. The Geddies had to pass through a hard and trying expet:ience in dealing with a people so low and savage. Their property was stolen, their hollse threatened with fire, and their very lives imperilled. Meantime the horrid custom of strangling widows on the death of their husbands continued. Inter-tribal fighting was chronic, and people wel'e afraid to go from one side of the island to the other for fear of being killed, cooked and eaten. There was little to encourage the mission party. They were, however, cheered by a friendly visit of Bishop Selwyn, who remained a fortnight on the island, and traveled on foot with Mr. Geddie to see as much of native life as he could. He kindly offered the use of a cottage at Auckland to Mr. or 1'lrs. Geddie should they need a change for a few months to recruit their health. On his voyage in 1852 the Bishop conveyed the Rev. John Inglis and his wife, with all their furniture, house and luggage, to Aneityum. Mr. Inglis was a minister of the Reformed or Covenanting Church in Scotland, and it was a pleasing circumstance that an Anglican prelate thus aided the Covenanter. Bishop Selwyn ever after kept up this friendly relation, and also introduced Bishop Patterson to these brethren. He even asked Presbyterians in·New Zealand to contribute, and on one occasion brought over £100 to Messrs. Geddie and Inglis.
By the time Mr. Inglis had settled on the opposite side of the island, the tide had turned in favor of Christianity at ~fr. Geddie's station. Fifteen had been baptized, and the I.ord's Supper had been observed on the visit of the London Missionary Society's deputation that year iu the John Williams. The two missionaries occupied different sides of the island, but labored with equal zeal and great cordiality. They preached, taught in school,., translated Scriptures, composed, and Mr. Geddie printed a class-book, built premiseA, and exercised an influence for good all over the island. Young people were all taught to read and write, congregations were organized with elders and deacons, fifty day-schools established, and over 2,000 persons admitted into the visible Church by baptism. The whole people were evangelized. It was a marvellous change in a degraded and cannibal people. At length the whole Scriptures were translated, and first the New, and ultimately the Old, Testament were printed by the British and Foreign Bible Society in London, but paid for by the contributions of arrowroot from the Christian converts. After a visit to Nova Scotia in 1863, where he got the translation of the Book of Psalms printed, Mr. Geddie returned with the honorary degree of D.D., from the Queen's University in Canada, to resume his labors. But he had to retire in 1872, prematurely aged by his toils and exposures. He died at Geelong in the end of that year, leaving a widow, one son and four daughters. Two of the latter were married to missionaries on the New Hebrides. He was a noble, self-denying pieneer, and led many into the fold of Christ. He had a happy way of dealing with the natives, and was also very handy in work. It was my privilege, by the kindness of a few friends, to place a wooden tablet to his memory on the wall of the stone church he had erected at Anelgauhat, Aneityum. The record of his labors, inscribed on it in the native language, concludes with these words, " ,Vhen he landed here in 1848, there were no Christians, and when he left here in 1872, there were no heathens." Since first published, this inscription has gone round the world, increasing in value, as it was retold, until the latest account makes the tablet marble and the letters gold!
Mr. Inglis continued at his station till 1877, and then retired to carry the Old Testament through the Press in London. He also published his translation of the Shorter Catechism and Mr. Geddie's abridged translation of the first part of the" Pilgrim's Progress," and some hymnl'l. He added a Dictionary of Aneityumese. He received the honorary degree of D.D. from the University of Glasgow, and in a green.old age still served the mission both by speech and by books in Scotland. His patient toil, his wise management, his clear style of instruction, and his benevolent life, aided by his late excellent wife, did much for the Christianity of Aneityum. It is meet that both Dr. Geddie and Dr. Inglis should be held in grateful remembrance for their successful efforts in bringing a whole island of cannibal people into the peaceful fold of the Good Shepherd. Ainidst a decreasing population the cause of Christ has flourished on the island, and the contributions ot
"TO EVERY CREATURE."
arrowroot from the Christian church at Aneityum nearly supported their resident minister-the Rev. J. H. Lawrie. 'fhis church was the first of the Papuan race embraced within the visible kingdom of God, and it became the pioneer of others among the thirty islands of the New Hebrides.
"TO EVERY CREATURE."
BY REV. J. HUDSO"Y TAYLOR, OF THE CHINA I"YLAND MISSION.
We are nearing the close of another year, and of an important decade in the history of Missions. In our own Mission the last ten years have been specially important; at their commencement the pioneering journeys of ~fr. (now Dr.) Cameron and others of our brethren were not yet completed; woman's work in inland China was barely com- menced, and not at all in the western provinces; during this period the number of our stations and out-stations has been about doubled, and the number of missionary workers more than trebled, for in the year 1880 we had but 91 missionaries, including wives, while now it considerably exceeds 300. This decade has witnessed the out-going of the 80 missionaries whom God gave us in response to our prayers for the 70, and in the following year of 40 others, among whom were the well-known Cambridge band; many prophesied the early return of the members of this band, but we are thankful to know that they are all engaged in diligent service in inland China, and that each one has been blessed and made a blessing.
Then we have to praise God for the 100 missionaries given us in 1887, and for the more than fifty who followed them last year, including the first American party. 'Ve rejoice in first fruits gathered in many of the more recent stations, and that over 1,000 were added to our native churches by baptism during the years 1887 and 1888, with continued additions during the current year. 'Vhile some converts have undoubtedly been received prematurely, causing subsequent trial and disappointment (a result which the experiencc of the oldest missionary cannot always avert), a large proportion are showing by the fruit of the Spirit that they have really been born of God. For the 80 little missionary churches now connected with the C. 1. M., we give to God unfeigned thanks, as also for all those gathered in other districts by His honored servants, the missionaries of the various European and American societies.
When we turn, however, from the total number of Protestant communicants-under 40,000-to think of the population of China, the contrast is appalling; double, treble this number to include adherents, and suppose each adherent to be a centre of light to ten of his countrymen, and you reach but 1,000,000 of China's vast population. The Master's words are" to every creature;" how far we are from fulfilling them! In 1877 thc Confercnce of Missionaries assembled in Shanghai appealed to the Christian Church to evangelize China in the present generation, and many hoped it would be accomplished within the present century. More than half the time before the close of the century has passed, and not one-hundreth part of the people have been reached, y~t this generation is the last of sixty since our Saviour gave the command, which, as Dr. Pierson has well pointed out, has laid the responsibility on the church of each successive generation to give the gospel to each individual living in its own period.
How are we going to treat the Lord Jesus Christ in reference to this command? Shall we definitely drop the title Lord as applied to Him, and take the ground that we are quite willing to recognize Him as our Saviour Jesus, so far as the eternal penalty of sin is concerned, but are not prepared to recognize ourselves as bought with a price, or Him as having any claim to our unquestioning obedience? Shall we say that we are our own masters, willing to recognize something as His due, who bought us with His blood, provided He do not ask too much; our lives, our loved ones, our possessions are our own, not His; we will give Him what we think fit, and obey any of His commands that do not demand too great a sacrifice? To be taken to heaven by Jesus Christ we are more than willing, but we will not have this Man to reign over us.
The heart of every true Christian will unhesitatingly reject this proposition when so formulated, but have not countless lives in each generation been lived as though" it were a proper ground to take? How few of the Lord's people have recognized the truth that Christ is either Lord of all, or is not Lord at all! If we can judge God's Word instead of being judged by the "Word; if we can give to God as much or as little as we like, tlien we are lords, and He the indebted one, to be grateful for our dole, obliged by our compliance with His wishes; if, on the other hand, He is Lord, let us treat Him as such. "Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" "If ye love Me keep My commandments." Thank God, an increasing number of His children are truly seeking to crown Him Lord of all, and are searching the Scriptures daily that they may know His will, in order to do it, praying continually, "Teach me, 0 Lord, the way of thy statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end."
To all such the Master's command, "To every creature," will come with great power; knowing it to be His will that every living human being shall be evangelized, everything that prayer and effort can do towards its accomplishment will be felt to be a privilege as well as a duty; each will ask himself, "What wilt Thou have me to do?" Will not the very youngest believers pray and give, and interest their young companions? and what mighty power there is in the simple, trustful faith of a little child who believes in Jesus! Will not those who are older recognize the probability of their being personally called to missionary labor and make definite preparation for it, that if pcrmitted a share in this holy enterprise they may be the better fitted? Shall it not become a holy ambition to all who have health and youth to court the Master's approval and tread in His steps, in seeking to save a lost world? and shall not Christian parents encourage their enthusiasm, feeling that they have nothing too precious for their Lord who gave himself for them?
There is no impossibility in our Master's command. Were the Government of England to determine on the conquest of a distant land, they would think it a small matter to land 10,000 troops in any part of the world's circumference; and the Church of God to-day could easily, within the next five years, effect the evangelization of everyone of China's millions. No very great effort was needed in America to secure the signature of over 3,000 college students to a pledge that if God opened the way they would devote themselves to missionary enterprise. Were the enthusiasm and devotion of all our churches aroused, and not merely that of a few individuals, more than that number of effective workers might easily be found on each side of the Atlantic for China alone. But no such numbers are needed in order that every man, woman, and child in China should hear the gospel once, at least. If, in addition to the workers now in the field, one thousand whole-hearted evangelists, male, and female, were set free and kept free fur this special work, they might reach the whole number of China's millions before the e::rd of the year 1895, and this allowing two years of the five for study of the language and preparation for the work. Estimating the population of China as we do at 250,000,000, there will be about 50,000,000 of families; if fifty families were reached daily for one thousand days by each of the one thousand evangelists, every creature in China could be reached in three years' time, leaving the evangelists two or three Sundays for rest each month. If it be said that unexpected hindrances would be sure to arise, it should be noted that this calculation takes no account of the help to be given by the one thousand missionary workers now in China, mainly devoted to pastoral work, to shepherding and feeding the converts; and it takes no account of the help to be given by native Christians, which would, of course, be immense and invaluable. Shall a work which one thousand workers might accomplish in three years of steady work, after two years of preparation, be thought of as chimerical, and beyond the resources of the Christian Church?
But is it reasonable to suppose that a missionary evangelist could reach on an average fifty families a day, and this all over China? In reply we may draw attention to the fact that a large proportion of thc Chinese live in courts or quadrangles containing from four to ten families each; were five the average, then to take the gospel to ten such courts would accomplish the necessary task. And this would llOt nee<1 to be uone unaided, for each missionary evangelist would easily secure the companionship of one 01' more .native Christians as helpers. There are, it is true, a few (though but a few) parts of China where the people are so hostile that we can scarcely' call them now open to this kind of effort; but it must not be forgotten that the Opener, who still holds the key of David, has given His word of promise to be with such workers "all the days." And no such effort could be made without an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church universal, which would include the native Christian churches of China, and make the tens of thousands of native Christians, apart from the foreigner, a mighty power for the evangelization of their .own people. God gives his Holy Spirit to them that obey Him. Even if the churches were unwilling to take it up, are there not 500 Christian workers in Europe who might go out at their own charges and do this grand work? But shall we suppose that the Episcopalians of England, and the Presbyterians of Scotland and Ireland, have. not each among them 100 men and women fit for this glorious enterprise? that the Methodists of the United Kingdom could not provide another 100, and that Congregationalist and Baptist churches could not each supply a similar contingent? VlTe may feel well assured that the United States of America and Canada would not be behind, and thus the 1,000 evangelists might easily be forthcoming.
How shall a project like this be translated from proposition into practice? First, by earnest, believing prayer; this was our Saviour's plan, and it has been left on record for our guidance: "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He will send fOl·th laborers into His haryest." 'Vhen we sought for the C. 1. M. the 70 and the 100 in prayer, and accepted them in faith, we received them in due course from His mighty, loving hand.
Then, if there is to be the fullest blessing, there must be the united simultaneous action of the whole body of believers; it is by "the effectual working in the measure of every part" of the members of the whole Body that its growth and building up are to be effected.
Third, There must be intelligent co-operation and such division and sub-division of the field that one part have not an undue share of workers while other parts are neglected.
Fourth, There must be Christly giving on the part of individuals and churches of their real treasures to the Lord for His service, and Christly service by those who go forth in His name. By Christly giving and service, we do not mean that which is done for Christ's sake merely, but that which is done after Christ's pattern. His service began with emptying Himself, involved toil and suffering all along the line, and enrled only with the perfect accomplishment of the object for which lIe came iuto the world.
THE CREDULITY OF SKEPTICISM
Fifth, There is no time to lose, for if we commence at once, millions of those now living in China will have passed away before the message can reach them.
Will each of our readers join us in prayer that God will send out 1,000 evangelists for China very speedily, and personally ask Him the question: "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" Let us not forget that to preach the gospel to every creature, is not a mere human project, but a divine command.
THE CREDULITY OF SKEPTICISM.
BY F. F. ELLINWOOD, D.D., NEW YORK.
The credulity of unbelief has become proverbial. There are instances which would be amusing if the subjects were less serious, and their treatment less bitter. Almost as a rule the wildest and most preposterous theories are held by men and women who have made shipwreck of faith. They above all others are ready for a seven-fold possession.
A remarkable instance of excess of faith was brought to myatten- tion not long since, in a book entitled" The Bible in India." Looking on the title page for the authorship, I at once recognized the familiar llame of Louis J acolliot, an intense French infidel whom Professor Max Muller had mercilessly ridiculed in his lecture on "False Analogies." The book was published by a well-known firm in New York, and has doubtless given great comfort to many a foe to Christianity_ M. J acolliot, while acting as a judge in the Courts at Chandel' N agore in the Madras Presidency, warmly embraced the idea that all the religions of Western nations had been derived from India, and that a little searching would find the sources of the Old and New Testaments in the Sanskrit manuscripts. He gave his leisure hours to Sanskrit. He found pundits who were even more ready to promote his purpose than he had imagined. They produced manuscripts, he translated, and the bonanza which he had struck well nigh turned his head. He had not learned, as had others who had preceded him, that a two-fold appeal to the race pride and the cupidity of the impecunious pundits would bring forth Sanskrit treasures of any desired variety or extent.
The essential history, the ritual, and many of the important prophecies of the Old Testament, were found in a Hindu mould, and the god Krishna, 01', as Jacolliot spelled it for greater effect, "Christna," was clearly foretold. New Testament parallels in abundance were also produced, and the mercurial Frenchman was in ecstacies. He could not satisfy his enthusiasm with a plain statement of results; he must work off his overpowering emotion by the following apostrophe to India: "Soil of ancient India, cradle of humanity, hail! Hail, venerable and efficient nurse whom centuries of brutal invasions have not yet buried under the dust of oblivion! Hail, fatherland of faith, of love, of poetry, and of science! May we hail a revival of thy past in onrWesternfutnre. I have dwelt midst the depths of yonr mysterious forests, seeking to comprehend the language of your lofty natnre, and the evening airs that murmured midst the foliage of banyans and tamarinds whispered to my spirit these three magic words: Zeus, Jehovah, Brahma! ..• "
"How often have I heard on the evening air, hoarse moans, wailing complaint that seemed to rise from desert marshes, sombre pathways, rivers' banks, or woody shades, etc.! Was it the voice of the past returning to weep o'er a lost civilization and an extinguished grandeur ? Was it the expiring groan of Sepoys mowed down pele mele by grape, with their wives and, children, after the revolt, by some red-jackets who thus revenged their own pain? "
. . . " Then it was that I sought to lift the obscuring veil from the past, and backward trace the origin of this dying people, who, without energy for either hatred or affection, without enth~iasm for either virtue or vice, seem to personate an actor doomed to act out his part before an audience of statues. How glorious the epoch that then presented itself to my study and comprehension. I made tradition speak from the temple's recess, I inquired of monuments and ruins, I questioned the Vedas, whose pages count their existence by thousands of years, and whence inquiring youth imbibed the science of life long before Thebes of the hundred gates or Babylon the Great had traced out their foundations . . . "
"And then did India appear to me in all the living power of her originality -I traced her progress in the expansion of her enlightenment over the world- I saw her giving her laws, her customs, her morals and her religion to Egypt, to Persia, to Greece and to Rome. I saw Djenimyand Veda-Vyasa precede Socrates and Plato-and Christna, the son of the Virgin Devanagny (in Sanskrit created by God), precede the son of the Virgin of Bethlehem."
J acolliot's theory applies to the Greek and Latin classics as well as to the Old and New Testament Scriptures. The civilization of Egypt has also been borrowed from" the fatherland of faith, of love, of poetry and of science." The Justinian Pandects of Rome were traced to the Laws of Manu, and all the best institutions known in Europe were shown to be parts and parcels of the one great heirloom.
The facile adaptation of derivative names was enough to astonish the most learned philologists. They are generally thankful for slight analogies between European and Sanskrit roots, but no sooner had J acolliot's pundits been made acquainted with the renowned names of the Greek classics, and furnished with some historic clew, than they brought forward original Sanskrit counterparts whose verbal resemblances and whose meanings were startling.
Hercules was derived from Hara-Kala, Rhadamanthus from Rhada manta, Andromeda from Andha ra meda, Centaur from Kentura, Minerva from Mana rava, J upitel' from Zupitri, Pythagoras from Pittia-guru, and Pl'otagoras from Prataguru. Otber nations of Europe had been favored with vocabularies, and had dared to make only the slightest possible changes. Odin came from Yodin, Swede from Suyoda, Scandinavian from Scanda-nava, Celts from Kallata, Gauls from Galota, Baltic from Bala-taka. Philologists have found in true Sanskrit abundant resemblances to roots of European languages. Each branch of the race developed many changes, but that one of them furnished names to order for all the others is a unique hypothesis. It is to be regretted in the interest of the theory that the resemblances had not been toned down to fainter lines; the average credulity of readers is ovel·taxed; the clever work is over- done.
After witnessing the completeness of this linguistic performance no one will be surprised to know that the leading New Testament in- cidents are reproduced almost entire. 'Vhat is known as the" Krishna Cult" is worked to the greatest advantage. Nothing of originality is left to the Christ of Judea.
Among the demigods of the Hindu mythology Krishna figured as a good-natured and rollicking Bacchus. Nothing is known of him in the earlier Sanskrit literature, but in the epic known as the :Mahab- harata and in the Vishnu Pm'ana he appears· as an incarnation of Vishnu. After the rise of Buddhism, Hinduism had discovered its lack of a more sympathetic being than had yet appeared-a god among men who should unite with the powers of deity something like the Buddha's sympathy and pity.
Around Krishna, therefore, there grew up an increasing interest- not that he furnished an ethical model, for his history corresponded very nearly with that of the lascivious satyrs of the Roman mythology, but because he was warmly and sympathetically human. The Krishna Cult was not fully developed until the early centuries of the Christian era, and it pl'Oceeded along two lines. In its popular aspects it kept pace with the growing corruptions which appeared in the Tantras, and were illustrated in the immoral orgies of Siva worship. The festivals in honor of Krishna were, and to a very recent date have continued to be, occasions of unspeakable vice.
The other line of development was theoretical; Krishna was treated as a Divine Counsellor and friend in the Bhagayad Gita, whichthough embracing older materials-was probably composed about the fil'st or second century of our era, and the Bhagavad Gita has, in its. high ethics, often been compared to the New Testament, though falling far enough below a parallel. But the legends by which Jacolliot matches "Christna's" life with leading incidents in the life of Jesus were partly the growth of those later centuries in which Hinduism was brought in contact with Christianity in Southern India, and partly the probable work of our author's own subsidized pundits. Even if the scholarly criticism of Max :Muller had not befaJIen this unfortunate author, the Frenchiness and pruriency with which he clot{led the story of Adam and Eve (" Adima and Heva") ill the Garden, as well as the general extravagance of his statements, would have aroused suspicion. The learned Oxford scholar seems to have felt that some sort of apology was necessary for treating with seriousness so absurd a case of pedantry, and he found it in the fact that so much credence was given to the book. But he proceeds to say that" many of the words which M. J acolliot quotes as Sanskrit are not Sanskrit at all, others never have the meaning which he assigns to them, and as to the pas- sages which he assigns to the Vedas, they are not from any old Sanskrit writer, they simply beloJig to the last half of the Nineteenth Oen- tury." lIe regards them as "simple in:ventions of some slightly mischievous Brahman who took advantage of the zeal and credulity of his employer." And he adds" that such is the interest, or rather the feverish curiosity, excited by anything that bears on the ancient religion, that J acolliot's book has produced a very wide and very deep impression. .In fact, 'if anytldng were wanting to show that a general knowledge of the history of ancient religions ought to form Ct part of our education, it was tlie panic created by tlds book."
But there had been earlier instances in which zealous opponents of Christianity had sought and found the evidence which they desired to prove that Christianity was a plagiarism upon the Sanskrit literature of the Hindus. Voltaire was carried away with enthusiasm when some one presented to him a copy of a portion of the Veda which corresponded in a remarkable degree with the teachings of the Bible. No time was lost in turning this new evidence against Christianity to the best possible account.
But after a time it appeared that an overzealous Jesuit missionary, thinking that the end would sanctify the means, had written certain Sanskrit texts designed to convince the Hindus that the Bible and the Vedas were to a large extent in harmony. This very immoral and fallacious project, however, proved most futile, and the only result was to dupe the arch infidel, Voltaire.
Some years ago Lieutenant "Wilford, who had read Sir ·William Jones' theory that Greek mythology was largely borrowed from that of India (a theory which Sir William finally abandoned), conceived the idea of tracing the teachings of Christianity from the same source. He proceeded to persuade the Brahmans that a thorough search among their ancient records would disclose not only the Greek mythology, but the Old Testament history. He was persistent against their reserve and reticence. He related to them the principal events of the Old Testament record, and at the same time promised ample rewards for their labor. At last the pundits yielded. They resolved that what he so eagerly sought should be supplied. 'faking his stories from the Pentateuch, they adapted them to the Sanskrit style, and brought forth astonishing results. Even Sir ·William Jones was COI1vinced, and congratulated Lieutenant vVilford on his success. The story of Noah was reproduced with a truly Indian picturesqueness. But when at last it was found that a forgery had been committed, that upon leaves which had been inserted in the ancient manuscripts the pundits, under pressure, had rendered in correct Sanskrit all that thev had heard about Adam and Abraham, Lieutenant Wilford did n;t hesitate to confess publicly that he had been imposed upon; yet, as Professor Max Muller says in his account of this matter, the mischief had in the meantime been done. Lieutenant vVilford's Essays had been read all over Europe; they retained their place in the volumes of the" Asiatic Society," and to the present day some of his state· ments and theories continue to be quoted authoritatively by writers on ancient religions.
Speaking further of J acolliot, Max Muller says" he has no doubt found out by this time that he has been imposed upon, and if so he ought to foilow the example of Colonel Wilford, and publicly state what has happened. Even then I doubt not that his statements will continue to be quoted for a long time, and that Adima and Heva (supposed Sanskrit for Adam and Eve), thus brought to life again, will make their appearance in many a book and many a lecture room."
The whole theory of those who would make India <, the source of all faith and love anu poetry and science," rests upon an erroneous assumption as to the antiquity of Illdian chronology. Sir VilIiam Jones was among the first to fall 11I1~ler this errol', and all his dates have been rectified by the consensus of later scholarship. As for the position assumed by Jacolliot, that Egypt b01'ro"ed her faith from India, it need only be said that the chronology and the monotheistic faith of Egypt can be traced from a period at least several hundred years earlier than any well esta.blished date of Indian history. There is ]]0 certain evidence that either the Yedas or any national records were committed to writing much earlier than 300, B. C., and it can only be a matter of conjecture that Europe or Palestine possessed any extended knowledge of India before the invasion of Alexander and the revelations concerning her institutions which were made by IVlegasthenes, the ambassador of Seleucos, his successor.
It may be said, with great propriety, that Christians,' as well as skeptics, have sometimes been very sanguine and even credulous in regard to those phases of heathen faiths which seemed favorable to their views. Max Muller mentions some instances among the earlier Jesuit Missionaries in China. 'l'here were certainly some serious mistakes of the kind on the part of the early Spanish Padres, who fancied that they found many elements of their faith in the traditions of the Aztecs of Mexico. Within our own generation illusive hopes were very generally entertained in regard to the Christian tendencies of the Brahma Somaj in India, and especially the remarkable utterances of Cheshub Chunder Sen. But no such elaborate theories as those of J acolliot have been built upon these fond hopes, which were "too
THE MORAVIAN MISSION ON THE KUSKOKWIM
good to be true." The persistency and intensity of such illusions can be found in full force only in the minds of those who are too wise and cautious to believe the Christian revelation. Any misrepresentation of missionary enterprises, or of the truth which missionaries teach, has always a charmed vitality.
A malicious story which I found more than a dozen years ago in Japan in relation to the building of a Missionary chapel, has been refuted at least a hundred times only to spring up with fresh life again and again. The scene at first was laid in Japan and concerned the Reformed Mission in Yokohama, but I have since seen it re· produced in new dress, located in Shanghai, and published with great particularity as an incident in the American Episcopal Mission of that city. Two years ago my attention was called to an ar~icle in a sporting paper in New York, entitled "Outing." There I found the same old story with the scene laid in Chefou, and given with all the gusto of some ignorant and conceited globe-trotter who had probably either I forgotten where he had heard the story, or where it belonged, or who had located it where he was more familiar with the ground or could present it with the most picturesque effect. The story, though false to the core, is annually heard by hundreds of Pacific steamer passengers who receive it as a clear, straightforward record of truth and verity.
THE MORAVIAN MISSION ON THE KUSKOKWIM.
BY REV. PAUL DE SCHWEINIT.
A lady missionary, returning from China, says: "One does not to have to be a hero any more in order to be a missionary; one goes forth prepared endure all things heroically, and finds that friends at home have so thought of and cared for every want that there is scarcely any call for heroism at the station." That is as it should be. Those who remain behind by " the stuff" should bountifully supply every need of those fighting at the front. But there are fields of labor, which, even in this day of easy and rapid communication and transportation, and in spite of the warm love of Christian friends at home, remain heroic in every sense of the word. Let the following simple historic narrative of one of the newest of the missions undertaken by the Moravian brethren witness to that. Missionary heroism is still extant among these pioneers of modern missions.
In the winter of 1884 Dr. Sheldon Jackson, of the Presbyterian Church, appeared in Bethlehem, Pa., to plead for a missionary to the Eskimos of Northwestern Alaska. He presented the oouse to the Moravians in this wise: That these Eskimos were so degraded, so debased; that the conditions of missionary labor among them were so severe, so dreary, so cheerless; that these forlorn people were literally so God-forsaken, that he could find no one who was willing to carry the 116 THE MORAVIAN lIIISSION ON THE KUSKOKWDI. [Feb.
gospel message to them in their inhospitable regionR, where they dwelt in unspeakable degradation. 'As a last reso~·t he came to the Moravians. No man cared for the souls of these degraded heathen savages-would they have mercy upon them? That was an appeal which the Church that had sought out the Hottentots of Africa, and the Innuits of Greenland and LabradOl', could not resist. Five of the students who were to graduate from the Theological Seminary that year expressed their willingness to go. Two were afterwards chosen.
First an exploratory tour was undertaken by a veteran missionary, accompanied by one student. They found, as is usual in such northern climates, the Eskimos living o~ly in small groups here and there, scattered over a wide stretch of country. The description of their degrada~ion had not been exaggerated in the slightest degree. Filthy and disgusting in their habits, to an extent that forbids description in public print; their morality at such a low ebb that they may practically be said to have none; parents willingly making prostitutes of their daughters from nine or ten years on, ruthlessly taking their daughter from one man and giving her to another, if they thought they could make more by it; the related crimes of killing off helpless aJ;ld old people and unwelcome infants being considered the incontestable right of the persons otherwise responsible for their support; and so on through the revolting catalogue. Their form of religion was so low that it could scarcely be dignified with the name. Priests they had none-only "sachemR," i. e., medicine men. They live principally on fish, of which, in the short summer, a sufficient quantity must be caught to last through the dreary winter. However, they met the missionaries in a friendly manner, and the latter felt justified in selecting a site on the Kuskokwim river for a mission station.
Now that it has become fashionable to run summer excursions to Alaska, it no longer seems so out of the world; but these excursions run only to Sitka. Few have any clear idea of the extent of the territory. Roughly speaking, Alaska is as large as all the Northern lakes east of the Mississippi; and the Moravian mission station on the Kuskokwim is as far from Sitka as Baltimore, Md., is from Minneapolis, Minn. There are no means of communication with the station, except once a year, and then only through the kindness of the Alaska Commercial Company. When once there the missionaries are absolutely separated from all civilization, from all help, from all supplies, for a whole year. Everything must be taken along, as nothing but fish and some game can be procured there.
Nothing daunted by this report, the little band of missionaries prepared to start. On account of the low moral condition of the people, and the unfortunate relations existing between the few white traders and the natives, in order to avoid all possible suspicion of evil, as well as for many higher and nobler reasons, it was absolutely necessary for the missionaries to go out married. They were all young people-the men just a year out of the seminary-and all leaving the refinements of civilization for a desolate country, where they would first have to build a house with their own hands before they would have where to lay their heads. The ordination service of these two devoted young men was impressive beyond description. Their names are worthy of record: The Rev. "William H. Weinland and his wife, Caroline Yost; the Rev. John H. Kilbuck and his wife, Edith Romig. The former had been on the exploratory tour. The latter is a full-blooded Delaware Indian, the son of a chieftain. He had received a full course collegiate and theological education. He is probably the first Indian ordained by the Moravian Church. Now he, as a representative of the Church which had reclaimed his people from heathenism, in turn went forth as an apostle to a much more for- saken and degraded people. There is a true apostolical succession! "He had served one year among his own people in Canada in the ab- ,sence of the regular missionary upon the exploratory tour mentioned before. His wife is an American, who married him in the genuine old- time Moravian spirit, being filled with an unquenchable zeal to serve the Lord in this forsaken corner of the earth. One lay brother, Hans Torgessen, leaving his family behind, accompanied them, in order to help them in building a house.
June 19, 1885, the little band reached the Kuskokwim. Battling their way up the river in a violent storm, Hans Torgessen fell overboard and was lost! A year must elapse before help could reach them, yet strong in the strength of Christ these young men, fresh from college though they were, girded themselves to erect a house, and with their young wives prepared to face the unknown horrors of an Arctic winter, ill provided, on account of the loss of time caused by this accident, both in provisions and in shelter, for its hardships. 'rhe Church at home waited the outcome in dread suspen,se-a year. Then came the heroic message: 'Ve are, thank God, alive; and we will·remain. Send us help and we will start a second station! The history of that and succeeding winters was full of thrilling incidents -lack of space alone forbids their narration. There was no wood at hand, the woodland beginning far inland, and laborious journeys up the river had to be undertaken ~o gain fuel as well as !ogs for building purposes.
In 1887 a second station was begun at Nushagak, and in 1888 an assistant sent to the Kuskokwim, but the two stations afforded little companionship to each other, as nearly 200 miles of almost impassable ~ountry lie between them. That on the Kuskokwim has been christened Bethel; that near Nushagak, Carmel.
In spite of tremendous obstacles missionary work was at once begun. Of course, in order to gain the adults, the language had first to be learned, but for the children a school was at once opened. Only the history of the station on the Kuskokwim can be followed. The missionaries were not in a populous country, as China, Japan or India; the children had to be laboriously sought from village to village, and the only way to teach them was to keep them at the Mission House. That meant to board them, to clothe them. The task thus set the noble wives of the missionaries can scarcely be appreciated by us dwelling amid the conveniences of civilization. All were thus brought into constant personal contact with the most disgusting features of the most degraded heathenism. The work, however, went bravely on.
But, alas! the vessel which brought the new missionaries to Carmel, to the consternation of the Church at Home, was compelled to bring Mi~sionary Weinland and his family back to the States, completely broken down in health. (He has since undertaken a mission among the Indians of Southern California, in the San Jacinto Valley, made famous by H. H.'s "Ramona.") The Kilbucks heroically resolved to remain alone and hold the post until re-enforcements came, or death called them away-Mrs. Kilbuck the only white woman in that desolate region among degraded heathen.
The next year brought electrifying news. Scarcely two years had the missionary been there, and he could but imperfectly stammer forth the message of the cross in that uucouth language of the North, when its stolid people awoke, and the bleak and desolate land began to blossom with the fruits born of such self-consecration. The simple yet wonderfully impressive Moravian Christmas, and especially the Passion Week services, made a deep impression on the natives. From far and near they gathered, besought the missionary to come to their villages too; that they would build chapels for him; that they "wanted a share of the blood of Jesus to take away their bad" (sins). In Greenland the Moravians labored five years before they made a single convert. When Karjarnak was baptized the hard-tried missionary sent the message home: "Sie wollen nem "-they want to be saved now. And when this historic message was sent from bleak Alaska, after two years' labor, the Church was thrilled with holy joy. The appeal sounded forth for re-enforcements, for aid for the noble woman, who, alone of her kind, was battling for the Lord in the stronghold of Satan in the North. Eighteen responded-four single sisters, three single brethren, one widower and five married couplessome of the latter volunteering to leave their children behind. But before the chosen ones could be sent, a terrible winter had to intervene. Mrs. Kilbuck became sick. It was evident that she would have to go back to the States, or an experienced nurse be sent to her. Think of the dreary months of waiting! This noble couple resolved to separate. The wife would travel as soon as spring broke to the
TRANSLATIOlS FROM FOREIGl :lIISSIONARY :lIAliAZDIES
States, with the children. The husband would not forsake the post, but labor Oil alone. Heroism has not died out, and the Moravians are still the gens eterna! This resolution had to be, if possible, communicated to the church. They heard of Lord Lonsdale coming down from the Arctic regions, and in the midst of winter Missionary Kilbuck had to start out to meet him. Seventy-three days elapsed before his return to his sick wife, left alone with the assistant. Terrific storms, temperature 59° below zero, tell the story. He was given up for lost. His noble wife resolved then, if the Lord gave her strength, to remain herself alone with Assistant "Veber at the post! But her husband, miraculously preserved, returned, the message brought by Lord Lonsdale reached the States in time. But there was no time for a new call for volunteers. Aid had to be sent at once. A person of experience was required. The heroine was found. The official item, without any ostentation, simply announced in Moravian style: "Sister Bachman has received and accepted the appointment to Bethel, Alaska, for one year"-that was all. But those who knew, knew that that meant that the wife of the presiding bishop of the church had been willing to leave her husband and family to serve the Lord among the Alaskan Eskimos!
The re-enforcements are now there. The last message proclaims Mrs. Kilbuck's recovery. With characteristic Moravian caution, only 22 converts have been actually admitted to church membership, but the awakening still continues. Another year must elapse before new information can be received.-So ends this narrative. It has been simply told. Lack of space forbids dwelling on single acts of heroism. All that must be read between the lines. But it shows that Mi8sionary heroism has not yet gone out of date; that there is no nation so degraded that the Lord cannot find some who will go as His apostles; and where His word is proclaimed, there it never returns void unto Him!
TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY MAGAZINES.
BY REV. CHARLES C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
More and more it impresses itself on the minds of missionaries, how much less competent they are than the native helpers to reach the inmost minds and hearts of the heathen. These words of a native preacher give us a glimpse of this: "Agreeably to our missionary duty, we go so often as opportunity offers into the various villages and houses and preach Jesus Christ, the crucified. But the manner of preaching, as it is used in the ordinary congregations, does not please the Hindus. They are not accustomed to listen attentively to a continuous and somewhat lengthy discourse. Therefore, it is hard to obtain an auditory for such a sermon. And if any means are resorted to of enforcing attention, they endeavor to disturb the preacher by all sorts of objections. .At such times they all talk in a body, to no intelligible effect. Therefore, it is very useful to proclaim the gospel with intervals of hymns and psalms, sung to native melodies. All Hindus are delighted with such songs, even when they do not understand their purport. For the Hindus hold noth- ing so high as song. So often, therefore, as we go out to preach to the heathen, we first sing to the accompaniment of violin, cymbals, kettle-drum, and other musical instruments, hymns of our native composition, and thereupon we preach." It seems that in the Madura district the native helpers of the Leipsic mission go through the heathen villages three days in every week, preaching three times every day, relieving each other in turn. The presence of a white missionary, however, they say is a great additional attraction. "On one occa- sion, when a great idol feast was in progress, and we had {;:ome into the neigh- borhood with music and song, there appeared the priest of the pagoda with his son. They not only urged the nume;ous company of hearers to be seated and listen quietly, but made us sit in the veranda before the pagoda for three hours, sitting themselves as hearers. Finally the priest despatched his son to perform the ceremonies before the idol, and said: 'All that we do is only for our belly's sake. We know that all that you say is true, and that your Veda (the Bible) shows the way of salvation. Come back here every year, and teach the true religion.' As a farewell honor he offered all of us the usual tribute of betel and areca nut." .
-The Berichte of the Rhenish Missionary Society remarks, in speaking of the first Christian Chinese family at Bandjermasin, Borneo, of whom it gives a very interesting picture taken from a photograph: "The first Christian family in a church to-be newly established is of great significance. Even in the Acts we find names of the tlrst families tbat received baptism. So long as only men and youths become believers at a station among the heathen, the Church has no thoroughly constituted existence.. There is lacking to it its nerve, the family with its family worship, Christian training with prayer, in brief, Christian domestic life. "
-A Missionary of the Rhenish Society in Southwestern Africa, remarking that under the influence of Christianity the natives and half-breeds are becoming weaned from their nomadic ways, and are settling into more steady labor on their stations (aided of late by providential affluence of rains), adds: "That Christianity brings also earthly blessing is plain to be seen in the case of our Church, especially with those who have learned not only 'Thou shalt hallow the Sabbath day,' but also, 'Six days shalt thou labor.' He who learns this with us may assuredly hope for earthly blessing also."
-In view of the terrible increase of necromancy inour own country, thefollowing words of Missionary Fehr, of the Rhenish Society, on the Island of Nias, SJimatra, have more than a far-off interest: "The fact that, in all the sicknesses and distresses prevailing among us, no one of our Christians has allowed himself to be misled into sorcery and sacrificing, is a cause of thankfulness to the grace and protection of God. In such times of trial the thoughts and hearts of men are wont to be revealed, and it then appears whether or not the faith of Christ has already struck abiding root in them. And in truth it does require an energy of faith and no common confidence in God, for people who have grown up in heathenism and idolatry, when they see their nearest and dearest at death's door, to remain steadfast, and to refrain from resorting to any forbidden means of help. Herr Fehr says: "When people pass over from heathenism to Christianity they commonly suppose that the good God must now be especially gracious to them and bless them, because, they say, he is surely stronger than our idols. And how glad the missionary would often be, if, to such young beginners, especially in cases of sickness, the Lord would give experience of his especial help and kindness, that in this way, too, they might experience and learn that the Lord is the true Helper. But in many cases the Lord does the very opposite of this, that no one may flatter himself with false hopes, and thereby be misled into crooked ways. Here in Lololofaoso, for instance, there was a leading family, which, after long gainsaying, had tlnally inclined to Christianity, and had begun to visit the public worship. Soon after, however, their little son was taken sick, and, in spite of all medicine and all our prayers, died. Almost at the same time the child's grandfather was attacked by a very long and painful eye-trouble, so- that he was almost beside himself for pain. Under these circumstances the confidence of the family in the cause of Christianity suffered a great shock, yet thus far they have continned nniuterruptedly faithful in coming to church. How earnestly, in such cases, one is tempted to wish that he had the apostolic gift of healing."
-It is sometimes said that in Greenland the Danish Lutherans and Mora- vians have haptized the last heathen Esquimaux. This, 1 believe, is true as to the natives of the West Coast. But lately the natives of the East Coast have been coming across to the Moravian brethren. This inaccessible region was once far milder in climate, and was, as we know, the seat of a flourshing Danish colony, from which Eric the Red, or his son (1 am not sure which), is said to have come down along the shore of New England. But some 600 years ago a sudden lowering of the temperature took place; long piles of icebergs began to line the coast; the last bishop of the colony consecrated at Trondhjern, in Norway, set out for his diocese, but ~either he nor his people were ever heard of again. Whether these Eastlanders that are resorting to the Moravians are a mixed race of Eskimos (Esquimaux) and these old Northmen, or pure Esquimaux, 1 do not know. It is said that a European has lately made his way across Greenland from east to west. If so, we shall know more about the region so long mysteriously secluded. Missionary A. Riegel, in t¥ CalweJ' Missionsblatt of June, 1889, writes: "Having been able in my last report to give account of 6 newly baptized Eastlanders, this letter will report 50 additional baptisms of heathen. The first family dwelt very quietly among us, and we took a good deal of satisfaction in them, although they were little enough advanced in Christian knowledge. The man had a boat, indeed, but got little by it, so that the family was none too rich, especially as in the winter the man fell sick. The sickness increased till spring, and then the Lord took hhn to Himself. He felt disquieted in view of his family, but was glad to go home. The countrymen of this man, who had returned to the East Coast, kept their word and came back. In September they came to this station and made ready for living here by putting up three houses; expressing the desire to become Christians, they received catechetical teaching, and at Easter were baptized.
'Unhappily they were very sick and wretched, and several died; nor did they earn any too much, for there were fewer seals and birds than usual. As this naturally implied a scarcity of winter provisions, it came sometimes very near to famine with them. Since Mayall the people, the newly baptized among them, are at the summer-grounds, that is, the seaward islands; yet unhappily we only hear of a very scanty take of seals. This raises forebodings for the coming winter, yet the Lord may secure them an ample autumn fishery. How these neophytes will develop' spiritually, remains to be seen. We cannot expect that all will turn out to be of the best quality.
" You believe that there must come a time when the Greenlanders can maintain their churches and their Christianity without European pastors, even though under European oversight, 'and with European money.' If you had added this last, 1 too should not doubt of the possibility. That the Greenlanders will themselves voluntarily meet the costs of their churches and schools, only he can believe who does not know the Greenlanders. But it will be practicable to maintain paid catechists, upper and lower, at the different settlements, to work under Europear. direction. 1 believe that is the aim of the Danish Mission, because they can secure hardly any pastors or missionaries for Greenland. "
There we see Christiauity struggling to live, chiefly because the race that professes it is struggling to live. -Primitive, uncivilized natures, in whom self-control has never been devel- oped, are subject to very extraordinary mental affections, which, it is true, are sufficiently common among ourselves. In Amalienstein, South Africa, there lately died. aged 71, a cripple, Elizabeth Klaasse, doubtless a Kaffir or a Hottentot, who, in consequence of a church quarrel, in which she had taken part, had sunk into melancholy, and for nearly twenty years had only jumped along like an ape, muttering unintelligibly, and repelling all pastoral attention, until finally Missionary Schmidt succeeded in inducing her to pray with him, and to come to church once more. Thenceforth she was never seen sitting in the church otherwise than with a radiant face; "she followed the preaching as a bird of prey does his quarry, nodding in smiling assent to all that was said."
-Missionary Bieger, writing in the Mededeelingen of the Dutch Missionary Society, gives, in a single sentence, a powerful impression of the deadness of soul engendered by Mohammedanism, which knows absolutely nothing of inward spiritual experience, takes absolutely no account of it. Herr Biger has labored in Java, where the people are almost all Mohammedan, but has lately gone to the little island of Savoe, where they are or have been heathen. He remarks: "What I have not seen in Java in fourteen years, I have seen here in four months-a tear; the genuine witness of the fertilization of the sinner's heart by the seed of the gospel.·'
-Christianity in the East Indian Islands has the greatest prevalence in the Minahassa, the northermnost of the three eastward stretching arms of the island of Celebes. Heathenism being largely overcome, at least in various districts of the Minahassa, of course the number of adult baptisms will be apt to diminish. In 1887 there were in the Minahassa: Adult baptisms, 476; infant baptisms, 5,021; communicants received, 1,182; school children, 7,240; Christians on the Island of Savpe, 3,783.
-M. Duvoisin, of the French Basuto Mission, speaking of finding himself overwhelmed, in addition to all his evangelical cares, with the labor of building, says: "I have already passed through trials of many sorts, but there is one of which I had not yet had experience, that of feeling one's self overwhelmed on all sides, and of finding one's self anew, day after day, in presence of a task for which one is not made, and from which, on the other hand, he cannot withdraw himself. But I have found that this also is good. I have understood better than hitherto this word of St. Paul, • Cast down, but not destroyed,' and I begin to realize the fact that when the Lord invites us to cast all our cares on him, he doubtless means all, the task of building not excepted."
-The extensive awakening among the pagans of the Basuto country has declined, although not until after large additions to the churches. M. Duvoisin remarks: "The outward circumstances were only too favorable. In the Lexuto–as elsewhere, I imagine-temporal and spiritual blessings are a little like the two buckets of a well. Now the late harvest has been most abundant, there is in the country a great number of mabele; that is, for the pagans, numerous and riotous gatherings around great pots of yoala, gatherings which, too often, take place on the Sunday; and for Christians, leting, that is, mild ale, at discretion. Unhappily these latter have not yet learned to use all things as not abusing them." "Yet, if there is in our churches a current of evil which draws away more than one, others again yield to the attraction which draws them to the feet of the Saviour, and these latter, I will believe, are the more numerous."
-" The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty."
OUR VOLUNTEER MISSIONARY STUDENTS
This is painfully illustrated in the description given by M. Louis Jalla of the Barotses, the heathen dwellers on the banks of the Zambezi. "These people are children in many respects, but they are true savages, cruel, ferocious, even in every direction. Their pleasure lies in witnessing suffering. It is very hard to bring our boys to kill a hen before plucking it. How jolly it would be, said some men one day, if we could flay an ox all alive! When a man is condemned to death, they do not give themselves the trouble to kill him. They only half strangle him, fixing their nails in his throat, and then conduct him to an islet in the river, leaving him to die there of hunger."
Yet these same people, who are very fond of receiving visits, are, at home, polite and affable. The women also, at least those of the higher ranks, making an ambition of keeping their houses neat and in good order. They esteem themselves much honored by receiving visits from the missionaries, who seem to be slowly, but surely, weaving a network of Christian influences around them, in a dreary, unwholesome region, one of the most ill-provided in the world with the means of enjoying even common comforts.
-Our French Protestant brethren have a mission in the French possession of Senegambia. The following, by M. Escandre, is a lively description of the }fohammedan negroes, the chief part of the population of the town of Saint Louis: "A new comer recognizes them at once; you see them pass in the streets, furnished with enormous rosaries, which they are telling in a very absent-minded manner. Then, women, babies at the breast, all are loaded with gre-grees (amulets), enclosing fragments of the Koran, which, it appears, possess marvellous properties. Then, when the hour of prayer is called at the corners of the streets, on the square, and chiefly along the river, you perceive files of natives bending to the ground, like a thicket of reeds before a breeze. Take care not to enter one of their shops at this hour, for, in the very middle of your purchases, you would see the merchant leaving his business in the lurch and begin his interminable genuflexions, your objurgations not being of the slightest avail. You needs must summon up your best patience, or walk off, until his salaam is at an end. The other evening, from my balcony, I noticed a woman making ready for these exercises, and stationed myself to observe her. You would scarcely believe it if I should tell you that having had the curiosity to count on my fingers the number of times that she kissed the ground, I arrived at the respectable figure of thirty-one. Her salaam had lasted twenty minutes by the watch! She must have been, doubtless, a great sinner, some penitent Magdalen, or possibly she had terrible arrears to wipe off, for you are aware that the Koran authorizes such adjustments."
OUR VOLUNTEER MISSIONARY STUDENTS.
" Upon the young men of this generation God lays a responsibility never before known." Who are the responsible young men of this generation? They are to be found in our educational institutions, and they represent a host. Two million young men will graduate from our schools and colleges in this generation, and, surely, we ought to be able to give one per cent. of this number to Foreign Missions, which would mean the "evangelization of the world." It does not seem possible that there could be 20,000 young men "willing and desirous, God permitting, to be foreign missionaries;" but the fact is, if the number increases as it has since this movement was inaugurated, it will not be long ere the pitiful cry that is coming from across the seas from the millions in darkness and death, will be heard by thousands of our best educated young men and ,,·omen. The number of ,olunteers up to the Northfield meeting was 3,847, of whom at least 1,000 are young women. Since that time, through the aggressive efforts of leading volunteers, the number has increased 500 more. Volunteers may now be found in nearly every country in the world; 195 have already sailed for the foreign fields. These 195 volunteers settled as follows: 29 in Japan, 28 in India, 12 or 13 in Africa, 46 in China, being distributed in 21 different fields, and representing 25 different organizations. Forty-nine institutions in the United States and 5 in Canada are contributing , to send out or support their representatives, pledging last year between $26,000 and $28,000, of which amount all but about $3,000 was pledged by students.
A remarkable fact, to be especially noted by those who are wont to criticise the movement in thinking that it is opposed to our Missionary Boards, is that, with the exception of five or six institutions, which are State institutions, and hence undenominational, all the money has been sent to the several Boards, and the missionary sent out is connected with the Board representing the church of which he is a member.
This, in general, is a bird eye's view of what is being accomplished by the movement. In particular, the work of Mr. R. E. Speer, the present traveling secretary of the movement, is very interesting and profitable. He has been speaking since Sept. 4 in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and is now about to enter upon an active campaign in Ohio. During that time over 500 volunteered, and about $4,000 were pledged either to the support of some alumnus in the field, or to swell the funds for the Young Men's Christian Association building that is to be erec- ted in Tokio, Japan. Up to November 9, Mr. Speer had visited 27 colleges, 7 city associations, 17 churches, besides attending 5 State conventions. Among the colleges visited were 5 State universities and 4 normal schools, where the religious life is very low. In spite of this drawback, in these 9 institutions there were 65 new volunteers, an average of 7. At a normal school at Fort Scott, Kansas, there were 15 volunteers and $364 pledged, and at the State Normal School of Missouri, they intend to raise $500 for the Tokio building, three college professors have volunteered, and the Secretary of the St. Paul Young Men's Christian Association, who has a burning desire to.go to the Soudan, when he told his wife of .his intention, she answered, "Go! I'll go with you." A missionary of the Presbyterian Sunday School Union volun- teered, giving this as his reason: "The fact that the heathen could not get the gospel now even if they wanted it, was enough to call him fron: a field, needy, to be sure, but where the people could have the gospel whenever they wanted it." A lady physician, whose daughter had already volunteered, offered her services at a young woman's convention in Nebraska. Can any more beautiful sight be imagined than to see mother and daughter ready to leave home and friends for the sake of their dying heathen sister! At the Kansas young women's convention, the whole delegation, consisting of 36, vol- unteered before they returned home. St. Paul had so many volunteers, 26, that they intend to put some of their business enterprise into missions, by sending a Golony to the Soudan, and one gentleman showed a determination to have his representative in the field by signing the following paper: "I am willing and desirous, God permitting, to support a missionary from St. Paul." Minneapolis, St. Paul's great rival, has raised a large sum for the Tokio Young Men's Christian Association building. At a meeting in Iowa, an incident occurred which may affect not a few Christian parents. Mr. Speer was teil- ing the story of how an old l.o.linister appealed to an audience to make a per- sonal consecration of themseh-es to missions. When he finished speaking his
GENERAL ~IISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
own daughter came forward and knelt before him, but raising her the old man said: "I did not mean you, my daughter." The next day, after relating this in(:ident, an old gray haired man came to Mr. Speer, and said: "You have hit me. My daughter wished to go out from the Methodist Board. and they wanted her, but my wife and I held her back," and then he added signifi- cantly: "We have not felt so well as before." How many parents there may be who are thwarting the will of God and are saying in their hearts, "vVe have not felt so well as before."
It will no doubt be interesting, now that so many volunteers are in the field, to hear what they think of the battle while they are at the front.
Mr. F. W. Brown, a volunteer from Hillsdale College, Michigan, writes from India, while on a mission boat on the Byturney river, near Orissa. He says: "How goes the work? Here I am in this hot ]jed of idolatry. We feel that we are on the eve of a big break here, and are looking for it soon. The Lord hasten it on. I went to Puri to the Ratti Jutra; I saw enough to tire my soul. They stoned us while preaching. I have the stone that a wall opposite me kept from hitting me on the head." Mr. S. R. Gulick writes from Japan calling for 34 volunteers to go out under the A. B. C. T. M. He says the movement is an inspiration to the soldiers in the front, and they are looking b~ R~R n.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
ACrica.-Mr. Stanley has emerged in his path, and which to the average on the western shore of the Indian man would have seemed insurmount- Ocean from his marvelous mid-Afri- able. True, he is as yet his own hiscan march, the most successful ex- toriographer, but there is no reason to plorer in the world. It would be diffi- doubt a narrative the very simplicity cult to imagine a narrative more and modesty of which gives it the wonderful or fascinating than that of stamp of tJ,"uth, and in which the his journey from the Aruwimi to the humblest of his followers is made to Albert Nyanza, through a forest larger share in heroism with himself. There than France, and through the matted is no attempt at advertisement. "Nothundergrowths of which the starved ing happened," he writes in his acand dwindling column crept at the count of the march from the Albert rate of less than three miles a day. Nyanza to the coast, "save a fight or That awful itinerary, filled with fever two with theWanyoro," though on that and fighting and hideous sufferings, march he discovered that the Muta continued for more than five months Nize was the source of the White Nile, before the hundred and more thin a discovery which other men would skeletons emerged into the plain re- have deemed glory enough for a life gion; and with food and plenty about time. And yet there is a full apprethem, began to take heart and hope. ciation of the horrors of the journey, But more fighting awaited them, with and of the importance of its results, the dreary counter-march back to the as well as the expression of a reverent Aruwimi, disappointment and waiting and unfaltering faith in God, who had and horrors on end, consuming nearly led him on his way, and turned what a year more, until, in February last, seemed defeats into success. No other the explorer met Emin and forced his explorer has endured and overcome reluctant consent to be relieved. Dur- so much, adding to his own burdens ing all this time Mr. Stanley never lost responsibility for others and for rehope or changed his tone, or permit- sults, and yet has so steadily grown in ted himself for a moment to be over- himself and in the estimation of the come by the new obstacles that rose world. Great cities vie for the honor of entertaining him, and nations, with the journalistic reporter who went to find Livingstone at Ujiji in 1872, and African possessions to develop, are the wise, hardy, heroic, broad-minded and indomitable rescuer of Emin bidding for the assistance of the boy Pasha and discoverer of the heart of Africa, is far greater than usuaUy befrom the Welsh poor-house. For he longs to human life. Few men so distinctly find their mission, or reis pre-eminently a man of action, ceive such enhancement of personal power and character from rendering with a genius for the government of the service to which they are called. We may well enter his name in the barbarous peoples, and it is on the list of providential men, like Colum- bus, William the Silent, Washington organization and government and de- and Livingstone, raised up for a i7eat purpose and divinely guided till their velopment of the black races that the work is done. It is not the least strik- ing part of our first messages from world must rely if anything is to be this man, as he emerges again into the light of 'blessed civilization,' accomplished in Africa. But while that he recognizes the divine' hand in the thrilling experiences and delivermankind will not withhold its meed of ances of these three memorable years. And it is an eminent sign of the place praise from Mr. Stanley, there is a he has won in the popular judgment that the secular press, no less than the darker side to his success-the fact religious press, takes note of this de- vout acknowledgment and justifies it. that in its first great contest with the "For the moment the withdrawal of Arab for control of the Dark Conti- Emin Pasha leaves the vast and popu- lous territory of the Soudan stripped nent, Europe has suffered defeat. of every civilizing, restraining and uplifting influence from without, and The gallant explorer has survived the opens the way for the Moslem faith and the accursed slave trade to revive march through the tangled forests of and flourish in that imperial domain without let or hindrance. But this the Aruwimi, but the darkness of situation cannot long continue. Stan- ley's exploit has powerfully drawn night has closed in behind him, and the thoughts and interests of the civ- ilized world to this great center; and of aU that Europe has won in the past it is next to impossible that some one of the great powers should not assume ten years, nothing remains but Egypt, the responsibility of giving order and stable government and protection to the scattered stations on the Congo, the native tribes, and access for for- eign commerce and missions, throughand a few points on the shores of the out this splendid country. It will be thought an intolerable thing that the Indian Ocean. Wadelai, Darfour and path thus first broken by this intrepid explorer should be closed up as soon Khartoum are garrisoned by Arab as it has been opened, and one of the richest and most populous parts of the armies, as are the Central Soudan States; and encouraged by their recent successes, they are bent on the con- quest of Abyssinia, and the re-conquest of Egypt. The tide will turn, of course, for Africa will not be aban- doned to barbarism, but more vigor and means will have to be put into the task, and the fact brought home that civilization can march only where there are highways.-The In- terior. I -" Stanley and Africa."-Dr. Jud- son Smith, in the Oongregationalist, writes most intelligently on this sub- ject. We have space for only his closing words: "What results may we expect from this great expedition? It is too soon to ascertain all the facts, or to draw aU the inferences. Without doubt this brilliant and heroic exploit will distinctly add to Stanley"s steadily rising repute as a man, a philanthro- pist, a scientific explorer, and a mili- tary leader. The contrast between whole continent left to fall back again the Arabs were up in arms. The into primeval barbarism, or the deadly blockade of the coast maintained by blight of Mohammedanism and the Germany infuriates the rebels because infamous slave traffic which it fosters. it stops their traffic, and they will, it The challenge to the Christian world is feared, massacre all the missionaries to enter this fair domain, and fill it on whom they can lay hands.
with the Christian faith and the benefi- Missionary interests have become cent institutions which flourish wher- very extensive in East Africa. The ever that faith holds sway, is as bold Church Missionary Society and the'
and inspiriting as we can well con- Universities Mission, of the Church of ceive. England; the Established and the "Almost the last word which we Free Church, of Scotland; the London have from Stanley declares his convic- Missionary Society, the United Meth- tion that the mantle of Livingstone has odist Free Churches, and the Church fallen upon him, and his purpose to of Rome, all have missions on the devote his life to the exploration of coast or in the interior. The Church Africa. We would fain believe that Missionary Society has two distinct above this man's thought presides the lines of missions-one with its basis same divine purpose which controlled at Mombasa, in the English Sphere of his predecessor's life and shapes the Influence, with eight stations, some fortunes of the nations and the ages, of which are on or near the coast and and that through all his varied and some in the interior. One is in the heroic efforts that which was the in- neighborhood of Mount Kilimanjaro.
spiring aim of Livingston's marvelous The second line of stations is that career-the evangelization of Africa- which stretches from Zanzibar to shall be hastened apace. May the. Uganda. There are nine stations in Church of Christ, in all lands, give this line. The Universities Mission heed to the solemn and imperative has twelve stations, one ~ Zanzibar, call of the hour, and see to it. that four in the Usambara country north along the track which has thus been of Zanzibar, four on or near the River broken the light and freedom and Rovuma, and three on the east shore heavenly hope, which are the one of Lake Nyassa. The two Scottish priceless treasure of history and civil- Churches have the Free Church five ization, shall press in with resistless stations on Lake Nyassa, the Estab- power to scatter the darkness and lished Church one on Lake Shirwa, at redeem the nations !" the south of Lake Nyassa. The route -Missionary Interests in East to this region is by the Zambesi and Africa.-The massacre of German Shire rivers. The London Society missionaries at Dar-es-Salam, on the goes further west than any of the East African Coast below Zanzibar, other societies, and plants two sta- has been followed by the massacre of tions on Lake Tanganyika. The an English missionary named Brooks, United Methodist Free Churches have with sixteen of his followers, at Saad- two missions in the Mombasa region, ani, a point nearly opposite Zanzibar. and one in Gallaland. Three German These massacres, committed by the Protestant Societies have five stations Arabs and natives under their control, -three in gaIIiland, one in Zanzibar in the rising against the Germans, and one in Dar-es-Salam, where one were not unexpected. The course of of the massacres took place. It is the the Germans, who had no experience Berlin Society which maintains the with African Arabs or natives, was last two stations. These are all the Pro- such as to provoke hostility. They testant missions between Wito and the established their commercial enter- Rovuma River; but there are German prise last August, and in a few weeks and French Roman Catholic stations. In all, there are 13 missions-six congregation also was urged to estab- British, four Germans, and three lish a fellowship meeting for the study French. One society, the Church of Scripture on Sabbath morning. A Missionary, alone has spent $500,000 proposal to visit every household in in the last 30 years in East Africa.- South Formosa was well received.
Tlw Independent. • With. a view to its being carried into China.-One of the most success- effect, it was resolved that each ful of the Chinese Missions is that con- preacher on his return to his station 'ducted by the Canada Presbyterians should make out a list of the towns and the English Presbyterians in the and villages in the neighborhood; that Island of Formosa. Mr. Mackay, of the preachers should bring these lists the Canadian Mission, has been from to the next meeting of preachers in the first as one of the people, and has May, so that the field may be divided taken a wife from among them. He out among the various churches. The is a man of apostolic devotion and subject of self support was most ear- simplicity, and has wrought a great nestly discussed, and a determined work among the Formosans. The effort to increase the number of self- English Presbyterians occupy a dif- supporting churches was agreed to.
ferent part of the island, that to the To this end the church where the con- south. They, too, have made large ference met agreed to help out a use of native talent in the spreading neighboring church at Kio-a-thau by of the gospel. Recently they held a contributing what it lacked. After conference of preachers and office- the conference, when the preacher bearers, all the preachers except one for that station returned to his work, being present. They were examined he told his people that it had been carefully, and good reports are given arranged that for the four months.
of them. In the conference these they were short they were to look, native preachers spoke earnestly in not to the home church, but to the favor of self-supporting churches, and church in Taiwanfoo. This caused stated that they would rather receive them to reconsider the matter-it their salary from the native brethren seemed a shame to get money from a than from the Missionary Board. neighboring congregation; and they Though the money comes to them sent back WOl'd that they would not more promptly from the Board it need the money, that they would be often subjects them to the taunt, responsible for the whole twelve " You preach the foreigner'S doctrine months themselves. This released the because you eat his rice. " Each church at Taiwanfoo, and it gave the church represented in the conference help it had offered to Kio-a-thau to sent a dollar toward the expenses. another struggling congregation.
The missionaries gave a dollar each -Uneasiness at Pekin.-We learn for the preachers, and the balance, from Pekin that there is a feeling one dollar, was contributed by the there of great uneasiness as to the sta- church where the conference met. bility of things in China, The young The conference agreed to recommend Emperor and Empress are believed to each congregation to follow the ex- be unlucky, as there has been nothing ample of one station, where the but disaster since their accession.
worshippers are classified as readers There is no loyalty in China in our and non-readers, and one of the for- sense of the word, and there are great mer told.off to teach one of the latter. fears that troubles will arise from the In this connection the importance of general distress inevitable in this com- a large-type Romanized New Testa- ing winter; and if there were any man ment was mentioned, for which ar- of eminence who saw any advantage rangements are being made. Each to be gained from raising a rebellion it would go haru with the present dy- hope that this mission would be auded nasty. The misfortunes which have happened since the present Emperor's to the other missions carried on by the accession have revived the discontent that was felt at the irregularity of his Reformed Church. Owing to its large succession, which found its expres- sion at the time, as will be remem- and growing indebtedness, however, bered, in the suicide of one of the Cen- sors. We would earnestly echo the the Board of the Church felt com- remarks of our New Chwang COlTe- spondent, and impress upon the naval pelled to decline to assume this new authorities that no treaty port in the empire ought to be left without a man- responsibility, while at the same tllle of-war this winter. There is no special antipathy to foreigners; but expressing a great interest in it. their safety may easily be involved in some tumult that has arisen from Hence the present character of this causes entirely unconnected with their presence.-North China Herald. miSSIOn. The funds for its support Egypt.-The Rev. James Cantine, are contributed upon a syndicate plan.
the first missionary of the recently or- The mission has found a number of ganized Arabian Mission, sailed on the City of Rome last month. He will warm friends and supporters in vari- . spend the winter in Syria carrying on his Arabic studies. In early spring he ous denominations, and the work is will be joined by Mr. S. lf. Zwemer, of the Theological Seminary, New progressing in a very encouraging Brunswick, N. J. The two will then proceed to their field of work-South- manner. J. G. L. western Arabia-in connection with Keith-Falconer Mission of the Free Eng-Iand.-Letter from Bishop Church of Scotland. The chief object of this mission is to do pioneer work, Taylor.-" I have just arrived from and especially (i. e., not exclusively but equally) in behalf of lIoslems and the Congo. My principal business, on slaves. The brief history of the Keith- Falconer Mission shows alike the great a hasty trip, to return to West Africa need and great encouragement for undertaking this work at once and in a few weeks, is to complete ar- carrying it forward vigorously. This mission is for the present, at least, in- rangements with the builder of our dependent, in the sense that it looks for its support to any without refer- steamer to send a master builder from ence to denominational adherence. This was not the prefelTed way of his yard to put her together and see founding anu carrying on the mission, but it was the way to which the found- her afloat as quickly as possible. Hap- ers were shut up if the work designed and desired was to be accomplished. pily, delays are not always failures, It was hoped that this mission would be founded by and under the charge but often essel1tial conditions to ulti- of the Reformed Church. The action of the last General Synod led many to mate success. I believe it will be so in regard to our unexpected delays with the steamer.
" The teaching force of all the facts in the case brings us clearly to the conclusion that the planting of mis- sions extensively in the great and populous countries of the upper Kassai and Sankura, requires that we have a chain of missions, and a transport agency and facilities, extending from the sea to the centre of the Con-· tinent, giving us, by the way, a neglected, densel}: populated region, belonging to the Congo State, on the north side of Lower Congo,100 by 250 miles in extent. The older mis- sions are working on the south bide of the Congo, so that we shall in no way encroach upon them. So, as a part of these foundation alTange.ments on the Lower Congo, essential success on the Upper Congo waterways, "'e find that our steamer is needed, by twenty to one, more on the Lowpr Congo than upon the Upper. We shall build her at Vivi, to carry mission- tricts they come after, but often asso- ciate with the mayor, the doctor and aries and mission goods from ship'il the priest. The Sta,te considers them to be of such importance that it frees side at Banana 100 miles up the river them from military service, pays their salary, and at the age of sixty grants to Vivi. them pensions. The number has be- come so large that some have asked if "In connection with this we will the work of the Normal schools should not be suspended. At this time, when build a steel launch, to be propelled the enemies of the Republic try to underrate the services she has renby oars and sails, to carry up river dered to France, I feel it a duty to vindicate the good work she has done. ' cargoes through the middle passage Her efforts to raise popular education have not only been great, but very of Congo, 88 miles, from Isangila to successful. "
Manyanga. When this is developed, India.-A Hindu Lady Reformer. -During Bishop Thoburn's recent then we shall require a small steamer visit to Bombay he caned on the Pan- dita Ramabai at her own home. This for the Kassai and the Sankura. vVe lady's name is almost a household word in England and America; her needed such a boat in 1886, when we devotion to the women of her country is well known. He thus describes his had a force waiting at Stanley Pool, visit: "I found her busy, but not care- worn, in the midst of her various who would have met Dr. Summers, projects for elevating her race, and especially those of her own sex. One who entered by the Angola route, of her cardinal ideas is that the status of Indian women must be raised to at Luluaburg, but we could not on the level of true womanhood. Her little daughter was in the room, and any of the five little steamers on the I asked her name. ' I can her Mano- ram,' she replied. 'The birth of a Upper Congo, about the time of his daughter is considered a great ca- lamity in India, and so I named her arrival, get a passage for one mission- " Heart's-delight " as a protest against the bad notion.' The Pandita is giving ary. Now there are a dozen little special attention to temperance re- form, and I was only too glad to steamers on those waters. and we can promise her whatever assistance I might be able to render her in her get passage to take up a successor to good work. She is I;>eginning to real- ize that her work will encounter diffidear Dr. Summers and others also, culties in its progress, but thus far she shows no sign of discouragement. to keep our promise to the Bashalange Her chief enterprise, that of founding a home for Indian widows, has not people and other nations beyond, till yet passed beyond the experimental stage, but she seems satisfied with the we can complete arrangements below, success thus far achieved."-The Har- ~'est Field. as aforesaId, for planting of missions in those far interior countries on a broad scale. WM. TAYLOR."
France.-Rev. J. C. Bracq says: "The public 8chooois of France have never before approached their present state of thoroughness and efficiency.
It i8 to the credit of the Republic that she has made greater efforts in that direction than in any other. She has increased her war budget only two- thirds, while that of popular educa- tion has risen from 24 millions of francs to 130 millions. The teachers have better preparation in the Normal schools, larger salaries, better houses to live in, while their school buildings form a pleasant contrast with those of the past. They have also large as- sociations for mutual improvement and for the defence of their interests that could not have existed under former governments. Their social position is equal to that of teachers in the United States. While they are much respected in cities, in rural <1i5-
MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE FROM ALL PARTS
South America.-The Ameri- fact that during the past ten years 264,542 copies have been circulated, can Bible Society reports that Bible of which 90,484 belong to the first distribution was fifty per cent. larger half of the decade, and 174,038 to the last year hi South America than in last half. These figures are exclusive any former year. The number of of the work of the Valparaiso (Chili) Bibles, New Testaments or parts dis- Bible Society, which sold during the posed of by sale or gift (mainly the year 4,563 copies, and during its exformer) was 51,862. That this large istence of 28 years has distributed increase was not the result of mere 54,417 copies in the Republic of Chili. spasmodic effort is evident from the I1I.-MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE FROM ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD-FIELD.
Brazil. candidates for the Gospel ministry. To the churches of this Presbytery were added during SAO PAULO, Oct. 17, 1889. the last year 133 infants by baptism and 187 DEAR DR. PrERSON: Knowing you to be an on profession. Permission was granted to ardent friend of foreign missions, I take the organize two new churches. The reports of liberty of sending you an item of news. all the pastors were very cheering; each one reporting fields much too large for one man During the late sessions of the Presbytery to occnpy. of Sao Paulo, its licentiate, Senior Benedicta Ferraz de Campos, was examined for ordina- This Presbytery, in harmony with the Standtion. His final examinations and sermon gave ing Committee on Home Missions of the evidence of 'Very fine talent. His knowledge Synod, is seeking for means to sustain and in Greek was especially noteworthy. A very teach a class of eleven young men, married large congregation assembled on a Monday and single, for a year, in purely Biblical innight to witness the ordination, when the struction, and then send them out to occupy pastorof the church, Rev. E. Carlos Pereira, the many places where the good seed of the preached the sermon, and Rev. Carvaihosa Word has been planted and is bearing fruit. gave the charge to the candidate. Both sermon and charge were especially appropriate Yours truly, to the occasion, but the crowning act was the . J. B. KALa.
final setting apart of the candidate by the Ohina. laying on of the hands of the Presbytery. By invitation of the Presbytery, the repre- [Do not fail to read this letter from sentatives of other Presbyteries and of the a remote corner of this vast empire. Methodist and Episcopalian Churches, were -EDS.J invited to take part; so that upon the head of SINING, &AusUH PROVINCE, N. W. CHINA., the young candidate were laid the hands of Sept. 24, 1889.
different representatives of the Christian DEAR EDITORS: Your April number of THE Church. 'Twas a beautiful sight and one MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLn contained which made a solemn impression upon all: an article on "The China Inland lIiission, " by that union of sympathy and brotherly love, ( Prof. Hulbert)in which are a few statements which could lay aside all differences and ..nite which require some modification.
in so solemn an act. The candidate was very He says:" Wben I say the work is compre- deeply affected. We certainly have reason to hensive, I give no idea of the vast area covered believe that" the laying on of hands" in this by the Inland lIIission. Its laborers may be case brought with it the blessing of the pres- found from the borders of the Mongolian desert ence of the Holy Spirit. Wbat an inspiration and the boundary line of Siberia on the north, our newly ordained brother has received! to the banks of the Bramapootra river and "May the Holy Spirit ever bless his ministry." the valleys of the Himalayas on the south; The two young men, Messrs. Morris and Kin- from the Pacific ocean on the east to the solineg, sent ant from the seminary at Alexan- borders of Tnrkestan and the unknown pIa· dria, Va., are winning for themselves and the teau of Thibet on the west." Mr. Stevens, of church they represent golden opinions. They this Mission, is located at Bhamo, on the banks expect to accompany the newly ordained min- of the Irriwady, in Burma. 1111'. Geo. Parker ister, Mr. Benedicto, to his field of lahor, and has recently returned from a journey across there study the langnage, after which they the desert of Shamo to Hami, Urumtsi, and expect to choose for themseh-es a good wide Iti, making only a few weeks' stay there, and field of labor, of which there are many. then returning to Lanetes. He also visited The Presbytery of Sao Paulo recei,ed three KokomoI' with a Russian exploring party. With others he crossed the border and entered into Turkestan, as far as Kashgal' and Yark, Jllongolia for a few days, from Ninghia amI and a fourth to Kokonor and Tsaidami. It Rweihaachenj, in N. Kausuh and N. Slausi. matters not which side of the Atlantic you live, come and be spent for Jesus, and take pleas- Possibly the Mission may be contemplating ure in ,', necessities" for Him. Sell all you further extension. But at the present I be- have, if needs be, to pay your passage out lieve I am right in saying that, with the above here, and what you haven't got ask God for, exception, the work of the Inland Mission is and tell his people. Get one of these places entirely confined to the provinces of China right down into your heart, find out every properl I suppose it takes as long to get to scrap of informa(,!on you can about it, wrestle Sining as to any place in China-four or five in prayer for it night and day, aud the proba- months' journey from the coast. Coming here bility is that every obstacle now in your way we crossed no excessively dangerous moun- will be removed, and you'll be out, where your tains, and no burning deserts. I have not heart has been already, before many months heard of any brethren of this Mission who had have passed. That is something like the way I came to China, and now am being drawn to· any experiences very much out of the com- Thibet. mon, though we settle often in teeming cities. I have not heard of any member of the Mission For Thibet, lIIongolia and Turkestan, the attaching himself to Nomadic tribes of Chinese language would be almost an essen- Mongol Tartars, living in miserable tents, and tial, for they are a part of the Chinese em- roving from place to place, with no fixed home, pire. The Turkestan party might commence no familiar fireside, but wandering over the in the Mohammedan towns of this province Tartar plains at the will of wild chieftains, or (Kausuh), getting their Chinese education as the scantiness of pasturage for flocks de- while picking up useful hints for Mohamme- mands. dan work. 'Ve have Turks, called Salah, within four days of Siuing. A knowledge of There are members of the Mission on the Arabic would be useful. Persian is more use- Chinese border of Kokonor, and let us pray ful in Turkestan. Mongol could, I fancy, God that before long Christianity may be easily be picked up here. knocking at the doors of Slamaistic faith; but though in many cases the Slamas are friendly For Thibet, at present, the Indian door and and kind, I have never heard of any workers Sychnan are closed to us. To work Thibet any- of the Mission having had the opportunityoffer- way, will require much prayer; the Chinese ed to them, by Thibetan officials, of entering are very suspicious of us; but this Kausuh the country of the grand Slama quietly amI border appears the most open, Passports without danger of molestation. lIfr. Gilmour. would be required for all these, and we must of the London MiSSion, is pioneering in Eastern pray hard that that difficulty may be removed. Mongolia; haven't you got a score of young Don't let us mind about fixed salaries. Get fellows wishing to join him? Then the Mora- the money to bring you out, and then look to vian Mission at Leh, and a Bible agent at God for the rest. 3Iarried or single, come Iskutsk in S. Siberia. With these exceptions, along. £100 per man should bring you from am I not right in saying the whole of Thibet, England to this corner of the empire, and Mongolia, Turkestan and Siberia are without give you a bit in hand. Look all the difficula Protestant missionary. "There remaineth ties well in the face, and then make up your yet very much land to be possessed; let us go mind. If you can't trust God, don't come. up at once and possess it, for we are well able, because the Lord of Hosts goeth forth with Yours, in the Lord's service. our armies." We haven't got to wait for orders to go forward; they were given more than CECIL POLHILL TURNER. 1800 years ago. When acting in obedience to Him, t~e power of God, the Holy OPENING OF WORK IN KIRIN. Ghost, is upon us, and then there is no room Our work gradually grew and people begun for failure. You will probably receive this to see we had not come to do them harm, but letter as the new year opens. Suppose all who good, One little boy, whose parents were read it pray for at least 20 workers each for dead, had for some time been troubled with Thibet, Mongolia, and Turkestan-in all 60- sore eyes. He spent nearly all his spare before the close of 1890. Let us ask for men money (3s. or so), a great deal for him, upon full of the Holy Ghost; men willing to rough native doctors. to no avail. By God's blessing it for Jesus; men who don't mind being cold, on our treatment, he was soon made all right. hungry and wet, and robbed, and, if need be. He, of course, could not k""p the good news to <i¥ing, because death brings glory. himself, but published it abroad, and soon Dear brother, who reads these lines, come great numbers came thronging to us to have out and join our band. Then let us go two by their eyes cured. We were very closely two through Thibet, to Slaosa, and on to watched by government officials in every Rashmir; along the high-road through Kausuh thing we did. Soon their favorable report to Hami, Urumtsi, Iti; another lot branching brought us invitations from Mandarins and off to the north to Kobats, Uliasutai; It third gentlemen of all ranks. Thus did God open up our way befon' 1)S. 'Ve then sought and gained an interview with July 9. -At evening service the church and one of the chief magistrates, and through yard were so full the pulpit was placeq in the him got permission of the Governor·General open door that all might hear. The Lord to come and establish a Mission and hospital. helped while preaching from "What shall I do to be saved?" All who were seriously After spending a few days longer looking thinking about their souls were asked to raise out for a suitable house, which, however, we hands; nearly 100 responded. did not find, we again returned to Monkden. Thus, through the Divine blessing, the way July 10. – A meeting for men only, but about seems clear for our going up, perhaps early 200 women came begging to stay; talked next year, and establishing ourselves in this about "Saving faith:' Two young men, large city of Kirin, the capital of the northern doubters for two years, de<'ided to serve and province of Manchuvia. confess Christ.
A RESIDENT MISSIONARY. July ll.-A mother's meeting; 400 present; many remained for inquiry meeting; over 20 Turkey. took part; earnest prayers in Turkish, Arme· nian and English, offered with tears of re- THE GREAT REVIVAL AT AlNTAB. pentance, reminded us of "Pentecostal Days. " I too could not keep back tears of joy; 35 [So remarkable a work deserves the arose, giving themselves to Christ. "Not unto fullest information. Although we us, not unto us, 0 Lord, but to thy name give have given some account of it already, glory." P. M.-Another woman's meeting. To we are quite sure our readers will be my surprise the church and yard were full; greatly interested in this detailed 1,600 to 2,000 present, most of whom were record of it, taken from the diary of Gregorians; 8 Mohammedans-a large gather. Rev. H. G. Jenanyan, of "St. Paul's ing; pulpit moved to the door so all could Institute," Tarsus, who took an active hear. part in the revival. We are indebted to his wife for this graphic view of the July 12.-The Holy Spirit's work among inmemorable scenes.-EDs.] dividuals is wonderful. Thus I am taught W/Ult and how to preach. Henceforth our serv, Aintab, July 2.-Having an urgent invita· ices will be union in the First Church, which tion from the pastor of the Third Church, the holds 2,000 to 2,500. The women's side is smallest one, with a congregation of about smaller, but to-night they filled their own and 200, to hold special service, this evening I one-third of the men's. " Not by might, nor preached my first sermon; only 150 present. by power." 'Text, "To think of latter end." July H.-At morning, in the Third Church, July 3.-Preached to about 300, one half of two new Sunday-school classes organized. whom were Gregorian Armenians. All listen- Church members promised to visit two by two oed attentively to, "Son, give me thine heart,~' the neighboring houses. Evening service in ~nd the Lord gave the words to speak; hoping the First Church. From 300 to 400 could not for great results, I pray and believe. enter the full house, but crowded near win- dows and doors. "Almost persuaded" was July 5. -This evening preached from, "Thy my subject; asked those who would like to sins are forgiven." God gave a blessing to have a prayer meeting to remain; only a few -over 500 present. My heart is rejoicing. An hundred left, but their places were at once inquiry meeting, 22 decided for Christ; 15 filled by the waiting throng outside. In this backsliders returned to the Lord; an infidel meeting over 100 rose deciding for Christian youth is earnestly seeking the light. life. This was the largest congregation to which I ever preached. I better realize the July 7, Sabbath. -Morning preached from power of simple gospel preaching. "Christ our pattern;" over 1,000 present; church full; hundreds in the yard. Evening July 15.-Much time is occupied with callservice in First Church; 1,600 present, one-third ing, conversation, preparation and preaching. of whom were Gregorians. "Jesus" was the Morning scrvice for women in Second Church: theme, and the eagerness with which they lis- 60 remained for inquiry, most of whom gave tened was an inspiration to me. "O! Lord, good proof of conversion. Afternoon met bless, encourage, and fill me with thy Holy with Christian Endeavor Society, giving a Spirit." Bible reading, "Christ our example. " These are good workers among the women, and their July 8.-Went to church one hour before numbers are now doubled. The following day service-was surprised to find both men and I preached in the First Church to a full house; women's side filled with women coming early 30 arose for prayer. to find room, thus crowding ant the men. At once began preaching; dismissed the meeting July 1/.-Morning held a service in the Grethat the women might go and the men come gorian house in the city suburbs; over 300 in; but most of them kept their seats on the present; every corner full; a few Protestants, :IIoor; the men were obliged to stay in the yard several Mohammedans. Afterward called on while I preached a second sermon for all. two palsied women confined to their beds for The need, desire and interest is wonderful. years. Among those who called. one man July 26.-Rev. T. D. Christie, of Marash, said: "I have done all known wickedness, hearing of this revival, came to help us. We been in prison three times-one Sunday I are very glad, for there is great need, and he heard you preach, since then I am surprised has large experience, and is very valuable in at the change in me; can't tell what and such work. Ever since the Adana revival, where I am-never prayed before, now pray- where we were together, I have greatly ening always; would like to tell others of this joyed working with him. He will give much change but fear they will not believe, but will of his time to personal work among new contry and show them by my life." Evening verts and inquirers. A large gathering in the meeting with young people; two pastors and First Church, Mr. Christie taking part; 45 exone college professor took part-it was a pressed desire for salvation. To-day a youn", season of great blessing. man came to a missionary, returning several small articles stolen at a fire eight months July 19.-Many young people come for per- ago. He confessed his sin with tears, saying sonal conversation-three boys and two girls he could not rest till his conscience was clear, earnestly pleading to be taken in our Tarsus he having recently given his heart to Christ. school. Thus far 17 applications from this city, and if we only had accommodations it July 28, Sabbath.-Morning attended First would be a grand thing to give a Christian Church Sunday-school; found 26 children had education to these young converts, who could decided for Christ; their tearful confessions be the means of blessing to their people. and simple faith was such that I went to the " My Lord, thou knowest and seest the need, adults, related the fact, while Pastor Mardagive opportunity as thou givest desire, grant ros earnestly spoke on "Where art thou ?". enlargement and blessing to St. Paul's Insti- The meeting was very solemn and blessed;' tute, take away all obstacles for its progress." many hard hearts were melted. Afternoon Evening meeting, where the three pastors Mr. Christie and I preached; at the close' took part. Their faith has been greatly nearly 500 remained for a testimony meeting; strengthened by seeing what the Lord has 28 took part, giving interesting accounts of done in our midst. their conversion. All hearts are grateful for such an outpouring of the Holy I::lpirit. July 21, Sabbath.-After Sunday-school and a good prayer meeting, a woman came, say- July 29.-By invitation, went to an Armeing, "Here are three Mohammedan women who nian meeting; was permitted to speak some would like you to talk and pray with them." words of truth, to which all listened atten-' I gladly responded, going to where they sat, tively; 5 priests expressed interest. Afterlith faces veiled; knelt down and prayed. noon 22 children and 14 young men came to I Evening, large meeting in First Church, more inquire the way of salvation. Missionaries, Gregorians came than ever before. Previously and native pastors are working heartily and they besought their priests to invite me to in full sympathy. preach in their church, but a few wealthy members objecting, the people came to our July 30 to Aug. 3.-These days have been church to hear the tl"".1th. This has been a especially devoted to church examination. day lonj:( to be remembered for its fullness of Preached only once; in the three churches 267.' blessing. came forward. So many interesting facts and testimonies, I cannot begin to write them. July 22.-Women's meeting. Holy Spirit, at Enemies are reconciled, notOrious crinlinaIs the close of sermon. asked all who wanted to converted, drunkards reclaimed, parents re-' come to Christ to arise; 22 responded, one of joicing over wandering children, whole famiwhom, 80 years old, was a great opposer to lies coming together to unite with the visible the truth, but now her groans and tears melt church. Said Pastor Mardaros: "I have been many hearts. Afternoon, 11 callers, compan- here thirteen years, and can it be possible ions in wickedness, now Christ's followers. that this great blessing has come to this city, Said they: "A month ago if anyone would even on Aintab!" "Yea, this is the Lord's tell us of such a change we would not believe, doing and wonderful in our eyes." now we tell others but they believe not." Aug. 4, Sabbath.-This is the crowning day July 24.-Children's meeting; 500 present. of the revival. At morning, by invitation, Theme, "Christ and the children;" 150 re- went to Episcopal Church; small congregamained for inquiry meeting; many prayed, tion; large building; unfinished for lack of confessing their sins. We hope all these are money. I preached, •. Fear not, little lIock." accepted by·the dear Saviour. Union service at noon; large attendance. I preached to those who will to-day join tl,e July 25.-Missionaries and natives urge me church, .. Lovest thou me?" (We all felt the to remain that these services may close with Holy Spirit's personal presence.) The reply a communion season and accept new converts. on hundreds of faces was, "Thou knowest that We all hope for a grand harvest. Evening I love thee. " After the sermon those who will service for new converts; 400 present. The unite with the church arose, 248, a large band prayers and testimonials were very interest- ready to serve Christ. They all repeated ing: over 25 took part, even 4 women ventured together after me the three verses beginning, to pray. "Who can separate us from the love of for inquiry, most of whom found salvation.
Christ1" Any who were seeking Christ were Among the new converts are several who invited to remain after service; 140 respondAd lately mocked at religious things.
-22 by words and 83 by rising expressed Aug. 21.-Temperance day; I preached their new decision; among them were 20 from, "We will not drink wine." Reading a children, whose deep conviction was very few passages at the close, asked- those who, Dlanifest. Evening there was communion in like the Rechabites, would promise thus, to the three churches-new members accepted; express it publicly. Over 1,000 arose. What an former members more hmnble and grateful. encouraging sight. Next day, in the Women's It was a day of holy consecration for us all. meeting, Mr. Christie preached; 45 remained Aug. 5 to n.-The work is so interesting, for inquiry; many blessed prayers and con- the plea so urgent, we have decided to remain fessions. During these two weeks 365 came two weeks longer. This week I preached five for church admiSSion, far more than we, in times to full congregations; many new con- our weak faith, expected. The Lord is work- verts-one a noted gambler, another an infi- ing mightily.
del, whose public confession was touching to Aug. 25, Sabbath.-Union service at noon for many. I visited 20 houses with Pastor Gara- missionary cause. After preaching I asked bed. The pastors have decided to have the people, as a slight token of gratitude to another comnlunion soon. This gives me God, to organize a Missionary Society and hope that Vartina Bajis's (a good mother in support some preachers in needy cities. Mr.
Israel,90 years old,) expectation will be ful- Christie also spoke encouraging words. All filled. One day in church she said, "I am responded well; a committee was organized, a praying for 500 new converts." A good brother collection taken amounting to 2.400 piastres said, "You are expecting too many, mother.~' ($95); during this week the gift of 600 piastres "I have prayed for them, and they are sure to to Third Church poor pastor, 1,400 piastres come. " I quoted, "According to thy faith be debt to First Church pastor; and this contri- it unto thee." bution is, for these poor people, about the Aug. 12 to 17.-Examinations for church ad- same as $5,000 in Ami'rica. Can we ask a mission; a new children's society (Zion'8Mes- better proof of revival work?
sengers) organize(!; their work is to visit Evening communion in each church; 286 houses each morning and hold half-hour new members accepted, hearts glad, families prayer-meetings with the children; they also happy, and the day blessed, to be long, long collect money to purchase Bibles for needy remembered..
Sunday-school classes. This week I preached During this revivai 534 new members were four times and gave a Bible reading; 31; newly added to the three churches on confession of decided for Christ. Now I am preaching on faith, while many are secret followers, not the various dnties of church members. The quite ready to come out now. Such an addi- evening of the 13th the theme was, "Seek tion to the awakened churches will no doubt the peace of Jerusalem." At the close, asked prove a great power and advance Christ's all who would vow anew to fulfill their church kingdom in Aintab and vicinity. "So then duties, to rise. All members solemnly respon- neither is he thatplanteth anything, neither he ded, a sight that gladdened our hearts. We that watereth, but God that gi11eth increase."
hope, after this, the weekly meetings, which, The two following days I preached to many before the revival, were attended by from 10 hundreds.
to 20, will be crowded, and instead of a few, The sermOD, Aug. 27, "Go forward," was scores will take part in the blessed prayer- my last charge. I did not tell the people of meetings as they do now. A deacon said, "I our departure, that we might leave quietly.
have complaints to make against you preach- Next day we left Aintab for a season of rest ers; before this I could pray ten minute. and among the mountains near Marash. I am speak as long as I wanted in prayer-meeting, glad Mr. Christie could remain and carry on not taking anyone's time, but now so many are the good work. The pastors are working ear- ready and waiting to take part, I cannot find nestly, and we hope and pray that a greater even one minute to thank God for all he has bleSSing is still in store for Aintab. "0 Lord, done." carryon Thy work; visit the needy, hungry Aug. 18, Sabbath.-Two more new Sunday- churches, and glorify Thy almighty name."
school classes organized in the Third Church. TARSUS, Nov. 12, 1889.
Our teacher of St. Paul's Institute has been much blessed in his efforts to work among WORLD'S CO)l'VENTIO)I' ON MISSIONS IN young people. He preached weekly in a Gre- 1892.
gorian Society of 200 young men; his visits LETTER FROM REV. WM. 11. M'CAUGHEY, PHILA.
and conversation brought many into these DEAR DR. PIERSON: With regard toa World's new Sunday-school classes and the church. Convention on Missions in 1892, there is a Union service at noon. I preached to a full movement on foot looking in this direction.
house. The following day after the sermon, In the Central Presbytery of Philadelphia Rev.
H Now is the day of salvation," 250 remained R. D. Harper moved that a committee of five
I~TER~ATlO~AL DEPARTMENT
be appointed to confer witll a committee of return you to your native land. I am, yours the Baptist brethren on this subject. The committee was appointed, and I have the honor truly, W. H. MCCAUGHEY. to be one of the five. The first meeting was held early in October. The Baptist brethren Rev. L. S. Tugwell, of the Spanish and were Russell·H. Conwell, D. D., Geo. C. Bord- Portuguese Church Aid Society, writes us to man, D.D., and John Peddie, D.D. Dr. Harper say: "You will be glad to hear that we are was made chairman and Dr. Conwell secre- receiving enconraging reports of the work in tary; and these were empowered to call a meet· Spain and Portngal from the Rev. H. E. Noyes, ing of representative men of differentdenomi- the editor of Light and Truth, who is now just nations. Such a meeting has been called to concluding a visit to our brethren of the meet at the Baptist Rooms Nov. 11th. Per- Spanish and Portuguese Reformed Churches. haps this is all known to you, but if not, I He has been greatly cheered by all he has know it will be a real pleasure for you to hear seen, and his highest expectations have been it. The plan, as projected, is on a large scale. Calling, as it does, for special buildings, it exceeded. One of the most hopeful features will require a great deal of expense and hard in this movement is the self-denying zeal, earwork; yet, with you, I feel that it would be nest devotion, and patient perseverance of the one of the grandest movements of the century. pastors, evangelists and teachers in their ardu- With an earnest prayer that God may bless ous but blessed work for the Master." your work while abroad, and in his own time [Dr. Gracey, in sending us this item, says: "Tugwell deserves encouragement, for he has had a long, hard pull. All the work of this society originated with him. "-J. M. S.] IV.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
Our Relations with Latin America. It affords more miles of navigation than all The meeting of the Representatives the rivers of Europe combined, and more than the Mississippi with its several tributaries. of the Republics of the Three The tide from the Atlantic reaches two hun- dred and sixty miles up the stream, and ocean Americas-North, Central and South -in our national capital, forces to ships of twenty-four feet draught can find the front questions about the duty water enough the year round at a distance of which new conditions promise to a thousand miles from its mouth. Vessels impose on the Protestantism of of from sixteen to twenty feet draught can go 'twenty-seven hundred miles into the interior the United States toward the fifty of the Continent, and a comparatively small ,millions of people in Spanish America amount of money-a mere fraction of the -a population numerically about sum that has been spent upon the Mississippi- equal to our own j just below our will furnish a path for a four thousand ton horizon, Latin America contains vessel from New York or Liverpool to the very heart of Brazil, by way of Buenos Ayres. "
some three thousand natives of the The vast resources of these Southern United States and about ten millions Republics are certain to tempt Euro- of European subjects, the nucleus of pean immigration as well as com- the forces which are to make a new merce. The Italian Government sends world out of the " New World " Co- a steamer every month from Genoa to lumbus revealed four centuries since; Montevideo and Buenos Ayres, and for the Americas are being re-dis- another to Valparaiso, Chili. There covered. are five French lines of steamships If the reader has doubt of that, let connecting Marseilles, France, with him try a geographical study of South ports of Brazil, Uruguay and the America, and test whether he has Argentine Republic; and a line from realized its physical conditions. We Havre to the North and East Coast of venture to assign one lesson as a sam- South America. There are German ple, taken from a government docu- steamers running from Hamburg to ment: the West Coast of South America as " The Rio de la Plata, or the River Plate, as far as Guatemala. Belgium has a it is commonly known, offers a more extensive semi-monthly steamship service to system of unobstructed navigation than any Brazil and Argentina. The Pacific river in the world, and, with the exception of Steam Navigation Company has rethe Amazon, pours more water into the ocean. cently latmched four magnificent artificial land transportation, present steamers for England's South Ameri- and prospective. A railway from can trade, t,vo of them being larger Boston to Buenos Ayres seems vision- and faster than any hitherto in that ary perhaps; but it is worth fixing commerce, being of 6,500 horse power our thought on. Within three years and 6,000 tons capacity. past railroads have been actually built, and routes surveyed, for at least Of course, the concomitant of all one-third of the distance between this is an influx of Europeans into Buenos Ayres and Bogota-one-third, South America and Central America. and that the hardest one-third to con- The Argentine Government pays the struct, has been actually completed pasmga of the immigrant, keeps him or is constructing. for days after arrival, and forward:; him atgovernment expense by steamer There are two lines built, and two or train to the farms of the interior, lines for which concessions have been gives him land and seed, and six dol- granted, which, with shorter ones allars a month for the first year. This ready in operation, leave but about Republic received more European im- 2,000 miles of road to be constructed migrants in the first six months of to make the chain complete. That is last year than in twelve months of the no such task as was our Pacific Railprevious year. The Mexican Govern- road. The Republics along the line ment pays the steamship companies are anxious for its construction, and sixty dollars per head for each immi- are ready to guarantee five to seven grant landed in the next five years, per cent. on the capital invested. Some and an average of forty-five dollars five distinct routes are proposed for each for the succeeding ten years. this inter-continental railway, one of which leaves 3,252 miles to be built, These facts, and vastly more of the another 2,616, and two others, roundsame genus, plainly indicate that the ly, 2,000 miles. The route which immediate future is to bring new con- leaves the least mileage to be conditions to us on the south. It seems structed runs from Buenos Ayres to just as plain that America is to be Jujuy, thence to Bogota, and about evangelized by Americans. Protestant 1,000 miles are now operated. The Europe evidences little interest in the lines would pass throughout its whole spiritualizing of these newly-rising length through countries teeming people, and we have been laggard and with the most valuable articles of half-nerved in what we have done. commerce. These are the EI Dorado It is not an easy thmg to kindle enthu- regions of the ancients. "Stripped siasm about Protestant work in South of all poetry," says the Report of the American fields, though we do warm United States Government, "immense up a little more readily of late to work mines and deposits of precious metals in the Republic of Mexico. If the do exist in Bolivia, though too remote contact of steamer and rail accounts from highway and habitation now to for this it may not be long till we have be explored." largely similar conditions with the more southern States. The Director of the United States 1tfint said that under favorable cir- "Ve cannot enter into the political cumstances Chili, Bolivia and Peru question of the duty of the govern- might add fifty million ounces of silment to improve our ocean highway ver to the world's stock annually. conditions to South America; but, " Every spade that turns the clod rethat aside, the overland communica- veals the silver" in the basin of the tions are, prophetically at least, in Cerro Pasco in Peru. The region sight. At the risk of dropping some through which this proposed road of our readers at this point, we ven- would pass, when the other twoture to present something about the thirds are completed, yields even now, When a body as representative as apart from gold and emeralds and that sends out a manifesto, it should, diamonds, six hundred million dol- at least, secure the attention of the lars' worth of commerce annually. Christian public. It deals with some of the more recent criticisms on Mis- With the celebration in 1892 of the sions, and we may assume it, therefour hundredth anniversary of the fore, to be of wider interest than the discovery of this continent, we will circle of patrons of those specific be face to face with problems of pro- missions. They first emphasize the foundest importance in reference to fact that India is not one, but many this Western Continent. Whether we countries, with many languages and are to have a World's Missionary Con- an extensive literature, but partially ference at that time does not yet ap- explored. Omitting Moslems, the bulk pear, but that the Protestants of North of the population about Madras as a America ought to face calmly at that center are non-Brahmanical. But time the question whether the Ameri- Brahmans have grafted the Hindu cas are to be evangelical, we do ear- caste system on to Dravidian ancient nestly believe. It is sad to think of tribal systems. After describing modthe multitude to the south of us, weary ern Hinduism (the indescribable) they and sick with Popery and Jesuitism say that with the people about them to the edge of revolt against all truth, all thought is contemporary, presentand certainly against all ecclesiasti- ing an epitome of all thought, ancient cisms. This four hundredth anni- and modern, that of the West with versary ought to see the broadest and that of India 2,000 years ago. The best minds of Protestantism ready old social order has been infracted, with great schemes for the religious and hence disturbance and disintegrauplifting of those Republics, whether tion, and a social freedom without by missionary or merchant, by teacher, internal standard. Altogether they mechanic or farmer. A great upris- are in the midst of intricate condiing might be inspired, and a move- tions, and feel called to every possible ment organized for aggressive work. sacrifice. They then name the forms Hundreds of Protestant mechanics, of missionary agency which they Use. we are assured, can find a field where they may make a good living and find They venture to defend such of opportunity to help evangelize those these measures as have been recently lands. A council of eminent leaders and widely criticised. They say of should prepare for at least an Ameri- Higher Education that "the withcan Missionary Conference in 1892. drawal from the mission field of this agency, which, after all, absorbs but a Missionaries Answer the Oritics on small fraction of our numerical Mission Economy. strength, would leave a blank, for the filling up of which no hostile critic The Missionaries of the several Pro- has yet made any practical suggestestant churches in Madras, India, tion." have sent out "An Open Letter to the Churches," which is signed by four Referring to the question of Missionmissionaries of the Church of Eng- ary Economies, they say the salaries of land Society, four of the London So- European Missionaries have not been ciety, six: of the Englis~ Wesleyan, six questioned in India, and they think of the Free Church of Scotland, three them fairly reasonable, no class of Enof the Church of Scotland, one Ameri- glishmen, not even artisans, receivcan Baptist, two American Methodist, ing so small allowances as Missiontwo Danish Lutheran, nine represent- aries. ing'the Madras Christian College, and one the Bible Society-38 in all. • The Salvation Army has been much lauded as illustrating greater pOSSIble economy in the conduct of Missionary opportunity to acquire language in so work. They say the results of the brief a period. The number has been Salvation Army labors are not tabu- terribly reduced, and the wear and lated, and hence a true verdict cannot tear of their way of living is largely be hoped for; but in their part of In- responsible for this. Their very plan dia the Army has not been successful. of operations increases health and life It has swelled its ranks from converts risk, and affords no corresponding in- of other churches, many of whom crease in efficiency, have returned to their old fold. It has They refer next to the Roman Cath- only labored where other Missions olic priest as a missionary model.
had planted themselves. They have The rate of increase for these missions found it easier to appeal to Christians has for twenty-five years been lower than to Hindus for support, and have than that of the Protestant missions.
diverted funds from other Christian The Protestant Church is not ready work-only the merest fraction of to insist that all its missionaries shall their support has ever come from non- be celibates. In<Ea has had enough Christians. The Army has carefully of asceticism according to prescribed avoided districts where no missionary Hindu rules, unless it should appear work is done by others. in the form of a great Hindu reformer.
Nor have the agents of the Army To Hindus generally, Western men g-ot into greater sympathy than others will not appear to be real ascetics, but with the natives. The text of the manufactured and spurious. More- letter on the matter of Europeans over, there is nothing Hindus corre- adopting native dress runs as follows: sponding to the Christian home, in .. For at least two cellturies. the Englishman which woman fills her place of honor, has been a familiar figure In India; to this gen· and where unity and affection dwell eration he ill! now almost as familiar as the Mus- together. Nothing is more necessary Bulman. To HinduB, his dress seems to be even and instructive to Hindus than the attractive. While no Hindu dreams of adopt· exhibition of that family life which is ing the Mussulman costume, thousands of Hin.
dus are now adopting the English dress. It is the rich fruit of Christian faith. Of impossible, therefore, that what is familiar and course, the other phase of an economiattractive can at the same time be specially reo cal agency implies that cheaper men, pellant. All who know anything of human na· men of less intellectual furnishing, ture will agree, that not by a particular dress, but by intelligence and true sympathy do we even of less moral endowment, may find access to the hearts of men. Soul must be used, that the standard of the mistouch soul, and eating curry and rice with one's sionary force might be lowered. Refingers and weaJ.ing long hair are poor substi. ferring to this, the open letter says: tutes for a. knowledge of the language and "Outer conditions will adjust themthoughts of Hindns."
But, after all, can there not be a selves and will never hinder mission- cheaper agency employed with ad- ary work if the agents supplied by the vantage in the mission field? That is churches are what they should be, l't current question. Multitudes of and here we earnestly plead that the thoughtful friends of missions are standard of attainment and efficiency asking that question. Does not the be maintained among all Europeans Salvation Army prove that? This who come to India as agents. If it be " open letter" replies that the cost of lowered, nothing can be gained, but its European agents in India has never . much may be lost. Imperfectly been made known. The number of equipped Europeans can only take a deaths among them is exceptionally place as the rivals of imperfectly large. The number disabled by sick- equipped native agents, than whom ness is very great, as compared with they will be more costly, and-less other missions. The average stay in effective."
India is very brief. They have little They say they need a class of native agents more highly trained than any lem by living as the Chillese live, eating their they yet have had. They appeal for food as they cook it, sleeping on their k'ang men to reach the thousands of Hindus beds. and very closely imitating their mode of who have been educated in schools life; but a part of these, at least, having decided and colleges, more or less acquainted that nothing is gained by such a life, and that with Christianity, and who have im- health and fitness for service are endangered bibed some of its moral thought, but thereby, have returned to a more Western man- 'who have not found the path to true Der of living. Simplicity is not imitation. We light. They wish, too, for some few are not Chinese, and no amount of imitation men of learned leisure to produce will make the people think we are." a Christian literature in the vernacular. "Year by year," they say, "the The other writer discusses the quesreading public increases, as does the tion of lower-salaried, and thus a less demand for Christian literature; but expensive, even if a less furnished miswe cannot give them the best, as we sionary agency. He does not think ought." that the nllssionary who uses the smallest amount of money is there- They say it has been matter of re- fore the cheapest agency. gret to them" that the criticism rece~ly bestowed on Indian missions so .. Commercially, the investment that brings in much has referred only to details of the largest proportionate returns-the largest secondary importance, and so little to percent.-is the cheapest_ So financially, and the essentials of the missionary prob- every other way, the missionary that accomlem." plishes the largest amount of efficient results is, as a rule, the cheapest. By' efficient results' They close their "open letter" say- is meant living, active, self-propagating ing: "The progress of Christianity is churches, a wise and earnest native ministry,etc. that of 'the truth as it is in Jesus,' The missionary that accomplishes nothing is breaking the spell of an antiquity not only expensive, but a •dead capital,' though which overawes, and scattering a he were to use only 100 Mexicans a year J while manifold error which has long bewil- one using 5,000 in successful work may be the dered men. And because we know cheapest." that here in India the battle is the Lord's, we rejoice in the certainty He affirms that sbtistics prove that that the victory is His also. And all the man or the Society that works flesh shall see the salvation of God." with least proportionate expenditure, reaches the least proportionate results, And now we have two other per- and that nine-tenths of the efficient resons discussing these features of mis- sults in China have been from Missionsionary economies in China whose aries who live comfortably, from their views are set forth in The Chinese own national standard of comfort. Recorder, the first we give being a There is little economy in a merely strong advocate for the simplest possi- numerical increase of missionaries. A ble style of living for missionaries, so few well-trained, suitably cared for, as to destroy the impression that mis- able to create and direct a native force, sionaries are lovers of good living, and are cheaper than many of the cheaper so as to avoid a style of living so far sort trying to do the work themselves. beyond the reach of the people as to It is on the line of this power to create arouse their cupidity rather than fur- the middle man, the efficient native nish them an example. But even tIllS force, that, he says, "comparatively a advocate of simplicity says: very small number of the number of foreign workers now in China have .. Living <u rimply as the average teacher or accomplished very nearly all the efmerchant, does not mean that we live as they ficient results so far. It is a notorious do. The former is practicable; the latter is im- fact that several of the smaller practicable, and, therefore, unwise. Some very societies have done some of the best earnest men have endeavored to solve this prob- and largest work."
He fortifies this position by quoting from Rev. John Ross, of Manchuria, speaking at the London Conference: "Let all the missionary societies manned, but is now in the same position as pick out, not as many men as they can find, but pick out a few, choice in Loando, awaiting good workers to man it. all respects, spiritually, mentally, in- tellectually, physically-let there be a Nhangupp<po.-From Dondo we .. take it few choice men, let these train the natives, and the natives will do the afoot" fifty·one miles over l1i1ls, monntains and work. It seems to me that this is the only way you can get the work vales, by the old caravan trail of the ages, to properly done." Nhanguepepo Mission station. Our property Bishop Taylor's Industrial Missions. there is worth about $6,000. It was deSigned Bishop William Taylor sent an ex- tended report of his work in Liberia, to be 8. receiving station, in which our new- and also in Angola, and in the Congo country. We condense the latter por- comers might be acclimatized, taught native tion of it, as this mission has attracted a good deal of attention and been the languages, and prepared for advauce work. subject of considerable criticism: Under the superintendency of Brother Withey Mamby.-Two days above Congo mouth we land at lIIayumbo, and proceed in boats seven- a great preparatory work has been done at this teen miles up an inland lake to Mamby, where Mi.s Martha Kah is stationed. When we settled station. It has, however, become specially a there it was in the bounds of the" Free State of Congo," but later the published decrees of the training school for native agency under the Berlin Conference putit under the wing of the French government. The French authorities leadership of one young mau of our first have recognized and registered our native title to 100 acres of good land, and are not unfriendly party from America, Karl Rudolph. We to US by any means; but .. by law" forbid us to teach any languag6 but French. Good has already have an organized Methodist Episcopal been done at Mamby, and is being done. Ow· ing to this disability, we have proposed to aban· Church at this station, composed of thirteen con- don it, but Martha Kah is entirely unwilling to leave, and as it is our only footing in French verted native men and boys. The work of each territory, and as they hold a vast region, peo- pled by numerous nations of African heathens, day is distributed; two of our boys called" pas· we have thought it best to hold on to Mamby. tors" have the care of about 100 head of cattle Loanda.-Passing the mouth of the Oongo River, we proceed by steamer over 300 mUes to belonging to the mission. Several boys are the beautiful land·locked harbor of St. Paul de Loanda. The Portuguese town bearing that taught to yoke and work oxen in sled or plow; name has many massive buildings. includillg churches in ruins, dating back over 300 years. several boys bave learned to be stone-masous,. It has an estimated population of 5,000, a few hundred of whom are Portuguese (one English and when I was there last were engaged in house of business), the rest being Negroes. From the beginning we have had adequate self· building a stone wall around the cattle" cor· supporting resources in Lo..nd.. from the Portu- guese patronage of our schools, and have now, ral." One boy is trained to business in the lit· but at present we lack the teaching corps requis· .; ite. tIe store. .
Dondo.-From Leanda we proceed by steamer Pungo Andongo.-Pnngo Andongo Station has oisixty miles" south by sea, and cross the bar into the mouth of the Ooanzo River, as large a8 the cro.sed the lines of sustentation and of abso- Hudson, and ascend 180 miles to Dondo, at the head of steamboat navigation. Dondo is a noted lute self-support, and is making money to open trading center, and has a population of about 5,000, mostly Negroes. We had a good property new statious in the regions beyond. in Dondo worth about $5,000. Its school work and machine shop were self-supporting when Malange.-An onward march of sixty·two miles brings us to Malange, a town of probably 2,000 population, and noted for its merchandise. Our people there are Samuel J. Mead, P. E ,"his wife, Ardella, retined, well educated, and a tine musician, at the head of our school work.
Willie Mead, head of the mechanical depart-.
ment; his wife is especially engaged in teach iug missionaries. Robert Shield, a young mis~ sionary from Ireland, who was brougl1t up at home for a. merchant, runs a small mission store at Malange, preaches in the Kimbunda, and has a growing circuit extending among the villages of the surrounding country. Uur na- tive Church, organized at Malange at the time of my visit, had" the number of twentY'one, all probationers, of course, but baptized and saved. Our property at Malange is worth prob- ably i6,~00. Samuel J. Mead has charge of a big farm, and making it pay. Brother fillie trained four native men to run two pit-saws, and in the last year or two has turned out $1,500 worth of lumber, which sells for cash at the saw·pits. These meu are also preachers, and preach several times each week in the Por~ tuguese language. In labor, money. and build· ing material, they have recently completed a new two-story mission house and other mission improveonents, amounting to an aggregate cost of $1,200, without any help from home.
LulU<.lburg.-From Malauge a tramp of 1,000 miles northeast will bring Us to Luluaburg, in the Bashalange ·country. discovered by Dr. Pogge and Lieut. Weismann in 1883. Th-: ..tot yet built a mission bouse in Pluky. Miss Governor-General of the independent State of McNeal teaches school in a native bonse in the Congo, at my request, gave to Dr. Summers. midst of the town, and preacbes on Sabbath one of our men from Malange. permission to days under tbe sbade of a bread-fruit tree.
found " station for our mission at Lnluabul'g. Her scbool house is crowded, and sbe has six of which he did, and built a couple of houses bel' boys and three girls converted to God, wbo on, it, and was making good progress when be testify for Jesus in bel' meetings, and belp her became worn out by disease and died. I bope in bersonl-saving work. Probable value $800, 80011 to send a suceeSBor to dear Dr. Summers. in land. Miss Barbara Miller assists her tem- Kimpoko.-From Luluaburg a week of foot porarily, but her specialties are kindergarten traveling northwest will bring us to Lueba, at and mllsic, awaiting tbe opening of the tbe junction of the Lulua and Kassai rivers. academy.
Tbence, in a little steamer descending tbe G'araway.-Twenty miles nortbwest of Cape Kassai river about 800 miles, we sweep through Palmas. Miss Agnes McAllister is in cbarge of U Qua mouth·· into the Congo, descending tbe station, and Miss Clara Binkley bas special wbicb 70 miles we will tie up at Kimpoko, near cbarge of tbe educational department, botb the northeast angle of Stanley Pool. We. working togetber as missionaries. Aunt Rachel, opened this station in 1886, designed as a way a Liberian widow woman, runs the farm and station for our transportation to tbe countries produces indigenous food enougb to feed two or of the Upper Kassai. At Kimpoko we made an tbree stations. This is a station of great irrigating ditch a mile long, drawing from a promise. Probable value, $1,200.
bold mountain creek an abundant supply of Matumba.-One hundred miles by steamer water to insure good crops at all seasons. We down tbe Congo to Banana brings us within an have there about ten acres ,under cultivation, hour and a half by cars of our mission station and grow in profusion all tbe indigenous food at Matumba. Miss Mary Kildare, a superior that we can ll.I!e. Brotber Burr, who is our pre- teacher, linguist and missionary, is our sole oc- siding elder at Kimpoko, writes that Kimpoko cupant of the station at Matumba. I bougbt of has been nearly self-sustaining from the be- the government nearly ten acres of good ground ginning, but entirely 80 since the beginning of there for nearly $120, baving previously bought this year. They are building a new mission- the native title. We bave a comfortable little bouse this dry season, about 15×80. In tbis bouse of galvanized iron, 22×24 feet, set on pil- work they may require a little help-a rew bales lars six feet above ground. Tbe bouse is divi- of clotb from borne. At a low e,timate our ded into two rooms, 12 x 12 feet, and a ver- property in Kimpoko is worth at least $1,000. anda 12×124 feet, enclosed by balu.trading and Manyanga.-From Kimpoko we go by oars or a gate, and is used for schoolroom. She bas steamer twenty miles to the lower end of Stan- now a scbool of twenty scholars. Sbe does her ley Pool at LefYjJoldville. Thence by foot 100 preacbing mostly in the villages; tbe bouse is miles to South Manyanga (which is called the in an enclosure of nearly an acre~ surrounded Nortb Bank route; by the Soutb route we walk by a bigh fence with strong gate wbich is locked from Leopoldville 231 miles to Matadi or Lower up at 9 P. 111. daily. Itook her recently a box of Congo), Liberian coffee seed, which she has in a nursery Isangila.-From Manyanga we go by a launcb growingbeautifully, and sbe bas a fruit orchard of three or four tons capacity, propelled by oars coming on.
and sails and currents, 88 miles to Isangila. We Our property at Matumba is wortb $1,000.
bave bad a station at IsangiJa for over two years, We, two years ago, started three stations be- on which we bave built good native houses, but tween Vivi and Isangila-Vumtomby Vivi, Sadi bad not bougbt the site of the Government till Kabanza, and Matamba. We built pretty good my last visit to the land office at Barna. The houses at a total cost of $30, not counting our site, containing 7Yz acres. cost us nea.rly $80. A labor.
good garden spot. Ollr bretbren dug a yam Since tbat, Brother Reed and wife and from their garden in Isangila when I was tbere Brotber Bullikist, very good people, sent out by a few weeks ago, which weighed twenty-two Dr. Simpson, of New York, have opened a pounds-more wholesome and delicious if pos- station nearly midway between Vnmtomby sible than Irisb potatoes. Our paying industry Vivi and Sadi Kabanz.., so when we get ready tbere will be in the transport line of business. to go out to found new stations, we sball prefer, instead of resummg work at those vacated, to • As our Vivi Station is at tbe higbest point of small steamer naVigation, so Isangila. is the go into the more populous regions of the inte· lowest point of the middle passage of the Congo rior. The Congo State bas a strip of country from Isangila. eighty-eight miles to Manyanga. densely populated, 100 miles from the north Our site at Isa.ngila_with improvemeuts 19 worth bank of tbe Congo, and extending from Banana $300. 250 miles to Manyanga, all unoccupied and open Pluky.-Across Hoffman river, from Cape to U~. except a few new stations near the Congo.
Palmae, is the beginning of our h.ru Coast line So God is opening a vast field for us 011 the of stations. Miss Lizzie McNeal is the mission- Lower Congo as well as on the Upper Congo ary. Though two years in the station, we have and Kassai. Death of lIfissionaries.-The list of writer that those societies who print eminent dead has been lengthened of full and succinct accounts of their late by the addition of missionary work in a variety of forms, and keep- names. ing the same 'steadily available to outsiders as well as their own sup- Mrs. SarahB. Lansing, wife of Rev. porters, become most fully established Julian Lansing, who for the past in the public confidence, and ulti- thirty years has faithfully labored as mately command the fullest support. a missionary in connection with the It is quite curious to watch the filter- United Presbyterian Mission of Egypt, ing process which goes on from these has deceased. She was born in 1820. prints, larger or smaller, through the She was a sister of the Rev. Dr. Dales, press and public assembly. of Philadelphia, Corresponding Secretary of the United Presbyterian Board -Now that the Christian world is of Foreign Missions. In her mission depressed, if not discouraged, by the work she has suffered many hard- entire collapse of England's policy in ships, and at one time, while at the Soudan for the suppression of the Damascus with her husband, had to slave trade, by extension of the Kheflee for life under persecution. dive's jurisdiction from Khartoum to the Central lakes, it is with peculiar Rev. C. W. De Heer, of long service interest and some fresh hope that we in the Gaboon Mission of the Presby- learn that the Sultan of Zanzibar has terian Church, died at Clifton Springs, published a decree that after Novem- N.Y. ber 1, 1889, all slaves entering his dominions shall be declared free; and The Methodists of India have been that after January 1,1890, all children sorely stricken of late in the succes- born of slaves in his dominion shall sive loss by death of Dr. McCoy, of Cal- also be free. A single generation will cutta; Rev. Mr. Gray, of Singapore, thus see the end of slavery in this and also Mrs. Rudisill, Mrs. Winter greatest of slave centres. The Arabs and Mrs. Hopkins. in Zanzibar do not seem to have waked up to the effect of these two edicts on The Church of England mourns the slave trade. the death while she rejoices in the life of Bishop Sargent. He was sev- -At the meeting of the Anti-Slavery enty-four years of age, and furnished Conference in Brussels the Belgian another illustration of missionary King said he felt hopeful in regard to longevity, he having served fifty-four the steps now being taken for the supyears in India. He went to Madras pression of the slave trade, though when barely twenty years of age, and he had little hope that domestic slavery entered the society's service. He has would be done away with for many served in the Episcopacy for twelve years to come. Perhaps not, but the years. On the celebration of his foreign market for slaves can be cut jubilee in the mission he addressed off, and if the foreign market for ivory 1,400 of a Christian community, of were cut off a large motive power of whom sixty were native clergy. the slaver would be destroyed. But, after all, there is a long, tedious task -The General Assembly of the ahead of the humanitarianism and United Presbyterian Church haf' for- Christian evangelism of Europe and mally requested Rev. Andrew Watson, America in uplifting this Dark Con- D. D., to prepare a history c f < their tinent. But it can be done, It must Egyptian Mission to be publishea by be done, and it will be done. It is their Board of Publication. This is being done. to be commended, and the example should be imitated by all societies -The Free Church of Scotland sends whose work is at all historic, even if out a leaflet appealing to the children it be small. A close observation of the subject for years has shown the
ThE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
to aid the Sheikh-Othman slave refuge. Woman's Board. There are five This is the present headquarters of the native helpers in this mission. Keith-Falconer Mission to Arab Muslims. It is a large native village about -A missionary in Korea, writing to ten miles north of Aden, with a fluc- us recently, says: "I hope I have tuating population. The children in convinced you that we have great enthis refuge now number sixty, thirty- couragements in regard to the work, eight boys and twenty-two girls. They notwithstanding all you may have were dragged over three hundred heard to the contrary. The work has miles to the African harbor called not stopped; it cannot stop. Even Tajora, whence they were being taken were we all to leave Korea to-day I in dhows to Arabia to be sold as believe it would still go forward, and slaves, but were captured by a British eternity show grand results from the gun-boat and taken to Aden, and the seed-sowing already done. Just now Government asked the missionaries to the obstacles do seem somewhat fortake charge of them. What is known midable. I want you to pray the obas "The Arabian Mission" of this stacles down, or pray us above them. country, of which Prof. J. G. Lansing, We read in the Book that there is a of New Brunswick, N. J., is an active 'faith which subdued kingdoms.' projector, has decided to co-operate That is the kind we want brought to with this mission at Sheikh-Othman. bear on Korea."
-The Friends Mission at Ramsallah, -We gave a full account in former Palestine, ten miles north of Jerusa- numbers of the Patna case, as it is lem, founded by members of the called; that of Luchnion, the Hindu Friends' Society in England, has re- girl who fled to Miss Abraham to escently been transferred to the New cape the bondage of a so-called mar- England Yearly Meeting, and is now riage, but which in fact was a sale of known as the" Eli and Sybil Jones her person to a life of shame. The Mission. " The General Board and Calcutta Missionary Conference petithe Woman's Society of that yearly tioned the Government of India to remeeting co-operate in this work. verse the decision of the magistrate There is a Friends' Church at Ram- remanding her to this ignominious sallah, and twenty-five to thirty ap- bondage. The Government replies plicants for membership are now that it is unable to disturb the finding awaiting admission. There are five of the Courts in the case, as it was schools, two in the village for boys supported by the testimony. The and two for girls, also a training home High Court acknowledges the wrong just opened, with about eighteen done, but cannot see any "possible jimpils. There are three lady mission- measures that are practicable to undo aries, all of whom sailed from New that wrong." This is a most humili- York since June. Two of these ladies, ating confession for a strongChristian the assistant physician and the teacher Government to make in the premof English, are in the employ of the ises, and the matter ought not to rest here.
V.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY REV. F. F. ELLI1'WOOD, D.D.
The Religions of Ohina. the hills; every store and shop has its In one sense there is no country so little altar with burning incense to the full of religions as China. The gods god of good luck; every house is built and shrines are, if possible, more with reference to geomantic influence; ubiquitous than in India. Gods of the " fung shuay" is consulted in all mat- river, gods of the trees, gods of the tel'S of life; the whole land teems with hearth, gods of the kitchen, gods of the emblems of polytheism. First is TA01TIS!.1. Nevertheless, the Taouist priests have To this system the above named remained as a power in China. The in- liuperstitions chiefly belong. Its tellectual classes would disclaim any founder, Laotze, lived about 500 years confidence in them, and there are few B. C., and was already a public of the laity of any rank who would call teacher when Confucius was born. themselves distinctively Taouists, yet But Laotze's system, which was all classes, high and low, resort to these rationalistic and highly mystical, was professional necromancers on special above the comprehension of the people. occasions, and particularly when in Its ethical standards were pure and trouble. lIen claiming to be Confu- lofty, but cold and censorious. It had cianists are Taouists by turns, and no element of sympathy. Its philos- many costly Taouist temples have ophy was impracticable, as compared been built by the gifts of the wealthy with the precepts of Confucius, and in extremis. Much is given also by its discouraged and disgusted author way of financial ventures, as the god of died at length a voluntary exile in a wealth falls into the Taouist category.
remote western province. Laotze was The whole Joss business belongs to a true philosopher, propounding orig- this system, and it constitutes a large inal theories, while Confucius had lit- element in the practical religion of the tle originalty, but was a skillful com- Chinese wherever they are found.
piler of the ancient observances and CONFUCIANISM.
traditions. No uninspired teacher has " Quong fu tze" was a cotemporary ever taught a more exalted system of of Laotze, though several years private, social and political ethics younger. Attracted by the fame of than Laotze, but his transcendental- the great philosopher, he went to hear ism had little power with the people, him. Bnt there was little sympathy and the virtues which he commended between them. Confucius seemed to were disproportionally of a negative the older and morbidly critical Laotze kind. He feared the effect of general as only an ambitious and conceited education as fostering conceit, and young pedant. On the other hand, civilization as leading to corruption. one visit to the old philosopher seems His only god was reason (Taou), and to have sufficed for his young rival.
the mystical and pantheistic character Confucius gaye his attention to the with which he invested it-its imma- ancient records and traditions, and, nence and indwelling as an efficient winnowing out the abundant chaff, force in all things animate and inani- presented what he considered the mate-opened the way for the count- wholesome wheat. The Ancient less superstitions which now bear the 81100 King he rednced from 3,000mon- Taouist name and fill the land. His ographs to about 350. Unfortunately, successors fell far short of his sublime in his strong leaning toward Agnos- philosophy and his moral purity, and ticism, he is believed to have ruled out only preserved his mysticism as a most of the passages which related to basis for every species of jugglery and the worship of the Supreme Being.
imposture. The all-prevailing " Taou" 'Vhat he sought to establish was a took the form of spirits dwelling in purely ethical system bounded by the Ih'agons, in men and lower animals, confines of the present life. He ig- and even in trees. Certain uncanny nored all that related to the unseen animals are especially regarded as world or to the hereafter. Beginning embodiments of spirits. It peopled with the domestic and social relations, t118 land with elves and hobgoblins. he endeavored to build up society as As a disembodied essence it also ap- a pyramid, with the King or Emperor peared in the vague influence known as the head. The State was his uni- as " fung shnay." verse. In reply to some questions about the unseen world he said: eties of Buddhism. The most popular " We do not know life, how can we form of Buddhist worship is that paid know death." He magnified the re- to Quanyin, the " Goddess of Mercy." spect due to parents and to all ances- She is supposed by Beal to be identical tors, and .that came to be the only with the Avolokitesvara of Northern real worship of strict Confucianists. India and Thibet. Avolokitesvara is His ethics were out of true proportion. a later mythical personage of whom The rights of the father and the hus- Gautama knew nothing. He is a livband were exaggerated even to tyran- ing god, and therefore able to hear ny, if not to the power of life and prayer, while the Buddha is extinct. death. Woman, as woman, was not He is a Bodisat (one who will become duly honored. Only as a mother, or an incarnate Buddha at a future time). the mother of a husband, did she re- When Fahieu, the Chinese pilgrim ceive respect. As such she might even who visited India at an early day, was bea tyrant. overtaken bya stormat seaheprayed to Avolokitesvara for real help: prayers That Confucianism is a mastBrly offered to Buddha are only expected to piece of statesmanship, that it solidifies produce reflex influence on one's own the whole fabric of authority and uni- heart and promote self help. fies all the forces of the home and the social bond, none will deny, but it In China this Bodisat is worshipped is not a religion. Its ethical stand- under the conception of a virgin ards are for the most part high, and princess who won Nirvana, but postall history represents its author as a poned it, and still lives in one of the virtuous exemplar as well as teacher. heavens to bless suffering humanity. This worship is wholly alien to primi- Confucius found his country dis- tive Buddhism, but it is more sympatracted by social and political dis- thetic and seems better adapted to orders, and he confidently offercd his human necessities. i services to various provincial princes as a governmental adviser. His suc- There is also in China a popular cess was not great in this attempt, Buddhist worship of Amitabba, anand he was obliged to be content with other Bodisat, ·.,yho presides over a gathering about him a multitude of real heaven beyond the setting sun. disciples, to whom he taught that The chief hope of the masses is not ethical system which, since his death Nirvana, but a re-birth into one of the and through all subsequent ages, has heavens, or at least into a higher and exerted so vast an influence. more favorable earthly state. The number of those who may be regarded Confucianism is the controlling sys- as distinctiv'ely Buddhists in China is tem of China. small, beyond the limits of the mon- astic orders. Those who are at times BUDDHISM. Buddhists, and who cherish some Bud- dhist hope for the life to come, are This system was introduced from mostly concerned in this life with the India early in the Christian era. countless popular superstitions of Through successive centuries Chinese Taouism. They may frequently be scholars and religionists went to India found consulting' the Taouist jugglers to study its teachings on its own soil. or in the joss houses offering paper The type of Buddhism introduced into money to the god of wealth. China was chiefly that of the Mahayana, known as the Northern Bud- All the religions of China are overdhism, and which was already depart- lapped and blended together, and we ing from the atheism of Gautama and must remind those apologists who are promulgating various theistic doc- anxious to swell the comparative forces trines. of the non-Christian religions, that it China is now said to be the theatre of more than a dozen different variis not good arithmetic to set down the is so much easier to reiterate than to whole population of China to each of investigate and learn the truth. the three systems. Other doubts are raised of a pre- THE PRIMEVAL FAITH OF CHINA. cisely opposite nature.. "Are not the noble Confucian ethics all sufficient A presentation of the religions of for China?" "The Chinese are astute, China would not be complete without reflective, proud of their country and at least a brief reference to that im- their creed, why not let them alone ?" pressive imperial worship which is Thus, from the extreme position that paid by the Emperor in the Temple of all effort in their behalf is bootless, Heaven in Peking. The subject is owing to their depravity, we are carworthy of an extended paper, but there ried to the opposite and contradictory is only space to say that it is believed, assertion that it is gratuitous, as they with apparently good reason, to be a have a philosophy of their own which l'elic of that primeval worship which we could scarcely hope to improve. was rendered to the true God. The Then there is the still further question prevalence of polytheism has not whether it be possible to change the wholly eradicated the conception of religion of a nation so populous and so One self-existent and ever-living God, vast, and whether with all our effort the Creator and upholder of all things. and sacrifice, the total result is not The offering of a whole burnt offering ridiculously inadequate. Yet notonce a year by the chief ruler, as the withstanding all this variety of dark King of Salem was once the " priest of prophesying, China is, perhaps, the the Most High God," seems indeed a most important mission field of the relic of something of which we would world to-day, and lays a larger degladly know more. Drs. Martin and mand than any other upon the faith Legge, two of China's foremost for- and effort of the Christian Church, eign scholars, do not hesitate to regard andespeciallyof the American Church. it as an obscure perpetuation of the primitive worship of Jehovah. Alas! First. In common with the other that it is an imperial monopoly, fm' Mongolian nations, China presents a even the common people often seek very significant claim by its geosomething iligherthantheir basesuper- graphical position. As the Missionstitions. The sailors of the Fukhien ary Churches of Europe look eastward Province, when overtaken by a storm, toward these Mongolian races, they make offerings to the gods of the sea, find a twofold barrier in their way. but when that does not avail, they Russia on the north and the Mohamthrow them all away and pray to the medan powers on the south rise up Supreme God of the Heavens. like mountain ranges to shut them off. An oyerland propaganda seems im- CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. possible. Russia is quite as impenetra- ble to western Christianity as the EYer since the publication of Mr. Turkish Empire, while farther south, Pumpelly's " Across Asia and Ameri- even to the southern point of Arabia, ca," his example has repeatedly been Mohammedan fanaticism raises its followed in the cheap assertion that formidable barriers. India might find no Chinaman is ever really converted access from the south, but the Himto Christianity. He is too material- alayas rise between. Burmah may i"tic to appreciate spiritual truth, it is one day open a passage, but Burmah said, or he is too crafty to be credited itself is dark. The highway of salvain any profession he may make, or he tion to China is by the sea, and it is is too stolid to be aroused from his straight across the Pacific that our Confucianphilosophy. It is hard to re- path lies open. Yokohama and San fute false utterances of this kind when Francisco -are now separated by less once they have gained currency. It than thirteen days. As in all the lands men and women of a higher past, so now the indications of Provi- type than I met in China, of a finer dence all point westward, and our spiritual experience, of a higher spir- American people, with their wealth itual tone, or of a nobler spiritual life, and intelligence and Christian in- and I may say with conviction that fluence are in the van, or should be, there are in the native churches in of this great movement for the con- China not only the elements of stabil- quest of the Mongolian races. ity, but that steadfast and irresistible Second. The character of the revolution which will carryover the Chinese presents a special argument whole empire to the new faith."
for a forward movement. Like the Rev. Jolm L. Nevius, D.D., who Anglo-Saxons, they are aggressive and has spent over thirty-five years in cosmopolitan. Their industry and China, declares that he has nowhere enterprise reach out over the world. found a higher type of manhood than They are found, whenever permitted is presented by the native Christians to enter, in all North and South Amer- of Shantung, and he has given many ica, in the island groups of the Pacific, proofs of their Christian fortitude.
in Australia, in New Zealand, in Sin- Nowhere in our generation are there gapore and the Straits of 1I1alacca. more striking instances of the genu- They are everywhere remarkable for ineness and self-help of Christian con- their thrift, and in spite of all the hin- verts than in China, considering their drances that can be interposed, this great poverty. In large portions of wonderful race is sure of great future the Shantung Province churches are influence in the world. No other na- almost entirelyself-supporting, though tion is so industrious, so frugal, and, poor to a degree which Americans considering its age, so well preserved cannot realize. As a rule, they have and so likely to continue in power provided their own places of worship.
and influence. Instances such as these are given: Just now China is awakening to a Of a Taouist priest in a country vil- new sense of its latent possibilities and lage, who, on becoming a Christian pressing to the forefront of the great convert, at once began to preach to empires. Moreover, in spite of all that his neighbors without salary, and is said of the deceitfulness of the China- he gave not only his time and man, it may safely be said that the men 'labor, but the principal part of his of no other race are more fully trusted house for a chapel; of a poor man in whatever industry they undertake. who, out of his narrow means, recent- No others are so law-abiding and ly gave a cottage for a school and peaceful as citizens, and that even chapel; of a woman who, though the without the privilege of citizenship. only believer in her village, persevered In places of trust they rival the Jap- till she had secured a Christian school, anese even in Japan. The thrifty in- which grew into a church; of a little dustries of Singapore, and Malaysia, congregation which, upon its organi- and the Sandwich Islands, are largely zation as a church, subscribed upon in their han,p.s. the spot the whole salary of their pas- I Third. The Chinese will compare tor for a year; of an intelligent widow favorably with any other race in their who left her home and went to Peking capacity for strong and controlling to learn more of the gospel, that she Christian faith. This point has been might teach her neighbors. ,Could all abundantly attested. The late Fleming similar annals of the Church in China Stevenson, who had visited the mis- be gathered together they would form sion fields of China in person, gave a large and interesting volume.
the following testimony: Fourth. The numericalresultswhich " I have found nowhere in Christian have been gained in the Protestant missions of China within the last Thibet and its Religion. few years are certainly remarkable, Perhaps in no country has Buddhism and only excelled, perhaps, by those of become so intrenched, no where else Japan. Two years since it was stated has it so monopolized all thought and at the annual meeting of the Ameri- aspiration, or so molded and concan Board that in a single decade trolled the people, as in Thibet. At the number of converts in the dif- the time of its introduction from India ferent missions of China had increased by way of Kashmere-it had scarcely from 13,000 to 32,000, and this ill spite gained a footing before the seventh of bitter persecution on the part of century-the system of Gautama had relatives and friends, and notwith- undergone important changes. It had standing the prejudice created by the drifted from the atheistic position of wrongs and outrages committed by the early Buddhists of India and Cey- lon and had adopted a vague and fan- Christian nations. II tastic theism, at the same time that it had received various admixtures of Fifth. There is great hope for China devil worship and sorcery. It had and great encouragement for mission- developed a trinity of supernatural perary labor in the new order of things sonages, who were destined to become which is fast placing her abreast with future Buddhas, though not until Vestern nations. The railroad and after various incarnations for particuthe telegraph line have come to stay, lar service~ on earth. This proved a national defences are in progress, min- convenient doctrine for the priestly eral wealth will be developed, and magnates of Thibet. It encouraged education is to be encouraged in all the claim now set up, that two of these practical Sciences. The late Viceroy beings are incarnate in the Grand of Canton, in a memorial to the Gov- Lama at Lhassa and the Puntsheu ernment, asking royal sanction for a Lama at Kroshis Lunpo. railroad from Peking to Hankow, The Thibetan King Srong Tsan said: "For China to return to the iso- Gampo, who introduced Buddhism lation of her past is a hopeless task. 622, A. D., was the first to be wor- It only remains for her to assimilate so shipped as a divine incarnation. In much of modern progress as will enable 822, A. D., the second son of the last her to outwit her astute Western com- King of Thibet instituted a bitter perpetitors." He adds: "I was myseff. secution against the Buddhists, and opposed to the introduction of rail- they were mostly driven from the ways at first, but when I came to country. Civil disorders followed till Shanghai and saw the progress possi- the Buddhist missionaries, Atisha and ble, I could not deny the sight of the Brom Ston, regained the best ground eye." The imperial permission has and restored prosperity to the Buddhist been given for building this road, and order. But what proved still more if the conservatists have burned the important to the stability of the sys- Temple at Peking in the hope of scar- tem was the fact that for ages there ing the Government with the supposed has been an alliance between Thibet displeasure of heaven at these innova- and the Empire of China. In the tions, they are too late. The shadow thirteenth century, A. D., Kublai on the dial of the nineteenth century Kahn, grandson of Jenghiz Kahn, is too far advanced. China is open to made the Lama at Lhassa " Tributary the gospel now; it may not be so when Sovereign of the Country and Head she becomes strong enough to dictate of the Buddhist Church," and as a rethe terms of her treaties. She may turn he was officially crowned by the copy the exclusion laws of Christian Lama as sovereign oyer the vast Mon- America. She may rule out British gol E,mpire. Kublai Khan thus be- Christianity with British opium. It is the full hour of opportunity. came a convert to Buddhism, and the practice of polyandry. The Lamas are Lama of Thibet became high priest held in great reverence, and some of or spiritual head over all Buddhists of them are high-minded and good men.
the vast empire including China and As each Lama at death is supposed Mongolia. The Lama was simply an to enter into a new-born infant, whose ecclesiastic invested with these spe- identity great pains are taken to estab- cial powers. The seat of government lish, a long regency must in each case was, and still is a Buddhist monastery intervene, and this is filled by some -the Emperor of China being the real honored monk. The infant when ruler. found is addressed as if, he had just About 1390 Tsoongkapa, the Luther died and risen again. The following of Thibet, came forward as a reformer. is an illustration: He purged out the base alloy of Sakt- In 1774 WalTenHastings, Governor- ism (the worship of Siva and his wives) General of India, sent an ambassador and the low superstitions which had to Thibet. On his arrival, the Lama grown as parasites on a corrupt Bud- to whom he bore messages had died, dhism, founded many monasteries, but he addressed the newly-born suc- and reformed the observances of the cessor as the identical Lama, express- monks and nuns. His influence so ing the Governor-General's sorrow at weakened the supremacy of the Dalai his recent death, and his joy that he (Grand) Lama that, by Imperial edict, had again returned to fill the world his jurisdiction was divided with the with hope.
Pautsheu Lama. Both of these, as Time, that has wrought changes above stated, are incarnations of the and revolutions in the other nations of Divine Bodisatvas. the world, has brought little chang'e Lamaism might, therefore, be called to Thibet, and now in our day systems a sort of theocracy, subject to the of error like Esoteric Buddhism and Imperial Government of China. Ec- Theosophy, desiring to secure the very clesiasticismcontrols and characterizes highest authority for their wild as- everything. The great monasteries sumptions, are deriving that authority are the leading institutions, and their from the Mahatmas or monks of Thi- monks and nuns number thousands. bet. It is contended that there, by The inhospitable character of the long continued meditation and great country and the lack of encourage- bodily mortification, they have ac- ment for industrial pursuits seem to quired the power to discern the favor monastic life. thoughts of others, and that they are An astonishingly large proportion conversant with all that transpires in of the people of both sexes are buried distant planets. It is favorable to in these religious houses. An observ- these extravagant theories that Thibet ing traveler long ago remarked that is so far off, so high up, so snow-coy- this withdrawal of so many able- ered, so unknown. It would seem to bodied men from active pursuits is be one of the most difficult strongholds compensated by the fact that no army from which to dislodge a hoary system is necessary for defence, and there is of error. Buddhism in Japan is worn too great a torpor in both the people lightly by government and people.
and the spirit of their institutions to Buddhism in China is only a guest of think of conquest. There is little soil the nation, though having strong fol- to cultivate and no market for manu- lowing among the lower classes. The factures, and why not spend much of more intelligent resort to it only in the national strength in meditating on time of trouble. Buddhism in Siam the law of Buddha? is regnant and strongly entrenched, Population is kept down not only but not so deeply seated as to exclude by monasticism, but also by the s~range a liberal spirit. Siam is an open and,
EDITORIAL NOTES OX CURRENT TOPICS
so far, a welcoming mission-field. But Some encouragement has been met Thibet has little contact with the na- with by the faithful and self-denying tions, and is not touched by the spirit missionaries, and though the fruits of the age. Yet even Thibet has not are meagre tJ:1ey have no thought of been despaired of as a mission-field. retreat. They have translated por- tions of the Scriptures into Thibetan, The Moravians, whose province it and at two stations they have printing has been to enter inhospitable fields presses at work in mUltiplying copies which no others were likely to choose, for the use of the people. Rev. A. C. established a mission in the lofty Thompson, D.D., in his admirable mountain town of Keyelang in 1856. book on "Moravian Missions," says, They experienced great difficulty in very justly: "Seldom have Moravian reaching their chosen field, and when laborers had a severer trial of their settled at last they found themselves faith and patience than amid these at the great height of 10,000 feet strongholds of Buddhism. But in that above the sea. Dark skies, almost dreary , Dwelling of Snow,' near the perpetual snow, except in narrow headwaters of the Indus, the Sutlej valleys, scanty vegetation and general and the Ganges, they have enkindled gloominess and sterility are thenatural a beacon light; they are occupying characteristics of the country. The advanced posts and preparing a base pessimism of the Buddhist faith seems for movements into Thibet proper, and well suited to the general environ- into China from the west." ment.
VI.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
The Need of Oaution. last, wholly an individual work of faith, looking for support to no other In view of censure, already noted in orgauization, nor to any system of these columns, as rather freely applied solicitation of funds, public or private. in a certain quarter to a work of evan- It seems, therefore, to be in no proper gelization among the Jews which has, sense the "mission" of any other enjoyed the confidence of the Christian body, to which a' detailed account of ministry and people of all denomina- proceedings would be due; nor yet in tions in this city for a number of such a sense a child of the Christian years past, we have availed ourselves public at large as to invite an account of information from a disinterested of that sort, which might be thought source in which we have confidence, to savor rather of uncalled-for ostento the following effect: tation than of duty, precisely as it would in the case of a~y other of our The Hebrew Christian Church in city churches. Nevertheless, all con- St. Mark's Place, of which the Rev. tributions have been publicly acknowl- Jacob Freshman is pastor and founder, edged in detail, and the general dishas been organized about eight years, position of them explained in the during which it has steadily grown Annual of the church and in the quarup from the feeblest of beginnings to terly issues of The Hebrew Christian. an effective centre of evangelization, Contributions have thus been classed not only in this but in other cities of in three kinds: (1) All collections and this country, in Paris, and even in donations, not expressly otherwise Jerusalem itself. Although enjoying d3signated, have been devoted to the advice and sympathy of other church and missionary expenses, exchurches, through an invited Commit- clusive of the support of the pastor; tee of leading pastors and laymen of (2) such donations only as have been the several denominations, who have never ceased their fraternal interest ,expressly designated for personal use in its affairs, it has been, from first to have been appropriated to the necessi- tions towards reducing the mortgage ties of the pastor, leaving him wholly to a small encumbrance. J. M. S. dependent on the providential response to faith, without salary or visible We rejoice to see that Senator Mormeans of support, and subject at times to severe trials; (3) contributions des- gan, of Alabama, has introduced a ignated for the building fund, which are at once turned over to the bus- bill instructing the Committee on Fortees of the church property, for the extinguishment of the debt thereon. eign Relations to ascertain and repOlt To these may be added a fourth fund, now closed, 'which was confidentially the best methods for increasing trade contributed for Mr. Freshman's recent missionary journey to Jerusalem, re- and commerce between the Congo sulting in the establishment of a branch mission in that city under the Free State and the United States, and charge of a Hebrew Christian convert, supported by the little church in St. the obstacles, if there are any, in the Mark's Place and its friends. Further, concerning the accounts: to the trus- way of such trade and commerce and tees, who are men of well-known and high Christian standing, and also to other intercourse. The resolution is the distinguished clergymen and laymen who constitute the advisory com- timely, in view of the statement that mittee, full' and systematic book accounts are understood to be ahvays the United States did not formallyacopen, including the detailed expenditures to which invidious reference cept the conclusions of the Berlin has been made; and auditing committees have made actual examinations Conference, and therefore holds no and published reports thereon. It i~ possible that self-appointed investiga- political or civil rights for its people tors (perhaps unconsciously prompted through the malice of a certain crafty in tile Congo Free State. One of the Jewish Sanballat, or Gashmu) may have failed to obtain a search warrant avowed objects of Senator Morgan is which it would be impertinent to ask. It is well known that the Jewish per- to secure those rights; another is to secutor referred to has exerted himself persistently to undermine Mr. encourage the wealthy and enterpris- Freshman's work, not only by scurrilous articles in the savory columns ing negroes of this country to emigrate of the Truth Seeker, but also by cunning communications to the leading to the Congo Free State, and engage friends of the work, and to editors of religious newspapers, one of whom in trade or in such other beneficial enhas perhaps been induced to listen, in ignorance of the character and mo- terprises as may be open before them. tives of the man. In the interest of commerce and mis- The cost of the church property has been about $25,000, of which $15,000 sions, and especially of the future of have been paid, and substantial prog- the colored race, we hope CongreH>'I , ress has been made by recent subscrip- will rise to the dignity of such a sub- ject, and by prompt and enlightened action afford evidence that it under- stands and appreciates the significance of Africa's present condition, the result of a series of marvelous proyidential interpositions. We cannot but regard the opening up of the Dark Con- tinent by a brilliant succession of heroic explorations and the extension of European gm'ernments over im- mense areas of territory, and the in- troduction of railroads, enterpriHf', commerce and Christian civilization, as shedding light on the" Negro Prob- lem" among us. We earnestly hope that our Government will take a wise and active part in the matter of the Congo Free State, and in all otlwr feasible ways for the benefit of Africa. J. 11. S.
Facts from Mission Fields.
The year 1889 is the fiftieth anni- versary of the martyrdom of John "Villiams. who fell on Erromanga. relating to their own missions, which It is a very remarkable and significant we give from month to month. Its fact that his murderer's youngest son plan of sending out monthly a letter is to-day, as a professing disciple, ad- giving in condensed form the latest dressing crowds in Sydney, New South news from their various fields, is an Wales; and his oldest son, now past admirable one, and we wish other so- 60 years, has asked to be instructed in cieties would follow the example. It the way of salvation, and is now being is, in fact, an advance sheet of fresh taught by the missionaries on Erro- and important news, and the facts are manga the way of life! What hath eagerly caught up by busy editors and God wrought! Truly the "field is given to the public. J. M. S.
the world, and the good seed are the " The American Board Almanac of children of the kingdom /" John Missions" for 1890 is a thing of beauty Williams died and was buried as God's as well as utility. It is crowded with seed, and here is a part of the visible matters of interest and information harvest. respecting missions. It is sent by mail Hayti presents in its past history for 10 cents a copy, $1.00 a dozen, $6 and present condition one of the worst a hundred. Send orders to C. E.
types of paganism. Cannibalism of Sweet, 1 Somerset St., Boston. See our the worst kind prevails. Not simply advertising sheet in January number are human beings eaten, not only are for fuller account. J. M. S.
those who are devoured captives or prisoners taken in war or by violence Our associate, Dr. Pierson, is meet- ing with great success in London and forcannibal purposes, butfamily feasts Scotland. Enthusiastic crowds, fill- ing the largest churches and halls in are held where those who partake ac- Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, and wherever he goes, flock to hear his tually eat the flesh of a member of the addresses. He has averaged two or more addresses a day, we believe, family / Children are devoured as a since he landed at Liverpool. In his last letter he says: " Every day is filled delicacy by their own mothers, who with engagements to the 1st of May, and even June if I will consent to reassert and justify their right thus to ap- main." The interest is intense. All ranks and classes and denominations propriate the fruit of their own womb. are engaged in the work, and impor- tant results must flow from it. This is under no pressure of hunger or J. M. S. want. .It is simply a proof of the fact that the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cmelty. An attempt was made by a governor of Hayti to suppress the atrocity by exe- cuting those engaged in such a canni- bal feast, but he was driven from the throne and compelled to take refuge in the neighboring island of Jamaica, the condition of which, under the in- [We have received a letter from an fluence of a pure gospel, is a sufficient aged minister of Christ, in the course of which occur the following signifi- . refutation of the charge that missions cant words.-EDs.] are a failure. These two islands, side " My attention has for forty years been fixed upon those professors of religion who may be by side, are a standing monument of called •average Christians.' They compose a very large part of the Church, and questions the respective influences of the gospel like these have often arisen: Are they Chris- tians? Are they a help or a hindrance to th" and paganism, even when a nominal cause of Christ? Ought not special efforts to be made to reach them for their own sake and Christianity like Romanism touches for the sake of the cause of Christ?
its awful death shade. A. T. P. "I was not a little surprised some time ago to find in Dr. Geikie's • Hours with the Bible" We desire here to express our indebtedness to the Baptist Missionary Union for various missionary items the following very strong endorsement of this sionary MassConvootion of the Northclass (p. 317): ' No career could have been west," under the auspices of the Methmore uneventful than Isaac's, but it showed at odist Episcopal Church, to meet at least that a path of modest retirement may Clear Lake Park in July of this year: honor God as much as one of more prominent "Rev. A. T. Pierson, D. D.: action. Our Lord's authority is vouchsafed for his having passed from earth to heaven at ,, Your suggestion some time ago his death.' It seems to me that there is great that the Church should gather toerror just at this point through all branches of gether an Exposition of 'the Results of the Church. I have no recollection of seeing Missions from all parts of the world, anything published bearing upon it except in and the suggestion of the Spirit of a volume of discourses by Dr. Skinner, en· Missions that at the next World's titled 'Religion of the Bible,' issued about Fair would be a good place for the the time I left the Union Seminary in 1841. In display of such an exposition, ought the first discourse, on 'Spiritual Religion,' he to be acted on, and that without dequotes Dr. John Mason Good as saying, on his lay. Three years would be short death-bed, 'I have taken what unfortunately enough time to gather and arrange the generality of Christians too much take-I the materials. We are 'about to gather have taken the middle walk of Christianity.' the material for a Missionary Museum The discourse which follows is a description of on an extensive scale at Clear Lake, spiritual religion, not of the 'middle walk.' Iowa, for use in our Annual Conven- It seems to me an appeal to average Christians tions. I think that our Missionary urging them to consider the nature and re: Secretaries could be interested in the sults of their religion; might be made that matter and all materials gathered would have a great awakening effect. Just could be used at the World's Fair, and here is one of the chief reasons why the cause then be dispersed to our different Misof missions is not more flourishing: average sionary Centers for continued and Christians regard missions as something which perpetual use. You ought to be able may be passed by without endangering their from your central position to interest standing in the Church or their final salvation. all the Missionary Boards. I would It seems to me, judging from the fullness and like to be informed of the prospect, pungency of your writings on missions, that and would be glad to assist. We could this whole subject must have passed through interest all our missionaries. Let me your mind. An article of yours in the' New hear of the prospect." York Observer' of July 25, entitled' First the Kingdom, 'bears in that direction and encour- A subscriber congratulates the ages me in asking you to put before the Church, editors upon their success during the in the form which seems best to you, an appeal past year, and says: to average Christians. You have the eye and ear of the Church, and can make yourself " You have given us a magnificent heard as few others can. Will you not try i11" magazine. I hope you will be pros- perous and successful in the coming We feel such sympathy with the year. If you would place before us above, that we purpose in due time to for Monthly Concert in tabulated form, the complete missionary forces prepare for these pages an appeal to in the respectiye fields presented, you the average Christian. It is the great would give what is greatly needed. body of the Church that need arous- What the more progressive friends of ing, and that, so far, are doing next to missions desire is not simply their respective denominational forces, sucnothing for missions. Out of a con- cesses, cost, etc., but with their own gregation that numbers from 4,000 to that of all other societies-' the u'orld 5,000, it has been found, by actual in- rather than the society view of the vestigation, that only 386 are known to work." contribute anything regularly to the support of the Gospel! How large then We think our brother scarcely ap- must be the proportion in all Christendom who have no active interest, by gifts or even by prayers, in the great mission work of the world!
We have received the following suggestion from Rev. S. P. Marsh, of Iowa, Corresponding Secretary of the "Mispreciates the imnl>nse labor he would earth," they ,"vould exclaim: "What lay upon our overtaxed shoulders hath God wrought!" That first con- when he asks each month a complete tribution of £13, 2s. and 6d. has showing of each field treated. More- grown to between two arid three mil- over, one entire department of this lions of pounds a year. That cottage REVIEW is given up to the exhibit of is, we understand, still to be seen.
just such facts, so far and so fast as The English Baptists ought to buy it we are able to gather reliable figures. and make it a missionary museum Vould it be wise to encumber our where the relics of idolatry and super- pages with such repetitions? By a stition might be preserved as a witness little careful search in these pages any of what God has wrought. A. T. P.
pastor may collate on anyone field all the figures at our disposal. A. T. P. Asceticism in Missions."
The crisis of missions is evidently [Our editorial correspondent and translator of our foreign magazines upon us, and this seems to be the grow- sends us the following, which also ex- presses our own jUdgment.-J. M. S.] ing conviction in every part of the " I am glad to see Dr. Ellinwood's field. A missionary who has labored sound and healthful paper on Asceti- cism in Missions in the January RE- 26 years in India says: "India is now VIEW. There seems to be setting in a craze for this. But, at home or abroad, ready for our work, and if this crisis asceticism for asceticism's sake is neither Protestant nor Evangelical. is not met by the Church at least two For a definite end, individual or social, it may, like everything else, or three generations will pass before be sometimes eminently serviceable, but to set it up in a vague way as an equal opportunity can be offered." a model to strike people with admira- tion, is really nothing but a particular From Brazil the word comes: "This fashion of " striking an attitude." It is the beginning of all the wretched land is ready; thousands would accept uneasiness and trickery of self-salva- the gospel if they only had preachers."
One writes concerning China: "A thousand missionaries are worth more now than ten thousand ten years from now. As for Japan, it is melted and waiting for moulding. What shall the mould be: Christianity or infidel- ity?" A.T.P.
1892 ought to be kept as a great an- tion.
niversary, and Kettering ought to be " It is a wonder that those who are the place of pilgrimage. disposed to think that it is a source of When we think of foreign missions strength in Roman Catholic Inissions we must not forget that, strictly speak- do not consider that their mission- ing, they are the outcome of the aries are unmarried, not because they present century. It was in 1792 that are missionaries, but only because twelve Baptist ministers met in the they are priests. And as to asceti- little cottage of Widow Wallis, at cism generally, the Jesuits-the mis- Kettering, and formed the first En- sionary order by pre-eminence in that glish society proper for" propagating Church-are, for Roman Catholics, al- the gospel among the heathen." most the least disposed to asceticism Since then what marvelous Iniracles for its own sake. They are ready to have been wrought! What gigantic undergo any amount of privation in strides taken by this magnificent the way of their work, but are very movement! If these twelve men little given to affecting it where it is could come back to-day and see how not providentially imposed. Sim- the little "mustard seed" has de- plicity of living is a Christian and a ,eloped till it has become a mighty missionary obligation. But an affec- tree ., whose branches co,er the tation of luxury and an affecta-
1:;6 QROAXIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS
tion of squalor are the two opposite producing, he yet adtls: "To the great evils which the Christian and the mis- laboring, toiling mass of the Indian sionary ought to avoid, although people there could be no more benefi- doubtless he ought to incline rather to cent influence than the daily coming bareness than to sumptuousness. Dr. in and going out among th~m of a Ellinwood's article is just the right Christian missionary and his wife thing. CHARLES C. STARBUCK. and children. To millions of their " Andover, Mass." Indian fellow-subjects the missionary We add a word on the subject from family was the great daily object Sir William Hunter, who is constantly lesson of the Christian life. But referred to as the highest authority on besides these millions there were hun- civil and political matters in India. dreds of thousands of men of a cul- In a recent address before the British ture which demanded another method Baptist Missionary Society he defines of attack." "This certainly," says " Asceticism" as "merely a life of the Missionary Herald, from which quiet self-denial." He speaks of it as we get this testimony, "is a weighty one of the methods to be employed, testimony, and it commends itself to and by no means the sole method. all who hold the doctrine set forth by 'While he bears solemn witness to the Paul, • I am become all things to all ,aluable results which the celibate men that I might by all means save luission brotherhoods in India were some.' " T. M. S.
VII.-ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS. * Woman's Missionary Societies of Oanada. general society. They have a successful work in India-schools and Bible women-but no I. Woman's Foreign Missionary So- ciety Presbyterian Church in Can- statistics are at hand. Income for the year, ada. $5,000. WESTERN DIVISION. Ill. Woman's Baptist Missionary So- Secretary, Mrs. Shortreed, 218 Ontario St., Toronto, Canada. ciety of Ontario and Quebec.
Periodical: Monthly Letter Leaflet, Toronto. Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. H. H. Fields-The New Hebrides; Trinidad, Brit· ish Guiana, West Coast; China, Honan; For· Humphrey, Toronto. mosa; Central India, and Indians of Canada. Ho-me Force-Presbyterial societies, 25; aux- We are obliged to use last year's annual re- iliaries, 4m'; mission bands, 156. Income for port, as that for 1889 is not issued at the time the year, $80,000. we write, and as the society is organized into EASTERN DIVISION. provincial divisions it is not quite easy to pre- Mrs. Burns. President, Halifax, N. S. sent a summary of their work in our brief This division has 9() auxiliaries, 35 mission space. bands, and 4,000 members, and income for the year $6,000. During the year two Presbyterial Field.-The stations in India occupied by societies have been formed and six auxiliaries organized. Fields the same as Western Di- this society are Cocanada, Samulcotta and vision. Tuni. . II. Woman's Baptist Missionary Union of Maritime Provinces. IV. Woman's Missionary Society of the Methodist Church, Canada. Corresponding Secretary, lIIrs. John March, St. Johns, N. B. Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. E. S. Strachan, 113 Hughson St., Hamilton, Onto This society occupies the same fields as the This society is divided into five branches. [* The Home Work of the M. E. C. in our There are 800 auxiliaries, with 7,173 annual and 39Q life members, and 123 mission bands, January number, page 76, second column, 20th with 3,511 members. Income for the past line from top to 32d line, inclusive, got mis- year, $22,806; an increase of $8,285. placed in the make-up, and connected with that of M. E. C. South, whose Home force was This society has work among the Indians, already stated. Please connect it with the the French, the Chinese in America, and previous Society, No. XII.-EDs.J Japan. Four ladies were sent to Japan this past year. They have a very successful board- ing school at Tokio, with 150 boarders. A new school has been opened at Kofu.
Publication department in the missionary Outlook. V. Woman's Auxiliary to the Board N. ,V. Periodical: OurSistersinOtherLands of Diocesan, Domestic and Foreign Missions, Church of England. 14 Paternoster Row, London. '
The headquarters of this auxiliary is To- Fields and Force- China, Swatow, For. ronto. They collect about $15,000, and have a departmeut in the Canadian Church Magazine mo~a, Amoy, the Haka Country, Singapore, and Mission News. No report of distinct work. IndIa, Rampore, Bauleah. No summary of European Woman's Missionary Sooieties, statistics is available. They conduct board- I. Indian Female Normal School and Instruction Society. ing, day and Sunday· schools, and hospital 2 Adelphi Ten'ace, London, W. C. Periodi- work. Income, $3,755. cal: The Indian Female Evangelist; quarterly. V. Central Committee and Church Woman's Association of the Scot- Fields and Force.-Bombay Presidency, 13 stations: Madras, 2; Northwest Provinces, tish Episcopal Church. 9; Orissa, 1; Punjaub, 1. Missionaries and assistants, 63; native teachers and Bible women, ~onvener, Miss H. Mackenzie, 28 Nelson St., 175; Zenanas visited, 1,353. Eight years ago Edmburgh. Office of ASSOCiation, 122 George the mission staff numbered 106, now 238; St., Edinburgh. Periodical: The Jllission then there "rere 26 schools, now 66. Then, Chronicle. total under instruction 1,296; now 4,150. Medical treatment in 1888 given to 9,338 Fields-South Africa and India. That in patients. In 1881 the income was $34,710. In Africa was begun in 1873. and lies in Indepen- 1888 it was $67,885. dent Kaffraria, a district about as large as Scotland; that of India is at Chamba, a dis· II. Ladies' Society for Female Edu- tant part of the diocese of Calcutta. The pres· cation in India and South Africa. ent number of members co·operating with the (Free Church of Scotland.) committee is 3,080, and the annual subscrip- tion amounts to $1,925. Offices of Free Church, Edinburgh. Periodical: Woman's Work in Heathen Lands; qnar· VI. Ladies' Association for the Christerly. J. and R. Pro'lane, Paisley, Edinbnrgh. tian Education of Jewish Females (Church of Scotland). Fields and Force.-India and Africa. In India five principal stations, includiug Cal- Secretary, Miss Tawse, 11 Royal Terrace, cutta, are in Bengal; Western Indian ineIudes Edinburgh. the stations Bombay, Poona, Berar, and Jalno. ~ladras and Nagpore are centres with Fields-They support schools in Smyrna, a variety of work. Africa includes Kafraria Salonica, Alexandria, Constantinople and Beywith Lovedale and other stations, Transkel rout,with missionary ladies at each place, and and NataL a total of 16 assistant teachers.
The grand total of missionaries is 34, of VII. The London Bible and Domeswhich 13 are in Africa; native Christian agents tic Female Mission. number 181; total, 215. The pupils count 6,738, of ,vhich 1,758 are in Africa. Income, Office, 2 Adelphi Terrace, Strand, London, $44,065. W. C. Periodical: Bible Women and Nurses. Cassel & Co., London and New York. III. Church of England Zenana Mis- sionary Society. Besides a large and most noble missionary work in the poorest parts of London, carried Office, 9 SaJisburySquare, London, Periodi· on through Bible women and Bible women cal: India's Women (bi-monthly); Daybreak nurses, this Society operates on some foreign (for young people, quarterly). JaB. Nisbet & fields, but we have no data of that part of its Co., 21 Berners St., London, ·W. work.
Fields and F01'ces-India, China, Japan. VIII. British Syrian Mission Schools Missionaries 105; assistants 57; Bible women and Bible Work. 139; native teachers 368. Over 7,000 children in scbools. Medical work also is carried on. Corresponding Secretary, Bliss Poulton, 18 This year the Society has commenced work in Homefield Road, Wimbledon, London. Peri· Ceylon for the first time. Income 1881, $68,200; odical: Daughters of Syria. Seeley & Co., 1888, $138,265. Essex St., Strand, London IV. Women's Missionary Associa- Tbe mission originated to relieve the con- tion of the Presbyterian Church of dition of the 20,000 widows and daughters of England. the Maronites and Greeks, whose husbands and fathers were massacred by the Drnzes in President of General Committee, I<lrs. H. 111. 1860. The work has been extended and ar· Matheson, Heathlands, Hampstead, London, rests general attention, Fields and Force-It operates at Beyrout, Damascus, Hasbeiya, Mount Lebanon, Code- Syria and Tyre. The Jllount Lebanon depart· ment has 7 stations, making the total of sta· tions 12; foreign workers 21; native workers 120; adherents 920; schools 29; scholars 2,779. The income is $1,120 IX. Ladies' Auxiliary of the Wes- ants, 30; native Bihle women, 55: native school leyan Methodist Missionary So- teachers, 59; boarding and day schools for ciety. girls, 50. They have a normal school for training Bible women at Calcutta, also one at President and Treasurer, Mrs. Lidgett, 69 Delhi. Income, $31, .55. Shooters Hill Road, Blackheath, London, S. E. Issnes quarterly papers. XIII. Church of Scotland Ladies' Association for Foreign Missions, Fields and Force-Europe, Spain, and Italy, India, Ceylqn, China, Africa, South and West. including Zenana Work. It supports 86 missionary workers. The annual report has no su=aries, hence it is Periodical: News of Female Missions. R. difficult to properly present this work. They and R. Clark, agents, Edinburgh. report checkerd success in India. At Negapatam, India, the members of the Hindu Tract Fields and Force-India, Calcutta, Madras, Society have been lecturing and distributing Poona (Zenana mission, orphanage, female tracts, warning their fellows against Christian medical mission), Darjeeling, Sialkott, Chamschools, with only too painful success. ba; Africa, Blantyre. Missionaries appointed in Scotland, 15; in India, 11; native agents, Their income has slightly fallen off this year, 6; male, 76; female, 82; non-Christian, 24; being $38,140, and they close the year with a scholars, 2,522; Zenanas visited, 59; houses small debt. regularly visited, 200; patients at Poona dis- pensary, 2,526. Income, $33,450; the largest in X. Ladies' Committee of the London its history. Missionary Society. XIV. Zenana Mission of the Irish Office, 14 Biornfield St., London Wall, Lon- Misswnary Society_ don. Periodical: Quarterly News of Woman's Work. John Snow & Co., London. We have only the local report of the mission in Gujerat and Kattiawar with the Zenana Field. and Force-China, India, and Mada- Mission before us. It appears from this that gascar. Lady missionaries, 36; wives of there are two missionary ladies engaged in missionaries, 45; schools, 148; pupils, 7,507; educational and Zenana work at Surat, and native teachers,l38; Zenana agents, 114; Ze- one in medical work; als02 assistants and 6 nana pupils, 2,982. Income, $28,760. native Christian agents, and 15 non-Christian teachers. At Borsad there are two mission' XI. Ladies' Association for the Pro- aries. At Ahmedabad there are others; also motion of Female Education (So- a medical mission, and 8 native Christian ciety for the Propagation of the agents, with 9 non-Christian teachers. Anand Gospel). and Broach also appear as stations.
Office, 19 Delahay St., Westminster, Lon· XV. Miss Walker – Arnot's Tabitha don, S. W. Periodical: The Grain of Mustard Mission at Jaffa. Seed Gardner, Darton & Co., 2 Paternoster Building. Hon. Secretary, Miss E. Walker-Arnott, 24 St. Bernard's Crescent, London. Fields-India, following the lines of the Dioceses of the Church of England, including that This simple organization has been in existof Rangoon, Japan, Tokio and Kobe; Mada- ence 25 years. The field is designated in the gascar, four principal stations; South Africa, corporate title, which we give above. The following the lines of the five Episcopal dio- boarding school numbers 60 residents, of whom ceses; Capetown, Zululand, etc., India. Mis- 12 were Javesses, and the day schools 100 sionaries, 45; native teachers, 85; Japan mis- pupils. The receipts last year were $4,825. sionaries, 3; native teachers, 2; Madagascar missionaries, 6; native teachers, 14; South XVI. Helping Hands Zenana Asso- Africa missionaries, 7; native teachers. 4. ciation (Young Ladies)_ Total missionaries, 61; native teachers, 105. It speaks well for the ladies of England, that Office, 42 B. Fulham Road, London, S. W. of these, 12 are honorary missionaries. Publication: It utilizes India's Jewels for pub- lication of its correspondents. XII Ladies' Association for the Support of Zenana Work and Bible The society co-operates with the Indian Fe· Women in India,-Baptist_ male Normal School and Instruction Society at Jaunpore, Benares and Lucknow; "ith the Mrs. Angus, Honorable Secretary. The Col- Church Missionary Society at Brindabun: with lege, Regents Park, London. Periodical: Our the 'Church of England Zenana Mission at Am- Indian Sisters; quarterly. Elliot Stock, 62 ritzar, and with the Ladies' Association of Paternoster Row, London. the S. P. G., and the London ~1issionary Society at Belgaum. The distinct branch, Fields and Force-Stations in India, at prin- known as the Nurse's Missionary Association, cipal cities, 18; lady Zenana visitors, 42; assist- trains as nurses those who wish to assist mis- sions abroad.
1890.J PROGRESS OF MISSIO.TS-lIIO.TTHLY BLLLETIN
VIII.-PROGRESS OF MISSIONS: MONTHLY BULLETIN.
Afrlca.-The Niger Mission. Rev. W. -A general conference of Chinese mission- Allan, of West Africa, thus summarizes the aries will meet at Shanghai May 7, 1890, and vast changes that have taken place since the continue for ten days. Rev. J. R. Goddard, of Gospel was first preached at Bonny, in Africa: Ningpo, is the secretary.
.. The worship of the iguana is overthrown, -The totals of missions in China are: 39 the priest is a regular attendant at the house societies, 526 male missionaries and 597 of God, and the iguana itself converted into an women; total, 1,123 miSsionaries; 162 native article of food. The Juju temple, which a few ordained helpers, 1,278 unordained, 34,555 comyears ago was decorated with twenty thou- municants in the churches, and 14,817 pupils sand skulls of murdered victims, I found rot- in schools; $44,173 were contributed by the tingawayin ruin and decay. Ipassedthrough churches the past year, and the net increase the grove which was formerly the receptacle in membership was 2,295.
of so many murdered infants, and I found it France.-The Statistics of France for had become the regular highway from the 1888 contain some sad facts respecting family town to the church, and that the priest was life. Compared with 1887 the decrease in mar- now a baptized Christian. I went ashore and riages was 212, while there were 6,360 less than addressed 885 worshippers, including the in 1886. There were 1,702 more divorces than .. king, the three former heathen priests, chiefs, in 1887, and 1,758 more than in 1886; the total and a multitude of slaves, and was thankful number waS 4,708. The decrease in the num- to ascertain that the work of conversion was ber of births since 1887 was 16,794. Since still going on; for. in addition to 648 persons 1884 there has been an annual decrease in already baptized, of whom 265 are communi- births. In 1884 there were 937,758 births ; in cants, there are over 700 at Bonny alone who. 1888, the number was 882,637. In illegitimate are now under instruction. " – Missionary births there is, however, an increase. In 1881 Herald. they were 7.5 per cent.; in 1888, 8.5. In the -In Northern Africa has lately been dis- Seine department 25 per cent. of the births covered a river that has worn a bed through were illegitimate. The official report states the rock 300 feet deep, and then makes a per- that if it were not for the illegitimate births pendicular leap 650 feet, while all around are there would actually be a decrease in the deep, yawning chasms and gigantic peaks. population of France.
-The pupils o{the Huguenot Seminary at -Miss Grant Brown, who with two other ladies lately made a mission tour in Corsica, Wellington, South Africa, have formed the Huguenot Missionary Society, which sends out reports that wherever they traveled they held from its ranks missionaries to labor among the daily meetings which were thronged by people heathen in Africa. The lady principal, Miss eager to learn the truth. The work met with Ferguson, and the other teachers, are all much opposition from the priests; but the earnest' Christians, and seek to lead all the civil authorities were generally friendly, and pupils to Christ. in several villages the mayors offered the use – The Moravians have projected a mission of rooms. In one village three men volun· teered to stand every Sunday in the market on the Victoria Nyanza, but have been unable place, and read the Gospel to their countryto establish it by the lack of funds. Just be- men. There is no Protestant church on the fore the opening of lheir General Synod this island. year news was brought that a legacy of be· tween $25,000 and 30,000 had fallen to the Germany.-According to the Statisti- Church, and it is probable that the work will cal Year Book of Germany for 1889, the latest speedily be carried forward, as the men are data on the religious status of the country are ready. these: 29,369,847 Evangelicals, 16,785,734 Catholics, 125,673 other Christians, 563,172 Deymah. -A Mission School is to be established by Rev. E. W. Kelly, of lVlandalay, Jews, 11,278 confessors of other religions or on the very spot where Dr. Adoniram Judson, professing no religion at all. The Evangelicals the first missionary from America, suffered include Lutherans, Reformed and the United the cruel imprisonment at Oungpenla. Church, .:. e., the union formed in 1817 in Prus- Chlna.-Rev. J. W. Stevenson writes sia and sorne other States between the two from Shanghai: "I am happy to report 27 Protestant confessions; the Catholics include 'baptisms this week, viz., 12 at Gan-ren, 7 at Roman Catholics, Greek Catholics and old Nan-k'ang, by Mr. McCarthy; 3 at Chau-kia· Catholics; the other Christians represented k'eo, by Mr. Coulthart; and 5 at Ning-hai- are United Brethren, Baptists, Mennonites, chau, by Mr. Judd. Mr. McCarthy baptized in Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists.
all during his tour in Kiang-si 66 persons, and Quakers, Irvingites, German Catholics, Free he reports quite a number of inquirers. At Religionists and Dissenters. In 1871 the pro· Chau-kia-k'eo a great fire has devastated the portions were these: 25,581,685 Evangelicals, place, and 3,000 families are said to be burnt 14,869,292 Catholics, 82,158 other Christians, out of house and home." 512,153 Jews, 17,156 of other or no religion. The most noteworthy features of these figures pany did everything possible to keep mission- is that while the Evangelicals and the Catho- aries out of India; now the British East African lics have grown in equal proportions, the Company has invited the Church Missionary number of " other" Christians has increased Society to place missionaries at all the stations in much larger proportion. This is evidence of the company as fast as they are opened. sufficient that the propaganda made by the various denominations of England and Ameri- Italy.-Ten thousand Italian priests cain Germany has not been unsuccessful. This have secretly signed a petition to the govern- is one of the factors that is slowly but evi- ment praying for protection against the tyr- dently surely at work toward the disestablish- annyof the Vatican. They have been prom- ment of the Protestant Church of the land of ised assistance by several deputies, who will Luther. plead their cause in Parliament.
-The Sixty-sixth Annual Report of the Japan.-It is said that there are more Berlin Society for the Promotion of Christian- than 1,000 pnpils in a single, rapidly-growing ity amongst the Jews shows than two mission- Sunday-school in Okayanla, Japan. aries and one colportenr are employed by the Society, and that its income during the year -Results oCa Japanese Earthquake, Ac- 1888 amounted to 25,593 marks 42 pfennigs cording to the official return of the damage (about £1,279), which, with a balance of caused by the recent earthqnake at Kumamo- 46,34i marks 54 pfennigs from 1887, made the to, in Southem Japan, the loss in that pre- total receipts of the year 71,925 marks 1 pfen- fecture alo!le-an area ronghly equal to that nig. The expenditure was 41,219 marks 46 of a medium-sized English county – was as pfennigs, leaving a balance of 30,705 marks 55 follows: 234 houses completely ruined; 239 • pfennings in hand. Pastor Hausig, a former partially destroyed; 19 persons killed, and 58 missionary of the London Soci8ty, is secretary injured; at 893 places there were fissures in of the Berlin Society. the ground; roads were destroyed iu 137 places; forests injured at 17; building lots and – The Gustavus Adolphus Society, to carry cultivated land at 3,336 places, and embank- the gospel into Catholic countries, last year ments at 45 places; 24 bridges were entirely received $230,000, 01' $5,600,000 since 1832. The destroyed and 41 damaged, and the water in society has had 1,444 applications for aid from 138 wells became muddy and unfit for con- Roman Catholic countries. sumption.
Indla.-Perhaps one ofthe most notable Korea_A traveler in Korea writes: testimonies to the success of miSSionary labor "Buddha 'worship, as conducted among Koin India and other countries was made during reans, is a species of idol-worship. Diviners the recent Baptist Union Conference at Bir- walk the streets in the persons of blind men mingham, when Sir W. Hunter, before a gath- lTUh long staffs, W]lO anllounce their pl'esenee ering of 4,000 people, gave his experience of with a peculiar professional cry. Demonmissionary work. He simply dealt with the worship prevails in various superstitious pracnlatter as, to use his own term., "' a secular tices, to ward off disease and other ills of life." man and a layman," and in doing so pointed out that during the ten years from 1871 to 1881 Russia. – Twelve hundred converts the Christian popnlation of India had increased 64 per cent. as compared with the 11 have been baptized in the Baptist Mission in per cent. increase of the general popnlation, Russia in the past two years. The lliission is and that the Indian native Protestant Chris- principally among the German colonists in tians had now grown up into a native Protest- South Russia. There is also a snccessful misant Church, with their own pastors, number- sion in Ronmania and Bulgaria. ing 576, and their own native lay preachers, 2,756 in number. "Missionary work," he 8weden.-The minutes of tile Swedish added, "is one of the greatest and best works Augustana Synod gives 291 ministers, 582 conat present going on in India; it has been rich gregations, 425 church edifices and 191 parsonin results in the past, and is fraught with in- ages, valued at $2,503,304; 74,2,'J4 commnnicalcnlable blessings for the future." cants, 5,935 baptisms, 3,263 confirmations, 288 parochial teachers, and 11,506 pupils. Synodi· -The Mission College at Ahmednugar has cal treasury, $1,526.44; education, $16,414.4f; won for itself such a high place among the home missions, $15,901.63; foreign mission" govemment officials that they have increased $6,60•.39; orphan homes, church extensioll, their grant-in-aid nearly fourfold for a term etc., $27,749_54; congregational expense", of five years. The school for girls nnder the $511,986.40; total, $580,823.58. charge of the Misses Bissell, in their fine new. building, is a busy hive or Christian instruc- -Baptist progress in Sweden is one of the tion, full of hope and cheer. Five new village most remarkable religious movements of the churches have been organized during the year present time. Revivals are constant. In in the vicinity of Ahmednugar, Mr. Robert twenty years the nnmber of church members Hume.being specially active in mission work has advanced from 7,900 to 32,308. The bapin these rural districts." tisms in 1888 were 2,390.
-Seventy years ago the East India Com- -Swltzerland has 1,162 Sunday·schouls, with 5,459 teachers, and 84,000 scholars. Sweden has 3,340 Sunday-schools, -with 15,000 teachers and 220,000 scholars. Austria' has 140 Sunday-schools, with 312 teachers and 4,51!) scholars.
The Missionary Review of the World — April 1889
FURTHF..R TESTIMONIES TO MISSIONS
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XI. No. 4.-Old Series.–APRIL.–VoL. II. No. 4.-New Serie8.
I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS. FURTHER 'fESTIMONIES TO MISSIONS.
[EDITORIAL.-A. T. p.] AMONG the attractions at the great Paris Exposition this year is to be an immense terrestrial globe, constructed on the scale' of one millionth, for which, in the center of the Ohamp de Mars, a place will be set apart. The globe will measure nearly thirteen metres in diameter and will afford visitors some conception of the comparative size not only of continents and islands but even of great cities. Paris, for instance, will cover a square centimeter. The globe will have also an axial revolution to illustrate the earth's diurnal rotation. Would that, even on a small scale, this world could be made to pass before the eyes of Ohristian disciples; and that the marvelous changes which missions have wrought throughout their vast field of operation, notwithstanding all discouragements and difficulties, could be made to appear to the vision even of the incredulous and unbelieving! In two articles, immediately preceding, we have endeavored to pre- sent a small portion of the evidence of the grand success of Ohristian mISSIons. Before we close this series of papers, we add a few pages on the further testimonies to their effectiveness and power. A valuable work* has just issued from the press, in which the author has compiled and arranged the witness of men and women, unimpeach- able both as to intellectual competency and moral integrity, with re- spect to the great value and success of foreign missions. It is sim- ply a grand massing' and marshaling of testimony from all sources. It comes on the stage at an opportune time when from all quarters there seems to be a combined attack on Ohristian missi.ons. To those who candidly and carefully read it, there are single pages and even para- graphs of witness so weighty that all the accusations and insinuations of professed friend, or open foe. will be but as a feather's weight in comparison. But this author has given us only a small part of the avapable testi- monies. Should we crowd every page of this REVIEW for years to come, with the proofs and products of missionary success, after using every , available inch of space we should still be hindered, not by lack of mat- *" The Great Value aud Success of Foreign Missions" by Rev. John Liggins. Baker & Taylor Co. ter but by want of room, and be compelled to leave the subject, like Newton's ocean of truth, only touched on its remote borders, but still unexplored, unrepresented. Our object has been simply to stimulate the study of the matter by intelligent people, and to arouse those who are ignorant to inform themselves. Let those who doubt, "Come and see." Missionary literature is abundant and varied and cheap and fascinating. It combines the marvels of fable with the solidity of fact; the charms of romance with the value of reality. In the rich literature of missions we have the granite column, wrought into Corinthian grace and elegance. Let us read and search, investigate and discriminate. If one witness seems to tell a tale that taxes onr incredulous faith too severely, let us call others to the stand, until in the mouth of many every word of truth may be established and every error or exaggeration corrected. For example let us summon one witness. In Melbourne Rev. A. J. Webb, in a most glowing address, recently gave his own personal testimony concerning the work in Fiji, in which field he himself is a laborer in connection with the Wesleyans.
"All their ancient heathenish practices have been cleared away, and visitors now cannot imagine that this people, with their almost Parisian manners and their mellifluous speech, were the cannibals of former times. I have the latest Government retul"ns, showing the present state of the people, but they only partially represent it; the true character of the work cannot be estimated by figures, but by the inner lives of the people. There are at present in Fiji: Fijians, 111,734; Europeans, 3,567; half-castes, 79-6; Asiatics, 4,230; Polynesians, 5,664; Rotumans, 4,214-total, 130,205. Of these 111,734 Fijians, 100,154 are attendants at our own public worship-a veJ'y large proportion indeed. Where fifty years ago there was not a single Christian, today there is not an avowed heathen. There may be heathen, but if so, they don't stand up and say so. When I first visited Fiji there were thousands of them. In my first circuit of Rewa there were more heathen than III any other-men who would stand up and avow it, too. I well rememberone wild, fine-looking young fellow with a head of hair standing out on all sides, which added to the wildness of his appearance, coming right in front of me, and looking me boldly in the face, saying, 'I'm a heathen, and I'm going to be a heathen,' as if it were something to be proud of. But there is none of that now. Instead of it we have as many people whose names are on the class-books in Fiji as you have in Victoria, and those whose names are on the class-books are not conspicuous by their absence. We have at present 53 native ministers, 44 catechists. 1,877 local pt'eachers, 3,192 class leaders, 27,421 members of the church, 4,121 on trial, 2,795 catechumens, 1,019 teachers, as well as day and Sabbath-schools with their teachers, for all the children of Fiji are educated in the mission schools. It is difficult to believe that in a place which fifty years ago waH studded with heathen temples-where the first parsonage was a canoe house, open at both ends, in which the Rev. David Cargill and his noble wife were glad to take shelter-there is not today a single heathen temple. In 1,255 places of worship God's Word was preached last Sabbath, and will be preached again next Sabbath."
Such testimony any candid man finds it hard to discredit.
When the German scientist, Baron de Hubner, visited Fiji some time ago, he had enjoyeu unusual opportunities of studying men under different aspect.:;, having traveled three times round the world. He looked for himself; and after making all sorts of inquiries from the various men he came in contact with, as to the cause of the unquestionable changes he saw in the Fijians, he came to a missionary to ask some questions. Himself a Roman Oatholic, he thus expressed his mind: "I must say that the change which has come over these islands is wonderful; no candid man can deny it. What I want to get at is, 'How did it come about?' I have spoken to some of the Government officials about it, and they ascribe it to the influence of the Government upon them." "Yes," replied the missionary, "but how do they account for the fact that the change was there before there was any settled government?" "That is true," he replied. Then he added, "I asked some of the traders, and they attributed it to the influence of trade upon them." "Yes," returned the missionary, "but how do you account for the change that existed before the traders dared to settle there?" Well," he said, "I have come to you as a missionary, and I want you to ten me how you account for it." This was the reply: "I can not account for the change that has taken place, except in one way. If it has struck you so forcibly, Baron, how has it struck me? You have seen this only as a visitor; I have seen it for years, and have seen it going on. I can only account for it in one way-I believe in God, and I account for it by the influence of the Holy Ghost." And he, though a Roman Oatholicand a foreigner, bowed his head reverently, and said, "So do I." That is the only way it can be accounted for. It strikes foreigners and travelers strongly, but it strikes the plissionaries more strongly still who have been on the ground, and seen the changes wrought before their eyes, that, without admitting the supernaturalfactor in missions, the transformations cannot be accounted for. No human phHosophy is adequate to explain them .
. The silent voice of History is itself a witness to missions. We must not forget that many of the crises of human destiny have been turned on the battle-field of missionary conflicts. Nor must we forget that there are many indirect results wrought by the gospel which prove it to be the only true civilizer, preparing the way for the higher triumphs of grace. Resultant motion is a term applied to the product of two or more forces acting jointly. For instance a body, acted upon equally by two impulses the direction of which is at right angles to each other, will not follow the line of either impulse but take a diagonal between them. May not this illustrate the historic fact often exemplified, that a community of people, feeling at once the influence of ancestral and ancient superstitions and of the Ohristian religion, will be deflected from the lines of their heathenism and paganism, even while they are not yet following the line of a pure Ohristianity. There is a, resultant motion given to the whole political and social life. Even the secular press is now presenting the testimony to missions. One of the most intelligent women of our acquaintance, herself both a diligent student and a powerful advocate of missions, writes: "It is just to bring out such glorious 'vindications of missions' that Canon 'faylor, and men like him, are allowed to make their assaults. I should not be sorry if another Canon should try his hand, if only to draw out this counterfire again." Since this spirit of antagonism began to be especially manifested, two or three years ago, we have read article after article on missions, and sometimes in their vindication, from quarters where we did not expect a plea in their favor. The Indian EvangelicaZ Review says: "In the higher periodical press, for example Murray's Magazine for August, 1887, is an article on the' Church of the British Empire;' the Quttrterly Review of July, 1886, gives as many as 36 pages to 'Modern Christian Missions.' The National Review of June, 1887, on" The Foreign Missions of the Church of England,' the Asiatic Quarterly of January, 1887, on' TheWelles· leys in India,' the Contemporary Review of July, IS86, on 'India Revisited,' the Nineteenth Centu1'Y of November, 1887, on' British Missions in Africa,' the Standard of Octcber 26,1887, the Daily Telegraph of Brd November, 1887, the Times of 29th and 30th October, 1886, and 24th August, 1887, and the Satnrda1l Review of 4th December, 1886, all give strong testimony in favor of missions and devote much of their editorial space to their advocacy. In the correspondence of Members of Parliment, as that of Mr. W. S. Caine, M. P. for the Barrc,w-in Furness, in the lectures of retired Anglo-Indians, as in Sir W. Hunter's lecture of the' Religions of India,' and in Government reports and resolutions as in that published in the Gazette of India in January, 1888, on education, morals, and religion, will be found conclusive evidence of the growing influence missions have acquired and are exercising over modern thought. Even fault finding, when done in a good spirit, is encouraging."
Of late the appearance of such articles in the secular press is even more frequent, owing to the greater freqnency, and we may add malignity, of the assaults made on missions. Perhaps in no one year of the modern Christian era have more vindications of mission work been put before the public eye than during the year just closed. Thoughtful men in every rank and calling of hfe are beginning to ask and a~swer such questions as that propounded by J. P. Lesley in the Forum: "Shall We Call Him Master?" and on purely scientific' grounds Mr. Lesley concludes, "His name is above every name, the'
most precious legacy of time to the ages." The Rev. E. E. Jenkins says: "I was thinking the other day whether I could find out one single force, acting for the benefit of the human race, that did not come from the Oross- that had not its origin from the Cross. I can not find one. Who discovered the interior world of Africa, and set in motion the intellect of that people and made them an intelligent people? Missionaries. Who has solved the problem of preaching liberty to the women of India? Missionaries and their wives. Who first brought into modern geography the hidden lands and rivers of China-unsealed for inspection the scholarshIp and opened for the enrichment of commerce the greatest empire of the East? Missionaries. Who first dared the cannibal regions-the cannibal shores of New Zealand and Tonga and Fiji, and convel·ted wolves, who~e appetite was for blood, into a nation'? Missionaries. To come nearer home. Who aile those in Europe who are now lifting up their voices against war, that horrible per- version of the intellect and of the soul of man? Who are devoting their means and influence against vice in the high places and vice in low places and against the infliction of wrong upon the dGlfenseless? Who are those whose examples of righteousness and purity and gentleness conform with their own spirit the legislation of governments and the sentiments of society? The followers of the Nazarene, 'The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men,'"
Similiarly Mr. Howells declares in Harper's, that "Christ and the life of Christ is at this moment inspiring the literature of the world as never before, and raising it up a witness against waste and want and war."
These are a few representative utterances showing the trend of intel- ligent and impartial testimony, on purely scientific and philosophical grounds, to Christ and the Christian religion, and especially to the value of missions for the elevation and education of the human family.
There is one department of witness that must be especially empha- sized for its comprehensiveness and value. One of the grandest mar- shalings of testimonies to Christian missions may be found in the witness of unconverted, non-Christian, but candid observers. There are hundreds yet involved and entangled in the snares and supersti- tions of heathen systems, who either cannot or dare not forsake the old faith, who are yet conscious of the superior virtue and power of Christianity and its mission work. These testimonies, if compiled, would of themselves make a voluminous collection and a sufficient answer to all modern skepticism and malignant hypercriticism. "Our roQJc is not as their rock, even our enemies themselves being j,udges." Demosthenes and lEschines once engaged in a famous disputation before the assembly of their countrymen. Upon it hung issues next in im- portance only to life itself. Demosthenes triumphed, and lEschines went into exile. While at Hhodes, lEschines founded his School of Eloquence, and on one occasion read to hi~ pupils the masterpiece of his opponent. When his pupils burst into unrestrainable applause, lEschines said, "Ah! what would have been yonr admiration had you heard Demosthenes himself speak what I have read!"
Many have been the involuntary testimonies which men have been led or forced to give to Christian missions; and they weigh like the , praise which lEschines could not withhold from the orator whose mag- nificent eloquence drove him into banishment. They are not the words of prepossessed advocates. Nay, they are often the expressions of those who have been prejudiced and even inimical, but who cannot in candor and fair-mindedness longer deny the facts. And, out of these testimonies alone, the vindication of missions could be sufficiently framed. Let us summon to the witness-stand a few of this class. If we wish to gauge the progress of Christianity in India, what statement can be more authoritative than that which comes spontaneously from the lips of non-Ohristian Hindus? More importance attaches to such an opinion than to any amount of figures compiled by any laborer engaged in the work. In The Spectator of Bangalore, in the Madras Presidency, we find a report of a monster meeting of the Hindus residing in the Oantonment and the Pattah, held on Saturday. November 10, at 4 P.M., in the new chuttram, near Annamma's Temple, Bangalore. The recent conversion of a Hindu girl, named Muthulutchamamah, to Ohristianity, was the occasion of the assembly. We quote this report, and comment is needless.
" There were over one thousand people present, and the meeting was held in true Oriental style. The speeches were delivered in Canarese, and the audience wasaccommodated with seats on carpets; Mr. C. Sooba Rao, retired Deputy Collector, Bellary, occupied the chair. The chairman, in a lengthy speech, referred to the conversion of Muthulutchamamah to Christianity, and submitted that it was against the tenets of the Shastras and the Vedas for Hindu parents to send theil' daughters to mission-schools, where they run the risk of being proselytized. He cited copiously from the Shastras, in Sanskrit, on the subject before the meeting, and explained his citation .in Canarese. The Hindus, he observed, never sent their girls to school after they had attained the ,age of majority; and the ChrIstian padres took advantage of their youth to infuse into them new ideas which were inimical to the Hindu religion. He appealed to his hearers to immediately start subscription lists for the purpose of establishing schools for the education of their girls, and to remove them at once from mission-schools. Missionschools were mainly supported by the Hindu community, and considering the incalculable injury the missionaries were doing to the cause of the Hindu religion, he did not see why they should not have their own schools-the padres to look after themselves. The conversion of the girl was not the first of its kind, and in all such castls he invariably found that the influence of mission ladies was brought into requisition to effect the work of destruction. Mr. Advocate Nitrrian Rao said tha.t the father of the girl Muthulutchamamah had told him that she was only fifteen years of age, and that it was by his allowing mission ladies to frequent his house that his daughter was now lost to him. Mr. Advocate Sooba Rao read the translation in Canarese of a letter bearing on the point at issue, written by the Rev. Mr. Picken, in the last issue of The Harvest, and proceeded to explain the same seriatim~ Mr. Ramkrishna lyer, of the Dewan's office, suggested that a large building near the Taluk Cutcherry should be purchased and utilized fora school. Mr. Pattana lyer remarked that it was owing to their lethargy that the missionaries had so far succeeded in their work of conversion. It was eventually resolved that all Hindu children should be removed from mission-schools, anI! that subscriptions be collected for opening schools for Hindu girls in the several localities of Bangalore. The proceedings lasted exactly four hours."
A Bible reader in China lately overheard a Buddhist, who was a. chief spokesman in a crowd of disputatious natives, say, "Well, it is plain that our religions are already declining; and this religion of the foreign devils is bound to conquer." The best and most sagacious observers in India, China, Japan, those three foremost Oriental empires, cannot hide from themselves the fact that their ancestral faiths have no firm foundation; and that, whatever truth is built into them, it is a foreign addition, a purer metal that may mingle but will not mix with the baser clay. The Christian faith is consistent and coherent, pure, .perfect because divine.
In the South Seas, to-day, the natives have learned to link in their thoughts every beneficent result with the gospel's introduction and prevalence. Their very idioms of speech are a revelation. Their simple classification is this: "This is a missionary man; this, no missionary man," according as they detect on the one hand honesty, integrity, generosity; or on the other meanness, treachery, and deceit. Such testimony is not only spontaneoul:l, it is involuntary and unconscious. It belongs to the ethics of language. Certain convictions of mankind stamp themselves on human speech. The word miser is the unconscious testimony of humanity to the wretchedness of grecd. And .so the term, missionary, has come to have a moral meaning to the savage and cannibal. It stands for heroism, honesty, self-denial,' love. And it would take more than Canon Taylor to shake this solid bastion in the fortress of missionary success; it rests on the bed-rock of the popular consciousness.
The most conspicuous mark of God's hand in missions is perhaps this: the progress of missionary advance has been supernaturally rapid. In the Hawaiian I~les, in five years, results were reached that mere human power could never have compassed; and ordinary Christian activity would have been fitly rewarded if such results·had crowned the work of fifty years. The triumphs of the gospel among the Karens were like the strides of a giant with his" seven-league" boots in comparison with the common rate of progress. As to Japan, President Seelye, at a meeting of the American Board, Syracuse, calmly affirmed in 1879, and it was confirmed by that immense assembly, that "never before had the gospel wrought such great and speedy changes as during the previous seven years in Japan." He said: "It is not only the most remarkable chapter in the history of modern missions, but there is nothing in the history of the world to compare with it. We talk about the early triumphs of Christianity; but the early records of the Church, bright as they may be, pale in the light of what is taking place before our eyes at the present time. Even Madagascar offers nothing to compare with Japan. " Africa was for thousands of Ylars emphatically the dark continent; yet so rapidly is missionary exploration going forward that our maps of yesterday are scarce accurate today, and will be obsolete to-morrow. At Harpoot, on the Euphrates, we find one little mission church multiplying itself into fourteen, with four hundred and eighteen church members, eleven native pastol'smore than half of them supported by these native churches-twel"c licensed native preachers, twenty-one native teachers, and forty-one other helpers; of pupils two thousand and forty-one, and scores of unpaid laborers going forth every Lord's day to tell the story of Christ under the inward impulse of love for souls. The people are very poor, yet so liberal that the faithfully-paid tithes of ten converted families enable their native pastors to live on a level with their people. And all this the outgrowth of a single church, in a single missionary station, in less than twelve years, at a cost not exceeding in all $150,OOO-the cost of one modern church edifice! Yes, these little churches on the Euphrates, gathered from native converts in Eastern Turkey, are per- haps the best illustrations in modern times of the three great principles of church life-self-government, self-support, and self-propagation.
Nevertheless, antagonism to missions is in the very air-and many that have never been good for anything else are, like Dr. Guthrie's famous elder, aye objectin,-adepts at criticising and faultfinding. We must dare to disregard all these oppositions whether coming from nominal friend or foe, whether resulting from ignorance or from science falsely so called; we must simply in face of all opponents go forward. Here is the authority of our Lord, "Go ye into all the world and preach •the gospel to every creature." That alone is enough, both as a reason and a vindication. Said a gunner of Waterloo,-when asked afterward by Dr. Cooke of Belfast, what he saw when standing on an exposed knoll in the very thick of the fight,-" Saw? nothing but a cloud of dust and smoke." "What did you do?" "Stood by my ,gun." He had been placed there by his commander and there he stayed till a counter-order was given. The command of our Lord is sufficient, even were it all. But it is not an. There is the impulse of humanity, es- pecially when it is fortified by Ohristianity. The possession of Ohrist begets a passion for Christ and for souls. "We cannot but speak the things which WOe have seen and heard," though, as to the apostles, our testimony may bring only the scourging. Philanthropy compels testi- mony, and endeavor to uplift man; and the gospel is the only adequate lever. The" Ely Volume" is an encyclopedia in which are gathered and catalogued the contributions of missions to science, art, language and literature, everything that raises man to a higher level.
But bey Jnd all these is another, and if possible, higher inducement; our Lord's promise: "Lo ! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age." And gloriously has that promise been fulfilled, nay it is ful- fillipg before our eyes. '1'0 study the history of missions is not only instructive and stimulating, but thrilling; it is the tracing of the golden footsteps of the Lord Christ. During this century of the formative and preparatory period of modern missionary enterprise, what mighty obstacles He has removed! what a missionary spirit He has created and developed! what a chain of organized effort He has forged and stretched fl>round the globe! what work I;I~ has impelled WOIp.!1n to do} an(j. with what imperial success He has crowned it I what enthusiasm He has awakened among our young men and maidens, and among our princely givers I what a new scope He has given to medical missions I what printing-presses and schools He has caused to be ere(~ted in foreign lands I Is not all this a literal fulfillment of that word, "Lo ! I am with you alway?" Could all this be accounted for on any other ground than this, that, back of all the feeble endeavor of the Christian Church, there has .been a mighty divine energy at work, turning and overturning, pulling down and building up, by methods and measures which man could neither devise nor develop, moving the very minds of men in accordance with His eternal purpose? Never was there heard a voice more imperial and imperative than that which now calls the whole Church of our Lord to go forward! The walls are down, though thus far we have done nothing but encompass the stronghold of paganisJll and shout, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon." An insignificant missionary band has been sent forth, nnmbering only abont 6,000, inclusive of lay teachers and women, to confront a force of over 1,000,- 000,000 pagan, papal, and Moslem people, i. e., one to 166,000 I Meanwhile Japan in 1853 opens her ports, sealed for three centuries. In 1856 the Hatti Humayiin gave the firman of the Sultan as the ~uaranty of toleration in Turkey. China opens her gates by the treaty of 1858 to the gospel, and assures to converts immunity from persecution. In 1878 ten thousand converts were baptized in the" Lone Star Mission" alone, within ninety days, and sixty thousand people in South India renounced idolatry; in 1877 Stanley, after 1,000 days, completed the exploration of Africa's interior, opening the way for f chain of stations from Zanzibar to the estuaries of Congo; and in 1884 the Berlin Conference, embracing fifteen ruling powers, Protestant, Greek, Catholic, and even Moslem, sat to decree civil and religious freedom to the vast Congo Basin. In this missionary century, every day is a crisis and every hour a pivot of destiny. What are we doing? The cry of retrenchment startles our missionary workers, at a time when our motto should be not only nunquam retrorsum, but semper prorsum. Retrenchment! Why, if at such a time the Church of Christ restricts her missionary work, hesitates to follow the moving a~d luminous pillar, God may let back upon his own hesitating hosts the waters which hp, has heaped up to give us a dry path through the very deep. A church that with such world openings before her,-the last of the hermit nations coming forth from exclusion and seclusion. to welcome the contact of the gospel missionary, Ethiopia stretching forth her hands unto God, the isles of the sea waiting for His law and within thirty years rearing thousands of churches on the ruins of idol shrines and cannibal ovens-if the church now fails or even falters with such Divine voices calling, such ,doors opening, such fields inviting; with bl!-rv[:lst ripenin~ so close upon the sowing that the plowm(ln is
– THAT QUESTION OF POPULATION
overtaken by the reaper-such a church may well ask whether there is not risk of apostasy from God in the matter of missions!
The time for trifling is past; we must go to work in dead earnest. The time for defensive movements is past; we have something better to do than to use spades and throw up earth-works and trenches. Out from behind all walls where we have sought she1ter from the fire of the foe, let us move with <tIl the weapons of aggressIve warfare, and drive back the enemy by the boldness and promptness and unity of one combined movement. The best apologetic defense of missions is an energetic prosecution of missions. -Let the Word of God .be scattered in every_ part of the field, let the children of the Kingdom sow themselves side by side with the Word of God, content to die and be buried if need be in order, dying, to live in the fruits of their heroic devotion to Ohrist and souls. I.1et no part of the world be left without_ the witness of the gospel, let money be poured out in rich abundance that all whom God makes willing may be sent forth into the harvestfield-let there be above all else a new revival of covenant prayer throughout the whole Ohurch of God, for a new effusion of the Holy Ghost-and whIle critics are complaining, and owl-eyed worldly-wise men are blinking, we shall have compassed the globe with missionary effort, and our sufficient answer to all antagonists shall be found not in the counterfire of argument, but in the waving harvests of a thousand fertile fields!
THAT QUESTION OF POPULATION.
BY REV. F. F. ELLINWOOD, D.D_, NEW YORK.
I NOTICE that many secular papers have published articles containing extensive quotations from the late article of Oanon Taylor entitled "The Great Missionary Failure." The article, coming as it did from a clergyman of the Anglican Ohurch, excited much surprise, and by many it is thought to have dealt a severe blow to the cause of missions. But let us see.
Canon 'raylor plainly shows the effect of having been antagonized by the severe, and in some cases, destructive counter-statements which have been made to his article of some months ago on the merits of Islam as a religion for Africa. He takes now the broader ground of a general attack upon the whole work of missions the world over.
His first point is a preliminary statement that in the means devoted to this work « there is no stint," the impHcation being that they are wholly adequate to the end in view. But will any thoughtful man say that the means are commensurate with the undertaking? In this couutry the contributions of Protestant Ohristians for foreign missions amount to less than one-sixteenth of one per cent. of their wealth. The amount given by the average Ohristian is not a tithe of the average amount paid for anyone of a hundred mere luxuries. There are thouRands of Ohristian men whose gifts for this object are the merest fraction of what is paid for their cigars or their wines. A slight tax upon the bric-a.-brac in many a Christian home, or on the recreations and amusements of a dozen kinds, would exceed all that – is given for what, by the terms of our Christian cr~ed, is the most important, the most formidable and difficult, the most widely extended of all enterprises that have ever been undertaken by mankind. The more common charge is that of dribbling inadequacy. So small is the percentage given for this great work that the sincerity of Christian belief is sometImes called in question. It was ascertained a year ago in England, that out of 7,000 titled members of the nobility, including all branches of the Royal family, only about $5,000 altogether was given for the cause of missions. This would not half support the hounds, certainly not a tenth part of the fox-hunting horses of those high and privileged notables, who owe all that they are and all that England is, to the early missionary efforts which raised the British Isles from the darkest savagery to the high po'sition which they now hold among Christian nations.
Canon Taylor next points out what seems a well-nigh fatal consideration, viz.: that the populat!ons of India, China and Africa so far exceed the ratios of increase in Christian converts. This is the fashionable argument just now, and it is wonderfully plausible. Its fallacy lies in the fact that while the increase in population goes on over all the earth, missionary efforts are as yet limited to a comparatively few districts, and that while the growth of population is at its full tide, missionary efforts are as yet only in their beginnings. Every reader of your columns who knows anything of history is aware that the missionary problem has always encountered this same factor in every nation that has been won to Christianity. Intelligent men cannot be ignorant of the fact that when the missionary work of the Christian Church began, all the nations now called Christian were in the depths of heathenism, and that Britain, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany and all the European nations have been won by the same seeminJly inadequate means. For a very long time (much longer than is now required) there was a great disproportion between the numbers of the converts and the annual increase of population, and if it be said that he populations did not then increase as rapidly as now, it should also be remembered that the means and agencies then at hand bore no comparison with those which the Ohristian nations now possess. Yet notwithstanding the scanty means then employed, the time came when the ratio of converts overtook the increase of population, and this has been the law of Ohristian growth in all lands.
The true comparison lies not in the totals of increase, but in percentages of increase. Some of the enlightened Anglo-Indian statesmen of our day, like Sir William W. Hunter, Sir Richard Temple, Sir Oharles Aitcheson and others, have given special attention to this very question as illustrated in the census reports of India. Whoever will consult the July, 1888, number of the Nineteenth Cetnury, will see some instructivefiguresfrom the pen of Sir William W. Hunter on this subject, which show that the growth of the Ohristian element in India greatly exceeds either that of Mohammedanism or Hinduism not only, but exceeds four or fivefold and in some cases sixfold, the increase percent. of population. Sir Oharles Aitcheson in a recent speech at Simla, India, declared: "That while in the decade from 1871 to 1881 the population in the Madras Presidency actually decreased, the growth of Ohristians of all denominations was more than 30 per cent. In the Bengal Presi- dency the growth of population was 10.89 per cent, while the advance in the Ohristian population was more than 40 per cent." And he adds: "What is most remarkable is the fact that while the increase among . Ohristians of all other races (white men) was only 7 per cent., the in- crease among native Ohristians was 64 per cent., or six times the ratio of the general population." He also quotes the Oensus Oommissioner as saying that, "the progress made in the spread of Ohristianity in that last nine years was one of the most interesting facts brought out in the census taken." In the Northwest Province the population increased six per cent., while the number of native Ohristians advanced 54 per cent., exactly nine times as fast as the population, and the Oen- sus Oommissioner asserts that this increase extended through every division of the Northwest Provinces except one. In the Punjab there was the same story to tell. The population increased 7 per cent.: the Hindu and Mohammedan sects were practically stationary, having in- creased only a fraction of one per cent.: the adherents of the Sikh re- ligion actually declined: the Ohristian increase was 381-2 per cent., or more than five times that of the population!
These figures, which are very similar to those of. Sir William W.
Hunter, ought to suffice so far as India is concerned. H the same calculation be carried into other mission fields like Siam, or Persia, or Ohina, the per cent. of increase will be found much higher. The com- municants of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions in Siam, where the population probably does not increase more than ten per cent. each decade, have increased nearly 600 per cent. in the last de- cade, while in Ohina, where the increase in population is probably less than ten per cent., the communicants of the same Board have increased nearly 200 per cent. Fortunately we have for Ohina the total gain in all Protestant missions, and the ratio is found to be about 140 per cent. for the last ten ycars. If we take Japan, where the progress of Ohristianity is more rapid than it has ever been in any other land since the beginning of the Ohristian era, the total church membership of the Protestant missions doubles every three years. This for the last decade would be an average of over 300 per cent. for the mission work of all Protest~nt denominations. And we I1re cOllfidently informed by . judicious missionaries that in twelve years more Japan will be OJ Ohristian country. The particular work of foreign missions there, though so .recent in its beginning, will have been completed. Of course this does not imply that every individual of the 38,000,000 will have professed Christianity (such a result has not been reached in the United States) but the Japanese churches will then be able to conduct their own propagandism as a home missionary work.
Canon Taylor's article directs its attack particularly against the missions of the Church Missionary Society, but very unfairly, I think. He singles out the fields in which that society has been least successful, and where in fact it has barely made beginnings, and passes over its noblest successes. He cites two or three cases in Egypt, Persia and Arabia, leaving the impression that those are specimen fields of that grand sOCIety, and that their work is a fair sample of what is being accomplished iIi the countries named. He makes no mention of the Egyptian work of the United Presbyterians of America, whose success on the Nile has been phenomenal, nor does he even hint at the work of the Presbyterian Board in Persia, where over 2,000 are gathered in the church, and where not less than a hundred native ministers are successfully employed.
As to the quality of the members of the mission churches, he singles out a region where the iniquities of Christian nations have poured their worst influence upon a helpless and degraded people for several generations. .He selects West Africa, desolated by two centuries of the slave trade, and where even yet the delugc of whiskey, imported from Europe and even from Boston, pours its blight upon a long degraded people. N or is this all. Vice in its worst forms is propagated by the representatives of European and American commerce. Its vile and unblushing character cannot fitly be descrihed in this paper. Moreover, Canon Taylor's statements are ex parte, those of an African traveler not in sympathy with the cause of missions or of Christianity in any form, arid whose information is gathered from foreign residents who represent in persona the very vices of which I have spoken. This has heen a world-wide evil. How long were the missionaries in the Sandwich Islands and in Tahiti compelled to fight against the sailors and in many cases the naval officers of all nations who were determined to make those islands a paradise of lust? For three centuries, according to Sir William W. Hunter, the worst influences of Europe have been poured forth upon the countries now occupied as mission fields.
But great as the discouragements in West Africa have been, the result is by no means what Canon Taylor represents. There are scores of missionaries in West Africa who find such encouragement as leads them still, and faithfully, to hold on in their work in spite of all obstacles. They send their reports to a dozen different societies by which, on the whole, they are deemed encouraging, and they are in a position to judge. Are they alllia~s ? Is only this one transient traveler reliable? Are the great societies of Great Britain, many of whose administrators ha'e been over the fields, all parties to a fraud? Are these missionaries who have suffered so severely in hfe and health, so anxious to labor on for a pittance of a salary, and in great discomfort, only to support the merest sham?
In the late London Missionary Oonference,at which more than 1,500 delegates were present from all parts of the world, there was a class of men of unique character, whose testimony ought to outweigh the statements of travel~rs who spend a night or two in this or that mission station. These men have held high official position-in some cases for a score of years, in the distant colonies of Great Britain, where the work of foreign missions has gone on directlynnder their observation. They have looked upon the work from the stand-point of statesmen. They are keen observers of great social movements and were in a position to judge without bias. Among them were the Right Hon. Earl of Northbrook, ex-Governor General of India, Sir Richard Temple, Sir WiHiam W. Hunter, Sir Monier Williams, Sir William Muir, Sir Robert Thayre, Dr. Robert N. Oust, Mr. Henry Morris and others. These men acted during the sessions of the Missionary Oonference as chairmen of important meetings. Besides these, there was another class who, although not formally in the colonial service, are men of the highest character and of the broadest knowledge. For example, the Earl of Aberdeen, the President of the Oonference, Earl of Harrowby, the Bishop of Exeter, Lord Kinnard, Lord Radstock, Sir T. Fowell Buxton, Sir James P. Oorry, Sir Robert N. Fowler, Sir John H. Kennaway, Sir Risdon Bennett, and Mr. JamesP. Oampbell, M. P. These also presided at the different sessions, and several of them took part in the discussions. The following extract from the address of the Earl of Northbrook I think your readers will be inclined to accept as worthy of confidence. In speaking of men of high position who had given their sympathy and support to the cause of missions, he said: "I will speak of men whom I have known and whom many of you have known. Among civilians what greater name is there than that of John Lawrence, who always during the whole of his life supported missionaries on every opportunity? He was succeeded in the government of the Punjab by Sir Robert Montgomery, an active supporter of missions. After Sir Robert Montgomery came Sir Donald ~fcLeod, a man who on all occasions and espeCially at the Missionary Conference at Liverpool some years ago, showed his support of missionary undertakings. Now these, mind you, were not men of whom the natiyes of India felt any suspicion or want of confidence. I remember very well when I was traveling through the Punjab, that I was told that a small and peculiar sect desired to be presented to me. They were pt'esented, and this turned out to be a sect who worshiped the photograph of Sir Donald McLeod. There was no man probably who had so much influence with the natives as he, and he was a warm advoc~te of Christian missions.
THl;: CHINA INLAND
You all know that Sir William Muir, when Governor of the NorthwestProvinces, openly showed his support of mission work, and Sir Charles Aitcheson, who occupied the post of Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab, and who is now one of the members of the Council, has also been an active supporter of mission work. Then there are Sir Richal'd Temple, Sir Richard Thompson; Sir Charles Be1'llard, Henry S. Tucker and others. There is the almost equally distinguished brother of Lord Lawrence. Henry Lawrence. There wereHel'- bert Edwardes, Reynell Taylor, Henry Havelock, and in fact nearly all the men who came forward at the time of the mutiny and through whose exertions the British Empire in India was preserved. I say this for two reasons, I say it first because when you are told that these missionary societies are nonsense, supported by a pack of old women, then you may point to these menthe best statesmen and the best soldiers of India, who have by their lives and on every occasion on which they could, supported mission work. And I say it besides, because I wish to point out that these are men in whom morethan in any others the natives of India, whether Christians or not, had the greatest confidence.
"Now a few words as to the result of the work we have been dOing, and the prospects of it. Did any of you read the telegram in the Times the other day? Of all the men 1 ever knew Sir Charles Aitcheson is the most careful and accurate, and (according to the telegram) he said at a meeting at Simla, 'Christianity is advancing five times faster than the growth of the population, and is making greater progress than at any time since the Apostolic period.'''
Other points in Canon Taylor's article challenge reply, but the above will suffice.
THE CHINA INLAND MISSION. BY PROF. HOMER B. HULBERT, SEOUL, KOREA. IT is quite natural that missionary interest among the people of America should be largely confined to those fields which are manned by missionaries from that country. At the same time it must not be forgotten that there are vast missionary movements which have not as yet drawn upon America for workers or funds to any considerable extent and so have not been brought forcibly before the Christian public of that country. Such an one is the" China Inland Mission," the very principle of whose organization, which I am about to give, is of such a kind as to keep it rather out of the public eye than conspicuously in it. We desire to present to the readers of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD a few facts showing how great a work has been done, and is being done, by an organization of which comparatively little is known in America. And it is because that within the last three months that society has begun for .the first time to draw upon our country for workers and funds that I deem the subject worthy of special interest on our side of the Atlantic. The statements herein contained were given me directly by the Rev. Hudson Taylor, and it is by his kind permission that I am able to present them. In order to set forth the subject with fairness, we must look back to the year 1865, in which the mission was founded. Rev. J. Hudson Taylor first went to China under the" Chinese Evangelization Society" of England as a medical worker in 1853, but because of illhealth was obliged to return in 1860, yet it was with a deep determination to stir up active iuterest among Christians at home. His efforts led to the founding of the new movement, the one of which we are speaking. A prominent feature from the' first was the desire and determination that it should not encroach upon fields already provided for, and that it should not divert men or means from any of the previously existing societies. These fundamental principles were laid down and have been strictly adhered to ever since. They were as follows: (1) Duly qualified candidates for missionary labor should be accepted without restriction as to denomination, provided there was soundness in the faith in all fundamental truths.
(2) All who go out as missionaries should go out in dependence upon God for temporal supplies, with the clear understanding that the mission does not guarantee any income whatever; and knowing that, as the mission does not run into debt, it can minister to those connected with it only as the funds sent in from time to time may allow.
(3) There shall be no collections taken up on behalf of this mission and there shall be no personal solicitation of money.
These principles are widely different from'those adopted by a large majority of mission societies, and for that reason the working and the results under them ought to be carefully examined by all interested in the foreign work. In 1885 it was seen that in the whole empire of China, with its 300,000,000 souls, there were 97 Protestant missionaries, and these were confined almost entirely to the sea-ports. Eleven out of the eighteen provinces were without a single resident missionary. It was this melancholy fact which led to the inauguration of a new movement. , In May, 1866, Rev. Mr. Taylor sailed again for China, accompanied by fifteen laborers, funds having been sent in by individuals throughout England, though unsolicited. We have seen already that in the selection of these men there 'was no recognition of denominational differences. Episcopalians, Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Congregationalists, were all looked upon as followers of Christ, and their distinctions ended. Education and culture were not considered qualifications in themselves. The university graduate was a no more acceptable candidate than one who had enjoyed only a common school education. But capacity for attainment was an indispensable qualification. The organization itself was prepared to give a man just the kind of education that would fit him for the best and most thorough work on the field. But above and beyond all other things, the 8piritua~ condition and attainments of the candidate were examined into. The question was raised, "How has this person used the opportunities for spiritual development which have been at his command?;' Also, "What are the evidences of his deep and thorough consecration?" Of course in answering these inquiries evidence ,was gathered from various sources; and l'ight here the objection may be made that this is a questionable way to do-to hunt up a man's record so carefully and pry into his affairs. But anyone who has followed up the history of missions, through its dark as well as its bright phases, and has marked the injury done in times past through neglect in this particular-the retrogressions that have followed unconsecrated labor-will say that too great care in the selection of workers is impossible. As to theological beliefs, each applicant is required to satisfy the committee as to his belief in the following points: (1) The inspiration of. the whole canonical Seripture. (2) The Bible the ultimate and only rule and guide for the Christian. (3) The rrrimty. (4) The pollution of the whole 'race through the fall of Adam. (5) The atoning merit of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (6) Future rewards and punishments. (7) The limitation of probation to this life.
The applicant subscribing to these few propositions as being his settled belief, gives a solemn written guarantee that should his belief in any of them undergo a change he will immediately retire from the work. -Then with the assurance that he will be put where there will be plenty of work for the Maflter, and that his physical wants will be provided for as well as possible by the organization, but without guarantee of definite salary, he goes forth to Inland China. And now another peculiarity of this work comes out. As the person reaches China, he or she immediately adopts the Chinese dress, and so far as possible, Chinese customs. Living in native houses, eating native food, using native methods of transportation, but all this without any atteIl4Pt to disguise his nationality or his intentions as r'lgards evan~ gelization.
We have said that this work began in 1865, and from that time until the present day the results have confirmed the founders in their adherence to the principles which were adopted at first, the first and all-important one being entire dependence upon God. Hundreds of men and women have thrown themselves body and soul into the work, piercing to the remotest corners of the empire, overcoming every obstacle. Repulsed, baffled, persecuted, they struggled on with heroic perseverance until out of eleven provinces which in 1865 contained not a single missionary, nine have to-day resident missionaries and the other two are entered and traversed from time to time in itinerant work. When I say that the work is comprehensive I give no idea of the vast area covered by the Inland Mission. Its laborers may be found from the borders of the Mongolian desert and the boundary line of Siberia. on the north, to the banks of the Bramapootra river and the valleys of the Himalayas on the south, from the Pacific Ocean on the east to the borders of Turkestan and the unknown plateau of 'l'hibet on the west.
Shanghai is th~ business and distributing center. All workers enter at this point, and after securing their Chinese outfit, board one of the Yang Tse river steamers and ascend that stream a few hundred miles, when they reach a city where the mission has a training seminary for ladies, and a little farther on a similar one for gentlemen. Having spent a year or so at these places training for their work they are drafted off to their respective fields. Some settle in stations near the coast, while others reach their fields only after continuous travel for five months over almost impassable mountain ranges, burning deserts, and swollen rivers till they penetrate to regions where the gospel never shone, where the banner of Christ's Church has never been unfurled. Some people think that the romance of missions is a thing of the past, ' but could the unrecorded histories of many and many, of these men be put before the world they would fascinate more powerfully than fiction, and kindle more enthusiasm than all other appeals combined. Some settle in teeming cities, surronnded by envious and hostile eyes, others attach themselves to nomadic tribes of Mongol Tartars, living in miserable tents, and roving from place, to place, no fixed home, no familiar fireside, but wandering over the Tartar plains at the will of wild chieftains, or as the scantiness of pasturage for flocks demands. , And there lies the lofty plateau of Thibet, a terra incognita, almost mythical" which for a hundred years has hardly been pressed by a for- eign foot, but to-day the workers of the Inland Mission are on its bor- ders and have been offered by local Thibetan officials the opportunity of entering the country of the Grand Llama quietly and without danger of molestation. It is only a matter of months before Christianity will be knocking at the doors of Llamaistic faith, so long left unassailed. The plan of this mission is to carry out its work on great lines aease of communication or density of popUlation shall indicate. One line, starting at Shanghai, follows up the Yang Tse a distance of 2,000 miles, with stations at intervals and at that point, the river being navi- gable no farther, it pushes out across the country and continues the chain to the borders of Burmah and the Himalayas. At the point where the river Han debouches into the Yang Tse another line begins, which, following up that river, has reached the confines of Thibet, and round- ing the northern part of that province is pushing westward toward Kasgar and the Caspian. The running of such lines of work renders mutual helpfulness much more practicable. To-day there are 300 workers under this mission, with an income, all told, of $170,000 a year. I will give no statistics of the work further than to say that it has been wonderfully prospered in almost every province. Those who are w.on to Christ instead of being made to feel that their becoming Christians will prove of pecuniary benefit to them, are from the very,
ULPBILAS AND THE GOTHIC
first made to feel the importance of giving of their substance for the support of native workers. This is a most severe test of the sincerity of the convert and leads one to believe that the result will be lasting.
A word in regard to America's participation. in this work, Rev. Mr. Taylor on his way from England to Ohina stopped in the United States last summer, and while there was invited by Mr. D. L. Moody to address the young ladies of the Northfield, Mass., Seminary in regard to the Inland Mission. It aroused great enthusiasm. Later he addressed a convention at Niagara which awakened such interest that, to his surprise, enough money was pledged for the support of eight new workers in Ohina. With these means at hand he made a strong appeal for workers, and before the summer was over there had been over 75 applications. Fourteen were selected and are now on their way to Ohina. I Thus, America is becoming identified in a work which can truly be called one of the most extensive and important now on foot for the evangelization of the world. Remember that (1), it is unsectarian; (2), it demands adhesion simply to the fundamental doctrines accepted by aU evangelical denominations; (3), it uses no persuasion or solicitation to procure funds, using simply the medium of prayer and never, during twenty-three years, has that Bource failed.
Does not this come near the ideal of a mission movement? And now that it has come home to us, by drawing upon us for men and means, shall we not follow them with our prayers and our efforts?
ULPHILAS AND THE GOTHIC BIBLE.
BY JAMES M. ;LUDLOW, D.D., LITT. D, THE Goths were the mightiest of those great n!1tions of half-savage people, Barbarians as they were called, who poured down from Northern Europe and destroyed the Roman Empire. They swept over Italy antl Greece, and across the Mediterranean the coasts of Africa trembled beneath the shock of their on-rolling power.
But though the Goths crushed the mightiest of empires, they were not to found one for themselves, nor even to maintain their own racial existence. There are now no representative Gothic powers nor pure Gothic people. Providence, however, had for them a wider mission. They melted into the peoples they conquered, so that Gothic blood and Gothic language are the best ingredients in the civilization of Europe and A-merica. We belong to the Teutonic race, embracing the German, Dutch and Anglo-Saxon; but the whole Teutonic brotherhood is partly Gothic. An expert would recognize the Gothic cast in almost all our faces, and the Gothic words in our common conversation. Here is the Lord's Prayer in ancient Gothic. We can almost understand it without prompting-" Unsar Atta tIm in himinam. Weihnai namo thein. Wairthai wilja theins swe in himina jah ana airthai," etc.
It is a most interesting !act that we are indebted for the richest part of our language to what a single Christian missionary did among these Goths 1,500 years ago. At that time this people had no written speech. They made sounds which they mutually understood, but their language was only. in the air. There was nothing to preserve its form. The story of the making of this written language is the story of Ulphilas and his Bible. He is therefore called in history "The Father of Teutonic Literature."
Ulphilas was born in 311 A.D. The wild Goths were in the habit of breaking across the Danube, raiding the country of the Christians, and carrying away captives. According to tradition the ancestors of Ulphilas had been such captives. He was certainly born among the Goths, whether of foreign extraction or not. When twenty-one years of age he was sent to Constantinople, it would seem as a hostage, or, perhaps, as 1j.n envoy; for the marvelous genius he afterward displayed must 'have been recognized by the duller-minded Barbarians among whom he lived. While at Constantinople he mastered the Greek and Latin languages, and imbibed fully the spirit of the Christianity with which he was -brought into contact. He became a semi- Arian Christian. After nine years' residence in Constantinople, where he served as a Bible-reader among his Gothic countrymen, multitudes of whom came there, he was solemnly ordained as a missionary bishop to his kindred in their northern homes. Though but thirty years of age he drew to him vast hordes of the barbaric people, organized them into civil so~iety, and became their virtual ruler, as well as minister. His popularity soon drew down upon him the wrath of the still pagan king of the Visigoths.. who waged upon him and his followers a war of extermination. Ulphilas, obtaining consent of the Roman emperor, Constantius, selected a new country south of the Danube, and led his people forth, as our fathers crossed the Atlantic for the sake of liberty of conscience, as Moses led the people out of persecuting Egypt. Hence Ulphilas is known as the "Moses of the Goths." In those Mresian valleys just north of the Balkans, which are now the envy of Russian and Turk, Servian and Bulgarian, he found his Canaan, and for thirty years more lived as the father of the people he had saved.
His great work was giving his people the Bible in their own tongue. But how could he do this wheu they had no writing, or, if any, only some rudimentary forms which hardly anybody understood? He must first invent an alphabet. Then he must crystallize the rude sound language into visible shape, translate from the ear for the eye. To do this must have been the work of a tremendous toiler, who at the same time WlS a superb genius. We may doubt if any man ever undertook such a task, save under the direct impulse of the Spirit of God. Written language is ordinarily the slow development of centuries, the exceptions being those cases where that superhuman sort of zeal to do Christ's work and give the Bible to the people has not let the missionary falter at the mighty task of first framing for them a speech in which to read the sacred oracles.
Gibbon, sneering whenever he could at things Ohristian, had only words of marvel and praise for the character and literary exploit of Ulphilas. He wrote (Vol. IlL, p. 541, Harper'se dition): The Goths "were indebted for their conversion to a countryman, or, at least, to a. subject, worthy to be ranked among the inventors of useful arts, who have deserved the remembrance and. gratitude of posterity. . . • He executed the arduous task of translating the Scriptures into their native tongue. . . . The rude, imperfect idiom of soldiers and shepherds, so ill qualified to communicate any spiritual ideas, was improved and modulated by his gellius ; and Ulphilas, before he could frame his vet -' sion, was obliged to compose a new alphabet of twenty-four letters, four of which he invented, to express the peculiar sounds that were unknown to the Greek and Latin prollunciation."
Max Muller ir. his" Science of Language" (VoL 1., p. 188) pauses to pay reverential tribute to this great consecrated genius: "Ulphilas must have been a man of extraordinary power to conceive, fOl; the first time, the idea of translating the Bible into the vulgar language of his people. At his time there existed in Europe but two languages which a Ohristian bishop would have thought himself justified in employing, Greek and Latin. All other languages were still considered as barbarous. It required a prophetic sight, and a faith in the destinies of these half-savage tribes, and a conviction also of the utter effeteness of the Roman and Byzantine empires, before a bishop could have brought himself to translate the Bible into the vulgar dialect of his barbarous coun trymen."
For many years Ulphilas was spared to his people, in his piety their exemplar, in his wisdom their counselor, by both exalted in popular ,estimate as their prophet. At seventy he was aged perhaps more by outward hardship as the leader of his rude tribes, and by the long confinement of his study, than by years. At this time a new emperor, I rl'heodosius, had come to the Roman throne. He was an orthodox Ohristian, and determined to crush out the Arian faith. The city of Oonstantinople was seething with riots between the two parties. The Emperor summoned Ulphilas to his court, whether to receive punishment as a leader of the heretical Barbarians, or that he might act as a peace-maker between the hostile sects whose contentions menaced the unity of the empire, we do not know. He crossed the Balkans and appeared in Oonstantinople, in repute, perhaps, the fairest man of his age, his decrepitude almost transfigured by the veneration in which he was held. But he had scarcely entered. the capital when his laborw~rn frame gave way, and the giver of speech to a race was called to learn the new language of heaven.
But the fragrance of Ulphilas' life never died out. His Gothic Bible
THE DISTRmUTION OF MISSIONARY AGENTS
was for five hundred years the sacred text-book of Italy and Spain, where the descendants of the Barbarians had become the guardians of all that was left of the civilization they had overthrown. ./ The very expressions of thai Bible as he had written them were the molds In which was cast the religious sentiment of Northern Europe, andlargely of our modern Christian thought.
In the year 1648 the Swedish army captured Prague. Among the spoils sent to Stockholm was a strange manuscript of Ulphilas' Bible. The vellum was originally tinted a delicate purple. Its letters are in silver, apparently stamped upon the vellum with types. Its capitals are in gold. Altogether the book is a splendid specimen of the highest art of Italy in the sixth century. About half of the entire work of Ulphilas is thus preserved on 188 skins or folios.
If all pleasant words are, as Scripture says, "like apples of gold in pictures of silver," well may this book be written in gold and silver, for it ~ot only contains the pleasant words of God to poor men, but the story of its making is one of the finest illustrations the world has 'known of man's hnmanity to man-for Ulphilas's devotion to his Goths was unsurpassed in tenderness and bravery by even the zeal of the Apostles. The gold of its letters might well have been taken from the crowns of kings, for in giving written speech to that race, the mission- ary made the Goths Christian, and secured to their descendants the glory of building the empire of modern Christendom; a work that is matched not by that of Constantine or Charlemagne.
A beautiful lesson is taught us in this story, of the incidental blessing that may follow any service offered to God. Weare wiser than we know in every act of consecration. Ulphilas had no foresight of the far-reaching results of his labors; no dream that for thousands of years the scholars and statesmen of the world would class him as chief among themselves. His plan was only to be a faithful missionary. Translating the Scriptures, with all that it involved both of labor and consequence, was incidental to missionary duty. So every Christian is but an intelligent tool giving itself into the hand of the Infinite Artist for a little work; but the tool knows not what work the artist may exe- cute therewith. Our lives are but tonches against the clay which God, the potter, is revolving on the wheel of time; and what an exquisite thing, how large a vessel he may shape with these touches we cannot now know.
THE DISTRIBUTION OF MISSIONARY AGENTS. BY REV. EDWARD STORROW, BRIGHTON, ENGLAND.
THROUGHOUT the non-Christian world with its 1,030,000,000 souls, about 5,000 European and American missionaries are placed and 30,000 native workers. About 3,000 of the latter are ordained minis- ters ; the remainder are variously employed as assistant evangelists, catechists and school-teachers. Of the former about 3,000 are or. dained ministers, 700 lay missionaries, and 1,300 lady teachers and the wives of missionaries. Valuable as the services of many of the latter are, they cannot all be regarded as effective laborers, so that to ,esti- mate the female missionary laborers at 1,300 is as high a number as accuracy will justify. .
According to these figures the proportionate number of agents sent from Europe and America to evangelize non-Ohristian races is one to 206,000, and of all Ohristian laborers one to 20,400.
In America and Great Britian, the ministers of religion are in the proportion of one to less than 1,000 of the population. The town missionary evangelists and lay preachers are equally numerous, whilst a yet greater number of Sabbath-school teachers, district visitors and general helpers in every good word and work render to the cause of religion an amount of service which cannot be too highly valned.
Apart, then, from the latter agencies, to which there is nothing analo- gous in most pagan lands, it will be seen that the distribution of avow- edly Ohristian agencies bears no fair relation to the wants of Ohristian and non-Ohristian races. Those who need the most have least.
,The Ohurch of Ohrist is responsible for the disproportion. It is neither wise, nor generous, nor benevolent. It cannot please Ohrist.
Perhaps it explains why our agencies at home are not more successful.
If we did less for ourselves, that we might do more to spread Ohrist's name and grace throughout the world, would He not by His presence and blessing more than recompense us for the sacrifice? The words of Scripture have profound relations to many things beside money.
H There is that, "etc. See Provo xi : 24, 5, etc. ; Luke vi: 38.
Missionaries are not only few, they are very unequally distributed over the non-Christian world, as will be seen by the following observa- tions, which take account of but one aspect of the mission field, the proportion of foreign missionaries to population.
The countries best supplied are North America, including Green- land and the possessions of Great Britain and the United States; the West Indies; the coast of West Africa south of the Senegal; South Africa; Madagascar; New' Zealand; Western Polynesia; European Turkey; Syria and Palestine. The countries moderately supplied are Japan, Ohina proper, Burmah, British India, Oeylon, the Dutch possessions in the East, and Egypt. The countries where there are the fewest missionaries are, S. Oentral Africa; Morocco; Algiers; Tunis; Tripoli; Northeastern Africa; New Guinea; New Britian; ,New Ireland; Oorea; Manchoria; Mongolia; Siam; Tributary India; Persia and S. America. Whilst the vast Soudan, many islands in the Indian Archipelego, Asiatic Russia, Oochin Ohina, Tonquin, Laos Thibet, Turkestan, Afghanistan and Arabia are practically without missionary agency.
At a time when the world is unfolding itself as never before, not only to our knowledge but our influence, as an opening flower to the • sun, and when the Church of God is happily eager to send forth more laborers into the harvest, it is interesting and indeed important to consider where, with the greatest advantage, fresh agencies may be employed. Of course the gospel should be preached to every creature and nothing short of a supreme attempt to win the whole hUlnan race for Christ can satisfy Him or absolve His church from its solemn re- sponsibility; but seeing that there is no probability of this being done in our day by united and well advised effort on the part of any consid- erable number of Christian communities, it may be of service to consider where missionaries may be sent with the greatest probability of find- ing "a great door and effectual opened unto them," and with the fewest advers>tries to oppose their entrance and impede their endeavors.
Assuming then that the Protestant churches of Christendom had 25 per cent. additional agents to send into the mission field, where would it be advisable to locate' them? Not necessarily where there are the fewest. 'fo us it seems that several conditions should have due weight in arriving at a decision, so as to turn the forces at our disposal to the best uses, that is, so as to avoid waste of power and secure the proba- bility, at least, of the greatest success.
'I'hat mistakes, great and varied, have been made in the location of missionaries is undoubted, but they should be judged in much charity, remembering that some missions have been founded because other spheres were not open, or in unhealthy localities, or among un- friendly races, through inadequate information, and it must be admit- ted, not seldom through more zeal than knowledge, or under the pres- sure of popular sentiment, which mission boards should have had the courage to resist. We now have an amount of knowledge and experL ence to guidens, which mission boards and societies fifty years ago and even half that time had not, and its application might with advantage take the following directions: '
1. No new mission should be established where the area and popu- lation are limited and one or more missions are already in possession.
In Sien-a Leone, for instance, and Liberia, among the North American Indians, in some of the West India Islands, and even the moreim- pOl·tant cities of India, China, and Japan, the number of societies represented is injuriously and wastefully great. On this ground the establishment of high Anglican missions in the Sandwich Islands and Madagascar, after other societies had labored alone and successfully for many years, must be condemned, alike on the ground of economy, fairnes8, discipline, and Christian charity and courtesy. And the instances here adduced, and in future paragraphs, are illustrative but by no means exhaustive. • 2. An adequate amount of knowledge of a country and its people should be obtained prior to the formation of a mission. Instances could readily be given where, through the neglect of this simple rule, some missions have had speedily to be abandoned and others have been pros- ecuted at au unforeseen cost of life and money and with no adequate results. In such instances, men have been sent out, who, though able in. themselves, have. been ill suited to the spheres in which they were placed. Disappointment, failure, and heartache have ensued. Men capable of great things have done but little; money has been wasted, societies have been discredited, and the friends of missions 'discouraged. Mistakes of this nature were inevitable when little was known of heathen lands and races; but they are made yet, even where careful inquiries can be made, but through haste or negligence, or ill-regulated zeal are not, and some of the most expensive enter- . prises of our own time, attended with the heaviest losses in life and health, and with no adequate results, have arisen from this cause. And there is danger that such mistakes will be repeated. There is the Soudan, for instance, to which it is suggested missionaries should be sent, since now it is unoccupied. But it is one of the least-known regions. Our information respecting its population, where it concen- trates, the states into which it is divided, their political, social, and religious condition are so vague, and so far as we do know, so unprom- ising, that all operations should be suspended until our knowledge is more complete. And this is the more imperative since there are so many countries well-known which are open to almost all forms of Christian effort.
3. :Freedom to settle in a country for the avowed purpose of propa- gating Christianity is an important condition.
'rhe striking contrast between the hostility and friendship of govern- ments toward missionaries will occur to the minds of all familiar with the history of Christianity in Japan, China, India, Madagascar, and many islands in Polynesia, as well as with its earlier propagation throughout the states and tribes of medieval Europe. Of course, no government hostility can be accepted as a final bar to Christian propa- gandism, but where there are several countries, in some of which this unfriendliness prevails, and others where it does not, the strength of our resources should be concentrate,d on the latter, whilst around the former, posts only of observation as it were, should be placed to act as pioneers and to witness for Chri"t and His truth as favoring circum- stances dictate. For instance, all through British India there is free scope for almost every form of evangelization, such as there is not in most of its feudatory states; it should therefore be the chosen field for the best work and workers. On the other hand, to Afghanistan, Bok- hara, Turkestan, Central Arabia, Darpen, where the governments are bigoted, and supported in their intolerance by the fanaticism of the people, where the life of a European is not safe, and where, if he made converts, he and they WQuld most likely be massacred, no inissionary should be sent. To Morocco, Tunis, and Tripoli, which are only so much better as they are awed by the presence and fear of Europeans; to the Indians of South America, where the govern- ments are weak and corrupt and Roman Catholicism exerts its intoler- ant power, and to such settlements or possessions as those of Portugal III the Philippine Islands, and France in New Oaledonia, where bigotry on the one hand, and policy without principle on the other, render the governments subservient to the intolerance of Romanism, it is questionable if any missionary should be sent. But from a country such as Uganda, where missionaries were well received and converts made, it is not advisable voluntarily to withdraw, however cruel, capri- , cious and repulsive the monarch may be.
4. The friendly or unfriendly disposition of the people should have· due consideration. The difference in this respect between various islands in Polynesia, districts in Ohina, provinces and races in India, and tribes in Africa, is as wide as success is from failure. The disin- clination of a people to receive the ambassadors of Ohrist must be deplored and every effort should be made to remove such an unhappy prejudice, but whilst it exists effort, unless carefully used, is more likely to sharpen hostility than to subdue it.
It does not meet our contention to say that the world is usually in opposition to true and pure Ohristianity, and that the conquests of the latter have been won in spite of the former. Where Christ has most triumphed has usually been where at least numbers have had a desire for something higher and better than they possessed and there- fore have been willing to welcome whatever seemed fitted to meet their spiritual wauts. Where the attitude of mind on the part of a people resembles that of the man of Macedoni~L whom Paul saw in his vision and others that the Gadarenes who besought Christ to depart from them, the choice should be readily made.
5. The healthiness of a country merits more consideration than it usually receives. It is a fine characteristic of our age that whilst life is valued as perhaps it never was before, there are numbers prepared to go anywhere, braving danger and death for Ohrist's sake. Sierra Leone -the white man's grave as it has been callcd-and some of the missions in Central Africa, afford ample evidence that the martyr spirit yet lives. But whilst a missionary should be ready to sacrifice his life for the gospel's sake, his desire should be to liYe and work. This is the primary aim of his appointment. And to secure this should be the aim of those who send him as their representative. Theirs is a solemn responsibility. Apart from higher considerations of the value and sacred- ness of human life to an individual and relatives, a missionary has value as a trained and selected agent sent out for an important purpose at much cost and not easily replaced. Risks in sending out such are in- . evitable, but it is important that they be minimized. And they may be in various ways. For instance, the .constitutional adaptability of a. missionary to a climate should be considered. He should be sent so as to enter on his sphere at the least unhealthy time of the year. Only small bands of missionaries should be sent to unhealthy regions until they have been explored and the least unfavorable localities for settlement discovered, or some great opening for extended usefulness justifies more hazardous enterprise.
6. The probability of continuous labor uninterrupted by war or revolution should have great weight. Contingencies in these directions must be accepted in many instances. There is not a mission in all Africa beyond the British possessions and Little Liberia free from this danger. And in these instances the risk must be accepted. But where adjacent countries present these alternatives or the probability of their occur- rence this should have great weight. Until the Burmese Empire was conquered missionary labor was confined to the British Provinces on the sea-coast. Tonquin and Cochin China are wisely avoided for China on the one side and Siam on the other, as Dahomy and Ashanti are for Liberia to the west and the states on the Niger to the east.
7. The inexpensiveness of a mission and the probability of self-sup- port should be considered. Missionary funds should be administered with the utmost care and economy. They are almost always inade- quate to the work to be done, and therefore if higher considerations . do not intervene the spheres where most work can be done in the shortest time at the least cost and with the greatest results should have a preference. And also for a reason other than that of economy.
The results of missions, alike on their friends and enemies, are of the utmost importance. If with great expenditure there be but meager results the former are discouraged and the latter gain a weapon of attack they can use with great force, as recent incidents have shown; if on the other hand the results are rapidly gained and at a small cost other enterprises can afford to be undertaken and the desire to do so is greatly stimulated. Instances of discouragement could easily be cited; it is more agJ'eeable to indicate the effects of success. The speedy success and great results in money and agencies, with but moderate expenditure, of the Baptist Society in the West Indies; the London Society in Polynesia and Madagascar; the Wesleyans in Fiji; the Church Society in Tinnevelly, and the American Board in the Sandwich Islands, have done more to gain for these societies prestige, popularity, and support than any other causes that can be named. Not only have these demonstrated the efficiency of missions to convert the heathen and to elevate them; self-supporting churches ha,:e been formed, large contributions to missionary enterprises have been per- manently secured, and numerous agents have been obtained to minister to the native churches or to become missionaries to lands yet unevan- gelized.
IMPORTANT EVENTS IN PAPAL LANDS
It is not my intention to apply these principles by indicating more definitely where new misHions should be formed or existing ones enlarged. This must be left to mission boards and the judgment of individuals seeking spheres for themselves or others. But the 'principles themselves we hold to be sound and of the utmost importance. To have acted on them in the past was not always practicable through lack of information and experience, but to act on them now is imperative if we would use well our resources, deal justly and honorably with Christian brethren of other churches, and secure the largest results with the resources at our disposal.
IMPORTANT EVENTS IN PAPAL LANDS.
[I BOUGHT in Paris in August last a very remarkable book. It bears the name" Le8 Saints Evangele.9," Traduction Nouvelle, par Henri La88erre. It has a most significant history bearing npon modern missions.-A. T. P.] I HENRI LASSERRE is a devout Roman Catholic. He I'ead the Scriptures and saw that his nation needed the gospel in the vernacular. In the preface of this edition of the Holy Gospels he says: "It is a notorious fact that of a hundred persons who pl'actiee the sacraments, there is seldom one who has eve!' opened the Gospels. The book pal' excellence; the book whose teachings have changed the face of the world; the book which is found everywhere, which is quoted each day; the book which God placed in the foundations of the church-namely the gospel-is in reality rarely read by those who profess to be fervent Catholics, and never read by the multitude of the faithful."
M. Lasserre himse!f undertook a translation of the four gospels into a sort of idiomatic, popular and very attractive rendering. And. strange to say, he obtained not only the imprimatul' of the Archbishop of Paris, but thc sanction of the Pope!
Our tl'Ue yokefellow, Rev. Dr. A. J. Gordon, in the Morning Star, has told the story of the recent" Emancipation of the Bible in Papal Lands," and of the extraordinary blessing which is following, and we take the liberty to make copious extracts from his admirable pen. He says: " M. Lasserre did not give a bare, literal rendering, but rather threw the whole into a free translation, in which the meanin!!' was, for the most part, admirably preserved. The divisions of chapter and verse were dispensed with, technical terms avoided, and familiar and ~olloqnial phrases substituted in their stead. It is, printed in two forms; the one a plain and neat volume of 500 pages, and the other a splendid illustrated edition, the engravings of which are of the most exqnisite character.
~.. Pope after pope has forbidden the translation of the Scriptures into the vulgar tongue, and the readiug of the same by the common people. When Wycklilfe sent out his version of the Bible, Pppe Gregory condemned it by a bull, denouncing the conduct of the great reformer, in presnming t';give the Scriptures to the commOn people, as a' de'estable kind of wickedness.' Pope Pius vn. cursed Bible societies as 'a crafty device b,1I which the very foundations of re:/gion are undermined,' and as ' a pe8tilence dangerous to Ohri¢ianity.' But llave not the times changed?
Henri Lasserre expresses himself plainly on thls point, declaring that the Catholic Church, withcnt absolutely prohibitiug the Scriptures, ' sims at taking out of the hands of the faithful the Divine Book, which is the fonndation of our faith, and substituting' for it the devotional works of the church.' This he regards as a great calamity, and adds, 'We must lead back the faithfnl to the great fountains of living water which flow from the inspired Book. We must make them hear, taste, and relish the direct lessons of the Saviour; the words full of grace and truth which fell from His lips.' Well I strange to 'say, some of the light of the Reformation, and of modern ideas, has penetrated even into the Vatican. The Archbishop of Paris shared Lasserre's desire that the French people shonld have the Gospels in their own tongue. He commend'ed his work to the Pope, and, astonishing to relate, the Pope gave the work his formal sanction. Here is a copy of It. " , To M. Henri Lasserre, of Paris. .. • Most llinstrions Seigneur: .. , The Holy Father has received in regular course the French translation of the Holy Gospels which yon have nndertaken and accomplished, to the delight, and with the approval of, the Archi- episcopal anthority• .. His Holiness commissions me to express to yon his approval of the object with which yon bave been illspired in the execntion and pnblication of that work so fnll of interest. He thanks yon for tbe homage of filial devotion wbich accompanies tbe volume whicb yon offer to bim ; and he cbarges me to make known to yon his earnest desire tbat the object wbich yon pnrsne and which yon indicate in the preface of yonr book may be fnlly attained.
'" Yielding most willingly to your desire, His Holiness sends yon, from tbe bottom of bis beart, his apostolic benediction.
.. , And I myself profit by this opportunity to declare myself, with much esteem, " • Rome, 4th IJec., 1888.' h 'Your very affectionate servant; … L. Cardinal J ACOBINI.
"With the imprimatur of the Archbishop of Paris, and tbe official approval of the Pope, the work was put to press.
" Astonishing as was the Pope's indorsement, still more so its reception by the Catholic people of France. Edition after edition was sent out, the press and the bindery being hardly able to keep within the demand, till, within twelve months, twenty-flve editions had been sold, amounting to 100,000 copies. It seemed as though France, long bound in darkness, was about to become a nation of Bible readers, and to shake herself free forever from the bonds of her ignorance. As a mere publishing venture, one bas called this' the greate$t bookselling success of the century.' But as a triumph of the Bible, wbat shall we say of it? We can only read the story with amazement, as an indication of hunger for the trnth, which proves France to be the most open to the gospel of any n~tion on the Continent to-day.
"But now comes the astonishing thing. No sooner has this great achievement in the distribu- tion of the gospel begun, than the thunders of tbe Vatican are heard condemning what a little while ago was sanctioned. The infallibl9 malediction now falls upon the same book that a little while ago received the infallible benediction. •Doth the same fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter f' asks the Apostle James. Yes, marvelous to tell, this fountain of infallibility which was opened at Rome in 1870 can bless and curse from the same month; and can bless and curse the same identical thing with the same mouth. Yes, and here is a copy of the· papal decree of prohibition: (TI amiatllm.) "'DECREE.
" 'MONDAY, December 19, 1887.
" , The sacred congregation of the most· eminent and re"erend cardinals of the holy Roman Church, by our Most Holy Lord Pope Leo xm. and the holy Apostolic See appointed and delegated for the index of books of degraded doctrine, 'and for proscribing, expurgating, and sanctioning the same thronghout the whole Christian State, held in the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican on Deo.
19,1887, condemned and condemns, proscribed and proscribes, or if previonsly condemned and proscribed, commanded and commands, the following works to be put on the index of forbidden books: ,;. Les Ba'ints Eva'ngiles, t;aduct;.M" nouvell~, par Henri Las;erre. Paris, 1887.
;0 •" , And let no'one of ~hatsoev~r rank o~ condition dare i~ any pl~ce or in 'any tongue, either to pnblish in the future, or if published to "ead or to retain the forementioned condemned and proscribed works, but let him be held bound to deliver them to the Ordinaries of the place, or to the Inqnisitors of heretical iniqnity, nnder the penalties proclaimed in the Index offorbidden books.
'" These having been referred to Our Most Holy Lord Pope Leo XTI!. from the Secret Counsels of the Sacred Congregation of the Index, by me the undersigned, His Holiness approved the decree and ordered it to be issued. In token whereof, etc.
"Granted at Rome on December 20, 1887. "'Fr, THOMAS MARIA, Card. MARTINELLI, .,. Epiec_ Sabinen Praef. Fr. HIERONYMUS PIUS SACCHERI, " 'Ord. Praed. B. Ind. Con greg. a Beare/is.'
.. And so as a loyal Catholic, Henri Lasserre has been obliged to suppress his translation of the gospel, and to do what he can to pnt it out of circulation. And the great conrt of ecclesiastics, cardinals, archbishops, and priests say Amen I How long will the intelligence of nineteenth century Catholicism endure such holy prevarication as this and name it church authority f The same identical thing called white to-day and black to-morrow; blessed to-day and curaed to-morrow; and all by an infallible month, which can speak nothing but trnth I "Bnt what was really a Jesuit blow at the Scriptures has turned out for their still wider distribution. Lasserre's edition of the gospel still lives on iu spite of papa.l anathemas, and the tidings ofjts success have moved others to follow in his steps:
APRIL
.. For I~stance, in Milan, Signor Sonzogno, the proprietor of a leading daily paper, has commenced to publish a popular Italian edition of the Bible in half-penny numbers. He sees that there is~money to be made in the venture, learning this from the history of Henri Lasserre's work in France. But this is not all. This Catholic publisher is anxious for the moral elevation of his nation. He sees plainly that the reading of the Scriptures, and their incorporation into the life of the people, wiJI be a mighty means to this end. In his paper, the See%, he pays a high tribute to the Bible, in announcing his neW plan for its publica_ tion. He says: ". There is one book that gathers up the poetry and the science of humanity, and that book is the Bible: and with this book no other work In any literature can be compared. It is a book that Newton read constantly, that Cromwell carried in his saddle, and that Voltaire kept always on his study table. It is a book which believers aud unbelievers alike should study, and that ought to be found in every house.'
"But can this book be circulated in Italy, where within the present year priests have secured the arrest and imprisonment of colporteurs for distributing the Bible f Ah I but that is old Italy. The Parliament has made all that impossible now by its recent act of religious toleration. It can not be done with this Milan editor as was done with Henri Lasserre. Fifty thousand copies of the first number of this Italian translation were sold in one week. And such has been the emancipation of Italy from the Pope that though a thousand bulls were issued against the work, it probably would not interfere with its sale. And now the enterprise is becoming contagious. In Spain the darkness is denser than in any country in Europe. But a secular paper in Barcelona-such is the latest newshas made arrangements to publish a Spanish edition of the Bible after the same plan as the Italian • .. Now to me this seems to be the most marvelouE event of recent times. It is certainly a fact that continental Europe is being rapidly emancipated from the chains of darkness and error that have sc.long bonnd it. Italy and France have hoth abolished the parochial school as dangerous to the IibE'rty of the country, and both France and Italy are reaching out lor the Bible as the best nurse and conservator of that liberty already acquired. We a.re called to rejoice and be glad at these remarkable events; but especially to prayer and eternal viligancE',lest the chains which long-sufferingltaly and France are shaking off may be bound upon free America. These countries have abolished the parochial school because nurseries of disloyalty, since they would train the children to pay their first allegiance to the Pope instead of to the state. And yet in the legislature of six different S~ates last year bills were intr oduced for the di vision of the taxes of the State-support of parochial schools. The same power that has forbidden the reading of Henri Lasserre's Bible in France would forbid the reading in our public schools, and has done so in repeated instances. Let us have charity in all our religious discussions, butfet us look to it that our charity does not give.away the priceless inheritance which we have received from our liberty-loving fathers."
GAVAZZI. ALESSANDRO GAVAZZI, the celebrated Italian preacher who died recently, in his eightieth· year, was known as Fath~r Gavazzi, and has lectured in America first in 1850, and afterward in 1873. He was one of the most re- markablemen of his day. He was born in Bologna in 1809, joined the orderoi the Barnabites in 1825, and subsequently at Naples held the chaiI' of rhetoric. He reminded us of Savonarola in his religious zeal, of Victor Emmanuel in his generalship, and of Daniel O'Connell as a political agitator. He was in Rome at the outbreak of the Revolution in Lombardy, and in the Pantheon delivered a funeral oration in behalf of those who fell in that conflict. Then and afterward, untilltaly became free, he made appeals in behalf of national independence that were as passionate and eloquent as Patrick Henry'S in the era of our own Revolution. The- Pope appointed him Almoner of the Roman Legion which was dispatched to Vicenza, and the people called him Pietro Eremita, Peter the Hermit, of the national crusade. In Venice crowds thronged St. Mark's Place to hear his fearless addresses, and his eloquence moved them to give money to carryon the war. Pius IX. as the Revolution gained ground, recalled his army to the Eternal City. Gavazzi went to Florence, and, when driven thence, to Genoa; thell being recalled to Bologna, the people 'rho had taken a bold stand ag!1inst papal domination rallied
SIR WlLLIAlt HUNTIllR ON 'l'llE RlllLratoNs OF INf>IA
round him withgreat enthusiasm; and the r('publican government made him chief chaplain of the army. After the French occupation of Rome in 1849 he took refuge in England, where for more than thirty years he has found, at least, an occasional home. He has been known in this country chiefly as a politico-religious orator. He has lectured all over the United States and Canada and Great Britain, vehemently protesting against the errors and delusions of the papacy. No more powerful orator ever spoke to American assemblies. Graceful, accomplished, impassioned and intrepid; with wondel'- ful command of language, marvelous facility and felicity of vocal inflection, and singular effectiveness of gesture, he held vast throngs under the peculiar spell of his magnetic presence. We remember to have heard him when, as yet, old TripIer Hallin New York was standing, and though it is more than thirty years ago, the impression is perfectly fresh and vivid. He wore along, black doctor's gown that swept the floor and hung in full folds about him. That gown he used more effectively and variously than Mr. Gough ever used his" coat-tails." For example, when speaking of the delusions of the papacy, he would gather up the loose and ample skirt of his robe and peer into the hidden recesses behind it, and describe what was there concealed, until you could scarcely persuade yourself that he actually saw nothing; then after curiosity had been wrought up to an extreme, and the imagination had taken judgment captive, he would slowly sway his long arms to each side and carry with them the capacious folds of his mantle, until the emptiness was revealed; and so he would illustrate the hollowness of papal pretensions and promises. That same robe represented the dark secrets of the confessional, the horrors of the Inquisition, the superstitious appeals of purgatory, the systematic deceptions of the priesthood, the elaborate ritualism that obscured the true worship of God; and every other error or evil of the Roman Catholic Church. Now he would let it hang loosely about him; again he would gather it tightly around his person and fold his arms; again he would rapidly stride across the stage with its long folds sweeping through the air; or again he would raise it about his head, and speak from behind it, or reach out his arms to their fullest extent until he looked like some monster bird with out-spread wings like a bat. He was a mighty man of valor. Italy owes to him an immeasurable debt, politically and religiously. He was a man raised up by God in the crisis of his country, to stand in the breach. He was as bold as John Knox, as out-spoken as Luther, and as fervent as Whitefield. Cav. Matt~o Prochet was, in some respects, his complement, and we rejoice that this noble man still survives to conduct the work of Italian evangelization for which Gavazzi largely prepared the way.-A. T. P.
SIR WILLIAM HUNTER ON THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA.
DR. THoBuRN, of the Methodist Episcopal Mission in North India, is reyorted as saying, that everything in India indicates that before long there will be there an expansion of missionary effort which will break through the present l'ange of expectation, throwing back all that has been done hitherto into the rank of a merely introductory work. This is highly probable, and a presage of it seems to be afforded in the rapidly ascending scale within the pt'esent stage of efforts and results. Another thing which gives encouragement for the belief that an epoch of rapid largeness of development in the missions of India is at hand is, that the lines of the problem, the rational grounds and limitations of forecast as to the calculable future are fast coming into distinctness, and thus affording a basis for the more definite formation and more resolute prosecution of plans of evangelization, and also for a more definite co-ordination of the work as a whole.
This view of the probable future of the missionary work in India is quite in line with a profoundly interesting paper on the Religions of India, lately read by Sir William Wilson Hunter before the Indian Section of the Society of Arts, in London, and reported in full in the Times. It reveals the correlation of the three great spiritual forces of India-Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity-with a distinctness which appears to render it an invaluable basis of forecast.
It has slowly come to be understood, at least by some, that Hinduism, though utterly incapable of being, like Christianity, a missionary religion for the world, 01' like Islam, for two parts of the world, or like Buddhi~m, for Asia generally, being absolutely territorial, is yet, within its own sacred land, not only a missionary religion, but the chief missionary religion, having annually, it is said, more accessions by far than either Christianity or Mohammedanism. After 4,000 years of occupancy, it has not yet by any means closed up its assimilation of aboriginal tribes. And according to Sir William Hunter, there are still in India fifty millions of human beings lying outside or barely inside the pale of orthodox Hinduism and Islam. Here, he holds, is the line of least resistancfl, along which the church is called to regard it as her principal immediate duty to advance. He says: "I believe that within fifty years these fifty millions will be absorbed into one or other of the higher faiths, and that it rests in no small measure with Christian England whether they are chiefly incorporated into the native religions or into Ch!'istianity." This ",hows, as Sir William remarks, that Christianity in India has a vast area of extension opened before it, even if it should not for an indefinite length of time lessen the numbers, or even stay the advance, of Hinduism and Mohammedanism. One-fifth of the people of India is a prize worth trying for, even according to the canons of ordinary probability.
Islam has another fifth of the people of India, and these, both according to Sir William and to the author of an article only less important than his, published in the Febt>uary Contemporary, are yery far from having been principally won by the sword. Indeed, az'ound the three centers of Mohammedan rule, Delhi, Agm, and Lucknow, the Mohammedans are under fourteen pel' cent. of the population, while in Lower Bengal they are thirty-one per cent. Islam, Sit> William shows, while not forgetting its advantages of conquest, a,nd its obJigations to violent conversion of its Hindu subjects, did also what the church is invited tp do, plunged among the teeming millions of the lower races, "fishermen, hnbters, pirates, and low-caste tillers of the soil, whom Hinduism had barely admitted within its pale." To these, he says, " Islam came as a revelation from on high. It was the creed of the governing race; its missionaries were men of zeal who brought the gospel of the unity of God and the equality of man in His sight to a despised apd neglected population." And in t.his century a great t'eligious revival has purged out the abject pagan superstitions and "fuliginous rites> of lowcaste Hinduism," amid which" the white light of Semitic monotheism had almost flickered out." But the author shows that it is unwarranted to suppose that Mohammedanism is advancing largely now in India. Of the five provinces outside the famine area of 1877, within which a religious census has been taken, the Moslem increase in one, from 1872 to 1881, has gained a good deal on the population, in two more has gained somewhat, in one has fallen behind, and in one has fallen a good deal behind. In Bengal, where Islam is strongest, the population has gained 10.89 per cent., the .religion 10.96 percent. Intellectually, it has made very rapid progress, of course, however, on lines laid out by Christian culture, within a generation, and Sit' William declares, contrary to general impressions, that" Islam in India has shown that it is perfectly able to dwell in peace and comfort in the new Indian world."
Though Christianity in India has been said to be advancing much less rapidly than Hinduism, and in several provinces much less rapidJy than Mohammedanism, yet regarded as gaining on its own numbel's, it seems to be growing much faster than either. Passing over, though not with disparagement, the 1,600,000 Catholic and Syrian Christians, who do not seem to represent at present" the new disruptive force" of Christianity, the author dwells mainly upon the 600,000 Protestant Christians of India. Protestant Christianity was introduced by Danish and German Lutherans, ' who are still, though now overshadowed by the missionaries of the governing race, going quietly and steadily on. "English missionary work practically began in the last year of the last century. It owed its origin to private effort. But the three devoted men who planted this mighty English growth had to labor under the shelter of a foreign flag, and the Governor of a little Danish settlement had to refuse their surrender to a Governor-General of British India. The record of the work done by the Serampur missionaries reads like an Eastern romance. They created a prose vernacular literature for Bengal; they established the modern method of popular education; they founded the present Protestant Indian Church; they gave the first great impulse to the native pr(jlss; they set up the first steam-engine in India; with its help they introduced the modern manufacture of paper on a large scale; in ten years they translated and printed the Bible, or parts thereof, in thirty-one languages. Although they received help from their Baptist friends in England, yet the main part of their funds they earned by their own heads and hands. They built a college which still ranks among the most splendid educational edifices in India. As one contemplates its magnificent pillared facade overlooking the broad HugH River, or mounts its costly staircase of cut brass (the gift of the King of Denmark), one is lost in ltdmiration of the faith of three poor men who dared to build on so noble a scale. From their central seminary they planted out their converts into the districts, building churches and supporting pastors chiefly fl'om the pl'ofits of their boarding-school, their paper mill and printing-press. They blessed God that during their thirty-eight years of toil they were able to spend more than £50,OO(t of their own substance on his work. But when two of them had died and the third was old and broken, the enterprise proved too vast for individual effort, and the Serampur Mission was transferred to stronger hands. In death they were not divided. An evergreen circle of bamboos and palms, with delicate feathery masses of the foliage of tamarind trees, surrounds their resting-place. A path, lined with flowering shrubs, connects their tombs. And if the memory of a great work and of noble souls can hallow any spot, then this earth contains no , truer campo santo than that Serampnr graveyard." The beauty and the noble appreciation of this memorial passage, delivered from the high places of science and English culture, and sent throughout the world on the wings of its greatest journal, may well console us for the shallow mockeries which rained upon these men, and" the silen t smiles of slow disparagement" bestowed on their successors by that still shallower thing which, in certain snpereilious circleR, passE's for American culture. Sir William Hunter, while l'emarking that the statistical reports are a. very fallacious basis for estimating the present work of Christianity in India, shows that it is, even in itself, one from which Christians have no oc- casion to shrink. "While the number of native Protestant Christians has increased by fivefold during the thirty years preceding the last census, the number of their communicants has multiplied by nearly tenfold. The prog- ress has been a progress of conversion, concurrent with a progress of inter- nal growth and of internal discipline. It is a result. not alone of the zeal which compasseth the earth to make a proselyte, but also of the pastoral devotion which visits the fatherless and widows in their afiliction, and labors to keep its flock unspotted from the world." This regenerating influence, as the Times remarks,lSir William does not ascribe either to Hinduism or to Islam, which are not the agents of· a transformation of character, but simply of .- social organization. Hinduism is described by the author as having a. power, of which hitherto few had known anything, of slowly drawing up lower castes in the scale of ceremonial purityand social dignity, until at last some of them have even ventured to assume the sacred thread of the Twice- born.
Sir William says that from 1872 to 1881 the general popUlation of India in- creased by 10.89 per cent., the Mohammedans by 10.96 per cent., the Hindus by less than 13.64 per cent., the Christians generally by 40.71 per cent., the native Christians by 64.07 per cent. He may well say, therefore, that though Christian missions are not to be judged according to mere statistics they can well afford to be judged even according to them.
Against the vast advantages of a pastoral0are unknown to Islam, which really has no clergy, of a cordiality of welcome and completeness of incorpo- ration unknown to Hinduism, which is calmly indifferent to its aboriginal proselytes, of the exaltation of woman, whom both the other religions dis- parage and one degrades, Sir William Hunter is obliged to set off the terrible temptation of the Christians in being set free to drink. Americans will agree with him that the gospel in India must proceed" on a basis of total abstinence." He thinks that even caste might be purified and humanized, and yet retain its immense social forces of protection and mutual helpful- ness. And he agrees with the author of the article in the Oontemporary Review, that both Christ and Christianity must be presented-and before long, by a great native episcopate and ministry-m those aspects which give the Hindus that which they have not, but which they long for-Christ on that side especially on which we are so slow to apprehend Him. although in the first gospel it is so luminously evident-on the side of His kingliness.
Sir William Hunter's concluding words are: H I thank this society and its distinguished council for the opportumty they have given me of telling some plain secular truths concerning the religions of India. It is not per- mitted to a lecturer here to speak asan advocate of any creed. But on this, as on every platform in England, it is allowed to a man to speak as an Eng- lishman. And speaking as an Englishman, I declare my conviction that English missionary enterprise is the highest modern expression of the world- wide national life of our race. I regard it as the spi!'itual complement of England's instinct for colonial expansion and Imperial rule. And I believe fnat any falling off in England's miSSIonary efforts will be a sure sign of swiftly coming national decay."
BRIEF NOTES FROM: OUR ENGLISH CORRESPONDENT
BRIEF NOTES FROM OUR ENGLISH CORRESPONDEN~, REV. JAMES JOHNSTON, A. S. A., BOLTOS'.
1. BOKHARA AND THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.
CHEVALIER Max de Proskowetz, of Vienna, a member of the Native Races and Liquor Traffic Committee, has written an interesting letter relating to the drinking customs of the Bokharese in Central Asia. It appears that the AmiI' of Bokhara, notwithstanding his compliance with the introduction of Russian merchandise, has made a stipulation according to which no liquors are to be allowed in Bokhara for consumption by his own subjects. This interdict keeps the Bokharese people back from the temptations offered by the establishment of liquor stations. Although Islam prohibits the use of alcohol by its adherents, the allurement of beer, wine, and strong drinks, in the places where the Russians are boundless, and where their soldiers and bar-keepers can freely indulge in their bibulous or mercenary inclinations, seduces the Asiatic aborigines to drinking;and inebriety. The Mohammedan peoples in the Caucasus have been long accustomed to wine, and along the entire line of the Transcaspian Railway from Asunada to Samarcand the Mussulmans are induced to be regardless of their religious prescriptions. It is to be feared that the Russian supremacy in the larger part of Central Asia will in time propagate the plague of alcoholism among the natives of Transcaspia, Turkestan, China, Bokhara, and probably the north of Persia, skirting the Transcaspian Railway, in the stations of which Chevalier Proskowetz saw the inevitable stocks of strong liquors held up for sale for the garrison and the passengers. It is widely known that the Russian troopers in Central Asia are duly renowned for their inebriety, an effect of their loneliness, national habit, and the want of nobler pastime. Inebriety in Russia itself prevails to a frightful degree. Against this pestilence a movement has been registered at Moscow where the'popular author, Count Leo Tolstoi, has established a society. Many of the Russian peoples may be regarded as native races; i.e., on the Volga rivers and in some steppes, so that the Uquor traffic ought to be checked among them by the enforcement of the principles of the" Native Races Committee," to prevent a demora'ization which is unfortunately precipitated by the RussiaIl; Government which, like the Indian Government, derives a considerable profit from protecting the development of distilleries and liquor shops, flourishing everywhere on a disgusting scale, though heavy taxes are imposed on their existence.
II. A MISSIONARY MARTYR.
To the ever-lengthening roll of the noble army of martyrs the name of Mr. Arthur Brooks must now be added, whose death at M'Kange, near Saadani, lying on the East African coast, occurred under tragical circumstances on January 21. Having heroically served the Master in connection with the London Missionary Society's mission on Lake Tanganyika, he was returning to England on furlough at the termination of seven years' labor in Central Africa. After the young missionary-artizan had successfully passed through 500 miles of country in the interior, his life was sacrificed within the borders of the territory which has been the scene of so much disastrous strife between the Germans and the natives. Together with sixteen of his followers, Mr. Brooks was murdered bya mixed crowd of coast people and Zanzibar Arabs. A servant who saw Mr. Brooks shot dead afterward fled with the lamented tidings to Zanzibar. This eye-witness states that the missionary was killed simply as being a white man, and in revenge for German outrages.
"This murder is most significant," the Times' correspondent at Zanzibar observes, "indicating the e)!:tent of the natIve hatred which has been < aroused by the Germans against all Europeans without distinction. Saadani , has been for many years past the starting point for th~ interior of all Euro- pean missionaries, where they, especially the Englishmen, were eagerly welcomed and assisted by the natives. The present murder of an English- man has caused a greater sensation than all the recent murders, and the: probabilities as to the punishment of the perpetrators by the English'are eagerly discussed." • Mr. Brooks was born at Edgeware in 1860, and was consequently only 29 years of age. In May, 1882, he sailed for Africa as an agent of the society to undertake engineering responsibilities at the Tanganyika Mission. He as- sisted in the construction of the steamer Good News at Liendwe, at the southern end of the lake, and in the launching o,f the hull of that vessel in March,1885. In October of the same year he removed to Urambo, taking charge of the station during the absence of the Rev. T. F. Shaw in England. It is satisfactory to l~arn that this sad event is not regarded at headquarters as affecting the safety of the remainder of the London Missionary SOCiety's missionaries at Urambo and on Lake Tanganyika, who are far beyond the immediate range of the coast troubles. No fears are entertained respecting them, unless a sudden change should come over the relations which at pres- ent exist between them and their Arab and native neighbors. Meanwhile co.mmunication with them is suspended, and the fate of Mr. Brooks is an evidence that it would not be safe for them to come down to the coast.
III. MOHAMMEDAN REVOLUTION IN UGANDA.
The latest intelligence from the south of Victoria Nyanza fot'ebodes im- portant changes in the destinies of Uganda and the surrounding countries.
Last October Mwanga, the reigning sovereign, who succeeded Mtesa two years ago, had become unpopular among his subjects.. Distrusting his per- sonal bodyguard he conceived a diabolical plot for their destruction by abandoning them to starvation on a small island in the lake not far distant from the capital Rubaga. The bodyguard, being warned, refused to enter the canoes, and returned to the capital which they immediately occupied and also stormed the palace. Unaccompanied by any attendants the mon- arch fled and his elder brother Kiwewa was chosen king.
The new king, a friend of the Christians, awarded favors to the Christian adherents in his court which speedily resulted in the'rising of the jealous Arabs, followed by the murder of many native Christians, the sack of the French and English missions, and the establ ishment of the1Uohammedan rule in one of the most extensive and densely populated regions of Central Africa.
Happily the French and English missionaries reached Usam biro, which lies to the southwest of Victoria Nyanza. Much regret was however ex- pressed at the loss of five of the native French converts in the church missionary's vessel, the Eleanor, which was sunk by a hippopotamus. It is gratifying to learn that the Catholic missionaries exhibited the most broth- erly generosity to the members of the English mission in their hour of jeop- ardy. It is reported that MsaJala, the mission station near the south shore of the Nyanza, which has been serving as a temporary depot for Mr. Stanley, is uninjured. The same cheering anl10uncement is also telegraphed with re- spect to M:pwapwa in Usagara some 180 miles fl'om the Zanzibar coast.
Mwanga, who is detained by the At-abs at Magu, has appealed to the Eng- lish missionaries for ass'istance in spite of the capricious and cruel treatment to which he formerly subjected them. The Arabs, or, to speak more cor- rectly, the Swahilis and kindred coast tribes of the lowest type, have flaunt- inglyaddressed Mr. Mackay Jlpon their triumph in Uganda, together with" the pregiction of exterminating all missionary effort in Uganda'in revenge for England's anti-slavery policy. Although the Arabs boast of making Uganda a Mohammedan kingclom it is very doubtful whether the chiefs of ,Uganda will tolerate their usurpation beyond the time of a ruler being chosen from their own people, or, possibly, a son of Mtesa receiving the offer of the crown.
Uganda (the country of Ganda) proper, lying round the north shore of Victoria Nyanza, is,a country of about 20,000 square miles, and with its adjoining depehdel1cies its total al"ea will be equal to 60,000 square miles. The Uganda influence has been dominant east and west, and even northwest into Unyoro. Mr. Stanley estimates the mixed population, the majority of which belongs to the Waganda branch, at 2,@00,000, and Mr. Felkin at ' 5,000,000. The standing army cori1prised 600,000 well-disciplined men.
IV. THE FAMINE IN CHINA.
A great national calamity has befallen China which involves the lives of many millions and extends over an area of thousands of square miles in some of the usually most fertile provinces of the Celestial Empire. In 1877-8; when the different missional"Y bodies vied with each other in noble philan!. thropy, it is supposed that upwal"d of fifteen millions of souls perished in the' dreadful famine of those years. Over an enormous area a more terrible fate was impending, resulting from flood, dl"ought or famine. Immense tracts of conntry have been devastated and reduced to the most pitiable condition by causes of the most opposite nature. While some have been laid waste by the inundation of the waters of the Yellow River, in others the crops have literally been burnt up in consequence of the want of rain. Flood and fll"e appearing at the same moment, have intensified the evil by making it impossible for the people of one regiun to give the other that assistance which, had misfortunes come singly, they might mntuaUy have rendered.
The cattle, which in China are rearp.d almost exclusively for agricultural purposes, have been killed for food, or to keep them from dying for want of grass. The Chinese peasant it is well known has made the ox only on'e degree less sacred than it is to the Brahmans in the courts of the temples of Benares; and, consequently, the peasant owner must have been driven to great straits before he laid his hand on the life of the patient associate with him in the labors of the field.
The countries suffering most acutely are thp. following: In the province of Anhui, the prefectures of Fungyang, Yungc!Jow, and Shuchow are flooded by the Yellow River; in Kiangsu (the province in which Shanghai is situated) the crops have entirely failed from drought in the prefectures of Yangchow, Chinchial1g, Hsuchow and Chinldang, all ofl which appear to be in the Yangtsze, and, are, therefore, the districts lying on the Yangtsze Valley. In Shautung and Manchuria there are extensivp. floods, and the area in which suffering prevails is described as immense. The numbers al~ ready starving cannot be estimated. In a single district, that of Hofei, half a million of people are in a state of starvation. From Manchuria, around Newchwang it is reported that bands of homeless men,'women, and children are roaming about the country. They are styled "devourers oJ villages, " becahse wherever they settle down for a time they eat up every- thing. Elsewhere it i!l. stated that women and children are dying in thou- sands by the wayside, while the starving men are powerless to help them. The Rev. A. G. Jones of Shantung telegraphs: "Thousands in this district IJ,re perishing and dying f!'om hunger. Pray make urgent appeals for funds. yve m.ust have help., Telegraph flnlls immediately, "Chin[, F~rpint;l R~~ lief FuneL" Missionaries representing every branch of Christendom are heroically grappling with this wide-spread national calamity for which they piteously entreat the sympathies of Europe and America. As the Lord Mayor of London remarks: "For this is a case in which, without speed, the gift is no girt. The people to be helped may soon be beyond help." Halli.
day Macartney writes: "Great as'is the misery, more black yet is the' outlook in the immediate future."
V. THE MISSIONARY AREA IN INDIA.
At the farewell banquet, given in honor of Lord Dufferin, the departing Indian Viceroy, in Calcutta, the event was celebrated with great brilliancy and made memorable by the speech of the Governor-General. By the reproduction of some of its passages, the advocates of missions will appre- hend what are the manifold physical and ethnological features of that immense empire.
Population.
What is India? It is an empire, equal in size, if Russia be excluded, to the entire continent of Europe, with a population of 250,000,000 souls, composed of a large number of distinct nationalities, professing various religions, practicing diverse rites, and speaking different languages. The census report says there are 106 different Indian tongues-not dialects-of which 18 are spoken by more than a million persons, while many races are still fUrther separated from each other by discordant prejudices, conflicting social usages, and even antagonistic material interests.
Territory.
India has a land frontier o[ nearly 6,000 miles and a seaboard of about 9,000 miles. On the east she if> conterminous with Siam and China, on the north with Tibet, Bhotan and Nepaul; while on the north-west she marches, at all events diplomatically, with Russia. On the coast are many rich and prosperous seaports-Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Kurrachee, and Rangoon.
(Upon the" Human Aspects of Indian Geography" the readers of THE MIS- SIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD will find a masterly article in the Oontemporary Review for December, 1888, by Sir William Hunter).
Oommunities. The most patent peculiarity of the Indian Cosmos is its division into two mighty political communities-the Hindus, numbering 190,000,000 and the Mohammedans 50,000,000, whose distinctive charactl'ristics. religious, social, and ethnological, it is unnecessary to mention. To these two great divisions must be added a host ~f minor nationalities. Such are the bikhs, with their warlike habits and tl-aditions and thl'ocratic enthusiasm; the Rohillas, Pathans, Assamees, Belochees, and other wild and martial tribes on the frontiers; the hillmen, dwelling on the Himalayas; British subjects in Burmah, Mongol in race and Buddhist in religion; the Nairs, Bheels, and other non-Aryan peoples of the center and south of India, and the enterpris- ing Parsees, with their rapidly developing manufactures and commercial interests. Oharacteristics.
At one and the same moment, all the various stages of civilization through which mankind has passed, from prehistoric ages to the present time, are'
exhibited. At the one end of the scale is the naked, savage hillman, with stone weapons, head-hunting, and polyandrous habits and, childish super- stitions; at the other the Europeanized native gentlemen, with the refine- ment, polish, and literary culture of Western philosophy and advanced political ideas; while between the two tie layer upon layer, in close juxtaposition, of wa.nderin~ commlJnities, livin~ in tents1 witll flocks of ~oats,
• TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY MAGAZINES. 2'79
collections of undisciplined warriors, with blood feuds, clan' organization and loose tribal government, feudal chiefs, or barons, with picturesque retainers seignorial jurisdiction, and medieval modes of life; and modernized country gentlemen, enterprising merchants and manufacturers, with well-managed estates and prosperous enterprises. Besides all these, under direct British administration, the Government is required to exercise a certain amount of supervision over 117 native states, with their princely rulers, autocratic executives, and independent jurisdictions, and their fifty millions of inhabi- tants. The mere enumeration of these diversified elements will suggest to the most unim,aginative mind a picture of as complicated a social and politi- cal organization as has ever tasked human ingenuity to govern and admin- ister. Within India itself the limit dr accountability has not yet been exhausted. The rulers are bound to provide for the safety and welfare not only of Hindu, Mohammedan and other native subjects, but also for the large East Indian community, the indigenous Christian churches, and the important planting and manufncturing interests scattered over the face of the country.
Education.
Out of the whole population of British India, which may be put at 200,000,.
000 in round numbers (literally 268,000,000 according to last returns), not more than five or six per cent. can read or write, while less than one per cent. has any knowledge of English. Thus the overwhelming mass of the people- perhaps 190,000,000 out of 200,000,000-is still steeped in ignorance. Of the 10 or 12 millions who have acquired an education, three-fourths, or perhaps less, have not attained to more than the most elementary knowledge. In a recent review of the progress of education it is pointed out that 947:!' per cent. of those attending schools and colleges are in the primary stage, While the progress made in English education is measured by the fact that the number of the students who have graduated at the universities since 1857- that is, during the course of the last 31 years-is under eight thousand.
During the last 25 years probably not more than half a million students have passed out of the English schools with a good knowledge of that language; there being, perhaps, a million more with a smattering. Consequently, it may be said that out of a population of 200,000,000, only a very few thou- sand may be considered to possess an adequate qualification so far as educa- tion and acquaintance with Western ideas, or even Eastern learning, are concerned.
It is not astonishing that this golden river of splendid oratory and wonder- ful comprehensiveness should have created a profound impression among the leaders of the political, educatIOnal, and religious life in India.
TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY MAGAZINES.
BY REV. CHARLES C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
The Organ der Nederlandsche Zendingsvereeniging, "Organ of the Netherlands Missionary Union," for September, 1888, remarking on Mark xvi: 20; "The Lord wrought with them," says, ,. This word, unchanged, still gives the only explanation of the birth and growth of every congrega. tion at our missionary stations, and of the addition of each individual living member of this. Yet," it remarks, "these additions do not everywhere take place under equally impressive circumstances. There are mission-fields from which you may at any time look for exceedingly 'interesting' reports and narratives. Not so the Sunda Islands. What is done here displays, even as do the'people themselves, the utmost possible calmness and equability." TheAgaan has the following account of the" feeling aft!>r " God, of wl;lich St. Paul speaks, as illustrated in the case of a Caffre woman.
"Even when I was a young girl, and before ever the word of God had been brought into this arid, I felt the trouble of heart which I now feel. On a certain day, while working in the field,l was all at ouce drawn to thinking about the great God. I looked up to heaven, fell upon my knees but could say nothing, for I only felt how bad my heart was. I went home and related what had befallen me to my parents, who assured me that the bird which makes the thunder had caused tbat feeling in me. I must fetch and burn a bunch of long grass ancl thorns, and rub the ashes vigorously into my skin, and then I might expect to feel better. Of course I did so, but it was of no use. r remained wretched until a missionary came here. People told me about him. I lost no time in going with my husband to see him and hear him, and we resolved to settle in the dwelling-place Of the Christians."
De Macedonier, published by Dr. Dijkstl'a, of Leyden, in Holland, says: "Since recent parliamentary and cabinet changes have brougbt into office a ministry which tnrns a friendly countenance toward missions, and even invokes their helo, tbe desire has arisen in our minds to make from time to time a little excursion into tbe domain of statemanship. Wben the Government rather endured tban valued missions, we had usually little inclination to waste time on useless pleas and unheeded remonstrances. But now there is hope that a complaint or a suggestion may sometimes fall into good ground, and now and then bear fruit. It appears to us, moreover, that there is now peculiar occa.ion to consider the colonial policy from the missionary point of view. The more highly the Government esteems our work, the more risk dowe run in an evil hour of soliCiting its help, and in our willingness to please it, of losing our proper aim out Of View."
The same magazine speaking of Christian work among the Chinese of a certain locality in Borneo, says: " These Chinese had always loved the missionaries and met all their advances with a welcome. When visited and addressed by the latter they would assent to everytbing. They chose ratber to send tbeir children to the Christian than to the Irreligious government schools, but they had no mind to become Christians. One of tbe missionaries witb the help of a friendly Chinese found a locality in the midst of the Chiuese quarter where be held regular Bible readings; the Chinese came as regularly, and an iuterest was aroused. But wheu their leaders perceived that tbe new missionary was really iu earnest to iuduce them to become Christians, and tbat many were inclined to this, their enmity broke loose. They could uot, however, withstand God's work. The Lord had touched the heart of a merchant's servant. He declared that he could not hold his place longer, since his conscience forbade him any longer to practice the wonted tricks of trade. His master was at first for dischargiug him, hecause he would not give short weight, or work any longer on Sunday. But matters did not come to this, inasmuch as the zeal and faithfulness with which he served, hrought his employer to another mind, and secured to himself still more confidence tbau before. He was baptized, and has shown himself a sincere Christian. In July of last year he died in tbe sure confidence of his redemption in Cbrist. His example took hold of three other Chinese oue of them his brother. Before the latter applied for baptism he had a severe struggle as his mother declared that ifhe, too, like his brotber, became a Cbristian, she would starve herself. But he did not yield, aud by last accounts his wife and four children bave also been baptized."
The Journal des Missions Evangelegues, under the title, "An Unnoticed Friend of Missions," says: .. Our society'uumbers many frieuds; some are knowu, all the world names them; others remain even till.their death unknown to all, save perhaps two or three persons, who are sure of tbeir love for missions, aud of tbe sacrifices which they lay on tbem,selves to help them forward. Dnring the visit of the' Director' Ltbat is the Secretary] to the cburch at Montpellier, in 1884, he was taken by the pastor to see a humble woman, formerly a servant, who, in a modest little room, was leading a simple aud quiet life. Assuredly, on seeing this poor apartment, no one would have expected to see proceeding from it a truly royal gift of missions, aud yet it is from thence that we bave received one of the largest su'escriptions for tbe erection of the Missionary Honse, a sum of about $2,000, the fruit of the savings of this humble servant, who thus consecrated to God the labor of a long life."
M. Jacottet of South Africa writes in the Journal, that the sad financial depression under which that region has been suffering for several years is slowly abating.
The Roman Catholics seem to be disposed to follow that policy of unscrupulous intrusion upon the French mil3sipu in Sputh Africa by which they. (and I am sorry to say a large body of the Anglicans, notto speak of some other denominations) appear to be doing their best to identify themselves with the Judaizers who tormented St. Paul. A Roman Catholic station has been founded near the home of Massoupa, a chief. The Journal remarks: "Father Deltour, the author of the letter, describes his joy at the proposition made him by' Massoupa to establish a station in his village, and then adds: 'I promptly accepted his offer, for thus we were going to strike at the heart of Protestantism.' It is shown with how much care we avoid in this jonrnal everything like polemics, and the satisfaction with which we have mentioned the relations of Christian conrtesy which had been secured between the Catholic missionaries on the Zambezi and M. Coillard. But we cannot refrain from mentioLing facts which constitute one of the most serious difficulties against which onr brethren in Bassutoland have at present to contend."
The Journal des Missions has had extended and highly ap;>reciated accounts of the London Conference, which has naturally been very encouraging in its working upon the French brethren, plunged as they are in such a morass of Roman Catholicism. They, however, do not spare a temperate criticism, as follows: "It might here be in place to address a criticism to the organizers of the Conference. Have they not erred in allowing facts to predominate quite so much over ideas, and over discussion? Would it not have been possible to pay a closer regard to the equilibrium established by nature among the different faculties of man, by assigning less to the memory and more to thought and the heart? The reunions of the Evangelical Alliance of Basle, in 1879, have left on our mind, in this regard, ,a more satisfying impression. Facts, assuredly, were not lacking in the admirable reports of an Orelli, a Christlieb, and a Godet; but, less pressed fDr time. these orators found a way to guide their hearers to the sources ot thought and to the summits from which one may survey the vast horizon of general ideas.
" It appears to ns that, in the reports given at London, over-numerous as they were,!and therefore' necessarily incomplete. comprehensive views came a little short. The !iiscnssion of qnestions of method, which, for foreign delegates, had a very special interest, suffered a little nnder the restrictions laid on it. The very proportions of the Conference hindered a thorough-going discnssion of technical snbjects. As was said by the secretary of one of the English societies, a real light conld only have been thrown on the subjects by a gathering of fifty or Sixty delegates of the societies of most experience in them, deliberating in a little hall, and not by assemblies as large as those of the Conference.
"But, these reservations apart, let us hasten to add that, if the pending qnestions have not been I.Ible to be resolved, they have at least been propounded in tbe distinctest shape, and in the shape best suited to impress the mind. If discussion, properly so called, has not been able to establish itself, at least the cnrrents of opinion have distinguished themselves with a singular vivacity. The sittings devoted to the training of missionaries, to the question of polygamy, to the trade in brandy and in opinm, will live in the memory of those who had part in them. We shall not forget the evening devoted to this last subject. With perhaps one exception. atrthe speakers denounced the national sin of the legalized trade in opinm with an energy which does honor to our brethren beyond the channel. Gatberings of this kind are worth more than theoretical discussions; they are acts which leave an impression in the moral history of peoples; they involve for those who have had part in them an instruction of a superior order and infinitely precious.
"It is here, in this personal contact with such things, and with individnal men, that, in our view, we are to find most distinctly the immediate profit of the Conference. To see close at hand and to' hear the representatives of the grand missionary enterprises-such men as Hudson Taylor, Bishop Crowther, Dr. Post of Beirnt, and so many others; to hear from their own mouth the narrative of their experiences-this is an advantage the lack of which nothing can snpply, and which of itself is worth all the technical information, all the instruction in detailS, which the mind refuses to record."
"Such are, in brief, some of the impressions which we have brought back from London. Shall we acknowledge it? More than once. during the sittings, we have experienced a painfnl feeling. while noting the difference between the conditions ill which we have to work and those in which most of the other missionary societies find themselves. The greater part of these societies have the moral Silpport of powerfnl Protestant nationalities ; most of ~hem h/love millions <If men l)ehind them. We, on the o~hlr hl1,nd, are working jl!-
THE GREAT FAMINE CRY
isolation, sustained only by a minority which three centuries of persecutions have reduced and eufeebled; often ill-understood by our countrymen, and even som"times misjudged by our own co-religiouists. This contrast has more than once come over us in the course of the London meetings. But, if the first thoughts to wbicb it bas given birth are sad, the final conclusion of the comparison has nothing discouraging. After all, our isolated situation, if it imposes on us some sufferings, presents also great advantages. It obliges us to rest on tbe true ground of missions: the disinterested love of souls, the service of Christ disengaged from every utilitarian and terrestrial after-thougbt. The position which Is assigned to us has its difficulties, but it has its privileges also; it is the position of the first Cbristian missions, it is the position of the Moravian brethren. it iB the position of the missionary work as it was understood at the opening of this century, at the time of the great awakening from which our society has sprung, and all our desire is ibat we may never forget the principles which have presided over our beginnings."
.. Let us conclude this statement by rendering a deserved tribute to English bospitality. The reputation of this bospitality has been long-established; we have had the proof that it has not been exaggerated. Let our English brethren be assured of our gratitude for the reception given to the delegates of our society. They will not forget this reception, which has once more proved to them that Christian brotherhood is not a vain word."
THE GREAT FAMINE CRY.
BY MISS M. A. WEST, OF SYRIA• .. TELL your people how fast we are dying; and ask if they cannot send the Gospel a little faster."-Words of a lIeathen Woman.
HARK I the wail of heathen nations; Can you sleep upon your pillow List I the cry comes back again, With a heart aud soul at rest, With its solemn, sad reproaching, While, upon the treacherous billow, With its piteous refrain: Souls you might have saved are lost?
,. We are dying fa.st of hunger, Hear ye not the tramp of nations Atarving for the Bread ~f Life I Marching on to Day of Doom?
Haste, oh, basten I ere we perish, See them falling, dropping swiftly, Send the messengers of life I Like the leaves, into the tomb.
.. Send the gospel faster, swifter, Souls for whom Christ died are dying, Ye who dwell in Christian lands; While the ceasless tramp goes by ; Reck ye not we're dyinl:', dying, Can you shut your ears, 0 Christian, More in number tbau tbe sands? To their ceaseless moan and cry?
Heed ye not His words-your Master: Harken I hush your own heart-beating, • Go ye forth to all the world'? While the death-march passeth by- Send the gospel faster, faster- Tramp, tramp, tramp I the beat of nations, Let its banner be unfurled I" Never ceasing, yet they die- Christian I can you sit in silence Die unheeded, while you slumber, While this cry fills all the air? Millions strewing all the way; Or content yourself witb giving Victims of your sloth and" selfness "- Merely what you" well can spare" ? Ay. of mine and thine to-day I Will you make your God a beggar, When the Master comes to meet us, When He asks but for" His own"? For this loss what will He say?
Will you dole Him, from your treasure, .. Iwas hunger'd ; did ye feed Me? A poor pittance as a loan? Iask'd bread; ye turn'd away I Shame, oh, shame I for very blushing Iwas dying, in My prison, E'en the sun migbt veil his face: Ye ne'f"r ca.me to visit Me l"
.. Robbing God "-ay, of His honor, And swift witnesses those victims, While presuming on His grace I Standing by, will surely be.
Keeping back His richest blessing Sound the trumpet I wake God's people I By witbholding half the" price" .. Walks" not Christ amid His flock?
Consecrated to His service; Sits He not U against the treasury f n Perjured, perjured, purjured thrice I Shall He stand without and knock- While you dwell in peace and plenty, Knock iu vaiu to come and feast us ? " Store and basket " running 0 "er. Open, open, heart and hands I Will you cast to these poor pleaders And as surely His best blessings Only crumbs upon your floor f Shall o'erf!ow /l.1I he'l<rts, alllan~
ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK. 283
n.-ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK.
Danish Evangelical Missionary Society. Outfit and Passage of $804 00 Berg and Andersen …• 1954 GENERAL report of receipts and An Advance..; ………. . 908 01 expenditures from Jan. 1, 1887, to (b) Station of Madras•………• 2,17113 Jan. 1, 1888. ,. Siloam ………. . 643 40 .. Bethany…….. .. 67584 RECEIPTS. .. Asampore ……. . 4614 (e) Santal Mission ……….. .. 158 96 (l) a. Gifts. received from Ba· (3) Mission in Greenland …….. .. From Legacy.. …………. . 2624 zaars, Missionary Circles, (4) Missionaries in Training…. .. (al Support…………….. . 1,05866 Female Societies. etc…….. $13,73400 (b) Instruction ………… .. 440 77 b. Regular Contribution from (e) Purchase of Hamonium.. 6030 (5) Refunded Interest, etc……. .. 59681 Copenhagen…….. , …….. . 26 00 (6) Missionary Meetings …….. .. 134 04 c. From Legacy of Ostenfeld 53 60 (7) Missionary Library …….•…• 8133 . and Wife…………….•…. (8) Expenses for Collections by Collectors' Books……….• 55281 a. Various Testamentary Be- (9) Missionary Boxes……•……. 4283 (10) Provost Vahl for Appendix quests …………………..• 83 08 to Catalogue…………… .. 1541 (2) Interest of (a) Grnd. Hans An- (11) Lent Out ……………….. .. 95 14 (12) Discount. Exchanges and dersen's Legacy……….. .. 24 12 Postage……………….. .. 2872 (b) George Pedessen Holt's (13) 'Bookkeeper………………. . 10720 (14) Sundries ..••••••..•..•.•…… 23 41 Legacy……………….. . 1042 (e) Miss Olive EmHie Ander- sen'8 Legacy . …………. . 1876 (d) Pastor Emer. Chr. Oster- 5504 gaard's Lega.cy……….. . (e) Hatterna.ger Feld berg's Legacy………………. .. 71 28 (f) Sven Skaanen Lauridsen's wgacy……………….. . 5628 $~,736 92 (g) TbeScholtz Legacy…… .. 28021 Transferred……………. .. 62469 (h) J ens Rasm ussen's Legacy .• 2278 (i) Tailor Rasmussen's do. … $10,36151 (k) Niels Jorgensen and Wife's 56 21025 Legacy ….•…•..••••…..• 375 $10,671 76 (l) Deed of Gift. E …………. .. 1296 (m) Bonds…………………. . [9138 Assets Dec.· 31, 1887 (including Orowns. (n) Cuvrent Accounts with balance) ………………….. .. 17.146 89 Savings Banks…•…….• 4069 January 1. 1887……………… .. 7,769 43 (3) Note of Subscription Cashed.. $65081 Increase during 1887…….. .. 9,377 46 (4) Mission Atlas……………. .. 2551 Special Assets ……………….. . 15.660 00 (6) Herr Logstrup. for Mission 82160 SpeClal Contributions paid to the among the Tamuls…….•..• Treasurer of Santal Mission …. 7.201 99 (6) Missionary Boxes …….•…••• 5382 (7) Profits of Mis8ionsblaa.••. .•••• 4312 Mission Board of the Moravian Ohurch (8) Contribution from Brit. and 155 51 EXTRACTS from the annual report For. Bible Soc. to a Bible 29 18 Woman in Madras……… .. 6834 for 1888. [We are indebted to Rev. (9) Discount on Loan …………. . 415 C. L. Reinke, American Secretary, (10) Balance paid in ………….. . for the following abstract, translated Transferred …………….. . 13.73402 from the Gflrman.-EDS.] $15,07606 A further proof of the faithfulness ofour God, who will not let ns sink, we have experienced in EXPENDITURES. ourWest Himalaya Mission. In Leh, the capital of Western Thibet, we had a hopeful commeDce- (1) BalaQce from 1886………… .. 624 59 ment of a medical mission, to which the Eng· ish Government had lent kind aid. The church (2) Missions in East Indies ….••.. knows what a sad interrnption of this work took place, because of the necessary dismissal of (a) Salary of Missionary H. the missionary physician; and we saw no pros- pect but that, in consequence, the whole work in Jensen ………………. .. 808 40 Leh would be taken out of onr hands again. But the Lord has interposed in mercy. He has re- For support of his children stored the backslidden brother through whose m,isconduct the disturbance hlld arisen, so tj}at in Denmark…•……….• 9380 Salary of Missionary A. Ihle 763 80 Miss Jorgensen ….. . 10720 Berg and Andersen.. 285 86 Miss. Chr. Schlesch. 64856 Chr. Kofaed… . RO 40 .f .. J:.,Q.'l""rus … ,.. .. 74 e6 we have again been able to give him the right the raising of funds, bnt the finding of mission- hand of fellowship. In other respects, also, we aries for this new field; however, our friends have seen how the Lord indeed led us to begin in Australia do not venture upon anything de- this station at Leh, especially because of the cisive until the Colonial Government shall en- formal opening and consecration of our chapel gage to grant more permanent assistance. and school September 2,1888. The establishment of this station is the most important event in In another of the enterprises of our Unity, the history of our West Himalaya mission dur- the Leper Hospital in Jerusalem, the blessing ing the last ten years. From this station twice of the Lord has attended the work, the number as large a field can be evangelized, as from of the inmates having likewise increased. The' either of the other oluer stations, Poo and Kye- patients, numbering about twenty-four, not lang. It had long been contemplated to attempt only manifest more gratitude for the bodily establishing a mission in this capital of West comforts which they receive, but are also Thihet, but even only two years ago there more receptive for spiritual impressions seemed to be no prospect of being able to begin than was the case in the first years. The it. The Lord would first prepare the way; and case here, however, is somewhat eimilar to this was done as follows: The old Maharajah, that of our mission in Australia. It is written, or prince, died a few weeks after he had given "To whom mnch has been given, of him shall .. permission to Brother Redslob to begin the much be required." But these poor people's mission, and npon his death a great change in the endowments are very small; nevertheless, if political sitnation ensued. The British Govern- they do not become burning and shining lights ment became the virtnal ruler, and we owe it to during their lifetime, they become patient suffer- this fact, under God's goodness, that this new ers, and die happy deaths. Throngh the daily mission post could be established in so short a instrnction they receive the Name of Jesns be- time. It is to the Lord's overruling providence comes precious to them, and to it they cling, that we must keep looking, if our courage and whether Moslems or Christians, in all simplic- confidence are not to fail; for especially in this ity, often in great spiriLnal and physical weak- Himalaya mission the things of the Kingdom ness, and this Name of Jesus gives them a soft of God seem often to work by a different and resting pillow in their sufferings and in death. mnch slower process than we had hoped and Is not this then likewise a blessed work,worthy believed. The brethren who were first sent ant to be the life-work of the brethren and sisters have grown old and gray in their work, and in engaged therein, and worthy of being regarded part are fallen asleep, leaving almost no visible by the church as of equal importance with the frnit of their labors. Bnt did they spend their other labors of love with which our Lord has strength for nought, and have we hoped, and charged us for even the least of His brethren? prayed, and given money,andsent out laborers in -The Unity's Elders' Conference, Hernhut, vain? When brother Arthur Smith returned last Saxony. year from his jonrneyings into the bush country ot South Africa, he said to himself. "I reap The :Evang~lical Lutheran Mission where I have not sown." Even so others of (Leipzig), our brethren in the service of the Lord may like- wise sow, and leave the harvest for those who [WE are indebted to The Harvest shall sncceed them. The final resnlt will show Field, the 6t·gan of titis Society, for that the Lord hath done all ithings well. May this sketch of its history and present this be our ouly mission policy-to trust Him, status.-EDS.J tbe all-wise Master; to follow Him, the mighty Leader 1 "The Evo,ngelical Lutheran Church was the first among Protestant denominations to have Such shall also be our policy in Australia, her feet' shou with the preparation of the gos- where He elected our Morayian Chnrch to per- pel of peace, ho,Ying been at work among the form the last and best offices of love for a poor, heathen in Lapland, Greenland, North America broken-down, and rapidly perishing race. By and India long bef"re any others of them. At the close of the year 1889, our two stations, present we shall consider only that work which Ebenezer and Ramahyuck, may have to be re- this church is dOing among the fourteen and a linquished. By that time there will be very few half millions of Tamulians in Southern India. blacks there, and the rest, the half-breeds, will The society has two names; it is called the have to leave the stations by order of govern- "Tranquebar Mission" as well as the" Leipzig ment, to care for themselves. They will then Mission." How these two names came to be be scattered all over the country. The settled given to it will appear from the following: parts of Australia are well snpplied with churches and schools, and those of them who .. In the Year 1860 a Danish vessel come to grief desire to unite with the former will scarcely off the coast of Tranquebar, which was then lack the opportunity. The hope of the extension part of the country belonging to the Maharajah of our mission to North Qneensland IN. E. of Tanjore. The captain with his crew landed, Australia) is still as uncertain as it was last only barely saving their lives. The latter, howE year. The church is a ware that the Mission ever, were all killed on shore; the captain alone ~oard did not pril!!arily t~ke jnto consi<l~ratipn escaped to Tanjore, where he was treated kindly by tbe king, who granted him a long interview. the result of which was the ceeding of Tranqn- for special object~, they contributed Rupeee bar and its vicinity with abont 30,000 inhabitants 2,018 for general church purposes and Rupees to the King of Denmark for trading pnrposes. 2,573 toward the support of their ~ wn poor. For a whole century trade was the only thing car- Several districts now receive no help whatevet ried on. But at the beginning orthe eighteenth for their poor from mission fnnds, though a centnry the pious King Frederick IV. of Den- good many other districts get a moiety." mark, encouraged by his zealous court-chaplain Dr. Lutkins, began to send out missionaries to Spanish Evangelistic Mission in Figu- Tranquebar. Ziegenbalg and Pluetsohau, uni- eras, North East Spain. versity men of Halle, were ordained in Copen- hagen and arrived in the year 1706 in Tranque- Balance Sheet for the Year ending June 30th, bar. 1888, " Within three and a half years 150 souls had RECEIPTS. been baptized, and flve years after their arrival £ s. d. they had translated the New Testament into Tamil. In 1725 the Old Testament also was Balance in hand, 30th Jnne, 1887… 123 2 9 printed, for they were men of linguistic attain- Donations received by Pastor and ments as well as great missionary zeal. In 1736 there were 2,329 native Christians in Tranque- Madame Rodriguez and Rev. J. bar, who increased to 3,812 in 1756 under the C. Stewart Mathias, including sale care of five missionaries. Altogether 56 mis of pottery, etc.. .. .. . ….. . . …… 1,157 5 4 sionaries had been sent out when the church of Donations for site and new Halls in Germany began to feel the deadening influence Figueras and Vilabertrane . . . . . . 735 18 0 of rationalism. Those 56 we may call the first gen~ration of missionaries , after whom mission £2,016 6 work was sadly neglected. Although their sta- tions in Tranquebar, Tanjore, Madras, Trich- PAYMENTS. r£ so. a. inopoli, Palamcotta and Cuddalore were in a 156 flourishing condition, the missionaries died out Salary of Pastor Lopez Rodriguez.. 0 and there were no new-comers to take their Salaries of evangelist, three school- place. 298 011 masters~ two schoolmistresses, Hence in 1830 Lutheran missionaries gave up and one colporteur…………. .. 137 0 2 to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowl- Rent of seven Mission Hall~, Boys' 8513 5 edge, 1,300 native Christians, 11 catechists and and Girls' -School, and Mis~ion 49 7 6 . 11 small churches, as they had some time before House… , ……………….. , .. 7912 8 given up to the same society mnch property Repairs and fnrnitnre of halls (in- 13419 4 amounting, it is said, to more than three lakhs cluding four harmoniums) …… . 22 12 10 of rupees. This property is now in possession Medical Mission expenses …….. . 54 5 4 of the S. P. G. Of the 56 missionaries mentioned Evangelization and traveling ex- 2;[15 8 above,43 died in India, one died at sea, and one penses…………………….. . 40 0 0 was killed in Africa. Printing, postage, stationery, and 600 0 Q pnblishing Et Heraldo ……… . "Now the connecting link between the first Coal, gas, and oil ……………. .. 33318 :I Danish-German mission and the present Leip- Carriage and snndry expenses …. . zig Society is the Rev. H. Cordes, who is still Expenses of horse and tartana …. . alive. Already in 1819 a new association had Maintenance of two orphans in pas~ formed itself in Dresden. In 1845 the Danish tor's family for one year …….. . Government sold Tranqnebar to England, but at Purchase of site for hall ip Figueras the special request of the native congregation Balance in hand,30th June,18~8: the mission continued to be carried on in con- nection with the Evangelical Lntheran Chnrch. New Halls Acconnt £214 0 6 Fonr years later (1849) the Royal Missionary .General Account. .. 119 17 9 Collegium of Copenhagen made over all their property at Tranquebar and Poriar to the Mis £2,016 6 1 sionary Collegium at Leipzig.' Inasmuch as there was a university at the latter town, the Totals of Receipts from the commencement mission college at Dresden, which had been of the Mission in 1887. ionnded in 1832, was transferred to Leipzig in . 1848. Hence the name-Leipzig Luthern Mis- Year 181'7 .. .. ……………… .. 236 11 3 sion. " lH78………. …………… 113 7 0 1879……………………. 196 3 0 .. This society has at present 24 European mis 1~80. ……………….. …. 193 11 3 sionaries, 14 native pastors, 57 catechists, 156 " 1~81. .. . . . . .. . . . .. .. . . .. . . . . . 134. 0 4 schools and 3,991 pupils of both sexes. The me~bers of the church number more than 13,- .. It82……………………. 530 14 4 500, who are scattered about in 51'7 lowns and villages. Most of our Christians come from the IbCl3………………. …… 685 7 3 voorer classes, but last year, apart from gifts 1884…………………… 775 4 11 U'85. .. .. ………….. 885 17 4 1886……………………. 923 9 0 … 1887 …………………… 1,205 0 11 1888 …………………… 2,016 6 London Missionary Society.
COMMENCED liKi. STATEMENT FOR 1888-9• .. THE London Missionary Society is now entering upon the ninety-fifth year of its exist- ence, and its directors desire to acknowedge with gratitude to God the abundant blessin~ which is still vouchsafed to the labors of its mis- sionaries, and the ever-increasing opportunities for usefulness which are set before them in every part ot the great mission field. It is a sign full of promise that missions to the beathen have received an amount of attention ciety in the"'past, that the ecclesiastical organi.. "- from the press and the public during the past zation of the mission churches planted by it year which has never been manifested before. have been shaped, not in rigid conformity to any 'particular model, but in accordance with .. The wisdom and foresight of thefonnders the necessities of different fields of labor and the of the society are strikingly exhibited in the special characteristics of different peoples. It broad platform on which the society rests. Its will be its strength. and the pledge of its success agents have no desire to reproduce in the eastern in days to come, to endeavor to cultivate among world an exact counterpart of any of the schools those who are brought to the knowledge of of western theology. They bear from us those Christ by means of its missions. an Intelligent great fundamental principles of Christianity and independent study of the truths of the which are the common heritage of all Evangel- Divine revelation in the freedom of a life which ical churches, and which find intelligent recog- is not compelled to form itself on Western nition and response in the umversal heart of man. It has been the peculiar glory of the so- models."
STATISTICS.
-d SCHOOLS. '8"
—– ~aI "" " .; .; .9 .;:: 0..1. "'''"' '"" " — — — …;. .;I> .b0~"
01 o~ 8,8 ."" " ..!.l. :Prti …;. 01'" ~ 0", 01 Q).d .d~ ,; "-"'" .d" Z…."".. <> cal1.2 -010·- ~~ 1>'" ,o""§:''E<."0l! ".0 ~".' 0~ 11.2 <>'tI – – — " ." –.0.."-'" – -".– -".- ~~ ~:<!:::rr.~'a.- 01 ..t::.d E z01~'- Z0P1-<" 0"'-''<'' -z- £ s. d. 8 72 3.695 1.817 71 2.634 2.584 9 3 1. China …………………. 28 11 2. North India ……………. 16 11 8 32 535 1,872 10] 6.630 2.8.';94 1 3. South India ……………. 24 4 14 104 1.105 7.619 13~ 6.785 2,443 5 11 4. Trava.ncore ……………. 8 2 19 25 5,192 45.176 285 13.295 1.029 7 10 5. Madagascar …………… 28 4 67…0. 3.785 50.435 236.862 756 79.458 3.6550 3 …. 6. Africa ………………… 24 88 2.407 10.735 37 2.002 5779 0 7. West Indies …………… 1 .. 3 6 1.271 4522 9 23 312 528 489 1.380 544 24,485 5,7927 :I – – – – – – 8. Polynesia ……………. 14,760 41,554 Totals ………………. , 152 32 1.031 4,637 – 78.618 347.0151 1.933 136.560 19.404 6 3 Mi8sion etations and out-stations occupied by the society :-South Seas, 450; Madagas- car. 1.312; Africa.33; India. 500; West Indies. 4; China. 66.-Total. 2.365. Churches planted by the society.* but now self-supporting :-South Seas, 300; Madagascar.
1~200; Africa. 17; India. 20; West Indies. 24; China. 20.-Total, 1.581. Total Income for the year ending April 30th. 1888; £124.860, Is. 9d. Balance :against the Society. £7.960, 5s. Sd• • Duringthe past thirty years.
Japan Mission of the M. E. Ohuroh, South.
RESUME FOR 1888. Numer of mission stations…………………………………………………………5 Number of missionaries, 9; wives of missionaries. 5 ; whole numbers of workers ……14 Net increa£e in membership ……….•..•.•…•.•..•…••..••….. , ••……….•……….. 99 Total membership in Japan ……………………………………………………… 163 .. Amount raised on salaries and expenSes of self-supporting missionaires ….•……2.523 .. Whole~llIountr~isedon the field …. , ………………………………………3.897.80l-) C. B. MOSELEY. Statistical Secretary• .. The value of the yen is about 76 percent. of that of the American gold dollar.
Amerioan Free Ba.ptist Mission in Southern Bengal, 1888.
CHURCH STATISTICS ..,' .., " ".Q.; >. .u…l .; '0 .t~t., .0 …" " .<.>..c >,. >, -d <"I .,• o~ ,,0 0 ';:::';::1 .i.,"$t:,.i:-=~'" ".""",,,+.",.-,:' ~'a >~ ..t:::j " "" "" ."-"" .J:l .oEl .'0 g~' " "~'E.0l .od ul 06 ~~ ",,'" ·s~ .~-::9j 0.0~" … " ." "''' 0 ""d….~, u .".t,:0:- A'" ,,~ ol.J:l ""<"""~~'- M .0 0 ~El ~ -d .011.2 01 ~8 "l:i "'a"iE.0l ~:<!
— "" 0 0" s:<! r°<EEll Zb 11.2 Z 0 0 0= -'- Z – – – – -0 – 0 — — — – – —- — – – Z -~ 10 62 22 17 5 11 563 91 654 RS'.640 *2,701 1.
*This includes pupils of jungle schools. EDUCATIONAL STATISTIcs.
I Statioh~l~hOO~1 C~~;ll~~n Hindus. 1:~~:::I~ntals'l Boys. II Girls. rl?~~W;:.
12 21 340 1,322 102 1,298 1,859 992 3,058 RECAPITULATION.
Number of Churches……………………………………………………………… 10 •• Communicants ……….•…………………………………………….. 654 Nominal Christians …………………………………………………1,266 Sabbath School pupils ………………………………………………2,701 Pupils in all the Schqols ……………………………………………..3,058 CASH RECEIPTS. 6,204 0 0 3,516 3 0 From Government…………………………………………………..Rs. 4,5811011 Foreign Mission Board (for education)……………………………….. . 328 12 9 Woman's Board …. 0 •••• 0 ••• 0 ••• 0 ……….. 0 •••••• '0' •••••••••••••••••••••••••• 8,526 4 8 New Brunswick Woman's Board………………………………………. Special Donations…………………………………………………… .
Total. ……………. , ……………………………………………… Rs. 23.156 15 4 Association for the Religious Improvement of the Remote Highlands and Islands in connection with the Free Church of Scotland. Thirty-eighth annual report, 1888.
ABSTRACT OF RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES to Nov. 27. 1888.
RECEIPTS. EXPENDITURE.
Subscriptions and Donations, Salaries of Teachers………• £1215 16 0 do. Sewing Teachers.. 183 10 0 General Fund………. . .. … £916 14 3 o College Aid…………. ……. 135 0 Glasgow Association, General Traveling Expenses of Fund …………………… . 230 14 8 Teachers………………. .. 46 o 0 Legacies ………………… . 206 910 Clothing and Material for Sewing Classes ………….. .. 26 12 6 Sewing Classes ………… .. 60 1910 Clothing Fuud ……………. . 14 4 0 Bibles and Books•…••.•….• , • 39 2 2 Furniture………………… . 14 2 10~ Contributed by people in the Printing and Advertising …. . 31 11 6 Incidents, Freights, Postages, Highlands……………… .. 18 '4 6 etc…………………….. .. 14 17 1~ Proceeds of Clothing sold….• 37 14 7 To Building Fund ………… .. 20 0 0 do. Books do… .. . 17 2 5~ Furniture sold… . o 9 0 do.
Bank Interest….. " ………. . 9 4 0 £1477 9 9~ £1760 19 6 Balance from previous year.. 452 2 ~ Deposit Receipts.. £150 0 0 On Bank Account. 131810 In Treasurer's hands ……… .. 413 8 168 12 6 £1929 12 0 £1929 12 0 The~Seamen's Rest, Marseilles, France, under the direction of Mr. Charles E, Faithful. Ninth annual report to Nov. 1, 1888.
RECEIPTS. £ s. Frcs. Cs. EXPENDITURE. Frcs. C•.
Donations and Sale of Balance forward ……………….. 2.503 05 work ……………… .. 584 914.635 2(j Loan returned to Monsieur Mathe_ Sailors' board aud lodg- ron. .. . . .. .. . .. . . . . .. . . .. .. .. . . . . .. 1.560 30 ing ………………… . 259 5 6.480 25 Household bills. including board of eaders of 7'he Christian per Messrs. Morgan and Missiou stall' and servants ……. 8.409 80 Scott ………………. . 1 Salaries of Manager and Matron, Association for the Free 25 15 two lady helpers, and servants' Distribution of the wages ……………………….. 4.568 45 Scriptures ………… .. 5 Rent, taxes and insurance………. 4.044 Transferred from Cloth· 125 Director's traveling expenses…… 700 10 Furniture and repairs. . ………… 431 30 ing Fund …………… . 36 4 905 20 Scriptures for Free Distribution… 125 Sale of clothes to Sailors. 16 400 Printing and advertisemeuts…… 294 Sales (variols) ……….. . 7 1 174 10 Books, periodicals, etc.. and car- Interest ou Reserve Fund riageof same for Reading-room. 78 35 bonds…••.•••….••….• 4 10 112 50 Stationery and postages…•……. 271 50 Balance………………. . 39 8 985 Intereston loan ……………… .. 150 Traveling expenses (Capt. Christ- ensen aud family) …………… . 226 Bad debts ……………………. .. 398 Petties (inclnding boat and bus hire…………………………. . 8255 £952 18 23.842 40 23.842 40
CORRESP.ONDENCE AND GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. [APRIL"
Darjeeling Mission. Founded 1870.
REPORT, OCTOBER, 1888.
1 CHURCH CENSUS.
Commu- Non-Commu- ..; nicants. nicants. ~ — Total. 0 NAME OF C£c:lCH. Adults. * Child'n. E-< 1. Darjeeling……………………….. Q .,; ,; .,; .,; .,; Z -;; ~ .,; ~ .,; ~ .,; S .,; ~s ~ ~ S ~ S S ~ -"- ~ -"- — "' '" '" '" " -~-'" -~ '"'" -"- -~ – -~ – — 58 24 22 28 21 33 38 85 81 166 2. Kurseong ………… , .. .. . ……….. 19 10 11 9 9 11 8 3a 28 58 3. Nagri ……………………………. 15 8 9 6 6 10 8 24 23 47 4. Salom ……………………………. 10 5 7 6 2 7 2 18 11 29 5. Kainjilia…………………………. 3 2 1 2 2 2 1 6 4 10 6. Sonadah …………………………. 4 3 4 2 0 2 6 7 10 17 7. Tindaria…………………. ,. ……. 6 5 6 1 1 6 4 12 11 23 8. Gumba …………………………… 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 2 3 9. Badamtam………………………. 2 2 2 0 0 3 3 5 5 10 10. Poomong…………………………. 2 1 1 1 1 0 2 2 4 6 18 25 23 16 69 131 — — – – – – – – – – – – 11. TeraL ……………….. " ……….. 5021 28 62 — Totals …………………………… 170 82 82 80 65 90 101 252 248 500 * Under 14 years of age.
In 1870 there were no native Christians in the district; in 1880 there were 184; in 888 considerably over 1,000.
Free Baptist· Woman's Missionary separate paper, but conduct a department Society. in both Foreign Mission Journal, Richmond, Va.. and The Baptist Basket, Louisville, IN our December number, page 927, in Ky." Both of these statements, it appears, ]rrs. Gracey's paper on HWoman's Mis- are wrong. The society does publish a magsionary Boards," a slight error occurred in ",zine of their own-The Missionary Helper– her account of this society which we gladly and" the Western ladies conduct a column correct at the instance of the secretary. of society m",tters in The Free Baptist, pub- We said: "These ladies do not publlsh a lished ",t Minneapolis."
III-CORRESPONDENCE ana GENERAL INTELLIGENCE Korea. things" when last year we prayed for U scores" of souls, and the Lord gave us INTERESTING letter from Rev. H. over a hundred. Has He not indeed been good to us? But we look forward to another G. Underwood: year, and the question is, have we faith for a like increase, for another .. fivefold" SEOUL, Dec. 23, 1888. blessing, this coming year? Has the Church at home, as she tries to uphold our hands by EDITORS OF THE IV£IsSIONARY REVIEW OF THE her prayers, faith for such a blessing as this? On every side of us are men who are WORLD.-I have wanted to write you for wanting to study ~~ the doctrine." Teachers some time about the work here, bnt my are called for, bnt they are not-here. Minhands are so full of work that I get little isters to baptize the people are desired, but time for' writing. I h",ve now but a few there is no one to go. Oh I how my heart minutes, and can simply give you a few yearns for this people. I had planned forquite hints about what the Lord is still doing in an extended trip through the country last this land. 'We can report an adv",nce ",II fall, bu t there was no one to take my place along the line and in every department of in Seoul, and I could not go. There is need work. We cannot keep pace with the work for men, north, south, east, and west, bnt as it opens up. But a year ago there were just a score of baptized Christians in this land; now there are more than five times that number•. In one year we have increased fivefold. We thought we were asking "large where are they? When they do get here SBOUL, Dell. 28, 1888. they have a. difficult language to-Jearn. To-day at two o'clock a native Korean that will take several years to master, and service was held, the first of the kind I have when are they coming 1 seen in this heathen city. About fifty a.s.. sembled under the leadership of Mr. Under- These are questions that are before UB, wood. It was a surprise to me. for on my and that ought to present themselves in a way here I had been told by many that the practicai way to the Church at home. Is doors Were closed again in Korea and that she going to step in P Let her stop praying there was no sound of the gospel there. for more doors to be open, and enter those The opening hymn, however, sung to the already open, and then let her pray again. tune of .. Old Hundred," so rung aut through Not till then can she pray with that fervent the open walls, that it must have been zeal that will bring down the. blessing she heard by everyone in the neighboring desires. Great things are in store for the streets of the city. A striking BOund in- Church of Christ in Korea, if she will but deed! take them. Will she do it P Will the Church Following this, eleven dusky young Koof Christ accept·the responsibility that now reans came forward for baptism. The witrests upon her and go forward in the work nessing of each for Christ was of the brightthat lies before her here P est kind. Mr. Underwood translated their replies into English aud such a succession of We are just now seeing the manifestations testimonies I had never heard before. Many of the power of the Spirit in our midst. Our others at the present time are studying the services are well attended, our room is Word of God. at times crowded, and on the Sabbath is Such is the' work in Korea. The missionalways full of men who pay strict and earn- aries in the midst of their abundant labors est attention for an hour a.nd more. Our are looking prayerfully homeward for more weekly prayer-meetings are ca.rried on with help. Before them lies this whole land, with a zeal and earnestness that is cheering. itsmillions of heatheu, still unoccupied. The Not many months ago a boy of 16 years of harvest so great and no laborers. age came and desired to be taught about Christ; he studied night and da.y, and has JAS. S. GALB, since made a profession of faith. He went Toronto Univ. Coil. Y. M. C. A. Missionary. and found another boy, one' who could not read, taught him to read and brought him France. to Christ. These two went after more, a.nd LETTER from Director C. E. Faithnow there is a regular weekly native boys' prayer-meeting. Thus the work goes on, ful: but weneed more men. Reinforcements are coming, but as We think of the millions in MARSEILLES, January 29, 1889. this land and their readiness to accept Christ, we feel that we should call for more DBAR DR. SHERWooD.-The monthly visitor and more laborers. Has not the Lord given in the shape of your excellent and este~med the Church wonderful fruits thus far P Has He not shown that the harvest here is in- REVIEW' is, I can assure you, a source of deed ripe f See what has already beendone. It is but a little over four years since the unusual pleasure. At the same time I feel first missionary for Korea landed here. There are to-day two organized churches very guilty that now for a year I have bee.. in this land, with a total membership of over a hundred. Applications for baptisms are thus invited and yet, I fear, nothing has comlUg to Seoul to-day by the hundreds from all parts of the land where copies of the reached you that could help to add in any gospel have been distributed. The people are let alone in their faith. Public service measure to its already very complete aris being held in the city, and has been for months without the least opposition. A re- rangement and information. Moreover, you vival is now in progress in the native church. Truly the Lord has done wonders most kindly added my name to your list of III our midst. Will not the Church at home remember us in their prayers P Pray for correspondents. At that time my residence great things for us; ask largely, and pray also for laborers in this,tleld. Are there not was in Nice, from which place we removed some who will read this whom the Master in September, my health having, through 18 calling to work in this land P the goodness of our God, been sufficiently How the work in Korea strikes a new-comer, restored to enable me to take the personal oversight and dirQction of the mission here. This removal and the necessity of & somewhat prolonged sojourn in England last summer must be my special reasons for re- maining so silent. Allow me then to thank you most heartily for your liberal1tv to so unworthy a. contributor.
As I write you the minds of the French are considerably agitated and there seems to be a probability of further upheaving. Coosa.- ism on the one hand and anarchy on the other affiict this poor nation-so needy, though unconscious of It, of that which alone can make a people free and great, the gospel of Jesus Christ. At the same time much good is being done, and in this city of liBt and balance sheet duly andited. The accom. nearly 400,000 inhabitll.nts the eft'orts made to reach the masses and also special classes panying .. Letter from Spain" supplies detaila of men and women compare well with those of the progress of the work through God's made in most large cities. In addition to blessing, during the past year. We much hope the churches, established free, the McAIl that you will be interested in the perusal, and Mission. with which I am associated as a will kindly insert extracts in REVIEW. Regard. voluntary helper, takes the foremost place, ing the building of our new hall in Figueras, we Its earnest and energetic director, Pasteur have good news to tell. In November .. a Lenoir, is fully alive to the requirements of friend" most generonsly sent £500, with the the people and seems also to know how to promise of £300 this year. It came as a .. glad reach them. The one, and sometimes two, surprise" IIond filled our hearts with joy and evenings a week that it is my privilege to thanksgiving. The societies, De San Vincent aid in their meetings are always agreeable and St. Paul and the Holy Cross, did their best occasions. Then the work among the soldiers to prevent us getting a site, by over-bidding for Is most interesting and successful, and two the first one we had in view. Another in a far elforts areatloat for the sailor, one specially better situation was soon after unexpectedly for Britishers, the other for sailors of all offered for sale, bnt at a higher price. The nations. This latter, uuder the title of Lord sent the extra £250 needed, and the pnr- The Seamen's Rest, is the work it was my chase was made before the Romanis!s had time privilege to iuaugurate nearly teu years ago. to discover aud prevent. Then came the ditll- In addition to a Home capable of receiving cnlty; WMr8 was the money to come from for ~rom thirty to forty men, there is a bright the building f We knew of no one to whom to and well supplied reading-room where also apply who did not already know of the need. the meals are served for those lodging in Should we make a speclal appeal iu our new the Rest. In this room also meetings are report' No, for that might injure the General held regularly on Sundays, Tuesdays. Thurs- Fund, which wants replenishing. So we decided days, and Saturdays. Frequent conversa.- just to lay the matter before the Lord in prayer, tions dlloiiy IIore carried on with individual and to leave it wltb Him. We felt sure that cases requiring assistance, spiritU1lo1 and after sending the money for the site, He would otherwise, by my two lady helpers, one not allow the enemies of His truth to triumph Scotch. the other German Swiss. The for lack of means to lnI.ild. As I have told yon, manager is a. retired capta.in, a Norwegia.n, He did not disappoint our trust, and hope In the cook is a Da.ne and the man who attends Him. "He hath done great things for us, to the rooms, French. so that we are a whereof we are glad," and praise IDm with full polyglot house indeed. SerVices are held hearts for His faithfulness. For many years also on board ship, and constant visits paid an old house, now being pulled down, occupied to them and to the hospital. I am now en- part ofthe site of the new hall. and'was the abode gaged in planning regular visits to the beer- of a priest aud his servant. On hearing that it shops, 63 of which exist on the three- -was to be replaced by a Protestant gospel hall, quarter of a mile quay where our Rest she exclaimed, "Oh. God I can it be that on this .stands. Next door to us was formerly one of spot, where so many prayers and rosaries bave these, but is now a temperance colfee-room been repeated, those vile beretics should come and restaurant. F"r all these elforts may 1 to teach their infamous lies." Fai too long ciaim a petition for a corner in your valuable have poor souls like that woman been bound in journal to ask for prayer and sympathy. the chains of Romish superstition, and we do beg The work is one of faith, and tbe way the the prayers of God's people, that in our new means are supplied alfords undoubted proof hall hundr~ds ofsuch cap_ives may be set free that the God of Elijab still lives and reigns. In a few days I complete my twenty-fifth and" tarned from darkness to IDs marvelous year of service for Christ and am hopeful light." I may be permitted to mark it by meeting demands that are very pressing just now, Siuce sending the .. Letter from Spain" to and besides, oy removing aU debt, I need press, we have been cheered by a remarkable at least $1,000 to do this and go forward conversion, result of our evangelistic work in' a clear. town at some distance by train. From curiosity a man was induced to listen at the foot of the Spain. stairs to the preaching in our hall. Becoming interested, he crept up and was invited to enter LETTER from Madame Lopez Rod- by the converts, who could bardly believe that riguez. the well-known" Carlist murderer," employed by his, party to commit many acts of cruelty CALLE PEDRO, 30 FIGUERAS (GERONA). (uine men he confessed to have killed in cold blood), eould possibly wish to join their number. Jan. H, 1889. How great the change tbat grace has wrought I For three months he never missed a meeting. EDITORS MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD: One night, when weary from work, he went early to bed. Living next door. to our hall, he By this post I send a copy of our new report, containing outlines of the work, with donation was awakeneq by the BOUllds ofthe harmonium. Springing up, he washed, pnt on his best ward onr chnrch and begged that I should give snit, and hurried into the meeting, which he them something to read tonching onr faith; forgot took place that night. Before all the they departed seemingly well contented, and converts he told his sad story, drawn out by promised some hope, bnt, what deception. the pastor asking if he were willing to accept The priest advised them to bnrn or destroy all Christ as his Saviour? "Yes," was the ready I had given them, with the result already reply. But when further asked if he were pre· mentioned. pared to follow and confess Him before his old companions, he answered with much agitation, Although many persons are afraid to announce .. Only one thing keeps me back. I have yet one themselves, we are making some progress. debt of revenge to pay. There is one enemy I They have reduced the wages of Don Ventura can never forgive. In the war, I was taken who is working in the factory. and the fear of prisoner. On my knees, clasping a crucifix, I lOSing his place kept him from our services implored for mercy. It was granted by all but last Sabbath. A lady named Dolia Luisa reone who turned the tide against me. Aim was turned all the tracts that Guadalupe had given taken. A moment more and I should have been her becsuse her husband had threatened that i1 a dead man, had not friends come up on horses she continued reading such books he would to rescue me. That man I can never forgive, take her family from her and leave her. Just and would take his life if! could." The pastor see the result of ignorance and of her companion, laid his hand on the man's shoulder, soothed fanaticism. his excited spirit, and gently reminded him how the blessed Saviour on the cross forgave those Sabbath morning we had a congregation of who were taking His life; then, how God, for twelve persons and among them three who had Christ's sake had forgiven us. Another thought, never heard the gospel, and while preaching " Who cau tell that your enemy may not come about the redemption, several persons in the here, be converted as you have been, and sup· street listened attentively. At night we bad a plicate yonr pardon?" The poor man tried congregation of sixteen and at the beginning hard to keep back his tears, and in a tremulous there was nobody at the window, but when I voice replied, "It is true I It is true I There is commenced to preach there was a congregation now nothing to keep me back." To God be all of twenty-five at tte window, and to them I the praise for" another brand plucked from the directed my remarks, and heard them say burning." Asking the prayers of your readers among themselves H Good," "That's so I" and that we may have the joy of seeing many more .. Well, the Protestants do worship God." In such rescued by the love of our forgiving my remarks I invited them to c.ome and talk Saviour. with me wheneyer they were so disposed. The priest Ayala was watching from a neighboring Mexico. window, and it is quite certain that he will pro- LETTER from Rev. M. E. Beall: hibit the people from even standing at the win- dow. But in time I trust that both fear of the SAN Lurs POTOSI, Jan. 21, 1889. priest and the fear of what society may say will DEAR EDITORs.-The inclosed is" translation not prevent earnest sonls from seeking the truth. of a letter sent by one of our· semiuary boys working during vacation, to our native preacher Receive, my brother, the heart of him who eSt teems you, here. Its only merit is, that it is a very true Your most affectionate servant, picture of the beginnings of work in Mexican ATRANASIO QUIROZ. towns. It is one native writing to another with no thought of another reading what was being North Africa Mission. written. There is no victory to report, no special danger to fear, but simply the common BRIEF note from the Secretary: every day work. JANUARY 26, 1889. Er. VENADO, Jan. 14, 1889. DEAR DR. PIERSO!(.-I have just returned BELOVED BROTHER PANFILo.-Senor Justo, from visiting most ·0110 the missionaries connotwithstanding his fanaticism, has conducted nected with the North Africa Mission in Mohimself toward me as a friend. We have talked rocco, Algeria and Tunis. The prospect among together of our respective beliefs and he is now the Mohammedans is encouraging and· we are reading some of our literature. I have been hoping to send out more laborers. There are having some conferences by night with a few now 41 on our staff, and two more leave us IU a persons. I was with the mayor of the town on week. Saturday, and he showed bimself to be a red We are now proposing to take up work liberal, and spoke of his fatber who was mayor among the Europeans as well as the Mohamme· of Villa de Cos when our church commenced dans, and also establish a station in Tripoli, work there, and the father took an active part which is quite without the gospel. in protecting us. One day last week we found at the door of onr bonse many torn tracts and Yours heartily in Christ, two half bnrned Gospels. I knew who did it, EDWARD H. SLENNY. Cor two persons who were with me the evening Hon. Sec. of N. Africa N. beCore l!howed themselves kmdly dIsposed to- Sweden.
[IT gives us pleasure to lay the fol- lowing earnest request before our readers. It is made by an American atructor of a most wise, humane. and philanwho is laboring as an evangelist in thropic measure undertaken by Great Britain three years ago, in which our co-operation was Sweden-the Rev. Otis L. Leonard. asked. We sland to·day as the champion and As an earnest of his interest in mis- protector of the trading wretches who sell dansions in his native land, he sends us gerous firearms and ammunition, and equally $10, after paying a year's subscl'ip- deadly spirits in the islands of the Western Pation to THE REVIEW, the balance to cillc. We occupy before the other civilized go to our "Volunteer Fund" Sure nations a position which is indefensible aud we are that our many thousand humiliating in the last degree. l'eaders will join heartily with him in prayer for such an object.-EDS.) .. The liquor traffic in Africa can be stopped forever by au international agreement such as REQUESTS FOR PRAYER. Great Britain very nearly effected respecting the Pacillc Islands. The friends of humanity, DEARCRRlSTIAN FRIENDS.-Will you allpray not only in this country but aU around the world, for Sweden. We ueed a great revival !!ere, ask through this memorial that the Congress of Pray for it I Pray for me, au evaugelist, labor- the United States shall exercise its power toing here I Pray for a student who is ill, called ward the accomplishment of that result." of God to preach. that he may be healed I Pray for a mighty revival of God's work, all over -Livingstone's Discoveries. The source of Sweden! the Nile was the unsolved problem of ancient geography. In 1770 James Bruce, a famous GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. traveler, thought he had found it, but it proved to be only the head of a branch called the Blue Africa.-Rum on the Congo. A Memoria Nile. More than 90 years later Lake Victoria Nyanza was discovered, which has an area as from the World's W. C. T. U. asking Congress large M the State of New York-more than 49,000 square miles. From this lake :flows a to act. Bishop Newmau preseuted the memorial broad river-the head waters of the Nile.
praying that immediate and decisive steps be Dr. LiVingstone discovered a great river in the heart of Africa. H. M. Stanley traced it to taken to suppress the liquor tramc 1D the Congo its mouth and found it to be the Congo, which pours more water into the sea than any other Free State and basin of the Niger. The memo- river except the Amazon, rial shows that during 1885 more than 10,000,000 .. Livingstoue hImself traveled 29,000 miles in Africa, and added to the known part of the gallons of the cheapest and vilest spirits ever globe about a million square miles.. He dis- covered Lakes 'Ngami, Shlrwa, Nyassa, Moero, manufactured were seut from the United, States and Bangweolo; the Upper Zambezi, and many other rivers; made known the wonderful Vic- Germany, Holland, England, France and Portu- toria Falls; also the high ridges fianklng the de- pressed basin of the central plateau; he was the gal to the natives of Africa. The quantities first European to traverse the whole length of Lake Tanganyika, and to give it its true oriencontributed by the different nations were: tatiou ; he traversed in mnch pain and sorrow the vast watershed near Lake Bangweolo, and United States, i 737,650 gallons; Germany, through no fault of his own just missed the in- 7,820,042 gallons the Netherlands. 1,01)9,146 formation that would have set at rest all his gallons; France ( • pure alcohol "), 405,944 gal- surmises about the sources of the Nile. H,S dis' Ions; England, 311,384 gallons; Portngal, 91,524 coveries were never mere happy guesses or vague descriptions from the accouuts of natives; gallons. each spot was determmed with the utmost pre- cision, though at the time his head might be The memorial, continumg, says that abundant giddy from fever or his body tormented with pain. He strove after an accurate notIOn of the evidence proves that this deadly rum has de- form and structure of the Continent; im'eBtiga_ ted its geology, hydrography, botany, and zoveloped in the natives an alcoholIc passion ology ; and grappled with the two great enemies of man and beast that prey on It-fever and almost without parallel, and has sunk them into tsetse. "-Memoir.
a state of degradatlOn lower than they occupied -The distinguished African traveler, Lieutenant Wissman, recently delivered an before they had contact with our commerce address before the Hambnrg Geographical Society on .. The Arab Question In Central and ch'iization, The march of commerce will Africa.,. He stated that withIn the Jast few years a great change had taken place soon place the rum traders m commuUlcation in regard to the attitude of the Ara.bs in with over 50,000,000 of stuages, and unless tbe traffic is totaUy suppreesed, the result will be most disastrous to the cause of humanity, a re- proach to the Christian natious, and an outrage second only to the sla va trade itself.
The purposes of the memorial and of the argu- ments made by Bishop Newman and Mr. Bor- nady are to bring about such a reVIsion of the General Act of the Berlin West Africa Confer- ence as shall completely suppress the liquor tramc in the terrItory m question; to obtam 8 law from COngress prohibIting the exportatlOD of liquor from this country to any port of Africa, and to persuade the UUlted States Government to. use its influence to mduce other governments to co-operate.
Mr. Hornady spoke with great earnestness and impressiveness. .. The UnIted States Gov- ernment," he said," stands to-day as the ob- Africa toWard the Europeans. The threat- Nasa, south of the Victoria Nyanza, and euing danger of European ascendency has Rubaga, in Uganda, at the north of the great made them very hostile, defiant and relent- lake. less. They no longer hesitate to show t'1at the right belongs to them of carrying on the The Universities Mission has twelve sta.- slave-tra.de, and that they mean to exercise tions, oneat Zanzibar, four in the Usambara It. The slave-dealers charged Lieutenant country north of Zanzibar, four on or near Wissman to inform the English on Lake the River Rovuma, and three on the east Tanganyika that any attempt on their pa.rt shore of Lake Nyassa. to interfere with the tralIlc would bring war upon them. The traveler is convinced The two Scottish Churches have-the that war-like measures against the Arabs Free Church five stations on Lake Nyassa, must be resorted to if a secure foundation the Established Church, one on Lake is sought for the establishment of European Shirwa, at the south of Lake Nyassa. The civilization in Africa. Arabs and Europeans route to this region is by the Zambesi and cannot exist side by side. Lieutenant Wiss- Shire Rivp.rs. man attaches great importance to the proposed expeditIon for the relief of Emin Bey. The L09don Society goes further west Re insists that the only feasIble plan is an than any of the other societies, and plants advance from the coast, and declares that two stations on Lake Tanganyika, and one it would be useless to employ others than at Urambo in the Unyamwezi country, natives as soldiers and carriers. In the south of the Victoria Nyanza and nea.r the meanwhile a sudden obstacle to such an stations of the Church Missionary Society. expedition has arisen in the disturbed state The route was formerly from Zanzibar of the Zanzibar coast. through Mpwapwa to Ujiji; now there IS another route by the Zambesi and Shire, -Missionary interest in East Africa. The Lake Nyassa and a road thence to the massacre of German missionaries at Dar-es- southern end of Lake Tanganyika. Salam, oli the East African Coast below Zanzibar, has been followed by the mas- The United Methodist Free Churches have sacre of an English mIssIOnary named two missions in the Mombasa regIOn and Brooks with sixteen of his followers, at one in Gallaland. Saadani, a pomt nearly opposite ZanzIbar. These massacres, committed by the Arabs Three German Protestant societies have and natives under their control, m the rismg five stations-three in Gallaland, one in against the Germans, were not unexpected. Zanzibar, and one in Dar-es-Salam, where The course of the Germans, who had no ex- one of the massacres took place. It is the perIence with African Arabs or natives, Berlin Society which maintains the last two was such as to provoke hostility. They stations. established their commercial enterprise last August, and m a few weeks the Arabs These are all the Protestant missions bewere up m arms. The blockade of the coast tween Wito and the Rovuma River; but maintained by Germany infuriates the reb- there are German and French Roman Cathoels because it stops thetr tralIle, and they lic stations. There are three French stawill, It is feared, massacre all the miSSIOn- tions on or near Lake Victoria, the most aries on wh~ they can lay hands. important of which is the one in Uganda, under the control of Pere Lourdel; two on Missionary interests have become very Lake Tanganyika; one at Bagamoyo, near extensive in East Africa. The Church MIS- Zanzibar, and one or two others. TheJesusionary Society and the Universities Mis- its have also a few stations, and the Ger- SIOn, of the Church of England; the Estab- man Oatholics have olle at Dar-es-Salam. lished and the Free Church, of Scotland; the London Missionary SOCIety, the United In all, there are thirteen missions-six Methodist Free Ohurches and the Ohurch of British, four German, and three French. Rome, all have missions on the coast or in One society, the Ohurch Missionary, alone the mterior. has spent $500,000 in the last thirty years in East Africa.-The IndepI'ndent. The Church MiSSIOnary Society has two distmct lines of missions-one with its basis -How some missions were saved. At at Mombasa, in the English sphere of infiu- Mombasa, Frere Town and Rabai, on the east ence, with eight statIOns, some of Which coast of Africa, the English Church Missionary are on or near the coast and some in the Society has for some time been carrymg on a interior. One IS III the neighborhood of work SImilar to that which has been so greatly Mount KIlimanJaro. The second line of blessed at Sierra Leone and other places on the stations is that …hich stretches from Zan- west coast. The natives who have been reszibar to Uganda. There are 9 stations in cued from the Arab slave vessels by the British this hne beginning with Mambola and cruisers have been taken to the first-named Mpwapwa, nearly due west from ZanzIbar, towns, where they have been cared for and mand including Usamblro, Msalala and structed by the missionaries of the society, and a large number of them have become new crea- tures III Christ Jesus, and are now dIligent in tilling the soil or in following other industrial pursruts.
For several yoors fngitive slaves from the adjoining conntry have sought refuge at the plainest and most decisive manner of the the mi,sion stations from the oppressions of evils of opium smokiug-. The people are being their Mohammedan masters. Every effort has ruined by it, and it is iudeed a lamentable spec- been made by the missions to prevent mere tacle to see professing Christian men speaking runaways from settling around the stations; and writing in defense of the horrible crime.
but it has lately been found that many who " The perniciOUS results of this soul and body came and placed themselves nnder Christian destroying vice are apparent all around. Ca- teaching, and who were supposed to be free daverous-loookiDg faces meet one on every side, natives, were really fugitive slaves. Many of and the slovenly habits and the filthy appearance them have embraced Christianity, been bap- of the people generally testify too plainly to the tized, and are leadiBg .. quiet and peaceable evil it is working on this once industrious and lives in all godliness and honesty." energetic population. The rapid progress which Snddenly the former Mohammedan masters opium smokiug has made during the last twenty of the fugitives combined and threatened years among all classes of this population is destruction to the missions unless they were a very serious matter for us missionaries.
given up again to slavery. It has been a time Humanly speakiug, opium smokers are beyond of great anxiety to the missionaries, and the reach of conversion, as the vice unfits them in this crisis lhey could only commit all to for the perception of any moral or spiritual the Lord. Happily the danger has been truths_ Can the Church of Christ in England averted by the wise and timely acHon of do nothing to influence the nation to withdraw Mr. Mackenzie, the chief agent of the new from the abominable traffic which is causing so Imperial British East Africa Company whose much moral, spiritual, physical ruin to this great head-quarters are at Mombasa. Mr. Mackenzie people? It is a sad reflectiou on the Church of saw that if the regime of this politico-commercial Christ in Englaud that it seems powerlesM to company began with the restoration of a thou- influence the English people in so important a sand escaped slaves to the slave owners, its matter as the Indian traffic in opium.
inHuence wonld be serionsly injured. He has, .. Almost the entire population in some places therefore, undertaken to compensate the Arab is abandoned to the use of this poisonous drug.
slave-owners. on condition that the whole of The effects are witnessed in the extreme pov- this fugitive slave population, a large portion of erty of the people, in the broken-down and which is Christian, are declared free forever. dilapidated dwellings all through the village, This arrangement has delighted all parties. A and in the gross immorality which prevails grand feast has been given by the Moham- among the inhabitauts. Men openly aud with- medans to Mr. Mackenzie, while the slaves are out shame prostitute their wives, in order to set free and the missions are saved. procure for themselves the means of indulging Cllina.-Opium Havoc. Archdeacon Wolfe, in opium smoking. Little children are sold as of the C.M. S., has written an account of a visit slaves and turned away from the embrace of to Hoh-Chiang, commencing iu September last. their helpless mothers in order that their de- He says: graded fathers may have money to buy opium. All this and much more may be told of the .. Kang Cheng is situated in the heart ora beau- tiful valley, rich in rice crops, and well watered efl'ects of opium smoking on the miserable peoat all seasons of the year. The population is pie; yet professing Christians iu England see immeuse, and the position: is well suited as a no harm in it, and openly advocate the abominamissionary center for the eutire valley; but, ble traffic which makes it possible and compar- alasl it is filled with opium smokers, and where ativelyeasy for the Chinese people 10 ruin them- these abound there is very small hope of an en- selves aDd their wives and children for time and trance for the Gospel of Christ. Though the for eternity !
town stands in the midst of such natural beauty " At one place I met Sia, the literary graduate, and grandeur, there are no attractions in the and had a long and painful conversation with town Itself; on the contrary, every sight and him ou this questiou. Sia himself comes object that the eye rests on, as well as nearly regularly to church, and contributes to the every word that the ear listens to, is most re- support of the catechist and the repairs, pulsive aud degrading. Such is heathenism in etc., of the church, but at present he is every place that I have seen it iu China, and much discouraged and disgusted by the con- especially III a place giveu up to opium smoking. duct of England and China with reference to .. In consequence of the removal of the local the opium question. He says that since the tax ou the sale of opium, the drug is very much recent arrangements which allow the opium cheaper than before; consequently Its use is to be transported iuto the interior free of lekin rapidly spreading among all classes, and is fast tax the consumption has more than dOUbled, as destroying the Vitality of this people. The devil the price has by tljese arrangements been much could not have invented a more permcions vice reduced. The Imperial revenue has been large- for the destruction of soul and body than this of ly increased; but, the local taxation having opinm smoking, and woe to the man who by been removed by the special request of Eng- word or deed gives any support or encourage- land, it can be conveyed into the interior and ment to the hell-boru trafficl It is necessary sold for a much less price than it cost under the for every friend of the Chinese to speak out in old arrangementI Hence the Country is being visited with a. hea.vler curse than ever before by the building removed by the French as a cnunb of -action and greed of England. Will not God visit comfort to him. Cor these things' Sia's only son has succumbed to the temptation. and has become within the " At this juncture China proposed a new solulast year a confirmed opium smoker. The grief tion of the difficulty. Without proposing to and anger of the father may well be imagined, meddle with the French miSSionaries, whoso and the shame and helpless indignation oC the relations to their own authorities could not be English missionary are beyond expression. changed, and with a desire to deal justly with OCten and often has the missionary to endure the all parties, it proposed that the Ministers and humiliation which no other nationality has to Consuls oC the other nationalities should treat bear in this country. Often has he wished in Roman Catholic missionaries of their nationhis heart -that the flag of some other nation alities as they treated merchants and others: which is not stained with the poisonous, pol- shonld @ecnre passports, consider complaints, luted opium drug, was the one under which he demand redress, etc.; thus superseding tho lived in this country rather than the English, French MInister and ConSUls, and of course which to the Chinese is the emblem of the moral diminishing the power of France. which conld ruin of their nation."-The Ohristian (London). scarcely dare to protest against so obviously eqnitable an arrangement. Her power had Boman Catholic Missionaries in China. hitherto been only a usurpation. Within the last two months, Germany and Italy have made [We copy below from the New York agreements with China on the terms proposed. Evangelist in a condensed form tpe Withont pausing to examine their probable motives too closely, we may safely assume substance of an able article which that at an early day the other European pow- ers will do the same. The French protectorate recently appeared in the London in China is a thing of the past. It wili no longer obstruct the success of Protestant mis- Times on "The Past and Present sions." Positions of Roman Catholic Mission- Europe.-Standing Armies. The tabular aries in China."-EDs.] statement given below,showing the strength .. AFTER the treaty of Tientsin in 1857, Napo- of standing armies of Europe, even when on leon ill. assumed the protection oC Roman a. peace footing, will convey some idea. Catholic missionaries in China, irrli8pective Of of the waste of human energy involved, their l1ationalitiea. Italian, German, and Span- to say nothing of the cost of their mainteish missionaries knew nothing of the official nance. representatives of their own countries. Practically they were all Frenchmen, not willingly, EUROPEAN ARMIES ON A PEACK FOOTING. but by Corce oC circumstances. French officials secured Cor them favors or redress, and received from them reports upon civil, political, and social matters. The power and intluence secured iil this way by France were felt as a menace to China, which lacked either the resolution or opportunity or both. to protect itself.
" ThIs French protectorate over Romish missionaries in China might have coutlnued to the present time but for the recent war between France and Tonquln, a country having close religious and political relations with China. When it found that iu that couflict Romau Catholic mIssiouaries became unscrupulous Freuch political emissaries, Chiua saw her danger, and improved her opportunity for escape. The result ofthe missions of special agents aud private messeugers was an agreement that the Pope should send to China a Legate, who in his name should have control of all missionary matters, receive all communications from missiouaries, entirely ignoriug the French Legation, which would immediately lose its protectorate and power. Then the French Goverument threatened that if the proposed arrangement was carried out, the Pope shonld receive the de· nunciation oC the Concordat, and the supplies of the French clergy shonld be withheld. This Chinese agreement therefore was thrown overboard. the site of the obnoxious Pie·tang Cathedral being restored to the Emperor, and the England.-Prof. Sir Monier-Williams de- With this larlre sumlivered a powerful address a few days ago at a C. M. S. meeting at Kensington. Having shown Societies. Men. Women. that the missionary spirit is of the essence of Christianity, he maintained that those who talk ~ri~~~~~ea~~~~~~~i.~~:: ::: 1,~~ 1,~ of failure in this work cannot' know what is in their own heart, or be conscious that a deep- Continental are employing.. 777 447 rooted repugnance to the healing power of the Cross lurks in the very soul and intellect of man. 3.574 Total …………………. 2,273 At present God wills to do His work slowly, through man's agency, and progress is not to be These societies have the following visible settled by the multiplication table. We cannot all bear witness in a foreign land, bot we can all results as testimony to tbeir faithfnlness in persevere in praying to our Father that His name may be hallowed and His kingdom come their appointed work: over all the earth. We have undoubtedly to wrestle with formidable forces, but victory is Members. not doubtful, for" power belongeth unto God." Pertaining to American societies. 242,733 Turkey.-The Withering Influence of Mohammedanism. Canon Taylor says' that Mo- Pertaining to British societies…. 340,242 hammedan countries do not require the gospel. The Turkish Minister of Finance, in it report to Pertaining to Continent'lsocieties 117,532 the Sultan, states that the deficit in the Budget is £1,500,000 and that no means will be avilable To'l membership in heathen lands 700,507 to provide against it if the present system of abuses be continued. Economy in certain depart. This is larger than the membership of ments, or reorganization, with strict control and regularity in payments, to maintain Turkish the Presbyterian Church in the United credit abroad. are suggested as of the first necessity for recovering an equilibrium. It re- States, and the amount expended is nearly mains questionable (the Timea' correspondent says) whether tbe salutary advice of AIlOP Pasha the same that ~aid church spent at home will be adopted, considering the powerful infiuence militating against reform in a depart- last year for her own current expenses. ment wbich is a hotbed oC illicit gain to so ml'ny. This deficit by no means represents tbe Butforeign missions have not only gained whole state of financial collapse of the ollly Mohammedan Government in tbe world. It is this largenumberof converts from heathenin arrears with many of its chief officials for years of salary. They depend for keeping np ism, but they have also the following educatheir position upon grmding the faces of those wbo are below them. Had it not been for the tional work to report: Crimean War and the Berlin Treaty, Turkey would have perished as an independent state Societies. Children. long ago. It would have been better for tbe common people had sbe done so.-Bombay American have in schools……. . 124,813 Guardian. British have in schOOls………. .. 434,774, -Why am I a Missionary? This question is not one bounded by denominational lines, Continental have in schools…. .. 67,154 but can be answered by almost every Christian chuch in almost the same terms, as a Total…. . •.. …. .. • . .. .. .. . …. .. 626,741 non-mission church may be called a non- Christian church. I a.m inspired by the en- . In addition to all this, missionary ships, couragements presented. The Christian freighted with" The Word of Life," sail on world is earnestly ",ngaged in the work of many seas and steam on the lakes of Central foreign missions. It ·has become an estab- Africa. Hundreds of papers, in almost as lished part of church work, engaging its many languages, .. drop their leaves for the bes~ talent both at home and on the foreign healinj('of the nations." Moreover, modern field. The latest statistics tell ns that the missions are yet in their infancv. The past following sums are being contributed an- has been a time of seed-sowing. Tbe oldest nually for this great work: A.merican society, the American Board, was born in 1810,and of the British and Continen- 32 American societies contributed. $3,011,027 tal societies, all but six were established 28 British societies contributed….. 5,217,885 within the last eighty ;tears. There is grand 27 Continent'lsocieties contributed. 1,083,170 inspiration in the history of thecause. Mis- sions have always been important factors, Total, 27societi.es, contributed …$4311,582 in the providence of God, in giving to the world the civilization it now enjoys. There is goodly fellowship in the work. Missions have given to the world the lives of such men as Robert Moffat, of South Africa; Dr. LiVingstone. his son-in-law, of all Atrica; Robert Morrison, of China; Henry Martyn, of Persia; Adoniram Judson and his wives. of Burmah; Schwartz, of India; Egede, of Greenland; and a host of others as worthy of canonization as any saint in the Roman calendar. Missions, by the blessing of God, can and do regenerate nations. They have reduced scores of languages to writing, and have given a literature to many lands. In Japan, where twenty-five years a.go there was not a slDgle paper ill circulation, there are now more than in all the rest of Asia combined; more than in Russia and Spain together. She is casting away her old cum- bersome alphabet, if such it can be called, and adopt.ing the Roman letters. She is
18S9.] INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
filling theatres with thousands hungering are also converts in Timor, Wetter, and those and thirsting for the gospel. The Bible will portions of Borneo and New Guinea, to which do for Japan and other nations what it has the Dutch Government lays claim. The island done for England and America. I am a of Celebes has become Christian, there being missionarybecause, while our Savior taught 199 Christian congregations, and 125 schools. us to pray, ., Thy Kingdom come," He also The number of adherents of the missions is no said, "Go ye into all the world and preach less than 80,000. the gospel to every creature." Praying and workingmnstgo together. Thatchnrch -Alfred Russell Wallace's Remarkable Tesis not truly evangelical (envangelizing) timony. The book by Alfred Russell Wallace, which preaches the gospel in bnt one the distinguished SCientist, entitled" The Malay langnage.-M. E. Beall, in North American Archipelago, a Narrative of Travel, with Studies Ret'iew. of Man and Nature," contains the following : -The World's Debt to Missionaries. Mr. .. Jnst opposite my abode in Rurnkan in Liggins' book, " The Great Value and Success Celebes was the school-house. The school-masof Foreigu Missions," is calling forth stroug ter was a native, educated by the missionary commendation from the press and from eminent at Tomohou. School was held every morning clergymen. Dr. Clarke of the American Board for about three hours, and twice a week in the writes' evening there was catechizing and preaching. The chlldren were all tanght in Malay. They "No one can read this volume without being always wound up with singing, and it was very profoundly impressed with what has been ac- pleasing to hear many of our old psalm-tunes, complished by Foreign Missions. It is a rare in these remot,e mountains, sung with Malay collection of just those facts and incidents which words. Singing is one of thA real blessings which missionaries introduce among savage nations, I who are interested in missions will find help- whose native chants are almost always moful in presenting the cause. Every pastor notonousand melancholy. The missionaries have should have it; every Sunday-school superin- much to be proud of in this conntry. Theyhave tendeut should have it as a storehouse of in- assisted the Government in changing a savage teresting incidents." into a civilized commnnity in a wonderfully short space of time. Forty years ago the conntry was a We extract two items in regard to the island wilderness, the people naked savages, garnish· of Celebes. In the Dutch East India Islands there ing their rude houses with human heads. Now are many missions supported by Christian it is a garden, worthy of its sweet native name people in the Netherlands. On Java, Sumatra, of ' Minabati. ", Amboyna, Ki and the Aru Islands, there are large congregations and many converts. and there INTERN ATION AL DEPARTMENT.
Applied Missionary Information. to be impelled individually to venture on their own responsibility to go THERE never has been a time when everywhere; merchants, mechanics, the methods for the conduct of foreign missions were the subject teachers, professional men, in a great of more varied suggestion than uprising of missionary enterprise now. There is manifest a growing going to the ends of the earth to disposition to find out what is ex- pursue their several'v<llyations, that traneous in existing modes, :1nd to by such opportunity as shall occur experiment with" new departures," to them, they may act as lay mis- in the hope of finding some method sionaries. How far this might lead or methods which admit of more to disorder, and put on the several vigorous and extended advance on fields irresponsible persons who heathendom. Inexpensiveness, sim- would not contribute to the advance plicity, and greater freedom of ir.di- of Christ's kingdom is amongst the vidual effort are earnestly sought. queries that attach to the suggestion.
There is, besides, a conviction that Is it possible to establish an intelli- the duty of evangelization ought in gence office which shall supply such; some· way to be more distributed persons with informatIOn about the among individuals, without lessen- specific opportunity for such labor,'
ing' that of the organized societies. that they may form a better judg- Acknowledging all the worth of ment, whether what they feel moved; organized effort, there is still the to do is likely to prove of any practi- thought tha.t melll1I1.d WQwell oug-ht cal value? There are fields where workers ar~ "We think it advisable to form a Mission_ needed to do just such specific work.' ary Consulting Committee, in various large What else besides that which exist- cities of Great Britaiu in connection with a ing organizations supply can be set Central Body in London to meet monthly up to try to bring the workers and the fur prayer, for the study of the great needs of the world-field, to consider missionary work in aU the world intelligently information, and to intercha.nge opillions.."
together? The result of this was the organi- These are practical and important zatioh of a " Missionary Intelligence matters. An international and in- and Registration office" in London ter-denominational committee, for " for the registration of missionary general oversight and stimulus, is information, and the encouragement amongst the hints that this matter of vigorous self-supporting mission- has brought out. Another form of ary enterprise in all parts of the it is seen in conventions, colleges, world, in harmony with existing mis- and individual churches assul1)ing the sionary societies." This' numbered support of individual missionaries, amongst its patrons such persons as with or without alliance with al- Robert Arthington, Rev. Hugh Price ready existing societies. That there Hughes, Rev. F. B. Meyer, and other are indications of need in all this eminent men.
which call for mature deliberation This organization has varied its can scarcely be called in question. title of late into "Missionary and Workers of one country 01' church , Evangelistic Bureau." The objects may sometimes be suitably employed of this enterprise are definitelystated to meet the demand under already as follows: existing organizations in some other .. First. To collect and put into practical country 01' church, just as many of form, reliable information concerning spirthe early missionaries of the English itually·destitute and neglected places, as societies were found in Germany. well as Christian work in operation. throughont the world, and to disseminate Are the societies doing what should the same through suitable channels. be done internationally 01' interde- .. Second. To call attention to promiSing uominationally to bring work and workers all over the world together? fields of labor, and to encourage all (men or, have they already more than they or women) who are willing to be used in the can do, and should there be a volun- Lord's service, for theevanzelization of the tary organization to collect and col- world, aud to furnish missionary informa.- late this class of information to be tion. placed at their disposal, such organi- .. Third. To establish a system of corre- spondents in foreign lands, who will report on suitable openings for missionaries, self- supporting or otherwise, and act as referees zation becoming auxiliary and sup- to those who go out; also generally to keep plemental to the regular missionary the Bnreau furnished WIth snitable IDfor– societies of all countries and co-op- mation. and to put those of the Lord's peoerating with them? ple who may travel•• en rapport' with Christian work in the countries they may If such voluntary organization be visit. realized, can it become the medium .. Fourth. To nrge on Christian people for collating and classifying all information likely to be of practical thronghput Great Britain and elsewhere, the claims of the heathen, and their respon- sibilities rsspecting them. and to seek to in- value to independent as well as or- fnse zeal and energy into the Christian ganized missionary enterprize? public at large for the support ofmissionary enterprise with their means and influence. A Bilginning.-At the close of a ~Conference in Manchester, England, .. Fifth. To stimulate Christian congre- gations to seek representation on the For- in 1886, several well-known gentle- eign field, by members selected, sent out, men met, an.d after anxious and pray- and maintained from amongst themselves. erful discussion unanimously adopted the following resolution: .. Sixth. To act as agents for either mis- sionaries or evangelists, by representmg them in Londoll, and facilitllting their work. by relieving them of such business affairs of requirements includes: name, as they may desire to depute, and by enlist- age, married or single, health now mg sympathy in their behalf." and formerly, hereditary physical traits, trade or profession, education, In actively attempting to secure acquaintance with any language or this purpose the work is divided into languages, whether person will work departments. 1. The Department for at profession or trade provided op- Registry of Missionary Effort, in all portunity for systematic work for. parts of the world of whatever name, conversion of souls is afforded, what the record to be available for all de- evangelistic work he has hitherto siring information. 2. The Depart- done, denomination, if denominationment of Requirements, to bring work al work is desired, references. The and workers together. 3. The De- Registry of Requirements includes: partment of Employment of Mission- society or mission requiring worker, aries, to bring to the knowledge of whether work is old or new, scope suit~ble men and women means of and objects of work, age, if payment livelihood abroad while working for of passage will be met, if for any the Lord. specified term, and the official, if any, with whom arrangements are This Bureau has prepared blank to be cQncluded. forms for the collection and registry of information, of which there are six That such a society would find an classifications lettered as follows: abundance of applications for infor- mation is certain. There are those (a) For the registration of any'par- who would like to go to Japan on ticular missionary effort; (b) on sug- their individual account, to engage gested openings abroad where in teaching by which they could Christian workers may be profitably support themselves and at the same employed; (c) for Christian workers time do incidental missionary work, seeking a missionary sphere; (d) for but who are ignorant as to whether opportunities of suitable secular em- any such openings exist now, as ployment for the support of mis- they did a few years ago. There sionaries; (e) for vacancies in exist- is no doubt of their qualifications, ing missions or societies; (f) for such yet no SOciety has at this time the private and confidential information means to send them forward for its as will enable the Bureau to act as organized work. representative of missionaries and others. The Bureau gives illustrations oC the daily applications made to it, and It may help to a better apprehen- also of applications for workel·s. It sion if we quote from these forms mentions among others the call for enough to indicate the plan. The an educated lady for South India, registry of effort seeks to record: amongst higher class native women, when any mission was commenced, and two working-men for colporteur_ number of stations, area worked by evangelism in Bombay presidency, mission, number of missionaries, Eu- India; and further of openings in ropean or native, also of evangelists general, as in Kashmir, where a carand lay helpers, communicants, bap- penter, printer, shoemaker, photo- tized persons, cost of mission, etc. grapher, nurse and others could find The registry of openings requires an opening. to know: where any such exists, E'Xtentand populationof district, nature, We have been thus explicit be- objects and prospects of proposed cause this organization represents a work; climate, expense, whether for general spirit and tendency of the established or new work, special dif- times, while itself only one form of cuities, how reached, how possibly the expression of it. Such a Bureau to be supported, etc. The registry involves imm:ense and patient work. It is plain that ail good Mussul- Persons desirous of further imforma- mans must believe in that which tion concerning the operations of was revealed before the Quran. Muthis Bureau, or who are willing to co- hammad's inspiration is said to be operate for securing the same ends of the same character as that of in America, may address Rev. J. T. former prophets of the Jews and Gracey, D.D., Buffalo, N. Y. Christians.
Islam. "Verily we revealed our will unto Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and «()onfinuedfr(Jm page 218.) JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN FACTORS. Jacob and the tribes 'and Jesus and The most prominent Jewish and Job and Jonas and Aaron and Solo- Christian idea appl'opriated by mpn, and we gave unto David the Muhammad was that of a Divine Psalms and apostles whose stories revelation. The extent to which we have not revealed unto thee"
Muhammad was impresiied with the [Sura IV: verse 161]. .
Jewish and Christian Scriptures is a The authority of a Divine revela- matter of no little sUt'prise to the tion, and the obligation to be guided student when he first approaches this by it, which was Jewish and Chris- subject. Sir William Muir, in his tian, was fully appropriated by Mu- "Testimony Borne by the Coran hammad. .
to the Jewish and Christian Script- "And he sent down the Tom'at ures," collates a large number of . (pentateuch) and the gospel from be- passages from the Quran, which fore for the guidance of mankind, and show how prominent this thought of he sent down the Forcan (Quran).
"The Book," the sacred "Script- Verily they that reject the revelation ures,"the Divine revelation, was in of God to them shall be a fearful the mind of Muhammad. Mr. Muir punishment" [Sura iii : verse 2].
says: " A considerable portion of the Muhammad seizes, perverts, and'
Coran is occupied with narratives of applies to himself Christ's promise to events recorded also in the Sacred send the Paraclete, and places on a .Scriptures of the Jews and Ohris- parallel with that of Jesus and to the tians. Such narratives show very prophets of old the revelation made frequently a close correspondence, to himself.
amounting in some places to actual "Jesus said: Oh, children of Israel, coincidence in the cast and turn of verily I am an apostle of God unto expression with the Bible." Besides you, attesting that which is before this, the Jews and Christians are me, the 1'0urat (Pentateuch), and some fifty times in the Quran styled giving glad tidings of an apostle that the "People of the Book," the "Peo- shall come after me whose name is pIe possessing the Revelation," etc. Ahmad" [Sura lxi : verse 6].
These are in fact the commonest de- The style and mode of the inspira- signations of Jews and Ohristians in tion of the Quran are here put in the Quran. the same category with that of the Muhammad evidently only ex- Jewish and Christian peoples. And pected to succeed in impreSSing Jews the coincidences between the Jewish and Christians by producing a reve- and Christian Scriptures and the Qu-, l~ion, as their prophets had done. l'an are claimed as a proof to the Mec- A revelation was considered abso- cans of the inspiration of the Quran, .
lutely indispensable. as in Sura xxvi: verse 191: "What, "The people of the book will ask is it not a sign unto them that the thee that thou cause It book to de- wise men of the children of Israel scend upon thee from the HeavElns'" recognize it?" or, [Sura IV: verse 149]. " 'I;hus doth the glorious and wise God communicate revelation unto miracles. Muhammad -distinctly rec- thee and unto those that preceded ognized this, but declared that n9 thee" [Sura xlii: verse 6]; or again, necessity existed to confirm the mes- "Thus have we sent down to thee sage of the Quran, no other evidence the Book (Quran) and those to whom could enhance that of the book itself.
we have given the Scriptures be- "Each prophet has received ma:ni- lieve in it" [Sura xxix: verse 47]. fest signs which carried conviction "We believe in that which hath to men, but that which I have re- been revealed to us, and in that ceived is the revelation." In other which hath been revealed to you, words the c.i?uran itself is a literary and your God and our God is one" miracle; no book in the world can [Sura xxix: verse 46]. Thus the text co~pare with it in thought and ex- of the Quran is claimed to be of the pression; the Arabic of the Quran is same manner as that of the Script- the Arabic of Heaven; no revelation ures, and also of identical origin could be more self-evident. Muham- The source of the Quran is also the mad challenges men and genii to same. This is not an accidental refer- produce a single chapter like it. The ence. The Quran abounds in similar challenge has not been accepted.
references to the Scriptures. Mr. Incidentally, we may put a few con- Muir has collated some one hundred trasts. Let it be conceded that the and fifty of such references in the Quran is the most untranslatable Quran to the Jewish and Christian , book in the world; that no book in Scriptures: Muhammad was evi- the world loses so much by transl;l.- dently profoundly impressed with ,tion ;1.6 it does, because its beauty and this Jewish and Christianconception, force inhere in the Arabic language.
and availed himself of it. But on the other hand, no book in The conception of a revelation in- the world is so translatable as the volved the personality and unity of 'Jewish and Christian Scriptures.
God, and his selection of a person Another strong contrast is seen in through whom to make known his the fact that the Quran having been will. This was soon concreted by delivered through one medium and Muhammad into: "There is no within a period of little more than God but God, and Muhammad is his twenty years, is all of one time and Prophet." one manner; and has uniformity of The one overpowering thought of expression, but strangely enough has the revelation of the Divine purpose no continuity of design; while the and pleasure to the individual was Bible, written by various authors, at clearly Jewish and Christian, and various periods of history, has great this was the great factor furnished variety of expression and most by these people to Muhammad, marked unity of design. This sug- Whatever else mayor may not have gests another phase of the idea of been amongst the elements of the .revelation adopted by Muhammad, times, these were, and, given these that of infallibility in the revelation.
and Muhammad, the result is the Muhammad said the later message Quran. must always take precedence in au- A collateral part of the idea of Di- thority over the earlier, and abrogat- vine revelation adopted by Muham- ed all which were of a contradictory mad, was that of the necessity of character to it. This abrogation per- outward evidence to support the rev- tained however only to commands elation. The prophets who had pre- and prohibitions, and the abrogation ceded him had confirmed the claim of must itself be a part of the revela- the supernatural revelations made tion, and must be announced and ,to them by supernatural works- historically preserved. This is a most important point in the controversy extension over AfrIca or Malaysia, of Christianity with Islam. The but rather the revival of Moslem Moslem world, being obliged by the Puritanism by the Wahiibees. Abd- Quran to recognize Muhammad's in- el-Wahab, at the close of the laSt dorsement of the Jewish arid Chris- century" saw that his co-religionists tian revelations, offset the force of had fallen away from that purity of the fact by asserting that the Quran life and belief which made Islam being the latest revelation, aqnuls master of all the civilized world save all the Jewish and Christian revela- a corner of Europe; he resolved to tions contrary to it. But Sell asserts ,bring them back to the truth. He that" it cannot be shown that either scouted the traditions which had Muhammad or his companiens ever buried the pure Quran under their said that the Bible was abrogated." mass, .• he learned to distin- POST-MUHAMMADAN ELEMENTS. guish between the essential ele- Three streams of tendency follow ments of Islam and its accidental or fl'om all that we have said: recent admixtures," and 1. The followers of Muhammad found "the keystone, the master- have imitated the prophet in extend- thought, the parent idea" to lie in ing the Gnostic eclecticism which he the phase, La llah illa Allah- inaugurated. IfMuhammad adopted, "There is no god but God." This adjusted, appropriated religious doc- he said meant much more than a trines and customs of his time and negation of any deity save one aJone, country, why should not his follow- but that this one Supreme Being is ers? Islam has sometimes appro- also, as Mr. Palgrave puts it, "The priated what it could not assimilate, only agent, the only force, the only as in the island of Java, where a act, existingthroughoutthe universe, strange mixture of nature-worship, • . the sole power, the sole animism and Hinduism with Muham- motor, movement, energy and deed, madanism, and is so nearly a new is God; the rest is downright inertIa conglomerate, as that it takes a dis- and mere instrumentality from the tinct name, as Javanism. Another highest ar,changel down to the sim- illustration of appropriation is in the plest atom of creation." Hence, in offering of sacrifices at the tombs of this sentence, "There is no god but saints to secure their mediation. God," is summed up a system which Kuenen well remarks, in view of the Palgl'ave terms, "the Pantheism of absence of the doctrine of sacrifices force or act." It is not ours to de- from the Quran, "The Moslem seeks fend all this. Weare only Illustrat- what his faith withholds from him, ing the movement toward Puritan- and seeks it where the authority ism fl'om a Moslem standpoint, a which he himself recognizes forbids recurrence to the original elements him to look for it." It is no part of of Islam within OUt· own times; a Islam; it is not even a product of it. great movement which is secretly It can only be adopted on the pro- wide-spread over Asia, and greatly re- phet'') own principle of action, that invigorating and intensifying the of thl agglutination of ideas. It is Moslem community. The Panthe- thus that it has partially adopted in ism which the Sufi Moslems claim India the caste system of the Hindus. has been an historic doctrine of 2. A second tendency is to appeal Islam for three centuries is put to primitive ideas and principles, or much more nearly after Hindu form.
to read a philosophy into the teach- A chief among hIS sect says: "God ings of the prophet himself. himself is the vessel and he is the The great feature of Islam in this hopper. He is the clay and he is century is not its geographical the wine-drinker. He is the buyer and he is the vessel when broken to political, social, intellectual, and pieces." They say, "If of a piece moral." of cloth one makes stockings of one part and caps of another part, the ANOTHER TEST CASE IN INDIA COURTS. honor of the one would be appal'ently WHAT has suddenly become famous greater than the other, though they would be really the same." However as "the Patna case" bids fair to at- much they differ as regards name tract as great attention as did that of and appearance-internally or really, Rakhmabai. This involves another God and the whole creation are phase ot the question of the morality identical; and hence Persian, Indian, and the liberty of person of the and Arabic, Moslem Puritanism women of India. It appears that two says La Bah illa Allah is but an axiom, a confession of faith, the native women applied to Miss Abra- condensed creed of the Moslem Pan- ham of the Indian Female Normal theist. This is of value to us, how- ever, rather as illustrating the ten- School and Instruction Society at dency, which is always possible of Patna for baptism. The younger, a manifesting itself, of a return to the virgin of 14 and a widow, whose primitive elements of Islam. mother sold her to a life of shame, to avoid which the girl fled to the mis- 3. But the far more forcible ten- dency that has hitherto flowed from sionary. The India papers teem with what we primarily set forth, has been the various incidents,and with discus- to set up the "Prophet" himself as sion of legal principles involved in the the rule and the example for Islam, .and to bound all interpretations of case. We quote from one of these, Islam by the "Prophet" himself, the Indian Witness, the following thus prohibiting all accretions or summary of facts: adaptations, and denouncing all phi- losophies, defying all interpretations, .. The girl Lachmin is Courteen and a half and sternly, irresistibly limiting years old, and was sold by her mother to a shop- Islam by the personality of Mu- keeper by the name of Radakissen. All the part- hammad. Hence the immobility of ies belong to the Khetri caste, and hence Rada- the Moslem Creed and civiliza- klssen being prohibited by caste rules from mar- tion, and a prejudice against inno- rying a widow, his object In procuring the girl vation which petrifies progress at is plain. While negotiations for the sale of the the boundary line of the personality .glrl were In progress, Miss Abraham, a Zenana of Muhammad and the literal text missionary (of the 1. F. N. S.), visited the home of the Quran. of Lachmin without knowing anything about the girl's history, Lachmln and an older woman, Muhammad said: "Bl'ing ink and who had heard the gospel before, decided to paper. I wish to write you a Book forsake their evil associates and accordingly to preserve you always from error." went to Miss Abraham's house. LachmIn yielded But it was too late. He could not to the operations of grace and became a firm be- write. Hence he said: "May the liever in Jesus Christ. Radakissen, seeing that Quran always be your guide. Per- his gain was gone, for It is alleged he was trying form what it commands you; avoid to sell the girl Into infamy, made application to what it prohibits." Mr. Sell well the magistrate under section 551 of Indian Pro- says: "The letter of the book be- cedure Code to have his prey restored, and came, as he intended it should be- charged Miss Abraham with' abducting the child come, a despotic influence in the Cor immoral pnrposes I' Rioters surrounded the Moslem world, a barrier of free think- magistrate's court, attacked Miss Abraham's ing on the part of the orthodox, an house, and put the missionaries In peril. The mag- obstacle to innovation in all spheres, istrate yielded to the clamor and issued a snm- mons on Miss Abraham. in which he called Rada- "kissen LachmIn's husband I Possibly every Brahman and Pundit in Patna would contradict this error, as LachmIn's boy husband died In infancy and the girl was a virgin widow, but the mistake in the summons had a banefnl effect. Miss Abraham employed a lawyer, and, better stiJI, laid the case before the undaunted knight errant of the Bombay Guardian. This last gentleman pointed out that section 551 referred to detention of girls for immoral purposes, which did not apply to Miss Abraham. Mr. Dyer also showed thlLt under section 3'T3 Radakissen and the President, Rev. :1. T. Gracey, the girl's mother were liable to ten years' im- Buffalo, N. Y. It is desirable that prisonment. The case came before the magis- trate on November 6th, and that gentleman was missionaries abroad shall contribute dlspoeed to order Miss Abraham to give up the suggestions, or papers to be read on girl without hearing any evidence, but the law- this occasion, especially calling at- yer iuformed him that he was watching the case tention to the needs of specific fields, on behalf of the Purity Party in England, and this electric shock had its elfect. Another ad- the outlook, the perils, or the help journment followed by an appeal to the high needed from Christian lands. court, Calcutta, and on December 6th, the girl was forcibly torn from Miss Abraham's arms, in Foreign Missionary Prayer Union. spite <If her most heart-rending cries for mercy, by the magistrate'.s order. Mr. Dyer at once On Dec. 12, 1888, several missionaries met in telegraphed to Lord Dulferin to save the girl. the Young Men's Christian Association rooms, No reply came. The Patna Solicitor telegraphed in Loudon, to consider the proposal of forming Mr. Dyer, • Quinn (the magistrate) has given a Fbreign Missionary Prayer Unton, open to Christian girl to Radaklssen, her screams can be all missionaries and to those iuterested iu heard here. Rouse allEngland, it is not too late. foreign missionary work, whether in Christen- Mr. Dyer telegraphed this to the Viceroy, and dom or amongst Jews, Heathen or Mohammeadded: •England expects you to save the girl.' dans. The organization was effected and the con- Telegrams were also sent to Lord Cross, six ditions are that the members agree to pray for members of Parliament, and nine papers in Eng- each-other daily and for the coming of the land. The private secretary to the Viceroy then Kingdom of God. telegraphed Mr. Dyer: •I have at His Excellency's direction sent your two telegrams for Rwas also suggested that, in order to proofficial disposal.' Two telegrams were then mote definiteness in these intercessious, the folsent to the Viceroy and one to Lady Dulferin lowing order should he observed :- urging interposition on behalf of the Christian girl. The Pall Mall Gaz6tte ot last Saturday ThR. Lord's Day.-For miSSionaries, native thrilled London with details of the case. Ques- churches, and Christian workers in all lands, and tions were asked about it in Parliament on for a greater manifestation of the Uuity of the Monday, and Sir John Gorst replied to them; Body of Christ. The Englishman and Pirmeer say satisfactorily. Mr. Dyer at once telegraphed to Parliament that Mimda1/.-For the Greek and Roman Catholic • Sir John Gorst's statement about the Patna Churches throughout the world. C/lse was untrue; faller particulars will follow.' This is a brief history of one of the most Tuesday.-For Persie., India, China, Japan, memorable cases of this time. II it leads to the and all other Asiatic countries. 'dethronement of Sir John Gorst and proper legislation for the protection of girls, this poor Wednesday.-For the heathen iu Africa, child will not hlve been ruined or possibly Madagascar, New Guinea, and the Islands of killed in vain. God forgive her persecutors '" the Sea.
-THE SIXTH ANNUAL MEETING OF Thursday.-For the heathen in North and South America. THE INTERNATIONAL MISSIONARY UNION will be held in Binghamton, Fridal1.-For Mohammedans, whether in Europe, Asia, or .Africa. N_ Y., July 5-12. All returned mis- Saturday.-For the Jewish race in Palestine sionaries of whatever church, or in and the lands of their dispersion. whatever foreign or pagan mission And itwere practicable, it was urged that the they may have labored, are cordially same hour should be observed so that the wave of prayer might follow the dawn of light invited to attend, and participate in round the world. The early morning hour of prayer is therefore suggested, and thus may be the proceedings of this meeting. En- realized the ancient predictiou .. For Him shall prayer be made continually." tertainment will be afforded gratu- Persons willing to join this Prayer Union are itously by the citizens of Binghamton requested to sign the followin/l: form.
and the several churches. Let those In dependence on Divine 'help, I agree, 80 far as posBible, to pray each morning for those interested communicate at an early who are my feUow-rnembers in the abO'Ve date with either the Secretary, Rev_ Union, and for the extension 0/ the Kingdom C. W, Park, Birmingham, Conn.; or of God throughout the WOf'ld.
Name …………………………… .
Addre88…………………………… .. Date …………. .
This is to be forwarded to Mr. J. M. Pamment Secretary, Missionary and Evangelistic Bureau, 186 AIders/l:ate Street, London, E. C., who will furnish the list of members to the several parties eutering iuto this prayer union.
THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
V.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D.D.
THE subjects which fall into this It is the doctrine of a refined Panthe- month. are India and Ceylon and ism. The human soul is a portion Brahmanism. On pages 301 et seq. of of this universal spirit, and can be THE REVIEW for 1888, will be found freed from transmigration and reu- a sketch of missions in India. The nited to Brahma only by getting cor- matter now presented will be addi- reet notions of this supreme IT and _<onal thereto. of the soul, theinfinitesimalIT, which 1. Some facts. British India em- is to be absorbed in the other like a braces an area of 1,129,632 square drop in the ocean. Brahmii. (mascu- miles, with 544,855 towns and vil- line) is one of three chief gods of the lages and an estimated population in Hindu Pantheon, and specially as- 1881 of 208, 670,421. The nati ve states sociated with creation, himself only have an area of 471,549 square miles, a creation or an emanation from with 153,844 towns and villages and Brahma. Manu relates the origin of a popUlation in 1881 of 52,002,924. Brahma, a curious specimen of cos- This makes a total area of over mogony. In a seed, deposited in 1,600,000 square miles, 698,699 towns the original abyss of waters by etc., and 260,673,345 popUlation. Brahma, and which seed expanded There al'e 21 towns of over 100,000 into a golden egg, Brahmii. began inhabitants. Calcutta and its suburbs to be. After a year's continuance in lead, with about 875,000; Bombay is the egg, he by a thought divided the next with 775,000 j Madras, with egg, and from the two shells made 405,000 j Hyderabad with 254,700, and the heavens and earth j placing in Amritsit· and Cawnpore, Lahore and the middle the sky, the light regions Allahabad with about 150,000 each. and the eternal abode of the waters.
There are" 42,000,000 children in Child-marriages and child widow- India who ought, according to their hood in India. The results of these age, to be in school. Only about customs are appalling and incredible.
3,500,000 of these are receiving any Thus there were, according to the education, and less than 200,000 of census of 1881,20,930,626 widows, of this comparatively small number are whom 78,976 were under nine years learning the truths of Christianity." of age, 207,388 under fourteen years, Manyadults who learned to read at and 382,736 under nineteen years I school are forgetting the art because Over twenty millions of widows- of thescal'city of bool's. "There are more than the entire female popula- thousands of towns and cities in In- tion of the United States above three dia with a population ranging ft'om years of age! Ramabai writes of 5,000 upward, accessible to Christian widowhood in India as follows: life, that never have had a single "Throughout India widowhood is regarded missionary." as the pnnishment for horrible crimes commit- Brahmanism is simply the doc- ted by the woman in her former existence…. If the widow be a mother of sons she Is not trines of Brahma. The Shaster is a nsnally so pitiable an object, but the widow- religious treatise, received among mother of girls is treated indifferently, aud the Hindus as authoritative. The sometimes with special hatred. But upon the Veda is the most ancient collection child-widow inan especial manner fall the abuse and hatred of the community as the greatest of sacred Hindu literature. The criminal upon whom Heaven's judgment has Bl'ahman is the upper and sacerdotal been prononnced. A Hindn woman thinks It caste. Bra-hma (neuter) designates worse than death to lose her beautiful hair. the universal spirit, ground, and Among the Brahmans of the Deccan the heads cause of all existence j ra-ther an ob- of all widows must be shaved re!,(ularly every ject of contemplation than worship. fortnight. The widow must wear a Bingle coarse garment and eat only one meal a da7 and never take part in the family feasts. The life than that of a home. Asduring the day relations and neighbors of her husband call her the men usually associate with the men, bad names, and curse her as the cause of his and the women with the women, and even death. She is always looked upon with suspi- during the meals the husband sits down to cion, lest she may some time bring disgrace his food with his wife attending on him as a. upon the family by some improper act. She is servant, and not eating with him as an closely confined to the house-forbidden even to equal, there Is, there can be, nothing at all associate with female friends. • • • Her life, aUBwering to the pleasant sociality of an destitute of the least literary kuowledge, void of all hope, empty of every pleasure and social English dinner-table. When further it is advantage, becomes iutolerable-a curse to berself and to society at large." remembered that in some of these Immense houses over three hundred people live to- WILKINS, in his "Modern Hindu- gether, it will be still more clesrlyseen how ism," says of the Hindu home: vast is the difference between the Hindu and the English home. Few things in Eng- .. The typica.l Hindu fa.mlly house is built land seem to please the Hindus Who come in the form of a quadrangle, with an open over here more than the socia.bilityof an courtyard in the center. Opposite to the En):"lish home. entrance-gate is a platform built to receive the images that are made for the periodic .. The Hindu famlly system may be dereligious festivals that are held in honor of scribed as a sort of joint stock compallY, the various deities. On the ground Door in which the head of the family is managing the rooms to right and left of the courtyard director, with almost unlimited power~; or are used largely as store-rooms, offices, as a little kingdom, in which he Is an almost etc., whilst over these,are the public recep- absolute sovereign. The sons, grandsons, tion rooms,'well lighted and generally well nephews, who form the family, regard all furnished, some of them having chairs, etc., their earnings as gelonging to the common for the convenience of European visitors. treasury, and their expenditure is under Here also Is a room in which the family idol the direct control of the karta, or head. is kept, before which the priest performs Thus it happens that when several members service generally twice a. day. All taese of the family s.re absent from home, enapa.rtments are used by the male members gaged in various ways, the balance of their of the family only. Excepting at feasts, the salaries Or profits must be remitted to tbe meals are not taken here, uniess there may karta. This has its advantages and disad. ha.ppen to be a number of visitors other vantages. There is a home In which a man than members of the family who are not can leave his wife with confidence when he ill admitted into the more p~ivate portion of hundreds of miles away engaged in business the house. From the back of the courtyard or filling some government appointment. a passage condlcts into a second and This, to the Hiudu, who would not regard it smaller yard, which is 'also surrouuded by as a safe procedure to have his familywlth rooms in which the lady members of the him in an ordinary house, Is a. source of imfamily live. Here the meals are eaten, and mense comfort. Once a year,lf his buslne~s here the sleeping apartments of the family is distant from his home, he takes leave are to be found. The guests sleep in the that he may have a few days with his family. rooms adjoining the outer courtyard. These There is also the certainty of support in inner rooms are generally much smaller case of sickness or permanent Incapacity tha.n those In the more pubhc part of the for work. But it has its drawbacks, too. An house, and the windows are also smaller and idle, worthless son has no necessity laid pla.ced high in the walls, for Manu distinctly upon him to work; he can obtain all the decllred that it was not right for a' woman necessities of hfe without it, and many a. to look out of the windows. ; During the day family has one or more members who are the gentlemen generally occupy the more mere parasites, doing nothing whatever to public rooms, as they may be transacting increase the income of the family, and, acbusiness or amusing themselves in various cording to our ideas of life, it Is destructive ways, wbilst the women are engaged in to the most sacred institution, the home. household duties, or in their own forms of Often, however, the Idle son is not altorecreation. As it is considered indecorous "ether without his place in society. If he for a man to speak to his wife during the will not, or can not, go out to earn money as day, their only time for conversation is the other members of the family do, It is when they retire to their own apartment for sGmethin):" it he remain at home to look the night. And as it is not considered right after the domestic and other all'airs, and to for .. married woman to look at or address afford protectlOn to the ladles who live her husband's elder brothers, it will be there. Where all are workers, If the head clearlyrealized that anythinglike the social of the family is growing old, the sons take home life of an English house is impossible it in turn to remain at home, perhaps for a under such conditions. It is more like hotel year at a time, or the one who has the worst prospects of advancement will resign his appointment at a distance and de- papers of the great cities are fer- votes all his time to the careo! the family… menting leaven in the great lumps. Pulpit, platform and press, Christian Token8 of religiou8 progre88 in church, school and home, the very India. conversation of men in the thorough- fares, betray the awakening of the 1. Education. Many are running public mind. The forty tongues of to and fro and knowledge is in- India are busy with discussion. Increased. Through the spread of the tolerance and bigotry, ancestral English language and literature, faiths and follies, the selfishness and English schools and colleges, relig- sordidness of the old man, will make ious science and preaching of the a hard fight against social and esgospel, darkness is giving way be- pecially religious reform. National fore light, and whenever darkness pride, a mercenary priesthood, petrideparts, those birds of the night, fied notions, caste prejudices, and the superstition, ignorance, degradation, lack of real aspiration among the are correspondingly driven away. great masses, will hinder advance. Vaccination has robbed of many But it will come. We see signs of it human victims the goddess to every day. The suttee is no morewhose malign influence small-pox J uggernaut lacks devotees. Crueltorwas attributed, and who, it is tures are virtually abolished. Even thought, formerly claimed a. million caste is giving way. Hindus themlives every four yea~s. Hundreds of selves advocate re-marriage of widcruelties and superstitions cannot ows, and pundits of holy Benares survive the day dawn of a true civ- deprecate the miseries of child-marilization, and much that was peculiar riage. The zenanas are opening to to Indian idolatries is becoming as visitors, and Christian homes with impossible as in England itself. An family altars already abound. educated Hindu, in Bombay, recently, though not himself a Chris- DR. WILSON of Bombay enumertian,said: "Cast your eyes around and ates the benefits of British rule in take a survey of the nations abroad. India as follows: What has made England great? Christianity. What has made the Horrors and iniquities removed: other nations of Europe great ? Chris- 1. Murder of parents by suttee, by tianity. What has started our pres- exposure on river banks, and by burent religious Somajas all over India? ial alive. Contact with Christian missionaries. 2. Murder of children: by dedica- Who began female education in Bom- tion to the Ganges to be devoured by bay? The good old Dr. Wilson and crocodiles; by Rajpool infanticide. Mrs. Wilson, of beloved memory- S. Human sacrifices; temple sac- Christians again I Christianity has rifices; by 'wild tribes-Meriahs of not only been the saviour of man's the Khonds. soul, butthe regeneration of man's 4. Suicide: by crushing under habitation on earth." idol-cars; by devotees drowning themselves in rivers; casting them- 2. Agitation. Daniel O'Connell selves from precipices; widows leapheld this to be the prime necessity ing into wells; by Traga. for the removal of existing wrongs. 5. Voluntary torment: by hook- Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and such swinging; by thigh-piercing; by men used this as the main lever for tongue-extraction; by falling on removing slavery from our land. All knives; by austerities. India is more or less stirred up, 6. Involuntary torment: barbarand stagnation is broken up, by the ous executions; mutilation of crimentrance of occidental ideas and inals; extractingevidence under tor- Christian civilization. The very atmosphere is full of motion, the newsture; bloody and injurious ordeals; while a stout defender of his hereditary faith, .cutting off women's noses. regretted that· so little of Mr. Sherring's teach- iugs had fallen to his lot.' This was written of 7. Slavery: hereditary, predial; a man who had spoot his life in controversy domestic; importation of slaves from with the uncompromising Brahmanism of Be- Africa. nares. But the missionary has won for himself the same respect in the south as in the north. 8. Extortions: by Dharana; by Ifl were asked to name the two men who, dur- Traga. ing my service in India, have exercised the greatest infiuence on native development and 9. Religious intolerance: preyen- native opinion in Mallras, I should name, not a governor, nor any department head, but a mis- tion of propagation of Christianity; sionary bishop of the Church of England. and a requiring Christian soldiers to fire missionary educator of the Scottish Free Kirk." salutes at heathen festivals; saluting gods on official papers; managing TEXTS AND THEMES. affairs of idol temples. The Field i8 the World. Matt: xiii, 38. 10. Support of caste by law: ex- 1. Its vast extent-world-wide. clusion of low castes from office ; ex- 2. The two kinds of seed. (a) The Word of . emption of high castes from appear- God, (b) The children of the Kingdom. 3. The rapidity and abundance of Harvest. ing to give evidence; disparagement Compare Amos Ix: 13. The lowest measure of low caste. indicated is thirty-fold. 4. The main dependence: Prayer to the Lord Missionary influence in India.- of the Harvest. Compare His promise, Isa. Iv : Sir William Hunter, the eminent 13; Matt. ix : 38. East Indian official, writes: 5. The final scene of marvelous triumph. .. The desire of the slothful killeth him, For .. To a man like myself Who, during a quarter his hands refuse to labor, .. Provo xxi: 25, i. e. The sluggard's desire to enjoy slothful repose a of century, has watChed the missionaries ac- will destroy him, for in consequence of such in- clination, his hands refuse the labor from whi~h tually at their work, the statistics of conversion support comes. What a wide application has seem to form but a small Part of the evidence. the philosophy at this acute proverb I The The advance which the missionaries have made sluggish disciple's desire to enjoy slothful repose in the good opinion of great non-Christian pop- Is destructive of all true Christian character and ulations well qualified to judge, such as those of service ; for it leads him to withhold himself India and China, is eveu more Significant than from all those wholesome and holy activities by their advance in the good opinion of sensible which service is secured and even self-support people at home. I shall speak only of facts and growth. There is too much" folding-wing" within my own knowledge. But I know of no piety. If there be the life of Christ, itlwiil start class of Englishmen who have done so much to as soon as the mOisture of the Spirit touches it, render the name of England, apart from the as the seed· of the collomia grandiflora under a power of England, r"spected in India, as the drop of water. We fear if the truth were told missionaries. I know of no class oC English- the following lines would represent but too men who have done so much to make the better well many nominal disciples. side of the English character understood. I know of no class who have doue so mnch to THE UNSPOKEN PRAYER. awaken the Indian intellect, and at the same time to lessen the dangers of the transition from the 0, to do nothing; nothing I old state of things to the new. The missionaries Only to live at my ease; have had their reward. No class of Englishmen receiYe so much unbought kinduess from the And swing in a silken hammock Indian people while they live; no individual While fanned by a geutle breeze. Euglishmen are so honestly regretted wheu they die. What aged viceroy ever received the post- Sweet is a life of pleasure. humous honors of affection accorded to the Sipping the honey of flowers; Presbyterian Duff by the whole native press 1 What youthfnl administration has in our days Like a butterfly in the sunshine been mourned for by the educated non-Chris- Enjoying the golden hours. tian community as the young Oxford ascetic C&0&U8.-0, to do nothing I was mourned in Calcutta last summer 1 It mat- ters not to what sect a miSSionary belongs. Au 0, to do nothin~. nothmg I orthodox Hindu newspaper, which had been Others who will. may work; filling its columns with a vigorous polemic, en· titled' Christianity Destroyed,' no sooner heard But I much prefer to be quiet, of the death of Mr. Sherring than it published a Life's burdens and cares to shirk. eulogium on that missionary scbolar. It dwelt on •his learning, aft'ability, solidity, piety, be- Lilies and sparrows do uothing nevolence, and business capacitJr.' The editor, Yet all their wants are supplied; Much of our labor i. wasted Aud gets not a. .. Thank you" beside. CHO&US.-O, to do nothing I
PROGRESS AND RESULTS OF MISSIONS-MONTHLY BULLETIN
0, to do nothing, nothing 1 o. to do nothing, nothing 1 Ministers-what is their;trade That is the way to be blest; But doing the work of the Master! There can be no labor in heaven. And for it they're pretty well paid. For that is a perfect rest. Of course, some people are fitted, Rather do nothing, nothing, Which I don't pretend to be; Than al ways go bnstling about, They like to make speeches in meeting, Trying if I can't do something, Which is ont of the question for me. And never qnite making it out. CnoRus.-O, to do nothing 1 • CnoRus.-O, to do nothing I VI.-PROGRESS AND RESULTS OF MISSIONS: MONTHLY BULLETIN.
Africa.-The Jesuits are busy in Africa in God the outlook would be dark. He, as elsewhere. A company of fifty so-called however, works for the deliverance of the .. Black Fathers" are working at seven cen· oppressed in unexpected ways, and Afric's tres aTong the Eastern coast. Others, who are penetrating into the interior, are said own sons may, under Him, become their to be giving special attention to the care of own deliverers from the most inhnman of the sick. In another band of Roman Catholic oppressors. priests, recently arrived from Germany, are a number of artisans and agriculturists. -Bishop Taylor's advance party has reached the goal in the depths of Africa to- -All vessels bound for West and South ward which he has so long been struggling. Africa, coming from ports in EUrope and Before his pioneer band of missionaries America, stop at Madeira. Here is the list started, the BI~hop declared his intention of liquors which passed through iu one week. to plant stations among the tribes along the It is taken from the daily returns posted in Liverpool: Upper Kassi and its tribntaries. Toward this region his chain of stations has been 960,000 cases of gin……….. £240,000 steadily lengthening. Dr. Harrison, one of 24,000 butts of rum …….•.. 246,000 the party that the Bishop led up the Congo 80,000 cases of brandy……. 90,000 in July last, has reached Luluaburg, the 28,000 cases of Irish whiskey, 56,000 new station of the Congo State. He is one 800,000 demijohns of rum ….. 240,000 of the four physicians who have followed 36,000 barrels of rum.. . . . . . . • 72,000 the Bishop to Africa, and he is now estab- 30,000 cases of Old Tom…… 00,000 lished among the natives. These Balubas 15,000 barrels of absinthe… 45,000 are among the most remarkable savages in 40,000 cases of vermouth…. 3,000 the world.-Bombay Guardian. The compilel" calls it" The Devil's Missionary Enterprise."-Bombay Guardian. -Lukunga on the Congo River has a Bap- -The latest news from Uganda shows that tist Church of seventy members. A society alfairs have taken a most alarming turn. called .. The Chtistian Union" has been Hwanga has been dethroned. His older brother, who was made king in his stead, formed in England for the severance of the has now been driven from the throne by the British empire from the opium traffic. The Arabs, who are for the moment supreme. income of the British-Indian Government The Arabs have attacked the native Chris- from opium last year was $80,000,000. tians, and the Church of Uganda is threatened with ruin. The English missionaries, -At Equator Station, Central Africa, 800 Revs. E. C. Gordon and R .. H. Valker, are safe, ha.ving escaped across the Lake Vic- miles from the sea, the people are beginning toria Nyanza. to Mr. A. M. Mackay, who is fortunately near the scene of his former to understand and appreciate gospel truth. la.bors and heroic endurance. No more pressing subject cau be brought before The station is among the Balolos, one of the united meetings for prayer than that of the revolution in Uganda, to which we again finest tribes of Africa. ' advert. King Mtesa was a protector of missionaries; his son Mwanga. IS weak. vain -Rev. Theo. H. Hoste,of the Congo Misand cruel; and it seems beyond doubt that sion, resigned a commission in the English at his door lies the mnrder of Bishop Han- army to go to Africa and preach the gospel nington. The tyrant is himself now a fugi- to the heathen. tive, and the Arabs are supreme. Their intentions are threefold-to root out Christi- East Africa~According to the Monatsa.nity, to establish Islamism, and to extend blatter, the Church Missionary Society's the horrors of the slave trade. But for faith work in East Africa stands thus: Baptized Christians, 791; communicants, 402 ; cate- chnmens,l,900. A small beginning, but yet a beginning.
Liberia.-Rev. William Allen Fair i. con- ducting an independent mission in Liberia, the whole expense of which, including the support of Mr. Fair and his family, is paid from the products of a large farm. This can be done in some conntries, but it WOII; t not bl! safe to conclude it could be done been unique In the history of mlssionB be- everywhere. cause it has at once satisfied a grea.t na.- AJgters_A French missionary in Tunis tiona.l religious need, and in lioing so ha.B says that the most shameless drunkenness developed a na.tional civilization."
reigns among all classes of MussuJ.;nan so- China..-The C4inese Exclusion BI11 psa.sed ciety there, notWithstanding the Koran by Congress ha.s excited grea.t hostility prohibits the use of wine to the followers of among the oftlcia.ls in Ca.nton, China.. and Mohammed. the missionaries a.re Buffering much perse- Austria.-The hostility to evangelical cution a.nd difficulty in consequence.
work in Austria. Is growing more intense. -When Dr. S. Wells Wilhams a.rrived.ln The Boma.n Catholic a.rchbishop has called Ca.nton In 1833 there was only one Chinese a. conference to consider the question convert, a.nd the penalty for tea.ching for- "What mea.ns sha.ll the priests employ In eigners the Chinese language was dea.th.
the hope of resisting successfully the Now there a.re 33,000 converts.
fa.rther progress of the sects, the Free Re- -The Chinese Sunday-school, numbering formed Churches a.nd the Ba.ptists f .. 100 men, connected with Dr. A. J. Gordon's Belgium.-Ten years ago the King of Church in,Boston. Ma.ss., ha.s voted to sup- 'Belgium entered upon the development of port three na.tive missiona.ries in China..
the Congo region a.nd the establishment of -The Miuiona Oatholiqufls of Lyons gives a. new African State. An officia.l report of some pa.rticula.rs of the expUlsion of the the progress a.tta.lned has just been rea- Roman Catholic missiona.ries from Thibet, dered, giving these fa.cts: The Lower Congo which has bp,en several times a.luded to by has been opened up to na.viga.tion by la.rge our Shangha.i correspondent. The stations, vessels a.s Ca.r a.s Boma., soundings havin&' it states. have been utterly destroyed. ex- been made a.nd the course marked out by cept the establishment a.tTachienlu, on the buoys; a cadastral survey of the Lower Chinese side ot the greatThlbetan declivity.
Congo has been made as a step towards the During last autumn the mission houses a.nd preparation of a general map of the entire buildings were one by one destroyed or rf'gior ; justice is regularly administered in thrown down; the houses of the congrega.- the Lower Congo. and a trustworthy and tions met with the same fate, a.nd priests chea~ postal service has been established. a.nd people were hunted out of the towns.
At Banana. Boma. and Leopoldville medical No ma.ss&cres took place. The persecution establishments. under the direction of Bel- bega.n in June and continued until October, gian doctors, have been founded. and a con- when it cea.sed, because there wa.s nothing siderable armed force of blacks, officered more to destroy, a.nd a.1I those who would by Europeans. has been called into exist- not a.posta.tize were in fiight. Out of nine ence. The caravan route between Matadl mission centres sca.ttered a.long the border and Leopoldville is as free from da.nger as a in Yuna.n a.nd Szechua.n two alone remain.
Enropea.n road, and a complete service of It Is stated tha.t while the rea.l ca.use of this porterage by na.tives ha.s been established. persecution is the intense ha.tred of the La.- A railway has been projected a.nd the route mas for Christianity, the excuse on this a.lmost entirely surveyed. The Sta.te ha.s occasion was the British expedition to Slk- esta.blished herds of cattle at various sta- kim to drive out the Thibetan troops; for, tions. and in the very heart of Africa.; on although strictly the region where the mis- the wa.ters of the Upper Congo there is a sions were is Chinese. the people are rea.lly fleet of 'steamers every yoor Increa.sing In Thibeta.ns. The report concludes by sta.ting number. A loa.n of 150,000,000 francs ha.s tha.t the acts of violence took place under been authorized and the first issue sub- the eyes of the Chinese a.uthoritles, who scribed. Many of the more intelligent na- took no steps to punish them.-Lon.on and tives from the country dra.ined by the (Jhina. Express.
Upper Conjto ha.ve ta.ken service with the England.-Lar missionaries. The direc- State. a.nd numerous trading factories have tors of the London Missiona.ry Society ha.ve been established a.s fa.r up the river as taken a. nota.ble step by resolving to ava.ilof Banga.la. a.nd Leuebo. In a.ddition several the services of la.y mlssiona.ries who ha.ve priva.te compa.nies ha.ve been formed for not undergone a. specia.l training. The fol- developing the country, and flna.lly geo- lowing is the text of their resolution: "Re- graphica.l discoveries of the grea.test Im- eolved that, without interfering with the porta.nce have been made, either by the existing rules of the society rela.tive to the officers of the Sta.te or by tra.velers who tra.ining of students for missionary service.
reeeived greata,ssistance In their work from In the judgment of the directors it has be- the State.-(Jhriatian Intelligencer. come desirable also to encour~e olfers of Burma_"The Loyal Karens of Burma," service trom young' unma.rried men of ap- by D. M. Smeaton, M.A•• of the Benga.l Civil proved Christian cba.ra.cter a.nd good gen- Service, speaks very highly of the work of era.l educa.tion, who ha.ve not pa.ssed through the American Baptist missiona.ries a.mong a theologica.l tra.ining a.t college, but have the Karens. It says: "Its success ha.s . been successfully engaged In Christla.n work. Such candidates, if accepted, to be First, as to contributions. We have risen from Carey's collection of $65 in 1792 to $10,- appointed as lay-workers for a term of 250,000 as a recent total. Second, as to so- cieties. In 1813 there were at work in India years." This action, it is fair to 'suppose, 2 societies. In 1830 they had increased to 9 ; has been long in contemplation, and is now in 1887 they had increased to 57 separate • missions. In 1851 the mission stations in entered upon as a settled policy. It can but India and Burmah were 220. In 1881. alter thirty years, they had grown to 601. During have an important influence. We trust it the same period the native churches had increased flfteenfold, the number of native will turn out to the advancement of the ordained pastors twenty-sevenfold. and the number oflay agents from 493 to 2,856. The missionary work. Roman Catholic Church has 93 native priests in the whole of India. but there were Fonnosa.-The Canada Presbyterian mis- in 1881 461 ordained Protestant native min- isters. With all the boasted succeSA of Rosion in Northern Formosa now embraces man Catholic missions, the number of their churches in India is 2,677, while that of fifty-one native preachers, who are de- Protestant churches is 4,180.
scribed as the .. sharpest, brightest, and -It is thought that the census of l890 will most learned class of men in Northern For'- give Bombay's flgures at 1.000,000. Its present growth is unprecedented. In the moss. There are flfty churches and a col- midst or all that is good and bad in this great city, the mission of the American lege with twenty students-aU Christians." Board is greatly encouraged in its share in Christianizing and educating. It has now France.-Lasserre's French translation nine Sunday-schools in the city and suburbs, with an a.verage 'aggregate attendance of of the gospel., which the infallible pope 450 members.
both cursed and blessed, is on sale at Bag- -One of the greatest ~hindrances to the gospel in Ceylon is said to be .. the coquetster's, Paternoster Row, London. The fol· tin~ with Buddhism which has become fashionable among Europeans." Buddha's lowing tribute to the work done by Lasserre birthday is now a government holiday In is of interest : the island.
Dear Dr. Wright: I thank you very much -The Leipsic missionary, Johann Kabis, who has been transferred to Madras from for Lasserre's "Evangiles." I have read Maj'wesan, after seventeen years of labor there, writes in the EvangelischLutherisches the book, and enjoyed the reading very Missionsblatt: .. For what a rich blessing we had to thank God I In the seven years I much. Although the translation may not had been allowed to baptize 1,000 heathen, and the number of members had gone up be called literal, yet I consider it one of the from 954 to 1,860." -Starbuck.
best I have seen in French. -Missionary fumperrien, describing in th" Mi88iansblatt the formations of the flrst Yours truly, L. L. BoNAPARTB. Tamil Synod of the Lutherans, says: "We have every reason to thank God for this Indla.-Dr. Jex-Blake, late headmaster ot Synod. The corner·stone is laid for the in_ dependence of the Tamil Lutheran Cburch- Rugby, thus sums up in the Mi••ion l!'ield the Christians of the different congrega- tions have united in a communion built on his impressions of mission work in India God's word. Therewith, for this, the time of child~ood, the period of laying foundaduring a recent visit: "1. The degradation tions. is brought to an end, a new time i. be- ginning. "-Starbuck. of the Hindu religion is so deep, and the -The Indian Witness says two events of immorality and unnatural vices of both peculiar importance occurred in India in one week recently. One was the a.rrival of Hindu aud Mahometan races are so revolt- a member of Parliamentwho had come from England to labor for the deliverance of ing that the need of religious renovation is India from the curse of rum; the other was the advent of sixty cases of Scotch whiskey more urgent and the opening for Chris- consigned to his excellency, the new vice.
tianity is more patent tha.. I had any con- roy, who was on his way to rule over the ception till I saw with my own eyes and heard on the I!'pot with my own ears. 2. The Indian mind, though now with most de- graded objects and theories of worship, is essentiaUy a reverent and religious mind, and, if once won to Christianity, would be a fervently Christian mind. 3. To win India to Christianity is not a hopeless task, if only enthusiasm at home were strong enough to multiply the army of workers tenfold, a.nd to send men of such quality as those now at Delhi and Peshawur. 4. Every great reli- gion still active in the world is an Asiatic religion, and the more imaginative or ideal side of ,Christianity is really akin to Indian veins of feeling and of thou~ht-really Asiatic still. 5. England has no moral ground for holding India beyond the moral good she does there; and no moral good that she could do could equal the spread of Christianity aU over that vast continent, peopled by scores of distinct nations, with no unity whatever except the subordina- tion of each to one empire."-Record 01 the Church 01 Scotland.
-Rev. J. Shillidy, in an address at Dun- cairn. Ireland. recently, packed very closely some telling statistics of progress in India. country. The government contends against the Japanese Christians, there will be the greatest curse under the sun with one enough to go' on to the completion of the hand, and strengthens its grip on the coun- work." The statistics given by Mr. Richards try with the other. Governments will not state that there are 19,829 Protestant condeal with rum as it deserves until they are yerts, with 123 missionaries (men only), 103 forced to do so by the growing intelligence unmarried ladies, and 102 native ministers; and conscience of the people. 32,000 Roman Catholic, with 62 missionaries and 40 unmarried ladies,and 14,000 members -North Indian Methodist Conference. In of the Greek Church, with 3 missionaries, 9 connection with this conference the Indian native ministers, and 90 catechists. Witne88 reports that the number of baptisms for the last twelve months was 1,201, -There are in Japan 93 native preachers an increase of 369 on the preceding year. and 169 theological stUdents. Of 193 organ- Of the accessions to the church, 35 were ized churches, 64 are reported to be selffrom Mohammedanism and the rest from snpporting I Last year the native converts, Hinduism. The number of Sunday-school with average wages of one shilling a day, pupils is 26,585. gave nearly £~,OOO for mission work. Were the' Christians of Scotland to give in the -At the Durbar held in Calcutta, India, same proportion the tre~suries of the the Marchioness of Dufferin held a recep- churches would be overfiowing. tion, which was attended by ~OO native ladies of Calcutta. The&e ladies broke -The Greek Church seems to be alive in through all the prejudices of their class to Japan. It is stated that the Greeks are show their appreciation of the work done bnilding a fine large church, in a commandby the Marchioness in securing medical ing site, in the city of Tokio. The lot was help for the women and girls in India. given years ago to the Russian legation, and they turned it over to the bishop of the -The American Baptist Telugu Missiou Greek Church. Thirty thousand doJlars calls for a re-enforcement of eight men this has been spent on the foundation alone. It year. Rev. D. H. Drake says that faithful is built of brick and iron, and will be comevangelistic work during the next five or pleted within a year.- Oanada Presbyterian. seven years will result in a greater blessing than any before experienced. -The largest and most successful Chris- tian school in Japan is the Doshieha, at -In the Mysore country, India, the people Kyoto. At its head is Rev. Mr. Neeshima, believe that the gods will be angry if a child who has had such a remarkable history, and is born in or near a human habibattoo. The whose efforts for his own countrymen have mother and little child must remain in the been so signally blessed. field or forest twenty-one days, and no one will come to bring even a cup of water un til -Rev. A. Lloyd writes from Japan that the child is several days old. Even the Unitarianism is so wonderfnlly like Confufaith of heathenism is cruel. cianism that it seems likely to prove specially attractive to the Japanese. With- Japan.-A well-known missionary to out change of heart or opinion they will be China, the Rev. T. Richards, recently de- able to call themselVes Christians, and that scribing the Christian missions in Japan is just what they most desire. which he had visited, says that their educational work is surpriaing. There is no Korea.-Korea is to-day another miracle street chapel preaching as in China, and in modern missions. As late as 1882 mission little medical missionary work, evangeliz- work was not only forbidden but prohibited. ing being almost exclusively educational, A medical missionary, Dr. Allen, was used although the distribution of Bibles and in 1884 in unlocking the door for the entracts is carried on by native colpor- trance of the gospel, and shortly after the teurs. He observes that Christian mis- government provided him with a hospital sionaries in Japan are very happy in the wherein to .• heal the sick and preach the sympathy with which their labors are gospel." Now tae Queen of Korea employa rege.rded by all classes, and by non-Chris- as her private attendant a Christian lady tians. Japan wants to be westernized. physician at a salary of 31,800, a year, and China does not, and the Japanese believe- jnst a few months ago Dr. AJlen was sent as men of high rp,nk have stated it in so many an ambassador at the head of a Korean del- words-that they will he the more readily egation to Washington to formulate a treaty admitted into the comity of nations when with the United States Government in case they are a Christian country. Hence the of war with China or England. anxiety to assist and promote the work of missionaries. .. The general feeling is th at -Aid asked. A dispatch from Hugh A. if things go on as they do now, the main Dinsmore, American Consnl-General at work of the foreign missionary will be ac- Seoul, the capital of Korea, says: .. A terri- complished by the year 1900-i. e., only ble famine prevails in the southern portion twelve years hence I Not that Japan will of Korea. People are reduced to the last be all converted by that time, but then with extremity and many are starving. The t:,!" aid of the missionaries in the field, and need of assistance is urgent and relief funds should be cabled." Mrs. Dinsmore will promptly devote to the relief of the suffer- Sweden.-Princess Eugenie, of Sweden ers any funds which may be forwarded her has borne the expense of establishing a. Madagascar.-" Madagascar," says the mission house for the benefit of the Lap- London Missionary (Jhrooicle, .. ought to be specially prayed for just now, for a work is landers in the northern part of Sweden. It beginning there among the young such as is over two hundred miles north of the has not been seen for many a year. There Arctic Circle. seems to be a real stirring among the dry bones. The work began at Betsileo, where Syria.-The Syrian Protestant College at at one meeting over sixty stood up in token Beirftt is this year enjoying one of the most that they wished to forsake their sins and prosperous years that it has had since its lead new lives reallv consecrated to God. foundation. Its corps of professors and The interest has sin~e spread to the capi- teachers in the five departments is full; its taJ." endowment fund has been increased by the efforts of Dr. Post among tbe friends of the -In an article in the Union Signa! Mrs. Mary C. Leavitt describes her recent vIsit college in America; additions have been to Madagascar. Referring to the men who made to the chemical and physical appaconveyed her from Tamatave to Antanana- ratus, and the library has been enriched rivo, a distance of 200 miles, she says: •• I by many gifts and purchases. Nearly two suppose they were all slaves. Some year. hundred students have entered, by far the ago, in consequence of pressure brought to argest number ever on the rolls. They bear by England, the slave trade with come from every division and sect of the Africa was forbidden. The Malagasy Gov- Levant. E!;ypt sends three bright little ernment saw no way to enforce this but to fellows from Khartftm and others from free all African slaves and make it a penal Cairo, Alexandria, and Suez. At least eight offence to be found holding an African livinglanguages are spoken by the stUdents, slave. But this did not touch Malagasy so that when the longed-for outponring of slaves. Most of them are descendants of tbe Spirit comes there will be a literal captives taken long ago in wars between the speaking in many tongues, and they will carry the blessing into everyone of the different tribes." Oriental churches, and bear the light of the Mrs. Leavitt further writes: .. I have gospel into some very dark corners at the earth. visited no country more impure than this. The Hovas,living on the great central pla- -Rev. George F. Herrick, D.D., missionary teau. the ruling people, are nominally Chris- in Turkey, says in the Missionary Herald' tians. There are many, many true-hearted .. I never yet saw a missionary wife whose Christians, pure and upright; but still, as companionship did not double her husband's in all Asiatic countries, the missionaries usefnlness. I have known more than one and pastors are plagued by immorality and whose bee, as the years of life increased., lying in the cburches. A Malagasy !doody took on that charm, that wondrous beauty, is wanted to preach up and down the couns that youthful features never wear-the try. The London Missionary Society and beauty of Ii. character disciplined by sufferthe Friends work most harmoniously. At ing, of a life ullselfishly devoted to the the present time both are preaching and highest ends. One of the choicest things of teaching. Outside the city they each have missionary work is the unwritten heroism their own dish·icts." of missionary homes." He says, turther- more, .. It is the missionary's wife who, by Mexico.-Bishop Hurst, in The Independ- years of endurance and acquired experience ent, says that 229 newspapers are now pub- in the foreign field. has made it possible in lished in Mexico-72 in the capital and 157 these later years-the years of women's in the provinces. Of these six are published missionary societies-for unmarried ladies by Protestants. to go abroad and live and work among the people of Eastern lands." Spain.-The Irish Presbyterian Work. The Rev. Wm. Moore writes from Puerto Santa -The emigration of Syrians to foreign Maria: U The work was never so flourishing lands continues. Between ten and fifteen as it is now. I bave been spending my thousand at them from tbe pashahc of leisure hours in • setting up' a new geogra.. Mount Lebanon alone have taken out passphy (elementary), sorely needed for our ports during the last few years, going schools, and which we are going to attempt mostly to the United States, to Brazil, and to bring out on our little printing press. Buenos Ayres. This geography is the translation of one compiled by Miss Whately for evening United States.-The net gain of new schools in E~ypt and the Levant. It is the one branch of study at which the Spaniards churches in the United States during the seem to know nothing, and any school text- year 1888 was 6,434; the increase in the book one can find is so complicated and number of ministers was 4,505, while the in- crease in church members was 774,861. The absurd as t9 illl R/l!ll{ls~ for !"lem!lntll.ry average gain for each day of the year was 17 churches, 12 ministers and 2,120 members. schools." According to this showing the churches do not seem to be dying out.-Preabyterian ,Journal.
STATISTICS OF THE WORLD'S MISSIONS
VII.-STATISTICS OF THE SUMMARY OF THE FOREIGN MISSIONS OF Africa …………. '6. 6 '5 .. .. 3:i 29 6 60 2,641 161 7;400 '176 36 91 .. South America…. 34 717 616 9 319 1 Foochow ……….. 6' 5 8 9 ……..65..6 3 52 84 5210 6 2,297 1,267 2,372 258 179 460 1 Central China…… 11 10 1 …. 2 3 21 1 14 305 304 B50 33 48 2 .. North China……. 12 11 5 9 21 .. 19 655 373 124 27 1 ………4. …..3. .. West China…….. 2 58 1 1 .. i>il 9 7 6:838 7 '258 'i 17 2 .. 7,296 2,203 1,061 .. …. .. Germany……….. 25 …. 5 150 .• 63 …. 41 41 4.846 906 4;490 716 Switzerland .•…… 30 .. .. Sweden …………. 9 …. 8 117 12,333 3,4.')3 8,870 2,509 455 1 …. Norway………… 1..5.'; .i 1 3,868 533 '0" 181 1 Denmark……….. 8 6 .. 3 1,361 214 1,342 400 98 1 1S alia 47 126 62617 118 3,733 4,186 8,109 1,164 1,167 729 1 North India …….. 24 20 South India…….. 22 15 3 .') 2 9 52 3 21 082 157 1,146 426 27 86 .. Bengal. …..•..•..•. 24 13 2 8 22 19 4 19 750 …. …. … 439 2,079 248 51 83 1 Bulgaria ……….. 45 2 7 '5 9 83 7 99 13 1 Italy……………. 22 8 21 6 1 .. 21 920 45 116 34 29 1 Japan ………….. 20 19 i2 22 2,854 174 989 149 5 1,155 130 1 M K oerxeiac.o. .. …~… ……………. 26 16 32 4416 27- 849 5;452 '229 85 2 9 26 30 3 949 1 to 12 7 .. 2 4 6 – – 6 11 – -27 – -165 – 34 34 4 3' 3 Grand total …… 14812100 400 353 441 916 69 594 46,432 16,883 49.319 7,295 9,909 3,260 18 Last year…….. 185 130 62 427 369 453 804 43 588 44,255 16,01350,742 5,2.::3 2,409 3,099 15 NOTE.-By Foreign Missionaries is meant American missionaries sent out from the United States. By Asgist&ntMisslonarles-the wives of Foreign Missionaries; the wives of Native Preachers are not here reported. "Other Helpers .. embraces Bible Readers, Colporteurs, Chapel Keepers, and wives of natives specl1lcally employed. By Adherents Is me..nt the Christian community belonging to us, In addition to the Members and Probationer..
SUMMARY OF THE DOMESTIO ~GJ~ ~ ;.S .9 ~8Oe~gD~~J~e..Ia'~~j ;'t~Suio~dcJt uir~~i~~. oo"t::lJ.4QJ.4~Q MISSIONS. oll p1l ,~..:.·:..e.. ~p:: ~~ ::e z .s.' z z zo z ..~<~2I0="8~~~re :Q ~~zp.t.~,.". ~~,~p,.~""." ~~of) E…..o.8.<. ——–11– ———–1—-1·-·-1- American Indians………. 1a8 33 1,297 310 Welsh…. ………………. 2 151 16 French……………. …… 6 .. 3 148 85 German………………… 271 190 199 24.922 2,760 Scandinavian…. ……….. 149 105 117 7,518 1,197 Bohemian. … ………….. B 1 381 73 Chinese and Japanese…… 5 8 257 58 Arizona.. .. .. . .. .. .. …. …. 10 233 33 Black Hills……………… 12 479 6'7' 9874 Indian Territory………… 13 10 2 409 New Mexico…………….. 11 11 2 65 46 New Mexico.Spanish……. .. .. …..
Utah……………………. 24 15 2 '1'7' 400 116 Nevada…………………. 21 715 78 English·speaking Confer- ences. .. . …. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 3,087 2,900 2,'130 201),211 35,871 — —— —-1—-11– Grand total……….. 3,832 3,231 4 . . . . …. 3,102 242,386 40,660 181 Last year…………. 2,893 .2,259 5 12 10 .. 38 3,442 250,787 44,644 275 WORLD'S MISSIONS.
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH,1888• . …, .. .; .e; .; .; .; » ~ ..; ciS '00 '0 .!! gciS .; bi, .cI 0 .. .. " " . .. … .E! .cI 'iii .~,.,~, .cI.E! . . co 00 .%" " 0 'g .cI ~ ~0'0a , "!: ~ "ciS .O"Ec~ioS. ~ .0'0 .S .cI ..0.. "..~.,.0o":o: 'Gl » » .0 ~ ciS "0,;'0" 00 ".,..,,I="l< .. ..<:I .0 ~."B..>~..' ."…s0l , " ., . . . . °1 .~..oo ..<:I ciS ciS ,d ~ – ""ciS .0.c0.iS. 1l 0ci:S:"~ 00 ,,~ ".. £&1 .g ",.c ~o. A A "ciS 000 ~~ ..~…'0":: 'O0..0;l 0 :::0:: .I.l=<.. .0 ;'!l~ $8 :~:::og: $322 ciS… ……. . " . … " …… '" ….. " ~ 1"D:IbiI)ciS" -£ .,..<:I.Z6 ~'O 558 8&l ",ciS 8,019 0 ~ ..<:I • 00 =. . ,,- 0 ' o 0 .E.o..<. $8 "bI) Z6 ..0.. ~~ 00 02 998 $1,184 0 ".0..• 'c"iS 0" 13,775 ~""'0.~:~: 0 0'0 0 ~£" Z0.O.:: "" o 6 Z0'.o.<"o:1 ~ Z ZZ0 Z0 0 o0 = —-.. — — — — – – —- — – – – — '2 i2 :: !Xl ~ …. 40 2,342 38 $3,229 33 1,416 11 5i 4,846 00 2:299 3 21 3 11 'i64 38 454 56 1,117 75 20 389 61 841 1,791 425 ·s is:: …….. .. … '2 …. …. 2 2 3 5 1 4 3 133 28 556 13 720 9 11 28 ..1..7 488 35 387 20 2 …….9… 128 16 666 11 548 13 17 517 343 579 122 ..'4 M 1 23 25 2:007 is: : ………… 265 io,680 72 2il9 1,052 5,854 4 5:257 1 6 .. '5 , 186 570 3,087 18.286 3,935 7,959 5 .. 1:5ii , 202 13,398 28 77 4,119 8,082 11,588 11,640 3410 51~ 14,417 84 52 1,093 341 9,742 10,346 13,291 154 62 5,074 35 747 498 2,953 8,956 14,270 629 2,188 9 74 536 402 2,405 616 1,792 3 22 211 46 1,842 91 42,559 55 45 285 70 3,972 1,776 20,926 '4 1 8 130 20 1,026 6,298 18 5 17 35 10,181 6,552 2 8 48 5 88 lo.~ 6,031 14 4 10 8,513 3,409 936 24 24 80 55 185 119 'Ho 289 .3.0..2 .."..5…9 8 199 921 'sis 1 17 419 9 16 5,097 1,059 77 4,198 25 43 -.8.-0..3 7 89 6 4i '9S0 11 1,295 18 -.3.-4..8 4,956 178 -3.1. -1,5.-0.,1 43 ,. — — – – — — …. …. 1 432 681 31 17 — 2 3 7 -2 -7 -3 – – – – – – …. 256 1,888 38258 36 2(Xi 3,564 747 23,697 1,944 112,928 516 WI $10,925 $13,951 $92,032 $55,1;36 $71,718 24175 32172 2,840 647 19,433 1,712 83,945 505 652 10,232 12,172 95,773 48,026 65,554 [We are Indebted to the courtesy of Secretary Baldwin for advance sheet. of the Annual Report containing the numerous and carefully prepared tables of the Society, We have space at present for only the Summary, and on account of the width of our page are obliged to ollllt several columns in each table.-EDs.] MISSIONS.-(SA.HB SOCIBTY.) .s ..; .; .=~. 10 . .!l ..ai ..,,; 8 ciS '.~" :=~ .~ …'5.~ .8m ."..:: t~ ~ •.!.:.! .cI '0 .~.s…t~o 00 ""31 ~ ti "= • . …."0.<'0:0I0" E=5~~ . ;;;III …0"0 .cI ""~,0,'~0'0' ~ °0 ~ !Xl ..<:12 "".2.0..,0~:-: ,Elold 0:: ..<:I …0"0 '0 ciS " ",,0:: '!".",..,.. .E~ " tc:>iS .0.o.. ~"o. ".,"..',.'-"~~ alll< – – – '" '<"11 – -.cc·I – .cI Z00 -0- – :g~ _0 :::: ~ 0 '0'" -'"0= .!X~l ~~.(.,"s; ciS 0 0 — 26 148 0..0.. .0 20 $331 $126 39 31 7 $6,097 $10,578 $731 21 10 0 i 1 72 134 686 3,240 190 2 400 152 19 1,809 Z6 00 354 10,595 10,124 1,293 3 1,254 5,346 1,860 108,3~2 . m,386 18,785 9 60 19 '0 J41 37,632 11,845 2 Z6 3 93 38 41.937 78 8 4 79 2,799 200 871 4 27 446 1,059 2 698 194 152 155 5;356 .2..5..5.0 14 172 5,026 10,050 21,155 6,182 6,1125 1,599 3,776 7 256 13 751 10 530 160 ii/ria 88 22 1,034 10 '00 372 37 37 16 585 'I 371 294 17,174 i:5!i5 •• ..5 21 41 10 664 7 1,191 3,035 13 54 24 1,4Si 26 654 474 13:005 i:047 24 580 235 3,655 15 89 35 2,157 1,638 8,758 32,413 23,017 764,422 440,385 69,000 — — — — – – 14.131 -4- ,213 204,360 – 3,346 14,468 12,404 — 3,95.'J $51,744 $36,920 $966,809 $591,412 $107,505 4,977 241,610 549,533 133,421 15.~89 16,172 5,067 250,304 4,038 72,208 56,496 1,007,783
of Protestant Missions in Ohina-f'ecember
Compiled by l.Ir. L. H. GULICK, Agent of American Bible Society and editor of Chinese Recorder.
N..uIES OF SOCIETIES. Date of Foreign MissiolJaries. Native Unordain"d Communi- Pu~ls in Contributions Mission Single Total. Ordained Native cants. Sc ools. by Ministers. Men. Wives. Women. Helpers. Nat. Churches – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – London Missionary Society ..•••••••.•••. 1807 I 31 21 13 65 8 72 3,695 1,927 (f) $14,420 00 A. B.C. F. M………………………… 1830 4 105 816 443 425 07 2 American Baptist, North ……..••••.•.. 18341613635 244 3 American Protestant EpiscopaL …•…. 1835 37· 1,340 1,07700 4 American Presbyterian, North …..•…. 18381191030 6 3 496 1,614 568 18 5 American Reformed (Dutch) …………. 1842 11 2,352 6 British and Foreign Bible SOciety ……. 1843108321 84 3,788 7,090 00 Chnrch Missionary Society ………•…. 1844 102 844 163 2,87003 7 English Baptist ……………………… 1845483618 23 16 8 Methodist Episcopal, NOI·th …………. 1847 15 (1) 114 2;832 2,041 ·3;400·20 9 Seventh Day B..ptist……..•………… 184776221 6. 210 10 American Baptist, South……………. ]847 1,130 425 00 11 Basel Mission.. . .. . …………………. 11147147550 ii 81 3,903 1,288 4,49091 12 En;:lish Presbyterian………………… 18472817 9 13 Rhenish Mission …………………….. 184716tl7 1 8 30 .. ·087 ·70 14 Methodist Episcopal, South•…….•••••. 18482131iiSO 776 292 15 Berlin Foundling Hospital.. , …•••.•….. 185032 43 91 1,885 692 94986 16 Wesleyan Missionary Society………… 1852 1 3,428 575 5,435 10 17 2 2 1 5 ·7 18 154 37 18 ., .. Voman's Union Mission …………….. 185920 286 855 5000 19 7 6 7 43 49 27 80 24691 .. Methodist New Connexion …………… 186019 2 975 552 20 .. ….. Society Promotion Female Education… 18842450 8 89 36 109 '··400·00 21 24 16 10 1,232 180 22 United Presbyterian, Scotch………… 1865 1 4 818 23 China Inland Mission ………….. ··•···· 186542iii6 10100 24 American Presbyterian, Sonth ……..•. 1867109 34 4 7 25 United Methodist Free Church ……••.. 1868 1 (1)·iiio·oo 26 1 1 4 6 33 27 .. .. ….. National Bible S()ciety of Scotland …… 186843 2 45945 28 25 12 6 4 2 9200 29 Irish Presbyterian …………………•• 18694 30 Canadi..n Presbyterian•…………….. 18711 12 36 ……2..6..3……0..0 31 4 ……………………………4………..9………..1……………………………8………..0 .. ….. ….. Suciety Propagation of the Gospel. ….. 18747 32 ·5 7 13 i4 773 67 • ••••••• 0 33 .. .. American Bible Society•…………….. 18761 34 7 115 316 12 118 2,415 153 $44,173 39 35 Established Church of Scotland ….•..•. 187862 36 139 .3. 19 5 82 300 $5,93669 47 ·s Berlin Mission …………………. ······ 16821066 38 .. .. .. ….. Allem. Ev. Prot. Miss. Gesell ••……•…. 188433 ·2 8 329 72 . …….. 39 40 .. .. .. Bible Christians ….•…………….•…• 1885426 (?)60 68 .. .. .. Fureign Christian !Iission Society…… 1886 2,650 3 3 6 ·2 12 . ':jis .. ….. ….. Soc. Frop. Christ. and Gen. Knowledge.. 188610 50 5 4 1 .. . ….. Suciety of Friends…………………… 1886(f}n1l (1) 5 2 4 88 ··'30 :., .. .. ….. ….. Amel'ican Scandinavian Congregational 18874 7 1 2 3 80 .. Ch. Eng. Zenana Miss. So ……..••••..•. 18881 .. .. Independent Workers …..•.•.••.•…•.••1 9 21 500 70 4 4 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – ——- – – – – – – Total-December, 1888•….••..•……11 4 ·2 6 ····3 '··32 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Increase over Dec., 1887….•….•…. -.-…- – – – – – -.-. – – – – – – – Decreasp. since Dec., 1887………….527 …… 2 1 1 ·2 2 …. 1 1 4 2 2 ., ·S 3 3 ·2 1 3 (i;30 (·i) 62 526 337 260 1,123 162 1.278 34,555 14,817 37 17 39 93 .. ——- – -2.-,.2.9.-5. – –,… 1,140 —— .. .. .. 38 . …. 13
EDITORIAL NOTES. '317
EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
Good Tidings from Utah. ploy of the five railroads centering MISSIONARY intelligence from this there. With one populous county, land of darkness is a1 ways quite likely Summit, already redeemed by the to be of a sort nondescript and de- presence in it of a large body of cidedly unique, and to relate to secu- miners, who, if not specially lovers of lar matters even more than to things righteousness, are, to a man, fervid spiritual. The governihg forces of haters of the hierarchy, and Weber the Mormon Church being so largely County, of which Ogden is the capi- of the earth earthy, and the chief tal, soon to follow, it is not likely concern of the leaders financial and that Salt Lake will be far behind in political rather than religious, it fol- the race. Already a foretaste of lows that the doings of Congress' and good things to come is enjoyed. For, the courts, business booms and elec- two years of marked business pros- tions, as well as the efforts of Chris- perity and growth have resulted in tian teachers and ministers, the the loss to the church of six wards, a growth of Christian churches and solid block in ,the very center of the schools, are potent weapons against city, leading in particular to a com- existing errors and iniquities. plete revolution in the control and The latest event in the pathway of • the character of the public schools.
progress, and also one of the greatest And all these things are the more 0'
in the his tory of the struggle against significant and cheering from the the theocracy, is found in the recent fact that since the passage of the Ed- election in Ogden, a city, after Salt munds law in 1882 scarcely a crumb Lake, the largest in Mormondom, at of comfort has fallen to the lot of which the victory was overwhelming the Utah "saints," but, on the con- against priesthood and polygamy. A trary, for them the situation has struggle of months had preceded to steadily waxed worse and worse.
Ewert, or at least to postpone, so dire a calamity, including a shameless at- Justice in India.
tempt to keep a Mormon minority in THE machinery of the law seems control by gerrymandering the vot- to be on its trial just now, to a large ing precincts, and a last desperate extent, in India. The famous, or expedient of arresting and imprison- rather infamous, Patna case has ing Gentiles enough on election day opened our eyes to the possibility of to turn the scale. But both schemes justice being perverted in its very came miserably to nought, the one seat and center. The proceedings of th rough decrees of the Federal courts, the Crawford Commission, recently and the other through the presence concluded, also reveal an alarming and prompt action of the Federal condition of veniality and corruption Marshal with a company of troops in places of judicial power. It ap- as posse. pears that the Bombay Government Before and from the beginning it had previously given a pledge of in- had been the chief duty of every demnity to those called on to give, official to defend and strengthen the evidence. Now that some native church, but now and from hence- magistrates have confessed their forth mayor, council, chief of police misdeeds in the witness-box, the puband all are thoroughly American in lic conscience is scandalized at the sentiment. This great victory was idea of their being permitted to remade possible largely by the fortu- sume magisterial functions. The nate residence in the city of some Calcutta correspondent of the Times hundreds of conductors, engineers, (London), says: telegraph operators, etc., in the em- .. Lord Beay is now impaled on the horns of a dilemma. He must apparently either falsify the Secretary of the American Board. Government's pledge, and so break faith with He then studied at Andoverand Yale these magisterial witnesses, or else he must be- Theological Seminaries, and was tray his duty to the public by prostituting the ordained as a missionary of the A.B. administration of justice. Unless he at once C. F. M., in 1847. Was married to make up his miud to resign all thought of the Eunice B. Day, of West Springfield, latter immoral alternative, public action will and sailed from Boston for Turkey be promptly taken in the matter." in September of that year. He was stationed at Ezroom, Turkey, In the Patna case it seems as if about 240 miles south of Trebizond, there had been great moral obliquity and was the first to open up to misas .well as legal blundering-a pel'- sionary influence a large section vel'se indisposition to side with right- where some of the most successful eousness. It is well that public at- Christian work has since been done. tention has been so imperatively Continued traveling, unintermitting directed to the case. Sir John Gorst's labor, broke a naturally powerful miserable attempt to smooth it over constitution, and in 1852 he was obliged to return to America. Once was characteristic. Men of his stamp and again he essayed to return to are likely to have some rough les- his chosen field, but each time was obliged to give it up. He entered sons administered by the awakening the pastorate first at Southbridge, Christian conscience and growing Mass., and afterwards at Boylston, Christian sentiment of Great Britain. Mass., and severed his connection The sooner the better. Says the with the Board. It was a bitter trial Indian Witness of recent date: to him, but it seemed net:essary, and he accepted it as prOVIdential. In .. The Patua girl case is coming before the Oal- 1857 the proposition was made that cutta High Oourt on appeal next week. The he enter the service of the American delay in briuging the case before the High Bible Society as their agent for the Oourt must have been very serious to the cause Levant. The work, which was more of the Mission; but the Government of Bengal varied and less confining, seemed had the original papers without which the ease suited to him, and he accepted the could not· proceed. And the Government was position. He sailed from New York not very expeditious in deciding what to do in December 25, 1857, l'eachmgConstanthe case, or to return 'the pa.pers. Indeed, it tinople early in February of '58, and was semi-officially published that the Govern- commenced the great work of his m'nt had decided to rebuke Mr. QUinn, [the life. In 1866 he returned to America British magistrate who consigned this Christian to raise funds for the erection of the girl to a life of shame,] but after a painful delay Bible House, and was here until the a contrary deCiSion, in which Government fall of '67. Was called to New York washed its hands of the matter, was made pub- again for a short visit in 1870, in relic. Mr. Dyer [Editor of Bcrmbay Guardian, gard to the great question of publishwho has nobly exerted himself to have outraged ing the Arabic Bible. Since then he justice vindicatedJ has informed the Social has made two visits to this country, Purity Party in Englaud of the decision of the one in '83 and' one in '86, with the Bengal Government, and the Queen-Emprcss is hope of regaining strength from the being influentially moved to interfere in the heavy strain of many years of hard, case. The end is not yet."-J. M. S. unintermitting labor. He returned each time refreshed, but hardly re- THE sudden death of Dr. Isaac G. cuperated. Vital power was weak- Bliss, of Constantinople, so long a ened. The harsh winds and damp prominent missionary in the Levant, ail' of a Constantinople winter and will be a pa.inful surprise to multitudes all over the missionary field. We give a few facts concerning his life and work.
Isaac Grout Bliss was born in West Springfield, Mass., July 5, 1822. The family afterwards moved to Springfield, Mass. He fitted for college and graduated at Amherst in 1844, in the same class as Rev. E. K. Alden. D.D., spring were dangerous for him, and called him away he was able to see he often -took that time to visit the the frui t of his labors in a thoroughly southern portions of the great field organized well established system, under his care. Last January he by which every portion of the great left again with his wife, and reached field under his care was reached by Assiout, in Upper Egypt, planning special colporteurs, so that it may to stay a few weeks with dearfriends truly be said that there is no one'in there. Letters from him from Cairo that vast empire beyond the reach of werefull of cheer, hope, and courage. the Word of God. But the Master had other work, and The Levant Agency, as at first con- Saturday, February 16th, he passed stituted, included Turkey in Europe to his rest. No details have come. and Asia. Gre(;'ce, Syria, Egypt, and His son, Rev. Edwin M. Bliss, who Persia. He was warmly seconded in was for many years associated with his efforts by the missionarit's of the him, received a telegram from his different Boards operating in those mother, "Father very ill." Thesame countries, and had the assistance of evening brought another, "Father his oldest son, Re'. Edwin M. Bliss, gone." That is all that is as yet fr~m 1872 to 1888-with the exception known. 'He leaves a widow. four of two years, during which he finsons and one daughter, one brother, ished his theological course. Three Rev. Edwin E. Bliss, D.D., mission- assistants in Athens, Beir1it, and ary of the American Board in Con- Alexandria cared for the details in stantinople, and four brothers in this Greece, Syria, and Egypt. Still the country. The agency remains in wide extent of territory made it seem the care of Rev. Marcellus Bowen wise to divide, and in 1880 Persia was and William G. Bliss, his second son. made a separate Agency. Subse- Dr. Bliss's great work was in con- quently Greece was transferred to nection with the American' Bible the British and Foreign Bible Society. Society. Indeed he may be said to Hardly of less importance than the have been the pioneer of the organ- distinctive Bible SocIety work. was ized work of that society in foreign the service rendered by Dr. Bliss to lands. PreviOUS to his appointment the general influence of Protestant in 1857, a number had served as Christianity in the Levant by the agents, buttheiragency had in almost' building of the Bible House at Conevery case been subordinated to work stantinople. in connection with some missionary The need of a central buIlding, society, and had never had the ele- capable of furnishing offices for the ments of permanency. The first different societies, storage rooms for agent in the Levant was Rev. Sim- Scriptures and evangelical books, eon H. Calhoun, a missionary of the and the many other needs of an in- A. B. C. F. M. in Syria, who served creasing Christian work had long from 1836 to 1844. The next appoint- been felt.. Indeed the lack of permament was that of Rev. Chester N. nent location had given occasion to Righter, in 1854. He made an exten- some to feel that Protestant, or sive journey that demonstrated the rather Evangelical, Christianity had necessity of a special agency, but his not come to stay. All wanted. such early death prevented his carrying a center, but no Society would take out the plan. When Dr. Bliss com- up the matter. At last, after much menced his work in 1858 he found it pressure from Dr. Bliss, the Bible no easy task to organize and develop Society allowed him to take time for theagency on its own foundation. But tht' collection of funds in America. patience, tact, unintermitting labor, He came to this country in 1866, and never failed, and beiore the Lord returned to Constantinople in 1867, with something over $50,000. A poppy is grown in Bengal alone over an extent most advantageous site was found, of more than 500,000 acres. and this growth is and at last, in 1872, the building was carefuily fostered by the Indisn Government. complete. Since then two additions The opium drug is mannfactured under constant government direction and supervision. It is have been made, and it stands now sold at auction by the government, expresslT- and intentionally for the Chinese market. Inone of the most imposing edifices in clnding that from the native states, abont Constantinople, exerting an influence 85,000 chests, containing over 5,000 tons of over the whole empire. It is owned opium, are thus exported annually from India to and managed by a Boara of Trustees China, and a revenue of five, six, or seven millin New York City, and is entirely ions sterling is derived by government from It. independent of any of the Societies. It is a great governmeut institution, for which Those that have offices there-the England is directly and peculiarly responsible. American Bible Society, the American Board of Missions, and the Brit- "Because through many, many years this traffic ish and Foreign Bible Society-all pay has been carried on in spite of the remonrent. The income, when the prop- strances of the Chinese Government, and of the erty is complete, will go to the gen- thousandfold testimony that it ministered onl1 eral interests of Bible work in the to debauchery and to moral and social ruin. Levant.~. M. S. The Convention of 1885. thongh it has given to -the Chinese the right to put a heavier tax upon THE protest against the manufact- imported opium, has not altered in the .lightest ure of opium by the British govern- degree our own relations as a country to the ment in India bas been- spread gross immorality of the trade. through the pages of this REVIEW (see p. 678 of 1888). But the extent .. Because while, for very shame's sake, we of the evil is very little understood. have done a little (only a little) to restrain the Says the late Dr.Medhurst : havoc which opinm was working among onr 'Burmese fellow-subjects, we have done nothina "Those who grow and sell the drng,while they to check the ruin which it is working in China profit hy the speculation, would do well to fol- among a people in friendly alliance with us. low the oonsumer into the haunts of vice, and mark the wretchedness, poverty, di8ease, and The Missionary Year-Book for 1889. death which follow the indulgence; for did. they hut know the thousandth part of the evils A " HAND-BOOK OF MISSIONS"- was resultiug from it, they would not, they could not, continue to engage in the transaction. It published in connection with the has heen told, and it shall he rung in the ears of the British public again and again, that opium World's Missionary Conference in is demoralizing China, aud becomes the greatest barrier to the introduction of Christianity London, in June, 1888. The work which can be conceived of. Calculating the 8lwrtened lives, the frequent diseases, and the was admirable in design and full o[ actualstarvation which are the remits Qf opiumsmoking in China, we may venture to assert information._ Its only sel'ious defect that this pernici0U8 drug annually dl!8troys myriads Of individuals." related to the missions conducted in A "Christian Union" has been the United States and Canada. The formed in Britain for the extermination of this opium traffic. The account of these was extremely circular gives some reasons for the formation of this union of prayer meager and inaccurate. A "MISand protest, and among them are these: sionary Year-Book" is now in con- templation, the American and Can- "Because as a nation we are responsible adian portions thereof to be written through our Indian government for a trade and edited by Rev. J. T. Gracey, D. which is ruining the bodies and souls, and de- D., who has charge of the internastroying the homes of multitndes of the Chinese. tional department in this Rl£VIEW. This will be united to a somewhat "Because our national connection with thiS evil larger department relating to Eutraffic is pecnliarly close and revolting. The ropean missions, and the whole Will be published simultaneously on both sides of the Atlantic. It is proposed to give in this work a full presenta- tion of the work of the American so- cieties, as weHas historical and statis- tical accounts of the prinCipal Prot- estant Missionarv Societies in Great Bl'itain, and Continental Europe.
This valuable Missionary Year- Book will be published by Fleming H. ReveU, Chicago, and Bible House, New York.