The Missionary Review of the World — December 1896
Lichtenstein. Rev. C. A. Sch onberger. Rev. David
THREE JEWISH MISSIONARIES. MISSIONARY REVIEW. OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XIX. No. 12.-0ld Series.-DEOEMBER.-voL. IX. No. li.-Ne1I1 Seriu.
* THE PERMANENT BASIS OF MISSIONS.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-OHIEF.
In Acts 26 : 12-23 we have the story of Paul's conversion as recited by himself in the presence of Agrippa and Festus. It suggests not only the secrets of Paul's own devotion to missions and of his grand success in his life-work, but also the elements which must permanently enter into all true and lasting missionary enterprise.
In his first· letter to Timothy (1 : 16) Paul says: "For this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting." This word" pattern" possibly has a wide application, and may imply that this converted persecutor and blasphemer was not only an example of a sinner saved by grace, but also the pattern of a disciple and apostle, of a servant of the Church and missionary of the cross. A pattern suggests features, permanently fixed for purposes of reproduction; and Paul seems designedly put before us in the Acts of the'Apostles as a pattern of a typical missionary. Some may ask, What need there is of such a pattern, since the Lord Jesus Himself left us " an example that we should follow His steps~" But we all need also an example on a purely human plane. We think of our blessed Lord as at such an infinite distance from us, and as presenting such an unattainable, ideal pattern of godliness, that it sometimes disheartens us; but when a man like Paul can say, "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ," the example is brought down to a human level; and what one man has done and has been any other disciple may do or be by filling out the measure of his opportunity and capacity in humble dependence on the grace of God.
We shall briefly study this passage of Scripture with referenee to the permanent pattern features of a model missionary; and, as all the thoughts • An 'address at the annual meeting of the China Inland Mission, in London. May. 1896. Some thoughts and illustrations will be found here which have appeared in otber editorial articles; bnt for the sake of completeness they are retained in their present setting. -A. T. P.
THE PERMANENT BASIS OF MISSIONS
suggested are drawn from this Scripture, they are the suggestions not of man, but of God.
1. In the first place, there was a Divine call and commission. "I have appeared unto thee," " I send thee. " That is the beginning of all true work with God and for God. The first feature of all genuine mis- sionary service is Divine leadership. When Constantine was laying out the foundations for that great city on the Bosphorus, and his attention was called to the vast scale upon which he was projecting it, his quiet answer was: "I am following One who is leading me." That is the spirit and motto of every Christian disciple: "I am following One who is leading me. " Missions are unique, as the one and only Divine enterprise ever projected by God and communicated to man; in origin, progress, preparation, and equipment, all of God. The Church has many enterprises, and the world many more; but all are more or less human projects and schemes, susceptible of human improvement, and which it would be perfectly legitimate to criticise, amend, or even abandon, if they no longer answer their purpose. But there is one scheme that is not man's scheme; it is God's plan, and He i,:; responsible for it. He originated it ; He has perfected it; and the entire equipment of it is God's. And whoever undertakes work on missionary lines must remember that it is only legitimately done under the leadership of God, and that there is a double promise for our encourageme~t. Christ says, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age," and He adds, "Behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you." But both of those promises are inseparably linked to the command, "Go ye into aU the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." It is not too much to say that the twin promises of Christ's presence and of the Holy Ghost's anointing will never be enjoyed by any disciple except in the proportion in which the life is given to the proclamation and testimony of the Gospel. The promise is the crown of the work.
Every true missionary is an apostle, for " apostle" and " missionary" mean the same thing-one who is God-sent. "Missionary" is " apostle" spelled Latin-wise, and "apostle" is "missionary" spelled Greekwise; and every true disciple is a missionary.
. 2. The second feature of this pattern is this: a work for God, just as there is a call from God. The Scripture suggests a double definition of this work: "I have appeared unto thee . . . to make thee a minister aud a witness." The Greek word for" minister" here means an under-rowerreferring to the men who sat at their banks of oars along the sides of the vessel, tier over tier; the ancient galleys being so built and adjusted that the eye of every oarsman could be fixed upon the pilot, who by his beck or glance directed them all in raising or dipping the oars. What a fine conception is this! every disciple in his place, with the oar, held in the hand, rising and falling according to the beck of the Pilot, his eyes always being on the Lord! What a word to describe a true minister! 'tVe use the word " minister" of a dignitary, but it never means a dignitary in the Acts of the Apostles or in the Gospel narratives. It is the equivalent of " servant," the chief minister being therefore the chief servant. Paul con- ceives of the minister as an under·rower, humbly sitting at his place in his little sphere of service, presided over by the Pilot, the eyes of the servant being always unto the hands of the Master. "And a witness;" "a witness, both of these things which thou hast see,~, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee."
What is a witness ~ The word is from the Saxon, " witan," which means" to know." A witness is one who knows, and tells what he knows. And so an experience of grace in our personal history is the indispensable requisite to witnessing for God. A herald is not enough, for he may declare a message, the truth of which he does not know, and sympathy with which he does not possess. God will not have mere heralds. He will not have unconverted people proclaiming His message. He wants a Gospel .with a believer behind it.
" Never did angels taste above Redeeming grace and dying love,"
and so He keeps even the angels back and thrusts the believer forward i and the humblest child of God who can say, " I am a sinner saved by grace," has a right to tell tM story of grace to those who do not know it. And, as experience alone qualifies for witness and gives the right of testimony, so all proclamation of the Gospel, all preaching or teaching, so far as it lacks the experience of grace, lacks power and effectiveness. It is a mere parrot-like repetition, the use of the dialect of the Spirit without that soul of speech which is found in deep conviction, and it is little better than sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
Moreover, all testimony that lacks deep experience lacks authority. There is a unique right to bear witness Which is found in having something to bear witness to ; and the indescribable charm of one who speaks from profound conviction and deep spiritual knowledge and experience is something that can no more be described than the aroma of a flower.
Again, notice that Christ says to Paul, " And of those things in the which I will appear unto thee." Witness enlarges in range and scope as experience deepens and broadens. We are told in the l03d Psalm that God "made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel." The people at large saw God's mighty acts, and could not but see them; but Moses knew the ways of God-His plans and secret counsels. Many disciples see God's outward acts, and cannot but acknowledge them; but it is the few that linger in the secret place with God, and follow Him most closely in paths of active obedience, who know something about His ways. Such witnesses become interpreters of His truth and grace to others; they hold the key of knowledge that unlocks wondrous cha.mbers of experimental truth to ordinary disciples. 3. As the call is from God, and the work is for God, so also is the power from God.
Christ said to Paul: "I send thee to the Gentiles • . . to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God." Surely it is the Divine prerogative, and cannot be delegated to any man, to open blind eyes, and to revolutionize ht;lman life by turning a human soul away from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God! Sllfely no man possesses such a power as this : and how could Christ use such words to Paul 1 Paul had commit.ted to him a Gospel which is at once the wisdom of God and the power of God to salvation. Because it is the wisdom of God it opens men's eyes to see themselves and to see God ; and because it is the power of God it turns men round and revolutionizes their whole experience. The effect of this wisdom of God is the reception of the proffer of pardon ; the effect of this power of God is the becoming heirs of salvation and sanctification.
Here, in a few words, therefore, is the whole plan of salvation outlined; and he who has not the confidence that the Gospel is the wisdom of God and the power of God unto salvation to everyone t·hat believeth is neither fit to be a missionary nor worthy to be called a disciple. It is a blessed thing to know and feel that, in telling the story of the Gospel to my fellow human beings, one is using a Divine weapon, forged in heaven, and let down to earth to be wielded as the sword of the Spirit. And all effective testimony for God demands full, absolute, and undoubting faith that this Gospel is the wisdom of God and the power of God unto salvation. One of the most dangerous and destructive tendencies of modern times is that which, disguised in the gown of scholarship, is gradually undermining popular confidence in the inspiration and infallibility of the Word of God.
Michael Faraday, who had the intellect of twenty men in one, was asked in his dying hours: "What are your present speculations g" " Speculations g" said he. " I have no speculations. I am not pillowing my dying head upon guess-work. I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day."
The late Bishop of Durham, one of the grandest men in the Anglican Church, when asked, as he was approaching the hour of his final departure, what book or what new philosophical discussion or essay he was now meditating, replied: "I am not meditating any of these things. My mind is dwelling exclusively upon the three or four simple, primary truths of salvation. They are adapted to the lowest, for there are many who cannot understand. anything higher; but they are adapted to the highest, for from all our excllfsions in the direction of philosophical thought we all have to come back at last to the simple truth, 'Jesus died for me.' "
A poor profligate in Southampton, England, a drunkard and a blasphemer, converted by the precious words, "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost," for eighteen months lived a most beautiful life in all godliness and honesty. One night the express train cut off both his legs near the thigh ; and when the surgeon said to him, " My dear fellow, I am sorry to say to you that you have not fifteen min- utes to live," he began to sing with a jubilant voice: " Hallelujah! 'tis done; I believe in the Son; I am saved by the blood of the Crucified One I"
He who has not faith in these two great truths: that Jesus Christ can save any sinner that repents and believes, and that" there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved," must not go on any mission to dying souls, either at home or abroad. God has no use for such, neither has man use for such as a missionary.
4. Notice another pattern feature of a true servant of God: he not only has a call from God, and does a work for God, and recognizes the power as from God, but he loses his will in God. Paul said to Agrippa : " Whereupon"-aud the force of the Greek is " immediately"-" imme- diately I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision." There is no man or woman who has not at some time or other his or her Damascus-a vision of God at some crisis of life. It may not be as bright, wonderful, lustrous as that which smote the Apostle Paul into blindness j but some vision comes to us sometime, and the whole of our future life depends on whether we are immediately obedient to that heavenly vision. If we are, we get other visions, just as Paul did. He tells us, in the twelfth chapter of 2 Corinthians, that he was caught up beyond the heaven of the atmosphere, and beyond the heaven of the stars, to the third heaven, where he saw the hierarchy of angels, of which he alone tells us in his epistles, because he alone had the personal revelation of it j and he saw something as much grander than the stars as angelic principalities and powers and thrones and dominions are greater than mere material worlds. If you come to your Damascus, and you get a vision of God, and you hear the call of God, and are immediately obedient to the heavenly vision, vision , after vision will follow j and the visions will grow brighter, and sweeter, and nobler, and purer, and more uplifting, until you are caught up to the third heaven. But if you neglect the first vision, you may never have another j or, if you have another, it will have less influence, because the sensibilities are duller for its perception and reception. What a blessed thing it was for Paul that immediately he yielded himself to that heavenly vision 1 In these days we hear much about "enthusiasm. " Missionary speakers are asked to go hundreds of miles, "to come and stir up enthusiasm among the people." I have come to be a little afraid of what is thus called "enthusiasm." It feeds on excitement j it seeks incitements j it likes imaginative pictures drawn in highly colored tints j but it fades and faints before discouragement and difficulty. We want something nobler even than such enthusiasm-namely, simply calm, steady obedience, implicit compliance with an explicit command; not a calculating, hesitating policy, but simple, uniform, stedfast, immediate obedience.
It has been proposed to appoint a commission of prominent persons to go round the world and examine into Christian missions and see whether they pay, and whether it is worth while to continue to carry them on ! The Lord deliver us from any such commission on the subject of missions! Look at the impertinence and arrogance of the whole suggestion. God projects one great plan, and communicates and commits it to the Church to be carried on in His name, and forsooth this utilitarian age professes to sit in judgment as to whether God has been wise or foolish, and as to whether it is best to continue to execute God's plan and design! Even this advanced nineteenth century has scarce advocated a more atrocious proposition. The Church exists to prepare the way of the Lord; and, if the Church should deliberately give up missions, God wol1i.d sweep away, or virtually spew it out of His mouth, and raise up another people that would do His will.
Gibbon tells of Abu Taher, at the head of the Carmathians, approaching Bagdad with five hundred men, and thirty thousand mercenary troops to meet him j and he was told, ' , We have broken down the bridges and have cut off your retreat, and we will annihilate your five hundred soldiers in a very short time." His answer was, ' , Your master has not in his thirty thousand men three who will do his bidding as anyone of these five hundred men will do mine." Then he said to one of his soldiers, "Plunge a dagger in your breast;" to another, "Leap off yonder precipice ;" and to another, "Drown yourself in the Tigris," and soon there was a bleeding heart and mangled form on the one side, and a drowning body in the river on the other. "Now tell your master what you have seen, and that before night I will chain his generals with my dogs." And he did. Because he had five hundred men that would go where they were told to go, and would do what they were told to do. What could not Jesus Christ do if, wi1h the forty millions of Protestant church-members in Europe and America, every man and woman were ready simply to go where they were told, and to do what they were told ~ This is the thing that we need, not a fitful, transient enthusiasm, but absolute, unhesitating obedience to the Master's command.
Such obedience will always bring with it a certain holy intrepidity. All true missionaries are fearless. They are carrying out their Lord's command and commission, and know that He is behind them. Dr. Cooke, of Belfast, asked a gunner who at Waterloo found himself between the two lines of battle surrounded by smoke and dust, and unable to distinguish friend or foe, "What did you do?" "Do? There was but one thing to do-stood by my gun and stayed where I was put. " Dr. George L. Mackay, at Formosa, has furnished a signal example of the absolute aban. donment of a disciple to his Lord's will, daling all opposition for His sake. And so of many another, like Livingstone, and kindred heroic souls, some of whom have no written history.
5. A fifth permanent feature of the pattern missionary is identity with the cause of missions.
This idenWy, in Paul's case, was threefold: first, he was one with the suffering Christ (verse 23). In his very expression of his experience be- fore Agrippa this great thought is suggested, and there were three things about Christ that are emphasized: His sufferings, His rising, and His shedding light to the Gentiles. Paul considered that he participated with Christ in all tbree aspects of His career: Crucifixion, Resurrection, Illu- mination of men. He was "crucified with Christ," he was "risen with Christ," and he "held forth the Word of Life," " shining as It light in the world." That was bis continual experience (compare 2 Cor. 5: 15). He says, " My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you" (Gal. 4 : 19). We read in Isaiah (53) that Christ" shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied;" and here we find an apostle undergoing travail in birth with Christ for the little children that are to be born into the family of God. How pathetic! And in Col. 1 : 24 he rejoices in his sufferings whereby he " fills up that which is behind of the affiictions of Christ, in his own flesh for His body's sake-the Church." We cannot originate, but we may convey, an electric force; we cannot originate, but may reflect and transmit, light. Like Ignatius, Paul was willing to be "grain of God, grouud between the teeth of lions, to make bread for God's people. "
Paul felt himself identified also with aU men, " small or great," whether in Damascus, or Judell:, or in the wide scope of the Gentile world. 'He regarded man as man, and all men as of one blood (verses 20, 22). In Col. 2 : 5 he writes to his Colossian fellow-disciples, "Tho I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ." And yet he neither founded, nor had he ever visited, the church at Colosse. What noble sympathy with man as man!
He felt himself specially identified with all true fellow-witnesses. Whoever in past ages or present time took part in spreading God's good tidings, was one with Paul. "Moses and the prophets" were his coworkers, and in service there was a sublime copartnership. This is a lesson we much need to learn. Whether we go or stay we must all take part in a world's evangelization.
A friend of mine iu America has suggested a sort of coupon ticket, the main part of which is to be retained by the outgoing missionary, the coupons of which, bearing his name and station, etc., shall be held by those who undertake his support, so that they shall feel identified with him and his work. If they who cannot go would go by proxy, they must consent to share the work by sharing the prayers and self-sacrifices of the missionary. It is unfair to talk of taking part in the world's evangelization while we give a few shillings or pounds or dollars a year, which cost us little if any self-denial, and are sanctified by little prayer.
In 1 Sam. 30: 24, which was the lamented "Hannington's text," David ordained that "as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff; they shall part alike." But manifestly they who were guarding the stuff were regarded as equally taking share in the battIe, for they were doing their part to make the victory sure. (Compare Ps. 68 : 11-14.) 6. The last of these pattern features of a true missionary is persistency. " Having obtained help of God, I continue unto this day," etc. Paul had the rare grace of continuance.
Let us remember that this implies the acceptance of holy service as a habit of soul and life. No occasional, transient, sentimental, spasmodic activity supplies the conditions; we must day by day, by God's help, continue our work and witness.
This is too important a matter to be lightly passed over. If we are ever to have a really advanced movement and permanent increase of missionary interest, cooperation and consecration, four conditions are absolutely necessary, each implying a definite habit on the part of the disciples.
(1) A habit of knowing about missions. Familiarity with the great facts of a world's need and the endeavor to meet it, with missionary history and biography, and constant, watchful interest in every movement in the world-wide campaign is a fundamental need. Facts are like fuel to the fire of true missionary zeal. The map of the world is the map of God's war, and the campaign should be traced and followed as any great conflict of one's own country with the foes of its peace and prosperity would be watched by a true patriot.
(2) A habit of giving. We must get a new conception of stewardship, learn to recognize all we have as God's, because we are His, and our giving must be as habitual as our praying, and as natural and necessary to true, holy living. "Mammon" has been worshiped, and it suggests Divine attributes; omnipotence, by what money can accomplish; omnipresence, by the fact that wherever our conse'?rated gifts go they represent us and multiply our personality in our activities; and eternity, because the good our money does for God long survives us. Money is earthborn, but may be lifted to a Divine level by the holy" altar which sanctifies the gift," and the holy motive and spirit which separate it for God's use.
(3) We need a habit of praying. No motive power in church machinery is so neglected. It slumbers like an unused engine, which has only to be set running and connected with thousands of spindles to keep them all in motion. Prayer has turned every crisis of the kingdom. How long will it take us to learn that the shortest way to reach our fellow. man next door is by way of the throne of grace ~ The whole history of missions is an argument and an illustration of the need and the power of united, believing prayer.
THE JEWISH: QUESTION-NOTES OF A RECENT MISSION TOUR
We need (4) a habit of loving. Unselfish benevolence is a lesson: to be learned only at the cross. To love mcn as Christ loved, not for any beauty in them, but despite all their wickedness and hatred, to love them if so he we may develop in them lovely qualities by bringing them into contact with the God of Love! Ah! that is the soul of missions, and makes all labor light.
Be assured no greater risk threatens missions than the lack of such godliness as makes knowing, praying, giving and loving habits of daily life. Until they are, the transient and transitory excitement of emotion and sensibility will take the place of a zeal that knows no fits of coldness and apathy. We cannot in such a work as this depend on any occasional impulses, we cannot follow the uncertain lead of mere feeling, but must be under the control of principles that' know no variableness nor shadow of turning.· For such a new era of missions let us all unitedly pray.
Paul, because these were his habits, had the grace of continuance. It was a habitual life with him to keep the facts of a world's need before him, and pray, and give, and bear testimony, and cultivate unselfish and disinterested love.
When I was in Florence I went into what IS called" Tribuna Galilei. " There was a massive chamber with a half octagon window, and in the center of it stood a statue of Galileo j then around this were the statues of other men with their faces turned toward him, and then in the panels of the roof all the glories of Galileo's triumphs were blazing as though raining down their splendors upon him. Every believer's heart ought to be the tribuna of Jesus Christ j everything else that is an attraction to him should turn its face Christward, and the very attitude of our whole being should be worshipful, crowning with praise the head of our Lord. When your habit of life is to enshrine and enthrone Christ, so that you can say, " He is my all, I am absolutely given up to Him: He is mine, and I am His," there will be no difficulty about the prosecution of missions, and no lack of lives offered. and of money consecrated, and of what is even better, that habitual prayer which is the one great neglected motor that lies in the Church comparatively unused!
THE JEWISH QUESTION-NOTES OF A RECENT MISSION TOUR.
BY REV. DAVID BARON.
There are many difficult problems grouped around the name" Jew," powerfully effecting the world and the Church, and as, in Europe especially, the issues involved become intensified from year to year, the nations of Christendom, in the midst of whom the mass of the Diaspora has been located since the destruction of the second Temple, are earnestly beginning to find solutions, and it is more and more obvious that" the Jewish question" is fast becoming an international one. To the Bible student, with the key of the future in his hand, it is very interesting to watch somc of the more recent phases in the development ,of this" question," and to observe how the great God is, in His providence, now rapidly preparing the way for its final and only possible solution. Missionaries to the Jews may, perhaps, in a special sense be regarded as watchmen on the walls of Zion, and the Church may address the question to them, "Watchman, what of the night? Is there any sign that the long, dark, and dreary night of Israel's unbelief and consequent wander- ings and suffering is about drawing to a close ~"
In connection with the Temple ritual, the morning sacrifice had to be offered at a point of time between the first indications of dawn and actual sunrise, and during the last hours of the night a party of Levites, known as " watchmen for the morning" (Ps. 130: 6), used to take their stand on one of the higher pinaclcs' of the Temple, literally watching for the first indications of the approaching sun. Meanwhile, at the altar of burnt-offering everything was ready, and the priests stood waiting. At last the signal was given by the watchmen in the words, "The sky is lit as far as Hebron," and immediately that cry was raised the morning sacrifice was slain, and the daily routine of the Temple ritual and worship commenced.
Now we, too, are on our watch-tower" watching for the morn- ing," "looking for that bltissed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ j" straining our eyes to catch the first rays of the Light which is to illumine Israel, and through Israel all the nations of the earth j and if the question be put to us, " Watch- man, what of the night~" we cannot, indeed, say that the night is already past and the morning already come j but we can say the night is almost wholly spent, and the first indications of "the morning without clouds" are already almost to be discerned.
Anti-Semitism, tho no doubt a symptom of the diseased moral, politi- cal, and economic systems of the Continental nations of Europe, for which Jew and Gentile must bear equal blame, is of immense significance, and an unmistakable sign of the times.
It is not my intention, nor is this the place, to enter into the causes, ori- gin, and growth of this monster of the nineteenth century. I only want to touch on its bearing in relation to the evangelization of the Jew. It is remarkable how history repeats itself, especially in the experience of the Jewish people. There was a Jewish question, with its consequent anti- Semitism, arising from very much the same causes, at the very commence- ment of Israel's history, as far back as Egypt. The Jews there were in- creasing wonderfully. and in every way becoming a powerful factor in the I land, and as they did not amalgamate, they were considered as dangerous to the people in whose midst they had been for so long located. At last it was thought imperative by Pharaoh and his councillors to invent some solution of the difficult problem. "Come now," they said, " let us deal wisely with them ;" the result was measures of repression, with a view to ultimate extermination. But God turned the wisdom of the Egyptians into folly; "the more they affiicted them, the more they multiplied and grew, and they were perplexed because of the children of Israel" (Ex. 1). God, however, had His own way of solving the "Jewish question" in Egypt, and that was by the exodus. It was a roundabout way certainly, but all the events in Egypt, preceding and leading up to the exodus, was God's good way of fulfilling the promise given to Abraham more than four hundred years before, that when once the iniquity of the Amorite was full, his seed should take possession and inherit Canaan. Now I firmly be· lieve that the more modern phase of the a_ncient " .Tewish question" will be solved in precisely the same manner. There will be an exodus, and that, not merely as before, out of one country-" Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say the Lord liveth who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but the Lord liveth who brought up, and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, "and from all countries whither I had driven them, and they shall dwell in their own land." The" tribe of the wandering foot" must wander back by way of the cross to the land which has been lying desolate and waiting for them during all these centuries. Until they do this there will be no rest, either for them or for the nations among whom they are scattered.
The millions of the poor and less cultured orthodox Talmudic Jews in Russia, Galicia, and Roumania have long ago been convinced that these lands cannot much longer remain their resting-places, and that it is about time for them to " arise and depart" toward that land for which they have never ceased to cherish a yearning desire ; hence, the many colonizing schemes, and the more than thirty Jewish colonies which already exist in Palestine, consisting almost entirely of Russian and Ronmanian Jews. The remarkable thing is that, as the result of the newest phases of the anti-Jewish movement on the Continent, the more cultured, wealthy, and rationalistic Jews are at last digesting the truths that it is not by the so-called" reform" movement which aims at assimilation with the nations that the Jewish question will be solved; for after all their efforts in this direction for more than half a century, and their desperate eagerness to strip themselves of all that is true and false in orthodox Judaism as a kind of peace offering to the mysterious, deep.seated antipathy of the Gentiles, they find that it is just against themselves, more even than against the less cultured of their brethren in Russia and Eastern Europe, that the bitterest animosity is manifested, and that Christendom, tho it is itself for the most part apostate from truth and from the faith of Christ, is even less reconciled to the rationalism and neology of the modern cultivated " Israelite" than it is to the Talmudism of the more consistent orthodox " Jew," who still wears his raftan and peyoth.
vVhat is this but a repetition of the warning words which God in His providence has so often spoken to Israel, "And that which cometh unto. your mind shall not be at all; in that ye say, We will be as the nations, as the families of the countries. "
For the present anti-Semitism has shifted its center to Austria, and in Vienna especially, where there are 125,000 Jews, most of them educated and well-to-do, their lot has become almost unbearable. During my last visit in May and June of this year, I had occasion to observe the consternation manifested in large Jewish circles at the most recent phases of the anti-Jewish campaign; and no wonder, for in spite of the repeated interpositions of the emperor, and everything that could be done to check it, the great municipal war in the Austrian metropolis has ended in the election of a burgomaster and a vast majority of councillors who are avowedly pledged to use every possible means to drive the Jews from the land. The temper of tIle leaders of anti-Semitism in Austria may be judged from some of their public utterances. Thus Dr. Lueger, who is also a prominent man in the Reichsrath, not long ago at a public meeting stated that it was altogether a matter of indifference to him whether the Jews were burned or hanged, so l;ng as they were exterminated from the land; and about the same time the notorious priest Decket, the Roman Catholic vicar of Weinhaus, ended one of a series of sermons delivered with the aim of stirring the cupidity and hatred of the masses against the Jews, with the words, " Verbrennt die Juden zur Ehre Gottes" (" Burn the Jews to the glory of God"). Last June and July one of the anti-Semitic members of the Reichsrath, in moving that the Jews should be deprived of the franchise, said that the Jews ought not to be treated like men, but like reptiles, and ought to be exterminated. Vienna has to be credited with a decided novelty in the anti-Jewish campaign. I refer to the "Frauen demonstl'ationen" (organized processions of women), in which even some women of wealth and station have taken part. Fancy a mob of militant " ladies" of this most highly civilized metropolis marching through the Jewish quarter, damaging and plundering Semitic property, and threatening vengeance to Semitic heads! But this is no longer a thing unknown or unheard of in Austria. This unchristian movement, which is a humiliation to the boasted progress of the nineteenth century, is being overruled by God, and used in His all-wise providence to stir up the rest of the wellto-do, educated Jews, who have striven mightily to settIe down and assimilate with the nations. At last they are beginning to see that it is aU of no avail. "We have honestly striven everywhere," says Dr. Theodore Herzl, a brilliant Vienna journalist, whose position on the Neue Freie Pre88e gives him special authority, and who is but uttering the feeling of multitudes of the Jewish people-" we have honestly striven everywhere to merge ourselves in the social life of surrounding communities, and to preserve only the faith of our fathers. It has not been permitted to us. In vain are we loyal patriots, in some places our loyalty running to extremes ; in vain do we make the same sacrifices of life and property as our fellow-citizens; in vain do we strive to increase the fame of our native land in science and art, or her wealth by trade and commerce. In countries where we have lived for centuries we are still cried down as strangers, and often by those whose ancestors were not yet domiciled in the land where Jews had already made experience of suffering. Yet in spite of all we are loyal subjects-loyal as the Huguenots, who were forced to emigrate. If we could only be left in peace. " The true solution of the question he formulates in his pamphlet, " Der J udenstaat," which is one of the most remarkable voices which have been uttered in the Diaspora since the destruction of the second Temple, the essential idea of which is sum- marized in the following brief paragraph: " I am introducing no new idea; on the contrary, it is a very old one. It is a universal idea-and therein lies its power-old as the people, who never, even in the times of bitterest calamity, ceased to cherish it. This is the restoration of the .lewish State. It is remarkable that we Jews should have dreamt this kingly dream all through the long night of our history. Now day is dawning. We are one people. Our enemies have made us one in our despite, as repeatedly happens in history. Distress binds us together, and thus united, we suddenly discover our strength. Yes, we are strong enough to form a State, and a model State. We possess all human and material resources necessary for the purpose. I will not enumerate those resources here. They are summed up in my pamphlet, which is a sYRtematic refutation of all objections to my scheme that have come to my knowledge. I have laid my scheme before politicians, theologians, scholars, soldiers, artists, scientists, men in various branches of business, and particularly financiers. The whole matter is in its essence perfectly simple, as it must necessarily be if it is to come within the comprehension of all."
How rapidly things are moving in these latter days toward the fulfil- ment of the purpose of God as revealed in Scripture! Even twenty years ago the very suggestion of the re-establishmeut of a Jewish State in Pal.
estine would have provoked laughter on the part of the wise and the prudent of this world, but now it is fast becoming a topic of practical politics. Truly it will not be long before" the sky is lit as far as Hebron."
Partly as the result of the unsettling of their nests, and partly also owing to the spirit of the age, and their awakening from the stupor of rabbinism in which they have been wrapped for centuries, a door has, in God's providence, been thrown open for the evangelization of the Jewish people such as has not been known since the days of the apostles. Almost everywhere it is no longer a question of opportunities, but of the proper men and the right methods for this peculiar work. Withiu my own per- sonal experience of the Jewish mission, which ranges over a: period of about eighteen years, I have noted a remarkable change in this direction, especially in the ancient centers of Talmudic bigotry in Northern and Eastern Europe. It is not that conversions have been so very numerous, for of the mass of the Talmudic Jews the apostle's question is still true, " How shall they believe on Him of whom they have not heard 1" How can the Church reap where she has not sown ~ It may be true also that the greater willingness on the part of so many of the dispersion to hear the true story about the Nazarene, and to read the New Testament, may be accounted for by a spirit of mere curiosity, which characterizes almost all peoples at this present tiree. Be it so; whatever the cause, the fac~ remains that there is an opportunity offered to the Church in this genera- tion, if not to convert, at any rate to evangelize Israel on a scale and in a manner which has been impossible hitherto; and it is undoubtedly true that in many cases, if only the right men go among them, curiosity is by the grace of God turned into earnest inquiry, leading to conversion of heart and life to Christ.
It is my purpose to illustrate this with a few extracts from my journal of experiences among the Jews in many lands ; but before doing so I will in a few sentences introduce to my readers the mission which I represent. Altho, as stated above, I have been laboring in the cause of Israel in various parts of the world for more than seventeen years, and the Rev. C. A. Schonberger, my esteemed colleague, has been thirty years in this work, j'The Hebrew Christian Testimony to Israel" is but a little over three years old, and originated in the conviction that the times and circumstances required a new work on special lines, and without the hea,'y machinery of the older organization; and the abundant blessing which God has graciously condescended to bestow on our labors has confirmed us in the conviction that we were and are being led of God. I need not say that our feelings to all other missions and workers are nothing but brotherly, and that we wish from our hearts" God-speed" to all who in sincerity and with a pure motive preach Christ to Israel. Our mission house in London is situated in the main East End thoroughfare (114 Whitechapel Road), right in the midst of the large and ever-growing Jewish community, numbering already considerably more than the whole Jewish population of Palestine. We have here a free reading-room, with all sorts of Christian literature, which is open every day, and where a missionary is always present to converse and to answer questions. It liaS often happened that Jews who did not dare to take a New Testament home with them have eagerly read it in our reading-room, and stored up the wonderful truths about Christ and His Gospel in their minds, and as we trust also in their hearts. Every evening there is a Bible class, which has become a distinctive feature in our London work. Around a long table, each with an open Hebrew or German Bible before him, may be seen night after night twenty, thirty, forty, and in the winter as many as fifty Jewish men, representing the Diaspora in miniature, for they come from almost every land, all listening eagerly, and sometimes for the very first time in their lives, to methodical unfoldings of Scripture, the aim of which is to exalt Christ as Israel's Messiah and Son of God, and to show how that He is the very center of all the revelation of God. On Saturday afternoon Scripture addresses from Old and New Testaments are given in the lectureroom, which are usually well attended, and by means of which large numbers of Jews are being permeated by Gospel truth. There is also a good deal of visiting and other work done. This house we only regard as a center, and we keep our eyes open to the needs of the whole Jewish peoples. In all efforts for their evangelization the whole of Israel must be regarded as one people, and no mission to the Jews should fix its attention on one little sport or corner without at the same time keeping its eyes on the whole Jewish field.
Now the Jews are a dispersion, and it is not merely by a " station" here and there that the nation can be evangelized, however useful such stations may be, if they are regarded merely as centers. As a matter of fact, there are still millions of Jews in all parts of the earth who know nothing of Christ but a few filthy legends to be found in the Talmud and later rabbinical literature, and who do not even know of the very existence of the New Testament. As a result of much thought and personal knowledge of the JewIsh field, I have arrived at the conviction that it is only by itinerant missionaries of the right stamp that the scattered people will ever be evangelized on any large scale; and also that it is by directing our chief efforts to the ancient strongholds of Judaism, in Central and Eastern Europe and the Orient, that an impression will be made on the nation as a whole. On this conviction we are endeavoring to act. Since 1885 I have made ten mission journeys, extending over the following countries: Asia Minor, Austria-Hungary, the Balkan States, Egypt, the German Empire, Holland, North Africa, Palestine, and Turkey in Europe; and in countries like Austria-Hungary and Prussia it has been my privilege to preach Christ to large numbers of Jews in scores of towns and cities.
The following are a few brief extracts from my journal of my last tour in the spring of this year in Holland, Transylvania, and Roumania, when I had for my companions first dear old Rabbi Lichtenstein, of Budapest; then later Mr. Philip Gordon, a most excellent brother, stationed in Budapest by the Swedish Mission to Israel. I might say that our experiences in Holland were somewhat exceptional, inasmuch as having been invited there, we found everything arranged for us.
"April 16th, Amsterdam. A' hallelujah' rises from my heart for the grand beginning God gave us last night. The nne, large building of the Free Church of Scotland, which is capable of seating fifteen hundred people, was packed from floor to ceiling, and it gave me the greatest pleasure to see that a considerable portion of our audience were Jew". Rabbi Lichtenstein spoke first in German, and I followed in English, both addresses being interpreted into Dutch by Mr. Van Os. Rabbi Lichtenstein gave a touching account of his history, and how what had formerly heen to him impenetrable mysteries, became clear as the day when Christ had opened bis eyes. I followed with an address on the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow, basing my remarks on Ps. lIS : 2 : 'The stone which the builders rejected is become the headstone of the corner.' The Lord was indeed present in our midst, and the response and sympathetic spirit manifested by the Christian part of our audience was very encouraging to us. The Jews, too, listened with attention and respect, and I feel sure that the Word of God, simply and faithfully spoken, has not been in vain. At the conclusion of the meetmg the whole assembly rose to their feet and invoked the blessing of Jehovah upon us by singing Ps. 134 : 2, 3, 'Lift up your hearts in holiness and bless Jehovah. Jehovah that made heaven and earth, bless Thee out of Zion. ' This, we learn, is only done on very rare occasions, and therefore showed their kind appreciation of our visit. It was about 10.30 before we left the church, but there was quite a little crowd of Jews and Christians waiting outside to see us go."
In our short stay in Holland we visited Amsterdam, Haarlem, Utrecht, The Hague, Leyden, and Rotterdam, in each place addressing meetings, and everywhere well received. At the close of the service m Rotterdam, .among those who came to converse with us were a prominent Jewish advocate and his son. The old man said that he had" studied Christianity," and there was something touching in his remark, that he had more than once asked God to open his eyes and show him whether Christ was indeed the Messiah and Savior. Many deeds of horror committed by Christians in Russia on Jews had come to his certain knowledge, and had hmdered his believing the truth. I was very much struck by one of his remarks before leaving. "I must tell you, gentlemen." he said, "that if Christianity bad always been presented to us in the way you did to-night, I believe all the Jews would have become Christians three hundred years ago."
As the space at my disposal is limited, I will take up my diary again on the Danube steamer for Budapest: " We prefer the river journey to the train, because of the bettcr opportulllties it gives of contact with people. There were quite a number of Jews on board, with whom we conversed. With a Jewish doctor, a very learned man, we had several interesting conversations. Once, referring to Rabbi Lichtenstein's last pamphlet, he said: 'I have almost come to the same convictions myself, and I think there are many others who believe the same, but somehow we lack the courage to stand up and confess that for all these centuries we have been in the wrong. I have sometimes wondered what can be the cause of the controversy between God and us. That there is something wrong, on account of which we are suffering the displeasure of God, no thinking man can deny. . . . The deep-seated prejudice against Jesus Christ, which is ingrained in the Jewish heart, is incomprehensible to me, altho I know it is partly to be explained by the conduct of Christians to the Jews all through the centuries. . .. Altho I am a Jew, I say this, that this hatred to Christ seems to me nothing less than a special curse on our nation. . • .
" May 6th. At 3.30 we joined the Predial express and continued our journey from Tapio-Szele through the interminable Hungarian plain to Grosswardein. We found a little Jewish audience preparlld for us in the railway carriage, two most intelligent Jewish ladies, mother and daughter, and a wealthy Jewish merchant.' A station or two farther on we were joined by another Jew and Jewess, and the four hours we spent together will not be easily forgotten. It is quite impossible to describe on paper One such discussion with a small company of intelligent Jews, or to ~ive .
an adequate idea of the physical and mental exhaustion which it entails. " Your whole being is on the strain the whole time, for apart from seek- ing for the fit word in reply to every question, your heart yearns to put Christ and Bis Gospel in as clear a light as possible, so as to impress not their minds only, but also their hearts, knowing that this is perhaps the only opportuuity they may have in their lives of coming into contact with a true messenger of ChFist, or of hearing the story of Bis redeeming love. The ladies were enthusiastic in their admiration of the character and life of Christ, and we could not help silently lifting up our hearts to God that the true glory of Christ, not only as the 'greatest man,' but as 'the . only begotten Son of the Father,' may hreak in on their souls.
"The Jewish merchant from Grosswardein said to us before parting : 'Gentlemen, this has ,been a wonderful experience to me. I have never before seen or heard two educated Jews like you defending Christ and preaching Bis doctrines. This version of Christianity is quite new to me, but I promise to read th~~pooks and pamphlets you have given me.'
" Grosswardein, May"ith. After lunch we went to a cafe where we were t()ld that Jews are wont to congregate. It was quite a large saloon aDd almost full, aud no sooner did we enter than thirty or more gathered around the small table where we sat, asking us all sorts of questions and begging for books. For a time the saloon presented quite a unique and interesting appearance, for apart from the large group who were more immediately surrounding us, there were smaller groups all over the hall, noisily and with many gesticulations discussing among themselves what they had heard from or about us and the contents of our books.
" At 2.30 Jews began to visit us in our own rooms. First to come were two Talmud students from the Rabbinical College. They were well versed in Talmudical quibbles and rabbinical prescriptions j but they were very ignorant of the Old Testament, and had never even seen the New. As we spoke of Christ and His Gospel, which has freed us from the bondage of rabbinism, they suddenly took fright and abruptly left the room. When they left about a dozen others came, five or six being old men with gray beards, and after answering the many inevitable questions, it was delightful to see them quietly settle down and listen while we unfolded to them simply the claims of our Savior from their own Hebrew Scriptures. One asked, ' Was not Moses before Christ, and does it not say that he was the greatest prophet, and that there was no prophet like him ~ Is it not enough, therefore, if we believe in him ~ , We explained to them that the chief glory of Moses is that he wrote of Christ, and, in his wonderful prophecy of the ~lessiah, where he says: 'Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me,' he ends, like John the Baptist, by pointing away from himself, saying: 'Unto Him ye shall hearken' (Deut. 18: 15). Moses was not only a prophet j instrumentally he was Israel's redeemer out of Egypt, and a ' priest and king in Jeshurun j' and the only one that is like him in these particulars, but in a much more glorious sense, is the Messiah. Now Moses says, 'unto .Him ye shall hearken j' therefore if wc believe not in Christ we do not even obey Moses.
"Klausenburg, Transylvania, May 11th. Within a day or so of my arriving at thIS town I was taken severely ill with a sharp attack of influenza: Mr. Gordon nursed me tenderly, and the strain of doing so, in addition to the constant speaking imposed upon him by our many Jewish visitors, was no light burden on him. In one group which came late one afternoon was a dreadfully loud and angry man. Aftf,r listening quietly for some time, while ~1r. Gordon spoke to them of the wonderful love of God in giving His only begotten Son, he seemed suddenly to become almost mad with passiou, and stood up (as Mr. Gordon told me) literally trembling with rage, pouring out mouthfuls of curses and blasphemies.
" I could hear him in the adjoining room, and on my bed I prayed the Lord to restrain him. As he stood on the threshold just before leaving, he shouted out, 'Vho ever heard such a thing! After we believed it to be all false for nearly two thousand years, they come and say it is all true, and that Christ rose from the dead! And to hear such a thing from JEWS!' I thought, how sad that my poor people should have been deceived to believe a lie so long!
" On our journey from Klausenbnrg to Karlsburg we had some interesting experiences. We had to change train at Tuvis, and wait there a little over an hour. The station was crowded with people of many nationalities-Austrians, Hungarians, Wallachs, Russniaks, and J ews-··.all wait. ing at this junction for their various trains. We singled out some of the Jews, and gave them copies of Rabbi Lichtenstein's new pamphlet. Soon we had an eager group around us, listening and asking questions, and our audience grew every minute, till it resembled an open-air meeting. On its outskirts might be seen three or four officers of high rank in the Austrian army. We preached Christ to them as simply and directly as we could. When I got tired, Mr. Gordon spoke, and when he got tired, I spoke. Vhen we took places in the train for Karlsburg, quite a little congregation followed us into the same carriage, so that we were quile crowded, all being Jewish merchants and travelers, excepting one Roman Catholic lady, with whom we had conversed and who wished to hear more.We spoke to them of the promises t6 our fathers, and showed them from the New Testament how that 'in the fuilness of time God fulfilled the same, in sending His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.' There was present one especially nice Jewish gentleman from Vienna, whose heart seemed opened by the Lord for the message we carry. Turning to our other fellow-passengers, he said: 'Meine Herrn, these are beautiful truths, and truly Jewish. Modern Judaism can do nothing but lay insupportable burdens upon us, which leave our hearts untouched.'
" At Karlsburg, as soon as the report spread of our being in the town, Jews began to call on us to converse and ask for New Testaments. Our hearts' sympathies were very much drawn out to one man. He is a journalist, and has been the means of inaugurating different philanthropic efforts for the benefit of the Jews in Eastern Europe ; but disgusted by the emptiness of modern rabbinism, and repelled by the idolatries and inconsistencies of spurious Christianity all around him, he became first an agnostic and then an atheist, altho not one that boasts in his unbelief. As he himself confessed, he is now most miserable, and would be most happy if the knowledge of a living God broke into his soul. It was pathetic, and it moved us almost to tears to hear him say before he left us: 'Gentlemen, I envy you very much. VVould that I could be blessed with the same faith! vVe have all troubles and temptations in this sad world, but in the dark hour you have a refuge; I have none.' We urged him to allow God and the Bible to rule over his mind anel intellect as well 8S heart, and then the peace of God will come, and we assured him that we would not fail to pray for him. These were busy days, the Jews visiting ns in groups varying in number, sometimes six, sometimes twenty-five,
BANNAH MARSHMAN. FIRST WOMAN MISSIONARY, 1767-1847
and once we were both occupied with companies of them in separate rooms. About 10 P.M. one evening we had a rather remarkable visit. It was from several of the higher commissioned officers of the citadel, only two of whom were Jews. My bedroom presented a rather curious appearance with all these mlhtary gentlemen in uniform. They were, no doubt, drawn by curiOSity, wanting to see the two foreigners of whom so much was being spoken in the cafes and in their homes; but the Lord enabled us to speak to them in a manner which commanded their attention, and changed their behavior from levity to sober earnestness. After listening for some time, one of them said he had a proposition to make, to the effect that we should remain there for a few days longer in order to give a series of addresses, at which they would promise to be present. We were, however, leaving the town early next day, but were glad to give them copies of the German New Testament. They left and others came, altho it was nearly 11 P.M. It was close upon midnight before we could lie down, utterly exhausted, but glad of heart for the opportunities of the day."
These are but extracts taken here and there from the journal of this tour, which took us farther into Roumania and Bulgaria. At Bucharest, by the entreaty of the Jews, two meetings were hel.!. Some two hundred gathered in the hall, and after listening with eager attention to three different addresses, were unwilling to leave, wishing to hear yet more.
When we asked who would wish to have the New Testament, two hundred hands flew up in response. Dr. Baedeker, whom we unexpectedly met in Bucharest, was present at this meeting, and rejoiced to see such an assembly of Jews as he had never seen before, met of their own accord to hear the truth of the Gospel.
HANNAH MARSHMAN, FIRST WOMAN MISSIONARY, 1767-1847.
BY DR. GEORGE SMITH, C.LE., F.R.G.S.
The first missionary to the women of India, and, indeed, the first of all woman missionaries in modern times, was Hannah Marshman. Born in England in 1767, a hundred and thirty years ago, she spent forty-seven years of a happy married life and a short widowhood in the Baptist Brotherhood, formed by her husband, Joshna Marshman, D.D., with Carey and Ward, at Serampore, Bengal. There she died, at the ripe age of eighty years, on March 1st, 1847. Her life has never been sketched even by her distinguished eldest son, John Clark Marshman, Companion of the Most Exalted Order of the Star of India (C. S. 1.), who, in 1859, published in London" The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman, and Ward." Tho the mother of twelve children, Mrs. Marshman trained the six who survived for the positions of usefulness and dignity which most of them filled. She spent almost every day of her long life, after she landed in India in the year 1799, in educating the girls and the women of Bengal to know and to serve Jesus Christ. She supplied to the Brotherhood all the domestic comfort and much of the loving harmony without which her hus- band and Carey and their associates could not have accomplished half of what the Spirit of God enabled thcm to do for the highest good of the peoples of India and South Asia. She combined in a rare proportion the three graces of love to Christ, benevolence to all for whom He died, manifested in a temper of perfect sweetness, and prudence directed by a sound judgment, which made her for half a century not less valuable an associate of the great Brotherhood of Serampore than Dr. Joshua Marshman himself. Of her three daughters, the eldest married Mr. Williams, of the Bengal Civil Service; the second became the wife successively of the great Danish botanist, Dr. Voigt, and of the greater German scholar, Sir Dietrich Brandis, chief of the Forestry Department of the Government of India; the third was wedded to the heroiq Christian soldier, Sir Henry Havelock, and was honored by the Queen-Empress of India with the offer of a residence in Hampton Court Palace.
Hannah Shepherd, as her maiden name was, granddaughter of the Rev. John Clark, Baptist pastor of Crockerton, in the English county of Wilts, was married in the year 1791 to Joshua Marshman, then twenty-three years of age. Self-educated, her husband soon became known as a tutor, in Bristol, in Hebrew, Syriac, and the classical languages. One of his pupils, Mr. Grant, he won over from infidelity, so that the youth was accepted as a missionary of the Baptist Society. Carey's" Periodical Accounts'" soon fired the heart of Marshman, and he resolved to join the mission in Bengal. His young wife's prudence and care for their two young children made her hesitate for a little, but soon she too" cordially" surrendered herself to the Divine call. On October 13th, 1799, the missionary party landed at the Danish settlement of Serampore, when, falling on their knees, Mr. Marshman led them in blessing God for the safe voyage and the beginning of their mission to the millions of Hoogly and Calcutta. They had sailed in the Criterion, an American ship of Philadelphia, of which the Presbyterian elder, Captain Wickes, was master and their lifelong friend. Acting on the advice of the Christian director of the East India Company, Charles Grant, they had avoided the British port of Calcutta, and sailed up the river in a boat. They received the hearty protection of Colonel Bie, the Danish Governor of Serampore. The Governor-General, then the Marquis Wellesley, refused to molest them, and soon he also became the friend of such men and of such a woman as Hannah Marshman.
Carey and the Brotherhood, formed at Serampore, started from the first on the only missionary plan known last century-that of self-support, like the Moravian community'S. For seven years Carey had spent his indigo planter's income on the mission. When transferred to Danish protection and reinforced, the Brotherhood consisted of nineteen persons in all, of whom ten were young children. All these must (1) be housed, fed, and clothed, so as to be efficient soldiers in the conflict with idolatry and ungodliness; (2) the children must be educated, and, if God called them, be trained to be the missionaries of the future. The immediate ex- pense was found to be above £600 a year, and that owing to Mrs. Marsh- man's" greatest frugality." First, a.fter solemn prayer and renewed dedi. cation to God, laying it down as a fundamental rule " that no one shall engage in any private trade, but whatever is earned shall go into the com· mon stock," the missionaries divided the work according to the special fitness of each. As Carey had the translation of the Holy Scriptures, and soon was made Professor in Lord Wellesley'S college; as Ward, with two of Carey's sons, had the press, the schools naturally fell to Marshman, and to his wife far more than to him, as the event proved. The pecuniary result of this splendid organization, as it extended during the next forty years, was unique in the history not only of all Christian missions, but of all philanthropy. The one woman and the three men, with their children and assistants, were the means of earning at least £90,000 sterling for the work of God right across Southern Asia from the Persian Gulf to the Pacific Ocean. Of this enormous contribution, be- sides the self.support of the workers, Carey gave half, and the woman, Hannah Marshman, alone gave at least one fourth, or more than $100,000.
How was this done ~ All under the direct guidance and help of the good providence of God? First of all an advertisement made it known all over North India that girls and boys would be received as Christian boarders to be educated along with the Serampore missionaries' children. The girls' school especially became so famous that we find the three missionaries reporting to the Baptist Society in England at the end of the year 1801 : "Last year Sister Marshman opened a school for young ladies, which much increases, so that we have been under the further necessity of enlarging our habitation. • .'. The taking of Serampore by the English has produced no alteration in our circumstances. • •• We live in love, and are, perhaps, as happy a family as any in the world." The school had begun in May, 1800, with two boarders, and then contained twentythree, besides day scholars. The terms were £45 a year for each boarder.
To Mrs. Smith, Hounsditch, London, we find Hannah Marshman writing on February 13th, 1801 : "I searched my mind very minutely before I engaged in the school lest it should be irksome to me afterward. However, I was enabled to leave all and cheerfully to give myself up to the work, and through mercy I have never repented, and hope I never may. I am not worthy of being employed in anything belonging to Christ, and often wonder at the dispensations of God in sending me to this land where so much grace is needed; and my daily experience is such that I often fear lest I have none. This, however, I know: I long for the increase of Christ's kingdom upon earth, especially in. this benighted part of it. Respecting our family, I shall only say, I love all, and make it a part of my prayer that I may continue to live in love and peace with all. I wish ever to see my own faults before those of others; and this is one of the blessed things which I have learned in my affliction." It may easily be imagined how the number of her children, their birth, and not infrequent death, affected her amid the threefold toil of her own school, her work among the native women, and her domestic care of all the Brotherhood for a time. Here is one of many extracts which might be made from her hus- band's journal, sent to Dr. Ryland, for 1803 : " September 23d.-My wife was taken WIth a fever yesterday and con- fined instantly to her bed. She took an emetic whiCh operated very powerfully, and through the Lord's goodness she is in her school again to-day. "
The mania of Carey's first wife made her only an additional care to Mrs. Marshman; but in the tender friendship of his second, the noble Danish lady, Emilia Rumohr, she found some solace and companionship from this time.
Four years later, in January, 1805, Hannah Marshman reviews her five years' experience in a letter to Mrs. Clark, Baldwin Street, Bristol, England. The long and vivid narrative should be read in the light of household books which we discovered in the archives of the Serampore College and reviewed in the weekly Friend of India newspaper as a valuable economic contribution to the history of prices. Never was there such a Martha and Mary in one as these documents prove her to have been, always listening to the voice of the Master, yet always doing the many thmgs He entrusted to her without feeling cumbered or irritable or envious. To Mrs. Clark she recounts instances of God's goodness only, especially when the roof of an addition to the school fell in without harming the girls. She adds this unconscious picture of the happy life of the Brotherhood, of which she, in truth, formed the pervasive bond : "On Friday evenings, after worship, }Ve generally meet to sup and chat and hear the ~alcutta news-this being the evening that Brother Carey comes home. • • . As I was returning across to our own house I trod on a serpent, which twisted round my leg and gave my heel a hard smack. I shook it off and felt no harm. I had hold of Mr. Marshman's arm, or probably I might have fallen down. Having a lantern, I saw it make its way into the grass, and went home a little terrified, but much more surprised.
" , Unhurt, on serpents you shall tread, When found in duty's way.'
Will anyone say the Lord is not among us ~ . . . We are enlarging our coast on every side by repairing and building, in expectation" of more boarders and of visitors from America, such as Captain Wickes often introduced to them in his annual voyage. " We are nearly sixty in number, yet we scarcely ever sit more than twenty minutes at breakfast or tea. A chest of tea at eighty rupees" ($45 there) " lasts three months and a fortnight. We use nine quarts of milk in a day; we have twenty quarts fox a rupee. • •• At seven o'clock school begins; at nine at night the children are in bed, after which time is my holiday to read, write, or work. But I am often so overcome with fatigue and the scorching heat of the day that I feel neither will nor power to do anything at all ; and when I sit down to converse with you it is with a weary body, a stupid soul, and dim eyes; but I am sure of having all my faults lightly passed over and all covered with love."
Hannah Marshman's" ladies' school" was an evangelizing agency of the most direct kind, apart from the large sum which it contributed to the extension of the native mission. Its pupils were chiefly Eurasians or East Indians, of the then fast-increasing and utterly neglected community who had sprung originally from white fathers and native mothers. She was the first to care for their daughters, so far as these were not the orphans of military officers or soldiers. This mixed class numbered eighty thousand nominal Christians in the India census of 1891, or half the number of pnre Europeans, inclnding the British troops. For the soldiers' orphans the Government, under the godly chaplain David Brown (Henry Martyn's friend), erected asy lums and schools, followed therein by the splendid munificence of the great Sir Henry Lawrence and his wife. But only Hannah Marshman cared for the rest. From her famous school in a generation there passed out relays of truly Christian young ladies trained and ready to become missionaries to their native sisters. Until such agents were educat.ed and converted, and till the instruction of the native youths had made headway in the boys' schools and in the Serampore College, female education among the Hindns and Mohammedans was impossible. But the Brotherhood watched for it, prayed for it, planned for it, provided the means for it, and lived to see its foundations well laid by Hannah Marshman.
In the famous periodical, first monthly, then quarterly, and then a weekly newspaper, the Friend of India, which flourished from 1817-75, the Serampore Brotherhood essays were of such value that the earlier series were reprinted in London. One of these, which appeared in 1822, on " Female Education in India," should be studied by everyone of the now happily numerous and vigorous organizations of Christian women for evangelizing the female half of the dark races of the world. That essay gave an impulse to the movement at which Hannah Marshman was the first to toil, and for which she had provided the cultured teachers. The writer called on the Governor-General's wife, the good Marchioness of Hastings, to put herself at the head of an association of ladies for the purpose. Miss Cooke, afterward Mrs. Wilson, was sent out from England to carryon the enterprise in Calcutta, in addition to the Baptists. William Ward, when on furlough in England, had pleaded for justice to the women of India in tones which sent a thrill through the churches. "Amid all the children of misery in India," wrote the Brotherhood, H the softer sex have been most fuily the victims of oppression. In India, in which this depraved disposition is neither restrain~d by Christianity nor mollified by the influence of literature or of manly feeling, this spirit of oppression falls on the
EDUCATION IN CIltNA
female sex in all its violence. n The first step was declared to be that of teaching the girls to read their own vernacular, and so to have their daughters taught, while the slower influence of their educated brothers and husbands worked its effect as it has done with marvellous results In the thIrd of a century since.
Meanwhile all through her later lIfe Hannah Marshman was working for the women of the lower classes who could be at once reached. In 1824 her Serampore Native Female EducatIOn Society, formed to make the movement permanent and continuous when she should be removed, conducted fourteen girls' schools with two hundred and sixty pupils. At its other stations of Chittagong, Dacca, Monghyr, Digah, Allahabad, Delhi, and elsewhere, there were about as many more. The Church Missionary and other societies followed the example, under the encouragement of the good Bishop Heber and Lady Amherst, down to the time of the great Marquis of Dalhousie, just before the mutmy of 1857. Since the administrative reforms and the Queen's proclamation of toleration and personal encouragement of native female education and medical aid, which followed the mutiny, Hannah Marshman's pioneering self. sacrifice and wisdom have borne richer and more plentiful fruit than even her faith dared to hope. Since 1847 her dust has lain in the sacred enclosUl.:e of the mission cemetery at Serampore beside that of her husband and Carey and Ward and a child of the J udsons. But the India she knew is being changed, and will be transformed by the principles she was the first to set in motion for the redemption of its daughters, without whose evangelization the East can be neither civilized nor Christian. As she was the first, was not Hannah Marshman also one of the greatest of woman missionaries 1 CHRISTIAN EDUcATION IN CHINA.
BY REV. G. S. MINER, FOOCROW, CHINA.
The advantages of a Christian education are fully realized only by those who have lived where this blessing is unknown. The sights and sounds of a heathen land cause the recent arrival to shudder and recoil. Rev. Yung King Yen, A. M., for twenty years in the Chinese missionary work in Shanghai, said in Exeter Hall, London: "I feel convinced that God bas chosen the English-speaking race as His servants in saving the world. A great change has come over China in the feeling both of the people and the government, and missionaries are now free to go to every part in the empire except one province." I can now add that this province is on the point of being opened up. Oh, what opportunities this affords! One fourth of the people of the globe are welcoming missionaries to their houses and asking to be taught the" new doctrine. " What a thought! Dr. A. B. Leonard, one of our honored missionary secretaries, after his recent visit to this empire, said: "China as a nation has stood for forty centuries and witnessed the birth of every other nation on the surface of the globe. Break down paganism in China, and you break down heathenism in the entire world." Can you, my reader, grasp this sublime truth? Verily, Satan's stronghold is this old, aristocratic, lit- erary, and bigoted empire; but he is losing his grip. Tho the idol pro- cessions and ancestral worship continue, the universal interest therein is waning. The masses frequently manifest disbelief in and often contempt for this form of religion" That a large per cent of these 360,000,000 human beings distrust their idols and are seeking something to satisfy the soul is apparent. Often is the Macedonian cry now heard by the mis- sionary, and it is echoing round the world. If the Church could but hear the pleas that come to us for preachers, teachers, and schools, she would not wonder that our hearts often ache. It is not so much the work he does, as the opportunities he sees lost forever that kills the missionary. Dr. N. Sites and daughter, going to Ming-Chiang district to establish boarding-schools, were met by committees from different cities each urging their claim, and some even offeriug buildings, free for years, if they could only obtain a school. Rev. M. C. Wilcox, of the Ku-cheng .and long-Bing districts, for lack of means, at first hesitated to enlarge his work, but the invitations were so strong and openings so promising, that he went forward, and the Lord is honoring his faith. Rev. W. N. Brewster, of the Bon-Ding and Sieng-In districts, has appointed workers, trusting the Lord for their support, until his supply of men is nearly exhausted. Rev. N. J. Plumb for a time mourned over the needs of Hok-chiang and Hai-Dang districts, but is now rejoicing in a harvest of souls. Dr. J. H. Worley, of the Foochow district, has every available man in the field, and during this summer vacation has sent the theological students to assist the pastors, and a larger ingathering than ever before is being realized. The doctor also has two men traveling with a maglC lantern, who are accomplishing a grand work. One evening, by invitation, I gave an exhibition in a temple near one of my day schools. Standing within six feet of the idols, I threw upon the screen the views of the life and miracles of Christ. Hundreds listened with pleasure and astonishment. The next day three of the leading literary men of the ward called to pat their respects, and invited me to visit their houses so their women might see and learn of the doctrine. This was a special mark of politeness and interest. We are now buying and :Renting temples and ancestral halls for church purposes. Many of our best meetings are being held in heathen temples, the minister standing before idols that have been worshiped for generations.
Educational work in a foreign field does not merely include the work of the school-room, but has a religious feature as well, because many of our converts are unable to read, and their knowledge is so limited that we are obliged to begin with first principles. However, I shall now speak only of school work proper within the Foochow Conference. This conference has an a·rea equal to the States of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, a population of about 17,000,000, or over 300 to the square mIle. Four or five missions are working In this territory, but all make only a drop In the bucket; but the number of pupils in attendance at our various schools is as follows: The Anglo College, 133; the two theological schools, 62; the three girls' boardIng-schools and hIgh class seminary, 166; the six boys' boardmg-schools, 183; the five women's schools, 122; the 122 boys' day schools, 2356 j and the 63 girls' day schools, 926. In many of these schools, especIally those of a higher grade, the larger per cent of the pupils are Christians. Thus yon see we have gathered an army of 3948 students, but might have many more would our accommodatlOns permit. But wait; from the roof of my house I can see the houses of nearly 2,000,000 people. Out of this vast number we have gathered less than 1000 pupils. From the north end of the noted bridge of "ten thousand ages," whICh spans the Min River, I can walk west forty mmutes, east forty mInutes, through sohdly built streets, and among all these multitudes we have not even a place for street preaching. WithIn the city proper, WhICh is eleven miles in circumference. we have but one church with less than forty memberl'!, three day schools, and a Voman's Foreign Missionary Society hospital. Do you wonder that we ask, " Who is sufficient for these things~" Had we the means, in less than eight months we could establish a hundred day schools among this people, with 3000 pupils, and in each school-room we could hold a Sunday-school and have street preaching services. Last year I wrote a few letters, stating that $50 would for one year support a day school, Snnday-school, and weekly preaching services. In response I have received contributions sufficient to open sixteen day schools with flourishing Sunday-schools and preaching services. At the end of the second quarter, 527 pupils in these day schools passed the examinations. I do praise the Lord for this answer to prayer. * * Knowing that the misaionary society (Methodist Episcopal, North) could not grant even enough to support the work already in hand, we tbought best, at our estimate meeting July, 1895, not to ask for money to support these six teen schools, believing tbat as God had raised up friends in the past, so He would in the future. These sehouls are faithfully superintended, examined quarterly by a competent committee, and a detailed record of every pupil kept. Now what shall we do for these 527 boys and girls? What for the hundreds of others who are anxious to secure the advan.
tages of a Christian education? One dollar will support a student for a year. Forty dollars will at the present rate of exchange sl1pport a day .chool, Sunday-school, and weekly preaching ser.
vices one year. Who will contribute? Mr. Cbarles M. Grace, of Pittsburg, Pa., who now sus- tains three schools, writes that he intends to continue their snpport until such time as tbe missionary society can c~re for them or they become oelf-support'n!1;. What a profitahle invest mt:nt for a young man? At present I only ask for pledges of money, one half to be paid January lot, 1896, and half the following June. Any person or persons pledging $40 to be paid. as ahove iudicated. cau name the school, will receive a detailed quarterly report in Chinese and English, and with the third report I will send a photograph of school and teacher, a Chinese letter, with translation, from the teacher, giving a short account of hlB life and Christian experionce and an idol that has been worshiped. For $20 I will send the quarterly report., and a photograph of the school the money helps to support. Smaller sums will be thankfully received and dUlyacknowl- edged. Now please do not draw a long breath "nd throw this aside without a prayer for these heatheu childreu. .. GIve and it shall be given unto you." Seud pledges to me direct, and money to Dr. A B Leonard, 150 Fifth Avenue~ New York, requesting it to be forwarded to me to support a day school. G. S. M.
AN INTERESTING CONVERSION
* AN INTERESTING CONVERSION.
The following story is told by Miss Lowe of one who went into St. James's Hall, London, to look at the roof, and who found everlasting life.
" On April 29th, 1860, a widow lady, aged about thirty, entered St. James's Hall half an hour before the time appointed for the evening meet- ing. Her wish was to look at the roof, which she had heard resembled that of some building in Pisa. Her whole family were Romanists, and she herself desired to attain the highest pitch of sanctity; and for this purpose, according to her own account, accused herself sometimes to her confessor of faults of which she had not been guilty, in order to go through more severe penances, and thereby obtain a higher degree of merit. She never spoke to a Protestant unless from necessity or with a view to their conversion; and by means of presents to the sick, and especially to poor women in their confinements, she had persuaded many to put their names on the priest's lists. After her husband's death she desired to enter a convent, but some delay in the settlement of her property intervened. The confessor gave her liberty to spend a fortnight just as she pleased. The pleasures of this world had long been, she said, as a bunch of withered flowers to her; but she had a strong desire to see the roof of St. James's Hall. She considered herself too strictly bound by conventual rules (altho not yet an inmate of a convent) to enter the building on any night of worldly amusement, therefore she chose the Lord's day evening, hoping to enter and leave the building before the congregation fully assembled. It was about the time when the Lord was answering many prayers for an outpouring of the Spirit, and the eagerness to hear the Word of God was shown by the crowds that filled the hall as soon as the doors were opened. Women with children in their arms bore the fatigue of standing during the whole service; every seat and corner were occupied; and Mrs. W–, finding it impossible to make her way out, most unwillingly sat down, not intending to hear a word.
" Vhile the hymns were sung she gazed on the crowds, and pictured to herself their unhappy souls, with the flames rolling over them; but when. the preacher, Reginald Radcliffe, spoke of the possibility of any poor outcast entering the hall, and that altho sunk in the depths of sin he might, if he believed the Word, leave that hall a child of God, a voice 'Seemed to say within her, 'This is the truth-truth, whether you will believe it or not.' She felt, ' Oh, what a sin it is for me, a Catholic, to listen to those words!' and contrived to push her way out, she knelv not how, and found herself in Piccadilly. Then she felt she must go back again to hear more; and she did, and remained till the preaching was over.
" Many anxious souls remained behind. I cannot call them inquirers, for they were too deeply burdened to speak or lift their heads; 'the slain of the Lord were many.' One who sat next to 1Irs. V– during the service heard her say, ' I never heard anything like this before; and he seems so sure of what he says.' When Mr. Radcliffe spoke to her, she said, ' How did you come to know so much about Jesus as you do q' He said, ' Are you a Unitarian?' She said, ' I am a Catholic, and you have made me miserable; but I must hear more.'
" Mr. Radcliffe called me to come to a Roman Catholic lady in great * From .. Recollections of Reginald Radcliffe," pp. 131-36. distress. I followed him, but she was gone. For the third time she had left the hall, but he had taken her address. Her own confession was , that all she had hitherto trusted had broken down, and left her without hope or resting-place.' The next day Mr. Radcliffe went to see her, accompanied by Mrs. Crocker, a member of Mr. Baptist Noel's congregation. Her home was in the immediate vicinity of the Oratory at Brompton, as she attended every service there. Mr. Radcliffe took her a Bible, and she said she had often wished to possess one, but her confessor had told her that tho it was right for her t() wish for one, it would be a meritorious act of self-denial to consen1; to be without one. She gave up to Mrs. Crocker two little cups that had been bJessed by the Pope. She asked Mr. Radcliffe if he were on his death-bed would he be content to pass away without one prayer to the Virgin and the saints. It seemed to her blasphemy to address the Lord Himself. Hours were spent in answering her questions, and when they left she sent for a carpenter, and took down the crucifix: which had been in her little private oratory, and had it buried in the garden, and her altar removed with all its belongings. On that evening a Sister of Mercy arrived, intending to stay the night; but when she heard of the change that had taken place, she left at once, saying she feared the house would come down. The following day she sent for her confessor, to tell him all that had been brought to pass. He did not attempt to argue with her-he saw the work was too real and thorough ; but he said in deep bitterness, 'Oh, let them gather in their outcasts and their prostitutes, but not such as you.' In repeating this to Lady Rowley, she said, 'Oh, if I can but enter heaven with the publicans and harlots, that is enough for me! I have been all my life building a gigantic self to stand between my soul and Christ.'
"Her confessor told her he would have a service performed in the chapel of the Oratory for the loss of a soul. It has before been mentioned that her house was in the immediate vicinity, and accordingly she was able to see when the chapel was lighted up in the evening, and when in an instant all the lights were suddenly extinguished, to show that her soul was lost in the blackness of darkness forever.
" There were dear friends of hers at Brighton, members of a sisterhood. She longed to tell them her new-found peace and joy in believing, but as soon as she made known to them the object of her visit, they refused to hear, and she entered the train on her return to London feeling much cast down. On opening the precious Bible, her constant companion, her eyes lighted on the words, ' It is written,' spoken by the Lord to the tempter. These words were thenceforth a tower of strength to her. If one could only point out to her concerning any difficulty IT IS WRIT- TEN, she never questioned again. It was Lady Rowley'S privilege thus to lead her to receive the communion in a Protestant place of worship, pointing out to her that the wine in the cup was called, ' the fruit of the vine,' by the Lord Himself.
" A time of trial was now near. Her uncle on the mother's side, one whom her mother had charged her always to respect and obey, came up to town furious at her apostasy, and said he would rat.her see her drowned in the Serpentine or hanged on the highest tree in Kensington Gardens than see her what she was, and that he would have her put in a lunatic asylum. For this object he went to consult Dr. Forbes Winslow, but through the Lord's mercy this well-known physician had just been led to living faith in the Lord, and, of course, declined the case. She said herself that she felt quite indifferent as to where she was placed i that she had her Bible, and that she had learnt for the first time that she might ask for the Holy Spirit to teach her, and she needed no more. .
" Her uncle was now laid by with severe Illness in her house. She nursed him carefnlly, but was sorely harassed by the visits of her confessor, and fearing that her precious Bible might be taken from her, she hid it carefully away, and carried a pocket Testament. But this did not escape; it was taken from her and burnt. Her uncle desired her to fetch some relics on which he placed value, and declared they would help forward his recovery; but this she refused to do. He sent for the abbess of some convent to fulfil his wishes in this respect, and then a carriage was ordered, and Mrs. VV– was asked to accompany her uncle and the abbess for a drive.
" Mr. Radcliffe was at that time again in London, and a very severe attack had been made on him by one of the so-called religious papers. He had come in to tea at Lady Rowley's in Hyde Park Square, on his way to preach at an evening meeting, when suddenly Mrs. W– appeared in much excitement, and said to him, 'Oh, go, preach, preach everywhere the living God.' When he was gone she explained that her uncle and the abbess had taken hcr to a convent chapel, where all was prepared for a solemn service for the restoration of a wandering soul. She had broken away from them, and had fled for comfort to Lady Rowley.
" The language of her confessor had been so violent that she had forbidden him to enter her house. Soon after this he was chosen to take some offerings from Ireland to the Pope. On his return he Srlddenly appeared at her door, and without waiting for permission, entered the room and held out his hand; then asked her if she had given up her damnable heresies. She answered that she would not hear his violent language in her house, but that she did wish to speak to him, and would meet him for conversation in Westminster Abbey. She noticed his wasted and haggard looks, and said to him that he looked as if he had just recovered from typhus fever. He showed her his wrists, which were scarified, and told her his back was in the same state, and his digestion ruined through the penances he had undergone for her sake.
" They met in the Abbey, and followed two parties in their rounds, speaking, as she told me, of every doctrine and practice from which she now shrank in the Church of Rome. Finally she said, 'They are the Lord's own word, "It is finished," and dare you add anythiug to the finished work of Christ ~ , He said, '"lvVoman, will you leave me! Your heresies have shaken my faith.' He was much agitated, and as they approached the door of the Abbey, she said, ' I will have no leave-taking, but these are my last words to you, Pray day and night, " Lord Jesus, give me Thy Holy Spirit, to lead me into all truth !" , and she added, in telling me this, • I could not have spoken more solemnly if I had known that I was not to see him again till the Day of Judgment.'
" A week after she was summoned to the Oratory to see him in his coffin. Reproaches were, of course, showered on her as the cause of his death, and there appeared little hope of her ever knowing the state of his soul in departing.
"Nearly two years afterward Admiral Fishbourne was preaching at Leamington, and mentioned in his address the case of a Roman Catholic lady who had in her own words' gone into St. James's Hall to look at the roof, and found everlasting life.' The next day a stranger called to see him, and said, 'Sir, I was in the hall when you spoke of a Roman
NOTES FROM 'fifE DIARY OF A MEDICAL MISSIONARY
Catholic lady. I know more about her than you do, and I know about her confessor, too, and that he died renouncing every error of the Roman Cat.holic Church.' He went on to say that he had been a Roman Catholtc himself; that he was employed as cook in the convent of the Oratory; that as the confessor's faith in the Church of Rome was so shaken, the other priests were not allowed to come near his death-bed, bnt he (the cook) was appointed to attend on him; and that which he witnessed at his death-bed and that of other priests had led him to come out of the Church of Rome. He expressed great anxiety that the whole story shOUld be printed as an encouragement to others."
NOTES FROM THE DIARY OF A MEDICAL MISSIONARY.
BY MARY PIERSON EDDY, M.D., BEIRUT, SYRIA.
The life of a medical missionary presents many varied and interesting phases. The first week of stay in a village is pretty well occnpled with tending to patients, still one can take time to return the salaams of one who comes to pay merely a formal visit. But the next week the patients swarm ill from all the neighboring villages, and If the stay is prolonged over a fortnight, patients travel three, four, and five days' journey for consultation ; they encamp on walls, steps, porch, and roof, so that you are a prisoner in your own house. It is necessary to move on to other places, but it is heart-rending to leave such numbers needing help behind.
One of the last days of my stay in Keffeir, a village on the slope of Mount Hermon, a poor leper came from a distant village, and hearing that I would receive no new patients before leaVing, was in despair. He saw the throng at the door, and knew that waiting would be of no avail. He was the local versifier or poet improvisator of his district, so he went to the teacher in the place and said, "Get pen and ink qnickly." The teacher did so. ,. Now," he said, " paper, for I'm in haste." He then improvised a poem in Arabic, a really remarkable production, in which he first extolled my skill and wisdom, then draws on hiS imagination regarding 3 conversation in which my father tells me in starting out upon my life work to regard the poor, the weakest, the most needy. He then relates his case and describes the long years of his misery, and point by point makes his case to resemble those for whom my father desired me especially to labor. The poem ends with the full name and home address of the poet patient. Armed with this precious document and a long reed, he painfully toils up the hill once more. The tip of the reed is slit, the fluttering document is slipped into it and hoisted to the Window. I was operating at the time. but one of my assistants was attracted by the paper and the hubbub under the casement, and finally the poor fellow was allowcd to enter.
One learns something in such a life of how Christ needed to go apart for rest and prayer. Sometimes after a meal I could not get across the hall to my own room for a few moments' rest before resuming work. I would be obliged to go outside of the house, climb over two roofs, let myself down on to some steps, and enter my room through the wmdow.
The evening gatherings in every place are largely attended, from 60 to 300 persons usually coming together. We choose a large house, but usually have to adjourn first to the front steps, then to the porch, front
THE JEWS RETURNING TO PALESTINE
yard, the village winepress, or the village church, as our numbers nightly increase. One night, when our congregation had been densely packed in the hall, we lifted a corner of the rug to close the door, and saw an immellse scorpion ill hiding there. What a providence' that no one hail been bltt<m! At another meeting, held in the cool evening breeze on Hermon, the graybeard of the village was present, and another of the audience was a baby boy eighteen days old! At another time tIle village priest was making us a call, and a fine young fellow who had bought .24 mules to take down to Egypt to sell came in to receive a parting blessing to ensure quick and profitable sales.
All my other traveling experiences are as nothing compared to crossing unknown rivers at uncertain fords. Usually in August the largest rivers are fordable, but high up in the mountains an earthquake caused a landslide last summer which demolished several houses and killed several villagers. In t he early spring even the smallest streams are swollen with rapidly melted snow, and my assistant, who braves everything on land, often stands appalled at the brink where the flood rolls swiftly before her over the large, smooth, treacherous stones of the brook.
Sometimes I am obliged to hold my clinics in the village church, and it cannot be very reassuring to the patients to recount their ills and ail- . ments whlle the village bier affords them a temporary seat [ During the evening meeting in one of my stopping-places, the bier was the favorite seat of the smallest children, who were lost in the crowds on the crowded church floor.
'fhe fierce, warlike Ansairy people have recently for the first time furnished me patients, and I am hoping on my next trip to visit one of their villages if the country is safe enough. I am leaving home this week for a trip northward, and expect to visit a tribe of 'furcomans who have been encamping in the plain of the Bukaa; they are clothed in sheepskins, men and women.* THE JEWS RETURNING TO PALESTINE. t BY R. SCOTT MONCRIEFF.
One of the signs of the times which seems to me of peculiar significance, tho the wisdom of this world takes no notice of it, is the very remarkable increase which the last few years have seen in the Jewish population of Palestine, and the extent to which they are found in towns " building the old wastes, raising up the former desolations. repairing the waste cities, the desolations of many generations" (Isa. 41 : 4). and in the country "building houses and inhabiting them, planting vineyards, and eating the fruit of them" (Isa. 66 : 21).
Fifteen years ago the Jewish popUlation of that country was believed not to exceed 40,000, of which not more than 20,000 were thought to reside in Jerusalem. Now that of Palestine is reckoned at 80,000 to 100,000, and that of Jerusalem and its suburbs at 35,000 to 40,000 at the very lowest, out of a total population of 60,000.
Fifteen years ago that city was strictly walled, and its gates were shut daily at sunset and never opened until sunrise. Outside the walls there were extensive wastes of unoccupied Jands, the value of which was little * Dr. Eddy's address during the winter will be Beirut, Syria. Anyone desiring fuller mimeograph reports of her medical work among the villages may address her there. t A letter to the London Bapti8t. _ more than nominal, and comparatively very few houses were to be found in the suburbs. Inside the walls also there were many waste places where houses had stood at one time, the ruins of which were to be found everywhere under the surface.
Now most of these waste places within the walls are covered with new houses, and in the suburbs the lands formerly unoccupied are covered in some places with streets, and in others with large buildings, houses, and gardens, to an extent exceeding double the area of the city within the walls, which is less than 300 acres. So great is the demand, moreover, for land suitable for building sites, that it is not to be obtained unless at priees probably unheard of in the past history of the city. In this we have a literal fulfilment of the prophecy of Zachariah (2 : 4), "Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and of cattle," and it is an interesting fact that during the last seven years the gates have been" open continually j they are not shp1 day or night" (Isa. 60: 11).
This material growth and expansion of the cit, dates from 1882, when many hundreds of Jews, driven out of Russia by persecution, ·took refuge in Palestine j and as succeeding years brought them in thousands, and Jerusalem was the goal which all labored to reach in the first place, the demand for accommodation so greatly exceeded the available supply that this led to the suburban extension of the city which I have so briefly described.
Since 1893 the immigration of Jews into Palestine, which had been wholly unrestricted up to that time, has been prohibited by the Turkish Government, but they continue to find their way into the land, I am told, tho in smaller numbers, and houses continue to be built at Jerusalem. But this repeopling of former desolations has not been confined to that city j it has been accomplished to a very great extent at Jaffa (the ancient Joppa), and in a small degree at Hebron, Tiberias, and other small towns.
Nor in towns only j transformations equally noteworthy have been effected at many places in country districts, where large tracts of land, which were wholly waste fifteen years ago, have been reclaimed; and are now under field and garden cultivation with extensive vineyards. This is ot due to the enterprise Baron Edmund Rothschild, who was the first to plant, in 1882, an agricultural colony for Jews in Palestine, and has estab- lished several others since then. His example has been followed by other wealthy Jews, and now there are eighteen such settlements scattered throughout Judea and Galilee. I have details as to the acreage of fifteen of these, with 1he number of houses at each, and the kinds of cultiv&tion practised by the people. In 1892 I visited eight of them, and found at each a large and well-kept village, with its synagogue and school j at five out of seven, known as Rothschild's colonies, I found dispensaries, and at two of them I found duly qualified doctors, each having medical charge of several colonies, and provided by the Baron. (I may here add that he has built a large hospital for Jews at Jerusalem, maintained entirely at his own expense.) None but Jews are permitted to live at such colonies, and the cultivation is carried on by them alone, chiefly in cereal crops, but at some there are large and flourishing vineyards at which a consider- able quantity of wine is made for exportation.
The fact of so many Jewish settlements successfully carried on in ·f- cQuntry districts is the more remarkable and interesting when it is remem- bered that, fifteen years ago, such a thing as a wholly Jewish village was unknown in Palestine, and very few .Tews-if indeed any-were to be found living outside of the towns and engaged in agricultural pursuits.
The total acreage possessed by the fifteen colonies referred to above I find to have been 27,000, but I do not suppose that more than 5000 acres of these were under cultivation in 1892. 1 learned at that time that immense tracts of uncultivated lands in Gilead, east of the Jordan, com- prising many hundreds of thousands of acres, had been purchased, partly by Baron Rothschild, and parUy by the well-known and noble Jewish society called Chovevi Zion (" Lovers of Zion"), with the object of settling Jewish colonies there; but I am informed that as yet no progress whatever has been made in carrying out their views, owing to the prohibition by the Sultan of immigration by Jews into Palestine.
The facts stated above incontestably prove the beginning of a return of the Jews to the Holy Land, and the strong desire on the part of very many of the most influential men of their race to promote and facilitate the movement to the utmost of their power, a movement wholly unprece- dented and unknown in the history of their race since their return from the captivity in Babylon two thousand four hundred years ago, as narrated in the Book of Ezra.
At that time, he informs us, "the whole congregation together was forty and two thousand three hundred and three score, besides their ser- vants and their maids, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred and thirty-seven" (Ezra 2 : 64), in all nearly fifty thousand souls, and it is probable that fully as many hal'e returned to Palestine within the last fifteen years.
And it ought to be known that it is not from Eastern and Central Europe alone that these people have returned and in their thousands. When I arrived at Jerusalem in 1891, I found a large colony of Jews recently arrivecl from Yemen in Arabia, calling themselves of the tribe of Gad, settled in houses and around a synagogue which they had built for themselves, and that there were many thousands of Jews from Morocco in the city, whose numbers were being continually increased by fresh arrivals of small parties. In 1892 a large troop arrived from Persia, refugees from cruel persecution there, and on my second visit, in 1894, I found a new and large settlement of Jews from Bokhara, in Central Asia, dwelling in substantial houses, which they had built for themselves in the northern suburb of Jerusalem. It seemed as if the command had already been heard iu distant lands: "I will say to the north give up, and to the south keep not back, bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth" (Isa. 43 : 6).
That this is even the beginning of the great return promised in the Word of God I do not say; but I am unable to regard it otherwise than as an advanced guard sent by Him to occupy posts in the land, that land which He has kept for a chosen race whom lie has kept for it, and whom He will certainly bring into it in His own time; and it seems to me as if, in this movement of the people, He is loudly proclaiming to the world, " Hear the Word of the Lord, 0 ye nations, and declare it in the isles that are afar off. I-Ie that scattered Israel will gather him."
If recent years have seen in a remarkable degree a literal fulfilment of promises as to restoration of Jews to their own land, they have also seen t~ an extent wholl~ unknown before, hundreds of them seeking a spiritual ZIOn at the teachmg of the Holy Spirit, in obedience to the entreaty, "Turn, 0 backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I am married unto you; for I will take you one of a city and two of a family, and I will bring you to. Zion" (Jer. 3 : 14). Never before in their history have so many of theIr race been found as at present, "to ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Corne and let us join ourselves unto the Lord ~n a perpetual covenant" (Jer. 50 : 5).
Surely this question, studied in both of the aspects, referred to above is worthy of the closest attention of thinking men, and especially of be- lievers. But alas! it is not only the wise men of this world who are in- different to it ; they are little more so, it is to be feared, than the vast majority of profesing Christians, and even of those who are believers in our land; and yet who should take a deeper interes~ in the restoration of the seed of Abraham according to the flesh than those who, "as ChrIst's, are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" ~ (Gal. 3 : 29). It is in the hope of stirring up to their duty in this matter those believers who admit their indifference to it, and care not to be aroused out of it, that I write this letter.
Have they any warrant in Scripture for such indifference ~ Surely they cannot suppose that the Lord is indifferent to it. There is a very solemn warning in His Word to men of the world who hold aloof from doing good to Israel. He says, "I am jealous for Jerusalem with a great jealousy, and I am very sore displeased with the heatheu that are at ease, for I WII:S but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction" (Zech. 1 : 15). But more solemn still are these words to His own people, " Woe unto tltern that are at ease in Zion, but are not grieved for tlte ajJlictions of Joseph" (Amos 6 : 9). How very many there al"eamong us who are at ease in their church Zion, but who in their utter indifference to God's chosen race practically say of it, " Am I my brother's keeper~" Was such the spirit of our Lord toward the race of Israel ~ How very many believers there are who daily wait on the Lord in prayer for blessings desired by them, and yet care not for the special blessing promised in the words spoken to Abraham, " I will bless them that bless thee," and in those nttered by the Psalmist, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee" (Ps. 122 : 6).
How very strange, too, that this indifference prevails very largely among believers who are deeply interested, if not actually engaged in, missionary efforts for the salvation of Gentiles at home and abroad, as if their Bibles. did not contain the ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters of the Epistle to the Romans; as if they had never heard these words of the writer of it, concerning Israel, " Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness" (Rom. 11 : 12), and these, " For as in times past ye have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief, even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy" (Rom. 11 : 30, 31 ).-The London Baptist.
THE JEWS IN PALESTINE AND SYRIA.
BY REV. JAMES M. GRAY, D.D., BOSTON.
This article is a modest attempt at a rejoinder to one on the same theme, contributed by Dr. Jessup in the December (1895) number of the REVIEW. Dr. Jessup does not believe that the Jews are ultimately to return to the land of their fathers, and restore their ancient kingdom, and rebuild their temple. He argues against it on the ground of the small number of Jews now in Palestine and Syria (only about 70,000 in all, he says), and the fact that Jewish migration is westward rather than eastward. The re- turn of the Jews is frequently spoken of in Scripture, but this he refers to a spiritual return to Christ. The marvelous prophecy in Ezekiel 40-48, means the future glories of the Church. A literal fulfilment would be, in his judgment, physically impossible without the most stupendous miracle ever performed. If the future of 1he Jew is material, then we are bound to say that the Messiah was an earthly king, and that He has never come.
Our du1y to the Jew is simply to win him to Christ, and to this end he recommends that young ministers and evangelists be trained to familiarity with the Messianic prophecies, that they may thus meet the sincere diffi- culties of the Jews and the specious objections of the caviller.
I would begin my reply with a cordial recognition of the timeliness and wisdom of this last remark, except that I would exlend i1s application not only to young ministers and evangelists, but even to theologians of mature minds and occupying high stations. There is a deplorable lack of acquaintance with the prophetic portions of both the Old and New Testa- ments, throughout the whole Church. My own experience in working among the Jews, for example, is to the effect that both their sincere diffi- culties, and their specious objections, are best met by the very opposite view of prophecy to that entertained by my distinguished brother. And in this I am sustained by the experience and testimony of some of the / most successful and honored workers among the Jews both in this country and Europe, one or two of whom are favorably mentioned by Dr. Jessup in his article.
In the second place, I would respectfully submit to the doctor, and any who may be troubled by the matter, that the present number of Jews in Palestine and Syria, and their migratory trend toward the West, have prac- tically but little bearing on the question. Less than 50,000, returned with Zerubbabel after the Babylonian Captivity, but these were enough to fulfil the prediction of that return and ultimately re-people the whole land.
The migratory trend of the Jews in that day was in other directions than Palestine, but God found a way to bring them there for all that, and it is conceivable that He may do it again. '
In the third place, there is nothing impossible with God, and the literal fulfilment of prophecies yet to take place in the history of the Jews is no more stupendous a miracle than the preservation of that people, dis- tinct from every other, for the past eighteen hundred years. Even the philosopher Hegel, the greatest intellect that ever appeared among men, as some think, could account for everything, and find a place for it in his theory of. the universe, except the Jew. What to do with him he knew not. He was the most supernatural thing that came under the survey of his capacious mind. There is good reason to believe that Hegel would not have expressed the surprise of some accredited students of God's Word, to be told that that people were ultimately to be restored to their own land, to be reigned over by their Messiah, and to be the center of all the governments of the earth. To say that Jesus is to be an earthly king, is only to say what the Scriptures say, and what He himself said. It was thus He came the first time had He been received by His people, and it is thus He will come a second time, when every eye shall see Him and they also which pierced Him.
That the Jews are to be restored to Christ spiritually there Can be no manner of doubt, but the promises which point to this are no more numer-
THE AMERICAN MISSION IN EGYPT
ous or explicit, nor as much so, as those which point to their restoration to the land. The two classes of promises are inseparable, and it would appear to violate accepted principles of biblical interpretation to apply the one literally and the other figuratively, or not at all.
Dr. Jessup is doubtless aware that the sober jOUllnalism of our day is giving serious attention to this subject of the re-peopling of Palestine by the Jews, and this as a means, and perhaps the only means, of settling the Eastern Question. I have no reference in this to Editor Stead's fanciful picture of the coronation'of Lord Rosebery as king in Jerusalem, but we cannot so well afford to overlook the article on "The Solution of "Tar," from the pen of Dr. H. P. Mendes, in the North American Review. The solution of war in the estimation of this essayist involves, among other things, and chiefly, an international court of arbitration. This court must be above suspicion, it must be removed from all bias of a political character, and it must have a moral and, if need be, physical power behind it to enforce its decisions. There is only one power, so he believes, which could fulfil these requirements, and that power is the Hebrew nation restored to Palestine, erected into a neutral State by the Powers, and its boundaries prescribed by the Bible limitations (Gen. 15 : 18-21 ; Deut. 11 : 24). This would remove it from the snare of political intrigue for its own aggrandizement.
The other practical results of this plan would be (1), the removal of jealousies-political, racial, and religious-now raging in Europe around the Jew and the possession of Palestine j (2), the opening up of a vast commerce between the four great continents of which that land is the converging point, and for which the Hebrews are peculiarly qualified by their genius and experience j and (3), the fulfilment of the Bible prophecies that when" out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem," then" nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."
The limitations of this article forbid the presentation of biblical proof for the foregoing to any great extent, but should it be called for, there would be little difficulty in producing it.
THE AMERICAN MISSION IN EGYPT.* UNDER THE DIREOTION OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF NORTH AMERICA.
Two Egypts present themselves to the eyes of the thoughtful traveler in this land: a dead Egypt, with its noble ruins of the past, and a living Egypt, with its teeming millions of population and its rising civilization.
It is upon this latter, the living Egypt, that the American mission is expending its labors j and it is with the hope that others also may become interested in this grand enterprise of uplifting the people of this country and establishing them upon the firm foundation of Gospel civilization, that the following report of our work is laid before you.
Evangelistic Worlc.-The whole of the evangelistic work is under the care of the native Church of Egypt, which has divided the field into six • An ontline of the condition of the work at the close of the year 1895. divisions, each to be superintended by a committee consisting of three ministers and two elders. These divisions have been subdivided into 47 evangelistic.districts, in addition to the 22 pastorates. To each of these districts, as far as possible, at least one worker has been appointed.
In the Delta, for the past forty years, the seed has heen continuously sown by missionaries and native workers. At present missionaries are stationed in each of the principal cities. The smaller places are regularly visited by the missionaries themselves, by colporteurs and evangelists, and the number of schools in the towns and villages is constantly increasing.
Besides the colporteurs (which are 12 in number) there are now 32 regular native workers there, and their number is increasing each year. There are now 37 stations in the DeJta, as many as there were in all Egypt in 1877, only eighteen years ago. Moreover, in Lower Egypt, including Cairo, there are also 46 schools, with an enrollment of ] 599 pupils.
In the upper country the districts are well supplied with workers, and the work is in a most flourishing condition. However, in the opening up of new fields more or less opposition is always encountered even here.
During the past year, in a town of some 3000 inhabitants, the opponents of the Gospel threatened to kill the evangelist who was conducting the work. The government authorities were call(;'d in for protection, and since then the work has gone on successfnlly. When the missionaries visited the station, the excitement over the preaching of the Gospel was intense, and over 200 men attended the service which they cond,ucted.
In spite of such opposition, however, the work is spreading from place to place, as the following statistics will show : 1885. 1895.
Number of organized congregations .•.•.•..••.• , •••• 23 37 Number of other preaching stations ……………•• 47 153 Ordained missionaries ….. . 9 16 J',n' Staff of f orel·gn workers Medical fmm"isIsSiSoInOanrayrI..e.s•.•• . • •• 1 1 IV Ives 0 • •. 9 15 LUnmarried lady missionaries. 6 9 Number of ordained native pastors……••••.••.•• , . 8 22 Number of other workers under care of presbytery …• 23 41 Average attendance at Sabbath morning services ••••.• 3296 9729 Number of communicants .•..••••…•••.•.•••.•••. 1842 5004 Contributions by native church for religious purposes .. $4993 *$13,552 Sabbath-School Work.-The mission has 125 Sabbath-schools, with an average attendance in the year 1895 of 6622 pupils. Thirty-eight hundred copies of Lesson Leaves in Arabic on the International Sunday-School Lessons were distributed weekly during the year among the pupils of these schools.
Educational Work.-Our educational work is carried on through the agency of 161 schools, 136 of which are for boys, and 25 of which are for girls. The total numb.r of teachers other than missionaries employed in these schools is 254, and the number of pupils enrolled during the year was 10,871, an increase over the previous year of 2896. Of this total enrollment 8292 were boys, 2579 were girls. During the past decade the sehools have more than doubled in number, while the number of pupils has increased over 100 per cent. Mohammedan pupils make up over 20 per cent of the entire number.
• An increase of $2899 over the contributions of the previous year. Chief among the educational institutions stands the Mission Training College at Asyut. In 1865 this school was started amid much opposition, the only room that could be procured being a donkey stable, the donkeys at one end of the room, the boys at the other. To-day the college occu- pies substantial buildings in the suburbs of the city, with an enrollment of 420 students. '
The importance of the Mission Training College to the general work of the native Church of Egypt can scm·cely be overestimated, as a glance at the following fact..<1 may indicate: 1. It is the source of supply for pastors for the native congregations which are every year in increasing numbers being organized under the fostering care of the mission and native church. Out of the present total number of 22 native pastors, 19 have come from ihis college. In addi- tion to these ordained pastors, there are 19 licentiates, all but one of whom have been educated at the Training School.
2. It is the training school for teachers of the boys' schools all over the land, 137 out of the 1,otal number of 196 male teachers having received their education there. These schools are not merely educational in their aim, but nearly everyone of them forms a nucleus from which eventually a congregation grows. The teachers are really" preacher-teachers." Five or six evenings in each week his desk is a pulpit j thl1 Bible, Scripture history, and the Catechism are taught daily in the schools, and on the Sabbath church services and Sabbath-school meet in the school-room, the teacher often presiding over both. It will thus be seen what an impor- tant evangelistic agency these schools are, and what an important work is that of properly training these" preacher.teachers. " Without the Mis- sion Training College, the educational work as well as the pastoral work of the native church would be greatly weakened, if not rendered impos- sible.
3. In addition to the above-mentioned facts, the Mission Training Col- lege is constantly sending out trained Christian young men into the service of their country, both as governmcnt employees and as business men.
The theological seminary is situated in Cairo. By a three years'
course of special training for the Christian ministry built upon the rock foundation laid in the Training College, it alms to complete the education of the student and send him forth thoroughly equipped for his life work.
During the year 1895 nine students were in regular attendance upon its sessions, three of whom were graduated at the close of the term.
Closely allied in importance with the work of training a force of native preachers and educators is that of raising up a generation of educated Christian women, who shall preside over the homes of the future. For this purpose, in addition to the girls' day schools, there are two advanced boarding-schools, with a yearly enrollment of over 250. In these schools the pupils receive not only a religious and secular education, but also special training in household duties. .
Book Department.-Coordinate with the evangelistic and educational departments is the Book Department, which is carried on from eight cen- tral stations, the ~eneral depot being in Cairo. From these central stations the colporteurs, 27 in number, receive their supplies and distribute the books throughout thp.ir respective districts. From Assouan to the Mediterraneau Sea these colporteurs are at work, offering God's Word to all who will receive it, and speaking with all who will hear. They are the real pioneer evangelists in the onward march of Chlistian civilization.
The number of books sold during the year 1895 are as follows: No. of Volumes. Value.
Scriptures..•.•••• " ••.•••…••.•…. 14,079 $2,274 Other religious books. . . • . • • • . •• • . • . . .. 14.141 1,825 Educational books. . . . . • • . • . • • • . . . . . • •• 33,917 5.131 Stationery….•.•.•…..••••.•.•••••• 1,676 Total. …•..•……•.•…….•. 62,137 $10,90{i The above shows an increa:se of 12,740 volumes over the preceding year.
One of the colporteurs reports that during the latter part of the year, as the troubles In Turkey increased, he found a cooler reception than formerly in various parts of the field. A certain high Moslem officlal, who had formerly bought a book or two each month, suddenly changed en· tirely in his demeanor, even refusing to pay for some books previously purchased. Upon being pressed somewhat, he swore by the name of his God, his Prophet. and his own life that he had no money. The colporteur answered: "I release you from your vowing, only I wish that you would tell me, as a true evangelical would do, that you have no money." He replied: "You have no religion and no right to say anything about my swearing if I choose to swear." The colporteur replied: "I have a religion, and it teaches me to speak the truth without swearing by any. one in ordinary matters; but should I vow, not even a judge for a sack of wheat could release me" (a sack of wheat is sometimes given to a judge to release from a vow).
At this the man became very angry and cursed the colporteur before the men present, and rose, saying that he would have him dragged before the judge. The colporteur replied: " You may curse me a thousand times, and I will forgive you as often; and you will not drag me before the judge, for I will willingly walk with you to him." The man only said, " Ya salaam" (an exclamation of astonishment), and sat down. He then drew a sovereign from his pocket and settled his aCC(lunt. A few. weeks later the colporteur sold the same man a reference Bible, a large concordance, and the first three volumes of a commentary on the New Testament.
Many other instances might be mentioned which indicate the great ' work the colporteurs are doing in spreading the truth among the people.
Zenana Work.- The agencies used for spreading the Gospel among the women of Egypt are Bible teachers, special prayer-meetings, medical work, aud house to house visitation. This work is conducted by 49 special workers, who teach the women to read the Bible in their homes. During the year 1895 their regular pupils numbered 1772.· Pastors and missiouaries give what assistance they can to this most important branch of our wori.
Medical Work. -Our medical missionary, located at Asyfit, is doing most effective work. T~e record for the year 1895 is as follows: Number of patients treated in clinic….. . . . . . . . • . • •. 14,068 Nurn ber of surgical operations. . . . . . . . . • • • . • . . . . • . . . 115 Number of visits to homes……………………. 1,667 Tho a large majority of the patients are exceedingly poor and very many are treated gratuitously, nevertheless $2042 were collected during the year in fees.
In connection with the work two Bible readers are employed, who read
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY'S CALL TO CIlRISTENDOM
and explain the Bible to patients in the dispensary. It is here, while the sick are confined to their beds for a longer or shorter period, that those Gospel influences are brought to bear upon them which often change their lives and result in the healing of their souls.
Some months ago two Moslems came to th~ office for operations. With one man was his wife, with the other his daughter. They were in the dispensary about two months. Every day the blind Bible reader would take his Bible, go to the room and read and explam the Gospel to them. The fonr listened with great attention, and after the Bible man had read to them an hour would ask for more, declaring that they had never heard such good news. They were taught some simple Bible truths and what Christian prayer meant, and went away cured of their bodily diseases, and let us hope also with the seeds of the new life sown in their souls.
Much more might be done along this same line if larger hospital accommodations were provided. The effort is now being made to secure such, and it is sincerely hoped that the necessary means will soon be forth· coming for the consummation of these plans.
We are happy to say that the people of Egypt are giving most liberally of their means to help carryon these various Gospel agencies, ar.d that their contributions are every year increasing, indicating not only a substantial growth, but a deeper interest in the work; and the future seems bright with the promise of a self-supporting church in Egypt. Nevertheless, much-very much-yet remains to be done before this land shall have been won for Christ; new churches are to be built, new schools established; and the Gospel seed scattered yet more widely, both in the Delta, in the Nile Valley proper, and in the far south. As we look out over the white harvest fields, we are forcibly reminded of our Master's words: "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few." In the arduous task that yet remains to be accomplished, we beseech your interest and your prayers.
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY'S CALL TO CHRISTENDOM.
In the Homiletic Review we find the fact emphasized, already more than once made prominent in these pages, that the close of this year really brings to the beginning of the new century-the twentieth. And the endeavor is to arouse all Christendom to its duty in respect to the work of missions. We quote words especially addressed to the ministry : " The nineteen hundredth anniversary of Christ's birth is not, therefore, several years off, but just upon us-not further away than the close of the present year or the opening months of 1897.* " Does not Christ call us all just now by His Wrord, and by the signs of the times, to cooperate in inaugurating a movement all along t~e line for the immediate evangelization of the world?
" 1. Nineteen centuries have passed since the great commission, and the majority of mankind are still unsaved. Almost a thousand millions of our lost race perish in the life of each generatiou without the Gospel. Does not that commission throw the responsibility for all this upon the Church of Christ, and ~specially upon its leaders, the ministry ~ * See Matthew ii. 1; Josephus, " Antiquities," xvii. 9, 3 ; Andrews, "Life of Christ;" Roll- inson, .. Harmony of the Gospel•." " 2. We llave evidently reached a great crisis in the history of our race, when nothing but the universal spread and triumph of the Gospel can save the Church and the world from dire disaster. The Gospel has wrapped up in it the solution of all the i.ndustrial, financial, political, social, and moral problems of the age with which the philosophers and statesmen and philanthropists are hopelessly struggling. Is not the call a clear one, to those who have the Gospel and understand its regenerating and transforming power, to apply it speedily in making over mankind and transforming human institutions by this Divine agency.
" 3. Christ requires that we should give the Gospel to the world im- mediately. His command is 'Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.' Thal; is the plainest of commands. It means us personally. It means now, for it is in the present tense, and God has now unquestionably, for the first time in thc centuries, removed out of 1he way every obstacle to the immediate evangelization of the world and given to the Church everything needed for the completion of the work of preach- ing the Gospel to the world. The whole world is open and accessible physically, geographically, politically, to the Gospel messengers, and wait- ing for them. The Church has the means, 1he messengers, and the prom- ise of the Spirit at her command, and seems dangerously near to suffering eclipse of faith and blight of life because of her failure to avail herself of them in fulfilling her great and pressmg mission. Christ is waiting for her to move in obedience to His command. Who among her leaders will risk the responsibility of holding back or of hindering the onward move- ment He demands ~ " 4. The organizations and machinery necessary for the immediate and world-wide forward movement to victory and conquest for Christ are all ready and in working order, and need simply to be directed under the quickening breath of the Spirit of God. The agencies are all organized for reaching every class and condition of mankind. There are our general societies-Bible, tract, etc.-and our special societies in all denomina- tions, for home evangelization. There are the numberless agencies for saving heathendom through the foreign mission work. There are the lay organizations that take in substantially the church-membership of Christen- dom-the Young Men's Christian Association, the Young People's Soci- eties for Christian effort, the Armies of the. Cross, etc. -already mar- shalled for the final conflict. Every agency needed to reach all the world is already in existence. And all these organizations will inevitably de- . teriorate into mere machines and become hindrances rather than helps, cnrses rather than blessings, unless they speedily become Spirit-filled and consecrated to the accomplishment of their intended work. And does not the responsibility for their use fasten itself chiefly upon the ministry . as the leaders of God's hosts ~ "The reasons in favor of the movement are unanswerable and over- whelming.
" A year and more ago the secretaries of the foreign missionary soci- eties of the various religious bodies sent out a paper calling the Church to the" final rally of the century." We understand that they are now plan- ning for an ecumenical council of missions to mark the coming anniversary.
All this may be well; but discussion and resolutions always fall short of saving the world. What is needed is well-directed personal effort for saving men and saving the world, reaching out from one to another in all directions till the tide of sacred influence shall belt the globe. Hence, we ask the personal questions of each one of our readers : " 1. Are you ready to cooperate in this great movement now? " 2. Are you ready to consecrate yourself to and to enter upon this work now?
" 3. Are you ready to cry mightily to God for the gift of the Holy Spirit of power for the work now 1 "4. Wh.at will you .do NOW? " We have only some brief suggestions to make for aid and guidance. Are they more than Christ requires in this great crisis 1 They are as follows: " l. That you set to work in your sphere immediately yourself. " 2. That you stir up the Christians next to you and seek the salvation of the sinners nearest you. " 3. That you seek to rouse every Christian organization with which you are connected-whether church, or young people's or missionary society-to enter immediately upon the work for whIch it was made and for which it exists, the work of giving the Gospel to the world for its speedy salvation. "4. That in all this you do not wait for some one else, or some organization or mass of Christians, to move, but that without delay you yourself rise to present duty by taking advantage of present emergencies and opportunities. " It cannot be denied that the task is gigantic, almost appalling; but the Gospel, as Paul assured the Roman Christians, is ' the power of God unto salvation.' Even in the Old Dispensation the Lord, by the prophet; Malachi, cried to Israel: 'Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, and prove me now therewith, . . . if I will not open lhe windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, thaI, there shall not be room enough to receive it.' What limit then to Gospel grace in this the dIspensatIOn of the Spirit 1 God delights in Pentecostal scenes. We have only to cast ourselves on the Divine grace in a fnll consccration. " In so doing we shall, by the grace of God, make the movement for which Christ calls world-wide and effective, and the twentieth century will dawn with bright prospects for the conquest of the world for Christ. "We ask you to ponder this matter prayerfully and make your own decision regarding your personal duty, as one of the appointed leaders of God' 8 host, and to let the Master know and the world know what you purpose to do as your part and in 'your place. Give us and give the Church the benefit of your prayers, your counsel, and your hearty cooperation. Is it not for the Master's glory?,'
Some of the most interesting pages in history are those which describe the siege of cities. The walls of the beleaguered city are surrounded on all sides by men trying to force an entrance. Some make sudden onsets on the gates. Some batter the walls with rams and engines. Some plant ladders against the walls and fight hand to hand with the defenders. Everywhere there is noise, and tumult, and capture, and death, the shouts of the fighters and the moans of the dying, yet still the city is not taken. But all the while there is, unknown to the defenders, a body of men digging and mining under the very wall of the city. They are undermining the foundations of the city ramparts-the city is doomed.
1 sometimes think that this is the work which our Christian schools and colleges in heathen lands are doing. loVe are sapping the foundations of heathenism. The city is strong and ancient; its walls are thick and ugly and deep. But it is doomed. In onr hands God has put an ax, and we are digging, digging: and in the end through the darkness we shall reach the light.-Rev. John Lendrum.
INTERNATIONAL ];)EPARTMENT
n.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY BEV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
Charles Sherard Leaoh, M.D. where he labored until his transfer to Sfax in August, 1895, with such sad BY REV. LEIGHTON WILLIAMS, D.D., results.
NEW YORK CITY. Dr. Leach married an English lady who was laboring as a missionary The death of Dr. Leach, who was among the sailors in Marseilles, where recently assassinated at Sfax, Tunis, he met her on his way to Africa. North Africa, ought not to pass with· out notice, nor ought his work and his The account of the murder of Dr. devotion to the cause for. which he has Leach, his wife, and their elder child, fallen a martyr be forgotten. a little boy six years of age, as given in the Daily Telegraph, London, May 9th, Dr. Leach's death would appear to 1896. says they fled from room to room be due solely to Mohammedan fanati· as their assailants advanced, and the cism, in a city seldom visited by Euro- last stand was made in their bed champeans. and is only a further example ber, the door of which had been broken of the exceeding hostility of Moham- down. When the victims were discovmedans to the Christian missionary and ered by the commissary of police and his religion. the British vice-consul, the doctor was found lying dead on the fioor, with ten Dr. Leach was a man of gentle, re- ghastly wounds inflicted by a dagger tiring disposition, reserved in manner, and an axe. His wife had been stabbed and not much of a speaker, but skilful in fGur places, and was also lifeless, and painstaking as a physician, and he while the little lad had sustained a fearhad the respect and affection of the na- ful gash in the neck. Only the baby, tives in his various fields of labor. which was still in its cradle, had been spared. The Telegraph said: "Dr. Charles Sherard Leach. son of Sur- Leach was a mild and amiable man, geon Major Leach of the British Army and was not known to have anyenein India, was born in Burmah in 1860, mies. He was thirty.five years of age. and graduated from the Royal College Besides his mission work, he looked of Surgeons, London. Later he was a after a dispensary for the Arabs." student of the International Medical Missionary Society, and took some The following excerpts from a letter post-graduate course in New York written to Amity Baptist Church, New City. He was induced to go out with York City, will prove of interest to a the Rev. lIIr_ Powell, an independent much wider circle than that to which missionary in Algiers, contrary to my it was immediately addressed. persuasion. I very much doubted the expediency of his going. Mr. Powell, .. Our work in Tunis lies principally in a fit of temporary insanity, took the among the lIIussulman population of life of one of his children, and then his the city and outlying villages. It is own life. Dr. Leach, after this, started estimated that there are in the capital a mission to the Kabyles, but the mis- upward of one hundred thousand Mosion failed for want of support_ He hammedans, and how many missiona· thereupon took up Mr. Powell's work ries do you think there are to point again, and continued to labor alone for these thousands to the cross-to the some time, and later accepted an ap- Lamb of God, who alone is able to take pointment to work for the North Afri- away their sin, as well as the whole can Mission. ITe was removed by that world? Just about ten. and a large society some years since to North Tunis, number of these are only beginners, /i!tudying the language! So you see are to be found several texts of Scripfrom this how badly off they are for ture, lithographed and put together in spiritual instruction, while those at such a way as to give a very clear statehome are suffering from being overfed! ment of the Gospel_ 'These the patients Is it possible that these things can really have returned to them after the prebe so bad as that, and only four days' scription is made up, so that they take journey from England? Yes, and them to their homes and keep them till much worse. It will be worth our while the next time they have tbem renewed. to sit and ponder over these facts, and In connection with this it is interesting then praying, ask God to show each of to note that such a card may be carus what is our relationship to all these ried hundreds of miles across the desmillions of perishing souls wbo have erts, for many of our patients are Bednot as much as even heard the Gospel wins, who travel great distances, formonce in their lives. " ing part of the numerous caravans that go far down south. In this way the The agencies in use to bring these Word of God is being scattered. The poor creatures to Christ were various. results are known to Him. There were classes for Arab boys, gathered chiefly from the porters who carry " Another part of the medical mis- sion work consists in visiting patients at their homes, those who are too ill to ladies' baskets" with provisions home come to us, for example, or who, in the from the market; mothers' meetings, case of women, are forbidden to leave the house. Thus many houses have where sewing is taught; magic lantern been opened up to our lady workers, lectures with visiting in cafls, and itin· and opportunity given of introducing erating tours. Of the medical work, the Gospel where otherwise it would have been impossible. Dr. Leach wrote: "You will, no doubt, wish to know " This is by far the most effective what the result of all this work amounts method. Here we bring large numbers to. God only knows the true estimate; under the sound of the Gospel, and at and altho we cannot show the large the same time show them some of the number of converts that are to be found signs of practical Christianity. They in heatben lands, such as India and are overcome when they receive unex· China, yet, thank God, He has not left pected acts of kindness, and are more us without signs of approval, and fruitwilling to hear and believe than other- age to be found all along the line. wise. We have seen as many as eighty Converts we have, tho few; but when out-patients in a morning, several hav· it is considered that we are laboring ing to leave for want of accommodation among Mohammedans and not heathen, and help. They are admitted at 7.30 we are encouraged even to find one A.M., but numbers of them begin to here and there. Labor among Mohamcongregate at 5 o'clock, or sometimes medans is we'l known to be more earlier, so as to get seeing the doctor difficult than elsewhere, and even in first. In order to avoid quarreling and India, where missionaries have been confusion we give them tickets with laboring for so many yea:s, the results numbers by which they know their are comparatively few. Only fourteen turn to enter· the consulting-room. years ago there were no missionaries at Every day is begun by asking God's all to be found teaching the followers blessing on the work and reading and of Islam the truths of Christianity in explaining the Scriptures. Thus they North Africa I have the simple Gospel brought before "As the firstfruits of our medical them day after day, While tbose who mission, God gave us one from the highcan read carry away Gospels and tracts. est ranks of society, of good birth, and In addition to the preaching at the be· bigoted in his religion, but now wholly ginning, the patients are being spoken given up to the cause of Christ and to while waiting for their turns to see preaching the Gospel to his fellow- the doctor. Thus one may notice little countrymen_ This man has suffered groups of men or women, as the case much persecution from his family and may be, listening attentively to one of friends, and has been imprisoned for the workers, or holding animated dis- Christ's sake, and yet he has remained cussions with another. From the wait. stedtast through all, and is now labor. ing-room each patient enters the con- ing for the Master. sulting-room. Here he has given him " Many, we feel, believe, confess pri- a card, with the prescription written vately, but are afraid to make an open on the plain side, but on the other side declaration… The Salva.tion Army in India. sibly afford. It is not, therefore, mere- ly to the fact that the Salvation Army It is always painful to have to recol'd bas felt itself at liberty to penetrate instances of what dear George Herbert every portion of India, that we call at· described as .. the good with the good tention, for the Church of England, the at cross purposes." For a long while Roman Catholics, and at least the past there have been coming to our tao Methodi~ts besides, have taken the same ble from a variety of sources, public attitude. But there seems to be ground and private, criticisms of some of the of unusual complaint against the Sal- methods of the Salvation Army in vari- vation Army for having unduly inter- ous parts of India. We have declined fered with tbe operations and the Of- to admit this subject to our columns, ganized church life of existing mis- hoping that the entire matter would be sions, and also for a lack of discipline adjusted to the satisfaction of all par· of their agents, and the publication of ties in the premises. The high esti· reports of results which would not bear mate which we have placed upon the imy careful investigation. Making all gcneral work of the Salvation Army due allowance for the character of the makes us loath to refer to it in any but population among which they labor in the most highly commendatory manner. India, it yet does seem as if the central We have known, as a matter of course, authorities in Great Britain ought to that an organization ramifying so afford the Christian public at large fur- widely over the world, with such a ther evidence that tbey have themselves variety of agents selected from such carefully reviewed the circumstances.
diverse sections of society, could not be The sixty.first annual report of the expected to exhibit the same perfection Lodiana Mission (Presbyterian, 1895) in all the details of its work as might contains complaints against the Salva· be justly demanded of other societies, tion Army for entering their com· and have been therefore ready to com· pounds and urging their people to leave mend much of what seems irregular in them, offering increased salaries, pay- its proceedings to the most charitable ing their personal debts, and using consideration. Much of the criticism other measures which amounted to a of its work in India has been of a system of bribery, to induce members character which occurs occasionally of their church to join them. The in regard to other missions. It is not Presbyterians endeavored to persuade the Salvation Army alone which is them to accept a portion of their terri· complained of as lacking in the strict tory, tendering them the best part of observance of denominational and soci· it. It is safer, perhaps, to quote the ety comity. Baptists have been com- exact language of the report. It says: plained of, Methodists have been com· " Men under discipline were taken and plained of, and other societies from put in charge of important posts almost time to time have come into more or at once. A number under the charge less of unpleasant collision by inter· of immorality were at one time among penetration of the work of their respec- the leaders in this place. We warned tive agents. There is even wide diver- the commander, but to no purpose.
sity of view in regard to what geo· With a full knowledge of the facts she graphical boundaries, or whether any, continued to push the work, which should limit the operations of any so- soon presented the fruits of unwisdom.
ciety. Bishop Thoburn holds, for in- Whole villages, not in our mission, stance, as against the traditions, that have been induced to leave their work ethnic bases and providential openings and become beggars, thus transforming furnish a much better demarcation of active, hard·working Christians into duty than any arbitrary geographical wandering vagabonds. After they had distribution of the territory could poe- induced a large number of the poorer classes to join them under the promise there.' They then set up headquarters of higher salary, etc., they, supposing in Fyzabad, and there opened a training that the prey was in their hands, told school. Their men went out through them that they should now preach and Oudh and gathered soldiers for Fyza- beg. Of course, a general dissatisfac- bad. In Hardui Zilla they took over tion reigns among tl;lem. A large num· several of our workers and in all nearly ber have left them. and are begging us forty of our converts, and soon returned to take them in again. Many of the one worker and family to the same poor villagers, having sold all that they place and to the same work that he was have, are practically ruined. They are doing for us, and set him to work for without employment and unable to ob- the Army. Only harm ensued from tain even the ntlcessary comforts of life. this. Near Shahjahanpore an officer It is to be noted that the above were went to the village where we have a Christians. Their work among the church and have had work for thirty heathen. as far as we can determine, years. He got some of the leading men and we do try to judge fairly, has been to joiu him, and then took possession a complete failure. The reports which of the church building and Ii ved in it, go home are misleading in the extreme. and refused to leave until an appeal It is not uncommon for a low-caste man was made to a superior. The appeal to agree with everything that you may was never referred to, but the man left say, and yet he believes nothing. We the church. At our Christian village, could report tens of thousands of such Panahpore, where all the people are converts, which are really not converts, Christians, they secured quite a number did we wish to do this. " Presbyterians of soldiers, and our work in all that have made the same complaint against vicinity was greatly injured. They SalvatioD workers in Guzrat, where gained the people, so the people said, also they affirm that the Army has en- by offering them support. They retered villages where they had old estab- moved to the new headquarters at Balished churches, and have divided their reilly. The War Ory rejoiced over communicants, counting as converts this as tho these were converts from those who joined them. These Pres- the heathen. As at Fyzabad. so at byterian brethren claim that great harm Bareilly, I fear many or most of these was thus dODe to their work, and that will be dropped before six months pass. the harm was greater than the good ac- Of all the converts or soldiers in Fyzacomplished. A veteran Methodist mis- bad and other Zilas referred to, I could sionary, with a third of a century of not learn of one single one from the service behind him, recognized as one heathen. They were either converts or of the most judicious, aggreil81ve, and inquirers from our church. Should charitable missionaries in all India, says they go among our t.housands of con· in a personal communication: "Three verts as they went among those of Har· years ago the Sal vstionists commenced dui and Shahjahanpore, in:lucing·weak to be prominent in native wO,rk in the persons to join them by promise of Northwest Provinces and Oudh. They help, they will accomplish a great work came to Baste ZHa,' adjoining Gonda, of destruction. ,. and had a marvelous work. The War He further says: "They are not con- Ory resounded with shouts of victory, ditioned for successful work among the and we all rejoiced with them. We heathen, because they have no separat· were very glad to have that hard field ing line. They do not require that conquered. Hundreds of converts or caste shall be given up, that persons soldiers were made. Not a year later shall be baptized, nor that there shall I met an officer and asked of that work, be any' coming out' from among the and received the reply, ' Oh, that is all heathen, except in the cases of those gone. We have withdrawn from few whom they take over to train. They do not train their converts in gen- so actively engaged so long." but felt eral. Hundreds of Europeans have "for the sake of the Army itself this been converted through their agency sort of thing should be put an end to, who have not required such special or the whole thing would evaporate training, but the raw heathen thus into statistics and parades. "
gathered will not last without it, for No attempt is made herein to deter- they do not take in the idea, much less mine all the facts in the case. If this the full work of conversion in such a is.ex parte testimony, it at least, so far meeting of an hour. Their work as the missionaries are concerned, comes among Europeans in India has doubt- from men who (1) are accustomed to less been productive of much good, tho tell the truth. (2) who twelve years ago even that seems to lack in elements of welcomed the Army to their districts, permanence. " (3) who testify to the good work it has In the matter of their recruiting from done alJlong Europeans. It is next to the "raw" heathen, as it is termed, if impossible of belief, but that the cen- the statements made on what seems to tral authorities of the Army in Great be very competent authority are true, Britain will correct such gross irregu- it is quite clear that the central authori- larities. They have already given some ties are very careless or very criminal. attention to these charges, tho it is al- Rev. T. M. Hudson, of Bombay. seems leged too much has been glossed over.
to have called the attention of General That, too, can be amended.
Booth to this matter within a year past, A far wider problem remains, What and we may therefore hope that the if any mission is possible to the Army irregularities to which we allude will among outright heathen? If they have be or are in the process of correction. admitted suddenly some tho~sands of ]l;Ir. Hudson declares that he left the heathen to the Army, it may be asked, service of the Army partly owing to have they not follOWEd Baptists and the state of his health 'and partly be- Methodists and Ch urch of England mis- cause he had come to the conclusion sionaries who did the same, substitnting "that by insensible degrees the Army the red jacket for baptism?
work in India has become a great hoI· It is the thonght of this misapprehen- low sham." He stated to General sion that chiefly .justifies this discus- Booth that perhaps not one·tenth of sion. It is not so much the question of the crowds of people which greeted, the mischief done by disregard of com- him as head of the Army in the varions ity or careless or vicious statistics of portions of India in red jackets were success that is the gravamen of this Sal vationists. He gives dates, places, case.
and names. On catechising people The Methodists in North India ad- whom he saw wearIng the red jackets mitted thousands to baptism, but they as to why they secured and wore them, were from non·Christian peoples of the they replied that they were cheap and second generation of those whom they nice. and as the men were selling them had popularly instructed in Christian for eight pice apiece,they bonght them. truths. A hundred thousand devil- This would be less than half what those worshipers were converted in South same red jackets probably cost General India in a brief period, but this followed Booth. Mr. Hudson assumes that Gen- twenty-five years of patient and almost eral Booth could not be aware of the hopeless preparatory toil; and again it extent to which this kind of operation was a quarter of a century after work existed in India. Mr. Hudson rendered was begun at Ongole before the great ten years of useful service as an officer mass movement to an outward profes- in the Army, and solemnly declares to sion of Christianity by baptism of near- General Booth that he had" no desire ly 9000 in ten days occurred. It was to pull down a work in which he was after twenty years of preparatory toil in Tinnevelly that 6000 souls were bap- fact that converts are only of the low· tized in seven months. est castes in a country like India. The It may be said that other peoples have writer of the following lilles. himself a been prepared for the initial 'lork of converted Brahman, ftnd now a profes- the Salvation Army, ready to move in sor in the BareilIy Theological Semi- mass to the profession of Christianity. nary, gives an illustration of the fact It was hoped by all missionaries that that success is not confined to low this might be true; bnt accepting the castes only. The matter is worth returns of 10,000 Army accessions as thoughtful perusaL T. J SCOTT, genuine, where these critics say they BareiZly Theological &minary.
cannot show 100, what then? Is it not affirmed by Bishop Thoburn and others "I have often heard our educated that they could baptize 100,000 a year non-Christian brethren remark in a of these" raw" heathen if they would sneering way that the success of the do so, and that they are obliged to limit spread of Christianity in India is solely the number they will accept to the ap- among the uneducated, down-trodden proximate number to whom they can masses, whereas it utterly fails among afford further instruction after they are the high caste and educated people of initiated by baptism? Otherwise they the country-. They forget that it is an will have baptized ., raw" heathen, old and long-refuted sneer unworthy who will go from them in tens of thou- of the nineteenth century, used by the sands as they came to them. Pharisees nearly nineteen hundred years The Salvation A.rmy can erect no ex- ago, when they said, 'Have any of the ception to this rule. Ar.' they prepared rulers or of the Pharisees believed on to follow up the reception of the thou- Him? But this people who knoweth sands who accept the red jacket for a not the law are cursed' (John 7; 48, farthing or for full value? If not, 'is 49). The Pharisees, however, soon not their entire result vitiated? learned how erroneous were their utter- It is doubtful if the Army has any ances when they found men like Nico- considerable mission at all to the great demus, Joseph of A.rimathrea, Saul of heathen communities until they are fur- Tarsus, and many chief rulers among nished with the apparatus of vernacu- the followers of the Nazarene, and lar training in the rudiments of Chris- their sneer was turned into animosity tian doctrine and practice, after the re- when they found the Jews of several ception of these masses into the Army. cities, such as Antioch, Lystra. Derbc, There are tens of thousands of Euro- etc., casting their lot with the Chris- peans and Eurasians to whom they may tians. It is a pity that our educated have access with the same or greater brethren who make such remarks do value as among similar classes in Great not study the facts which have been Britain, and by indirection thus greatly occurring among them for the last advance the conversion of the native forty or fifty years. Leaving aside the races. This is stoutly believed by all conversions of the highly educated gen- those best able to judge; but that they tlemen from among the respectable can secure permanent results by admis- . families, such as Rev. K. M. Banerjee, sion to the ranks of a nominal Army of D.D., LL.D., C.S.I., Rev. L. B. Day, great multitudes of heathen without Rev. R. C. Bose, :M:.A., Mr. K.. C.
provision for their Christian develop- Banerjee, LL.B., Pandit Nilkantha ment is simply unthinkable. Shastri, and a host of others, let me re- spectfully present a list of the gentle ARE CONVERTS MADE ONLY FROM men of education and high descent Low CASTES IN INDIA.-Those not who have embraced Christianity dur- friendly to mission work often sneer at ing the last fourteen or fifteen months its ill success, as they suppose, in the only, and who have come under the notice o~ the humble writer who has Kumar Vidyaratna, C.S.I., of Calcutta, not very carefully studied all such translator of the Rig Veda, the Manava cases all over India, his chief guide Dharm Shastra, and the Bhagvat Gita being the Indian Chri8tian Herald, the into Bengali, was formally readmitted Epiphany, and the Indian Witnes8, all into the Christian Church on Augnst published in Calcutta. The gentlemen 7th, 1892, after sixteen years' separa- above referred to are the following: tion from it, and his two sons and his " 1. Mr. Sri Ram, a Brahman of AI- faithful servant Ram Lall Rai, a Khe· mora. trya by caste, were baptized on the " 2. Babu Surendra Kumar Datt, same date.
Calcutta. " 21. Babu Bipin Behari Ghose, Cal- ,. 3. A Brahman who is a clerk in one cutta.
of the government offices at Rohtak. " 22. Babu Surendra Nath Ghose, " 4. Maulvi Hafiz Ahmed of Delhi. B.A., Calcutta, with his family.
"5. Mr. Gopal Vinayak Joshi, a re- " 23. Babu Nagendra Nath Sarcar, spectable Brahman of Poona. Krishnagar.
" 6. Moulvi Mirza Abdulla Beg, who ,. 24. Babu Mahendra Nath lIuker- is very learned in Arabic and Persian, jee, district engineer, Pratabgarh, with Poona. his wife and six children.
" 7. Babu Kristo Dhan Banerjee, .. 25. Mr. Lakshmi Krishna Subra- head master, Church Missionary Society manyam Iyer, Madras.
boarding.school, Calcutta, with his " 26. Raja Shiam Singha, of Tajpur, wife and four children. District Bijnour.
"8. An ex-ziladar, Baddo Mall, Sial- "27. The Bnrmese Prince, Puthoor_ kote. "Now this list, altho far from being " 9. A ziladar, Sialkote. exhaustive, decidedly lihows that Chris· " 10. Swami Achari, Tinnevelly. tianity is making good progress among .. 11. Mr. Bharatharaj Pillai, a re- our educated community.
spectable Hindu of high caste. "Farther, if the proportion of the .. 12. Mr. Mathuswami Pellay, an highly educated to the uneducated of undergraduate, Palamcottah. the country be considered, it will not " 13. The head master of the Church be too much to say that Christianity is Missionary Society middle school, making as much progress among the Tenkasy. highly educated as among the low "14. Mr. Raja Ram, B.A., assistant caste and despised people. According professor in government college, Jabal- to the last census 'returns the popUla- pur, with his wife. tion of India is 285,()00,OOO, out of "15. Babu Gyan Chandra Ghose, whom only 11,000,000 can read and honorary magistrate of Residency Cir· write-i,e., the percentage of the latter cle, Simla, Kansaripara, Calcutta, with is only about 4; how much less, then, his wife. must be the percentage of the really "16. A young Brahman, the son of educated I So even the imperfect list the civil surgeon at Bankura. given above is enough to prove the "17. A Brahman of Navadin (Nad- point.
dya), who became an ascetic at the age " Christianity is indeed spreading its of twenty-five, and practised Joga for arms, and is every year embracing and Bome twel ve years, named Satyananda elevating in social, intellectual, moral.
Nath Banerjee, better known as Sada- and religiOUS status thousands and tens nanda Swami. of thousands of the long-despised and " 18. Babu Blmalananda Nag, Dacca. down-trodden children of the soil, " 19. nr. Binal Behari Ghose, assist- whom other religions have kept en- ant surgeon, Azamgarh. chained for ages with cruel customs and "20. The learned Pandit Prasanna unequal laws to fret and die; but which candid minds will be unwilling those beautiful Hindu temples which struck Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni when to admit that this its benevolent course he invaded India." The italics are mine; but the words, let it be borne in is not for its shame, but for its glory. mind, are those of a prominent Hindu .. H. L. MUKERJEE." bistorian. This does not look much Hindu Religious Toleration, like" that wonderful reverence" which BY PROFESSOR DAVID GILMORE, RAN- Vivekananda says t.he Hindus have for "all the religions of the world." The GOON, BURMA. Rajput princes referred to above were Hindus in religion. I have recently been reading a report of a lecture on the Vedantic philosophy, It must be admitted that the Hindus delivered before the Twentieth Century bave often shown themselves tolerant, Club of Boston, by Swami Vivekananda. In this lecture Vivekananda is reo even when they had the power to perported as making some statements which show an amazing ignorance of secute. The record of Hinduism in rethe bistory of bis own country, or a spect to toleration is good. But to say great readiness to impose upon tbe ignorance of bis auditors. He says, for in· that Hindus have never persecuted Gn stance, • In India there never was, by the Hindus, any religious persecution." account of religion is false, This he claims as one of the fruits of the Vedantic philosophy. On the same occasion. Vivekananda made another statement, surprising to But what he says is not a fact. It is matter of historical record that in India one who knows anything of the history there bas been by the Hindus much reo of India. He said: "This Vedantic ligious persecution. In support of this spirit of religious liberality has very statement, I quote from" A Brief His- much affected Mohammedanism. Motory of Ancient and Modern India," by Sir Romesh Chunder Dutt. Sir Romesh hammedanism in India is quite a differis a Hfndu. an official of high pOl!ition ent thing from that in any other coununder the Government of India, a mem- try. It is only when Mohammedans ber of half a dozen learned societies, come from other countries and preach and an historian whose writings have received the bighest praise from the to them about living with men who are English press. not of their faith. that a mob rises lind lIe says, referring to the period of fights." The one reason why the Mo- Indian history which began about 750 hammedans in India do not now inter- A.D.: "This is the political history of the Dark Age of Northern India, and fere with the professors of other religwith this political revolution there was ions is, that the En/dish enforce toleraa religious revolution also. We have tion throughout all India. It is a matseen that Buddhism flourished in India side by side with Hinduism under the ter of historical record that so JOll/!, as successors of Vikramaditza. But this toleration was forgotten in the Dark they had power to persecute, the Mo- Age which followed. Sankaracharya, hammedans in Iudia did persecute. who was born in Southern India in 788, Dutt's history (for I like to quote Hindu was the most famous among the Hindu scholars who attacked Buddhism dur- authority) mentions bitter persecution ing the Dark Age wiLh remarkable suc- of the Sikhs by the Mogul emperors as cess. Circumstances favored the at- late as the first quarter of the eighteenth tacl, ; the Rajput conquerors, who had century; and even then the Mogul Emno sympathetic regard for Buddhism, and who were Ilroud to be styled Hindu pire was tottering to its fall, which took Kshatriyas. acted in cansonance with the views of Hindu priests and scholal's; place in 1761. while Clive was laying and wherever Raj put princes con- the foundation of that English Governquered. Buddhist monasteries and churches disappeared, and Hindu tem- ment which haB given the Hindus the ples rose. And by the close of the tenth century Buddhism was well·nigh fir!!t religious liberty they have enjoyed stamped out of India, and Kanonj and Mathura and other towns boasted of since the beginning of the seventeenth century. Vivekananda declales that "Bud- dhism did not really decline in India."
Dutt's statement, which I have already quoted. is historically true. .. By the close of the tenth century Buddhism was well-nigh stamped out of India."
To be sure, Buddhism has left deep and permanent traces on the religious and sodal life of India. If this is what Vivekananda meant, his statement mar be admitted; but it is not what he 18 quoted as saying, and hardly what his hearers would take him to mean. I have written this to show that Vivekananda is not to be relied on in his statements of facts. and that this unreliability must necessarily vitiate any arguments based on his facts or any vice Among Educated Bengalese," de- inferences drawn from them. scribing the especial work he has been doing among the educated young men A Revised Parliament of Religions. of India, that the influence of the Par· liament of Religions has been one of the BY REV. DANIEL B. GIFFORD, SEOUL, forms of opposition with which he has had to contend; and he mentions cases KOREA. of young men in an inquiring frame of mind who had been hardened therebJ. We have learned with a sense of sadness and unxiety that a second Parlia· On page 40 he tells in the followmg ment of Reli~ions is being projected, to words of an interesting inquirer; "But meet in 1900, in connection with the still he wavered. In a most solemn in- World's Fairin the city of Paris. I use terview with him, he told me that his the editorial" We," because I believe agony of mind had been so great that one there are others who share my senti- night he called out in his sleep to God ments. We believe that the projectors for help, A student heard his cry, and of the Parliament of Religions of 1893 learned in subsequent conversation that were Christian men of a high order, and H. was drawn to Christianity. In order that their motives are not to be im- to divert his thoughts from Christianpugned. And yet in planning for a ity and make him satisfied with Hinsecond similar gathering it does seem duism, this so-called friend handed him a as tho experience ought to teach them certain lessons. cOPl of the 'World's Parliament of RelIgions.' 'This,' said H., • was God's While from a great many points of answer to my cry for help.' He conview the Parliament of Religions of 1893 was undoubtedly most interesting and tinued, ' r see that the leading men in wonderful. from the view-point of the interests of the foreign mission cause, Europe and America poin t out truths in we believe it was an unfortunate mis- Hinduism, and praIse our religion. take. Why should I leave it ?' This young man, having grown up a Hindu, and What we principally object to is the having heard of Hinduism from Hinmanner in which the non-Chri!ltian relig- dus, had no special admiration for it. ions were presented. The picturesque, But the expurgated Hinduism of Max fascinating orators who championed Milller and the sugar-coated Hinduism their cause, unmindful of accuracy in of the Parliament of Religions attracted statement, presented a roseate view of him. In hundreds of personal intertheir religions, which, liKe Sir Edwin views with educated Bengalese I have Arnold's "Light of Asia," was very not founa one heZped by tlte Parliament good poetry. but not true to the facts. of Religions. I have found some who have been distinctly hindered by it." No opportunity being given to correct these impressions, or to answer the at- On page 52 he speaks of some of the tacks that were made upon our mis· hindrances which keep educated young sionaries, we believe that the net result Hindus from becoming Christians: of the Parliament was to discredit the " When Hinduism is left behind, many work of foreign missions in the minde paths open before the Babu. Theosoof a large part of the reading public, phy, agnosticism, atheism, and all forms who have never taken the pains to in- of skepticism open out before him. All form themselves upon the life and relig- these cults come from the West. Beions of Oriental lands; for if these non- fore the Babu accepts Christianity he Christian religions are as fair as they faces Renan, and Rousseau, and Volwere painted, missionary work in such taire, and, it may be, Ingersoll, and, lands must be ~ratuitous. worse than these, he is confronted by new Hinduism. What a temptation to Who can tell to what extent this im- turn back from inquiry to one's ancesparted impression was responsible for tral faith which receives praise from the virulence of the attacks made by a :Max Milller, and which is lauded at the large part of the secular press of Eng- World's Parliament of Religions I . _ . land and America against foreign mis· sions last summer, upon the occasion Why be baptized and cut off from all of the cowardly missionary massacre in that heart holds dear? Why be bap· China. tized and risk the loss of life or reason Nor has the impression conveyed to by being drugged? If the Holy Spirit the English·reading public in heathen were not in Christianity this religion lands been any more fortunate, for Rev. would make no headway among the Robert P. Wilder, of Student Volunteer educated classes." Such is the testifame, has stated in a little book that he mony of the young man so well known has published, entitled" Christian Ser- in all the colleges and theological semi- naries of America. Hindu Sooiety as Seen by a. mndu light of the glorious Gospel of Christ' in India: 'I beg of my Western sis- Lady. [The Gyan Patrika, a native paper of ters,' writes the Pandita, • not to be India, recently contained the following, satisfied with looking on the outside which is reproduced here at the special beauty of the grand philosophies, and solicitation of one of our corresponding not to be charmed with hearing the long editors, himself a learned and veteran and interesting discourses of our eduauthor, who accompanies the request cated men, but to open the trap-doors with the remark that" Since the Parlia- of the great monuments of ancient Hinment of Religions it has been the fash- du intellect, and enter into the dark celion in some quarters to speak too favor- lars, where they will see the real workably of Hinduism as contrasted with ings of the philosophies which they ad· Christianity. Educated representatives mire so much. . . . Let them go round of Hinduism who visited America mis- • • . the strongholds of Hinduism and , led some persons." Pandita Ramabai is seats of sacred learning, where the Maa converted Hindu lady of the Brahman hatmas and Sadhus dwell, and where caste, on whom the University of Brah- the "sublime" philosophies are daily mans, as one might phrase it, conferred taught and devoutly followed. . .. I the highest degree for learning known have . . . seen enough of those learned among them. She established and con- philosophers and possessors of superior ducts a .. widow's home" in India.- Hindu spirituality who' oppress the widows and trample the poor, ignorant, J. T. G.] The Gyan Patrika says: .. From the low-caste people under their heels.' Indian Olwistian Herald we quote part Some • have deprived the widows of of the Pandita's report, in which she their birthright to enjoy pure life and answers those who were' shocked' at lawful happiness.' Some • send out the conversion of twelve of the young hundreds of emissaries to look for widows under her case: • They are young widows, and bring them by hunmourning for these girls, for they think dreds and thousands to the sacred cities they are lost to society aud that the na- to rob them of their money and their tion has been made weak by this loss of virtue.' Some' entice the poor, ignostrength. These good people never rant women to leave their own homes to think of the thousands of young widows live in the Kshettras-i.e., holy places who are yearly led astray, and whose -and then, after robbing them of their lives are wantonly destroyed by men belongings, tempt them to yield to their like themselves. They never think of unholy desires.' Some' shut the young, mourning for them, and for the hun- helpless widows into their large 1¥Iathas dreds of innocent lives that are sacri- (monasteries), sell and hire them out to wicked men so long as they can get ficed upon the unholy altar of caste…. money, and, when the poor, miserable Men who live in open sin, daily violat- slaves are no longer pleasing to their ing the rules of morality, and who are cruel masters, they turn them out in the plagues of society, are received and hon- streets to beg thelr livelihood, to suffer the horrible consequences of sin, to carry ored everywhere in their caste; while the burden of shame, and finally to die a man following his conscience, either the death worse than toot of a starved by marrying a widow or by em- street dog I' But not a philosopher or bracing Christianity, is made an out- Mahatma bas come out boldly to cham· pion their cause and to help them. . . . cast, and persecuted.' And again, Education and philosophies are power- warning' the good men and women of less before the caste rules, ancient custhe West' against the specious repre- toms, and priesteraft. . .. They mourn over a few women who have the boldsentations of Hindu philosophy and re- ness to declare themselves as free womligion which have captivated the imagi- en, and to follow their conscience; but nation of some in America and perhaps they say nothing of the thousands who lessened their zeal for spreading' the die every year or lead shamefullives.'~
OF A HOUSE IN
FmtD OF MONTHLY SURVEY
III.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
BY DELAVAN L. PIEBSON.
Pa.lestine and Syria,ir The Jews,t Educa.tiona.l WorkJ PALESTINE AND THE JEWS. brew capital is playing an important part in these new enterprises. Taking Palestine is belng more and more all Palestine, there are now about 80,000 opened to the return of the Jewish na- Jews settled as residents-a greater tion, and the movement to repeople the number than at any time since the sec- Holy Land with the sons of Israel is ond century. Taking the rate of ingaining grtlat momentum. crease of the last ten years, a decade hence the Jewish population of the Holy The present Jewish population in Land will exceed a million. Prophecy Palestine has been much questioned. is being fulfilled. In 1874 Dr. Baedeker put the number at between 14,000 and 18,000. In 1894 A Jewish rabbi thus epitomizes the he gave the population in the .chief Jewish creed : towns (Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias, and Safed together with Joppa) as about .. 1. I believe in God. 60,000. Adding those in the coast .. 2. I believe in reward for good and punishment for evil.
towns, it would make over 80,000 alto- "3. I believe in separating the sacred from the secular. gether. In Jerusalem there are said to .. 4. I believe in a Sabbath for man be about 15,000 Jews within the city and beast. walls, and over 20,000 more living in "5. I believe in filial devotion to parents. the so-called colonies just outside the "6. I believe in right to life and libcity walls. The number is constantly increasin~. They are building new erty. synagogues, schools and hospitals, and "7. I believe in the sanctity of mar- riage. I I 8. I believe in the rights of prop- ~etting possession of real estate in ,and erty. around the city. The new railroad from Joppa is stimulating business ac- "9. I believe in truth and· honesty. tivity. The old city is being modern- .. 10. I believe in the unselfish love of fellow-men."
ized. New streets are being laid out Compare this with the Apostles' within and outside the walls. The Creed, and you get in contrast the water supply is being improved. Fac· fundamental articles of Judaism and tories are being· established. Electric Christianity : lighting and telegraphic and tele· phonic means of communication have "I believe in God the Father AI· been introduced. In the country re- mighty .•• and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord. • ., I believe in gions, too, many projects of a public the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic nature have been undertaken, and He- Cfohrugircveh~esthseocfosminms,unthioenreosfursraeicnttiso,nthoef the body, and the life everlasting." * See also pp. 776 (October) ; 911, 914 (pres. ent issue). Recent Articles: ",A Day in .Pale~ tine," Sunday Magazine (Aprll); M"MBWnS tn The Christian believes all that the Jew affirms; but he also believes, on Syria (monthly). . the evidence of Christ and His resurrect See also pp. 57 (January) ; 277, 301 (April) ; 8Sg 911 914 (present issue). .N. e~wIsBtooroykos:f "History of the jews," H. Graetz; the Je,,:- atiodni~iinne the immortality of the soul, in ish Nation," Alfred Edershe!m. Recent Art,- provision for delivering the in- dividual from the sins with which he cles' .. Israel among the Nations," Review of Reviews (January); .• The Modern Jew and the New Judaism,"Fortnightly Review (March aud has entangled himself, in a spiritual April); .. The Emancipation of the Jews," Na- communion with others, based on and tional R.view (May); .. Jewish Missions," The the expression of his spiritual character, Mission World (August): .. The Mission of Indaism," Fortni'1h.tbl Rel'ie'o (October): also and in a direct find immediate converse monthly issnes or B,blical World, Jewish Chroni- twhiethheGarotd~ speaking to and dTwheelliJnug~ain cle Jewish Herald, Jewv" World, Hebrew Ohris- of His children. tia~'nSaeendppT.he1S29eat(tFeerebdruNarayti)o;n2.08 (March); 542 ism of David and Isaiah beheved thIS, but the present-day rabbis make no (July); 829, 841 (November); 90(, 9'~ (present mention of any of it in their creed. 188110), ..
DEl'ARTMENT
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
The Outlook. horrors, for which his policy will large- ly be held responsible. The very jour- It must be acknowledged with sad- nals which contained the news of the ness that the outlook generally at the late massacres on the Bosphorus reportclose of this year 1896 is by no means ed the death of this leading Muscovite. encouraging and inspiring. Clouds hover over most of the political and The destruction of 5000 Armenians in even ecclesiastical landscape, and we the very streets of Constantinople was have to seek relief from the gloom in due incidentally to that most daring the sovereignty of God. seizure of the Ottoman Bank by twenty- five Armenian dynamiters. As tho the Near home, Cuba is in a state of re- extermination of the whole Armenian volt. About 150,000 Spanish troops people had been decreed, the women ana occupy the island-said to be the largest children were spared in this butchery; military force ever yet transported to but the carnage of men was such that, such a distance in any war-and yet as Professor W. M. Ramsay phrases it, even this vast force proves unequal to u the scheme was deliberately carried the emergency, tho it costs Spain well out to ensure that no Armenian woman on toward $5,000,000 every month; and the diseases peculiar to tropical climates over a large tract of country should beare proving allies to the insurgent forces in fast 'reducing the number of available come the mother of an Armenian child. " Spanish soldiers. General Weyler's ad- Professor Ramsay has drawn a parallel ministration has awakened much hostile between the massacre sanctioned by Diocriticism; and one of his most absurd cletian and that sanctioned by the Suland tyrannical acts has been to decree tan, conclnsively showing that the latthat Spanish paper money shall be ac- ter is the worse. He refers to a people cepted as the equivalent for gold, which deliberately burned alive by thousands, commands a premium of 12 per cent. killed by famine, nakedness, and cold The new bank bills are without secu- in tens of thousands, and adds-as to rity, and $3,000,000 were in circula- the enormity just referred to, whereby tion in October, and a further issue of the natural multiplication of the Arme- $10,000,000 was decreed. The efl'ect nian family is deliberately prevented- that it is such as never before entered was a paralysis of trade, as retailers into the mind of man to devise. And- he adds, in view of the horrors of wincould not induce wholesalers to sell at ter among such a people, naked and any price if obliged to accept such cur- starving, that if we are not going to inrency in payment-a very significant terpose in their behalf and deliver them lesson just now for the ad vocates of free out of peril, " it is well to kill them outsilver in the United States to consider. right. " Independent of Cuba, Spain has her hands full in the Philippine Islands and Turning to Africa, the sudden decease at Madrid; the seeds of revolution are of Sultan Halim, of Zanzibar, in August, liable at any time to ripen into a reign was the occasion of a usurper's seizing of terror. the palace and proclaIming llimseif Sul- tan. This pretender was KhaJid, a The grave aspect of the Turkish ques- nephew of the dead man; and, Engtion continues to absorb attention. It land being responsible for Zanzibar, is a curious if not significant fact that British guns brought him to terms, and Prince Lobanofl', who held the portfolio Hamoud. the late Sultan's brother, was of the Foreign Office in Russia, should made his successor. die at the very time of the Armenian Meanwhile, the Kongo Free State con· tillll"S to disgrace history by a misman- would be very dangerou~ for us to re· agement and even cruelty of adminis- main in our houses at all. Even as it is, we have to take special precautions, tration seldom paralleled. at night in particular, to be ready for any sudden attack in the dark. In case In Madagascar, A.narchy reigns. Out- of any alarm the soldiers would hasten down to our assistance at once. side of the limits of French rule there H But I am more anxious for the na- has been a series of organized acts of tives than for ourselves, especially for those placed in responsible positions by robbery and violence. Three hundred the Government. The native Governor or four hundred churches have been of Ambohimanga is between two fires.
burned and many church officials put If he does his duty and reports persons to death. A mixed multitude of law- whom he has reason to suspect, he earns the hatred of his own conntryless Malagasy, aboriginal savages, who men. If he refrains from so doing, he blindly hate civilization, and malicious- endangers his head to the French. It ly hate foreigners and missionaries, have is rumored that our resident general i8 to joined disbanded troops of the queen's be removed and a military man sent in his place. He is accused of being too army in these acts of nameless violen!;e. kind to the natives and also to the Eng- They come suddenly upon a Christian lish, and we hear that a representation village and compel the inhabitants to was sent to the President of the Repnb- submit or die, and whichever way they lic, signed by all the Flench citizens in Antananarivo, requesting his with· decide, their property is at the mercy of drawal." these robbers. French occupation has broken up the native police force and Another writes from Antananarivo, military control, but has not yet given the :Malagasy any substitute for former June 1st: " At present we have a very trouble- some time out here. The people are re- fairly good government. belling against the French in several places and murdering many Europeans.
It is not only a rebellion against the A missionary in Madagascar writes French authorities, but also a rising to The Okri8t~'an that he bas" a class for against Christianity.· The old idols are French soldiers, and about twenty-four restored, the churches burned, and mis- out of forty attend, and sometimes the sionaries, as well as their faithful adhe- officer in charge when not prevented rents, persecuted and killed. Churches by other occupation. The class is nomi- and school-houses are burned, Bibles nally for teaching them Malagasy; but and other books destroyed. the chief text-boDk is the Go~pel of " Our mission in the North Detsileo L:rke, of which there are copies both has had a very severe loss. One of our in French and Malagasy. They read best stations has been altogether de- from tile latter, and talk about it in stroyed; and at another, Antsirabe, French. Sometimes one gets a little many valuable houses have been ruined.
talk with one and another of the men, The station that has been ruined is all of whom are quite young fellows. called Toharano. All the churches be- So far they have behaved very well, and longing to these stations (altogether 75), rem'lin in favor with the people. with three or fonr exceptions, have " It is a very sad time for the }<Iala- been burned. At Antsirabe, we had a gasy Christians, especially the country hospital, a sanatorium, and a leper preachers, teachers, and evangelists, home, with 300 lepers in about 60 now. They are the special objects of houses. In the leper village there was hatred and persecution by the insur- also a church and a little hospital. All gents, and many have had to flee for these buildings, as well as the doctor's their lives; one young teacher in this dwelling·house, have been destroyed.
district, a faithful Christian, gave up " By God's great mercy all our mis- his life rather than deny Christ. The sionaries and their families have been ruffian3 first shot and then beheaded saved from a cruel death. But for him, and refused to let his body be three days and two nights, 2 missiona- gi ven to his friends for burial. ries, 16 ladies, and 9 children belonging .. Several evangelists have had their to the mission were in the greatest dan- property looted and their houses burned ger, besieged by many thousands of either by the insurgents or by the sol- cruel men, who thirsted after their diers sent out to quell the rebellion. blood. All these friends were together But for 'he presence of the garrison it in the mission-house at Antsirahe, along with 4 Frenchmen and some native dependent forms of mission enterprise militia. The 4 Frenchmen were the which distinctly espouse the faith prinmeans of saving their lives. In the last ciple, depending on no appeals and moment the resident and the governor· looking direct to God for help, seem to general came and saved them all. Ter. be going straight on. rible destruction has been done. The The fact is that debt paying in mismission has lost propertI worth £5000 sion work is never popular. The to £6000. In those terflble two days, churches give grudgingly and meagerwhen we thought our friends at Ant· ly, The effort made last year by the sir!lbe were burned alive, it was difficult to have faith and hope. But the sym· pathv shown us was a great consola· tion.h Presbyterians secured little more than one third of the Million Dallal' Fund ask- On Sunday, October 11th, the Chris· ed for to free the boards of the Church tian Missionary Alliance marked another of burdens. The Methodist Ohurch advance in gifts for missions. In Au· appointed a debt-paying day at the gust, at Old Orchard, $101,500 was sub· close of the General Conference-Sab.
scribed, the la.rgest amount ever taken bath. Jnly 25th-for general contribu- up at a single meeting. On Sunday tions to the burdened Missionary So- morning pledges were received for ciety, whose indebtedness at the begin- $122,000.. D. L. Moody was present at ning of the fiscal year was $220,000.
the service, but the large gifts were in The special collection brought only rQsponse to the appeal of the Rev. A. B. $32,000, only one church in five appar- Simpson, pastor of the Gospel Taber· ently paying any heed to the day.
nacle, Eighth Avenue near Forty·fourth It becomes increasingly apparent that Street. Last year the Alliance had an something is wrong-perhaps many income of $140,000 and sustained 300 things are wrong in our church life.
miasionaries in the foreign field. Next And with the new year we hope to be- year the income promises to be $250,000, gin a brief series of articles on the great and there will be a corresponding ex- spiritual movements of the latter quar- tension of the work. ter century, both in Britain and the While the denominational boards are United States, which indicate that God half paralyzed by debt. and frantic ap· is leading llS to new emphasis on holiness peals for help seem met with semi-in- and prayer. The fact is, there is no sure difference, this man, calmly resting on basis of permanent mission work except God and trusting in Him, single hand- in a higher standard of piety which ed, and with no denomination behind identifies us with our Lord and makes him, receives a quarter of a million of passion for souls and consecrated giv- dollars to carryon the work, and all ing a natural part of holy living.
from volunteer gifts I We happen to To say that the Christian Church know the cheerful self·denial accepted cannot give more than $12.000,000 a by many of these givers. One poor year to missions is the worst sort of mechanic moved into a flat and reduced lying. The income of the 15,000,000 his family expenses by $1000 in vari· church-members in the United States ous ways that he might give that and Canada is estimated to be at least amount, etc. $2.250,000,000 a year. Yet out of this Almost the only regular" board" of vast sum, only one jour hundredth part which we know as !laving kept out of gets to the mi8sion field! It is so in Brit- debt and beyond need of retrenchment is ain, only tbat the wealth is not so evenly the Church Missionary Society, 63 of distributed; there are fcwer people who whose miisionaries serve it without have a handsome competency, among pay. But the Ohina Inland Mission. those who would not be called very the Missionary Alliance. the George wealthy. Taking the nearly 50,000.000 MUller mission work, and all these in- Protestant Church-members in the whole world, there is no doubt that, not calcu- gether with numerous other Southern lating the vast estates and capital repre- schools and colleges. Ten thousand sented, the income alone of this vast dollars were contributed at the jubilee b)dy averages $300 a year for each in- gathering to decrease the debt, which dividual, which aggregates the immense now amounts to $56,000. sum of fifteen tlwusand millions yearly!
So that the amount actually given to The committee appointed by the miRsions among the heathen is but one Conference of Missionary Secretaries of dollar in twelve hundred and fifty! America to plan for an ecumenical Meanwhile, the Fiji Islanders gave last missionary conference suggests that year $25,000, themselves just emerging the conference be held in New York from cannibalism and heathenism. City, April, 1900. Such a gathering should be heartily supported, and will A friend from Manchester. England- doubtless greatly promote missionary writes: interest and elficiency.
" In presence of the miserably small The latest contribution which has aggregate of British money contribu- reached us for the Armeniansufferers tions to missions, I am persuaded that is $10, collected by a child in Denver, what we need on this side the water is Col., and forwarded by Mr. O. E. rather a stimulus to practical concrete Taussig. obedience of Christ's commands (John 15 : 10; Acts 5: 32 [last clause]; Ps. Rev. Richard Burgess, who has for 19 : 11 [last clause]; Mal. 3: 10-12) some years acted as honorary organizthan exhartations to abstract hoUness ; ing secretary of the International Bible and I incline to think that a series of Reading Association (1. B. R. A.) for a,ldresses in something like the follow- Wales, has sailed for India, and has by ing order would both do great good to this time reached that land of his aspiraindividual Christians and at the same tion. In the recent tour of Wales by the time rally everywhere the chief pro- editor-in-chief, for the purpose of promJters of mission work. moting spiritual life and missionary zeal, Mr. Burgess acted as local secre- " The first one, say, a powcrful de- tary, and was most elficient and helpful. feme of Scripture. Next, an address He is a man of rare devotion to Christ, displaying the glorious blessings we sound in faith and earnest in work. have individually received through He is humble and Imbued with passion these Scripture certainties about Christ for souls. It is safe to predict for him and God, and our consequent resistless a wide service as the successor to the obligation to extend them to others still late Dr. J. L. Phillips. in spiritual slavery. 'Freely ye have received, freely give.' After that, one The tenacity and persistency of lying sholving what missions have done with and misrepresentation are amazing. relatively insignificant resources, and We find in the Detroit Journal of July how many charming fields white unto 20th the following paragraphs: harvest are, morally speaking, rotting fi)r want of laborers to reap them. Last- " Efforts of Christian missionaries to lV, one on ' 'rile Secret of Giving' (con- convert the natives of India are wasted, secration of income and the scriptural according to the testimony of Arthur prirlCiple and method [1 Cor. 16 : 2] of G. Bristow, of A~sam, India, who was storing). " at the Hotel Cadillac yesterday. Mr. Bristow is connected with a large India The American Missionary Associa- tea garden, and says that during his three years' stay at Assam he has never tion. which has recently held its fifti- known of a gennine conversion of a na- tive. The natives, he says, are too eth anniversary in Boston, has done a grand work among the so-called" de- spised races" of the United States-the negroes, Indians, " mountain whites,"
Eskimos, and Chinese. This society, besides many other noble enterprises, has organized Hampton Institute, How- I;trd, Fisk, and Atlanta universities, towell satisfied with their own religion. Indians in 1672-73 ; and others went to Many profess a liking for the Christian religion in order to secure presents of Australia, China, and other parts of the clothing, articles of food, and money. world. But the ti:ue came for organ. " • The missionaries in India have a ized effort, and lately, in the city of pleasant time, • he said. 'They do very little work, and they can and do live Darlington, the first Foreign lfissioneasily on the funds sent them from Eng· land and America. Of course there are ary Conference of this society was held. a few men and women among them who are really in earnest and are zeal- Over four hundred delegates were pres· ous in their work; bnt even these the natives impose upon, get their money, ent, and Sir Theodore Fry 6tated that but do not actually become converts of the Christian religion. Generally, the there were now 75 missionaries in the natives regard the missionaries as fanatics.' tJ field, or about 1 for every 213 of their Mr. Bristow is to us a stranger; but whole membership, and an income of such statements as he makes have been contradicted and shown to be utterly $60,000 is assured. The Society of and maliciously false so often that one is amazed at their repetition ; and we can Friends is particularly interested in the only suppose, in charity, that in this case these misrepresentations are sec- growth of the kingdom of God in Madond-hand, and that Mr. Bristow has spoken without adequate personal in- agascar, from which place many cheervestigation, depending too much on others' reports. How any man can ing reports were presented, altho the spend three years in any part Of India and not see signs of the deep and radi- island is in a very bad state.. cal transformation of native life by the Gospel it is hard to understand. But We ,make a few extracts from the from the days of Carey till now only one thing has been more wonderful than Student Volunteer.- the transformations wrought in nati ve converts; and that greater wonder is " The record of Student Volunteer the stupidity aud blindness of those progress all round t.he world continues.' who, confronted with these miracles of Mr. Donald Fraser's account of the grace, do not see them. A woman, after springing, up of the continental moveeighteen months' stay in the Japan- ments, and the touching testimonies of ese capital, reported that missions were our foreign brothers to the work a failure; that she had resided opposite wrought in them and through them by the mission chapel for a year and a half, means of the Liverpool Conference, and never saw a Japanese enter it. must give us a mighty confidence in And yet, never having entered herself, our God. 8till more thrilling is the she did not know that it was a chapel news received from India of the first for English-speaking residents only! regularly organized Volunteer Move- ment in a mission land. It is in teresting to note the prog· ress of missionary enterprise among the " • Make Jesus King,' the report of the Friends, who have now lJeen active in Liverpool Conference, is now to be obthe mission field for thirty years. The tained at the office, 93 Aldersgate Street, individual effort of Friends in world- London, E. C., England. One or two wide evangelization dates back to the serions errors have crept into the text. time when George Fox spent twenty It should be noted (p. 206) that the area months in preaching to the American of Africa is not 120,000,000 square miles, but 12,000,000, and tile number of mis- sionaries required on Mr. Pilkington's plan is not 120,000, but 12,000. Lower down on the same page, not one, but at least two Europeans are needed to super· intend every 100 native workers; and again, the population of 10,000,000 is not in Uganda, but in an area compris· ing 200 miles radius all round Uganda. In the report of Miss Guinness's address on page 220, in her remarks on Brazil, 116 mi8sionm'ies to a population of 16,- 000,000 should be read instead of 2 mis- siona1'Ws.' , The best known of the late Baron de Hirsch's benefactions are said, by Mr.
Oscar S. Straus, in the }!1Yrum, to amount to nearly $22,000,000. This is an enormous sum for any individual to Weare very glad to publish a corr<~c· give in charity, yet there are several tion from a writer in the May number men or estates in America and Europe of this REVIEW. He says: that could make equally large gifts t. I regret exceedingly that I was led without in the least altering their finan- by deep couviction of the truth of my cial standing or diminishing one iota position in regard to Mr. L. D. Wish- the sums they are able to expend upon ard's book, • A New Plan in Missions,' to accept too readily as corroborating their own personal indulgence or the enjoyment of their families. The most evidence what has now turned out to be not grounded in fact. I refer to my lavish personal expenditures possible by remarks, published in your May num- any individual, provided he does not ber, concerning the Meiji Gakuin, of Tokyo, Japan, which were included in gamble, must fall far below the reve- a criticism of the above bOOk, I have nues of many existing fortunes, despite been informed by Rev. E. P. Miller, the most frantic and reckless extrava- D.D., of Morioka, Japan, concerning gance. Multi· millionaires, and, indeed, the work and status of that institution. He savs: • From the catalogue which I every conscientious Christian, may profitably read the last chapter of 1 Chroni· forward you, you may see that in- stead of but 12 students dnring the last cles in this connection. ten years, there have been 94 gradu- ated. You may further see that of this The general director of the Gospel number (including two who did not finish their full course, but who have Union, Kansas City, sailed for Guaya- since become pastors) there are now quil, Ecuador June 20th, due there 8 pastors, 11 ministers (many of whom about July 5th. With him went :Mr. are acting as pastors, but are not in- J. A. Strain, of Kansas, and Mr. F. U. stalled over churches), 51 evangelists, Farnol, or Michigan, who purpose to 2 professors in Christian girls' schools, give their lives to the work there. It is 1 head of an orphan asylum, and 19 Mr. Fisher's purpose to assist in locat- who are marked" not certain" either ing the mission and then return to this as to their whereabouts or their present country in the fall, at which time occupation, besides 4 who have died Messrs. Strain and Farnol's families are since. graduation. All which may be expecting to go out to them, accom- considered a fair showing for a Chris- panied by a party of several mission- tian missionary institution of no greater aries, looking to God alone for support. maturity than the Meiji Gakuin. In Ecuador has heretofore been closed to reference to graduates who have gone Protestant missionaries. There are over to the Unitarians, as far as we movements now on foot there, how- know Mr. Satori Kato is the only grad· ever., led as they believe by God, look- uate who has joined that body, and, as ing toward religious liberty. In the is well known, he has since returned to late elections the liberal party is report- our body.' ed victorious over the clericals, and a .. Mr. Miller also denies in particular convention was called to meet at Quito, the statement made about the school August 10th, to take measures for the started by • a bright, consecrated· opening up of the country and religious young professor of the Meiji Gakuin,'
liberty. The minister from Ecuador, claiming that it was not started as a at Washingt<>n, has been very kind, protest against the unorthodoxy of the giving Mr. Fisher a letter to the presi. profes~ors in the theological department dent of the republic and in other ways. of the Meiji Gakuin, but rather by • the The work of the Gospel Union in 1Ho- pastors in the city of Tokyo after con- rocco is being blessed of God in a re- sultation with the cooperating missions, markable manner. when certain changes in the curriculum of the theological department of the God's mathematics are not man's. Meiji Gakuin were made, for the special purpose of training men who were U One of 'you shall chase a thousand, somewhat advanced fn life and were and two put-not two thousand but- not prepared to take the full theologi- ten thousand to flight." Again, in dis- cal course in the Meiji Gakuin.' Also tribution of barley loaves, as man sub- Mr. Miller says: • The number of stu- dents graduated from it [the Bible tracted, He added; as man divided, school for evangelists referred to in my He multiplied; and as man decreased article] is as follows: In 1890, 11; by giving, He increased for giving, 1891, 3; 1892, 2; 1893, 1; 1894, 2; 1895, 2. The present number of stu- of the Armenian quarters were perfect· dents is 5.' ly safe, and have escaped untouched; notably that where the Sultan's newly .. I willingly hasten to communicate appointed Armenian patriarchal locum these corrections of the parts of my arti- tenens lives, Mgr. Bartholomew. Bnt cle referred to, and to eltpress my sin- in other regions the storm was so fierce cere regret that I was not more careful that hardly a single man escaped alive. to avoid doing the injustice to the Meiji Notable instances were the towns or Gakuin that I have done. quarters of Psamalia and Hasskeuy, and the shores of the Golden Horn in .. Yours truly, general. Slaughter and pillage there .. E. H. JONES." continued from Wednesday afternoon till Thursday evening at half past eight, SENDAI, JAPAN, June 18, 1896. and then the work stopped as if by magic. The secret of this was discov· Letter from Oonstantinople. ered the neltt day. The six ambassa· dors had met at their summer resi· The following letter, written Septem- dences, and had sent thence a joint tele- gram, couched in very E.trong terms, ber 8th, 1896, has come from a personal direct to the palace of Yildiz, that these affairs must stop at once. No sooner friend of the editor, and is, for obvious bad the telegram reached the Sultan than the whole massacre was at an end. reasons, published without the signa· These various facts-the SUdden stop, the attitude of the soldiers and police, ture of the writer. It conveys impor- the quarters that were spared, and other indications-leave no doubt that the – tant and trustworthy intelligence. massacre was by order of the Sultan and controlled by him. This unanimity .. The events of the past few days of opinion may make unity of action here have doubtless been dealt with at easier. But large bodies move slowly, some length by the American press, but and the action (or, rather, inaction) of I doubt whether the attention they de· the powers thus far does not promise serve has been paid them, for of course much for the future. the political campaign there attracts and holds all attention, so far as con· " As to the number of dead, no accu· cerns the mass of the people. rate figures can be glven, at least for a long time; for some counted as dead .. For some months this city and vicino will be turning up after their time of ity have been quiet but for the little flur- hiding, and others, whose friends now ry caused by the deposition of the Patri· hope they have fied, will never return. arch, Mgr. Ismirlian. But threats had A conservative estimate a few days ago been heard on the part of the Armenian put the number at 2500 or over; this revolutionists that they were going to was soon raised to 4000, while tbe Gerstrike another blow soon, and that in man Embassy, we understand, thinks the capital. For a day or so previous the true figure will be nearer to 6000. to the capture of the Ottoman Bank the It is, of course, impossible for anyone Armenians knew that something was at the distance of America to form any coming. I myself was informed that idea of what that really means, and of very Wednesday morning that bombs how awful the carnage has been. The were to be thrown and the troops at- whole Armenian population is ~Iill in tacked on that day. But we did not feel terror a week after the outbreak, and certain that this was to take place. they will of course be so for many However. at one o'clock that afternoon weeks to come. No business goes on (August 26th) the trouble began. Thfl among them; their shops are still almoRt revolutionists, by a well-planned and entirely closed, and the prospect is vcry rapid attack, got possession of the Ot- drear. What is to be done? So mnny toman Bank Building, while other bands times have words of reassurance served from other points did much the same to bring back the trembling Armenians, thing on a smaller scale; there were sev- only that another massacre may put eral simultaneous sieges and pitched bat- them out of the way, that now who tles with the troops. . " Significant is to restore confidence? Last year's as it may be, in this as in every other massacre killed off 250 men, according instance of a revolutionary plot, the to the best calculation; this one seems leaders have been Hussians. Russia to be 2000 per cent. worse. The quesis the home of nihilism. As these false tion is, What is to prevent another with· patriots eltpected, their dastardly daring excited both government and mob, and in another year as much worse again ? the horrid work began.
.. In most quarters the soldiers merely stood by and watched. keeping foreigners at a safe distance from the mob. Sometimes they pitched in and helped the mob to kill and plunder. Certain "Foreigners and foreign property METLAKAHTLA, ALASKA, were in general left alone last week, as in September 11, 1896.
the previous outbreak, but not so com- Editor of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF pletely. The house of the American THE WORLD.
Board Mission at HaBskeuy was pillaged 1. When I read your books "The of everything. furniture and all, tho for- Acts of the Holy Spirit" and "The tunately the ladies who occupy it were New Acts of the Apostles" I determined away for the summer and escaped death. to ask Mr. Duncan how he came to en- Their servant, however, is missing- ter the missionary work. He said that probably he is dead. And several busi- when he was a young man-twenty- ness offices of British residents were three years of age-he went to his broken into and completely destroyed church one night when the regular ser- in the search for insurgents and arms vice was omitted and a missionary oc- supposed to be hidden there_ This is cupied the time. While listening to not quite the time, perhaps, for demands him he thought, Why could not I go 1 to be made for indemnity, but the Hass- And the thought came to him the next keuy property will come under the same day, and that evening he called on his category with that in Marash and Har- pastor and told him what he had thought poot, for which as yet not even a prom- of. The tears came into the minister's ise of indemnity has been secured by eyes, and he said, ,. William, I was look- the United States. Is our country going ing right at you while that man was to stand such destruction of the prop- speaking and asking the Lord to put it ertv of its citizens and not act vigorous- into into your heart to go." The min- ly 1 Why does France receive indem- ister urged him to at once offer himself nity and not the larger republic 1 to the Church Missionary Suciety of " In some cases the troops and police London, England, and the next day he did good service in restraining the wrote a letter to the secretarv of the so- mob; the only ri.Jason why the Bible ciety, and that night went again to see House was not sacked and its employees his pastor, who approved the letter and all killed wa.s probably, under God, the also wrote himself to the secretary_ presence and vigorous action of a sq uad Next morning, as Mr. Duncan started of cavalry, and later of a guard of sol- down street to his place of business, diers, sent there by request of Mr. Ter- some one hailed him and asked him if rell. Both this building and the Amer- he had heard the news. He asked, ican College for girls, in Scutari, and " What 1" and he replied, " Your pas- Robert College, as well as many other tor died last night." This and other foreign buildings, are at present under circumstances so impressed him that he military guard, and are thus supposed was led to go first for three years, then to be protected from danger. But one for ten, and now he has been here forty cannot but ask the question, What is years!
the source of danger, if not these very 2. The conditions that made possible soldiers 1 And again, our trust is with- the industrial feature of Mr. Duncan's out any other foundation than God and work are somewhat (perhaps) peculiar His goodness. When even the decima- to Alaska-viz., (1) a very large terri- tion of the Armenians at the capital does tory sparsely settled and abounding in not move Europe to action, what is to resources; (2) a people willing to work. prevent another wholesale butchery in While this is, compared with the work other places more remote from their of spreading the Gospel, comparatively eyes 1" unimportant, yet it enters into the thoughts and calculations of many very good people. To illustrate what I mean, I will take a single instance Mr. Duncan, who is at the head of (there are very many more). There is the well-known" Metlakahtla," among an Indian village fifty miles from here (Kassan, near the center of the east side the Indians in Alaska, was requestcd to of Prince of Wales Island) w here there write an article for the REVIEW. He is is a resident population of about one hundred, and a floatln~ population of very much opposed to appearing in about as many more. They have never print and too busy to write anything. had the Gospel or Ii school, or any help But Dr. H. J. Minthorn has written a (at their home) In the way of Christian- letter, which we venture to publish, as ity, educlltion, or other . helpful influ- ences. Yet they have resources that, it contains some things about this work with some help, such as has been given which ought to be widely known. to these people by Mr. Duncan, would He says: enable everything to be self-supporting just as they are here-that is, the church Rev, A. Merensky writes from Ber- lin: and school both supported by the leo· pIe without outside help. The IndIans "The old Berlin Missionary Society who fished for the canneries this sum- (Berlin I.) bas recently published her an· mer averaged nearly $4.00 each. An nual report for 1895. The society has able-bodied young man without much a staff of 82 missionaries of whom 8 if any capital could go to Kassan rent are working in China and '72 in Africa Besides those European workers sbe ha~ an Indian house, start a school: and preach the Gospel, and during the in her .employ 164 native agents, and months of June. July, and August could 463 natIve helpers who receive no pay- fish with the Indians, and make $300 or ment or remuneration whatever. Many $a4n0d0b, earnrdieaslesonosuecguhretodrkieeedpfihsih~ fvaemniisloyn~ of those natives, especially in Africa year. Of course it would be still better have been true supporters of the work for him if he had enough capital to equip and true servants of Christ for a period a small store, and still better if he could of twenty or thirty Ylars or cven more, put up a cannery. as Mr. Duncan has. and have been a very source of blessing It would also be much better for the for their countrymen. And the whole Indians, as it would keep them at home work of the society has been blessed in and save them great expense and ex- the past year abundantly. In 1llis year posure in going thirty or fifty miles to 683 adults were admitted to baptism a cannery or store. There are many and in South Africa there were 1407 such places, and they are being occu- men and women under instruction UH pied by men who are no help to the inquirers and candidates for baptihlll.
Indians, but a curse to them. Still bet- Not less than 5285 children are visiting ter, if it were possible, would it be to the schools every day. The whole d pu.t a missionary and store and cannery the Christians under care of the society (or other industrial establishment) at numbers 27,497 souls in Africa and 818 every aIndcoiaonpevrailtliavgecsyisntemAloafskba~yainngd in China. adopt "The society has occupied two new goods of manufacturers and selling the fields since 1895. It has sent missiona- products of the industrial enterprises to ries from Transvaal to Mashonaland the best ad vantage; also, in the near where they have occupied two stations: future, when Alaska comes into the and find that the Mashonas are prepared Union as a Territory or State, they could everywhere to receive missionaries and cooperate in getting the right kind of a to listen to the preaching of tehveanGgeolsipsetl~ so that the itinerant nati ve constitution providing for education are much encouraged; but the wars and protection from evil influences. have put a stop to the work and the But right now, to-day, a young man missionaries have suffered a good deal and wife (many such) need not fear to from fever. come to Alaska as missionaries so far as " The second new field is in the north their support is coornpcreorsnpeed~teovfenouwtsiitdheout much capital end of Lake Nyassa among the Konde help, and their prospects in life will be p.eople. There are lahoring 9 missiona- as good here as the average in the rIes, of whom 5 are married, on 5 sta- United States. tions. The language of the people is reduced to writing; the gospels of Luke The Cross-Bearers' Missionary Read- and Matthew are translated and in all the stations the Gospel is pre;ched by de- ing Circle gives as its" literature for voted men in the language of the coun- 1896-97" : try. All these Berlin stations are situ- • 1. ~iographical: "Life of John Will- ated in the eathseterwn epsatertrnofpaKrotsndoeflanthd~ whereas in Iams, 75 cents, Rev. James J. Ellis' country the Moravians have 3 stations "Life of John Livingston Nevius ,: and 1 farther north in Utengule the $2, Helen S. Coan Nevius. 2. Medi- capital of Merere, a great potent;te of cal: "Medical Missions," $1.50, John this part of Africa. The course of the Lowe, F.R.C.S.E. D3u. f f ,E"d$u1c.aGt ieoonragl~' Gospel is spreading. Within five years " L,ife of Alexander 9 stations were occupied in this remote SmIth. LL.D. 4. Periodical: THE part of Africa, and a well·organized llIsSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD work is carried on among a people that $E1d.i9t0o,r.nev. Arthur T. Pierson' D.D. ,' was scarcely mentioned in the world be- fore. And it is very gratifying to hear Membership fee, 50 cent!!. that everywhere the people are willing For further information, apply to to/listen, whereas in some places more Rev. M. L. Gray, President C. M. R. C., than that could be observed. There are St. Louis, Mo. some beautiful villages of the chief Muankenga situated on the banks of uates in the ministry, and 2500 other the Bufira River, in the midst of luxu· men who have studied for one or two rious banana groves. There are living years in theological seminaries, and are the natives on a comparatively high now preaching; there are 65 dentists standard of African life, in clean homes and 65 pharmacists. There are 200 among plenty of food a~d African luX;' newspapers and 4 magazines edited by uries. They are poor, Ignorant, destI- colored men. In 1892 the colored peo· tute heathen, but they are eager to pIe contributed $300,000 for educahear. One of the missionaries could tion, and paid taxes on property valued scarcely find rest when he was stopping at $274,000,000. One hundred books there on a journey. His listeners wanted on poetry, biography. religion, science, to hear more, even late in the night, and general literature have been writabout the relation of men to God, and ten by colored men; essays, poems, and when the missionary retired they told him other articles have been published in the he would not have time to sleep long, leading magazines of the country. Four and really they made him rise at a very banks and 37 building and loan associaearly hour because they wanted to tions are also conducted by them. hear how they could become children of Glld. Aud Rev. C. Nauhaus, who The Church should not give oecasion visited the same place in the beginning to such criticism as appeared lately in of this year, writes in the course of one the Forum. A writer, with stinging afternoon some 1000 people heard the sarcasm, teIls us that the American G')spel ; even late in the evening some 600 people w.ere assembled around him iuquiring and listening in a way that inspires us with bright hope for the fu· ture."
The Presbyterian Church of Queens- churches are prolific in novelties; that land is extending her missions to the they have such unheard-of things as Kanakas in the Mackay district, Queens- "the clam-bake sociable, the strawland, and asks for an additional mis· berry sociable, the pink tea, and the sionary, who will attend to the Poly- broom drill." A Baptist Church in nesians on the north side of the Pioneer New Jersey had a successful" poverty River, Mackav-the present mission- sociable," at which, apparently, its ary: the Rev. Mr. lVI'Iutyre, henceforth members appeared in cast-off rags. confining his labors to the south side of The Baptists of another city had a war that river. In this way, it is hoped concert; the Universalists, a lawn fete ; that the whole .population from the the Free-Will Baptists, a chocolate drill ; South Seas in the district will be the Congregationalists, a Jarley waxreached. work show; the Swedenborgians, a May·pole frolic; the Episcopalians, a At the close of the war there were in rofe chantant; and the Zion Church, a the United States only three colored cake walk. "Such follies seem alto- physicians; now there are about 800. gether incredible, and we feel sure that Then there were only two colored law- all lovers of pure and undefiled religion yers ; now there are 300. Then there will regard them with horror and con- were no colored teachers, now there are tempt. Such innovations as these work 2041 in Virginia alone, and of these 1130 incalculable havoc-they disgust the are women, receiving on the average simple-minded, they degrade those who $26.86 per month. It was then against patronize them, they discredit the the law in many of the Southern States Church, and they bring Christianity to teach a colored person how to read; into disrepute. A return to primitive now there are more than 25,000 colored Christianity would make short work of teachers in the South. Since then more these questionable expedients, would than 2,500,000 have learned to read and meail the purging of the temple, and write, and about 1,500,000 are now in that temple would once more become the public schools. There are 57 colored· the synonym of simplicity, beauty, and college presidents, 500 theological grad- purity. "
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED :BY lI:EV. D. L. LEONAlID.
Extracts and Translations from Foreign gate of death as joyous as a bird into a Periodicals. pleasant grove.' His words and de- meanor witnessed before the countless BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, throng, which was present at the mar~ tyrdom, of peace of heart and gladness MASS. of mind. "-IJansk Mi8sions-Blad.
CHINA. -We observe, in the Chronicle, an obituary notice of William Lockhart, -Dr. EDKINS, writing in the Ohi- F.R.C.S" first Protestant medical nlisn88e Recorder for last November, re- sionary to China. He returned to Great marks that the }fohammedans in China Britain in 1867. He had been nearly seem more inclined to make common thirty years in China. cause with the Christians againlst polytheism and idolatry than to oppose' -It appears that in Korea, until latethem. They have also the sense 01 ly, a widow was not permitted to marry community in the fact that they, too; a second husband, except of inferior profess a Western religion. Of course, rank. Classes are sharply divided as Moslems, they are bound to be hor- there, so that this restriction was a serirified at the vile attacks made on Jesus, ous disadvantage. Under the influence whom they acknowledge as the Word of Japan, however, this usage has been and Spirit of God, and the Messiah by abrogated. Women in Korea stand sosome of the literati, by whom, as Dr. cially high, higher apparently than evel! Edkins remarks, they too are scornfully in Japan, much higher than in China_ regarded. A widow is not, as in India, held in disdain.-Mis8ioTttifreund. -" A conspicuous victim of one of the earlier persecutions was the Domini- -A Korean Christian was asked how can F1'ancis Ferdinand de Capellas, who long he had known the Savior. "Three by his zeal and capacity had rendered months," he answered. ., Surely longhimself peculiarly odious to the obsti- er; you have been a Christian two nate heathen. Altho the then reigning years." "Yes; I have known someemperor was thoroughly favorable to thing of the Savior for two years; but Christianity, yet under the orders of Himself I have only known for three the viceroy of the province, who then, months." as now, had almost independent authority, Capellas was arrested and -" If we wish to imagine an ideal brought before a vindictive judge. Confucian character, we must think of When the judge asked him where he a man who is polite and ceremonious in dwelt, and what were his means of life, his manner, but at the same time cold he answered: 'I have no other house and distant. Toward anything superthan the world, no other bed than the natural he is skeptical and scornful. earth, no other means of life than those He is fond of his children, and is scrupuwhich the Divine Providence daily lously devoted to his parents, whether sends me, and no other aim than to la- alive or dead. lIe is just and upright bor and suffer for the honor of Christ in all his dealings, and does many genand for the salvation of them that are erous acts. He is a good man, and for willing to believe on Him.' The judge many reasons claims our respect; hut ordered him to be beaten with clubs a high state of civilization is absolutely and condemned to death. The sen- impossible with a nation of such chartence was executed on January 15th, acters. "-Ohinese Recorder, 1648. The martyr passed' through the
EXTRACTS AND
-Dr. Ernest Faber remarks that the came acquainted with last year, but physical and climatic conditions of then, it is true, very thoroughly."
China are more favorable than those of -Fraulein VORBEIN, of Hong Kong, Germany, and the Chinese are, on the writing of a visit to Japan, in the Galwhole, more frugal than the Germans. wer Missionsblatt, remarks; .. Many China, therefore, being twenty-four contrasts between the two nations drew times as large as Germany, ought, he my attention; above all, the composure judges, to have a popUlation forty times of the Japanese and their extraordinary as large. In fact, it has one only eight courteousness and friendliness. What times as large. This proportion reflects a contrast it forms to the cold contemp. unfavorably on Chinese administration, tuousness of the Chinese, which yet does not restrain them from an impor- -Culture is well defined by Dr. Fa- tunate curiosity I On the whole jour. ber as the making of nature subservient ney in Japan I was not a single time to man. This definition is doubly ap- annoyed by word or look, but found plicable. First, external nature is made everywhere a ready obligingness, even subservient to humanity; second, the where it was difficult to make myself body of man is made subservient to his understood." Miss Vorbein also respirit. The glorification of lust and marks on the great freedom with which lawlessness, which is called realism Japanese women move about in public, (genuine realism being a wholly differ· as compared with the Chinese. Yet ent thing), is a reversion toward sav- the Japanese women seem immeasuraagery.
-Missionary Waidtlow, in the Dansk bly inferior in strength of character and native intelligence to what we are as· Missions-Blad, gives an amusing de· sured of the Chinese. scription of how things go at a Chinese inn, in this case in the far northeast. -Dr. H. Blodget, of the American " The solemn moment comes when we Board, has published an interesting are to eat. First, in the surrounding pamphlet advocating the use, in China, throng are to be found certain dirty of T'ien Chu for God. Then, he says, youngsters. We hear from them very all Christians in China would, as they distinct expressions of utter astonish- do in the world at large, use the same ment when we are seen to use knife or term for God. SMn is equivalent to fork. Meanwhile the teacher and the Spirit. Shang·ti is said to be equiva- cook are overwhelmed with questions: lent to Jupiter. T'ien Chu means Where we come from, what land we .. Lord of Heaven." The Roman are from, how far it is from China, Catholic missionaries had long and ex- whether we are merchants, what our haustive discussions as to these various names are, how old we are, what wages terms, and finally, supported by Rome, our people get, etc. We encounter the have decided for T'ien Chu. The same questions continually. When Greek Church has also approved this they ask what land we are from, and decision. As Dr. Medhurst has said, we answer Dan.gva (gva means land), why should all these thorough discus- they are almost sure to repeat it in a sions and this mature decision go for tone implying extreme astonishment, nothing with the Protestants? That for a new country is added to their would be too much like copying the geographical knowledge, which is idiotic refusal of North Germany to ac· usually limit~d to this, that there are cept the Gregorian calendar before 1700 lands, which are called: In-gva (Eng- and of England before 1752. Of land), Doe-gva (Germany), Fo-gva course, we out of China are not com· (France), Mei-gva (America), Gan-li-gva petent judges, but when we find T'ien (Korea), and lastly, Yrban (Japan), the Chu approved as a basis of union by existence of which last they first be- such authorities as Dr. Edkins, Presi-
MI8SIONARY INTELI.IGENCB
dent Martin, Hon. S. W. Williams, agement, the committee set about the LL.D., Bishop Burdon, Bishop Scheres- work not only ot organization, but ot chewsky, and various other eminent difYusing fuller information and awak-. missionaries, we may well presume in ening interest, under the sense of the its favor. pressing need and urgency of the work abroad. What has been the result? MISCELLANEOUS. The following figures may indicate the marvelous expansion. In twelve years -In Wllrtemberg, where the Sun- the staff of European missionaries has day-schools and continuation schools been mUltiplied threefold-there are are regulated by the State, an ordinance now in round numbers 60 Scottish lawas passed last year that home and for- dies in the fleld, where in 1884 there eign missions should be among the sub- were only 20. The native Christian jects treated in the course of religious agents have similarly increased from instruction. 186 to 410 ; the number of girls in the schools has risen from 5600 to about -" Why, why, pray, cannot Rome 11,000, and the standard of education leave our simple Christian congrega- has greatly advanced. Two medical tions in Java at peace! Toward Mo- missions, at Madras and Nagpur, have hammedans and heathen, who surround been founded and'developed, each with the little Protestant flocks by thon-ands an emcient staff of Europeans and naand thousands, Rome must follow an- tives, a hospital and two dispensaries, other line of policy. We do not under- relieving last year about 14,000 cases. stand how it is possible, in this time of Evangelistic work carried on by women culture and enlightenment, that men among women has also been greatly exand women of Christian belief and tended both In India and Africa. The Christian love can have peace in such normal schools for the training of natransactious, which are utterly at vari- tive Christian teachers and agents have ance with the spirit of Jesus Christ, been largely developed, and an institute which they can learn out of the Gos- for the training of missionaries has been pels just as well as we. How is it pos. established at home. sible that men and women who feel themselves called to do God's work " The significance of this remarkable can take men into service to cause growth will be the more apparent when others to fall away-men as to whose it is added that neither the Church nor walk and conduct it is best to be the committee have led the way in it, silent !"-Maandhericht van het Neller. but have only tardily followed. It is landache Zendelinggenootsehap. the Lord Himself who has opened the dOflrs and thrust the Church into them -The report of the Woman's For- by blessing the labors of His servants eign Missionary Society of the Free in the field. Every new step that has Church of Scotland says: "Year by been taken, every new agent, we may year the work in the field grows, and say, that has gone out, has been, on the so grows that the committee are baffled urgent appeal of the Mission Councils, in their efforts to keep pace with it. composed of the ordainAd missionaries Every year the record is one of exten· and the Society's own agents. Every sion, but how rapid it is can only be department of mission work. not only understood when we look at a period, helps all the others, but is indispensable say, of ten or twelve years. In 1883 to their success, and that holds most of the General Assembly anew gave spe- all in respect of the work among the cial recognition to the Society, and in two sexes. It is impossible to Chrisanswer to a petition authorized its bet- tianize the men while leaving the womter organization through presbyterial en in heathen darkness and bondage, auxiliaries and congregational associa· and accordingly the ordained mission· tions. With that sanction and encour-
ENaLISlJ NOTU
aries, for the sake of their own work as by the Rev. J. Dodds to the Mi38ionarg well as for the sake of the women, have Herald, the new station is described as been the most earnest advocates and a .. fairly large town, of some 600 in- helpers of the Women's Foreign Mis- habitants, and with the prospect of en- sionary Society. largement week by week. Yukusu Is ,. The remarkable progress, then, has situated on the far bend of the river, been initiated and achieved first in the , . . planted on a very high, steep field, and the Church at home has only bank., The mission station is built in inadequately followed it up. This Is the middJe of the town, a convenient manifest when we compare the expan- spot to meet all the folk of the village sion abroad with the means supplied at as they pass to and fro to attend the home. The work, speaking broadly, different markets. • .. Altogether we has grown threefold ; the home income feel that at and around Yukusu we has only doubled. The staff of 60 have a wide field for work."
European missionaries and 410 native Mr. Dodds and his colleague, Mr.
agents receives support from home to White, are looking prayerfully forward the extent of only £11,000, and of this to the time when they can sow the pre- congregational contributions supply cious seed in this their new sphere.
but one half. How is it possible, it Chine8e Converts.-The Rev. Herbert may be asked, to do so much on so lit- Dixon writes the following from ShantIe? The answer is found in the facts, si: .. Chail-hsia-yun is a native of Shanfirst, that the Society has both in India tung. While still a boy at school he and Africa some honorary agents, who heard the Gospel from a Chinese evangive not only themselves but their gelist connected with our Chou Fu means to the work; that valuable help work. It led to his conversion. and on is rendered by some of the missionaries' volunteers being called for to help open wives; and that the schools are to a a work at Shansi, he offered himself and considerable extent aided by govern- was accepted. This was some thirteen ment grants and the fees of the pupils. years ago; . . . he has gained the re- But. withal, not only are the resources spect and goodwill of the people generat the committee's disposal strained to ally. He is my right-hand man, and meet the necessary demands, but a took temporary charge of my work strain is also put on the strength of the during my visit to England in 1893." missionaries, and urgent appeals for After instancing other cases of similar help have to remain without the right enouragement, lVIr. Dixon concludes his response. Yet while this is the position letter with this appeal: "These are of the work through God's blessing on specimens of the power of God's grace it, there are still some hundreds of con- among the Chinese, and if only the gregations in the Church that give no committee will send us the promised help to the Woman's Mission, and many reinforcements, we hope to multiply more even of the wealthier that give such specimens indefinitely. Oh, that most inadequately." the churches at home could see and realize the thousands upon thousands Mutatis mutandi8, this representation around us here who have never heard of the work growing abroad faster than the glad tidings of salvation, I am sure the sustaining interest at home applies they would attempt something more to all churches and all countries, English Notes. serious in the way of self-denial I"
BY REV. JAMES DOUGLAS, M.A. W68Zellan Mi88ionarg Sodetll.-In the current number of the MiBBiona'1'1l No- Baptist Misaionarg SoCf,"etll.-A new tz'cea the present need is most imprell- station has lately been opened at Yuku- si vely stated, not for the purpose of BU, Stanley Falls. In a letter written starting new work, but of carrying on
GENEBAL MISSIONARY IN'l'EJ,LIGENCE
such missions as are already in exist· in full swing, and it is not difficult to ence. To do this, 14 men are required prophesy that erelong we shall have at once. The evangelistic work of the the strong head of a strong Methodist Jaffa Mission is increasing to such an circuit, extent as to need another worker, and "The story of the Redeemer's love similarly work at Hyderabad, Madras, is bringing joy and gladness to hearts Negapatam, and other districts will that were cold, callous, and hard, and suffer unless men come forward. is doing much to shake the destinies of " In presence of these calls, the com- this great country.
mittee has to report that even if the .. The harvest truly is plenteous, but expenditure for 1896 does not exceed the laborers are few."
that for 1895. the ordinary income of 1896 must exceed that of 1895 by not Notes from Kandll, Oelllon.-" Two less than £2000 in order to avoid a de- conversions at Laggala, the first true ficiency. The committee, therefore, Kandyans we have won in that neighrepresents to the conference the special borhood, have given us much joy. I necessity that exists for immediate and was much struck by the intelligence effective relief." and moral earnestness of the answers to my questions iu my first interview Work in the Tra1!8'Daal.-The Rev. with these young men. In answer to Thomas Goodwin, at the end of a year the question, • Why do you wish to beof hard work, shows that in spite of all come a Christian?' each man said, the political disturbances a solid work , To save my soul.' Again,' Why do is begun, and there is every hope for you turn to Christianity to save your the future. Mr. Goodwin's sphere is soul?' one answered, 'Becanse there called "East Rand," and includes an is no Savior in Buddhism,' while the area of about 10 square miles on the other added, 'No, Buddha is dead.' gold reef east of J ohannestmrg. At the When they were baptized, some six: close of the first meeting held, 8 persons months after, one went to work in the expressed a desire to join in Christian fields with his heathen friends and abfellowshlp, and accordingly a Metho- nounced, 'I am no longer a devil's man dist class meeting was immediately -I am Christ's man.' That was four formed. Tnere are now 7 places in the months ago or more, and he and his district of East Rand where services are friend are standing firm to·day…
conducted, and there is good prospect of further additions. Olturc7t Missionary Sodetll.-In an The minister's strength has for the article written by the Rev. E. A.
most part been devoted to Vlakfontein, Douglas. on the Church Missionary So- as the situation was promising as a ciety's mission in Tinnevelly. the past good center for the work; the result and present condition of the mission is has been wonderful. The work was clearly stated, the main note and cb,ar- hindered for a time by the disturbances, acler of the past being individualillm, but after the disarmament of Johannes- and that of the present corporate action.
burg Mr. Goodwin sought to gather the The results accruing from this change broken threads, and after a great deal are all beneficial, and altho it is early of labor-manual and spiritual-a house to speak confidently of actual results, of God was opened for public worship yet one or two seeming benefits may be in April, 1896. pointed out : " Vlakfontein is not alone in its pos- 1. .A greater spi1'it oj liberalityltas been sibilities; it is but an instance of what e'COked. The Tinnevelly native Chris- is being done, and what wants doing. tians have, in spite of famines and priva- All the agencies found in the strong tions, largely increased their contribu- Methodist societies of England are now tions, and are becoming filled with. a. desire to have entirely self.supporting pressed the travelers in the journey churches. were: 2. A larger spirit of independence i8 1. The intense ignorance of the truth being shown. The natives no longer that exists in the district-without merely acquiesce when in council with knowledge, hope, and comfort.
their bishop, but feel in increasing meas· 2 The wide-reaching influence of the ure that the welfare ot the Church is street preaching in large centers.
something they themsel ves should in· 3. The immense importance of ele- terest themselves in. Accordinglyade. mentary schools. The people are quate efforts are being made by the steeped in ignorance, but if a hold people themselves toward self-govern- might be taken of the children this ment. would eventually be altered, and the thought of the people turned from the Easte1'n Equatorial Africa. – Mr. groove in which the minds and lives of Wray writes concerning his work in their ancestors have moved for ages.
this part of Africa: "The present time 4. The absolute necessity of greater may be considered as halcyon days; and more systematic work if any good the Lord hath done great things for us, is to be done. What can be done by for which we have most abundant cause one solitary visit or a visit once a year for most fervent thanksgiving. The among such people?
beginning of the end of Satan's king- dom has begun to appear. The haugh- THE KINGDOM. ty spirit is broken, and a spirit of in- quiry arisen. • " The people will -Five of the larger and older mis- now do almost anything I ask, and sionary societies can be named which some have offered voluntary labor; in the aggregate have nearly 350,000 and further, as a proof of their good- communicants in their churches. Dr.
will, they have given to the society the George Smith estimates the number of hill where they used to meet and hold native Christians at 4,500,000. It is their councils of war, etc., the most more than likely that 12,000,000 or sacred spot in the mountain. They even 15,000,000 have been rescued from come to us with their troubles. the chil- idolatry since Carey's beginning a cen- dren are ours to teach, and some of the tury since; nor is it unreasonable to ex- young men are thirsting for knowledge. pect an ingathering during the cen- Older men question the younger on tury to come of 50,000,000 or even what they have learned from me, and 100,000,000.
urge them to make haste and learn in order that they may teach them. Such, -As the London Ohri8tian suggests : then, is a sketch of our present posi- .. It has been pointed out that whereas, tion. " in the first century of Christian mis- sions, a large portion of the work has Western India.-The missionaries at been done among the lowest tribes, the Poona, the Revs. W. A. Roberts, R. S. Church is now face to face with the Heywood, and H. T. Jacob, made an ancient religions of the East, and has a itineration in February and March in very different and much more difficult the direction of Bombay, visiting some task on hand. It is different in form, no 80 different towns and villages, giving doubt. but whether more difficult in fact simple addresses wherever possible. may be questioned. The conflict has been The journey was attended with much with the animalism of men, but now it profit and blessing to the natives of the will be with the sins of the spirit, with villages through which the missionaries subtle theories as to God and man and passed. nature; yet underneath the one and The most striking facts which 100- the other lies the obstruction In the condition of the heart. The carnal -Not till the word barbarian was heart. and not mere habits of life or struck out of the dictionary of mankind modes of tllought, con8titutes the su- and replaced by brother can we look preme hindrance to the truth in every for even the beginnings of our science.
nation. But even taking the intellec· This cbange was effected by Chris· tual difficulties at their worst, they tianity. The idea of mankind as one need cause no anxiety. At the begin- family, as the children of one God. is ning the Gospel grappled with the most an idea of Christian growth. The sci· rampant sins of the tlesll, and with the ence of mankind Is a science whicll sins of the spirit, and with the ablest without Christianity would never have pagan thinking the worl(i has ever sprung into life.-Max Muller.
known-and conquered. What can -Ursinus Objected to a proposed Benares, or Calcutta. or Pekiu, or To- mission among Greenlanders, Lapps, kio put forward tbatJerusalem, Athens, Tartars, and Japanese, on the ground Corinth, and Antioch did not also op- that the holy things of God sllould not pose to Jesus Christ? Yet they op· be cast before such swine. A Dutch posed in vain." church in Cape Town posted over its -Well may we watch and marvel door the notice: ., Dogs and Hottentots over the multiplication of secular helps not admitted." The Jew used to pray to the spread of the Gospel, like the that he might never see a Samaritan·in Suez Canal, the great steamship lines, heaven. The man who can thus pray and the monster railway systems of the is not likely ever to see anybody in world, which make the ends of the earth heaven. God's evangel is for every so easily accessible. In 1862 the New creature; in His thought there is no York Times pronounced the Pacitic human hog or human dog. Grattan Railroad " thEl grandest proposition yet said of Fox: "You must measure submitted to human effort or to engi- such a mind by parallels of latitude."
neering skill, and if successful, is to be The Divine mind cannot be measured the highest achievement. " That even thus; it knows no boundary scheme, however. contemplated the lines. The purpose of grace is to save laying of only 2500 miles of iron rails. and unify the race in Christ, to sum up But now, behold Russia is altogether again in Him all things now disunited eclipsing all antecedent attempts by by sin.-.Rei1. T. J. Villera.
pushing forward her 7000 miles of -Missionary I Oh, the measure of track, destined to span both Eur.ope the meaning of that word to us and to and Asia, and so to bring the farthest the whole universe of created beings, Orient into the near neighborhood of and to the uncreated One Himself I He the Occident! is the eternal missionary, and all that -Dr. Griffis well reminds us that lit- we know of Him to·day has come to erary criticism is a very potent weapon us through His omnipotent missionary In the overthrow of traditions that are service. From everlasting to everlast- false, corrupt, and cruel. Thus in ing He is God. Love sending, sending.
India the strength of suttee maintained He Is Christ loving, loving, coming, itself largely by references to the sacred coming, sending, sending, " As the Fa- books. But scholarship has in great ther hath sent Me even so send I you."
degree weakened the authority of such Missionary? Aye, in so far as we are references. So the conceit of the Chi- God-like and Christ-like we are mis- nese and Japanese, so far as fostered by sionary. If we are not missionary we extravagant and unverifiable passages ha ve ail yet no pa.rt or parcel with Him, of their literature, is in process of re- and are in need of Ills missionaries- dnction by the methods of historic erlti· heathen still in a Christian land, with· cism. out hope and without God in the world. " If any man has not the spirit half a cent a week for a year-e'l"en if _ of Christ he is none of His. "-Rev. no one gave any more.
W. E. Witter. -Tiger-bone sQuP is used by the -" Only a mIssIonary; yes, but, Koreans as a medicine for cowardice. . omitting all the qualities which are At the worst it must be harmless. So primary and essential, note what varied let us try it thoroughly in all our con· and eminent services he performs out- gregations which hold such numbers side of his great busine,s As one 01 who are sadly deficient in backbone and this genua affirms (with his eyes espe- clear grit.
cially upon Americans), they" are not -The dean of the Boston University what prejudiced people choose to con- School of Theology knows of 50 young sider them, mere religionists or fanatics men in that institution, many of them caught in the toils of other worldliness with .. slenderest financial resources,"
or devotion to narrow propagandism. who .. will not hesitate to wash win- They are no meddlesome zealots. They dows, run errands, take care of side- are students, lingnists, authors, trans- walks and furnaces, post bills, distribute lators, explorers, antiquarians, scien· circulars, or wait on table. Their intel- tists, educators, historianll, medical ligence, business experience, and guar- men, and especially philanthropists. anteed honesty commend them to minor They are pioneers in and promoters of positions of trust as night clerks, col- civilization. Wherever they go com· lectors of bills and of rents. II Let not merce follows them, and industry is the missionary secretaries fail to search introduced." And with his eyes on out and lay hold of all such.
Turkey, he continues: "The country is full of sewing-machines, cabinet or- i:-OUNG PEOPLE. gans, pianos, clocks, stoves, implements of a hundred kinds." -The College Department of the -It has strangely" happened" more Calcutta Y. M. C. A. has come -into than once that missionaries whose death possession of a splendid piece of propwas" untimely," coming while they erty worth $50,000 in the very heart of were yet on the threshold of their work, the city. More than 4000 students are or after a brief term of service, have found within a half- mile, more than nevertheless stirred the hearts and 6000 within a mile, and 10,000 are resimolded the lives of thousands for many dent within two or three miles. These years-such as Brainerd, and Martyn, are the picked men of tlle Bengal Presiand Ion Keith Falconer, and Harriet dency. It is this most important and Newell. most interesting class that Professor W. W. White, late of Mr. Moody's -Alas I alas! It is too true, it ap- Chicago Institute, is for two years to plies to every denomination, and it is a endeavor to win to Christ.
shame. But what shall be done? As -The Y. W. C. A. was born in Engthe Church at Home and .Abroad pro- land in 1855, has attained there to a tests and pleads: "While the Board's membership of 100,000, and has penedebt, in its huge pl'Oportioris, may seem trated into many lands, with India formidable, it must be remembered among them. lIrs. A. M. Reynolds, that our Church has a large member- the World's Secretary, is on a two ship, and is possessed of great wealth- years' tour of the globe, and has already $300,000 for 1.000,000 people is 33 visited 4 continents. cents apiece. The poorest member in all the Church would not think a debt -The Lutheran (General Synod) ot thirty-three centa a very serious mat- young people's societies on the terri· ter. It would be just a little more than tory ot tlle Central and Northern II· Hnois synods have made a splendid rec- thought maybe you would lay it Ollt ord for themaelves. During the sum- this year in Bibles for poor children to mer vacation of 1895 William M. Beck, remember me by." With a heart swell· a student in Carthage College, visited ing with emotion he kissed the cold a number of Endeavor societies and se- brow and replied, " I will. my child." cured pledges to the amount of about and then after a pause added, " I will $600. Last summer he completed t.he do it every year, that you may draw work, and now reports pledges amount- others after you to heaven." ing to $847 annually for a period of five years. This money is to be over and UNITED STATES. above the amount usually contributed by the churches and Sunday-schools. -The following gifts", exceeding one million of dollars each, have been given -An incident as beautiful as it was by individuals to educational instituunique occurred on Commencement tions in A.merica: Stephen Girard, to Day at Iowa College, when, under the Girard College, $8,000,000; John D. lead of President Gates, the sum of Rockefeller, to Chicago University, $500 was raised on the spot for the pur- $7,000,000; George Peabody, to varipose of sending and supporting for one ous foundations, $6,000,000; Leland year a tutor in Anatolia College at Stanford, to Stanford University, Malsovan. The sum thus raised was $5,000,000; Asa Parker, to Lehigh Uniput to immediate use in the sending of versity, $3,500,000; Charles Pratt, to Mr. H. H. Riggs, a native of Turkey, the Pratt Institute of Brooklyn, $2,700,- who will at once enter upon work. (100; Paul Tulane, to Tulane Univer- Mr. Riggs graduated last summer at sity, New Orleaus, $2,500,000; Isaac Carleton College, Minnesota, and has Rich, to Boston University, $2,000,000 ; already sailed for Turkey, where his Jonas G. Clark, to Clark University, coming will supply a great need. Worcester, Mass., $2,000,000; the Van- derbilts, to Vanderbilt University, "!"The names chosen by various Cir- $1,775,000; James Lick, to the Unicles of the King's Daughters and Sons versityof California. $1,600,000 ; John are significant of many phases of ser- C, Green, to Princeton, $1.500,000; vice and effort. Among them are Op- William C, De Pauw, to De Pauw Uniportunity, Diligent, Helping Hand, versity, $1,500,000; A.•J. Drexel, to Sunshine, Comforting, Loyal, Mizpah, the Drexel Industrial School, $1,500,- Ministering, Praying, Stedfast, Bur- 000; Leonard Case, to the Cleveland den Bearers, Wayside, Dorcas, Inas- School of Applied Sciences, $1,500,- much, Help a Little, Royal Helpers, 000; Peter Cooper, to Cooper Union, Epaphras, Tongue Guard, and, most $1,200,000; Ezra Cornell and Henry W. common of all, Whatsoever. Sage, to Cornell University. each $1,100,000; $1,000,000 by Pl'esident -Some 75,000 bouquets of flowers Low, to Columbia College. were sent to the Chicago Flower Mission this year by Iowa Christian En- -The Board of Health of New York deavor societies. One jUnIor society City has been waging war upon the alone within four months sent 1200. rear tenements of the city, A.bout 40 of them ha ve been condemned as unfit -A father was weeping at the bed- for human habitation, and their de· side of his little daughter who lay sick struction ordered, The landlords have and near to death, and the strange protested, and have carried the case question came from her lips and was into the courts in order to test the conrepeated until some reply must be made, stitutionality of the law and the legal. How much do I cost you every year? ity of the action. Another point to he After a sum had been named, he said, "Why do you ask 2" "Because, I settled by the courts pertaius to come Lithuanian, Italian, Spanish, Welsh, pensation for the destroyed tenements. Greek, Hebrew, Chinese, and Arabic, which were removed by the Board of and finding eager rcaders for them.
Health under the clause of the act of -Mayor Pingree's famous potato the legislature giving it power to seize patch in Detroit has achieved another tenements that' are unfit for habitation triumph. The report for the present , and incapable of being made fit, and to season shows that with an outlay of pay as damages only the valne of the less than $2300 for seed and preparing old material. Under this clause the the ground there was produced about Board of Health has offered $200 for 45,000 bushels of potatoes ani large tenements for which the owners asked quantities of other vegetables_ The $25,000.-Cl!ristian Advocate. Commission figures the potatoes aloue to be worth $25,000. The average -The New York Police Board has yield to each family was 26 bushels, appointed nearly 800 patrolmen within and 1700 families cultivated patches. the last year. and nearly 800 more. must Families who refused to avail them- be appointed within the next four selves of the opportunity thus to help months. The requirements for the po· themselves are debarred from help by sition are a good bodily development the city. and a fair mental capacity. The salary is at first $1000 a year, and within fi ve -Hampton Institute began its twen· years it rises to $1500. All the higher ty-ninth session October 1st, with 440 positions on the force, numbering over negroes and 1~5 Indian boarlling and 400, are filled by promotion from the 300 primary day scholars. Dr. H. B. ranks, the salaries for these higher po- Frissell, who succeeded General Armsitions ranging up to $6000 a year. At strong as principal, is rapidly developthe end of twenty-five years the officer ing the work. A trade school building, is retired on a pension of half-pay for to cost $40,000, with equipment, is unlife. President Roosevelt, in behalf of der construction, and in it instruction the board, has written to religious pa- will be given in the technical and thepers in New York asking them to call oretical branches of the trades, the stuattention to this opening in the New dent later entering the trade shops York City police force for men of good where they can more practically apply moral character and physical strength_ the principles learned.
-Mrs. Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne, has -The American Volunteers are stead- taken humble rooms in a poor old East ily increasing and doing effective work Side tenement-house, where she will which is telling for good in the enlarge- make her home with the purpose of ment of their operations. At the cen- devoting the rest of her life to the sym- tral offices in the Bible House, New pathetic care and nursing of poor wom- York, there are daily on duty 28 offi- en and girls afflicted with cancer and cers aud 14 employees, 42 persons being unable to get admission to hospitals or regularly engaged in the work of the discharged therefrom after the experi organization. The weekly five·cent or- mental six months' treatment shall have gan of the movement, called the Volun- shown them to be incurable. teers' Gazette, has already attained a -The polyglot quality of Chicago's paid circulation of 20,000 copies weekspeech may be inferred from the fact ly, and 1000 Defenders, most of whom that the City Tract Society reports that are well known in society, have subits colporteurs are distributing tracts scribed $5 each toward the expenses of written in German, French, Dutch, this new organization.
Swedish, Norweghm, Danish, Finnish, -The Volunteers are to undertake a Russi!ln, Polish, Bohemian, Bulgarian, systematic work for convicts after their
GENEML JttsstOliARY INTELLIGENCE
discharge from prison. The work is elgn mi~ions (and did that but once), one to be begun at the penitentiaries in Sing three-thousandth part of our wealth." Sing, Clinton, and Auburn, N. Y. The plans include a home for the tem- -Two years ago the United PreSby. porary shelter of convicts when first re- terians of this country sent out 13 mis- leased, until they can find work; per- sionaries; last year a party of 16 fol- sonal acquaintance with the convicts' lowed, while during 1896 as many more families, both during imprisonment and have already taken their departure for afterward; and in general, al! methods India and Egypt, or are soon to go. that will promote the self-respect of the con vict and start him on the road to -The Roman Catholic Church has honest manhood. about 75,000 colored members in the principal cities, Baltimore leading with -The Salvation Army has opened a 35,000. Natchitoches following with home for ex-convicts in Chicago. The 11000, New Orleans with 8000, New building is four stories high, and not York 8000, Mobile 2000, Natchez 1700, only provides a home, but also work- Philadelphia and Pittsburg 1500 each, shops. The management proposes to etc. Thirty-one priests minister to open the doors to all ex-prisoners who them in 55 church edifices. cannot find employment, and to give . them work and provide for their wants -Father A. R. Doyle, General Secre- until they are able to secure positions. tary of the Ca.tholic Total Abstinence Union, in his report to the recent an- -The 9 missionary societies which nual convention in St. Louis, shows recently held a notable interview w~th that there are 583 societies of men, with Li Hung Chang represented 7,747,209 34,089 members; 197 of cadets, with church-members, and maintain in China 14,624 members, and 115 of women, 733 missionaries, male and female, of with 7271 members. He says: .. Of whom 97 are medical missionaries, up· course, the difficulty of thoroughly per- ward of 400 schools of various grades suading the public (or the hostility of in which there were under instruction the Church to the saloon) has arisen in 1895 about 12,000 puplls, as well as from the fact that too often have Dames some 60 hospitals and dispensaries, in presumed to be Catholic been seen over which were treated in the same year liquor stores, and too frequently have 493,089 patients. people, supposed to belong to the Church, been convicted of drink crimes ; -According to Robert E. Speer, it and commonly people judged by facts much behooves the Presbyterians to be and not by words. But in spite of up and doing. He says: " We have these difficulties, we can to day rejoice taken possession of more of the world in the fact that in public opinion we than any other church, and we do not have got where we belong. First, last, yield our ground. We have 27 mis- and all the time, the Church stands for sions full of brave people. Of Japan's law and order. First, last, and all the 40,000,000, one-fourth is our share. time, the Church stands over against We were first to enter upon the 12,000,- the saloon. The name of Catholic is no 000 of Korea. We have 4 missions in longer allied with intemperance, and Chlna., the whole of Siam, 2,000,000 of some of the virtues which characterize India, 9,000,000 in Persia, and 2,000,- a true-hearted Catholic people are so- 000 in Syria-160,OOO,000 the share of briety and good citizenship." the Presbyterian Church of these United States. To Presbyterians in this country -The Mormon Church has recently belong *3,000,000,000, with annual in- received $300,000 restored by the Gov- crease of $100,000,000. We manage by ernment, and now one of the ablest ,reat effort to raise $1,000,000 for for- men of the Church goes out to establish missions in all the cities of the land.
GlCNEItAL MISS10NA1W IN'l"EJ.LIGENClC
It Is said that the 1200 missionaries now 000 people. If David prayed for grace in the field seeking converts to the sys- to wisely rule his little bailiwick ou the tem are to be re-enforced by several hills of Palestine, there would seem to thousand. who will continue their work exist a still greater necessity for prayer in the South, and in the cities. for continued guidance on the part of the Victoria who when a young queen I:!PANISH A.MERICA. offered fervently this petition: .. God help me to be good I" -The New York Sun says: "In the 22,000 electoral colleges of llexico, the -In 1894 there were 326 Indian sturecent vote for the re-election of Por- dents in England, of whom 157 were Hinfirio Dlaz (anti-Jesuit) to the Presidency dus, 105 Mussul mans, 53 Parsees, and was unanimous. Never in any previ. 11 Burmans. In 1896 there are 284 in ous presidential election in Mexico, or, all, so far, of whom 164 are Hindus, 74 perhaps, in any other republic, was Mussulmans, 37 Parsees, and 9 Burthere a result so remarkable." mans. Of those who are following spe- cial professions, 411 are studying law, -The Ohristian .Advocate gives these 4 are reading for the Indian civil ser· up to-date and Iluthoritative figures re- vice, 4 for the medical profession, bnd lating to mission work in Mexico: 1 for engineering. The 2fl4 include 20 Indian women now being educated in Centers of operation ……………. . 87 England, of whom several are girls in school. Congregatloue………………….. . 615 -The English Presbyterians have en- Ordained missionaries .••.••••….••. 65 tered upon the jubilee year of their China Mission. Forty-nine years ago A8slstant missionaries………….. .. 60 the work was begun by setting apart a solitary laborer, William Burns; while Foreign women teachers………••••• 67 to-day the Church is represented in China by 18 ordained missionaries, 2G Native preachers ordained .. _•••••..• 120 women, and 10 medical missionaries, together with a staff of native pastors Native preachers nnordained……… 175 and evangelists. There are 130 mission stations and 10 hospitals, besides Insti- Native teachers …………….. .. 190 tutions for the training of native work- ers. In addition, the Church has a Other native workers.. .. ……… .. 100 mission in India, and one to the Jews in London and Syria. The total income Total foreign and lIative workerl .. .. 731 last year was £20,606.
Church•• organized…………….. . 450 -The Society of Frien8.s recently met in mission conference. At no pre- Communicants.. .. … . ………… . 18,000 vious gathering has it ever been possi- ble to have so many missionaries from Probable adherents . ……… .. …. 60,000 the field present, nor has the work of Friends' foreign missions ever been in Training and theological schools…. .. 9 so healthy or advanced a state. There are 75 missionaries under the care of Students in lame……………….. _ 90 Friends, or one in every 213 of the membership of the Society, costing over Total schools. .. .. .. .. …. … .. ….. _ 163 £12,000 annually. In Madagascar alone, before the French invasion, there Total scholar. .. ……………….. _ 8,218 were 157 congregations in the Friendst Pllbli$hlng honses. … .. .. … …… … 10 Church bnildlnc8…. …………….. 120 Parsonages …….. " .. . …. .. .. …. .. 80 Value of all mission property……… $1,200,000 -Dr. W. W. Bremner says of Cor· doba, Argentine Republic, that it is .. entirely untouched by Protestant missionary effort. I have lived there for over two years, and had on an average for some months 9 meetings per week, scattering over 50,000 tracts in town and neighborhood, besides selling hundreds of Bibles and Gospels. and in this work have visited every house for a dis· tance of 30 miles around."
EUROPE.
Great Britain.-It Is estimated that Queen Victoria now rules over 367,000,- dist~ict, with 10,000 children in the sionaries from Copenhagen have been schools. India, China, Syria, Bulgaria, touched by their kindly reception, and and Constantinople have all Friends' they propose to work their district on missions, and industrial, ed ucational, the lines which have already been sigmedical, and evangelistic work is caf- nally successful there. ried on in them.-London Ohristian. -The Norwegian Missionary Soci- -In early October, under the aus- ety, which labors in Natal and Madapicesof the Church Missionary Society, gascar, has 43 ordained missionaries, two remarkably interesting meetings 6 unmarried female teachers, 17,000 were held in Exeter Hall in connection church-members, 38,000 school chilwith the departure for the foreign field dren, 44,000 adherents, 16 native pasof 149 missionaries. Of these 71 are re- tors, 900 native teachers, $80,000 conturning to work after furlough, and 78 tributions from Norway and $12,000 are recruits. The returning mission- from America. aries include 2 bishops (Tugwell and Fyson), 26 clergymen, 1 doctor, 7 evan- -While Dr. F. E. Clark was in Swegelists, 12 women, and 23 wives of mis- den he attended a meeting of the sionaries. The recruits include 23 Sveriges Sondagssko}forbunds, which, clergymen, 5 doctors, 12 evangelists, being interpreted, is Sunday-school Union, but, 10, in his honor it was 39 women (of whom 2 are fully quali- transformed into Kristna. Endeavour- foreningarnas, or, as we would say in fied doctors), and 3 wives. More than English, Christian Endeavor Union. two thirds of the clergy are university men, of whom Oxford sends 4 ; Cam- -" To reduce the large foreign misbridge, 9, and Dublin, 3. sion deficiency for 1894," says the Mora· 'Dian, "the amount of $20,000, which -At a recent garden fete and cafl had been set apart from the jubilee ehantant held by invitation of Mr. E. fund for the building of the new Kaffir Edwards at Kidbrooke Lodge, Black· College, an institution greatly needed heath, on behalf of the Lady Dufferin by the mission in Kaffraria. was very Fund, the honorary treasurer, Sir Alex- reluctantly appropriated. Mr. J. T. ander Wilson, said during the ten years Morton's generous gift of $20.000 just of the work £400,000 had been given replaces the amount appropriated for by native princes, 70 hospitals had been the deficiency, and makes the building established, and 3,000,000 of women of the college possible." had been medically treated.
The Continent. -There are 462 Scan- -Next year Portugal is to celebrate dinavian foreign missionaries at work, the four hundredth anniversary of the of whom 145 are Norwegian, 264 Swe- departure of Vasco da Gama on his fadish, 46 Danish, and 10 Finnish. The mous voyage to India 'Via the Cape of Old Norwegian Synod sends 3 mission- Good Hope. aries to the Zulus in Africa and 1 to China, all of whom were educated in ASIA. this country. lslam.-Out in the suburbs of Tehe- -The Lutheran Church in Denmark ran, Persia, Dr. Wishard said to a womhas sent 2 missionaries to Manchuria, an whose son had a cleft lip, " If you hitherto occupied almost exclusively by will bring this boy to our hospital we the Irish Presbyterian and the United will make him well like his brothers." Presbyterian missions. The field is She replied, "Why should I wish him wide, and the Presbyterian missions are giving a cordial welcome to their Dan- made well r He is just as God made ish brethren, and allotting to them a great district as their own. The mis- him."
-In 1881 there were about 180,000 Mohammedan pupils in the schools and colleges of India: in 1895 there were right to insist that his Highness's Gov- 490,000. ernment shall give to all classes of Brit- -So M. Zwemer writes: .. It was a ish subjects the same facilities for trade surprise and a pleasure to meet at Bus- or othcr legitimate purposes as are exrah recently a young captain in the tended to Hyderabad subjects in Brit- Turkish Navy whom I met at Sanaa, ish India, and that this right is in no Yemen, iu 1893. Then I suddenly way affected by the circumstance that came upon a Turk in a coffee shop jurisdiction over European British subreading an English book-' Tupper's jects vests in the Government of India. Proverbial Philosophy' lOur friend- as it does so as a prerogative of the ship was soon made, and he spoke very paramount power and not by virtue of earnestly of his interest in Christianity. express treaty with the Hyderabad Since he has been reading' Sweet First State. Among the essential facilities Fruits' and other books, and seemed which are conceded to Hyderabad subconvinced. He asked for a letter to jects in British India. is the power of one of the missionaries from America acquiring premises for carrying on at Constantinople, where he has been their business or other lawful purposes, transferred, and we hope to hear from and the Governor-General in Council him ag~in. " expects and requires that the Nizam's Government will extend to all British, -Dr. Lyman Abbott asks: .• Do you subjects in Hyderabad a fair measure suppose that He whose ears heard the of liberty and encouragement. In par- cry of the few (Jppressed Israelites, ticular it is necessary that such persons· that He whose eyes looked upon the should be allowed to purcllase or hire massacres of the Roman Empire, that with complete freedom any private He wno beheld with restrained indig- buildings which they may want for the nation the lash and the chain in Ameri· purpose of legitimate trade or occupa- ca-do you suppose that He does not tion, or any private land for the erec- see the thousands that have marched to tiou of such buildings. The Govern- a cruel grave in Armenia? That he ment of India cannot allow any native does not know the silence of Powers State in India to prevent a European that call themselves Christian 1 That British subject from enjoying in any He will have no word of accounting part of the empire so common and nec- with England and Russia and France essary right."
and Germany?" -Attention has been called to the fact that brass images of many of the -" 0, our God, wilt Thou not judge Hindu deities are manufactured in large them 1 For we have no migM against quantities in Birmingham and exported this great company that cometh against to this land, where they are bought and us; neither know we what to do: out worshiped by multitudes. Miss Britour eyes are upon Tkee."-2 Chron.
20: 12. tan, formerly superintendent of the India.-The Pioneer gives the sub· Union Missionary Society'S work in stance of the decision of the Govern- Calcutta, now of Yokohama, Japan, ment of India, insisting upon the right was in Birmingham a few years ago. of all classes of British subjects to the She had a friend holding a responsible same facilities for business and other position in one of the brass foundries, lawful purposes in native States as are and with him she visited the works. enjoyed by subjects of those States in She says she saw thousands oj' brass im- British India: .. The Nizam's Govern- ages of Krishna, Ganesha. Vishna, ment have now been informed that in Parvatti, and other Hindu idols, ready the opinion of the Governor-General in for shipment.
Council the British Government have a -" It would be difficult to describe the pitiful condition of the lower caste -" At a largely attended meeting at people of Travancore.They experi- Amritsar it was resolved that the Goldence the very extreme of poverty, and en Temple should be lighted with elec- I feel sick at heart every time I pass tric light, and machinery and plant inthe wretched huts which are all they troduced at a cost of Re. 30,000, for know of home. Most or the houses which a special appeal is to be made to are only a few feet square, and built of the Sikh gentry of the province. "- mud; no windows, only a low door Madras Christian Patriot. through which you must stoop considerably to enter. Darkness, dirt, and -A recent return gave the informainsect life reign supreme, and in these tion that out of 678 Salvation Army holes-they are hardly worthy of a bet- officers in India, all but 81 are natives ter name-a great part of the young of that empire. life of India is being lived I The houses inhabited by Christians, however, are Chilla.-Medical missions have peusually much superior, and prove how culiar importance and prominence in wonderfully the religion of Christ not this empire. Of the societies at work, only changes and uplifts the lives of the American Baptists, Presbyterians, the people, bu~ improves their sur- Methodists, of the North and South, roundings also. Here you will find the Congregationalists, Episcopalians, more clothing on the bodies, more light, Dutch Reformed, Woman's Union Mismore cleanliness altogether, and this sion, and Canadian churches have esmakes one long to take scores of poor tablished hospitals and dispensaries, heathen children and train them in a together with the English Church MIs- Christian atmosphere. so that they may sionMY Society, London Mlssiopary Sobe a means of blessing not only to their ciety, Presbyterian. United and Irish own generation, but to all generations Presbyterian, and China Inland Misto come. "-A MiaBionary. sion. At Canton a boat, under Rev. A. A. Fulton and a medical assistant, -About the end of last year an old renders great aid by touring. The uni- Hindu died in Bombay in whose house- versal opinion of those in the work hold Christian family worship had been seems to be that the value and efficiency held regularly for forty years. His of their work is in direct proportion to wife and children read the Bible, and the presence or absence of a hospital. the father prayed to Jesus. Many .. Even itinerating work Is of less years before, he had uttered so brave a value." says Dr. Sims. From a thoutestimony for Jesus, as professor in a sand miles away a patient has been government school. that some Parsees known to come, as at lIIoukden, I1Ianand Mohammedans were led to believe churia, whither one patient was attractin Christ, and he was dismissed from ed by a cure of seven years previous. the school. He never was baptized, and thus there was always something -Medical work at Chiningchow, wanting to his confession; tho not so Shantung, last summer exceeded anygreat a want, bv far, as there is in thing in the past. Sometimes 180 inmany a baptized Christian who lives patients were on the mission premises for himself and the world. But these at one time, and, tho it is the station secret Christians are a hopeful sign of principle to give a new missionary an the times. Our traveling preachers in entire year for the language, Dr. Van Malabar find many a house where the Schoick was forced to call upon Dr, New Testament is read, where Jesus is Mary Hill to lend a hand.
worshiped, and where the messengers -In Fuhkien Province, where 8 mis- sionaries were martyred last year, a of the Gospel are made welcome. and spirit of inquiry has since been poured beg~d to come more frequently.- out upon the Chinese and baptisms Bva1l1JeZiacha Mi88i0n8-Mf11IrtZin.
188&.J
have taken place, beyond what has ever by native pastors; and during the put before been witnessed there. An year contributions have been made to American missionary has received 100 the amount of over $1000. The oldest to the church at Ing-hok, and at a re- Presbyterian church, organized in 1887, cent communion at Gak-liang, 63 adults has a membership of 156.
were received. About 30 English mis- -Missionaries in heathen Jande are sionaries, 23 of them women, have compelled to enter upon even the most gone or are about to go into Fuhkien. obvious and necessary reforms with -A whole town of 500 inhabitants great caution, for fear of treading upon on the coast of China, near Foochow, some peculiar native custom. For exhas adopted Christianity. In the sub· ample, missionaries in Nak Tong, in urbs was a mission chapel in charge of Korea, have only recently ventured a native helper, and the town was oc- upon the introduction of two European ca.sionally visited by missionaries of customs in their missionary hospitals.
the Church of England. Last summer One of these is the adoption of Euro- the people became so angry with all pean bedsteads. It is expected that the foreigners on account of the trouble be- natives will rebel, for long centuries of tween France and China, that the mis- habit have rendered it a part of their sionaries were obliged to discontinue lires to sleep on the hot mud floor.
their visits; but the native preacher The second innovation is the use of kept on his work earnestly and faith- female nurses among the male patients.
fully. In midsummer cholera came to This the Koreans will consider a great the village in a virulent form, and death breach of propriety, as they will PElr- followed death in quick succession. mit no women to nU,rae them except The terror-stricken people fled to their their wives.
gods; but the one Christian besought them to come to the true God, who AFRICA.' could hear their prayers and save some. Because of their despair they listened, -In some respects Cairo and not and joined with him in asking God to Mecca is the center of Mohammedan stay the plague; and God honored influence. As witness its 300-400 their faith, imperfect tho it was, and mosques, and its great "Unfversity" tbe plague was stayed that day. The for the training of missionaries.
people then held a conference, and as a -A new map of the Kongo has been town they resolved to accept the new printed in connection with the East religion and worship the God who London Institute, which shows on a helped them, and now have contributed novel plan the enormous extent of termore than $100 to build a chapeI.- ritory washed by the great river. It is Ohinese Rewrder. printed in red over an ordinary map of Korea.-The Protestant Church has Europe, and shows how the Kongo, been in Korea for just ten years. Dur· were it placed in Europe, would draw ing that time it has labored to some its tributaries" from Bergen, John 0' purpose, as the following statistics will Groat's, Nzsala, Helsingfors, and St. show: Petersburg, in the north; from Mos- cow, Odessa, and Smyrna, in the east; Regular congregations……….. 42 and south from Athens, Naples, and Out-stations………………… 20 Sardinia; and would water the whole Communicants. . . • . • .• . . . .. . . . .. 528 of Germany, Italy, France, Austria and Catechumens.. .• . …….. ,…… 567 Hungary, Greece, Turkey, Servia, Bul- Sabbath-schools. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . . . . 9 garia, Roumania, the Netherlands, Sabbath scholars…………….. 455 Denmark, Southern Scandinavia, and Six of the churches are ministered to the western halt of Russia. South and
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE. [December
Central Europe could do without rivers Togoland the white popUlation numhud it but this one stream." bers le!(S than a hundred, of whom 22 were missionaries, with the same num- -Rev. Kenred Smith, recently ar- ber of officials. Similarly in the Camrived on the Upper Kongo, writes: eroons the missionaries and the officials ., My traveling experiences, altho differ- are about equal in numbers. Each ing somewhat in detail, were, I sup- missionary gets a government grant of pose, in the main very similar to those £50 II year and a free customs pass for of other African travelers. Even as goods "importeq.. for missionary purothers I have enjoyed the luxuries of poses. " tramping over miles of stony hills in a blazing sun; of marching through for- -Rev. Mark Guy Pearse has been est glades reeking with 'malaria; of visiting the Transvaal, and he writes to wading through, or being carried over, the Methodist Times an account of his bogs of black and miasmatic mud; of treatment as an Englishman traVeling peregrinating through long and tortu- in the country. As the result of all, he ons avenues, in the broad sweeps of says; "I came to South Africa with lanky grass, often from 10 to 18 feet the feeling that if Englishmen entered high. Even as others I have enjoyed the Transvaal they must be content to the delights of jiggers and prickly become subject to the conditions that heat; of tropical storms and tropical the authorities choose to lay down, and insects. A caravan of lazy native car- to use only constitutional methods to riers by day, an army of affectionate secure What they want. I came out of mosquitoes by night, a bed in a shed, the Transvaal with very different feela bath in u bucket. a meal from a tin tngs from those with which I entered plate. Oh, the luxuries of traveling in it. I am not a jingo by any means, but Africa I" I have tried honestly to see things as they are and faithfully to describe what -On September 6th the Edwa1'd I saw. I saw enough to stir my blood Bohlen sailed for the Kongo with 6 Ro- to a fever of indignation that I felt it man Catholic missionaries. .Messrs. difficult to control. To speak Dutch Dierkes, Janssens, lfanders, Segers, was to have the mystic sign put at once Van der Molen Bracq. and one" broth- upon everything. To be English er," M. Overman, besides 8 Sisters of meant an irritating snub." the Ohal'ite de Gand. "These new reo inforcements," writes the Mou'lJement -The American Board missionaries Geogl'aphique, " are necessitated by the en route for Gazaland have been deconstant extension of these valiant mis- tained on the East African coast, first sionaries' efforts on the Kongo. Their on account of the prevalence of the work is rapidly developing, the staff rinderpest, which has made transportanumbering at the present moment 30 tion difficult, and, latterly, by the dismissioQftries de &heut, 3 priests de Gand turbances caused by the uprising of the (at Matadi), a dozen Trappists, 20 Sis· Uatabeles. It has been decided that ters of Mercy de Gand, and 8 Francis- Mrs. Bates and Miss Gilson should reo can Sisters of Mary-a total of 73 mis· main in Nlltal until Mr. Bates can make sionaries." One of tbe last founded satisfactory arrangements for reaching Romish establishments, the mission de Mt. Silinda. Saint-Trudon, situated on the Lubi, 4 miles above Luzambo, numbers. ac- -During the eight months of Bishop cording to the Mou'l!6ment Geographique, Tucker's stay in Uganda he visited abont 300 adherents. every station where missionaries are 10– cated, except R'oki, spending nearly -A Foreign Office Report on the four months in traveling. and confirm. German colonies in Africa reveals some ing no less th~n 2052 candidates. curious facts about their missions. In
The Missionary Review of the World — May 1896
THE WORLD KINGDOMS AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD
DOSMOCBE CEREMONIES AT LEB, TIBET.
1'IBETAN NOBLEMEN AND MASKED LAMAS, LADAK, TlBET. MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XIX. No. 5.-0ld Serie8.-MAY.~VOL. IX. No. 5.-New Seriu.
THE TWOFOLD RELATION OF THE WORLD KINGDOMS TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD.-I.
BY THE EDITQR-IN-CHIEF.
When Constantine was tracing the bounds of the new city, Byzantium, and surprise was expressed at' the vastness of the area which he was including, his reply was, " I am following One who is leading me."
History without God is a lock without a key. This department of Christian evidences, God's hand in history, is too much neglected, and might be used to reinforce Christian ethics. There is a logic of events. The student of history finds an obvious plan, one unceasing, unfolding purpose, running like a thread of gold through the complexity of events; and by following that mystic cord he avoids perplexity, disentangles the skein, and brings order out of confusion and umty out of variety.
This discussion is mainly concerned with the relation of Christian governments to missions; but, to measure or apprehend the office and function of governments in the propagation of the Gospel, we must understand that' preparation for the Gospel to which all nations have been made contributors.
To see the strange unity in history, we need first to view humani1;y as a unit and all history as a whole. However useful the study of a race or an era, the divine plan demands a divine point of view; we must, as from the lofty eyrie of the eagle or his position in air take a look at the broad land. scape. Thus viewed, both Jew and Gentile are seen to be alike needful to the complete solution of the historic problem; and Assyria and Egypt, Greece and Rome, England and America, are but mountain ranges, with predetermined lines and limits, furnishing a watershed whence the great streams of civilization follow diverse .courses to one sea. While" the days of history have been mau's, the ages have been Christ's, and Hi~ the glory of the victory of rig):J.t over might, of order over anarchy, of liberty over tyranny, of cosmos over chaos."
The cross of Christ was the turning-point of the ages. That is no acci- dent whereby the fdv~pt of Q1r liOfQ w~s fr~~ed iJlto time, It is not toO, bold an a!!sertion that, at no other period of the world, before or since, could Jesus of Nazareth have been born. Then, and then only, had come the fitness and fulness of times j just then there was a gap which only He could fill-a place made ready by thousands of years of preparation, and at that particular time. The vast wheel had been revolving until the precise point in its revolution was reached where the vast mechanism demanded for its completeness a new force and factor, which just then came into play.
In the simple story of Christ's advent, as told by the evangelists, cer~ tain prominent features stand conspicuous. A decree went out from Ocesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. The Roman world then embraced Syria. The employments of the people were mainly pa8toral, indicating a Semitic origin ~s A8iatics. Christ was born in a stable and laid in a manger, indicating identification with the poor-the commoners rather than the aristocracy. The angels' song is twofold : it hints that henceforth there is to be a new goal to human endeavor-glory to God, and a new result on earth-peace and goodwill. Mark also the shepherds not only come personally to Christ's cradle, but hasten to make known abroad the fact and significance of His birth. Not to examine more closely, here are some ten particulars which serve to define this event as not only unique, but transcendent. Its precise period is the period of Roman supremacy-more exactly, the Augustan age j it is the time when all the world is virtually controlled by one sceptre j when that sceptre has passed finally from Asia to Europe j the precise field or locality of this event is Syria, which occupies a peculiarly central position, having both an Asiatic and a European frontier, facing both ways-iiI; pivot on which the history of the world shall turn, whence the ripest product of Asiatic civilization shall take a westward course to Europe and to a farther West yet undiscovered. Note also that this new personage is unmistakably of the lower classes, identified with poverty, and so the representative of the many rather than the few. The angels announce a new law of the kingdom-God is first of all to be glorified, and so peace and good-will are to be realized among men jthe Fatherhood of God is to be recognized that the brotherhood of man may be realized. The shepherds first bow at the manger as disciples, and then become propagators of the good news.
To read that simple narrative is to see more than human hand delineating the outlines of a perfect scene, at once historic and prophetic. In twenty verses of I.Juke we have a condensation of all history and all prophecy. The world has come to its highest development without Christianity -reached a period when for the first. time an imperial decree from one Cresar or Czar can affect the whole area of civilization, and when the completest political unity has at last been attained. Rome, the last of the world kingdoms, is in its golden age. Civilization has left the more sluggish atmosphere of the East to hreathe inspiration in the Occident. Just now a child is born who is to represent not a patrician rank but a plebeian class-nay, the mass of humanity. Hitherto the curse of the race has been caste, with its concomitants, such as invidious distinctions, the servility of woman, the slavery of man. Not one of these salient features of the new economy could have been left out without essential incom- pleteness and radical deficiency.
Of all civilization previous to the advent of our Lord, it may be briefly said that it was a large lump leavened with malice and wickedness; of ,all civilization since Christ's advent, that it was a mass of humanity savored and saved by the salt or'a divine principle. These are only general state- ments, but they hint opposite tendencies.
Another peculiarity should be carefully noticed. Before Christ, the tendency of political development was toward a forced and mechanical unity at the expense of individual development and personal liberty; since Christ, the tendency has been to individual development and personal freedom, and consequently to division rather than union under one sceptre, relying only on the unity which comes of fusion, sympathy, assimilation. Here, then, we find a key to all history. Until Christ came, men had been testing what could be done to make one compact state out of human materials; and the result was that, in the last and greatest of the world kingdoms, there was outward unity with moral corruption, social caste, and individual repression. In this fitness and fullness of times He came to teach men the only possible secret of true unity-a kingdom not of this world, with a true brotherhood, a pure morality, and individual liberty. He who sees no God in history will have hard work to account for this mysterious philosophy of history!
It is a curious fact that those four letters A, B, C, D, which stand at the beginning of the Roman alphabet, are the four letters that are inseparably connected with the two great historic divisions of the entire world-age. And it is also a curious fact that, suggesting as they do the alphabet of history, they hint also its inversions. All history previous to the Lord's advent we call the ages B.C. ; but notice that the first and the last of the four letters are wanting; and so history before Christ lacked both the starting-point and the goal of all true historic development. There was a bond of unity and. a civilization, but the bond was not brotherhood, and the civilization was leavened with corruption. But when Christ came a new civilization began; it had the right starting-point; it began at the beginning, introducing into human society a new element-allegiance to God-and presenting a new goal-a divine life in the soul and a development of the individual. When you have this" A. D." you have the "B. C." of brotherhood and civilization. Give us the Advent of Christ as our point of departure, and we have the basis of a new Bond between man and man, a new Cultus and a new Destiny.
What now concerns us is the double relation of this development of history to the plan of the kingdom of God ; preparation first, and propagation after. To begin with the Chaldean ascendency, 1600 B.C., we may trace these preparations during the Egyptian ascendency that followed for the next three hundred years, till Nineveh was fonnded, 1300 B. c., and the Assyrian ascendency began which lasted for more than six centuries, 1288- 610 B.C. Nineveh was then destroyed, after having been the mistress of the nations for nearly seven hundred years. But how far this Assyrian empire was from realizing even a true political unity or vitality! The bond was of iron, and might was the only right. The intercourse with surrounding nations was limited, and when it went beyond conquest was commercial only, not fraternal. The sceptre of the Orient is first transferred to Babylon; more central and accessible. Cyrus takes Babylon 538 B.C., and now begins the I)ersian ascendency, which lasts for two hundred years. Now, for the first time, a great dominant empire reaches out the hand to neighboring nations; he is the first great emp.eror dignified in prophecy as God's" anointed" servant, and in a double sense he opened the two-leaved gates and brought the nations of the East and West together.
Just at this point, strangely enough, the course of empire takes its way westward, never again to return to the East. Alexander the Great, of Macedon, which lies just beyond the Bosphorus, crosses the Hellespont 334 B.C., and after a career of conquest unparalleled in history, extending over less than ten years, dies at the age of thirty-two. This Greek ruler, taught by Aristotle, had for a few years held in his mighty grasp the whole intellectual vigor of the Hellenic race, combined with the whole material resources of the East. In him Europe for the first time rises to civilization and empire. The sceptre has swept round a circle-from Egypt in Africa to Nineveh and Babylon in Asia and to Greece in Europe, and we have now a system of Helleno-Asiatic States.
Behold in all this the hand of God! Asia strongly contrasts with Europe both in physical features and social life. One word describes its physical character-monotony. Look at the map; see the vast plateaus of the Deccan in India and of Thibet, a thousand miles in extent, the great sandy desert of China, three thousand miles long, and the still vaster plains of Siberia. The races correspond to their home. Everything is fixed, inflexible, immobile. There ancestral worship prevails; there caste rears its impassable barriers ; there vast multitudes of men are massed on a dead level, hemmed in by social bounds which they cannot overstep or overclimb. There the employment is mainly pastoral, and it is typical, for the Asiatics themselves exist in' great herds or flocks-the individual lost in the mass. Asia has always been the" mother of despotisms," and it is the characteristic of despots that, as 1he name implies, they lord it over others; the individual will swallowed up in the master's.
Turn to the map of Europe. There the only extensive plan is the Sarmatian, with the Germanic, its Western arm. Past the Baltic are the mountains of Norway and Sweden; across the Elbe, vast ranges reach from the North Sea to the Black Sea, and from Saxony to Sicily. Europe is t.he " continent of varieties." To explore it, circumnavigate its coast line, master its intricacies, demands an enterprising, aggressive people. The dead conservatism of China and the iron caste of India could not survive in Europe. These mountains would break up the vast herds of Asia into smaller bodies. This is the continent to arouse dormant energies and quicken mighty enterprises. Here is the zone of power.
And so we find that, as Asia is marked by a dead level of popular life,- Europe is marked by individual development. God was transferring the political sceptre and the historic arena to a new continent, and thus a gigantic stride was taken in preparation for the Gospel of the kingdom which both deals with mankind one by one and develops a true individnalism.
But the European capital is not to be at Macedon-that is too far eastward; and so the Roman ascendency begins B. c. 168, and the last great step of preparation is taken. Under the Cresars, Rome conquered and mastered the world. .Julius C~sar, the Roman Alexander, in eight years met in battle three millions of men, of whom he slew one third and took another third captive. It was a gigantic struggle for supremacy, by which Roman arms subdned the world and Roman roads ran to its limits. But it brought God's" fulness of times." Never before was the world made ready for the advent of Christ. Universal peace succeeded universal war. The eagle was ready to carry the crORS everywhere. The world empire had come to its highest completeness, its most perfect political unity, and its fullest realization of a brotherhood of nations which is possible without the Gospel.
There was another element in this preparation which must not be overlooked. Decay had begun, and there was nothing that could arrest it but the salt of the Gospel. We all know that ripeness borders on rottenness. As soon as a harvest is fully ripe, the sickle must be put in or the crop will rapidly deteriorate. The very same conditions most favorable to growth where life exists-light, beat, moisture, nutrition-also favor rapid decay where life does not exist or develop. The Roman Empire had attained unto a ripeness which without the intervention of God would become rottenness, and actually did. But so far as God's plan went-to make a prepared way for the advent of Christ and the preaching of the Gospelnow Jor the first the fulness of the times had come. Over the Roman roads, with the help of Roman letters a,nd Roman citizenship, thongb disdaining the aid of Roman arms, the Word of Life was to be borne with rapid steps to Spain and Gaul, to Germany and Britain. Paul, pushing his way to Antioch, to Cyprus, to Ephesus, to Coriuth, to Rome, and possibly to Spain and Britain, seems to us the Cresar of the Church.
CEN'l'URtES 01<' BUDDHISM
NINE CENTURIES OF BUDDHISM.-U.
BY 1<'. B. SHAWE, LADAK, TIBET.
The second and most important part of the Buddhist Catechism is that relating to the Doctrine (Dhamma).
II. 69. What is the doctrine? An8Wer. It is the true way of salvation intuitively perceived and announced by the Buddha.
H this be true, Buddhism claims the authority of a world-religion. But when approached on religious matters, Tibetans declare all religions to be equally good. Christianity is good for the European, Hinduism for the Indian, and Buddhism for the Tibetan. The only explanation they can offer for the existence of Christian missions is that the missionaries are bent on accumulating extraordinary quantities of moral merit. They have no conception of religion as so taking hold of a man that he is glad to go thousands of miles and learn a strange language solely to tell others what he has found. The Tibetan view is evidently incompatible both with Subhadra's definition and with any idea of a religion that goes beyond mere words.
In answer to question II. 75 Subhadra says: "There are no divine revelations." Subhadra should take a course of Tibetan reading, with a view to discovering any lives of· Tibetan saints in which revelations by dreams, signs, etc., are not received.
II. 78. What is the cause of sorrow, of death, and of birth renewal? AnBWer. '" The craving for individual existence either in this world or in another (Heaven, Paradise). .
Undoubtedly a few Tibetans may exist who delude themselves into the belief that they prefer Nirvana to any Paradise, altho I certainly have not yet met any such. The ideal of the ordinary Tibetan is the paradise of " Devachan." Both clerics and laymen have agreed in describing this heaven as a place of perpetual spring, the inhabitants of which have no work to do, but enjoy an abundance of good things to eat and drink, besides the companionship of beautiful girls-in short, a " Mohammedan paradise" of the most sensual kind, without even the pretence of spiritual enjoyments of any sort. Such is the practical Buddhist ide~l. Theosophists give a different description of "Devachan," for which they are probably in- debted to " Mahatmas." * • As everyone knows, foreigners are not allowed to travel, mnch less reside in Tibet proper; yet we are told that Madame J31avatsky, the well-known Theosophist, spent a considerable time in there. Where did she reside? Some information which would enable ns to fix the geographical spot where she met with" mahatmas" is desirable. Until we have this, I mnst incline to the belief that her visit to Tibet WaB BCmewhat mythical. This is, however, a point of secondary Importance II. 84. What is Nirvana? A1i8wer. …It is a condition impossible to be defined. in words or to be conceived by anyone still attached to the things of this world.
This is comforting information to those students of Buddhism who have been and are still devoting much time to the consideration of what is implied by Nirvana. In a note to this question reference is made at length to " the erroneous idea 1,hat Nirvana is the same as annihilation." Tibetan Buddhism is quite explicit on the subject. The term used for Nirvana means" emptiness, vacuity." No wonder Tibetans prefer free love in " Devachan" to annihilation in "emptiness." It must further be mentioned that the Ladaki know nothing at all ahout Nirvana, many being not even acquainted with the name. Several educated people have told me that the word was used by lamas in incantations, but that they had not the slightest idea of its significance.
II. 102. Cannot the layman, too, attain to perfectIon? A1i8Wer. No; this is impossible.
This perfectly correct statement of Buddhist doctrine cannot be too strongly emphasized. No man or woman earning an honest livelihood can be saved; the very fact that they work is an insuperable obstacle! The manner of work and the object of work, whether noble or ignoble, honest or criminal, has nothing to do with the matter. Work is ipso facto damning. Can any religion be more ill adapted to the wants of mankind ~ Can anything be more calculated to encourage idleness ~ Moreover, in addition to abstinence from work, celibacy is necessary. Probably at least 80 per cent of the human race (adults) are married. Buddhism, therefore, offers salvatio,n to only 20 per cent of mankind. All the remainder- are inevitably doomed to rebirth, when, of course, the chances are that demerit will be accumulated, and salvation will remain as far away as ever-possibly further. Buddhism seems, after all, very diffident as to its power to help. For the penitent sinner there is no hope; according to for most people have but vague ideas where Tibet begius and ends, and characterize as Tibetan what the natives repudiate as such. H. P. B. may have said" Tibet," meaning British Sikkim.
The" mahatmas" are of more importance. Theosophists complain that uudue stress is sometimes laid by non-believers in their system on the" mahatmas." This may be so ; but certainly the ordinary individual gets the idea that Theosophy was in its elements revealed to Madame Blavatsky by Tibetan" mahatmas." Aud equally certain it is that she purported to be in receipt of frequent communications from these beings, who even occasionally became visible. For this reason the existence or non-existence of " mahatmas" becomes a crucial point. I have made careful enquiries among Inhabitants of all parts of Tibet, both clerical and lay, and find that they are absolutely nnacqnainted with beings corresponding to the description of " mahatmas." Many of them claimed that such beiugs had formerly existed. This is quite iu accordance with Tibetan legends, and is no news to the student of Tibetan literature. But they oue and all emphatically denied that such beiugs exist now, or had been knowu to exist for some centuries. One man replied: "I always thought that Europeans were clever people, but if they believe that, they must be more stupid than any cow." Which opinion of a countryman of the purported" mahatmas" gives grOllnd for rellection. It is somewhat signillcant, too, that" mahatmas" reside in the one country of the world, which Is not open to complete and careful investigation, 80 that their existence remains, to say the least, a matter very much of "esoteric" knowledge. the Buddha's religion of compassion and love, the" karma" of his evil deeds must inevitably work itself out.
In II. 104 follow the" five vows for the laity." These Pancha-Sila are obligatory on everyone professing to be a follower of the Buddha.* 1. I vow and promise not to destroy. life. In a note to this rule we read further: In this the first and principal vow are not only included men, but allliving beings, and for that reason no one who intentionally hurts, kills, or torments an animal can be a follower of the Buddha.
It is pleasant to be able to accord praise. Let Buddhism have the honor of having by this rule successfully inculcated the sinfulness of murder. Buddhism has much to do with the deep reverence with which human life is regarded in Ladak.t The" suttee" has never obtained in Ladak, nor have I ever heard of child murder. The only murderers of whom I have ever heard have been Mohammedan travelers. But the Buddhist law in its wording and application is much too wide for practical life, inasmuch as it does not refer to human life alone, but to all life of every description, and thus defeats itself. It means, for instance, that all wild beasts, poisonous snakes, mad dogs, etc., are to be carefully left alive. To destroy vermin is a heinous sin-which may pe"haps account for the fact tbt Ladaki Buddhists are notoriously infested with fleas and lice. t I have even seen these disgusting parasites carefully placed aside. But to the honor of Ladaki common sense it must be said that they are more usually destroyed. Each fiea and louse, each wasp and gnat, each wolf and leopard is a living being, and, in a Buddhist's eyes, has the same value as a man or woman! Of course the slaughtering of beasts for food is strictly forbidden by this rule. Yet there are hundreds of Tibetans inhabiting the higher plateaus who live entirely on milk, butter, cheese, and goat's flesh. Cruelty to animals in every form is of daily occurrence. Heavy loads are placed on miserable, half-starved animals. Beasts are driven until they fall by the roadside, when they are left to die of starvation, unless the ravens and other birds of prey mercifully hasten the end. I have more than once had ponies with raw backs brought to me for a ride of twenty miles up and down hill.
2. I vow and promise not to steal.
To such an extent is stealing practised in Ladak 1hat no one will allow any man to remain alone in his room; if the owner is ohliged to leave the room, the visitor must follow. This alone is sufficient to show that in Buddhist Ladak everybody is a thief as soon as opportunity offers. No man trusts even his own brother out of his sight.
* It must be remembered that we are at present only concerned with the laity. The same rules are binding on clerics, and will recur when the priests are being considered.
t I do not think the fact that in Central Tibet murder appears to be by no means nnknown, or that even the lamas resort to It in certain cases, can invalidate the claim of Bnddhism to have exerted * a very great restraining Inlluence. One can daily see women sitting together engaged in mutnally picking out the lice from their hair. S. 1 vow and promise to abstain from all unchastity, and not to lead astray the wives, daughters, or wards of anyone.
In reply to this, I affirm that there is not one chaste male or female in Ladak. I affirm that no unmarried girl sixteen years of age will be found pure. * It is impossible to go into detail on this point. Abundant proofs of my statements are, however, at hand for those whom medical work leads behind the scenes.
The reasons for this state of affairs are not far to seek. At the root of all lies, of course, the powerlessness of Buddhiflm to curb the passions. The chief surface reason is, however, the system of polyandry, by virtue of which several brothers have one wife in common. I do not think that Buddhism can be held responsible for the origin of this system; it must also be mentioned that in Ladak the marriage of cousins is absolutely unknown among Buddhists. But Buddhism has certainly shut its eyes to the manifest evils connected with polyandry. As visible proofs of the immoral condition of the people, I may perhaps be allowed to mention the extraordinary sterility of Buddhist females, the enormous prevalence of venereal diseases, and the gradual decline of all qualities except those which man has in common with the brute creation; this degeneration is attested by the ruins of works executed by the skill and intellect of former generations, of which the present generation plainly and candidlyacknowledges itself incapable.
4. I vow and promise not to lie, deceive, or bear false witness.
I have yet to find a Ladaki who denies that he habitually tells lies. They are so far better in this respect than the Kashmiri in that they do not lie without any apparent object to be gained. But given an object, every Buddhist Ladaki immediately becomes a liar. Stories of ingenious lies are told as good jokes. A man who has quarrelled with another walks for days to bring his case before the court in Leh. On arrival he picks up a large stone outside the court, which he produces within as the identical one with which his enemy assaulted him! This is not the occasional dodge of a cute individual, but the regular practice among the people. On one occasion, when present in the court, I heard a Buddhist give evidence after being duly put on oath. At the close of his examination the judge remarked: "How many lies have you told~" and the answer was: " Not very many, your honor!" This was considered a huge joke by the officials; and on my afterward mentioning the matter, I was asked in an astonished tone: "What are witnesses good for if they don't tell lies on your behalf ~" It is a notorious fact that no witnesses can ever be obtained against a man who is at all prominent; great men can do everything with impunity. Bribery and intimidation are the rule. I was once • I know It to be a fact, that sexual connection Is daily practised by the boys aud girls herding the goats on the hills. Sodomy is not nnknown, but must, I believe, be put down to the account of Mohammedan traders, and is not a national evil. seeking for evidence on a certain point, and, to my astonishment, could get none. My servant, however, remarked: "Unless you pay beforehand you will never get witnesses. " This explained all, and also shows suffi_ ciently clearly that Buddhism has not succeeded in rousing any feeling 01' conscience as regards the truth.
5. I vow and promise to abstain from intoxicating drinks. In a note to this we read: "It is only the Brotherhood (i.e., priests. lamas) who keep this vow to its full extent. For the lay adherent it simply means to abstain from spirituous liquors. The Upasaka (i.e., devout layman) may therefore take wine and beer in moderation. "
This note is interesting. Subhadra gives us five rules" obligatory on everyone professing to be a follower of the Buddha," and promptly informs us that the fifth is only kept by the clerics. Why is not the rule, which is surely plain enough, fully kept ~ Subhadra should also kindly favor us with a definition of lhe difference to be made between" intoxicating drinks, spirituous liquors," and "wine and beer." Otherwise his note is hardly intelligible to the ordinary mind. Vile will, however, take the lowest ground and state the rule to mean" Don't get tipsy." It would be interesting to ascertain the amount of grain annually used in Ladak for making" chang," a native beer. The use oLthis beer is the main cause of poverty in Ladak. People sit down at midday and drink till midnight. In nine cases out of ten one or both of two men fighting are tipsy. The guests at every wedding go home intoxicated. Workmen have repeatedly given me carousing and drunkenness as an excuse for not coming to work. Altho the water in Ladak is so pure and refreshing that travelers are loud in their praises of it, the Buddhist Ladaki drinks water only when he can get absolntely nothing else, and in no case is drunkenness considered a disgrace.
In II. 106 three further vows are enumerated, the observation of which, tho not obligatory, is specially meritorious. Together with the Pancha- Sila they constitute the Atthanga-Sila, and run as follows : 6. I vow and promise not to eat food at unseasonable times-that is, after the midday meal.
7. I vow and promise not to dance. sing light songs, frequent public amusements. and. in short, to avoid worldly dissipation of every kind.
S. I vow and promise not to wear any kind of ornament, nor to use any scents or perfumes, and, in short, to avoid whatever tends to vanity.
If the obligatory rules are not kept, the voluntary rules are still more likely to be discarded. And such is the case. The chief meal is invariably in the evening. Dancing is an important feature at every wedding. The songs current among the people are for the most part too obscene'to bear publication, and an obscene significance attaches to phrases in many more songs which are apparently harmless. The people throng in crowds to all the public amusements available. The love of oruament and finery is not confined to the females, who often carry hundreds of rupees' worth of jewelry on their persons while they have not a cent at liberty for repairs to their houses. 'rhe males are intensely fond of bracelets and earrings- the latter being so ponderous that the lobes of the ears are often torn. So innate is this love of finery that even images of gods ,are represented with huge earrings dependent from monstrously elongated lobes.
With these rules we have touched the center of Buddhism on its prac- tical side, and for this reason a few more remarks must be added. As already shown, no attempt is made to observe even the five obligatory, much less the three voluntary rules. Furthermore, there is not a single layman in Ladak who is able even to enumerate them. The only rule which has in any way entered into the popular consciousness is the com- mand not to kill-the very one which leads to the grossest absurdities. Of this law it can be said that the people know it, but do not observe it. With regard to the rest, especially those treating of moral matters, I affirm that the people have no consciousness that any transgression constitutes sin. Not only is there no word in Tibetan to express" conscience." but there is no evidence of the existence of such a thing. Moral conceptions and all higher aspirations have ceased to be. The third obligatory rule certainly includes chastity in speech, but the expressions continually on the lips of high and. low are so utterly foul that thcy cannot even be hinted at. The first obligatory rule, which includes kindness to animals, most· certainly also. includes kindness to human beings. But in Ladak real charity is unknown; so much so that the words" widow" and" orphan" are common words of abuse. Consider what this implies. In Christian countries the very mention of " the fatherless and the widow" calls forth feelings of sympathy and compassion. The words are almost synonyms or "helpless and pitiable." But nine centuries of Buddhism have produced a different view, and" the religion of love and compassion" has taught the people that orphans and widows are lawful objects of ill-treatment; they are to be spurned as if they were vermin ; their very name is an insult.
It is as interesting as it is melancholy to observe how the superficial view of love, compassion, and charity taught by Buddhism has led to the utter subversion of the meaning ordinarily attaching to these express ions Charity is a means by which both donor and recipient are benefited, the former in a higher degree than the latter. Consequently-and this logical conclusion is actually drawn-the recipient has no cause to be grateful for any gift received; rather, the donor has to be grateful to the recipient for affording him an opportunity to exercise charity. In practical life this leads to an unusual development of the" sturdy beggar" system. One can daily see strong men and women going about from house to house. No pretence is made that they are reduced to beggary by misfortune, and all the arts practised by professional beggars in Europe are unknown. They do not reckon on exciting compassIOn, a feeling which they well know does not exist. They simply demand, insisting upon alms as their right, all the more as not they, but the givers, are those who have to consider themselves honored. While declining to give anything, I invariably offered work; but out of scores of applicants I have not found one who has not turned away in disdain.
I have often had opportunities of dispensing medicine to the sick; and here again this same view of charity turns up continually. Almost every patient appealed to me with the words " Merit, merit," meaning that by assisting him I should increase my own store of merit. The conception that it is done simply because it is good in itself and without any idea of self-emolument is incomprehensible to them. An amusing illustration of this oc()urred not long ago. A regular patient of mine persisted in the habit of coming for treatment after dispensary hours. After rebuking him sundry times, lone day declared that if he did not attend punctually he would get no more medicine; whereupon he retorted: "Very well; if you won't give me medicine when I come, I won't come at all, aud you will lose your chance of getting merit!" Which I did, much to my relief. On anotl.ar occasion a missionary had attempted late in the year to bring help to a district visited by small-pox. He had, however, to return with hands and feet very dangerously frostbitten. With reference to this I heard the remark: "He mnst be very hard up for merit if he has to take such desperate means."
Naturally the idea of gratitude has quite disappeared under such perverted ideas of charity. Certainly the words are, as a rule, not wanting j the people are 01jectionably profuse in oral thanks. But ask a man to prove his feelings by deeds, and you will meet with no response. I only know of one grateful Ladaki-a man whose leg was amputated by the medical missionary. His gratitude is all the more remarkable, as since the death of the surgeon he has transferred his attentions to the missionaries in general. They never pass his village without finding him sitting by the roadside waiting to present milk, or eggs, or butter ; and he adhered to his practice in spite of his gifts having occasionally been accepted without offering any present in return. I know of no other case in which a Buddhist Ladaki has put himself to any inconvenience as a return for benefits received. Buddhism has not produced the virtue of thankfulness.
(To be continued.) Christianity regards personal life as the most sacred of all possessions. Life is the most precious of all God's gifts. Nay, it affirms of God Himself that He is the highest Example of intense life, of intense personality, the great" I Am that I Am," and teaches us that we are to thirst for a continuance of personal life as a gift from Him; nay, more, that we are to thirst for the living God Himself and for conformity to His likeness, while Buddhism sets forth as the highest of all aims the utter extinction of the illusion of personal identity, and proclaims as the only true creed the ultimate resolution of everything into nothing. What shall I do to inherit eternal life ~ says the Christian. What shall I do to inherit eternal extinction of life? says the Buddhist. Which creed will you choose ~-Sir Monier Williams.
READY FOR DEPARTURE FROM LAKAWN TO THEIR STATIONS
CENTRAL SIAl1.
PREACHING TO FAMINE SUFFERERS AT LAKAWN, LAOS.
MISSIONS IN SIAM AND LAOS
MISSIONS IN SIAM AND LAOS.
BY REV. F. F. ELLINWOOD, D.D., NEW YORK CITY.
Historic Sketch. -The history of American missions in Siam is interesting and even romantic. The earnest call which led to missionary operations seems to have been visibly represented not by a phantom Siamese, like the Man of Macedonia, but by the famous and very substantial Siamese twins. ' The American trading vessel commanded by Captain Coffin which in 1829 brought to this country this strange pair brought also an earnest appeal from the zealous German missionary, Gutzlaff, and from Rev. Mr. Tomlin, of the London Missionary Society, to the American churches, to take part in the missionary work in Siam. Their own societies could not enter upon a permanent occupation, and hence the appeal to America. In response to this appeal the American Board of Foreign Missions instructed Rev. David Abeel to visit Siam with a view to its occupancy if he deemed it advisable. He reached Siam June 30th, 1831, a few days after Mr. Gutzlaff, saddened by the death of his beloved wife, had sailed away in a native junk for Tientsin on an exploration of the coast of China. After six months Mr. Tomlin, of the London Society, was also called away. In 1832 Mr. Abeel was obliged to leave on account of ill health. In the same year Rev. John Taylor Jones was sent as a missionary to Siam by his American Baptist associates in Burmah, to whom Gutzlaff and Tomlin had also written. He reached Siam in March, 1833, and his first work was among the Chinese. Two more mi.'3sionaries of the American Board reached Bangkok in 1834, having been more than a year on their, way. One of these labored among the Chinese, the other among the Siamese. Rev. 'Villiam Dean and his wife of the American Baptist Missionary Union also arrived in 1834 as missionaries to the Chinese in Siam, and Rev. D. B. Bradley and wife arrived in 1835.
In 1838 Rev. R. W. Dee, a representative of the Presbyterian Board, was sent to Bangkok for the purpose of reporting upon its eligibility as a missionary station for labors among the Chinese. Mr. Dee, in his report, urged the occupancy of Siam as a mission field, not merely for the Chinese, but more particularly for the Siamese. Rev. William Buel, of the Presbyterian Board, arrived in 1840. In the same year the Siamese department of the American Board's mission was strengthened by the arrival of Messrs. Caswell, Hemingway, and Bacon and their wives, and Miss Pierce. In 1845 Prince Chow Fa Mongkllt, then head priest of a royal monastery, invited Mr. Caswell, of the American Board, to become his private teacher, and the engagement continued for a year and a half. Mr. Caswell was a graduate of Lane Theological Seminary and a member of the Presbytery of Cincinnati. In 1840 the American Board directed its missionaries in Bangkok to remove to China, which had opened five treaty ports. In 1847 Rev. Stephen Matoon and wife and Samuel R. House, M.D., of the Presbyterian Board, arrived in Bangkok, having spent eight months on a journey which can now be made in six or seven weeks. They were soon visited by many of the nobles, and they took an early opportunity to pay their respects to the royal priest at his monastery. They were most kindly received, and continued ever afterward to retain the royal confidence. The tidings that a new foreign physician (Dr. House) had come brought crowds to his dispensary for relief. The floating house which Dr. Bradley had used was again fitted up as a dispensary, and was moored in front of the mission premises. In the first eighteen months he had prescribed for over eighteen thousand patients. The Presbyterian Mission to the Siamese was now thoroughly established.
The First Presbyterian Church was organized in Bangkok in 1849, the missionaries constituting the larger part of the membership at first, tho gradually the number of native members was increased. In 1851 the usurper of the throne, an illegitimate elder brother, died, and Chow Fa Mongkut, who had entered a Buddhist monastery as a measure of safety, succeeded to the throne. Siam thenceforth entered upon a new era of enlightenment and prosperity.
The life in Siam of Sir John Bowring and Mr. Harry Parks, his able Secretary of Legation (afterward British Minister to China), brought about great changes through a treaty made between Siam and Great Britain, and in 1856 a similar treaty was formed by Hon. Townsend Hams between Siam and the United States. It is pleasant to recall the testimony which Dr. William D. Wood, who accompanied the embassy of Mr. Harris, gave of the influence which the American missionaries had already gained at that early day. It is as follows: " The unselfish kindnesFl of the American missionaries, their patience, sincerity, and truthfulness, have won the confidence and esteem of the natives, and in some degree transferred those sentiments to the nation represented by the missions and prepared a way for further national intercourse now commencing. It was very evident that much of the apprehension which they felt in taking upon themselves the responsibility of a treaty with us would be diminished if they could have the Rev. Mr. Matoon, of the Presbyterian Mission, as first United States Consul."
Mr. Matoon, however, accepted the office only until a successor could be appointed at Washington; meanwhile, his mission work-preaching, translating, etc.-was not interrupted.
Establishment of the Laos Mission.-It was in 1858 that Rev. Jonathan Wilson and wife and Rev. Daniel McGilvary arrived in Siam. They had been room-mates at Princeton; and Mr. McGilvary, in offering himself to . the Board, had requested that he might be sent to some field where others might feel less inclined to go. It was perhaps in view of this desire that in the year 1867 Mr. McGilvary was sent up the Meinam River to establish a mipsion in Laos. The voyage up the river occupied thrlle months. The Laos tributary king gave to Mr. McGilvary and his family a kindly recep-
MISSIONS IN SIAM AND
tion. Mr.. and Mrs. Wilson followed soon after. This general favor to the Laos Mission continued until March, 1869, when the king, stirred up doubtless by the Buddhist priesthood, who represented that a certain famine which Laos had suffered had probably been due to the influence of the missionaries, requested of the King of Siam that the United States Consul should be compelled to issue an order withdrawing the missionaries from the Laos country. Rev. Mr. McDonald, who happened to be acting as United States Consul, made the reply that " A famine which occurred in 1866 could not have been caused by a missionary who arrived a year later, and that during the year 1868-69, while they still remained in the Laos country, accounts were received of an abundant harvest." The withdrawal of the missionaries was respectfully declined by the Consul, and the Siamese Minister of the Interior at Bangkok represented to the Laos king that he entirely acquiesced in this decision. The purpose of the Laos king being thus thwarted, made itself felt, however, upon the native Christians, and on September 12th, 1869, two converts were seized and barbarously put to death. Other church-members sought safety in flight. The next year, however, this king died, and the Laos Christians from that day have had rest from persecution, and have been admitted to greater privileges than ever.
The Laos field is now considered one of the most promising, tho twenty-eight years ago it seemed one of the most difficult, owing to the above-mentioned bitter persecution. The favorable reaction was strong. Martyr's blood in that distant region, as elsewhere, proved to be the seed of the Church. Compared with the people of· Siam, especially at Bangkok, the inhabitants of Laos are more simple and confiding. They have the great advantage of being sufficiently removed from those corrupting inflnences of foreign contact which in all lands have proved so detrimental to the highest missionary success. Medical work has had a most salutary influence in winning the confidence of the people ; and altho a former king was a persecutor, the princes of Laos in recent years have held a friendly attitude toward the missions, and there has been as great freedom in the proclamation of the Gospel in every part of that country as in the territories of the United States.
The Thralldom of Superstition.-In spite of the claims of Buddhistic philosophy, the superstitions of the people are virtually of the simplest character. Mendicant Buddhist priests appear everywhere with their bowls, and whatever salvation Buddhism is supposed to secure is purchased by gifts of rice to these priestly beggars. Anything like grace or Divine help in any form is unknown to the system ; merit making is its one universal reliance. With the priesthood merit is gained by observance of the many and sometimes exacting rules of a self.centered monastic life. With the masses of the laity man's chief duty consists in feeding the priests. But practically there is with the people, and sometimes with the monks themselves, a chief reliance upon the superstitious worsliip or service of spirits, and for the most part malignant spirits, to whose superior power mortals are subject. Every conspicuous object in nature is haunted by ghosts. Disease is the result of the bewitching influence of these evil spirits acting either directly upon the patient or through the personality or unseen agency of some man or woman who, in case the patient dies, is accused and arraigned as a witch, and who must pay a severe penalty for his misdeeds. Iu severe cases where delirium occurs, as in l,yphoid-fe,oer, the priests of devil worship are often summoned for the purpose of ascertaining who has bewitched the patient, or if the spirit is acting directly and is supposed to be lurking in. the patient's body, an effort is made to ascertain at what precise point it is lodged, and frequently the sufferer is prodded in different parts of the body with some blunt instrument until by an outcry of distress t.he precise location is revealed. One sad instance is recorded as having fallen under the observation of the late Dr. Cheek, of the Presbyteriau Mission. The patient who suffered torture was a young girl of sixteen.
In cases of witchcraft the person accused of the offense is banished from the community with his entire family, and as other communities would dread his approach, he has no resource but to betake himself with his household to the wilderness. This is scarcely better than the sentence of death which is inflicted in Central Africa.
A few years ago a returned missionary of the Presbyterian Board conceived the plan of purchasing land for a refuge colony in which this unfortunate class could be settled, and where, by tilling the soil, they might find support for their families.' These superstitions seem to disappear wherever missionary work has found its way. The present King of Siam has on one or two occasions issued proclamations designed to turn the minds of the people from childish and cruel superstitions which were doing injury to the public welfare. The enormities of the system of devil worship may be greatly mitigated, but the deep foun,dations of it still exist; they underlie the whole superstructure of the popular religion both in Laos and in Siam, and especially in the rural districts. The mere every-day routine of Buddhistic merit making does not satisfy the religious wants or religious fears of the masses of the people. The overshadowing presence of disembodied spirits weighs upon them, and its pall of darkness cannot be broken by anything short of the truth as it is in Jesus and the liberty with which He sets men free.
In sickness, on occasion of blighted crops, or in times of disaster, the people resort to the devil priests to learn if possible the cause, and to appease the spirits. The sense of the power of the unseen world is too deep to be removed by the cold, ethical maxims of the Buddhists. We are often told in these times that Buddhism is a religion quite sufficient for the countries in which it bears sway j that its great teacher is to be classed with Jesus of Nazareth, and that its high ethics and its sublime philosophy challenge the admiration of all thoughtful men. But even if we were to concede all this to the higher classes, large numbers of whom betake themselves for a time to monasteries for meditation, yet what will be said of the millions in Siam or Laos, Cambodia or Burmah. who spend their whole lives under the overmastering bondage of evil spirits ~ These certainly furnish a work for the missionary. These appeal to the Christians of every land for teachers who shall point them to the way of life and set them free. It is in behalf of such that the commission of the great apostle to the Gentiles was given j for they certainly need to be led " from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan (or Satans) unto God, that they may receive remission of sin" and a share in the faith that is in Jesus Christ.
Buddhism blots out the name of God j it presents no Savior and no salvation j it only calls on each man to save himself. It takes no account of supernatural things, whereas the masses of men will insist upon supernatural influence, and if deprived of the light of God they will become the victims of imaginary beings who are mightier than they.
New Phases of the Mislion Work.-The mission work in Siam takes on from time to time new forms, and it will doubtless continue to require new adaptations as time goes on and as the people become more and more familiar with the current of events in all lands. As an example of the new phases of work which are to be encountered and of the leaven of missionary influence already exerted, a preaching service is reported as having been established by the Buddhists upon a Buddhist holy day. It is not conducted, however, by the Buddhist priests, who ought to be the teachers of ihe people. "Instead of calling in a lot of ignorant priests,,. says our report, "and listening to their prayers and exhortations in the unknown Bali (Pali) tongue, of the meaning of which these priests themselves have not the slightest idea, a number of the princes of high rank take turns and present the truth in plain, every-day Siamese. Strange to say, however, the attendance is always quite small, so we may be greatly encouraged since the Siamese show so little interest in their own religion and attend our services in larger numbers and much more regularly than they do their own. " Reference is made in the reports of the Presbyterian Mission for 1895 of a visit from Major Roper, of the Ceylon Salvation Army, to Bangkok. The visit was made, as is supposed, for the purpose of reconnoitering the field with a view to extending the operations of the Army to Siam. The report says that" the natives seem greatly taken with the Salvation Army idea, and it is very probable that the Army would soon collect a large following here in Bangkok, if some of their workers should begin work here. We all found Mr. Roper a very agreeable gentleman and learned much from his visit." It is to be hoped that the Salvation Army will send a contingent to Bangkok, provided leaders are chosen who shall insist upon cooperation and not rivalry, or indirect antagonism to the existing work, and we are sure that their work will be hailed with rejoicing. Doubtless some important element may be supplied by the methods of the Salvation Army which possibly is lacking in the methods of other missionary organizations. The field is great ; the millions are perishing, and doubtless all who love the cause of missions would rejoice " that every way Christ is preached." Even the lay preaching of the Siamese Buddhist princes may be welcomed, so far as it turns away the attention of the people from the mummeries of an ignorant and lazy priesthood to the ethical precepts of Buddhist doctrine, and to whatever shall stimulate them to an avoidance of vice and a practice of virtue. As the higher and more sensible teachings of the Greek philosophy helped to dissipate the mists and disinfect the moral corruptions of the old heathen superstitions and clear away the rubbish for the early Christianity, so possibly a Gospel of common sense preached by the princes of Siam may help to prepare the way for the truth as it is in Jesus.
Self-Help.-The natives in both the Laos country and Siam have had hitherto the double burden of supporting the Buddhist priesthood and the various juggleries of spirit worship. In a little book on Siam published some years ago by Rev. M. A. McDonald, it was stated that Bangkok alone supported over ten thousand priests, and that all of this vast army could be seen starting out every morning in search of their daily food. " It must cost Siam annually," says Mr. McDonald, " $25,000,000 to keep up the priesthood alone, and supposing the population to be 8,000,000, which is perhaps an underestimate, it will make on an average over $3 for every man, woman, and child in the kingdom. Now, if every man, woman, and child in the evangelical Christian Church would average $3 per annum, the boards of the Church would not be compelled so frequently to go a-begging, and the world at that rate would soon be evangelized. If the heathen can do so much for a false religion, what should Christians not be willing to do for the religion of Jesus, to which they owe everything they are, and have, and hope to be ~"
But there is another practical question suggested by these significant facts and figures, and it pertains not only to Siam, but to all mission fields; and that is, " Why may not those who have borne the heavier burdens of their old heathen rites also be taught to support their own more beneficent Christian institutions ~"
In the early days of Christian missions it was sometimes necessary, at least it.was thought to be necessary, in order to win the confidence of the parents and children, to assume the entire support of the pupils in the boarding-schools. In some instances a trifling consideration was given to distrustful parents as an inducement to surrender their children to the full control of the missionaries, on the same principle that in some of our own cities it is necessary to secure by indenture the control for a period at least, of the children into eleemosynary refuges. This primitive stage of the mission work is passing away. There is a higher appreciation of the good accomplished in education. It is perhaps seldom necessary to assume the entire support of missionary pupils; and where it was at first deemed indispensable to furnish all expenses and chapels, as well as the entire support of the native preachers, that necessity is believed to be passing away. The native Christians are urged to assume the entire support of their pastors, and where this cannot be wholly assnmed a partial support is insisted upon. More and more it has become the aim of all missions to bring the people up to as high a degree of self-denial in this respect as they have been accustomed to practise in the support of their heathen rites.
In the Laos Mission there seems to be a greater readiness of the people to support their own Christian work than has been shown in most other mISSIOns. In the Laos Presbytery a standing committee on beneficence is now in full operation, and the Lampoon church has an evangelistic committee under its leadership. The students in theology are now engaged systematically in city mission work. The following action, taken by a committee of Laos Presbytery, will be of interest: Greetings of the servants of God, Nan Soopah, Noy Hooen, and Noy Moon, whom Presbytery last year appointed over the work of silver, gathered as offerings. We three servants of God have consulted, saying, if there is no work (set before wthoermk)bteheestdaibscliisphleesd.wirlrl not contribute: that is certain. It is necessary that a there is a work of the Lord, the disciples will have a heart to contribute. Another thing. The disciples in the country outside (United States) have collected silver and selected men and sent (t.hem) to help an these provinces. It is not fitting that we eat silver from the disciples of the country outside continuallY" It is fitting that we in this country should take (this) as our own work. Therefore, we three servants of God see fit to beg, ask and advise Presbytery after this manner, saying: 1. We ask Presbytery to send two men to exhort and teach in the districts of Tern and Lee and elsewhere-let the work say. Let one man be one who knows and is accustomed to teaching, and the other one who max assist in teaching, and may carry books along to distribute. Let the teacher eat sIlver, 15 rupees (about $4) a month; let the helper eat 12 rupees (about $3); let these two men go for about three months_ 2. We ask Presbytery to enjoin the disciples, every person, old and young, throughout this Lampoon (province), to contribute silver every Sabbath, according as God hath caused to have Prosperity. 3. We ask Presbytery to appoint a company (committee) to put their hearts into this work. Let this company have authority to send out these two men, to collect silver, to reckon silver (wages), and other matters. 4. We ask Presbytery to invite Rev. Soopah to take the work of traveling, exhorting, and teaching all the disciples concerning the work of giving; and that he enjoin to contribute silver for this work of teaching in the districts of Tern and Lee.
The Existing Volume of the Work.-The Protestant missionary work in Siam and Laos is almost entirely confined to the efforts of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, United States of America. The American Baptist Union, which carried on for Rome years a limited work in Siam, has withdrawn. Some individual missionary efforts are being put forth, as by Rev. Mr. Adamson, in Bankok. An American Christian negro, whose wife is a native of Pegu, is also engaged in missionary work. Some Chinese Christians, old converts of the American Baptist Mission, still keep up a sort of home missionary work among the Siamese in Bangkok. But the Presbyterian Board may at present be said to bear the chief responsibility of the missionary enterprise in Siam and in Laos. In the latter country, so far as known to the writer, no missionary effort is put forth by other bodies.
The last report shows in the Siam Mission, Ord~ined !f1i!'Bion~ries……………………….. • •• 8 Medical mIBBlonarles..•………………………….. 3 Married and unmarried women……………… " ….. . 16 Native teachers, male and female…………………. . 19 Number of communicants in seven churches……….. . 292 Boys and girls in boarding-schools…….. " ……….. . 191 Total number of pupils in schools of all grades……… . 316 Patients treated in the hospital work.•••.•••.•••…….. 5,000 In the Laos Mission there are Ordained missionaries……………………….. '" 8 Physicians ……………………………………. . 5 Married and unmarried women…….. " …… " …… . 16 Ordained natives…………….•..•.••… , .. " …… . 2 Other helpers…………….. " …………………. . 57 Number of communicants in twelve churches………. . 1,841 There were added during the last year…………….. . 305 Number of boys and girls in boarding-schools ….•….. 282 Children gathered in the Sabbath-schools…………… . 987 The stations of the Laos Mission are Cheung Mai, situated on the Maah Ping River, five hundred miles north of Bangkok. This was occupied by Rev. Daniel McGilvary, D.D., and Rev. Jonathan Wilson, both being accompanied by their wives. The second statipn, Lakawn, was occupied in 1885, Lampoon in 1891, Muang Praa in 1893, and Nan in 1894_ These five stations occupy such strategic positions a!l enable the missionaries there resident and their threescore native teachers and helpers to extend their work into the wide regions in all directions.
The Laos Mission has shown in the last four or five years very gratifying results of missionary labor, namely, the number of accessions in 1890 were 180, and during the following years respectively 182, 241, 299, 289, and 305.
The Present Outlook.-That part of the late speech by Queen Victoria to the British Parliament in which she states with satisfaction that a treaty has been formed between Great Britain and France, securing the independence of Siam, has doubtless excited in all friends of missions. a new interest in the missionary work in Siam and Laos. The kingdom of Siam embraces several small tributary st(ltes extending down the Malayan Peninsula, and also a number of dependencies stretching to the north and northeast, and embracing the Laos country. When the French navy entered Bangkok many months ago and forced the Siamese Government to transfer to French authority large districts in its northeastern tributary possessions, the relations between France and Great Britain became considerably strained with reference to the question of territorial rights.
And some apprehension was felt in regard to the future of American missions in Eastern Laos. and, in fact. throughout Siam. The policy of the French Government in its occupation of portions of the west coast of Africa, from which it excludes all American missionary operations except upon the condition that they shall use the French language in their mission schools, and shall be forbidden even the employment of the vernacular, has given good reason to fear that a similar restrictive policy, which virtually would amount to suppression, might be carried out in Laos and Siam. Tho the boundaries agreed upon between Great Britain and France are not as yet very clearly known, it appears that these two powers have agreed to a French protectorate or virtual possession in the northeastern dependencies, while England extends a similar control over territories on the west. Both of the great contracting powers are understood to have guaranteed the independence of Siam in the territory that remains.
While this treaty must be regarded as another of those encroachments either by single powers or by joint action which the stronger governments of the world have made and are making upon the territory of weaker nations, there is perh~ps this satisfaction, namely, that the action of Great Britain has prevented France from usurping the entire kingdom of Siam, or at least reducing it to a mere dependency of France, as in the case of Madagascar. It will secure also the continued work of Protestant missions both in the territory occupied by Great Britain and in the independent kingdom of Siam. On the whole, the congratulatory view which the British Queen seems to have taken of the situation may therefore be shared by all those who love the cause of evangelical missions. It is probable also that this arrangement may on the whole promote the general advance of civilization in Siam. Buttressed and secured in its rights by a specific treaty between two powerful nations, it may carry forward all those industries and foster all those lines and methods of advancement which the general movement of this age demands. A portentous uncertainty which for many months has hung over Siam having now been removed, there is perhaps new incentive to missionary effort. There is reason to believe that such effort will be welcomed, or at least more freely tolerated, in the future than it has been in the past. And the religious barriers to be encountered there are less formidable than in most Eastern lands. In Laos especially the influence of Buddhism is weak, and the influence of animism, or spirit worship, tho prevalent, is less antagonistic. It does not prevent the people from listening to the truth of Christianity. The field is therefore much more accessible than a country ruled by the intolerance of Islam or the conceit and self-satisfaction of either the Confucian or the Brahmanical cults. There is also comparative freedom from the spirit of caste and the social barriers which it presents. Both Siam and the Laos country are also less trammeled by restraints placed upon woman. She has greater social freedom, and may freely exert that womanly influence which is everywhere so helpful in all religious life and growth. Many great mission fields are just now environed with difficulties; but in Siam and Laos a great door and effectual is presented. For every ten missionaries there should be a hundred. A MISSIONARY ROMANCE.-II.
THE FIRST MISSIONARY EXPEDITION AND ITS CENTURY'S FRUIT.
BY GEORGE SMITH, LL.D., F.R.G.S., EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND.
America still waits the advent of a poet of the missionary crusade, such as William Cowper was the first to become in English literature, more than a century ago, and Reginald Heber proved himself to be among the Anglicans, and as James Montgomery did, representing the Moravian Brethren. John Greenleaf Whittier has come nearest to filling the sacred niche among the poets of our Western continent in the long career of his beautiful and God-consecrated life, from the appearance of his "Mogg Megone," in 1836, till his death, three years ago. The poem which caused him to be first recognized by purely English critics as " a pO}lt indeed" was" The Panorama," which was published forty years ago. As we read its impassioned and exquisite strains we feel that the writer was prevented from letting his muse burn over the greater subject of the foreign missionary enterprise only by the immediate and overpowering call of the slave for freedom. But W1'l may now apply the pictures and predictions of his panoramic showman to the higher freedom which the missionaries of Christ are everywhere proclaiming to all enslaved by sin: " And, still beyond, long lines of foam and sand Tell where Pacific rolls his waves a-land, From many a wide-lapped port and land-locked bay, Opening with thunderous pomp the world's highway To Indian isles of spice and marts of far Cathay. • Such,' said the showman, as the curtain fell, •Is the New Canaan of Ol1r Israel- The land of promise to the swarming North, Which, hive·like, sends its annual surplus forth.' "
For the peoples to whom awakening Christendom first resolved to send the good news of the liberty which is in Christ Jesus were those of the islands of that Pacific Ocean which covers a third of the globe. Thither William Carey determined to go, but God directed him, with Dr. Thomas, to India, for which he had been all unconsciously training himself. The first English missionary society-the Baptist-accordingly gave its early strength to the evangelization of the millions entrusted to the rule of the British East India Company. So it fell to the second of the Reformed missionary societies, now representing the other great army of the Nonconformists of England and vVales, to undertake as its earliest enterprise the sending of the law of God to the islands which had been for seventeen centuries waiting for that law-to the Malay and Papuan savages; from Tahiti and Samoa to New Guinea. In Captain James Wilson the London Missionary Society had found the providentially prepared leader of the exoedition; but where were the missionaries ~ The Rev. Dr. John Love, the first secretary of the society, and worthy to rank with Andrew Fuller, the first secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society, stood almost alone a hundred years ago in giving due importance to the training as well as the character of the men who were to be the modern apostles to the eight hundred millions of human beings ignorant of Christ. Himself converted when he was nineteen years of age, he had enjoyed the academic and theological discipline of the universities of the Church of Scotland. He had been assistant pastor and preacher in the parish churches of Rutherglen and Greenock, and he was Scottish minister in London at the age of forty, when there was added to his work the cares and toils of the secretariat. To found a new society in the fervor of the first love called forth by William Carey's letters was well, but to find and to prepare missionaries at a time when only one Englishman had gone ont to preach Christ, was a task of far more serious difficulty and of even greater importance. John Love naturally looked to Scotland, but the General Assembly of its Church that very year (1796), by a majority in the teeth of Erskine of Greyfriars, pronounced foreign missions " preposter. ous. " So he wrote these significant words on March 17th, 1796 : "I have been led to the idea of forming some certain and permanent plan for securing the solid instruction of a few missionaries at'!.east, who may be. as eyes to the rest. I am more and more established in the fullest cer· tainty that the rash ideas of many respecting the easiness of finding persons truly qualified for this work are the quintessence of folly and vain arrogance. In the course of conversations with the missionaries here for their instruction, I see at once the difficulty, the possibility and absolute necessity of polishing those shafts that are to be thrown into the very center of the host of Satan." lle humbled himself and his fellow-directors, calling them" to consider deeply whether our humiliation, and faith, and spirituality are of such a dye as that it may be hoped that the jealous God will commit to us the high honor of being the fathers of heathen nations."
When Dr. John Love had, day by day, given the accepted candidates for the mission field systematic theological training, so far as was possible to men generally ignorant of the original Hebrew and Greek languages of the Holy Scriptures, he prepared fifteen" Addresses to the people of Otaheite, designed to assist the labor of missionaries and other instructors of the ignorant." The study of these" simplest methods of conveying scriptural truth to untutored minds," and, possibly, the translation of these ad. dresses into the vernacular languages of the islanders, were meant to do what WycIif, Luther, and John Knox attempted in the Reformation times of transition from the darkness of illiterate Romanism which had concealed the Word of God.
Of the thirty male missionaries, with six wives and three children, who embarked on board the Duff at Blackwall, on the Thames, with James Wilson as commander, his nephew, William Wilson, as mate, and a crew of t,wenty besides, only four were ordained ministers. The Rev. James Fleet Cover and John Eyre, thirty-four and twenty-eight years of age re- , spectiveiy, were married. The Rev. John Jefferson did not live longer than to the year 1807. The fourth, the Rev. Thomas Lewis, who had attended the hospitals and dispensaries and understood printing, married a native and was murdered in 1799. The other twenty-six were tradesmen, artisans, and servants; one is entered as " surgeon," and one as lately a gunner in the Royal Artillery. The only one of the thirty whose name has come down as distinguished in missionary history was Henry Nott, a bricklayer, twenty-two years of age. He died in 1844 after forty-eight years' splendid service. Dr. John Love had reason for his anxiety. "The Lord of the harvest," he wrote, " hath prepared a numerous band of missionaries, and hath provided the means of their conveyance to a remote region of the globe. • •• When they stand on heathenish shores • • . it is easy to speculate, in the shade, on their arduous situation. But the elevation of faith, the rich communication of wisdom and power from on high, essential to their comfort and success, are beyond what most of us are capable to imagine. " Dr. Love warned the sanguine supporters of the new and sacred venture that accounts of solid success could not be expected for a long time.· "Having done our utmost to begin the attempt well, let us follow it up and mature it by the faith, patience, and prayers of years to come." Yet, tho Captain James Wilson did his part of the first missionary expedition well, and only one of the thirty missionaries proved himself above the average, while some fell away, this pioneer enterprise of the London Missionary Society has been used by the gracious Head of the Church to bring to Himself nearly all the peoples of the Pacific islands, and to prepare their ocean to be, in the second missionary century, the great highway of the Christian nations from the United States and the Dominion of Canada on its American shores, to Russia and Japan and the colonies of Great Britain on its Asiatic and Australasian coasts. Henry Nott was a bricklayer as William Carey was a shoemaker. So is Jesus Christ's fundamental law of His kingdom carried out still, as when He called the fishermen by the Galilean lake and trained them to be fishers of men.
Captain James Wilson, tho more experienced than they all, received a letter of instructions from the directors. "You are fully apprised," they wrote, "of the nature and design of the expedition you have undertaken to conduct. You are aware that it is not only in its nature singular and almost without a precedent, but that it is also one of the most honorable and most important services which can be confided to a human being. The attention of the Christian world is very generally excited to the object, and devout intercessions are continually ascending, like incense to Heaven, for its success. Should it be favored with the blessing of God, it may be the direct means of imparting Divine light and eternal life to great multitudes of immortal beings, and may form an era of distinguished importance in the history of human redemption. " He was told to proceed to Portsmouth to join the East India Convoy there, and to keep company with it for protection in that time of European war; to procure at Teneriffe four pipes of the best wine in hogsheads, paying by draft on the society's treasurer; to take thence bunches of dried grapes for planting in the mission settlements, and pecks of wheat and seeds of tropical fruits for the same purpose. Making for Rio de Janeiro, he was there to lay in a stock of sugar, tobacco, chocolate, cochineal plant, and other vegetable productions. He was to proceed thence by way of Cape Horn to Tahiti, but if bafIied by contrary winds to bear up and run for the Cape of Good Hope. The sphere of the mission was declared, by resolution of the general meeting, to be "Otaheite, the Friendly Islands, the Marquesas, the Sandwich and the Pelew Islands." But while it was declared desirable to introduce the Gospel into several islands, it was pronounced necessary, if possible, to establish it in one. After detailed suggestions as to negotiations with the chiefs and the settlement of disputes through " appealing to the decision of Divine Providence by a solemn and religious use of the ancient institution of drawing lots," Captain Wilson was told to call at the East India Company's Canton factory for a return cargo, so as to sail back to Europe in the early part of 1798. "You are accompanied by the affectionate esteem of the excellent of the ear1h, and ministering spirits, we trust, will receive the welcome charge to convoy you in safety to the place of your destination. May they be glad spectators of the formation of a Christian temple in these heathen lands, and thus be furnished with the subject of a new song to Him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb I"
The discoveries made in the South Seas during the three voyages of * Captain Cook had made the missionary directors familiar with the condi- tion of the islands and peoples, and especially with Tahiti; When dedicating the firstfruits of their labors to George III., who had sent out the scientific expedition thcre to observe the transit of Venus, thc directors said to the king: "A nobler object, Sire, has engaged the attention of the missionary society, who, believing CHRIS'fIANITY to be the greatest blessing ever imparted to mankind, desired to communicate that inestimable gift, with all its happy effects, to these unenlightened regions." They felt, moreover, upbraided for their neglect of repairing, if possible, the injuries caused to the natives by the miseries and diseases. which inescourse with Europeans had occasioned. The early Spanish navigators had erected a cross on Tahiti, a fact which led Captain Cook to remark that, in his opinion, nothing would ever be done to Christianize the Pacific islanders, " since there were no motives in public ambition nor in private * The extraordinary interest, scientific and spiritual, called forth by these voyages, all over Europe, L~ well seen in a work published at Berlin in 1781 by the IJalle Professor, Johan Reinhold Forster, .. Tagebuch Einer Entdekkungs Reise nach der Sudsee in der Jahren 1776 bis 1780 anter Anfiihrung der Oapitaius Oook, Olerke, Gore and King. The map 1s of curious value. avarice for such an undertaking." Dr. Haweis, the Anglican rector and chaplain of the Countess of Huntingdon, who was a worthy colleague of the Presbyterian, Dr. Love, spared no pains to induce his fellow-directors to answer that superficial and faithless view, to which Captain Cook had himself fallen a victim, by directing the first expedition to the islands of the South Sea, and very specially to Tahiti.
The story of Captain James "Wilson's first voyage of the Duff in the years 1796, 1797, 1798, as authoritatively detailed at full length in the quarto volume published for the benefit of the society in 1799, has again in its past centennial year been told in popular style by Mr. George Cousins, its editorial secretary. Since this article was written there has reached Edinburgh the American Tract Society's noble little quarto written by Rev. James M. Alexander, under the title of "The Islands of the Pacific. " To that our readers should turn for " a compendious sketch of missions in the Pacific," with illustrations of much beauty. Even more recently stilI there has returned from twenty years of labor in the New Hebrides group, the Rev. James H. Laurie, who, when the Free Church of Scotland in 1878 could not find an ordained minister to go forth to that region-so much more attractive did India and Africa and China seem to be-offered himself, layman and deacon as he then was. After building up and confirming the churches of Aneityum, founded by the apostolic Drs. Geddie and Inglis, who found not a Christian on the island, and who left it with not a heathen there, and with the whole Bible printed in the language of the people and paid for by their annual crop of arrowroot, Mr. Laurie has retired.
To the eye of sense a hundred years ago, it looked as if the opinion of Captain Cook as to the destiny of the Polynesians were more likely to prove COlTect than that of Love, Haweis, Captain James Wilson, and the supporters of the London Missionary Society. For years after March 5th, 1796, when Wilson left eighteen of the thirty missionaries on Tahiti, of the Society group, and the others on Tongatabu, of the Friendly Islands, and put one man, William Crook, the servant, ashore on the Marquesas, it seemed as if the whole enterprise were to be a failure. In March, 1798, one half of them left for Sydney, and " gave up the work." Only in 1800 could Nott and Jefferson build a church and preach in public. Not till 1812 did it seem possible that there could be any fruit, when King Pomare asked Nott for baptism. Who shall picture the trial of faith which that heroic missionary had patiently borne these sixteen years, while deserted by nearly all his fellows, and treated as Noah was when he was a-building the ark ~ But God's long-suffering, reproduced in that of His servant, proved as ever to be " salvation," to races as to individuals, to the sensual Polynesians and cannibal Melanesians as to the chosen Israel of old, and every evangelized dark people since. From Captain Cook's murder and even John Williams's martyrdom, to the churches of Maoris and Fijians, Eromangans and Samoans, what a difference the century has wrought out; and all because Henry Nott believed the promises of God, commercial and political progress have been made possible, and the greatest litterateur of this generation, the Scottish Robert Louis Stevensou, who lies on the hill of Samoa, among the people whom he loved, blessed the South Sea missionaries as Darwin did at Tierra del Fuego!
American and European civilization mayor may not in time kill out the Negritos, Papuans, and even Malays of the islands of the Pacific Ocean; but if so that will be due to the white men, whose vices and greed the evangelists of Christendom have sought to arrest, and would have anticipated had the Church of the eighteenth century been as careful to obey its Lord as the Royal Society was to observe the transit of Venus! And whatever earthly destiny the God of nations and of missions may have in store for the islanders in the coming century, this much is certain, that Christ, wherever He has been preached and believed on, has redeemed them from the terror of the devils their fathers adored for deities, as Milton sang; has given many of them a pure life and a righteous government; has filled them with the assured hope which takes from death its sting and the grave its victory, and reveals the kingdom of heaven opened to all believers. It is true that, proportionally to population, the scattered races and confused tongues of the islands have had ten times mc:re missionaries than those of the old civilizations and literatures of India, since Captain James Wilson escaped from the dungeon of Tippoo, the tiger of Mysore, and God used him to land Henry Nott, the bricklayer, in Tahiti, and the brave solitary Crook, the valet, in the Marquesas. But it wiII no longer be the part of politicians and traders to taunt Christendom with this when, as the next century advances, the whole ocean becomes in the highest sense worthy of its name, and proves to be the new Mediterranean of the Antipodes, the busy highway of Christian civilization.
MISSIONARY WORK IN MALAYSIA.
As CONDUCTED BY THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
BY REV. S. L. BALDWIN, D.D.
At the session of the Bengal Conference in 1887 a district called the Burma District was established, and the Rev. W. F. Oldham was appoint. ed Presiding Elder. This district comprised the territory from Rangoon to Singapore southward, and from Rangoon to Tounghoo northward. The only points occupied were Tounghoo, Rangoon, and Singapore.
In this territory there were four missionaries aud one supply, with three ladies of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society and their assistants. The health of Rev. G. A. Bond, the missionary appointed to Singapore, failed almost immediately, and he was obliged to return home. I do not notice the work in Tounghoo and Rangoon, as it does not belong to Malaysis proper. When Mr. Bond was obliged to return home, Mr. Oldham was left with the church, the Chinese school, and the district correspondence on his hands. This required teaching from five to eight hours a day, and preaching five times a week, with much necessary business be~ides, thus very much overtaxing his strength. An English congregation which had been established showed signs of prosperity, and besides meeting its own financial necessities, contributed half the cost of the Tamil Mission. The Chinese school, which had commenced under very favorable auspices the year before, and had thirtY-OIie scholars, increased to the number of one hundred and twenty during this year. Miss Sophie Blackmore, who came to the work from Australia, began very energetically her work for the women. She had a school for Tamil girls with ten pupils and three Chinese girls whom she had at her own home. She made many visits to Chinese homes, and commenced to study the Malay language.
At the close of 1888, Dr. Oldham reported that the mission at Singapore was making visible progress. He stated that he had been so absorbed in ministering to the needs of the English-speaking population, and in building up what was already the largest Chinese school in Methodism, and the second in point of numbers of all the Methodist schools among the heathen, th~t he had been able to attain only a fair acquaintance with the colloquial language. He reported evangelistic work done in the Malay quarters by a party of three ladies, headed by Miss Blackmore and three men, Dr. West, Rev. Mr. Munson, and Captain Shellabear, an officer of the British army.
In 1889 the work in Malaysia was constituted a separate mission, with its headquarters at Singapore'. Dr. Oldham, the superintendent, wrote: " Intrenched here, we hold out our right hand to India and our left hand to China. In looking out over the myriads of beautiful islands that lie between us and the land of the Southern Cross, our hearts swell with gratitude to Almighty God that our beloved Church will share in bringing the forty millions that inhabit these seas to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus." '
The English Church had the benefit of the ministrations of Rev. W. N. Brewster, and continued to prosper. The Chinese mission had medical and evangelistic work led by Dr. B. F. West, and the Anglo-Chinese schqol was under the care of Rev. R. W. Munson and Rev. C. A. Gray, with other helpers. There was an average of three hundred and fifty boys on the rolls, and the school was rapidly breaking down prejudices, fostering friendship, and winning respect for the missionaries among the Chinese. The wives of the missionaries deserve much of the credit of the success of the school as owing to their faithful labors.
Mr. A. Fox, a local preacher, devoted himself to work among the Malays, and a Sunday-school was kept up in the house of a Mohammedan, who invited the mission to use it for that purpose. The Americau Board missionaries in Ceylon acceded to Dr. Oldham's request and sent him a Tamil preacher, Mr. D. Underwood, who itinerated among the Tamil peo· pIe and found many eager listeners.
Miss Blackmore had sixty girls under regular instruction in the schools, and visited some fifty households regularly, teaching the Scriptures therein.
Mr. Gray died after six weeks' illness from typhoid fever. His tri- umphant death produced a great impression upon the Chinese students. In one month after.Mr. Gray's death Dr. Oldham and his wife were obliged to return to America to recruit their shattered health. Mr. Brewster was transferred to the Foochow Mission in China, but the Rev. D. D. Moore, of Canada, soon took his place, and carried on the work successfully. The medical mission among the Chinese furnished thirteen converts, who were baptized by Bishop Thoburn at the time of the annual meeting. Dr. West went to Amoy, China, for a time to study the language in order to become effective among the Chinese.
Rev. Mr. Kensett carried on the work, and several more candidates were baptized. The Anglo-Chinese school continued to prosper, having about four hundred and fifty eager Chinese boys and young men, many of whom began to know the Savior and pray to Him. Funds were raised to erect a new three-story brick building. Dr. Leuring arrived from Germany, and in eleven months so mastered the Malay language as to be able to speak fluently and correctly to the people. Work among this Mohammedan population, however, was found very difficult, and had but little result. In the Tamil mission Mr. Underwood received fourteen converts who were baptized during the year, and Rev. Henry Hoisington, who had been pastor of a native church in Ceylon for sixteen years, came to his help.
Miss Blackmore extended her school work so that larger buildings were necessary, and filled up her home with orphans who wished instruction in the Gospel.
Dr. West and Dr. Leuring made some explorations in Borneo with the intention of soon opening work there.
Dr. Floyd, of Michigan, was appointed superintendent of the mission, and sailed from New York in January, 1890. The number of members at the end of 1890 was ninety-eight, and of probationers twenty-two, making a total of one hundred and thirty.
In 1891 the work continued to prosper in all its departments. A new school building was commenced for the Anglo-Chinese school, which was to cost not less than $10,000. The Malay work was continued, notwithstanding its difficulties, and some advance was also made in the Tamil work. Miss Blackmore had a year of vigorous work and much encouragement among the girls and women.
Dr. Leuring spent a portion of the year in Borneo j work was commenced in Penang with Rev. D. D. Moore and Rev. B. H. Balderston as mISSIOnaries. Services were held in English. A school was commenced among the Chinese, and plans were laid for both Tamil and Malay work. In 1893 Rev. R. W. Munson, who was the Pre!!iding Elder then in charge, reported that the most serious drawback had been the failure in health of some of the workers, and their consequent departure from the field. Nevertheless, all the departments of the work had gone forward, and several new and important enterprises had been undertaken, such as Tamil work in Penang, an orphanage and training school for boys in Singapore, and a soldiers' institute.
In the evangelistic work at Singapore under charge of Dr. Leuring sixty-one persons were received during the year. Among the Chinese six persons were received into the church in April, and a well-appointed Sunday-school was carried on. The Chinese converts are spoken of as faithful and generous contributors to the expenses of the church and the support of the poor.
The new Chinese school building was opened on July 21st, the chief justice of the colony presiding. A prominent and wealthy Chinaman was among the speakers. The boarding-school alio continued to prosper. The English Church received the usual attention, and the work in the Malay mission was carried on faithfully but without any converts. Twelve Tamil lads were in the orphanage and training school. The work of the press had grown so much as to require the services of a competent English foreman, and nearly two millions of pages of Scriptures and tracts were printed during the year.
The Penang mission was carried on effectively both among the Chinese and Tamils. The Anglo-Chinese school had two hundred and sixty boys on its rolls. Miss Emma E. Ferris and Miss Harrington arrived to the aid of Miss Blackmore in the woman's work, and Miss Hebinger was doing important work as matron of the Anglo-Chinese Boarding-School.
In 1894 Mr. Munson reported that a splendid opening in the native protected State of Perak was soon to be entered, where the State President would erect a substantial school building and allow us grants in aid. Forty Tamil Christians were collected and formed into a class there during Mr. Munson's visit in June, and a native preacher was engaged to look after them, with the expectation that the mission would be self-supporting in a year. The membership in the Chinese work and also in the Malay work was doubled. Ninety-eight persons were received on probation from among the Chinese, making the total of probationers one hundred and fifty-eight, and twenty-one received into full connection.
The Anglo-Chinese School continued its successful career, the highest number present in a ~ingle day being four hundred and eighty. One of the most satisfactory things about this school was that it was entirely selfsupporting, the school fees and the grants in aid from the Government paying all the expenses. The leaven of Christianity in the boarding-school was continually increasing; nearly half of the boys were Christians and had their own daily prayer-meeting.
The English Church pursued its work successfully, and the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home had been patronized during the year by 26,599, over $4000 being received for beds and refreshments. It was doing most ex- cellent service.
The Malay church was organized on January 26th with twenty-two members and probationers, and there was an increase of five during the year. There were twenty.five boys in the orphanage and training school. The press issued 2,354,000 pages.
The evangelistic work in Penang, the woman's work, and the Tamil educational work all give signs of great encouragement. In the Tamil work twelve converts from idolatry were baptized. In the Tamil school the number of pupils reached ninety-one. The girls' school had fifty-four pupils. The Anglo-Chinese school reached an enrollment of three hundred, and the average daily attendance was two hundred and twenty-two against one hundred and sixty-nine for the previous year.
In 1895 the report from Penang was that the English Church was progressing slowly, the usual congregation numbering thirty-five. The constant changing of residence among the Tamils was in the way of successful work, but there were six baptisms during the year. There were five members and five probationers in the Chinese work, and an English~ congregation of from twenty-five to thirty. Sunday-schools among English-speaking people, Chinese, and Tamils numbered an average attendance of one hundred and forty.
The Anglo-Chinese girls' school had an enrollment of one hundred and sixty-five, and the Anglo-Chinese boys' school an enrollment of four hun~ dred and thirty.
In Perak, English services were held with an attendance of from twenty to twenty-five, and a Tamil congregation of from fifteen to twenty every Sunday. The Chinese church had an attendance of from thirty to forty, and Dr. West baptized six Chinese on his last visit there. In Singapore Mr. Munson reports that the most gratifying result of the year is the great increase in the number of Sunday-school scholars, which had grown from four hundred and forty-one the previous year to eight hundred and twenty, or an increase of 86 per cent. Twenty-one members had been gained in the Chinese church. One healthy sign of solid progress was an increase of $7737 in the amount raised for self-support-37 per cent in advance of the previous year.
The work in the English church was going on with some success, having a net gain of nine members, one reason of this slow growth being that we are a " total abstinence" church, and insist on the disuse of intoxicating drinks among our members.
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union, largely made up of Christian ladies of our church and the Epworth Lcague, were doing effective work. Twenty-seven thousand visits had been made to the Sailors' and Soldiers' Home during the year, and the sums received for entertainment and lodging amounted to $4215 (Mexican).
CHRIST'S TEACHING ABOUT MONEY AND THE ~ULE OF CHRISTIAN GIVING
The Chinese church had fifty-nine members and forty-five probationers. The boys' orphanage had twenty-six inmates, six of whom had been baptized. The press had printed 2,447,638 pages. The Malaysia Message, ably edited by Miss Foster, was found a valuable adjunct to the work.
The Anglo-Chinese school had an average attendance' of five hundred and seven. The present statistics of the mission are as follows : Foreign missionaries, 13 ; assistant missionaries, 11 ; missionaries of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, 3 ; with 21 native workers. There is 1 native ordained preacher and 7 unordained, wit.h 22 other helpers. The number of members is 252; of probationers, 96, making a total of 348. Average attendance on Sunday worship is 530; there were 35 conversions during the year. Thirty-eight adults and 19 children were baptized. There are 4 high schools with 1073 pupils; 15 other dayschools with 369 pupils; 39 Sunday-schools with 983 pupils; 30 orphans are cared for. The mission had 1 church valued at $6000 (Mexican), and 2 parsonages valued at $13,700 (Mexican). The orphanages, schools, hospitals, book-rooms, etc., are valued at $53,000 (Mexican). The amount collected for self-support was $35,375.
CHRIST'S TEACHING ABOUT MONEY AND THE RULE OF CHRISTIAN GIVING.
BY REV. JAMES JOHNSON, F.S.s., LONDON, ENGLAND.
Ever since the Christian public was startled by the publication of the famous prize essay, " Mammon," by Dr. Harris, the rule of giving a tenth part of their yearly income for charitable and religious objects has largely prevailed among Christian people. Some of the more generous have given a fifth and a few have given larger proportions of their substance. Good was done by the discussion of the subject, the greatest benefit being the more extensive habit of setting apart a stated sum for what are called strictly Christian objects. . As to the adoption of the Mosaic or rather patriarchal law of tithe, there is reason to doubt the propriety of introducing a legal principle into the Christian Church. It is a question if it has not stunted the liberality and stereotyped the amount given for charitable and religious objects. As to the application of the law of a tenth or even a fifth, which comes nearer to the Jewish taxes for charitable purposes, to the incomes of all classes alike, there is no doubt whatever that it is unjust and injurious both to the individual and the object. It was well enough for a nomadic race or an agricultural people, but it is altogether inapplicable to a commercial age, when the vast difference between fixed annual incomes and incomes which are yearly increasing or decreasing have to be dealt with. Without discussing the question of introducing such a law, it seemli clear that the rate of Christian giving is not adequate to the wants of Christ's cause in the world, nor even with the increase of wealth among Christian men. The time has come for a reconsideration of the motive and amount of giving, especially for the extension of Christ's kingdom, and whether the New Testament does not furnish a better solution than the Old. We shall briefly consider what Christ has said on the subject. With a view to ascertain what our Lord taught about money, and the rule of giving for what are called Christian objects, I have lately gone through a harmony of the Gospel history, so as to avoid repetition of the same pas- sage as recorded in more than one of the synoptic narratives. The result has been to me a revelation. I had no idea that our Lord had referred to money with anything like the frequency He has done. I had read an in- teresting article on the subject in the Expositor for 1888 by the Rev. F. F. Emerson, but a personal search has greatly increased my wonder at the frequency, variety, and importance of the references. Numerically, these references to money are four or five times more frequent than to any other one subject of His teaching. I couuted not fewer than fifty references to money in the course of our Lord's brief ministry, in the briefer record of His sayings. That this did not arise from Christ's biographer having given undue prominence to this department of His teaching 18 seen from the interesting fact that the only instance of. a saying of Christ's being quoted from apostolic tradition outside of the four evangelists is one about money: "It is more blessed to give than to receive." And Paul quotes it as if it were a frequent utterance of the Saviqr.
One reason why Christ so frequently spoke of money is obvious. It occupies so constant and influential a place in the daily life of every Christian that, if life is to be a unity, the place occupied by money must be clearly defined, so that it may take its proper place in the life of faith as one of the " all things" which were to be done "in the name of the Lord Jesus," and " to the glory of God."
John Ruskin was greatly struck with this feature of our Lord's teaching, and I shall take the liberty of quoting his striking words from Mr. Emerson's" article." " We might have thought," says Ruskin, "if we had been asked what a Divine teacher would be most likely to teach, that He would have left inferior persons to give directions about money, and Himself only have spoken concerning faith and love and the discipline of the passions, and the guilt of crimes of soul against soul. But not so ; He speaks in general terms about these. But He does not speak parables about them, for all men's memories, nor permit Himself fierce indignation against them in all men's sight. The Pharisees bring Him an adulteress. He writes her forgiveness in the dust of which He had formed her. Another, despised of all for known sin, He recognized as the giver of unknown love. But with a whip of small cords He drives out of the temple traffickers and thieves j while the practical command to the only seeket· of 8dvice, of whom it is recorded that Jesus loved him, ie, briefly, about hie property: "Sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven."
The fundamental principle which we find underlying all our Lord's teaching and practice respecting the property of His people, whether capi- tal or income, is that all is His and at His absolute disposal-in other words, when Christ claims ns as His redeemed children He claims all we have as well as all we are. This, of course, is no new discovery. Most would theoretically admit it, and some have acted on the principle. But is it embodied in the creed of the Church and made the practical rule of our life in dealing with monetary affairs 1 This claim of Christ's, if we consider the matter, is natural, indeed inevitable. If we are personally His, much more is our property His. We enter into a mutual covenant. Christ gives Himself and all that is His to us; we give ourselves and all that we have to Him. It is a condition of marriage. The husband gives himself to his wife, and endows her with all his worldly goods. The wife gives herself and her all to her husband.
This principle is expressly laid down by Christ Himself at a time when there was a conflict between His claims and those of the world. ., He that loveth houRes and lands more than Me is not worthy of Me," and "He that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be My disciple." In peaceful times the actual surrender is not required; but the surrender in principle and in heart is not on that acconnt the less, but the more binding. It is held by the believer in trust for Christ, to be disposed of for the good of himself and others as Christ shall direct by His Spirit and by the leadings of His providence.
But what is far more conclnsive than any mere rule laid down is the way in which our Lord acts (on this principle) throughout His ministry. When the rich young ruler knelt at His feet seeking admission to the kingdom, Christ claimed the entire control of his property. Jesus said: "Go sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in hea"en, and come and follow Me." Ev~n tho He loved that young man with a peculiar love, He would not lower His conditions of discipleship. He let him go away with the sad reflection, " how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God !"
It was the same with all His twelve apostles; they had each to obey • the command, " Follow Me," and" they left all and followed Him.", In some cases it might be said they had not much to leave ; but that is a shallow view of the case. The home of the poor man, with its hallowed associations and frugal competence and content, are no mean sacrifice when called to leave'it for a future of what to the human eye was a life of begg8ry and persecution and shame. The poorest of the apostles were independent fishermen; some were better off ; and Matthew was a man of w~alth. But whether less or more, they had to forsake all for Christ. So strongly convinced were the mass of the disciples that this was the law of the kingdom, that after the ascension of Jesus, when an emergency arose which seemed to call for the sacrifice of all, we are told that " neith~r said any man that the things which he possessed were his own," and that" as many as had lands or houses sold them and brought the prjce of the things which were sold and laid them at the apostles' feet." This was an abnormal state of society, never meant to last as a permanent condition in the Church j but it beautifully illustrated the spirit which Christ's teaching and example had inspired, and is a standing example of what the Church should do again if circumstances demanded and jm;tified the sacrifice.
That all the Savior's followers possessed or earned was the property of the Master is illustrated by the parables of our Lord. In the parable of the" talents" the good and faithful servants who had traded with the lent money brought back both principal and profit to return to the Lord j and the servant who hid his talent in the earth is not only declared to be wicked and slothful, but is deprived of the talent loaned to him, and" is punished for being" unprofitable. " The parable of the pounds teaches the same lesson : the faithful servant returns not only the one pound lent, but the ten or the five pounds gained by trading j and the timid servant is punished because he had not brought interest at even the small rate of a deposit account at the bank. The way in which the Lord is represented as returning to the faithful servants both the profit gained by trading and the original principal is fitted, as it was designed, to encourage His people. Having proved their fidelity, He could trust them with more, and rewards them in proportion to their diligence. He will never be indebted to His children; they will gain more than they can ever give to Him. He proves the truth of the proverb, " There is that scattereth and yet increaseth, and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." Even some of the Old Testament saints understood and acted on this principle of regarding all they possessed as God's. David, after laying up for the building of the temple what some say was equal in amount to the" reserve" in the Bank of England, says with true humility, ., Of Thine own have we given Thee."
But it may be asked, What is the normal responsibility of the Christian under such an arrangement? If all he has be Christ's, how is this capital and income to be expended? Christ's answer is explicit, and is illustrated by many parables. The Christian's responsibility is that of A STEW:ARD, to whom all the property of the Master is intrusted, as was the custom of the East. We see this in the parable of what is ironically called the wise steward. His fault was that he had misused his master's substance, and the way in which he used his power for his own selfish ends showed the unlimited trust placed in him as well as the sin of which he was guilty in turning it to his own advantage. So unchanging are the customs of the East, it is said of the faithful old steward of Abraham, " All the goods of his master were in his hand, " In such a case of !tewardship we need scarcely say that the steward would apply to the support of himself and his family the amount agreed upon by the master. This would be proportional to the extent of the trust and the responsibility of his position. In the case of the Christian and his Lord· the suin which the steward should spend upon himself and his family would be what he honestly considered the Lord would regard as just or even generous. This would be proportional to the number of talents committed to his trust, the position he occupied in society being one of the talents. What he spent on himself and his family would in this way be as much for the glory of God as if he had bestowed it in charity upon any other children of our Heavenly Father. All his expenditure would in this way be made sacred, and be done in the name of the Lord Jesus. In thus making provision for himself and his house the Christian must be careful to guard against giving too prominent a place to his own claims; he must consult the Master about every item of expenditure, and his responsibility for doing this is greatly increased by the fact that Christ has not laid down any Jaw as to the proportion to be spent on himself and the other claims of the Master. Christ trusts to the honor of His stewards. He expects them to consider carefully all the claims over the property committed to him as claims on what is entrusted to him as steward. He trusts to the tender conscience and grateful spirit of those who feel that they owe not only their property but the redemption of their souls to " Him who loved them and gave Himself for them. " The proportion set apart for personal and strictly charitable and Christian objects will depend on our sense of what Christ has done for us. "To whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much; and to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. "
The Apostle Paul rightly interpreted the Lord's mind when he laid down the general principle, " Let every man lay by him in store as the Lord hath prospered him," and the motive he urges is : "Ye know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that, tho He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be made rich." Let this principle and motive for giving be looked at in the light of the openings for the spread of the Gospel which God has brought before the Christian Church in these days, and so let him give.
The outlets for the profitable investment of the gifts of God's people are so much greater under the Christian than under the Jewish dispensation, that a tenth or even a fifth of the income of His people is, in niany cases, altogether inadequate to the work committed to the Church. This is especially true of commercial men who are accumulating capital far beyond their own wants or the provision required by their children. Many might multiply their gifts for the spread of the Gospel and still say, "We are unprofitable servants; we have done what was our duty to do." We are entering on what is called the second century of Christian missions under auspices so much more favorable than the first that there is a call for tenfold effort. The whole world is open and expectant. The facili- ties are a hundredfold greater, the prospects of success are a thousand times brighter than they were a hundred years ago, if only the Church would awake to the magnitude of her destiny and the majesty of Her leader. Christ seems as if He were about to ride forth" conquering and to conquer. " There are lurid signs of the predieted final conflict between the powers of Gospel light and the powers of pagan darkness, and" the time is short.' , We talk of a second century of missions. We dare not count upon such a long period for the accomplishment of the work to be done. " The night cometh." It may be by judgments on sleeping Prot· estantism. as well as on an apostate popery that God will accomplish His predicten purpose. There is a revival of zeal in the serried ranks of the Roman Catholic Church. The Greek Church is stirred up to propagating and persecuting activity; paganism, alarmed at the progress of Christian· .ity, is rousing itself for a struggle, and the false prophet is preparing for an outburst of fanaticism. Is the Protestant Church alone to remain disunited and apathetic 1 Is she blind to the signs of the times 1 God has given to her children of the Saxon race, through conquest and colonization, a position of strategetic power of unparalleled significance and importance for the Rpread and triumph of the gospel of peace.
There are two forms of the love of money by which both individuals and nations are tempted to their destruction. The one is the love of money for its own sake-the base sin of the miser. The other is the love of money for the pleasures it can purchase-the brilliant folly of the spendthrift. Against the sin of hoarding the Lord warns us by the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, and by the rich fool. Against the sin of squan. dering we are warned in the parable of the prodigal son. Are not these the characteristic sins of our day by which the progress of the kingdom of God is hindered, and social and national life is imperiled? Rich men are piling up great fortunes and creating a great gulf between them and the poor, dangerous to the stability of civilized society. Nations are accumulating capital to an extent unheard of in the history of the world, and at the same time are spending money in enervating pleasures and luxurious vices only paralleled by the licentiousness of Greece and Rome in their decline and ruin. vVhy all this" heaping up of treasure against the last times"? "'~hy are Christian men hoarding fortunes far beyond their own needs and the wants of their families, while the work of God is languish. ing .and the heathen are perishing for lack of knowledge?
It is full time for the ministers of Christ to lift up a warning voice against the abuse of money, and t.o teach the people the uses for which it has been so abundantly given to the Protestant nations of the world. Let them by their teaching and example raise the standard of giving to the Christian maximum rather than that of Mosaic minimum, that they may realize the truth of the Lord's maxim, "that it is more blessed to give than to receive."
35i UNEVANGEJ,IZED CENTRAL ASIA
UNEVANGELIZED CENTRAL ASIA. * BY DR. ARTHUR NEVE, KASHMIR, INDIA.
Tibet is sometimes spoken of as the only part of Asia in which the Gospel is not being preached. One side of Exeter Hall might be papered with maps of unevangelized countries at the scale of one -inch to a mile. A great statesman once advised politicians to study large scale maps. The advice may be tendered to Mission politicians. IIow many ill-planned efforts have ended in failure for want of geographical knowledge and fore- thought. Why are bands of fifteen or twenty missionaries sent to sit out- side the closed doors of Tibet, while other great regions need evangelists, and have open doors ~ Why do Mission agencies jostle one another in Jerusalem or in Calcutta, when there are vast tracts to which no messengers go ~ Of the thousands now working in most parts of the globe, Central Asia owns scarcelv one.
From Teheran in Persia to Bathang in China, a' distance of over three thousand miles, there is no European Prote8tant missionary. A modern Marco Polo might travel right across the continent, and find even less Christianity than in the twelfth century. In India this is the time of boundary commissions to map out the frontiers, east, west, and north. Is it not time for the Church of Christ to appoint boundary commissions, not as in politics to mark off the limits of the sphere of action, but to ascertain why those limits exist in spite of the marching orders, "Into all the world" ?
In Kashmir, the northern outpost of Indian Missions, there is a little group of clergy, doctors, zenana workers, and nurses, for a population of 2,000,000-one worker to 250,000. 'Ve cannot hope effectively to cover more than one third, or at most one half of our sphere of work. But how can we complain even at such undermanning, when from our watch-tower we look east, west, and north, and see everywhere great regions in which none are witnessing for Christ? Let us study the field, mark off the strategical points, and agree on a concerted line of action.
CENTRAL ASIA may be treated of physiographically, politically, and ethnologically.
1. PHYSIOGRAPHICALLY.-There are great stretches of mountains and plateaus to the north of the Himalayas which are very thinly populated, and only accessible for three or four months of the year. Such are the Highlands of Tibet, the mountainous region north of Chinese Turkestan and the vast sandy deserts, such as the Desert of Gobi, between Yarkand and China. But in the intermediate regions are well-watered valleys, and these are well populated; such are the valleys of Eastern Tibet. The snows of the Karakorum, the Mustagh, the Thian Shan, Il.nd the Hindu Kush supply streams and canals which fertilize millions of acres of wheat and barley, orchards of apples, pears, pomegranates, peaches, and fine vineyards. There are climates temperate and healthy, neither burning in summer nor frost-bound in winter, tho with marked extremes of heat and cold.
These countries are now no terra incognita. They are yearly visited by sportsmen and travelers, and yearly become more accessible. The Russian Turkestan Railway terminates within 500 miles of the great towns of Chinese Turkeiitan and of the British frontier post at Gilgit. The Brit- * Condensed from a paper .by Dr. Neve, in the Ohu1'ch Missionary Intelligencer. ish railway system extends to Rawalpindi, and from thence there are military roads to Kashmir and on to Gilgit.
2. POLITICALLY.-There are four powers to be considered here, or rather five, for the Tibetan subordina1ion to China is only nominal. Chinese passports and treaties are worthless as regards Tibet. The Llamas are the real rulers, and are determined to keep their country closed to Europeans. Chinese Turkestan is quite open to British travelers. Including Kuldja with Yarkand it contains probably 3,000,000 inhabitants. Russian Turkestan is open to travelers under special conditions, but not to Protestant missionaries, nor is it likely to become so. Afghan Turkestan is as yet only open to a few selected English officials, in the Amir's employ. But it it; likely to become more accessible before long. This region includes Badakshan with 150,000 population, Kunduz with 400,000, and further west another 400.000. B1'itish Central Asia, the region beyond the snow-passes of the Himalayas, comprises Kashmir with Ladak, Baltistan, Hunza, Gilgit, and Chilas. Beyond the Indian frontier to the west and north are various Yaghi tribes, with Chitral, which is more directly under Rritish protection, and Kaffiristan, to which England has sent more than one political mission. Except the inimical tribes of Yaghistan, all these countries should be open to mission work, and if any attempt were made by political agents or others to exclude missionaries from any country within the British zone, a question in Parliament would probably frustrate it.
3. ETHNOLOGICALLY.-This is the most practical missionary point of view.
On the east we have the Mongolian group. There is Tibet, which is closed to Europeans, not by Chinese exclusiveness, but by the power of the Llamas, wielded like that of the Papacy in the Middle Ages. The religion of Tibet is the degraded form of Buddhism known as Llamaism. The Dulai Llama, who is head of the hierarchy, rules the country and receives the abject worship of the people. Be is supported by tens of thousands of monks, recruited from the people and living on them-a parasitic growth which crushes all free. dom of thought or action, and under the guise of asceticism encourages the vilest immorality. Nothing short of a miiitary occupation of Lhassa itself by British troops would avail to deliver the country from their yoke. And even in Ladak the power of the Llamas exercises a most baneful influence. But Tibet may be blockaded, and Missions may be placed in strategic points on its frontier, so as to evangelize Tibetan traders. As Ii. base of operations on the Indian side, Sikkim and Darjeeling offer the advantages of ready communication with Europe, but these are counterbalanced by the jealousy with which the Tibetans watch the frontier. Ladak is too far west to affect Central Tibet. On the whole it may be said that Christian outposts are more likely to affect Tibet if placed on the Chinese border j and that an indigenous Christianity in Upper Yunnan and Western Si-chuen would surely spread the Gospel in the beautiful and populous valleys of Eastern Tibet. This is what the Romanists are doing, and already some of their converts ha~ won the crown of martyrdom. Of Tibetan stock we have also the races of North Burma, which extends to within two degrees of the latitude of Lhassa, and where there are many uncivilized tribes to be evangelized. Further west lies the independent state of Bhutan, which is said to have a population of 700,000 and no missionaries. Is there any sufficiut reason for the paramount power of India permitting such exclusiveness? The Rame question may fairly be asked about Nepal, with its population of 2,000,000. It may be hoped that the Nepalese converts from Darjeeling will introduce the Gospel to their own countrymen. Beyond Nepal on the west the Tibetan portions of the Himalayan tribes are scanty. There may be some 30,000 in the head-valleys of the Ganges, and the Sutlej, in which the M6'ravians have two stations, with a few hardly won converts.
Among most of these Tibeto-Burman races Llamaism and Hinduism are strangely mixed j but coming to Ladak we find the sway of the Red Llamas undisputed. The Moravians have at Leh a well-manned and wellworked Mission. 'Vest of Ladak, in the Indus valley, is a Tibetan race which has embraced Mohammedanism, the Baltis. The country is mountainous, but the valleys warm and fertile. Here there are some populous centers. In the Skardo and Shigar districts there must be 30,000 or 40,000 Baltis. A Swedish missionary is now working, having already acquired some Tibetan, near Darjeeling j but the dialect of Baltistan is different, and one man can do but little.
Our hasty survey of the Tibetan races shows how few open doors remain to be entered, but emphasizes the duty of the Christian Church to exercise its influence toward the opening up of Nepal and Bhutan to missionary work.
2. Coming next to the Mongolo-Tartars or Turki-speaking races we have- (a) The people of Ohinese Turkestan, numbering two millions or more. The chief cities are Ileni, Yarkand, Kashgar, and Aksu, with populations of from 20,000 to 75,000. Each city is the center of a fertile area, well irrigated, and with numerous villages scattered around. The Turki population is entirely Mohammedan, of the orthodox Suni sect. They are devout, and many thousands perform the pilgrimage to Mecca, notwithstanding the dangers and difficulties of the journey. In the cities there are many Chinese who are Confucianists or Buddhists, but the nomad tribes are either Pagan or semi-Mohammedan. There is no European Protestant missionary in any part of this great district. It has a climate not hotter than that of Spain, tho much drier. The center of the valley is 4000 feet above the sea. Probably under favorable conditions the journey from England to Kashgar might be accomplished in less than a month by the Central Asian Railway. From India it is three months' journey across snow-passes from 12,000 to 18,000 feet high.
(b) Akin to the Yarkandis are the Usbegs and Turkomans of Afghan and Russian Turkestan. Turki is spoken, with variations of dialect from Turfan in Kashgaria to the Caspian, a distance of 1400 miles. Most of this region is under the political control of Russia. European missionaries might work in Kashgaria and Meshed, sending native agents and literature into the vast intervening tract of country, till the day when, in God's dispositions of men's affairs, the barriers are removed which now exclude the messengers of the Gospel. There are other Mongolian tribes in these regions of West Central Asia, especially the Hazarahs and Aymaks.
3. The Aryan Races of Central Asia are of various stocks : Iranic, such as the Tajiks and Badakshis, Afghans and Beluchis, of whom there are over five million in the area politically known as Afghanistan. On the southeast frontier there are missions, well placed if weakly manned, at Quetta, Bannu, and Peshawar, especially working among Afghans and Beluchis. In Persia, miililions should be placed at Kirman, Yezd, and Meshed, with a view to eastward extension among Persian-speaking tribe!. The remaining races come within the Indian political system; and, as such, have a primary claim on our attention. The collective name of Galcha has been given to the tribes of the Hindu Kush living in the val- leys of Chilas, Astor, Gilgit, Hunza, Nagar, and Chitral; they all belong to various sections of Islam, except the Kaffirs, or Siah-posh, who have valiantly defended the mountain recesses of Kaffiristan against Mohammedan mullahs and Afghan conquerors. It is a mere guess to say that there must be not less than 80,000 souls iu the various Galcha tribes.
During the last few years much has been done to open up this region. A military road has been constructed to Gilgit. Hunza, Nagar, and Chilas have been subdued, and have residfmt British officers; Chitra'! has a political agent and a British dispensary. A solitary traveler can now travel almost unescorted through the whole region, passing through Hunza to the Pamirs, and back by Chitral. Kaffiristan has been visited by Europeans, and Mr. Robertson, C.S.I., lived among the people for some months. Colonel W oodthorpe confirmed the report made by the native evangelist, Syed Shah, who was sent to Kaffiristan from Peshawar. The Siah-posh said to the English officers, " We are your brothers; stay here and teach us your religion. "
Have we no duty to these people ~ Nay, rather, have we no duty to Christ? for it is lIe who would claim these for His own. If we wait till they are folded in the cobra-like embrace of Mohammedanism, it will be too late to help.
What is wanted is a Central Asian Pioneer Mission, with its base of operations in Kashmir.. At the outset it would he essentially an Itinerant Mission, visiting the Galcha tribes in the summer months when the passes are open, and wintering at Chilas, Gilgit, or Kashmir, according to circumstances. From Hunza to Yarkand is but a fortnight's journey. Thus we should be linked on to the Turki-speaking Mission which would be established there. Kashmir might contribute medicines and medical assistants to the pioneer party. There is one man, a native of Kaffiristan, now studying at the Agra Medical School. His whole education has been directed to the end that he might evangelize his own countrymen, and this is his heart's desire. Surely the time has come to lift the banner of Christ and to cry, " Forward I"
If Livingstone was justified in leaving his work in Bechuanaland for the unknown center, or Henry Martyn in going to Persia; Krapf in visiting Kilimanjaro, or Paton in going to Tanna; certainly has the call come for some one to go to these central regions of Darkest Asia. * .. An appeal was also issued by tbe missionaries in Kashmir to the Church Missionary Society, in the course of which they ask that special efforts be made to strengthen Snnagar, the outpost station of Kashmir, and to send other worke1'8, who might enter the already open doors of access to some of the totally unevangelized tribes outside the valley.
H Cries, sad cries, from these Christless regions keep on ringing in olir ears! Can nothing be done to reach these fine, vigorous, warlike races? Surely, where messengers of our Empress can go, the messengers of the King of kings cau follow. Surely where travelers can go with safety. thIther the mission8J'Y also will wend his steps. Some of these peoples, those of Kaffiri.tan, for instance, have more than once asked for Christian teachers. One thinks'of that brave old missionary, Joseph Wolff, who on two occasions trod the monntain passes beyond and preached Christ as he went. One thinks of Captain Conolly. who confessed Christ and died a martyr's death in the city of Bokhara. One thinks of Kandahar Gordon, and others like him. One thinks of Fazl Haqq, Maulvle Nurullah, and Saiyid Shah, who went forth with their lives in their hands to Bee what conld be done for the Siah-posh Kaftrs. Alas! nobody attempts to penetrate those gloomy passes now j' no Gospel light shines over these lofty mountain ranges. And yet Christ died for these peop e-tens of thonsands of them. snch that a speedy and plentiful spiritnal harvest wonld be reaped from among them. Central Asia waits for the Gospel of Christ, and must receive it. Where are the' tellers'? Certainly the heart of the Christian Church is lar"e enough to take in these •other sheep.' which Christ has beyond the border. Some will offer themselves for the honor ot laboring in a vineyard that they themselves have planted; of declaring the Name of Christ where It was not known before. It cannot be Impossible for the Church to send forth a sufficient )lumber of m1nloll8l'ies to make Ul!e of those opportunities and to supply these want•. "
THE NEW PROGRAM OF MISSIONS
THE NEW PROGRAM OF MISSIONS.* BY REV. E. H. JONES, SENDAl, JAPAN.
I wish that I could, from my experience in missions in Japan, endorse all that Mr. Wishard t has said of the work that has been done, or that may be accomplished through his mission to the student class in this country. Also I cannot believe that the plan put forth will, if adopted, usher in a more successful method of bringing to Christ this and other heathen nations. Mr. Wishard's plan is to " convert the colleges of foreign mission lands into strongholds and distributing centers of Christianity ; make them academies of the Church militant, to train leaders for the present crusade of evangelization."
It was said by some one not very long ago concerning the evangelization of Japan, that" if we could send one thousand workers at once to Japan the country would be Christian in ten years." I thought at the time of the number of people in the home land who think the Christianization of the world is Jargely a matter of men and money. They forget the word wbich says, "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord." I take it all these plans make too much of man's part in this work of the extension. of the kingdom. We are not to find any new way of bringing men or nations to Christ. The One who commanded us to "disciple all nations" chooses His apostles and has given them the plan of campaign. " For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. " Now and then He chooses a Paul, a Luke, a Chrysostom, a Wesley ; but how much more often He chooses a Matthew, a Peter, a John, a Spurgeon, a Moody! Sometimes a revival commences as indicated by Dr. Pierson by means of an " Oxford Holy Club," a "haystack meeting at Williams College," or a "Yale revival under President Dwight." But how much more often is the work done quietly and unostentatiously, like the twelve years of evangelization by Mr. Clough and his poorly trained native helpers in Telugu, preparing for the recent great revival in that land, that has demonstrated that the Holy Spirit still works through means by Himself chosen and prepared! After Mr. Richards had tried every method suggested by human wisdom and ingenuity, the simple preaching of the Gospel by himself and his company of lately converted African heathen made a new epoch in his work on the Congo. It demonstrated that tho sometimes it has happened that God has used highly educated men for the evangelization of heathen lands or has started a reformation by the dialectics of a Luther, yet the rule has been that He has used a means that has seemed to men the most unlikely to produce great res]llts. "But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, etc. . . . That no flesh should glory in His presence." "A sanctified cobbler, ' the follower of a Divine Carpenter,' started the movement of modern missions to the heathen, and are we now to take the citadel by a corps of highly trained * It is but fair to hear another side of the question set forth in these pages in the Editor's review of L. D. Wishard's book, .. A. New Program of Missions" (September REVIEW, 1895).-D. L. P. . t I am personally acquainted with Mr. Wishard and have great respect for his ability and con- secration, and I praise God for the use that has been made of fiim in tWs the Church's greatest and only legitimate enterpris6-viz., the extension of God's kingdom in the world. I have myself great cause for thankfulness that when a student at Newton Center his burning words on missions contributed not a little to the decision to give myself to the work of carrying the Gospel to the regions beyond. Yet I must give in mytestimon¥ as to this new movement to force the Holy Spirit to iillow us His servants to make a plan of campaign for Him. Brahmins, Literati, and Japanese' Gakusha '1" Not that we would not have educated men to give themselves body and soul to the Spirit as Paul did, to do the stupendous work of overthrowing Satan in his stronghold; but that we can organize an ar my of educated men-so IIlany men to so many heathen, so many years-and then rub our hands with satisfaction at the idea that we have it now. The world will be at the feet of Jesus if we can get this plan into operation. This I think contrary to the Holy Spirit's plan of missions. Take Japan for an illustration of the futility of such plans. Many now think that the lcgitimate harvest of the consecra- tion and self-sacrifice of the sainted Neeshima will be largely lost precisely because of his mistaken plan which was similar to that suggested by Mr. Wishard. Mr. Neeshima was a very patriotic Japanese, and at the same time a devoted Christian. He wanted to make his country Christian by the quickest method. Start a Christian university, educate the intellectual young men of this generation under Christian auspices, and you have the country. So, starting with the famous" Kumamoto Band," with tHat enthusiasm that made Neeshima a hero, money flowed in from heathen as well as Christian sources, and the Doshisha was established. But note the result. Hardly a decade had passed before the university was noted for its ultra-liberalism. Its predominating influence threw a cloud over the prospects of Christian evangelism in Japan. Its students were more interested in higher criticism than in seeking to save their countrymen. In fact, they came to doubt whether nnbelievers were lost. Was it a harvest from the seed sown in the minds of the" Kumamoto Band" by their first teacher, Captain Janes, who has recently made even the Doshisha stand aghast at the unscripturalliberalism voiced in some lectures given by him before the school 1 What a blessed thing it would have been if the great revivals that occurred in the school some years ago, as noted in the article under review, had manifested a wholesome enthusiasm for the salvation of the unsaved masses of the great city of Kyoto in which the Doshisha is situated! On the contrary, I have been so informed by a lady connected with the teaching staff of the institution, notwithstanding the large number of intelligent Christian young men studying in its classrooms hardly anything has been done for the evangelization of the great city with it.s teeming thousands, who in matters of religion "cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand." Here we have Mr. Wishard's plan shown to be futile. We have much intellectual Christian culture, but yet no preaching of the Gospel. Take for another illustration the Meiji Gakuin, the great Presbyterian Christian college in Tokyo. Take a fact known to all. Some four or five years ago a bright, consecrated young Japanese professor of this institution, seeing how lamentably it was failing to provide preachers for the pressing needs of the work of evangelization in his country, and also being dissatisfied with the liberalism of some of its teachers, started a Bible institute in Tokyo to turn out plainly educated, Bible.trained Gospel preachers. His school has been graduating some twenty preachers a year to the six or seven of the Meiji Gakuin. And if a report given by one of the missionaries long and honorably connected with the work of the UniQn Church of Japan is to be relied upon, the value of the training done by the great institution, supported liberally by missionary funds from America, as compared to the smaller and cheaper Bible institute, is in inverse ratio to the funds spent upon it. The missionary alluded to remarked: "Our college has in the last ten years graduated some twelve students from its divinity school at a cost of $2000 each. Five of them have gone to the Unitarians, three have gone into other avocations, the rest refuse to leave the large and profitable places in the cities to go out to preach the Gospel to the masses of the people who have not yet heard of Christ." I will not vouch for the absolute correctness of the figures in the above-quoted remark, for it was some three years ago since 1 heard it; but the !'mbstance was as above. I fear that the plan of Mr. -Wishard, if largely relied upon, would produce results similar to those seen in these two institutions. On the other hand : 1. Let us look to God more expectingly for His Spirit to stir up the rank and file of the native Christians. From this revival preachers will naturally be evolved. When we find they have a mind to work, when they feel " woe is me if I preach not the Gospel," help them to get for themselves an adequate intellectual preparation. The amount needed will be indicated by the evident necessities of the kind of work God calls them to do.
2. Send out men from the homeland whose hearts are afire with a desire to save the nations, who. having" changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator," are in danger of " the wrath of God . . . revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. " Call home, and keep them there, all men whose minds are filled with" profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely so-called." Then we shall have an era of work in Japan that will silence all cavilers, both those ultra-optimists who are so blind to the needs of Japan as to say that the work is under such headway as to be practically beyond the need of help from outside, and those on the other side, who are in despair at the falling away of the J·apanese Christians from the simplicity of the Gospel; who say the Japanese can only be left to work out their religious problems for themselves. Then the masses of the people, yet practically untouched, will be worked for.
Mr. Wishard has remarked in another connection th'tt "Japan has proved an exception to the rule among heathen nations coming to Christ, in that the higher, the educated classes, have been brought to the truth first. " Now, those who know Japan well think that the living, spiritual, foundation-sapping work, that which is to overthrow heathenism, is yet to be done. Comparatively few of the mass of the people have yet been reached. The Shizoku, or Literati of Japan, form but 5 per cent. of the whole. Most of those already reached belong to this class. As might have been expected, these Shizoku Christians have almost come to regard our religion as their prerogative. They seem to be inclined to make more effort to modify Christianity to their desires than to seek to carry the Divine Gospel to the masses of the people below them. Serious doubts are held by many as to what will be the outcome of such an unnatural method of founding Christianity. They fear that altho the ornamentation of the heathen temple of Moloch has been destroyed, the foundation has been left untouched. It may, therefore, lose its attractiveneRs to the nation,. but remain an obstacle to the extension of the true religion, if it be not altered and utilized to take the place of Gospel Christianity. The religion of Jesus seems to need in its foundation period the personal testimony of the saved outcast, profligate, and prodigal. This we have seen but little of in Japan. As a last word, let me emphasize the fact that Japan's true evangelization, with its forty-four millions of intelligent, progres8ive people, is yet in its infancy. The true evangelizing force, male and female, native and foreign, does not exceed fifteen hundred. About four hundred of these are foreign workers. The rest are Japanese, the majority of whom are without any special training. We have, then, really only one worker to every twenty-eight thousand of the people. " The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth more laborers into his harvest. "
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
n.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
Rev. George Bowen. and died in Bombay, February 5th, 1888. His parents were of Welsh de- The Bombay Gua1'dian made its issue scent, and at the time of his birth, and of February 8th, 1896, largely a mamo- during his young manhood, were con- rial number of the saintly man George nected with the Protestant Episcopal Bowen, who so long, so faithfully, so Church. Very early he developed a fearlessly, and so lovingly was editQr taste for literature and, to the disap- of that paper. The usual week-evening pointment of his father, a pronounced service at the Bowen Memorial Church, dislike for a commercial life.
Bombay, falling this year on the anni- Up to his twenty-eighth year he was versary of the death of Mr. Bowen, they an avowed disbeliever in Christianity.
made that, too, a memorial service. Driven out of atheism he took refuge It is not possible rightly to estimate in deism, strongly maintaining the im- the loss which the Church of Christ in possibility of the Creator revealing India sustained in the translation of Himself to mankind. Bya remarkable this remarkable man of God. For forty chain of providential interpositions, he years he witnessed a good confession was at length led to make a patient, before the inhabitants of Bombay-the protracted examination of Christian evi- last sixteen in connection with the dences, which resulted in his being fully Methodist Episcopal Church. Abun- persuaded that the Gospels were a faith- dant in labors, of versatile talents, and ful record of events that had really gifted intellectually above many, he taken place in accordance with predic- shone conspicuously as a faithful am- tions made tq thc Jews centuries be- bassador for Christ. With voice and fore. The Bible, then, was a revela- pen he unfolded the unsearchable riches tion from God! At once he abandoned of Christ to Europeans and natives, by himself to the study of the New Testa- whom he was revered and esteemed ment. Early in April, 1844, he yielded possibly beyond any other missionary himself unreservedly to Christ, passing of his geueration; and he greatly en- out of death into life and becoming riched the Church by his splendid con- a transformed, happy child of God tributions to its devotional literature. through faith in Jesus Christ.
It is to be regretted that the Church in Within three or four weeks he had America knows so little of the life his- fully formed the purpose of becoming tory of this unique missionary, whose a foreign missionary, which at that profound humility, untiring devotion, time, and in America especially, meant and great attainments in Christian far more than it does now. Judicious knowledge and the way of holiness, en- friends advised him to take a theologi- title him to rank among the missionary cal course before going abroad. He Princes of the century. No one ex- did so, taking advantage of all oppor- pects to see another George Bowen in tunities of work while a student at India, but many have earnestly prayed Union Seminary, spending his vacations that God would raise up men to labor in colportage work in needy country dis- for India's salvation on whom a goodly tricts, and proving himself a spiritual portion of his Christ-like spirit should leader among his fellow-students.
rest, and to whom his holy self-abne- Having been duly accepted and ap- gating life would be a mighty incentive pointed by the American Board of Com- and a constant inspiration. missioners for Foreign Missions, he George Bowen was born in Middle- sailed July, 1847, and reached India, bury, Vt., U. S. A.,.April 30th, 1816, January Hlth, 1848. He at once entered upon the study of the vernacular well-nigh twoscore yea1'll, he tells us, with his usual diligence, and made he found a hiding-place in the forty- rapid progress. From the very first ninth chapter of Isaiah, the verse of his mind was busily occupied with the which reads: "But I said, I have la- various problems connected with and bored in vain, I have spent my strength arising from th" prosecution of mis- for naught and in vain; yet surely my sionary work in a heathen land. His judgment is with the Lord, and my earnest desire was that the gulf between work (margin, reward) with my God."
the natives and the missionaries might, But while the actual conversions that in some way, be bridged. Believing directly resulted from his labors were that a practical and effeetive way of ac- not at all commensurate with his own complishing this would be to live among anticipations, nor on the scale that the natives in the simplest possible would be supposed to attend the efforts style, in order to convince them of the .of one so devoted, unselfish, and able, unworldliness of motives and disinter- it would be a great mistake to sup- estedness of aim by which missionaries pose that even in this respect his mis- are actuated, he resigned his missionary sionary career had been without direct salary and took up his abode in the fruit.. There can be no doubt that not heart of the na~ive community, sup- a few natives were led to Christ through porting himself by teaching in a pri- his personal agency, and many Euro- vate family. peans and Eurasians were awakened In 1849 he resigned his salary and and converted under his preaching.
adopted native modes of dress and liv- But it was as a pastor and teacher, a ing, repaired to the center of the native shepherd, a feeder of the Lord's fiock, population to reside, and reduced his that Mr. Bowen excelled, and that the expenditures to a merely nominal sum. Lord specially used him. He himself In 1855 he resigned his connection with said: "My passion is for winning the Missionary Society of the American souls, but it does not please the Lord to Board, and continued as an indepen- use me in that way." The Lord did dent missionary till 1872, when he use him "for the perfecting of the joined the South India Conference, of saints, unto the work of ministering, which he was three times elected Presi- unto the building up of the body of dent. From 1854 to 1886 he edited the Christ," not only locally through his Bombay Guardian. His" Life of Mo- oral teaching, but throughout the whole hammed," "The Amens of Christ," land, and in other lands, by means of " Daily Meditations, " and a dozen other his additional writings and published titles witness to his literary activity. works of meditation and interpretation.
As a missionary his career was alto- Tho making no pretensions to elo- gether unique. While all admired the quence or oratory, Mr. Bowen was a spirit that animated him in adopting forcible preacher of righteousness. His the style of living to which he clung, pastoral work both among Europeans and had the profoundest confidence in and natives was truly of the apostolic the purity and sincerity of his motives, order.
few regarded his course as wise. The The Bombay Guardian heads its page apparent lack of success that followed "George Bowen, Missionary, Editor, his labors among the natives strength- Saint." One of the contributors under ened the conviction of many, that his the pen-name "One of His Friends,"
example in this particular respect was gives some "i1lustrati ve jottings, "
not one that commended itself to mis- from which we clip the following, sionaries in general for widespread imi- which will be pleasant reading to those 'tation. Mr. Bowen was not discour- who had the rare privilege of acquaint- aged by failure to realize his expecta- ance with Mr. Bowen in America; as tions of large fruit of his labors. For a missionary of the American ~rd. as independent missionary, or as con- our dear brother were always assoCiated nected in his later life with the Meth- in the mind of the present writer. odist Episcopal Conference in India. " Mr. Bowen traveled about a good .. It appeared at the very beginning deal in his infidel days, and saw many of Mr. Bowen's missionary career as if countries, and some society people and there was to be a complete breakdown society life. He was a linguist and an of health, and a speedy termination of accomplished musician. Many an imthe career on which his heart was so promptu musical piece the writer heard fully set. Dr, Leith, an eminent phy- him play. It was most amusing somesician, and a Christian man, having the times to hear a friend asking for the interests of Christ's kingdom at heart, name of the piece of music just played. declared in 1848 or 1849 that Mr. Bowen In the earlier years of his missionary must leave India forthwith. How lit- life }fro Bowen's company was in great tle was then known of the reserve of request in some of the higher circles of strength and power of endurance that life in Bombay; but unless he had full were lodged in that poor body that ap- confidence in the friends who invited peared then, and ever after, to be so him being Christian people, he would very frail! For thirty-nine or forty not accept the invitation. years after that unqualified opinion of Mr. Bowen's unfitness to live in India " In the fifties and sixties the Govwas given, our beloved friend and ernors of Bombay about once a week, brother labored incessantly, and en- or once a month, invited the higher dured privations and hardships (tho he officials, merchants, and others of posiwould not permit anyone to speak of tion to a public breakfast. On one of them as hardships) sufficient to appall these occasions Sir Bartle Frere, who the stoutest heart among us. He never was then Governor, pressed an invitawould and never did leave India; nor tion on Mr. Bowen. As Sir BartIe and did he ever go to the hills or anywhere Lady Frere were known to be in symelse for a change of air. The only pathy with Christian work and workthing he could be persuaded to do ers, the invitation was accepted. Sir was, in times of severe illness, to stay Bartle and Mr. Bowen discussed for for a brief period with one of the mailY about two hours the work of God gen- Christian families who were anxious erally, and the outlook of missions, to render him every needful assistance. which was not then so bright as it is On his recovery, he used to refer play- now. There was at that time a bill befully to his troops of friends. He got fore the Legislature relating to the abo back to his loved work again as quickly karl laws and to the liquor traffic, on as possible. His work appeared to be which Sir Bartle was anxious to have his meat and drink. Mr. Bowen's opinion. It was after- ward seen that the Governor's view of .. As an unsalaried preacher of the the case was very much influenced by Gospel, Mr. Bowen wanted the Gospel what Mr. Bowen had said. On another to be made as free to the people as the occasion the Governor, either Sir Bartle air we breathe, as free as Christ Him- Frere or one of his successors, when self delivered God's message and re- riding in his state carriage overtook Mr_ vealed God's will to men. Bowen, who was walking along in the same direction. The carriage was "No one could have been long in stopped and Mr. Bowen was invited to George Bowen's company without take a seat in it, but he could not be being impressed with his culture and persuaded. The Governor then got refinement and his gentleness. There down and walked with him some dis; may be no connection between this gen- tance to have some conversation with tleness and the words of Samuel and him. David, I Thy gentleness hath made me great;' put somehow these words and "Mr. Bowen had a sincere love for his native brethren and sisters, and they Bangkok than Bangkok is from the had a profound respect and sincere love United States. Dr. McGilvary had be.
for him. He gave abundant proofs of come interested in the Lao people by his love for them. He was ever ready meeting traders who came to Bangkok with his sympathy and help. He re- every year for goods, and also through joiced with them that rejoiced, and a colony of Lao war captives who had wept with those who had occasion to been located near Petchaburee by their weep. His sympathies and prayers captors. From these sources he had and constant intercourse with them learned much of the customs and dis- won their affections. They literally position of the people. During a visit loved him because he first loved them. of the Lao king to Bangkok, Dr. McGil- This is Christ's way-and the only way vary with several other American mis· -of reaching the hearts of the people. " sionaries called upon him, and from him received assurance that the foreign Rev. Da.niel McGilvary, D.D., Pioneer teachers would receive a welcome Missionary to the La.o. should they visit his capital. So in- tense had become Dr. McGilvary's de- BY MRS. LAURA B. MCKEAN, CHEUNG sire to take the Gospel to this people, MAl, SIAM. that in the face of many hindrances, he The following sketch does not pur· in company with Rev. Jonathan Wilson port to be complete. It is written as a made a tour of investigation into this tribute of regard and with the hope northern district. A part of the jour.
that it may elicit greater sympathy and ney was made by boat and a part by more prayers and gifts to aid in the elephant. This tour strengthened Dr.
great work among the Lao. McGilvary's belief that a mission sta- In 1858 a graduate of Princeton The· tion should at once be opened in Cheung ological Seminary left the American Mai, that being the most importlIlt city shores for a distant mission field. After of the Lao country. In 1867 permis· a voyage of several months in a sailing. sion was granted for the opening of vessel he landed in Bangkok, Siam, this station, and the North Lao Mission "the Venice of the Orient." This became a reality. Dr. and Mrs. McGil· young man was Rev. Daniel McGil· vary at once began preparation for re- vary, now Rev. Daniel McGilvary, moving to Cheung Mai. It sounds D.D., aptly styled" the Apostle to the very simple to say go to Cheung Mai, Lao." In Bangkok he engaged in mis· but even in these days it is no small sion work with all the zeal of a soul undertaking.
alive to the needs of a lost race. Here It meant that this family of four, in- he met and married a daughter of the cluding two small chiIdr~n, must make venerable Dr. Bradley. She has shared a boat journey of two months, in a lit· in his labor of love, and has endured tie cabin eight feet by ten, passing with him all the trials and privations through those difficult rapids, forty or of pioneer missionary life. more in number. It was not known Dr. lIcGilvary could not long endure that any foreigner had ever ascended to build on another's foundation, so he these rapids. And even to·day, tho we in company with a fellow·misbionary know that every year missionaries pass left Bangkok for Petchaburee. After up and down this river and no lives the work was well established at that have ever been lost, yet the rapids are point, Dr. McGilvary again turned his always more or less dreaded. It meant face toward the regions yet in darkness. leaving all other white companionship, But this time it was not toward a neigh· and it also meant no physician in esse boring city a few days' journey away, of illness. But none of these things but to the almost unknown Lao·land, moved them. I cau liken these saints farther away in point of time from of God to none except Abraham and Sarah. The Lord had called them into which exists there to·d&:r, and Cheung an unknown country, and they went, Mai as a center of light throwing rays never doubting the Divine leading. far out into the darkness, and he re- Their first dwelling was a sala, one of fused to leave.
the public resting·places of the city. Just when the outlook was the dark- Here they lived for two years. The est the king was summoned to Bang- greater part of that time they had no kok, and he died while returning to privacy. Their white faces and for- Cheung Mai, a few days before he eign dress were a great curiosity to the reached the city. According to the people, and all day long they were custom of the country, no dead body thronged with callers. can be taken inside the city walls, and After many months of faithful sow- so the king awaited his burning outside ing of the seed the harvest began to ap- of the city and not within his own pal- pear. Then appeared also the heathen ace, which was no small evidence of.
jealousy of the ruler. Two men who his demerit.
had accepted Christ were arrested, and His daughter, who ascended the after a night of torture were beaten to throne, was more friendly to the mis- death. In this instance, as in ages sionaries, and placed no obstacles in past, the blood of the martyrs was the the way of the mission work. Dr.
seed of the Church. Dr. McGilvary McGilvary and Rev. Mr. Wilspn were sent word to Bangkok of the death of now able to secure land and begin the these men, and a delegation was sent erection of dwelling-houses. It was to Cheung Mai to investigate the mat- several years before Dr. McGilvary's ter. Dr. l'lcGiIvary accompanied this house was finally completed. Logs delegation on their visit to the king. ~ere brought from the forest, and At first the king denied any knowledge every plank and post was sawed by of the affair, but Dr. McGllvary boldly hand, according to the slow method of accused him of the murder. Then the the native people.
king acknowledged the deed, and fur- As soon as Dr. McGilvary· saw the ther said, " The American missionaries work beginning to take on a permanent may make as many Christians as they look, the old spirit of pioneering came like, but I shall take the life of every upon him, and he began to make long one." tours into the neighboring cities and The death of these men and the hos- provinces. While Cheung M.ai has al- tility of the king frightened the people, ways remained his home, yet every so that for a time there were almost no year he makes a tour of from two to visitors at the home of the missionaries. five months into the northern part of An aged priest, who visits us frequent- the Lao country. The churches of ly, told me that he was the only one Cheung Hai and Cheung Saan are a who dared visit Dr. McGllvary at that part of the fruitage of these tours. He time. It is with considerable pride discovered the mountain tribe of Moo- that he tells of his fidelity and cour- sur, near Cheung Hai, and preached age. Christ to them. He spent weeks in vis- In spite of the king's attitude toward iting this tribe. tramping over the moun- mission work, Dr. McGilvary still con- tains, enduring all the inconveniences tinued to visit him, and was always of camp life and the dangers of climate.
well received. The second year Rev. Dr. McGilvary has had the joy of wel- Mr. and Mrs. Wilson joined the mis- coming twenty·three of this tribe into sion. By some persons it was thought the visible Church of Christ. He wrote that the work was hopeless and that it a fellow-missionary that be considered might as well be abandoned, but Dr. the day of Cha Ba Kaw's baptism a McGllvary, with the eye of faith, saw red-letter day in his missionary experi- the large community of Christians ence. Cha Ba Kaw was the headman ef hiB village, and the first of the Moo- never turns a deaf ear to any who come sur race to accept Christ. to him, however trivial their complaint or foolish their request. He seems to In his tours through this north coun- be able to ent!;!' fully into the lives of try Dr. McGilvary has found fourteen the people, understanding their trials or fifteen other mountain tribes, having and rejoicing with them in their joys. different languages and in a measure This is one of the sources of his success different customs, habits, and super- as a missionary, and an essential charstitions, but they are all alike in that acteristic of all who would be missionthey need the Gospel. Dr. McGilvary's aries in the fullest sense. He can truly heart goes out toward these strangers be called the father of the mission work to Christ, and his every prayer is bur· in the Lao-land as well as a father to all dened with petitions for their salvation. the people. His eyes shine with joy, his step seems more elastic, and his whole being filled He is a source of great inspiration with new life when the time comes for and blessing to the younger missiona· his annual visit to these northern peo- ries, and his godly life a constant inples. It is the custom of the mission- centive to them to be more faithful in aries to meet at his home the morning their labor for the Master. he leaves, and after everything is packed and ready to start, the elephants Dr. McGilvary is now sixty-seven restlessly tingling their bells. seemingly years of age, but if it were not for the anxious to be off on their grand mis- white locks that betray the age no one sion, a season of prayer is held petition- would 8USpect that the threescore and ing God's blessing upon the tour. ten are so nearly reached. May the Lord prolong the days of this saint, Dr. McGilvary in his prayer always that he may see of the travail of his repeats that passage of Scripture which soul and be satisfied. has been an actuating principle throughout his whole life: "There is that scat- Sophia Oooke. tereth and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, FORTY-TWO YEARS A MISSIONARY. but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that (Died at Singapor!), September 14th, watereth shall be watered also himself." 1895.) The question has often been asked, "What makes the work among the BY MRS. J. T. GRACEY, ROCHES'I'ER, N. Y. Lao people so successful?" Is not at least a partial answer found in that (JAnother missionary heroine has fallen very passage of Scripture; for the truth at her post. Across the page of her which it teaches has ever been promi- heroic, devoted, self-sacrificing life nent in guiding the work of the mis- may well be written in illuminated letsion. Besides these long tours into the ters the words, "I have finished the interior, Dr. McGilvary makes shorter work which Thou gavest me to do." visits to the neighboring villages, besides visiting in the temples and homes It was a real event in the history of of the people in Cheung Mai. He fol- woman's missionary work when Sophia lows fully Paul's charge to Timothy Cooke left her beautiful English home to preach the Gospel, to be instant in and turned her face toward the Orient. season,' out of season. No matter Christian womanhood in its organized whether he be in the hovel of the slave capacity had not come to the front in or the palace of the prince, he preaches those days, and she did not have the Christ. help and spiritual upholding of a lov- ing sisterhood in the home land. With He is beloved by all who know him, Abrahamic faith she started out for a young and old, native and foreign. He land of which she literally kn':lW noth- ing, and concerning which very little was known by the Church. Singapore became her mount of ob- terpreter was required to prepare his servation, her working center, but her notes In English that Miss Cooke might life touched many lands, and her ele- know what kind of spiritual food he vated Christian character helped all administered to his fellow-countrymen.
classes of people with whom she came After a few years this work was given in contact_ It is difficult to form an over to the English Church. This was, adequate estimate of the unique place however, only one of many side issues, she filled for so many long years, or for all this time her school was progress- give a proper record of her great life- ing and becoming a power. The chil- work_ dren received into the school were all of Miss Cooke was identified with the poor parents, and the chief source of in.
Church of England, and was ever loyal come for their support was from the sale to her forms and spirit, but she took of clothing and needlework sent from into her warm heart all who loved the England. Many a little waif brought Lord, and in that great cosmopolitan to the sheltering care of the school by city in which she lived bad friends of the police found a home where she all creeds and among all churches, and was tenderly cared for, and developed her comfortable and hospitable home into an earnest Christian worker.
on Government Hill was a common A number of young girls were meeting-place for Christians_ brought here from China, some of In the year 1843 a Chinese school for them having been captured there by girls was opened In Singapore (as there Malay sailors. Some of these were led was a large Chinese population in the out into a broad Christian experience,· city). and conducted by a Miss Grant_ and are to-day the centers of Christian This work was carried on under great homes, exerting in other lands an influ- difficulties, as the Chinese were stoutly ence for the uplifting of womanhood.
opposed to Christianity, and Miss Grant Five are now married and living in was often in actual danger of her Foochow, and two in Korea, others In life. the interior of China; one is the wife When Miss Cooke arrived she found of a Chinese missionary in Melbourne, a home established, and a few native Australia. while another is settled in girls fitted to be teachers; but her ac- Batavia. Such have been some of the tivities were not confined to the school. wonderful influences exerted by 8 and looking over the broad field she school where the constant aim of the found the harvest ripe, but reapers few ; devoted leader was to bring all her pu- so, taking some of her native girls as pils to a saving knowledge of Christ.
interpreters, she commenced a system Miss Cooke had a marvelous influ- of house-to-house visitation, reading the ence in the army and the navy. For Word, and interesting the women in years she conducted a Soldiers' Bible- the story of the Gospel. Then noticing class at her home on Saturday even· that on these visits the men would often ings, and was the originator of the Sail- stand outside and listen, her heart was ors' Rest. All ves8els sweeping around stirred to consider what might be done the Malay Peninsula on their way to for them. Here was an unoccupied China stop at this port, and every field, for two missionary societies had st·eamer which goes through the Suez abandoned the work among the Chinese. Canal en route to China must also pass She commenced to teach two men in here; so that sailors from all lands her school-room, both of them walking stopped at Singapore, and great num- twelve miles every Sunday. The num- bers of them came under her personal ber soon increased, and a chapel was infiuence. She made no pretensions to built on her own compound, and a great learning. She was only a plain goodly congregation soon gathered. A woman, quick to see and to seize the simple service was held, but the in· opportunities. The inspiration of her life work was her entire devotion and Han, the author of those scurrilous consecration to the M.aster she loved. pamphlets which caused riots, with In all the years of her toil she only loss of life and property; the province twice visited the home-land. But her which openly boasted that no Christian great activities came to a close, and nor foreigner should ever live within while her sufferings for a few weeks its borders-from this bitterly hostile were great, yet her room was a verita- province came, about a month ago, a ble gate of heaven. The girls she had delegation of litel·ati to Wuchang im- loved and taught were about her sing- ploring the Christians to send preachers ing her favorite hymns and ministering to Hunan.
to her bodily wants. Just before her " Equally startling is the radical change homegoing she said, "Chinese girls' at Peking, the capital. Here also is a school all for Jesus," and again was most signal break in the ranks of these this repeated. The last sound intelligi- Chinese literati. During the present ble to her were the voices of her pupils semester, a grandson of the private tu- singing. tor of Tung Vhih, the previous Em- "Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain peror, a nephew of the ruling Emperor, shadows flee; Kuang Hsii, a son of the newly ap- In life, in death, 0 Lord abide with me. " pointed Imperial Railway Vommissioner, Her funeral was said to be the most and fourteen literati have matriculated representative ever seen in Singapore, in Peking University.
• and with almost regal honors this de- "These literati include not only gradu- voted woman was laid to rest. The ates possessing the three regular gov- girls of the school, with mothers and ernmental degrees mentioned above, grandmothers of her old girls, with but also the still higher rank of Hanlin, their husbands and sons, and Chinese or " Forest of Pencils," a kind of im- Christians of the various missions, fol- perial academy, whose examinations lowed the bier, while nearly every mem- are supervised by the Emperor himself.
ber of the missionary community was Here are culled the choicest flowers of present. Chinese preachers carried her the Flowery Kingdom. Here is gath- body down·stairs, and European police- ered the ripest scholarship of the Chi- men bore it to the grave, while sailors nese Empire.
from an English steamer were present " In Professor King's Sunday.school to represent the many thousands to class, literati possessing the degrees of whom Miss Cooke's name is a house· Hanlin and Chii·Jen, with others, rever- hold word. Thus passed away another ently kneel in prayer and engage in the link connecting us with the past. Her study of the sacred Scriptures concern- influence will live and her name be lov- ing the Savior of the world. It seems ingly remembered. scarcely less than a miracle that these previously bitter opponents of Chris- A RADICAL CHANGE IN CHINA'S ARIS- tianity should to-day be quietly study- TOCRACy.-Rev. Marcus L. Taft, writ· ing in a Christian institution. If some ing to us from Peking, gives the fol- of the leaders of Tammany Hall should lowing interesting information; suddenly become Prohibitionists, the " At Wuchang, opposite Bankow, in change would not be more radical.
Central China, the leading mandarins " , The loftiness of man,' says ISliah, lately invited several Protestant mis- , shall be bowed down, and the haughti- sionaries to a conference in order to in- ness of men shall be made low ; and quire concerning Christianity and West- the Lord alone shall be exalted in that ern science. More remarkable still is day.'
the latest news, that from the province "God is to-day answering prayers of Hunan-the hot-bed of the anti-for- and fulfilling prophecy. Only a year eign spirit in China; the home of Chou- ago no one would have been so sanguine as even to predict what has al- 2. To consider any applications made ready taken place. No one would have for aid in respect of any scheme intend· even dreamed that Jehovah, in His won- ed directly or indirectly for the extender-working providence, would be send- sion or assistance of missionary work, ing to a Christian institution these whether such scheme be financial, agri- • wise men of the East.' cultural. manufacturing, or otherwise. To promote finance, assist, and, if .. Providentially much preparatory thought expedient, maintain and work work has already been done in Peking. any approved scheme, and, as may be Peking University owns about thirteen necessary, to acquire land, erect buildacres, admirably located inside the ings, engage servants, and do all neceswalled city of Peking. Durbin Hall, a sary acts for such purposes. substantial brick building. two stories high, with a frontage of two hundred 3. To arrange for and carry out, .as and eight feet-the first of a series of agents, loans for the purchase of propuniversity buildings-was erected and erty, or otherwise, directly or indirectly, occupied in 1892. The campus has been for missionary purposes, and to receive adorned with about one hundred and and apply, the interest, and also the fifty trees and shrubs, presented by profits of any undertakings of the sofriends, native and foreign, living in ciety, after payment of interest on the capital. money invested, and of the expenses of the Iolociety, in aid of missionary The medical department was reor- work. ganized last year, with Robert Coltman, ?rI. D., of the Presbyterian Mis- 4. To initiate, promote, take over and sion, as dean, assisted by W. H. Cur- carryon, at home or abroad, any finantiss, M.D., G. D. Lowry, M.D., N. S. cial, agricultural, manufacturing, in- Hopkins, M.D., and Y. K. Tsao,lI.D. dustrial, or other work or business, or The last-named physician is a China- any undertaking having for its object man, who, after completing his five the furtherance of missionary effort. years' medical course in China, went to the United States, and graduated at 5. To bring the financial needs of misthe Long Island College of Medicine, sionary workers abroad before Chrisand afterward pursued special lines at tians at home, and to receive money the New York Postgraduate College of and apply the same for the purposes of Physicians and Surgeons. The present the society. medical class of paying students is greatly assisted by the fine manikin THE PLAN presented by a friend last year. of working the society will be as fol- The Industrial Missions Aid Society. lows: Mr. Fry, the originator, or one of The first trustees of the society shall the originators of a scheme of invest- be (three persons who have yet to be ments or business ventures intended to appointed). aid at least some forms of missionary enterprise on a business basis in any part All future trustees shall be appointed of the forei~n missionary world, is in by the General Council. India maturm~ the proposed measures. So many applIcations for information The members of the society shall be have reached us, that we venture to give the Founders, the General Council, and the whole of the latest text.-(J. T. G.) such other persons willing to co-oper- ate in its work as the Founders or Coun- OBJECTS. cil may from time to time invite.
1. To co·operate with evangelical The executive shall consist of the missionary workers in all parts of the treasurer, honorary secretary, general world, and to assist, financially or other· manager, and secretaries. who shall be wise, in the inauguration and develop- appointed by the Founders, so long as ment of industrial effort. they shall live and be willing to act, subject to confirmation by the Council, and afterward by the Council. Each of these officers shall be ex-officio a mem- fund, will be employed for the benefit ber of the General Council. of missionary enterprise, according to All moneys received from investors the directions of the General Council.
shall, until completion of the invest- Two banking accounts will be kept ment, be placed in the hands of the -one by the trustees for moneys re~ trustees, who shall, after completion, ceived from and on behalf of investors, hold the securities representing such and the other by the treasurer for the investment. Such securities shall from general purposes of the society.
time to time be realized or enforced by All applications for aid made to the the trustees, under the direction of the society will, in the first place, be con- executive, if considered necessary, and sidered by the executive, with such ex- the time and mode of realization shall pert or other assistance as they may be in the sole discretion of the execu- think necessary. If approved, the ap- tive. plication shall be laid for contirmation Full particulars of approved schemes before at least three members of the will be circulated, and investors invited General Council other than the execu- to supply the necessary capital for the tive, who shall, with the executive same. All the reports and information classify the scheme, and, in the case of upon which the society rely, in refer- a loan, fix the rate of interest to be paid ence to the scheme, will be open to in- by the borrower, and the period for spection, so that the investor may exer- which the loan shall be made. If such cise his own judgment in the matter. members consider that the proposed Separate accounts will be kept of !!cheme ought not to be confirmed, it each scheme, and for the present the in- may be brought by the executive for vestors must look to the profits made final decision before a special general in respect of the particular scheme in meeting of the Council.
which they have invested, or the pro- Every scheme submitted will have to ceeds of the realization thereof, for satisfy the society on two points before their interest and return of principal. it can be approved-viz.: As soon as possible, however, it is pro- 1. That it is likely to advance the posed to create a reserve fund to meet cause of missions.
any possible losses, but investors will 2. That it is commercially sound.
not have any direct claim upon such A general meeting of the society shall reserve fund. be held annually to receive reports and The society will, as agents for the in- to deliberate upon any measures Which vestors. act in carrying out the schemes, may promote the objects of the society and will, from time to time, pay to the and dispose of the general business of investors all moneys received, either on the society.
account of interest or capital, subject to Special meetings may be convened at any time, at the discretion of the executhe deductions hereafter mentioned. tive, or at the request in writing of not The society will charge the investor, less than .even members of the society., and retain, as remuneration for their The account books of the society WIll . be under the supervision of chartered services, 1. If the investment is in the form of accountants, and will be audited an- nually, and. a print of the report and a loan-one fifth of the interest received accounts will be sent to each subscriber by the trustees. of one guinea and upward, and to all 2. If the investment is in respect of members and investors.
an industry-all profits beyond 5 per NOTE.-It is obviously impossible at cent on the capital invested, which the outset to lay down definite and com- 5 per cent is to be paid to the investor. plete plans for the future working of the society. The above will be subject AU such sums received by the soci- therefore to alteration or amendment ety, after payment of working expenses, by the General Council at a meeting to and any appropriation for the reserve be called for the purpose.
1896.J FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY
III.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
BY DELAVAN L. pmRSO:!'l.
Siam and Laos,* Malaysia,t Unoooupied Fields,t Buddhism,§ Work among the Lepers.
SIAM AND LAOS. ance of foreign ways and foreign relig- Siam is taking her place among the ions. They are icnhikldnroewn leodfge noaftutrhe~ civilized nations of the world. Al- being well versed ready she has railways, telegraphs, and " book of nature," but caring nothing electric lights. Her last step in advance for other spheres of learning. They is in having given her adhesion to the are exceedingly simple minded, con- Red Cross Treaty (concluded at Geneva ceiving of their own country as the cen· in 1884), thus binding herself to recog- ter of the world and all other lands sim· nize the neutrality of those who care ply as" the outside country." They for the wounded in time of war. The are difficult to arouse, but are capable treaty is a step toward humanity; but of being educated into earnest, progreswhen will the nations learn the foUy of sive Christians. Converts enjoy comsettling their disputes by seeking to parative freedom from persecution, and there is no governmental opposition to destroy each other? Great Britain and France are rapidly the spread of Christianity. The counaccomplishing the absorption of Siam try is free from the caste system of by the partition of her territory be- India; thereis no child marriage among tween them. In 1884 the territory of them, and very little polygamy-a con· Siam and the Laos country comprised dition due to poverty rather than to about 500,000 miles; now, by successive principle. This field is peculiarly the encroachments on the west by England vineyard in charge of the Presbyterian and upon the east by France, only about Church (North), they being the only 60,000 square miles. Apparently be- church laboring among the Siamese fore long Chu-Ia·lang·Koru will have and Laos. The great obstacle to the progress of Christianity here, besides the no kingdom left. The Laos, or Lao, and other people of hardness of the heathen heart, is the lack the Shan States number about 5,000,000. of funds to carryon the work. The They live under four governments, some Siamese have some virtues and many being tributary to Siam, others acknowl- vices. While gentle in disposition, they edging the suzerainty of China, while are indolent, deceitful, inveterate gammany of them are living in the terri- blers, and smokers of tobacco and opium. tory occupied by the English on the The women are not shut up in zenanas, west or that of France on the east. but go about freely; they are deemed in- These people have no national pride, ferior to men, and When a census is taken and are thus peculiarly open to accept- it is said that only the males are counted I .. See also pp. 43 (Jannary, 294 (April) 3.33 BUDDHISM 369 (present issue). Book:" People and Politics of the Far Ea8t," Henry Norman. A,·tieles: is said to exist with greater purity in "Chnrch at Home and Abroad," A8sembly Herald Siam tban in any other country, but it is and "Woman's Work for Woman" (May 1896): a religion without a Savior. When some "The Wild Wa," LitteU's Living Age '(Febrn: native Christians were asked why they ary 22, 1896); " England, France and Siam " came to the missionaries, they replied, Blackwood'8 (March, 1896). " We are sinners, and we hear that your ' God helps." Another said, "I have heard of many religions, but I have . t See also Pl!, 61 (Jannary); 347, 371(present fOlltld no other god that loves as your ,sBne). Book: A Hundred Years of Missions" God loves." The Buddhists, when Dr. I:eonard. Articles: .. Gospel in all Land;" (Apnl, 1896); "Malayan Child Life," Overland *Monthly (March, 1896). See also p. 358 (present issue). Book' "A H::u§!nSd~ercee~da~lYs~oeUa~r8s'ho2ifs5Mma i(saAsnipodrnils)C,,"h3Dr2i.6sLti(.apLnreeitsoyen,na"tr d, D.D issue)'
Arch,: questioned as to their hopes for the his Eastern and his Western admirers is future, reply, .. It is all dark." due to the later legends invented by his " There are many different types of enthusiastic followers, and which are as . Buddhism. There is one type in Tibet, grotesque as they are impossible_"- another in Ceylon, and another in Siam, .F'. F. Ellinwood. while in China and Japan there are a dozen Buddhist sects, some atheistic, WORK AMONG THE LEPERS.
others pantheistic, and one or two which In almost all of the countries of the approach very nearly to the Christian East missionaries come in contact with doctrine of salvation by faith. In Nepal lepers, and in very many places work in the medieval centuries there was de- has been established to relieve their suf- veloped an out-and-out theistic type, fering and to save their souls.* No with a supreme celestial Buddha. or work is more Christ-like or demands Adi Buddha, from whom all other greater consecration on the part of the Buddhas sprang. He was regarded as workers_ The results have everywhere the self·existent Creator of the universe. been gratifying both in physical and spir- This type seems to have passed away, itual benefit to the lepers and in the en- but in most Buddhist lands to-day there couragement to the workers themselves.
is more or less of a semitheistic worship The disease is not contagious, and yet of superior but created beings known occasionally the missionaries and others as Buddhas, Bodisats, etc. have been afflicted with it. A remark- " The original Buddhism was atheistic able case is that of Miss Mary Read, an or agnostic. This has been much in American missionary, who discovered dispute, and many Western apologists that she was sufl:ering from the disease have insisted upon the theistic char- while she was at home in America on acter of the system; but in a Bud- furlough in 1890. This discovery dhist's catechism prepared by professed caused her to suffer untold agony of Buddhists we find these words: (Bud- mind for many hours, and at first the dhism teaches the reign of petfect good- thought was unbearable. Only those ness· and wisdom without a personaZ who have seen the lepers in various God; continuance of individuality with- stages of the disease can imagine its out an immortaZ Boul; eternal happi- loathsomeness and the intense suffering, ness without a local heaven; the way mental and physical, which accompa- of salvation without a vicarious Savior; nies it. The malady gradually robs its redemption worked out by each one victims of sight, hearing, taste, smell, himself without any prayers, sacrifices, speech, and makes them the most awful- and penances; without the ministering looking creatures conceivable-what a of ordained priests; without the in- fit emblem of sin in its effect upon the tercession of saints; without divine spiritual nature and in its loathsome- mercy.' Finally, it teaches that suo ness in the sight of God! Miss Read preme perfection is attainable even in soon submitted herRelf, body and 8Oul, this life and on this earth_ . . . to God, and returned to India to work « Gautama Buddha himself, seems to among the lepers at Chandag, and her stand above reproach as. a man of very efforts in their behalf have been won- rare self-control, of benevolent spirit, derfully blessed. She herself is said to and of true philanthropy. His atheism have been restored to health in answer was perhaps a result of the superstition to the many prayers offered on her be- and folly which he found in Hinduism.
and especially in the bootlessness of his * The 11asBian to Lepers in Inilia and the ascetic rigors, pursued through six JJJUllt hae been in operation for over twenty years of self-renunciation and suffer- years, It is international aud interdenomina- 'lng. Much of the fantastic drapery tional. Contributions should be sent to W, C. with which he is now invested by both Bailey, Esq,. 17 Giengyle Terrace, Edinburgh, Scotland. half, but she continues her labor of love and populous district of Mandheling, which God so clearly pointed out to her. which is entirely Mohammedan. At In a letter, written III September last the beginning of 1895 there were 6000 trom the Himalayas, where she was candidates for baptislil from the Battak resting, she says in part: tribe, 1000 of whom were Moslems.
"The ministry to which I have been Similar success is attending the work in called mal!:es a great demand upon my other places, and Moslem priests are heart's life, and it is of such a character actually in despair.
that I cannot attempt a faithful, full UNOCCUPIED FIELDS.
portrayal in word pictures. . Neither do Tibet is often spoken of as the only .I know how to describe the streams of country in Asia which is closed to the mercy and the showers of blessing that Gospel. But there are others into which descend upon even me from the Throne entrance for the Christian missionary is of Grace in answer to the many prayers equally interdicted. Among those so being offered by the great multitude of sealed are Afghanistan, Beloochistan, loving hearts in whom Christ dwells for this one of His' little ones.' Nepaul, and Bhotan. May we not hope that the recent visit of the young Af- " That you may realize more vividly ghan prince to Great Britain will open how wondrously the Great Physician is the way to a more tolerant treatment of dealing with me, I must tell you what the religion of the Bible? Whatever Rev. Mr. McMahan said when he came may be thought of the policy adopted a few weeks ago to see me. He never in that connection, this at any rate is ceronce inquired about my health, but tain, that the erubracing of Chitral withlooked at me in an astonished manner in the sphere of British influence·has as much as to say, • I do not need to brought us nearer to one of the counask how you are; I can see for myself.' tries in which ground has not yet been lIe said to Miss Budden when he re- broken. turned to Pithoragarh, • If Miss Read were living in Bible times and would now show herself to the priests she The Church of England in Jamaica is the largest and most influential Chriswould sllrely be pronounced clean.' .. Pray much for my,poor dear pa- tian body in that island. Her member- ship, composed mostly of natives, tients, that my efforts to make them amounts to over 45,000; she has over acquainted with the great Physician 30,000 childrrn in her Sunday-schools, may be successful. I ha ve had severe over 35,000 in her day-schools, and trials with some over whom I had re- the voluntary contributions amount to joiced, trusting they had truly come to $160,000 annually. She has 100 or- 'Jesus.' Some have been truly converted and are growing in grace in the dained clergy, two thirds of whom are knowledge of Jesus; but of the 81 now native born, besides nearly 200 paid and voluntary catechists. In addition to her in the asylum at Chandag fully one parochial work she is a missionary third are yet unsaved. The scenes of church, contributing, in common with physical suffering 1 must witness be- sister churches in the West Indies, to come more and more painful to me instead of less trying as the years go on." the support of a mission on the Rio Pongo, in Western Africa. her collec- tions for missions, home and foreign, MALAYSIA, being about $16,000 per annum.-Rev_ n. Bland. w: The progress prospects of missionary work among the Mohammedans is no- where so hopeful as in Malaysia. For morE than thirty years the Rhenish Mis- It should be borne in mind that the sionary Society has expended at least Island of Trinidad, about which Enghalf its force in the effort to combat land and Brazil are at variance, is not tile extension of Islam in the Dutch the West Indian island where mission- East Indies. In Sumatra they have ary work is being successfully carried two stations where missionaries have to on by the Moravians, Canada Presbytedo extensively with Moslem Battaks. rians, and others, but is a small, rocky These Mohammedans are very far from island of volcanic origin lying in the being as inaccessible as has been hith- South Atlantic, the only use of which erto supposed, mQre than a thousand is that it may serve as a station for the Moslems having joined the Christian submarine cable between the two hemicommunities during the past ten years. spheres.* Now it appears as tho the Lord intends them to take a yet further step in this .. An error crept into the March REVIIIW (p. 215) owing to the fact that the note was writteu direction, for certain Christians in Eng- at the time the first despatches were sent on the land have been moved to send the subject. Similar spelling led to mistaken iden- means to extend the work into the large tity just long enough for the error to appear.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
Maroh of Events. Instead of relying, as formerly, upon the ignorance of its adherents, it is We rejoice in the prospect of a speedy making attempts to maintain itself by settlement of the Venezuelan dispute, educating believers in its abominations. Polygamy" is less practiced, but Morand-what is of more importance-the monism IS vigorous, attempting to es- establishment of a permanent court of. tablish a secret ecclesiastical organiza- arbitration, at which all Anglo-Ameri- tion managed by a few, appealing to can disputes shall be settled. the religious sentiment in the UBe of a few Christian principles, mixed up with the most corrupting and fatal notions, The brilliant victories of the British to be modified by the capricious so- Central African Protectorate over the called revelations of the leadeIs to acslave-trading chiefs of the western complish their personal ends."
shores of Lake Nyassa have been the So writes 'ex·Commissioner of Educasubject of much rejoicing, as they have ,tion General John Eaton in endorsing broken the power uf the slave trade in the m0vement for founding a Christian that whole district. ~rwasi Kazunga, college in Utah. Dr. Sheldon Jackson, of Zulu origin, is a chief whose trade the well-known home missionary and in human beings has made him infa- lecturer, has generously offered $50,000 mous. He conspired with the Angoni br this purpose, on condition that the and the Yaos against the British, clos- citizens of Salt Lake City give not less ing the trade route from Lake Nyassa than fifty acres as a site; that the Bible to the Luapula River and Congo, and be a regular text-book in the curricu- began a slave raid far into the lHorimba lnm, and that the college never be aliencountry. Lieutenant Edward Alston ated from the doctrine and work of the commanded the expedition against him. Presbyterian Church in the United He had but 150 regulars, with Sikhs States. The offer has been accepted by and negroes, and about 5000 natives, and the presbytery, eighty acres of land yet he utterly routed Mwasi with 20,000 have been given, and trustees Mve been fighting men I There were three sharp appointed; all that remains to be done contlicts, and all the foe's fortified posts is for Christians who hold the interests were taken and 50 of his settlements de- of the kingdom dear to their hearts to stroyed. On the British side only 6 come forward and donate the necessary were killed and 5 wounded, but Mwasi funds, following the example of one lost 42 in the fight and many more in who, himself a home missionary, has the rout, and over 600 prisoners were given so generously from a small inher- taken, 14 chiefs besides, and with them itance wisely administered. Dr. Jack- the notorious Saidi Mwazunga (the Jieu- son, having been the pioneer Presbyte- tenant of the slave raider, ~Iakanjira), rian minister in Utah, and having who five years ago betrayed, by a flag always had a keen interest in the progof truce, and murdered Dr. Boyce and ress of Christianity there, understands lir. McEwan; and who was in prison well the need of pure Bible teaching in awaiting execution in February. Sub- this centre of Mormonism, that this sequently Captain Stewart and Lieu- young State may be saved from Mor_ tenant Alston led a second expedition mon control. There is a State univer- against Ambala and Mpemba, the last sity and an agricultural college, both two slave·traders left in the British Pro- non-sectarian, and there are Mormon tectorate, 80 that in this territory the colleges and academies established here slave trade is annihilated.-A. T. P. -surely there is great demand for this Protestant college to offer a higher "Mormonism is by no means dead. Christian education to the thousands of Christian children now in atteudance operations carried on by the Army in at primary schools and academies in other lands.
Utah.*-D. L. P. Ballington and Mrs. Booth have start- ed an American movement for the mid- The Salvation Army reports its social dle classes, and call their organization work in Darkest England for the past " 'l'he Volunteers." It is not intended year, and well describes the homeless to be a rival to the Salvation Army, and and workless· classes as "a constant we hope that they will avoid some of menace to the health of the commu- the mistakes of that organization. It nity." • The" Shelters," it is claimed, is said that General Booth has made have become to thousands the gateway overtures to his son to induce him to to a better and happier life. Twenty- return to his former allegiance and two such are open with accommodations command. We wish that the Command- for 5250 persons; 1400 men and women er could see his way clear to meeting are daily employed, drawn from every his father half way in a reconciliation.
rank of life. Beside unskilled workmen there are men who have been doctors, The REVIEW being a monthly maga- lawyers, preachers, as well as merchants, zine has not attempted to carryon an clerks, and artisans, victims of mis- Armenian Relief Fund to any great ex- fortune, improvidence, illness, drink. tent, and therefore has directed read- The total cost for the year has been ers to the regular agents in New York about $750,000, inclusive of money spent and Boston. Sums have, however, on buildings, etc., sales of goods manu- been occasionally received and imme- factured by people in various insti- diately forwarded. being acknowledged tuws; and of this $71'iO,OOOonly$20,OOO in the REVIEW. Something over $250 has has been spent in salaries, etc. thus passed through our hands. It is in- The slum-work is graphically sketch- tended to stop relief work about the mid- . ed. "The slum sisters generally oc- dle of April, as the winter will then be cupy one of the tenement rooms either o";er. But the effects of the famine will in or immediately on the outskirts of by no means have passed, and the Arme- the slum centre, and so far as possible nians will be in direst poverty for many a they conform to the habits of thepopu- long day to come. The latest contribn- lation among whom they work. Every tions for this fund which we would ac- slum post is in reality a 'settlement.' knowledge are from It is the sisters' duty to work as both W. F. M. S. (presbyterian), Baltimore..•. $41.00 spiritual and temporal advisers, hold- Bedford Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn .. 21.00 ing small meetings in the streets and D. T. Reed, Pittsbur~h, Pa…. ………… 6.00 cottages, visiting the sick and dying, Rev. .Tames Given, Rochester Mills, Pa…. 5.00 caring for those who, as the result of Rev. W. H. Waygood, Schenectady, N. Y.. 2.15 bouts of drunkenness or quarreling, are C. S. S., Toronto, Canada …………….. 1.00 temporarily disabled, and are largely Mrs. Samuel M. Hiker, Englewood, N . .T •• 5.00 W. D. Cole, Deckerville, Mich .. ….• …. 1.00 left alone in their misery. The dying Mrs. L. R. Harris, l'<Iundale, N. Y ……… 5.00 and the little children are their especial care. It is, indeed, a work of mercy." Mrs. A. C. Stevens, Dayton, 0………… 5.00 A touching tribute is naturally paid to Bessie.T. Dickie, Hespeler, Ontario…… ' 6.25 •. A Friend," New Haven, Conn ………. , 5.00 Mrs. Charles Sheldone, Baltimore, Md. ..• .50 Mrs. Cooke, who has just passed away, Rev. S. Cocklin, Mt. Cory, 0…. ………. 5.00 and who was the devoted leader in this M. T. Parker ……………………….. 15.00 slum work. Among other classes Rev. N. D. Glidden, Grand Led~e, Mich.. 5.00 touched by this social scheme are the E . .T. McllIullen, Grand Ledge, Mich…… 1.00 Mrs. Fannie Strange, Grand Ledge, Mich. 1.00 shiftless, the criminal, and lost women. Mrs. Mary L. Tinkham, Carolina, R. I. … 10.00 Some account is also given of social M. W. P., Easton, Pa……. ………….. 5.00 C. A. .Tongewaard, Holland, Mich…….. 1.00 * General .Tohn Eaton, The Concord, Wash- Friends of the so-called McA.ll misington, D. C., will send information or receive funds. sions in France are not a little distressed at the present financial straits of the the treasury, but it does not carryon work. Some $10,000 arc needed to pre- as extensive a work as the larger boards.
vent retrenchment and serious crip- The :Methodist Missionary Society, pling of the work. In Toulou~e alone home and foreign work, has a debt of the committee must close three salles, about $240,000; the Methodist Epis- in which every week five evangelistic copal Church (South) one of about services have been held and two beside $110,000. The Presbyterian Church for the young; and the poor people of (North), for its foreign work. will close Toulouse are in great trouble about the the year with a debt of about $74,000, matter, being unable to support the while the debt on its home work reaches work themselves. There are 120 such $232,000. The Presbyterian Church salles throughout France, many of (South) reports no debt on either its which the editor of this REVIEW has foreign or home work. The Reformed himself visited and spoken in, and to (Dutch) Church will close its fiscal year close these is an unspeakable calamity; with a debt of $12,000 for foreign mis- $1000 a year is sufficient to pay the ex- sions, and none for home missions.
penses of a hall, where 500 will gather Several societies are entirely out of nightly. Mrs. McAll is engaged on a debt; some that have been butdened memoir of her husband, and is greatly during the past year are now free; grieved over the financial condition of others report an increase in contribu- thework.-A. T. P. tions, even tho there is a decrease in legacies. Missionary societies are learn- Moravian missions, which lead the ing that work must not be increased van of the missionary host, have had a unless its future support is secured. deficiency of about $30,000 also, one The moral effect of such large debts on half of which is made up by struggling givers is injurious. Only those who native churchEs in part, whose gifts have been members of mission boards have been most eloquent pleas in them- know. however, how difficult it is to selves for help from the abler and refuse appeals for increased appropriwealthier classes. The debt has now ations to meet the demands of a growbeen fully paid, and it is hoped that the ing work, and how much more saddensociety will be able to keep out of fur- ing it is to cut down appropriations in ther debt. Other denominations may the face of a crying need.
learn a lesson from this promptness in The appointment, by France, of a meeting the deficiency. Protestant Governor-General of Mada- The Baptist Foreign Missionary So- gascar is noted with tllanksgiving, and ciety is not far from $190,000 in debt, and its Home Missionary Society about may be taken as an earnest of further $100,000. It is encouraging, however, that the total receipts for 1895 were the concessions to the Christian Malagasy. largest in ten years. The Congregationalists have now wiped out the whole Rev. James Sibree writes (November debt of the American Board; the Home Missionary Society is also practically 1st) from Antananarivo, Madagascar: free, but the American Missionary Association is about $100,000 in arrears. " You will be glad to hear that things The Disciples of Christ report a debt of are now settling down again very much $9500 for foreign work, and about into their ordinary course. The Lon- $11,000 for home work. The Lutheran don Missionary Society college is in ses- Board of Foreigu Missions has had each sion, and the Protestant schools are year since its beginning a balance in slowly filling up again; the congrega- tions in the city and neighborhood are also resuming their ordinary numbers. In the country districts the people are still very timid, but confidence is grad- ually being restored. The missionaries who stayed in the capital until it was captured by the French troops (Sep- tember 30tli) were graciously protected from all harm. They were thus -able liticaI means which are not generally to continue work until within five days very Christian. And in stirring up before the bombardment, and to resume II enthusiasm" on such topics, there is it very soon after the crisis was over. risk of seeking speakers who, however We were most thankful that there was prominent as politicians, are not promivery little bloodshed, and the French nent as disciples, and perhaps are not soldiers have certainly behaved admira- even professing Christians. Suppose this bly since their arrival. great Endeavor Society, at its next an- nual meeting at Washington, should be- .. We hope and pray and believe that come so earnest in desire for what is called political reform as to procure Christ's kIngdom will still advance here, and possibly the trials now com- ing may purify the churches and render them stronger than before."
An esteemed correspondent gently re- speakers from Congress, who, whatever they are as citizens, have no standing as monstrates against a remark of the edi- cith;ens in the divine commonwealtb- what would be the effect on the whole tor in the September REVIEW 1895,under society, and what evils might not such a policy introduce as a precedent? By .. The March of Events," pa~e 697- all means let the Y. P. S. C. E- encour- age everything that tends to make men .. and keep out of politics"-a remark and women better in any and all of the relations of life; but let the society applied to the Y. P. S. C. E. He says: never lose sight of its distinctive Chris- tian character and calling. It might " It may be good if properly explained. easily degenerate into a new political But, as it stands, it seems like an un- party, and even attempt a nomination necessary fling because the Y. P. S. C. E. for the presidency, confident of its nuare urging the necessity of clean, hon- merical strength. Verbum sat, etc. est, righteous politics, which I understand to be Christ politics. Keep them Important communications are from out of party strife if you will. That is time to time received by the editor con· well. But urge upon them to take cerning the work of Rev. A. Benoliel, Christ with them to the primaries and at Jerusalem. Some of these are attacks ballot-box. Not partisan. but Chris- more or less violent upon him and his sotian within the party, if that is possible. called II mission." Others are as empha- If that is not possible-and I do not be- tic in endorsement of both. The editor lieve it is-then they would better leave feels constrained to pursue some further the party, and get into something that is Christian. If they cannot find anything that is Christian, then. as you say, they would better keep' out of politics. ' If a man cannot be a voting citizen and do the work of a voter, and at the same time be a Christian. then the editor-in-chief of the MISSIONARY RE- VIEW ought to be willing to say so, if that is what he means."
Our brother has gone a good ways to inquiries and investigations on the mat- explain and vindicate the position of ter, and meanwhile to suspend judg- the editor, who is far from unfriendly ment until the full facts are before him.
to the Endeavorers. At the same time, He feels compelled to refer to the whole whenever a society gets so numerically question in this public manner, inas- IItrong there is a strong drift toward much as the United States consul at politics, and there is risk of losing the Jerusalem has written him that a state- distinctively Christian character and ment is being circulated in Jerusalem· losing sight of the distinctively Chris- which puts the editor-in-chief of this tian aim and purpose of such a society. REVIEW in the position of one who un- Many warm friends of the W. C. T. U. dertakes to be responsible for Mr.
think that from the day they identified BenoUel as a sort of referee or guaran- themsel ves so closely with politics they tee. Such document, if so circulated, lost power, and have never regained it. is without the editor's authority. And Numerical power and popular prestige while disposed to justify Mr. Benoliel, Il'e snares. There is a tendency to at- and earnestly hoping that further inves- tempt to control political issues by po- tigation may fully vindicate him, the editor wishes it to be understood that consist of sixteen full-page plates, and neither he nor this REVIEW is in any between twenty and thirty small cuts sense committed in the matter. So soon printed in: the letter-press. as sufficient intormation is obtained, the results will be given to our readers. A valuable little leaflet on missions is Meanwhile, we ask that others will do T1UJ Study,* edited monthly by Mrs. as we seek to do. act with both caution J. T. Gracey, and having a circulation and charity. No charges or insinuations of about 20,000. The study for Febagainst a brother should be received ruary is the Missionary Conventions of until adequate reasons or proofs are fur· the year held at various points and for nished ; and there are some features in various objects through out the world. this case which have at least the appear· A program for a monthly meeting is also ance of a wilful and malicious persecu- included. Mrs. Gracey likewise edits tion of Mr. Benoliel on the part of per- the annual report of the Women's Forsons who at the least are prone to de- eign l'[issionary Society of the Meth. preciate the work of any Jews or work odist Episcopal Church, a pamphlet done in their behalf. Apropos of this which shows how earnest and active matter, we notice that recent investiga- our Methodist sisters arc in the work tion has fully acquitted Hermann War- of missions. sawiak of charges made against him.
A leper home is established in Jeru- The Presbyterian Board offers a most salem by the Mildmay Mission of Lon- helpful means of increasing the interdon, and Moslems, Jews, and Christians est in Monthly Concerts of Prayer for are alike welcomed. Missions and other missionary meetings, in the shape of stereopticon views of the Publioations Notioed, peoples, countries, and work of the vari- ous mission fields. The views from Rev. W. A. P. Martin, D.D., LL.D., which the lantern slides have been made for over a quarter of a century the Pres- have been most carefully selected, and ident of the Chinese Imperial UDiversity illustrate nearly every mission field in at Peking, has prepared a valuable con- the world. Lectures have also been tribution to literature in China, entitled prepared on Persia, India, China, and .. A Cycle of Cathay," which will Syria, and others are in course of prepashortly be published by Fleming H. ration·t Revell Co., New York. During his incumbency of tbis position, and previ- The Ladies' Missionary Society of the ously as an attachli of the United States First Presbyterian Church of Augusta, Legation, Dr. Martin was able to ob· Ga., have printed some suggestive pro· serve the march of events from a view- grams for the use of missionary circles, point at the command of few other and arranged for monthly meetings Westerners. His comments on recent throughout the year.t history in the Far East are those of an insider who himself exerted not a little Everyone would do well to read the influence upon its course. Dr. Mar- New Year's number of Regions Boyond tin's early service as a missionary in Southern China is also touched upon, * Women's F. M. S. of the M. E. Church, 36 and throughout the book missionary matters are treated with sympathy born Bloomfield Street, Boston. 10 cents a year. of experience in the work. The illus- t Information regarding the loan of these trations, reproduced from sketches by Chinese artists and photographs, will views and lectures may be obtained from the librarian of the Presbyterian Board, 156 Fifth Ave., N. Y.
:1: Address Mrs. B. F. Brown, 3 Goodman St.. Augusta. Ga. (18)>8), in which Miss Guinness gives colporteurs. (Address Rev. J. Sharp, 146 ~ueen Victoria Street, E. C.) . a careful and stirring missionary study " 'Ihe China Inland Jl'Iission" would of the state of the heathen world and be glad to hear from fully qualified medical men, with a view to its widely the work of the Christian Church. extended work in fourteen provinces of the Chinese Empire. It accepts candi· The number also contains some exceed· dates who are in fellowship with any of the evangelical churches, and who, ingly helpful charts and illustrations. having been blessed in Christian work at home, believe themsel ves called of We·print from The Student Volunteer God to labor in China. (Apply to Mr. (British) a list of missionaries wanted: Walter B. Sloan, Newington Green,' London, N.) The "Church Missionary Society" "The Church of England Zenana requJres in- Missionary Society" urgently requires West Africa.-Men to occupy the a lady, holding a degree, for the Sarah Tucker College, Palamcottah, South Hinterland of Sierra Leone. Men for India. Qualified medical missionaries pioneer work on the Niger, and in the for three stations in the Punjab. (Ap. Central Soudan. One or two clergy. ply to Manorside, Leigh Road, High- men of some parochial experience for bury, N.) central posts, such as Lagos, Onitsha. etc. Rev. Girgis Anshalian, a member of the Presbytery of Egypt (United Pres- East Africa and Uganda.-Men to oc- byterian Church of America), and pas- cupy the Hinterland of Mombasa, and tor of the congregation at Koos, has to found new stations. Men for work fallen a victim to the Turkish atroci- among the Mohammedans on the coast. Men for Uganda and the adjacent terri- ties in Armenia. He fell a martyr to tories. his faith, and should be enrolled in the army of saints who have sealed their Mohammedan Statea.~Men for pio- testimony with their blood. He was a neer work in Persia. Two or three native of Armenia; was educated in men with pastoral or educational experi- Turkey and in the United States, and ence for Palestine. after a course of study at Xenia Semi- India and Oeylon.-Five years ago nary, went to Egypt in November, the Church Missionary Society missions 1885, and was ordained April 27th, in India asked for two hundred and sev· 1886, as pastor at Koos, where he la- enty additional men at onCl3, most of those who have actually gone having bored earnestly and faithfully. only filled up fresh vacancies. Men of In September last, with his wife, he all sorts are needed-for itinerating work, for higher education, for the returned to Armenia, to visit his friends training of native evangelists, for trans- lational work, for medical missions; at Diabeker. At the time ot the out· alike for the educated classes, especially students, and for the myriads of the break they were arrested, and a ransom village population. of £600 ($3,000) was demanded. The Ohina.-Men for pioneer work among ransom was paid, but instead of being lost populations not reached by any released, the alternative of Mahomet or other mission. Men with pastoral or death was given. With a faith and educational experience for the guidance of the rising native churches in Fuh- heroism worthy of the name of Christ, kien and Che.kiang, or for the training he declared himself a disciple of Jesus, of native evangelists. and was at once hacked to pieces by the Japan.-Men of good university stand- brutish Turks in the presence of his ing. able to deal with the qifficulties of acute and thoughtful minds. All wife. She and her brother were shot, classes of laborers are wanted-clergy- men, lay evangelists, medical men, and beaten with swords, stripped, and left women. for dead. She recovered so as to be " The British and Foreign Bible So- able to write to the mission, in broken ciety" is in urgent need of an agent to sentences, of the terrible scene and her, superintend its work in Persia and a portion of Turkey in Asia. He must destitution. have business and linguistic aptitudes, and be fully persuaded that the circu· lation of the Holy Scriptures by Chris· tian workers is a missionary agency of great value. He will have the super- intendence of a sub-agent (Armenian). a~d several experienced and devoted
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY REV. D. L. LEONARD.
Extraots and Tra.nslations from Foreign his lazy repose, and is little sensitive Periodioa.ls. except to attacks on the rights of the BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER. stomach."-Herr LAUZEMIS, in Calwer MASS. Monatsbliitter.
It is commonly so with races that INDIA. have been for many ages crushed by -" What a difference between now extreme poverty, altho with the Arabs and thirteen years ago !" says the mis- and the Israelites ages of hunger had sionary of the Rhenish Missionary So- the opposite effect.
ciety from the Toba district in Suma- -In the kingdom of Travancore, in tra. "Then everything was unsafe; the southwest of India, one fifth of the no one dared to go half an hour's dis- people are Christians. 1-lost of these tance from his village; war, robbery, belong.to the Syrian or the Roman piracy. and slavery reigned everywhere. Catholic Church, but there is also a con- Now there is a free, active Christian siderable body ot Protestants. Hitherlife everywhere, and churches full of to the mission schools have received aid attentive hearers. We have 8 head- from the Rajah's government. They stations and 30 off-stations, more than submitted to government inspection, 30 evangelists, and many active elders and the grants·in-aid to each school and Sunday-school teachers. And the were greater or less according to its faith of onr yonng Christians is seen in rating. The Rajah's government is their deeds. They have renounced Brahmanical, but it has hitherto very idolatrous customs; they visit the sick sensibly assumed that it was not sup· and pray with them; they go to their porting Christianity by helping mission enemies and make reconciliation with schools. These are organs of general them. This has often made a power- knowledge, and have been aided as ful impression on the heathen, because such. Their religious teaching has they saw that the Christians could do been a thing over and above, with what was impossible to heathen-they which the Rajah has had nothing to could forgive injuries. Many heathen do. As Pope Leo says, as quoted by have been so overcome by this conduct the Methodist paper of Mexico: "Why of the Christians, that they came to us should I not help a Protestant artist? and said: 'The Lord Jesus has con- His art is no part of his Protestantism." quered ! '''-Herr PILGRAM, quoted in So the Travancore Brahmans have rea- The Chronicle. soned that knowledge and Christianity -" The world of thought, with the communicated in the same school left most of the natives, is a wonderfully the knowledge still intrinsically worthy limited one. Imagine a point, give it of Hindu financial aid. But for some the name of Stomach, draw around it reason the Travancore Government has a very narrow circle, and it gives us now departed from this sound princi- the whole natural and intellectual ple, and insists on a control over ap- world of an ordinary Hindu-namely, pointments, and on an abandonment of that the stomach constitutes the center all requirements of attendance on re- and the circumference of these two ligious teaching, which will make it worlds. The voice of the stomach is impossible for the missionaries, so long what he listens to most attentively, as this policy is maintained, to receive hardly except through its urgency does aid from the government. This is )le suffer himself to be roused out of much to be regretted.
EXTRACTS AND
_" There is a portentous difference Throngs of ~church-members greeted between a company of pariahs and a him at the seaside and escorted him up corresponding company of Hindus. into the church, now festally adorned, We could scarcely believe that we were where he was solemnly received with a in the same land, much less in the same salutatory address. All hearts were village precinct. They are much dark- moved as he uttered a warm and hearty er than the Hindus, almost black, hav- greeting to the congregation filling the ing low foreheads and being wholly church to the very last place, and prewithout the intelligent expression which sented to it the salutations of the friends marks the Hindu; their whole demean- at home. The newspapers here also or, as they stand before us, is as differ- took note of his coming. One of them ent from that of the Hindus as the even took the opportunity to read the moon from the sun; they behave like English officials a lesson as to how a flock of half-grown boys. They grin they should demean themselves toward at nothing, gape up in our faces as if the natives. If, say they, these officials they meant to swallow us, pick off ver- would seek to gain for themselves the min from one another with great s0- love and esteem of the natives in the lemnity, shove and push each other con- same way in which the German mistinually; and to be understood by ~ionaries do, then the somewhat revoluthem we must address them from a far tionary national congress, and also the lower point of view than we do the opposition sheets, would vanish with Hindus, since their ideas are so much one stroke from the face of the earth. fewer, and the mental development to This is rather an exaggeration, it is which we can appeal is so much in- true, but yet, from heathen mouths, it ferior."-Rev. S. F. BERG, in Dansk is a testimony to rejoice in. "-Oalwer MisWns-Blad. Mission8blatt.
-" While in Amritsar I had a still -" Materialism, once so popular, is deeper glimpse into the horrors of Hin- growing out of fashion, and yielding duism. The Holi feast lasted for sev- place to a religious sentiment. Caste eral days. It is the worst of the Hindu has lost much of its old rigidity, while feasts. I do not know its origin, nor its rules are openly violated. Tho the would I ask. The people, men, wom- educated classes are still at some disen, and children, splash their clothes tance from the threshold of Christianwith a hideous, red-colored fluid, which ity, Christ is seldom out of their sight. makes them look as if they were cov- A sort of Nco-Hinduism has become ered with blood. Evil of ·every kind the religious cult of the day. One of abounds, and sin has unbridled license. its features consists in reading biblical It was appalling to drive into the city, truths into the Vedas, and seeking an even when things had abated, and see Indian origin for the doctrines of the the marks of passion on the weary, unity and Fatherhood of God and the wicked faces of the Hindu men. We brotherhood of the human race. The could only cry 10 God to have mercy once despised name of Christ is now on them, and long for the coming day held in reverence, and efforts are not when sin and religion shall no longer infrequently made to find a parallel for stalk through India band in hand."- His utterances in their favorite book, Miss GOLLOCK, in Oltu1'C7~ Missionary the Gita. :aIore than ever Christ is in Gleaner. the van of moral ar:.d religious prog· ~The Rev. E. LIEBENDORFER, of ress. Pnblic character and private life, South India, speaking of the return of which were once considered quite dis- Missionary KNOBLOCH, says: "The tinct and unconnected, are now looked congregat.ion was uncommonly rejoiced upon in a Christian light. There is at the return of their old pastor. also It general imitation of Christian !LC- 386 GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE. [May tivities. Preaching is practised in the averse to it, or at any rate take but a open air ; religious services are held in cold and perfunctory interest in it.
lighted rooms; the Gita is expounded Let it, however, once be clearly seen to attentive audiences; preaching ex- that it is not so, that we hold that there cursions are made to outlying towns; is no nation in the world which has tracts and handbills are occasionally been omitted from the providence and published; and Madras has even a discipline of God; no nation in which Hindu Young Men's Association. In He has left Himself without a witness English and vernacular newspapers the finding its expression-however distort- writers often exhibit an intimate ac- ed or perverted-in their creed and quaintance with the contents of the thoughts; no nation, therefore, which Bible."-Rev. J. LAZARUS, B.A., quoteR, cannot find in Christ. not the destruc- in Church Missiona1'y Intelligencer. tion, but the fulfilment and completion of all that is best and truest in its past -The Intelligencer, in a notice of the -the realization of their truest selves Rev. W. ST. CJJAIR TISDALL'S work, -and we shall at once win to our side "The Religion of the Crescent," one an immense amount of intelligent, third or one fourth of whose adherents warm, and sympathetic support.' Mr.
are found in India, has the following Lefroy quotes some very striking pas- sound remarks: " Prominence is rightly sages on this subject from Archbishop given to the proportion of truth held, Trench's Hulsean Lectures for 1845, for the deeper study of the various reo and from Bishop Phillips Brooks's ser- ligious systems in the world, the better mon on 'The Earth of the Redemp- acquaintance with Oriental literature, tion.' We can only refer to one pas- and the personal contact with men who sage: 'There is no office more delicate, are seeking to live up to their ideal- no task requiring greater wisdom and imperfect tho that necessarily is-are patience and love, than to set men free leading the wisest and most thoughtful from their superstitions, and yet not missionaries to adopt the position so with this to lay waste the very soil in well taken up by the Rev. A. G. Lefroy which the truth should strike its roots, in one of the Occasional Papers,of the to disentangle the tree from the ivy Cambridge Mission to Delhi. He says: that was strangling it, without, in the 'I believe one reason, more or less process and t,ogether with the strangling clearly and conscientiously entertained, ivy, destroying also the very life of the which makes many people indifferent tree itself which we purposed to save.'
to or opposed to missionary work is 'To have taught them to pour con- the conservative instinct so deeply seat- tempt on all with which they have hith· ed in everyone's breast, and which reo erto linked feelings of sacredness and sents the idea of asking great and an· awe, may prove but a questionable cient nations to break utterly with their preparation for making them humble past, to simply ignore the past his- and re verent scholars of Christ. ' Wiser tory of their land and of its deepest surely was St. Paul's method, who ever thoughts; to regard it, if I may so sought a ground common to himself speak, as sheer waste to trace in it and those whom he would persuade- nothing of the guiding hand and loving who to the Athenians said, 'Whom discipline of God, nothing therefore therefore ye ignorantly worship Him that can fit on to and find development declare I unto you.' The prominence in the life of Christ. This-as they Mr. Tisdall gives to the good points of conceive it-is the position really in- Islam is an illustration of the great volved in missionary work-a concep- principle laid down by so distinguished tion for which, I fear, missionaries a missionary as Mr. Lefroy.
themselves are in too large part respon· " The second lecture is the necessary sible; and so conceiving of it they are complement of tlJe first. Islam is strong because it holds some truth; the borrowing. It is commonly known weak for this reason among others, that milch was taken from Talmudic that it has sadly distorted that truth. Judaism; but Mr. Tisdall shows how The idea of God is defective. He is a much also has been gathered from Zo- God ot power and might, arbitrary in roastrianism, and by tracing' nearly all His ways; a Despot • unrestrained every leading idea of Islam to some pre- by any law of holiness or justice ex- Islamic creed' justifies his use of the istent in His nature.' Palgrave's de- expression, • the composite nature of scription of the orthodox Mohammedan Islam.' "
notion of God has never been sur- -" The Bombay Guardian repropassed. He says: • God is One in the duces the following quotation of the totality of omnipotent and omnipresent Christian Globe from a recent work: action, which acknowledges no rull.:, "The missionaries as a body are no standard, or limit, save one sole and doubt good, earnest men. and according absolute will. He Himself, sterile in to the standard of comfort of their so- His inaccessible height, neither loving ciety, they undoubtedly do not live nor enjoying aught save His own and luxuriously. StilI, what is Simplicity self-measured decree. without son, com- to them is luxury to the Hindus. Their panion, or counselor, is no less barren houses, their servants, their food, their for Himself than for His creatures, and carriages-tho there is nothing extrava- His own barrenness and lone egoism in gant in these according to English ideas Himself is the cause and rule of His in- -do not harmonize with the Hindu different and unregarding despotism ideal of the life of a man of religion.
around.' From the time of Gautama the Buddha .. The conception of God, as overrul- to the present day all Hindu preachers, all Hindu founders of sects (with the ing all, as the dominant personal force single exception of Vallabhacharya, the in all that man does, gives strength to founder of the sect of Vallabhscharis) Islam, and the truth it has to teach is have been ascetics. The Hindus cannot that God rules among men; yet, as it reconcile the character of a holy man has not been balanced by other concep- witb that of a worldly man. To have tions of the Deity, it has led to fatal- any weight with them the preacher ism. and proved, so far as that is the must undergo an amount of self-denial case, a weakness. The God of Islam is of which the Christian missionary has a ' God afar off,' and that that is felt to scarcely any conception. " The Guardbe a serious loss is seen from the pecul- ian sUbjoins: "It does not transpire iar tenets of some of the principal sects, who t.he writer is, but the foregoing in which the need for a personal, living, lines, even while they are open to critiintermediary between God and man is cism, are worthy of consideration. We inculcated. _ . • are sometimes cautioned not to ride rough-shod over other people's prej- .. The prayers enjoined on Mussul- udices, While there is no need for this mans are very formal, imposed as a caution in dealing with our own. If duty. not regarded as a privilege. This the Indian peoples have prejudices, tends toward hypocrisy, and the effect they should not be ignored. " of this formal devotion on the life and conscience is small. Thus it is natural that the Mohammedan idea of sin should be very defective. Mr_ Tis- -Speaking of Keshub Chunder Sen dall's account of this most important and his opposition to materialism and point is the best with which we are ac- positivism, and the government schools quainted. as their nurseries, we observethatthe All- " The third lecture is on the • Origin gemeine Missions-Zeitschrift said, twen- of Islam,' and 8hows how milch it hor- ty years ago: .. It is a peculiar spec- rowed from other systems and lost in tacle to see how Germany is steering
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
irresistibly toward the rellgionless gov- spirit and policy of the official classes, ernment school, and how an Indian reo there is no reason why we should not former lifts up his voice in warning live in China wit.h as much sense of against it !" safety as in any part of the world.
CmNA. Everything he)'e depends on the offi- cials. Where they are friendly, the -" There is wealth enough in China people are quiet; where they are inimito develop the resources of the empire, cal, the people are turbulent. "-Dr. but lack of mutual confidence keeps the GRIFFITH JOHN, quoted in Church Misrequisite capital out of sight. There sionary Intelligencer.
is learning enough in China for all ne- cessities. There is no lack of talents -" No less sickening than monotoof every kind. But without mutual nous is the uniformity of the methods confidence, founded on genuine sin- employed by the mandarins to engineer cerity, all this is unavailing for the re- an outbreak. The hold which the misgeneration of the realm." -Allgemeine sionaries may have acquired on the re- .Jfis.ions-Zeitschrift, after A. H. SMITH. spect of even the dregs of an urban -" Mr. Cassels gave a new version population by the blamelessness of their of the sentiment expressed with regard lives must first be weakened by spreadto the late massacres by an Englishman ing vile rumors of unspeakable vices in a Hongkong paper: 'Blood, much veiled under the appearances of virtue. of it., and good blood, is what we need.' The Roman Catholic convent and the 'The Christian 'lttitude,' said he, 'is family hearth of the Protestant missionthis-love, much of it, and the best love ary are converted by the foul imagination is what China needs.' "-C,hurch Mis- of their traducers into dens of abominasionary Gleaner. ble vice, and unf:lrtunately, in the con- genial atmosphere through which they -" It is perfectly clear that the riots circulate, such tales find only too ready at Chentu are to be ascribed to official credence. Where imposture and hypocinfluence, and mainly to the influence risy reign supreme among the highest of the viceroy. And the riots in all of the land, what inherent improbabilother parts of the province (of Sze- ity can there be for the average Chinachuen) are, I have no doubt, to be traced man in stories which merely represent to the same source. The kindness of the foreigner as an impostor and a hypothe officials at Chentu and elsewhere is crite like the rest? When once the perno proof to the contrary. Indeed, I sonal confidence which the foreigner look up::m the fact that no lives have may have succeeded in inspiring has been lost as a proof that the riots were been sapped, it is an easy task to inof official origin, and under official con- flame against him the passions of the trol. Had they been simply mob riots, mob by a fresh series of calumnies purlives would have been lost. The order porting to disclose the real objects of seems to have been, ' Destroy, but do his mysterious presence in a foreign not kill; drive him out of the prov- land. That he should have left his farince, but do not take his life.' That off country only to bear into a strange was the order, and it has been obeyed. land a message of peace and good-will If we could get at the whole truth, we among mcn, is an idea so alien to the should find, I have no doubt, that (here Chine8e min<i that it can never wholly were yamen (government) men at every grasp it. It is naturally prone to suspoint of attack, directing, controlling, picion, and what suspicion more natuand keeping the mob within certain ral than that, behind all the appearbounds." ances of a harmless craze, there should -" The people of China are Dot lurk a sinister design? The medical against us. But for the anti·foreign services which so many missionaries render impartially to the highest and -Professor Louis Pasteur set an ex- the humblest, in a country where no ample of the spirit by which the life serious effort is made to cope with dis- and labors of a Christian man should ease, might be expected to cstablish be carried on. His motive was to serve, some claim on public confidence and never to secure reward. Simple, de- gratitude, but, as a matter of fact, there vout, earnest. without a thought of self, is no branch of missionary activity was the life of the man whose services which is so liable to malevolent mis- to his kind can never be forgotten while construction. Medicine in China is still the human race endures.-Evan.qelist.
largely looked upon as a black art akin -According to the Advance: "It is to sorC'.ery, and when one remembers of a mistake to suppose that it is the miswhat loathsome ingredients the healing sion of Christianity to convert men drugs of the Chinese medicine man are from heathenism. The purpose of the oftcn made up, one need not wonder at Gospel is to convert men from sin, the readiness with which the ignorant whether they live in heathendom or masses are made to believe that reme- Christendom, America or India. " dies so efficacious as those administered by the foreign devil mnst be compouml- -A colored man died in Louisville ed of unutterably fiendish substances. recently, who has loft a record that is That cans of preserved milk are the noble. Born as a slave, Andrew Ferboiled-down brains of Chinese children, guson used his freedom, time, and that the eyes and other parts of the money prudently. He was the janitor human body are the most potent sub- of one or more public buiIidings. and stances employed in the European phar- husbandJd his earnings. When the opmacopceia, presents nothing incredible or portunity offered, some fifteen or twenty even improbable to the ordinary China- years ago, to secure a church building man; and when placards, ililsued with for the colored Presbyterian church in the explicit or implicit sanction of the Louisville, Ky., which was left without local yamen, declare that a foreigner a sanctuary, he took nearly all his sav· has actually been caught red-handed in ings, almost $5000, bought a building, his barbarous laboratory, when, as was and gave it to the church. He continued the case the other day in Si-chuen, an his labors as janitor till the time of his official message is sent by the provin- death.
cial authority over the government' tele- -The pastor of one of the smaller graph announcing that living proofs of churches in the South, describing a con- these horrible practices have been ad- cert of prayer, tells this brief but pithy duced in open court, can one be sur- story about it: "The objects and pur- prised at the results? While a mad- poses and work of the American lIIis- dened populace wreaks a brutal ven- sionary Association were briefly re- geance in atonement of its imaginary viewed, and the prayers in its behalf wrongs, the mandarin either personally were fervent and earnest. But we shall Ilupervises or is conveniently blind to not cease, but continue to pray for the scenes of arson, pillage, and blood- your success. Inclosed please find $1 shed which he or his superiors have as a sort of baokbone to our prayers. "
prompted."-THE TlMEs, quoted in -There's a divinity that shapes our Ohurch Mi8tnonary Intellzgencer. ends, as witness these three items.
TilE KINGDOM. Troubles with the Boers first induced David Livingstone to travel to the – No man has come to true greatness, north, and so led the way to the open- saiu. Phillips Brooks, who has not felt. ing of equatorial Africa. He had ac- in some degree. that his life belongs to cused his Boer neighbors of cruelty to his race, and· that what God gives him the natives. They resented his inter- is given for mankind. ference, and thrcatooed to drive him from the country. He published their become missionaries in India. And. misdeeds iu the Cape newspapers, and thus far 30 of that family-the Scudhis house was burned in revenge. This ders-have given 529 years to India led to his leaving Southern Africa and going to, a region where he could fol- a missions. – hristian Herald. low his vocation in peace. -Within a few months the noble -Mary Jones had no Bible. She army of martyrs has been much inwalked in her bare feet 25 miles, and creased, particularly by Christlike Iives carried the savings of six years in her gladly laid down in China and Eastern hands one December day in 1802. But Turkey. The Independent of March the Welsh pastor had only one Bible 19th, in a most pathetic editorial, gives left, and that was promised to another the names of no less than 21 Protestant party. The thought of that satchel (American Board) Armenian preachers being carried back empty another 25 and pastors who were clearly slain for miles by the barefooted maiden was Jesus' sake. To everyone life was too much for Mr. Charles. So he ral- offered if he would accept Islam, and lied Wilberforce, Zachary Macaulay, refusing the fatal blow was given. Granville Sharp, and others to organize the Bible Society. Since then the -The We8tern Watchm.an, the Ro- British agency has issued 143,000,000 man Catholic organ of St. Louis. wishes copies. Not only Wales rejoiced, but the Sultan success in his work of tramppagan Saharas have blossomed as a rose ling Protestant missions under foot, by reason of its work.-N01'th and West. and expelling the missionaries from his bounds, saying: " These itinerant idiots -Early in 1819, while waiting to see should get their walking papers witha patient, a young physician in New out further parley or deJay. " York took up and read a tract with the title, .. The Conversion of the World, -Verily, this is sage counsel. We or the Claims of Six Hundred Millions; hope the Evangelical Association will and the Ability and Duty of the not take The Me8senger'& advice toestab- Churches Respecting them." Inquiry lish a mission in Australia. It is not was aroused; and, on reaching home, proposed to work among the aborigines, he spoke to his wife of the question or among the heathen immigrants there, that had arisen in his mind. As the but among the civilized inhabitants. two pondered they became convinced We do not believe there is any call for that they had duties and responsibilities another denomination in Australia. that could not well be laid on others. The Methodist family. to which the The result appeared when, against ap-, Evangelical Association is closely repeal, argument, and opposition, they set lated, is well represented in that contiout for Ceylon and later India, as for- nent, and an effort is being made to eign missionaries. For thirty years the unite them. Another variety is not wife, and for thirty-six years the hus- needed. Why not establish a mission band labored among the heathen, and in Africa, or Korea, or China, where then went to their reward. What they there are millions of heathen to be condid to arouse their countrymen in be- verted; or, if in the Southern Hemihalf of the heathen, and what they did sphere, why not in New Guinea or New for the benighted race is history. Apart Britain ?-Independent. from that they left behind 7 sons and 2 daughters. Each of these sons mar- -The United States and Great Britried, and with their wives and both ain are the two great foreign missionsisters gave themselves to the same ary countries of the world. Of the mission work. Already have several 1,157,668 communicants in foreign misgrandchildren of the first missionary sion churches Great Britain has 312,297, and the United States 397.252 ; of the 11,574 male and female foreign mis- sionaries Great Britain has 5229, the 1896.] GENERAL MISSIONARY INTEI,LIGENCE. 391 United States, 3512 ; of the 70,033 na- by 53 Bible readers. In ~'b.angkai, tive laborers Great Britain has 38,874, Ohina, it has built the Margaret Willthe United States 14,766; of the $14,- iamson Hospital, the first in that city 441,807 contributed to foreign missions for women and children, where 27,189 last year Great Britain gave $7,377,275, patients were treated in 1892. the United States $5,006,809; of the 5055 principal foreign mission stations – The ninth annual meeting of the Great Britain has 3408, the United National Deaconess Oonference was States 993; of the 17,813 out-stations held in Minneapolis, February 12th- Great Britain has 12,084, the United 16th, Bishop Joyce presiding. It is States, 4911. only eight years since this new move- ment was inaugurated in the Methodist -What an argument for arbitration Episcopal Ohurch. There are now 42 is found in these figures: For the latest deaconess homes, with 534 deaconesses. year reported Great Britain spent $182,- Thirteen of tlm homes and 164 of ihe 258,565 for military and naval purposes. deaconesses are in foreign countries. Rer colonies spent $53,000,000 more, making a total for the Empire of more -The Woman's Foreign Missionary than $227,000,000. The German Em- Union of Friends in America has a depire spent $141,417,000; France, $185,- partment of literature which publishes 120,443; Austria, $73,054,299, and the the Missionary Advocate, a monthly pa- United States, $52,110,643; with the per, and also an exeellent variety of amounts spen~ by smaller nations the tracts and leaflets. grand total was $1,687,718,473. The bills now before Oongress for coast de- -Dr. Mary Pierson Eddy writes in fenses, battleships, cruisers, etc., foot the Star in the Ea8t: "I have just reup $182,000,000. turned from a month's absence among the mountains of Gilead east of the WOMAN'S WORK. Jordan. Since I wrote last, I have been down to Mount Oarmel and Naza- -If to any mortal divine honors are reth, thence to Tripoli. 1'hen an into be paid, this selection was not un- vitation having been sent from an Arab wisely made: "There is a sect in Oris- desert chieftain or Emir, I went for the sa, in the Bengal Presidency, that wor- first time to live among the black hair ship Queen Victoria as their chief di· tents of the Bedouins. The expel'ience vinity. Oolonel Graham discovered was most novel, and medical work there that Her Majesty was also an object of most interesting in its developments. worship in the temple of the Phodong. We saw their mock battles, a wedding Lama, at Tumloong, in Thibet." Long feast, and their priceless horses. We live the good Queen! had access to every tent, and patients flocked from the LaKe of Tiberias, the -The Woman's Union ~Iissional'Y Valley of the Jordan, Oresarea Philippi, Society was the first in America to open and the surrounding tribes. We paid zenana work. It now has, in Oalcutta, a visit to a large Oircassian vilJage- Allahabad, Oawnpore, Futehpore, and there are 17 in that district-and were Naini Tal, 747 zenanas and 468 pupils greatly pleased with their habits of inin its schools. A medical mission is at- dustry. We saw there hayricks, carts, tached to the orphanage of 140 pupils and blue-eyed happy children! The in Oalcutta, at which between 150 and hospitality of our Bedouin hosts was 200 patients are treated daily. It estab- unbounded. One night there were 105 lished the first girls' boarding house in guests in the encampment, another Yokohama, Japan, where during twen- night 120, while £100 are spent on coffee ty-one years 1800 pupils have been alolle every year, besides the many taught. Evangelistic work is conduct- dozen baskets which come to him as c4 by one of its missionaries, assisted presents. While we were there a commissioner of the Educational Bureau Inquiry has revealed the fact that of came to see if there was any opening this number about 3000 are strangers in for a government school. The whole the town, not living with parents or country around is intensely interesting, friends, but in lodgings or .. messes." the work is the most delightful of a11pioneer work-and the people are so -Of Young Women's Christian Aseasily reached by means of medical sociation work in India it is written in work. I hope to go back to a village the London Oh1'istian: "Further acnear there next month, and try to open counts reach us of new centers of work up work among the Circassians, as yet being opened up in and around Calcutunreached by any method of mission- ta, and an earnest appeal is made for ary effort." workers. Active work has been com- menced at Hastings, a suburb of Cal- -The many friends of Miss Mary cutta. A Bible reading is arranged for Reed, the devoted missionary in India, once a week at Barrackpore. The secwill rejoice to know that she has ap- retary of the Hindustani work writes parently been entirely cured of the lep- that the year has been a very happy rosy with which she was stricken sev- one, tho not without its discourage. eral years ago. ments. There are now 25 branches, :3 new ones having been formed during YOUNG PEOPLE. 1895. It is hoped that recruits may be found among the native Indian women -A splendid testimony to the value to carry the good tidings of salvation of Young Men's Christian Association to their countrywomen, who are still work for railroad men was given by ex- .. sitting in darkness, and in the shadow Governor Beaver at a Young Men's of death." Christian Association banquet in Boston recently. He quoted Mr. Roberts, -The Comforting Circle of King's the president of the Pennsyl vania Road, Daughters, West Side, Chicago, not as having said recently that the thou- long since arranged a dinner for 200 sands of dollars which that company families. The Sunshine Circle of the puts into buildings and equipment for South Side provided a bountiful dinner railroad Young Men's Christian Asso- for the Charity Hospital, while another ciation work is the best investment it circle gave it a large amount of canned makes, steel rails not excepted. Every- fruit. where there is keener appreciation of the actual returns in better service The Epw01'tl. Hm·ald specifies these When the spare hours of employees are Twelve Missionary Needs: More misutilized properly and made seasons of sionary facts. More missionary faith. true physical and mental recreation. More mis.sionary prayers. More mis- sionary sermons. More missionary in- -Principal Hector of the Duff insti- telligence. ~[ore missionary convictution, Calcutta, believes that no class tion. More missionary consistency. in India needs sympathy and prayer More missionary self-sacrifice. More more than the student class. They be- missionary consecration. More misgin to feel keenly the gulf between sionary giving. More missionary volwhat they know of truth and duty, and unteers with Pauline faith and zeal. the surroundings of home and society. More missionary rejoicing over the con- Decision for Christ means certain loss quests of the cross. of all things, and yet such decision is the only way of bridging the gulf. In -A Christian Endeavor Society of 22 Calcutta itself there are upward of 20 members in Illinois raises $300 per year colleges and about double that number for their own missionary in China. of high schools. The Calcutta constitu- They test,ify to great spiritual blesBing8, ency of students numbers about 5000. and no wonder. -As a result of an Endeavor mission- centuries they had been the victims of ary meeting in Holden, Mo., 4 persons, an almost intolerable oppression. They a pastor and Ii physician with their have grave faults, which it is not part wives, offered themselves for mission- of a true friendship or a true respect to ary service. As a result of six years' attempt to hide or gloss over. But I work of one society in a Lutheran hold it one of the most remarkable and church in Illinois, 1. missionary has one of the most encouraging facts in gone to India, 1 pastor has entllfed his our history, that this great stream work, and 2 young men are fitting for which has poured into our State within the ministry. the memory of living men, who are not yet old, has changed so little the char- -Two Christian Endeavor societies acter of Massachusetts and has had, on have been formed in Florence, Italy, the '.vhole, so favorable an influence one in a Scotch Presbyterian church upon her history, a!ld causes so little and the other in a Baptist church. reasonable apprehension for the future_ lHassachusetts has educated the for- -A missionary writes: "There is a eigner. She is making an American total memb~rship of 570 in the Foochow of him. She is surely, and not very districts. The largest society is that slowly when we consider the great of the First Church. It records 39 ac- periods that constitute the life of a ti ve, 19 associate, and 12 honorary mem- St3te, impressing upon him what is best bers. I think the Chinese improve on of the Pilgrim and the Puritan quality, our designation. They say' Real mem- and the Pilgrim and the Puritan conbers,' 'Learners,' and 'Guests.' The ception of a State.-Hon. G. F. Hoar. term 'Learners' is very appropriate, and as I have watched this society of -The pawnshop connected with St. the First Church, the • Learners' are Bartholomew's Church in New York true to their name. There is a steady City has accommouatcd, since it was inflow from their ranks into the ranks opened eighteen months ago, about of the 'Real members,' and the ranks 33,000 people with loans in amounts of the 'Learners' are constantly re- less than $100. The aggregate amount cruited. " advanced on these loans was $550,000 ; about $200,000 has been paid back UNITED STATES. with interest. It will be remembered that this enterprise was started by _H The last census shows nearly half wealthy parishioners of Dr. Greer's of the whole number of Roman Catho- church to help the worthy poor. They lics in the United States are to be found subscribed a capital of $100,000, which in the 124 cities which have a popUla- was afterward increased to $200,000. tion of 25,000 and upward; and in the The rate of interest on loans was fixed 4 principal cities-New York, Chicago, at 1 percent per month; regular pawn- Philadelphia, and Brooklyn-Roman shops were charging 30 per cent. The Catholics constituted two thirds of the enterprise has been conducted on strict whole number of Christian communi- business principles, and great help has cants in those cities. In these 4 cities been given; while at the same time there are one sixth of the membership the projectors have been paid interest of the Episcopal churches, and about on money invested. half of it is in the cities of more than 25,000 population."
-In Massachusetts at least 56 per -One of the largest and most successcent of her people are of foreign pa- fulof the institutional churches is St. rentage. Probably 30 per cent of her Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in people are of the Catholic faith. They New York City, of which Rev. Dr. Dacame here, most of them driven by an vid Greer is rector. Among other aux· extreme poverty from home, where for iliary agencies which this church BUStains is an employment bureau, a res- – Well may the Congregationalists cue mission, a rescue worker's training of the land rejoice and give thanks school, a lodging-house, a loan associ- over the removal of burdensome debts ation, a guild for extending legal aid, from two of their missionary organizaprotection, and advice to Chinese, and tions. First, stimulated by an offer of an agency for giving free medicine and $25,000 from Mr. D. Willis James, of surgical aid to the poor. The guild for New York City– a Presbyterian, be it the Chinese rendered aid in 4898 cases known-the large sum required by the last year. There are 350 paid-up mem- American Board was secnred by apporbers of this guild, and, with the assist- tionment among the large cities. lieanance of pa,rishioners of St. Bartholo- time, the Home Missionary Society, havmew's, flourishing Sunday and night ing in sight $80,000 of the $130,000 schools are conducted. The employ- needed, and through the General Howment bureau obtained situations during arc1 Roll of Honor, was made happy by last year for 11,213 applicants. A fee receiving $158,000 from the Stickney of $2 is charged to the employer and legacy. of $1 to the employe. The report of the loan association shows that it now -Dr. W. 1. Morton, of Racine, Wis., has $40,275 loaned out, and not a case offers to be one of 10 persons, or groups of arrears in repaying loans has been of persons, who will give $500 each reported that was not caused by sick- during this year for the purpose of ness, misfortune, or death. The medi- strengthening the mission of the Southcal clinic treated 1070 patients in De· ern Presbyterian Church in Japan. At cember and January last, irrespective present rates that amount will pay the of calls at their homes. The total re- salaries of 6 married couples, or 9 single' ceipts for the last year from all sources missionaries in that field. Just about were $166,798, including $82,219 from so many are needed to place the Japan offerings and gifts, and $37,821 from Mission on a good working basis. pew rents. For running expenses of the church only $32,505 were required. -Great grief and unfortunate disrupo so that the balance of $134,293 was used tion have befallen the Salvation Army, for missionary and charitable purposes tho we may hope and expect that as a of a public character. Of a truth, the final outcome the glory of God and the soul of the Good Samaritan is still spread of the kingdom will be greatly "marching on," and that church and enhanced thereby. It may well have pastor are unmistakably in the genuine been that the dictum of one man was line of the apostles 1 fast coming to mean far too much. World-empire is perilous to mankind. -The first brigade for the forward And, besides, a spirit and methods movement on the Congo has already which answer well enough for the Old enrolled. A band of about 26 have World, with its monarchy and aristocbeen studying the Congo language all racy, may be far below the best for the the winter, and the most of them have democracy of the New World. No already been accepted as missionaries, doubt, most Americans will give Godand expect to sail from New York speed to the gifted and consecrated about the end of April, to begin the American General Ballington Booth, first line of advance from Matadi to with his wife equally admired and be- Lake Tanganyika. They are picked loved. Only, by all means, let them men and women. Our brothers Wood- make haste to drop the first word from cock and Macomber are going back the new name, "God's American Vol· with them, and we trust that they may unteers. " be able to open at least 4 new stations about 50 miles apart on the proposed EUROPE. route.-Ohristian .Alliance. -To meet the increasing demand for missionary books and periodicals, and yet further to develop it, the London risen to 292,000. In 1873 it was 128,000. Missionary Society has opened a small The number of missionaries now en- book saloon on the ground floor of the gaged in the service of the societies is mission house, in which such publica- 695; in 1873 it was 500. The sum ex· tions can be seen and purchased. This pended on these missions was in 1894 saloon is stocked with specimens of over £235,000 ; in 1873 it was £107,000. missionary books most ,likely to command a sale_ It occupies the left side -Interesting particulars are furnishof the entrance hall, and is consequently ed by the Rev. W. K. Landels, of seen by every visitor to the house. Turin, concerning the formation of an Books of a distinctly missionary char- evangelical church in Maena, North acter only are kept in stOCit, but any of Italy. The people having quarreled these, whether the society's own publi- with the priest, and unable in consecations or published by others, are sup- quence to procure his services, deterplied. mined to ask an evangelical minister to hold a religious service, and communi- -These figures tell how evangelizing cated their wish to l'It·. Landels. On zeal has increased within a half century arriving at the station of Maena he was among the United Presbyterians of met by a band of music, and escorted Scotland: "The Mi8sionary Recm'd of to the place of meeting', where some 1846 tells of a home mission expendi- 1500 people heard the Gospel, and the ture of £2263 upon 54' missionary sta· wish was unanimous that the preacher tions,' 34 of these being congregations should come again. This led to the under ordained pastors. Now, the ex· opening of a hall and the holding of penditure of our 2 home mission funds services every Sunday. There is now amounts, in round numbers, to £20,000. an evangelical church in Maena con- The Mi88ional'l/ Record of 1846 tells of sisting of 12 members and some 50 dework in Canada, Jamaica, and Trinidad, clared adherents. Including the immeand of the sailing of the pioneer band diate district, the number of the bapfor Old Calabar that year. The total tized is 25. expenditure for foreign missions ,was £6898. Now we have laborers, not ASIA. only in Jamaica, Trinidad, and Old Calabar, but in Kaffraria, India, Man· lndia.-India is essentially a nation churia, Japan, Livingstonia, and Pales- of agriculturists. Of the 280,000,000 tine; the staff of 22 missionaries has inhabitants of British India no less than grown to 150; 6 native churches, with 72 per cent of the adult males are diabout 150 congregations, and 20,000 rectly dependent upon agriculture for communicants, represent the fruit of the necessaries of life. The dwellers in our own mission work, while the total towns form but a small fraction of the expenditure on account of foreign mis- total population, for those living 'in sions is well on to £60,000." towns of over 20,000 inhabitants do not number above 5,000,000. The popula- -It is Bad to note the currency of the tion is, in fact, almost exclusively rural. statement that the splendid work of the Conservative to the backbone, these late Robert McAll in France appears to people cling to their hereditary home· be at a standstill, and because he never steads, too often indifferent to the fact would take up collections, and so the that their acres have long ceased to missions did not become self-sustaining. afford adequate support to their in- creased number.-.Asiatic Quarterly Re- -In 1894 there were baptized in all view. the German mission fields 21,248 adults and children. The total number of na- -Read this testimony concerning tive Christians under the care of the Indian missions from a non,Christian German missionary societies has now writer: "It is not true that Christianity has been successful only among the gree of Bachelor of Arts. It is no exvery lowest classes of Indian society. aggeration to say that this vast ed- A careful survey of the Indian Chri8- ucational organization is operating tian community will show how much every session in destroying the superof truth there is in the above state- stition and shaping anew the secular ment. According to Professor Christ- thought of at least 15,000 of the picked lieb's estimate, in India out of cvery young men of this province. six converts one comes of a higher caste or class; and when we consider -Strolling through Wellington the highly organized religious creeds, Square one Sunday afternoon, we the deeply rooted social prejudices and found preaching going on in 5 different customs, and that subtlest and most in- places in the square. In 2 places the flexible of foes, caste, which Christian preachers were Mohammedans, the 3 remissionaries have to cope with when maining ones werc Christians. The dealing with high caste Hindus, the Mohammedans had the most hearers, success that has already attended their and the majority of them were of that efforts is itself a triumph of Christian- faith. The hearers ret the other places ity. We of course admit that those were principally Bengalis, and repreclasses of the Indian population least sented Hindus, Mohammedans, and influenced by the subtle, stereotyping Christians. Thll Mohammedan preachinfluence of Hindu culture and the ing was in the Hindustani tongue; the Hindu religion have become most ac- Christian preaching was in Hindustani cessible to Christianity. But what is at one place, in English at another, and the result? It is those very classes, in Bengali at the third. We were not despised, trampled down, and looked able to understand the particular topic upon as utterly incapable of improve- of the Bengali preacher. The English ment of any kind, that now, with the Baptist missionary, who was preachenlightening influence of Christianity, ing in English, was discoursing on the compete successfully with the highest reproductive power of sinful lives, and castes and classes of Indian society in the Salvation Army preacher, who adevery direction-morally, socially, and dressed his company through a Hindusintellectually. In our opinion, even if tani interpreter, spoke of the punishthere had not been a single convert ment of sin and the sinner's need of a from the higher classes of Hindu so- Savior. One of the Mohammedan ciety, the transformation which Chris- preachers forcibly laid down the untianity has wrought among the lower deniable principle that men who disreclasses that it has won over to its fold, gard the plain words of their own is a clear evidence of its unique triumph Scriptures are in truth the ad yersaries in this country.-1n.dian. Spectator. of their own ft1ith.-Indian Witne88.
-The Indian. Evangelical Review -The foreign mission field of the quotes the following statement made American Free Baptists comprises the by the Young Men's Christian Associ· districts of Midnapore and Balasore, in ation of Calcutta: "The University of the lieutenant-governorship of Bengal, Calcutta is the largest educational cor· and contiguous portions or other disporation in the world. Every year it tricts on the west and northwest. It examines over 10,000 students. Of has an area of more than 7000 square these, more than 6000 are candidates miles, and a population of about 3,500,- for matriculation; nearly 3000 others 000. The missionaries number 5, be· have spent two years studying in one sides 8 unmarried women; native helpof the affiliated colleges; about 1500, ers, 247; church-members, 729; and having completed the four years' col- pupils in day schools, 3216. lege course, desire to obtain the de- -The official report of the Northwest Conference of the Itlethodist Episcopal Church for the year le95 is as follows: blind. That the family judged the Church·members, 9504: probationers, case without great reference to any 18,789; total Christian community. code of ethics, is doubtless true; but 41,019. There are 861 Sunday-schools that they had the material welfare of with 27,530 scholars. The adult bap- the boy in mind is very certain. The tisms during the year were 4780 ; chil- reason for this is that the blind in this dren baptized, 3617. The adult bap- land enjoy privileges or advantages not tisms number 1500 more than in the possessed by those having good eye- North India Conference, and the num- sight. Any bright, quick-minded man, ber of children baptized is more than if blind, is sure of getting a good liveli- 1000 in advance of the older confer- hood by fortune-telling, the Chinese ence. Combining the returns of the believing that the blind possess a sort two conferences, we find that the total of insight as a compensation for the number of baptisms during the year lack of eyesight. The great question 1895 numbered over 14,000 ; the church- for nine tenths of the Chinese is how to members and probationers are nearly get a living, how to keep the wolf from 64,000, and the total Christian commu- the door? And the Chinese wolf is nity is over 90,000. very large, very hungry, and omnipres- -Twelve years ago Siam had a terri- ent. The reasoning of this family was tory of 500,000 square miles. France therefore not tinctured by any senticoveted possessions and grabbed on one mental expressions of sympathy, any side. England was opposed to that desire that he might look upon the policy and seized lands on the other faces of lIis kindred, but solely conside. So Siam had but 300,000 square fined to the one question as to whether miles left in 1885. That was reduced the boy could make more money in a to 200,000 in 1893. Now t.hat is re- year as blind or as seeing.-Re'/l. F. M. duced again to about 50,000 by a recent Ohapin.
treaty between France and England, in -What a world-wonder! As if it which the latter makes peace with a were not enough for China to establish stlong power at the expense of Siam, a modern university at Tien-Tsin, with which is not consulted in the matter. an American ex-missionary for presi- England gets the entire Malay Penin- dent, behold her greatest representative, sula. France stretches her claim almost Li Hung Chang, sets forth to make to Bangkok, and only the narrow val- the tour of the globe, halting en route ley of the Menam seems to be left to to "assist" at the coronation of the the Siamese. To all practical purposes Czar of all the Russias, and, "they it seems about to be obliterated from say," to return home across this glori- the map to satisfy the colonial greed of ous Republic and the Pacific. Well, European powers.-North and West. well, WELL!! It will follow erelong China.-A blind boy came into our that at least one Chinaman will know, , hospital a few weeks since, seeking re- and be thoroughly convinced, that lief for some malarial trouble. The some good things are to be found in the doctor gave him the medicine and thon lands of the foreign devils.
asked him if he did not wish to be -Success under God must depend cured of his blindness. Natnrally the mainly upon the native churches. For- boy was willing, but with the prudence eigners have planted Christianity in early developed among the Chinese, he China, and their wisdom and experience said he would consult his family. He and higher type of piety will probably did so, and returned within three or long be needed to advise and guide and four days, saying that the family had incite the native Christians. But, after talked the matter over and decided that all, the main work in the evangeliza- it would be for his advantage to remain tion of a people must be done by that people themselves. Have the Chinese glorious first-fruits of a single decade the qualities which give us reason to of missionary effort in that kingdom.
hope that they will take up the work There are 42 regular congregations, be- of the propagation of religion among sides some 20 places where stated ser- themselves? May we safely commit vices are held; 528 living communi- the sacred deposit of the truth to their cants, besides 44 who died in faith, or safe keeping in the future? I think 572 communicants. There are 567 cate- we may. While not so impetuous and chumens, or 1139 converts all told.
so self-reliant, perhaps, as the Japanese, There are 9 Sunday-schools, 455 schol- on the other hand, their very conserva- ars; total contributions above $1000 ; tism will tend to keep them in the 6 churches have native pastors, and 202 " mold of doctrine" wherein they have communicants were received the past been cast, and make them hold fast the year, making an addition of 60 per cent " form of sound words," without run- of the previous membership; 50 in- ning after every theological novelty fants were baptized, and 55 households that comes up. When entrusted with are reported, all of whose members are self-government, tho occasionally mak- Christians. The oldest Presbyterian ing mistakes, as was natural, they have Church, organized in 1887, has 156 usually justified the confidence placed members, and is building a honse of in them. Their efforts for self-support worship entirely at expense of the mem- and self-help, too, have been success- bers, who gave $400 for this purpose ful. There are now over 100 self-sup- last year. The oldest Methodist Church porting churches in China.-R. H. was organized in 1888, and has 51 com- (lT0IDe8. municants and 74 probationers, who -In 1894 there were in a111977 mis- contributed $200 the last year toward a sionaries in China, 869 men, 562 mar- church building.
ried women, and 546 single women. -One of the missionaries in Seoul re- Of these 1080 were representatives of cently baptized a baby of ten months British, Irish, and Canadian societies, and his great-great-grandmother. The 812 of them of American societies, and parents, grandparentR, and great-grand- 85 of Continental societies. The first parents were already members of the mission work in China was begun by church.
the London Missionary Society in 1807, -Of the many changes introduced followed by the American Board in in quick succession, the recent adop- 1830, the American Baptist Missionary tion of the Western method of hair- Union in 1834, the American Protestant dressing has attracted most attention. Episcopal Church in 1835, and the The king recently issued a proclama- Presbyterian Board the same year. tion urging the sacrifice of the queues, The society which has entered China and set the example by having his own last is the Canadian Methodists in 1891. hair cnt, the prince royal following Of all the missionary organizations, the suit. The proclamation created con- China Inland Mission leads with 593 sternation in both official and private missionaries, followed by the Presby- circles. The Minister of Education terian Board with 180; the Methodist resigned and retired to his country Church, North, with 140; the Ameri- home, where his protests at the innovacan Board with 117, and the Church tion were disregarded. Many lesser Missionary Society of England with government officials also Iesigned rather 110. than sacrifice their locks. The procla- Korea.-A paper read by Dr. Vinton mation excited alarm among the people at the Decennial Conference of Protes· at large, but at each of the four gates tant Missions in Korea, October 10th, of the capital constables are posted to 1895, gave the following statistics, the await the coming of the country people to compel them to submit to the bar- Brothers Taylor, l'[orrison, Doomahbey, bers, who are in waiting for their hair. and WiIliams. These reports are espe- Western hats and coats are generally ciallyencouraging, as it is but recently adopted by those who lose their queues. that the people have undertaken the Japan.-A picture of Japanese life, building of their own church·houses drawn by Professor Morse, shows a without asking liberal contributions pleasant relation existing between the from the mission treasury_ These 5 human and the brute creation. Birds chapels begun in one year are the evibuild their nests in the city houses, dent result of the constant emphasiil wild fowl, geese and ducks alight in now being placed on the necessity of the public parks, wild deer trot about self-support. Tho built of mud, they the streets. He had actually been fol- are neat and quite good enough for lowed by wild deer in the streets, nib- general use through the country, tho bling melon rind from his hand, as they require constant attention during tame as calves and lambs on our farms. the rainy season to keep them from A dog goes to sleep in the busiest going to pieces.
streets; men turn aside so as not to -It is reported that on the day Prem, disturb him. One day a beautiful peb was taken prisoner" thousands and heron alighted on a limb of a tree, and thousands of people were freed from a the busy, jostling throng stopped. No· thraldom which was worse than slaone attempted to injure the bird, but very." All but the courtiers and chiefs several began sketching him. Let such and their immediate followers, are dea gentle race be thoroughlyinspired by lighted at the thought of British rule Christian love, and we shall surely have being established. a type of piety superior, at least in some respects, to that possessed by the -Mr. Ruskin, of the Congo Balolo bluff, pushing Anglo-Saxon. Mission, paid a visit recently to a tribe on the Lopori, hitherto untouched by -The waking of Japan from that the Gospel. His account is a thrilling great sleep in which the East has lain one. He found the people cannibals for a thousand years appears likely to of the most degraded type, living in prove the most serious event of recent constant feud with the Arabs and other history.-New York Evening Post. foes. "We welcome war," they said; AFRICA. .. because it brings us meat. We eat all -Says Stanley: "There are now enemies slain in battle." Hunting for only about 130 miles of railway within animals is unknown; but every few the limits of Equatorial Africa; but at weeks they go out in search of human the end of ten years from now we shall food. One day lfr. Ruskin received a have the Congo Railway 250 miles formidable visit. A band of warriors long: the Stanley Falls Railway, 30 appeared, tattooed and fully armed, miles; The Mombasa-Nyanza Railway, with the king at their head, his eyes 660 millis; the Shire-Nyassa Railway, smeared with black pOWder, to indicate 70 miles: the German Usambara Rail- that he was angry and came prepared way, 120 miles; and probably the Nyas- to fight.
sa-Tanganyika Railway, 220 miles, in -The railroad from Loanda to Macomplete working order." lange is now in operation as far as -The American United Brethren Queta, in Golungo Alto-that is to say, missionaries on the West Coast I/,re able for 300 kilometers (about 200 miles).
to report that during the past year new The section Queta-Ndala-Tando is to chapels have been built by contribu- be soon opened. Thus the principal tions from the country people at Otter- difficulties which were found in the bein, Konkanany, Mandoh, and Jeho- mountain region of Cazengo will have vah stations, under the direction of been overcome, and the work will progress more rapidi)' on the plateau. An Betsileo country and 3 other districts. It expedition has left Portugal to survey has 24 missionaries, 55 native pastors, the section Ambaea-Malange. and a church of 80,000 adherents, with less than half that number of scholars: -The American Board has a very the native contributions amounting to prosperous work among the Zulus, about £10,750. Besides these, there is with 10 stations, 25 substations, 30 mis- the Malagasy Church in Imerina, which sionaries, 25 native pastors and preach- has 194 native pastors. The total misers, 64 native teachers, and 160 helpers. sionary staff on the island is 474; be- With 20 churches there is an aggregate sides these there are 1313 native minismembership of about 2000, and nearly ters, and the native adherents number an equal number of Sabbath-school 454,632, their contributions amount to scholars. Besides this they have a big £48,000. high school attended by 85 students last year, a girls' boarding school that en- The interests of all foreigners, rolled 270 pupils, and 50 day schools whether traders, explorers, or missionwith an attendance of over 2000. The aries, seem to require the speedy estabmissionaries of this society, so long in lishment of Freneh power throughout this hopeful field, are doing excellent the island. The personal safety of a work among people thllt are learning large number of Norwegian and British to appreciate the benefits of Christian- subjects in the south is just now hangity up to the point of contributing tow- ing in the balance. Should the insurard its future advance. Their offerings gents succeed in their intentions, the last year amounted to $4174. Norwegian mission stations will be de- stroyed, and the Betsileo province and ISLANDS OF THE SEA. its capital, Fianarantsoa, attacked.
-Four missionary societies are at -That portion of the map of Asia work in Madagascar, all of them Eng- which lies along the equator suggests lish or Norwegian. This great island earthquakes, head-hunting Dyaks, pi- contains 3,500,000 people, among whom rates, mangro,e swamps, cocoanuts, are 437,907 native Protestant Chris- Mahommedan Malays, monkeys, fevers, tians. The Roman Catholics report constant rain, and many things of a 130,000 adherents to their own faith. semi-barbarous nature; but we do not The following are the latest statistics of believe that any white man non-resimissionary achievement: The London dent in those regions ever thought of Missionary Society is at work in 3 prov- putting his finger down on any part of inces, besides Imerina; it has 33 mis- the above-mentioned area with the resionaries; 1048 native pastors, and a mark, " They need a university there." church ot 62,749 adult members, with Yet this is what the Principal of the 288,834 adherents, and 74,796 scholars. Anglo-Chinese school at Singapore says The amount raised by the native church of Singapore itself. In faet, his growis £17,600. The Friends have 8 mis- ing educational work is seriously emsionaries, all in Imerina. and a church barrassed because the Malaysian Archi· of nearly 15,000 adherents, with about pelago has no university of its own. the same number of scholars; the na- Fortunately the London University is tive contributions amonnting to about able to supply the need in part; and £7600. The Society for the Propaga- thc various tribes and races and tongues tion of the Gospel has 6 missionaries in of Malaysia will be represented in a Imerina and 3 on the east side; and London University examination held at there are under its care 16 native pas- Singapore for students of the Anglo- tors, a church of 10,550 adherents, who Chinese school there, and other educaraise a little over £4000 annually. The tional institutions ill such outlying Norwegian Mission has 1 representati ve plaees as Java, Borneo, Oelebes, and in Imerina, but labors chiefly in the probably Papua itself.-Indian Witnas.
The Missionary Review of the World — September 1895
llu8BA:SD. (iC)·fU:l'WEEX. BR[DE
A JAPANESE MARRIAGF. CF.RE~IONY.
A WRITING LF.'i'iOl' -NATIVE EDUCATIO N. MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XVIII. No.9.-OldSeries.-SEPTEMBER.-VOL. VIII. No.9.-Ne'/II&riu.
"A NEW PROGRAMME OF MISSIONS."* BY THE EDITOR-IN-QHIEF.
History is, to the devout ouscrver, also prophecy. Current events have a predictive value as a hint of coming developments. Our Lord Himself intimates this when He rebukes those who were more careful in watching the weather signals than in observing and interpreting the signs of the times.
Mr. L. D. Wishard, so well known in connection with the international work of the Young Men's Christian Association, has recently launched a new book of modest pretensions upon the world-sea, and it is safe to predict for it no little importance and significance in its mission. It is freighted with instructive lesRons and useful suggestions as to the perplexing problem of a world's evangelization. Its novelty lies not in bringing to us any new facts, but in grouping those facts into such impressive arrangement as compels confidence that they are part of a Divine plan, articulated into a system. Dr. Richard S. Storrs, himself a profound student of missionary problems, in his Introduction confesses that he is " impressed by" Mr. Wishard's " statement of facts, by the conclusions which he draws from such facts, and by the bright and vast outlook into the future which his book suggests."
As Mr. Wishard projects before us a " new programme of missions," we are bound to give it a careful, critical study. Anything that proposes a new solution to the greatest practical problem ever before the Church is entitled to more than a passing glance. Kepler, in his patient application of eighteen hypotheses to the mystery of the planetary motion, and in his rapturous enthusiasm when he found the key that fitted the lock, saying: " 0 almighty God, I am thinking Thy thoughts after Thee !" may well furnish a model for the modern student of missions. What a reward to our patience in working and waiting, in trying method after method, if at last *" A New Programme of Missions," by Luther D. Wishard. New York: F. H. ReTell & Co,
"A NEW PROGRAMME OF MISSIONS."
we may discern God's mind and plan, and think God's thought after Him upon the question of a world's evangelization! .
The old "statistical" solution of the missionary problem has been tried and found wanting. No doubt the combined churches of Protestant Christendom could, from 40,000,000 communicants, supply 500,000 mis- sionaries, or one for every 2000 of the unevangelized, and could furnish sinews of war in the shape of $600,000,000 a year for the support of this army of missionaries. But in view of the fact that, with all the tremen- dous facts of human need bzfore the Church of Christ, and all the inspir- ing history of missionary labor and triumph to incite to zeal and sacrifice, we have as yet less than ten thousand foreign missionaries, and less than $14,000,000 a year to apply to the whole work, and even now are hampered by immense debts which threaten the whole work with collapse; we are compelled to abandon the hope of bringing up the Church to the point of supplying fifty times the present working force and forty-three times the present money basis for the work.
Here, then, is Mr. Wishard's proposition: " Convert the colleges offor- eign mission lands into strongholds and distributing centres of Ohristianity; make them academies of the Church militant, to train leaders for the present crusade of evangelization. "
This solution is not a new one, for it has already had practical trial both at home and abroad, as the Oxford Holy Club, the Haystack meeting at Williams College, the Yale revival under President Dwight, and the Intercollegiate Y. M. C. A. have proven. But the scale, on which Mr.
Wishard proposes to have this method put in operation, is new.
It is now nearly twenty years ago that, on the Day of Prayer for Col- leges in 1876, a rain of spiritual refreshing came down on Princeton Col- lege, which became the source of, a new river of spiritual energy, which was parted into two streams : one was thorough organitation of the Christian element in the colleges, and the other was co-operation among the colleges.
Hence the so-called intercollegiate association work, whose sublime aim is to bring out every student fully upon the Lord's side, and then organize a vast student army for work in extending the kingdom. The three methods relied on for reaching these results are Bible study, joint prayer, and per- sonal work for the unsaved.
One inevitable outcome of this movement has been that students have been confronted with the question of missions. It is impossible to study God's Word, draw near to Him in prayer, and come into close touch with needy souls, without having passion for world-wide missions awakened.
And hence the intercollegiate work almost unconsciously took on a mis- sionary department.
Careful research reveals already results at once surprising and stimu- lating. Not only is it found that the Bible has never before been so dili- gently studied, but over 25,000 students have been turned unto the Lord since 1876, and fully three times that number been enrolled in the associa. tion. Thirty-two hundred have been led into the ministry; and within nine years, since 1886, when the Student Volunteer Movement began at Mt. Hermon, Mass., over 700 have gone forth to mission lands.
These student volunteers have adopted as their motto the cry of the new crusade which the writer of this article was strangely led to suggest: " The evangelization of the world in this generation." Five hundred institutions, with over 30,000 students, are already embraced in the intercollegiate system, which now reaches out like a banyan tree, and bends down to take root in new soil. Ten years since it reached the University of Berlin, and has started a new Reformation in Germany.
Six years ago God gave signs that so-called heathen nations were to take part iII the new crusade. In the summer of 188~ the students, meeting at Northfield, Mass., were startled by a cablegram from the Sunrise Kingdom, in which the Christian students of Japan conveyed this sublime message: "MAKE JESUS KING." Great enthusiasm was kindled, and that message, finding its way to Sweden, where it constrained Scandinavian disciples to call a conference of students in 1890, representing Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, became another war cry of the new crusade.
The students of Great Britain and Ireland have likewise united the university forces of their Western island empire, and the missionary volunteers already number hundreds there also, of whom 90 per cent are in the foreign field.
The awakening among Christian converts in the Orient, as in Japan, naturally suggested a new plan for missions. To students in mission lands the work is one of home evangelization. Why not, then, organize in the colleges of lands, yet to us foreign mission fields, a student volunteer movement for home missions! And so, while in the Occident we are raising a foreign contingent, rely on converted young men in the Orient to supply a home contingent, and together push the work of a world's redemption.
The moment that such a plan is, by the very voice of events, suggested, we naturally ask whether any actual work thus far done by such converted young men in heathen lands justifies the hope that they will undertake such home evangelization.
Mr. Wishard has collated a few very convincing illustrations. For example, the Sapporo Band. . When President Clark, of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, taught fur one year, and through an interpreter, a class for Bible study in the island of Hokkaido, thirty-two students openly confessed Christ and formed a society of "believers in Jesus." Six years since one fourth of the students in the Hokkaido Agricultural College were professed disciples, and the city of Sapporo was permeated by their Christian influence. It was a letter from this body of students to their fellow-students in the Massachusetts college, upon whose model the Japanese was formed, which first prompted the embracing of students in mission lands in the new movement or crusade started in America.
The Kumamoto Band, in the southern part of the Island Empire, fur. nishes another illustration of God's leading in the same direction. In 1871 an American teacher was put in charge of an institution which Dr. Davis, in his" Life of Neesima," states was founded and supported by professed opponents of Christianity. When the new instructor was hired on a five years' contract, it was not known that he was a Christian believer, and at first he had to proceed cautiously. But eventually the students, in order to be furnished with weapons against Christianity, consented to study the Bible, as did Gilbert West and Lord Lyttleton, for a like purpose, and with similar results. The opposition of unbelief and disbelief was slowly but surely broken down; and it was found by a few of the young men that they and others with them were secretly cherishing belief in Christ, until the avowed believers reached the number of forty! Their avowal brought a baptism of fire. But they endured it. In January, 1876, while the new revival in Princeton was starting the fire in America, they, on Flowery Hill, covenanted with each other and Jesus to be as a city set on a hill, which cannot be hid. Persecution ensued, and the school was disbanded; but thirty of these. converts entered Joseph Neesima's school at Kyoto, and half of them completed in the Poshisha their theological course, and to· day the record of their character and work is written large over the Christianity of Japan.
The Poshisha revival is a still further illustration of the possibilities of student work in the East. Some twelve years since a sceptical spirit prevailed in this college of the Single Aim, as to the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit, and there was a demand among the students for some adequate proof of His claims to being more than a vague Divine influence or effiuence. Of course such doubts do not go alone j the inspiration of the Word of God and the vitality of spiritual life were alike in peril.
Now our Lord teaches us in that significant word of His in the Gospel of John (3 : 8) that the Spirit breathes where He will, and, like the wind, can be known only by the sound of His going. Being invisible, He can be traced only by His effects.
Dr. Davis, one of the missionaries who was greatly troubled by this scepticism in the Doshisha, said nothing to the Japanese doubters about his purpose, but boldly threw himself on God, appealing to colleges and theological seminaries in America to offer special prayer for the Holy Spirit to come on Japanese students. Such prayer was offered in January, 1883. There was, however, nothing done in Kyoto which could in any way account for the stupendous events which shortly followed.
One night a spirit of remarkable prayerfulness took sudden possession of a few students, and an almost sleepless night followed. Before day dawned a river of grace was pouring through the Doshisha, and its flood rose until almost if not quite every student was turned to the Lord; and shortly a deputation went to the surrounding churches to carry the sacred waters of salvation. The Spirit had taken His own way of proving his personality and deity. The" Wind" proved its existence by bowing the oaks and cedars before its mighty sweep. No doubts have since prevailed in the Doshisha as to the Spirit of God. In fact, no nation rivals Japan in the keen sense of the Spirit's personality and power, existing among Chris- tian disciples.
Tungchow College, China, and Pasumalai College, Madura, South India, are other illustrations of God's plan for the evangelization of Oriental lands by converted and educated' young men. The former institution, presided over for a quarter century by Dr. Mateer, has sent out over fifty graduates, not one unconverted! and the latter has, during a half century, given over five hundred Christian workers to the field.
Mr. Wishard further calls attention to the startling rapidity with which this Christian movement has pervaded the colleges of the missionary field abroad. Almost simultaneously in Ceylon, China, and Japan there began a manifestation of desire and readiness to co-operate with Occidental stu- dents in the world-wide work.
While in the Presidency of Madras the missionaries were considering how to secure a special worker among the students of the capital, Dr. Jacob Chamberlain, visiting America and being present at the students' summer school at Northfield, in 1889, pleaded for the interposition of the International Committee of the Y. M. C. A. in the promotion of a movement among the students of India similar to that which he saw at Northfield, and an appeal subsequently came from Madras itself for a young man to be sent by the committee to India to take this work in charge.
This proposal led to Mr. Wishard's four years' tour of investigation. He went to 216 mission stations in twenty different mission lands, and met personally over a thousand missionaries, and many thousand students. He held interviews with merchants, educators, pastors, government officials, everybody who could help him to understand the questions he was studying.
He found the higher educational institutions of foreign lands to contain about five hundred thousand students, less than one tenth of whom are professing disciples. And while education unsettles the old superstitions, if students are not grounded in Christian faith, they drift into materialism, agnosticism, and open infidelity. They cast away their old gods, but get no new God in their place. It is, therefore, now or never for many of them j and it needs not to be argued that no body of men are more likely to reach, touch, move, and mould the students of the East than their fellow-students of the West, who have pursued similar lines of investigation, have felt similar intellectual perplexities, and are at a similar age exposed to similar temptations. From the student body of the Occident we may naturally expect the hand of fraternal sympathy and co-operation to be extended to and warmly grasped by the student body of the Orient. Such is the theory and such are a few of the facts, further reinforced by the following.
Christianity, Mr. Wishard says, is now firmly entrenched in nearly all of the Christian colleges of Japan, China, Burmah, Ceylon, Persia, Turkey, Egypt, as well as some of those in India. As a rule, the majority of such students outside of India are Christian communicants. Christianity has made some progress even in Government institutions not openly under distinctive Christian control. In 1889 one fourteenth of the three thousand students in the seven leading Government colleges of Japan were Christians.
Mr. Wishard, like others, observed a surprising readiness on the part of students in the Sunrise Kingdom to examine the proof as to the deity of Jesus Christ, and to respond to His claims as Lord and Saviour. Several weeks of special meetings at the Doshisha resulted in the baptism of nearly one hundred and fifty students. Similar results followed similar meetings held by Mr. Wishard and Mr. J. T. Swift, at Union College, Tokyo, Kumamoto, Osaka, Kobe, Sendai, etc., as also in the Methodist College, Foo Chow, China, and in India, Ceylon, and Asia Minor. Moreover, these converted students exhibit a remarkable passion for souls and genius for organization. Nearly fifty colleges on the mission fields of the world have already Young Men's Christian Associations, Japan alone having fifteen; and the best-organized association of them all is in Tungchow College, China, where every most approved method of Bible study, personal work, and evangelistic effort is already in active operation. In this last Chinese college a foreign missionary flame has been kindled that leads to the support of a Zulu student in the school at Natal! And the self-sacrifice displayed by these converted Chinese in extending Christianity puts to shame the benevolence of Christian lands.
The pioneer college Young Men's Christian Association in Asia was formed in Jaffna College, Ceylon, in 1884. Those who wish proof both of the evangelistic spirit and organizing facnlty of Asiatic students, should watch these Ceylonese young men, undertaking to evangelIze a neighboring island hitherto without a convert. They visit the island at stated seasons for conversation with every inhabitant. In order to support the work they not only contribute money, but put aside a tithe of their rice supply, which they sell for the benefit of the work; and they cultivate a banana garden, a committee of twelve students being appointed to work an hour each day for three months, drawing water from the wells and filling the trenches. The whole year's work yields but $20, yet how is this small gift magnified and sanctified and glorified by the altar on which it is laid!
India has long been ranked as the Malakoff of missions. Yet even here the approaches of the students from the 'Vest are warmly reciprocated. Mr. Wishard and Mr. McConaughy, who is a Y. M. C. A. secretary in India, issued an appeal to their fellow-students in the great Oriental empire; and Mr. Wishard says: "Never were messengers more warmly received." A large meeting of students assembled in Madras, and the Hindu students joined enthusiastically in " Coronation," and heard with sympathetic interest the words addressed to them. In like manner in Rangoon, Oroomiah, Bitlis, Harpoot, Tarsus, Robert College, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Bulgaria, Chili, South Africa, the response has come to the signals of the Western crusade; and the great army seems already mustering from all lands to undertake the final assault on the citadels of Satan.
The first national conference of Asiatic students convened in Kyoto, in 1889; five hundred men, representing ten Government colleges and twelve Christian colleges, were in attendance. Annual conferences have followed, and now there are two held yearly, the gathering of 1893 being attended by six hundred. India has had since 1891 a national union and annual conventions. During the six years since 1889 eighteen Asiatic conferences have been held, whose three thousand delegates have come from fifty colleges; and during those six years over three hundred students have been added to the army of believers and warriors for Christ.
These are interesting and overwhelming facts. And the question only remains, Does this movement give promise of permanence, or is it an evanescent awakening of enthusiasm ~ Only time can certainly answer this question. But meanwhile signs of permanence must be acknowledged. For instance, the aggressive spirit of evangelism pervading these Oriental student bands, alike exemplified in Japan, China, among Armenians and Tamils. 'Witness also the persistency and energy of the Japanese and Chinese ; the intensity of conviction, which leads to such tenacious holding fast the faith in the face of ostracism, caste prejudice, and open persecution.
Nothing is more shining in its promise than the well-known prayer power, for example, of Japanese converts, who have been known literally to pray all night, having literal confidence in the promise that where two or three gather in the name of Christ, He is in the midst of them. And the high standard of habitual and self-denying giving which prevails among Oriental Christians adds to all the other proofs of lasting qualities in their piety the essential element of self-sacrifice, so lamentably wanting in the Occidental world.
It is not to be wondered at that Dr. McCosh characterized t;he Student Volunteer crusade as the greatest missionary revival since the first century, and that those who have watched this latest development of the Y. M. C. A. should regard it as the Divine outcome of that marvellous uprising of young men which, starting a half century ago, has by its unifying influence upon Christian believers of all denominations been, as Dr. R. D. Hitchcock said, such " a mitigation of the deplorable effects of our too disintegrated Protestantism. "
Mr. Wishard's brief but startling book closes with a threefold appeal: "Pray ye; go ye J' bring ye-a call to supplication, service, sacrifice." Twenty-five men are shortly to be occupying strategic points in the educational centres of the three continents, South America, Africa, Asia. Many more will be needed-are now needed. Here is a work in which all
'l'HE YEAR 1895 IN JAPAN
churches can harmoniously unite, magnifying essentials, minifying nonessentials, joining in a common cause without sacrifice of individual preferences and convictions. Here is a work in which ministers of Christ, unordained lay workers, and business men, can combine their piety, consecrated learning, youthful energy, and dedicated money..
Surely Mr. Wishard's" New Programme of Missions" commends itself for its philosophy, as sensible, spiritual, scriptural; and for its factual showing, as having demonstrated its feasibility and possibility. But, above all, there is in this very remarkable interweaving of providential developments something which looks to us as though the Divine Weaver were sitting at His loom, and with His grand shuttle weaving these strange threads in one pattern; and that our duty is to mark that design and submit ourselves and our sons and our substance to be wrought into the warp and woof of His blessed purpose. Other methods, however promising, have proved unpractical or impracticable. Is God leading us to the master stroke of modern missions, the raising up and enlisting and equipping of a native agency in the educated youug men of the Orient, who shall constitute a special home missionary contingent on foreign missionary fields to carry Christ's banner among their own conntrymen and take possession of these Oriental empires in His name 1 Is it not possible that the last great signal of the Captain of our salvation is now sounding, and that Jericho's walls are about to fall ~ THE YEAR 1895 IN JAPAN.
BY REV. GEORGE WILLIAM KNOX, D.D.
The world has followed the course of events in the far East during the year past with an attention which renders unnecessary any repetition of the story. Last year a postscript was added to our" review" announcing the beginning of the war. A twelvemonth has sufficed for Japan's complete triumph on land and sea, for the couclusion of peace, and the Emperor's triumphant return to Tokyo. One brief year has witnessed the advent of a new power among the nations and a transformation of the situation in the far East.
THE NEW POWER.-For the first time in the modern era a non-Christian nation takes position abreast of the States of Europe and America. At 'last an Oriental people demonstrate their ability to care for themselves and their fitness to be taken seriously.
Europe has looked on Asia as its prey, to be consumed at convenience. Its one safeguard has been the mutual jealousy of the nations-a weak defence, as Tonquin, Siam, and Burmah show. It has been feasible to conquer an empire with a few regiments of trained troops; but a new era begins. One Oriental nation not only defends itself, but makes its infiu-
HALL, DORMITORY OF THE ~mIJI GAKUI~
(The Mciji Gukuin is nn Academy nnd Seminary of the Church of Christ in Japun.) A JAPA~F.SF. l~~.
THE YEAR 1895 IN JAPAN. 64{1
ence felt beyond its bounds. It is courted as an ally and feared as a foe. It has mastered the mechanism of war; its troops can march, shoot, fight; its commissariat is amply supplied; its medical service meets modern scientific requirements; its ordnance is of the latest pattern; everything is foreseen, provided for, and well carried out. The greatest and most complicated of machines subjected to the severest tests works smoothly. Not even Germany in 1870 was more completely ready than Japan in 1894.
THE NEW SITUATION AT ROME.-SO Japan proclaims itself master of its own destiny. Its supremacy at home is complete, assured. No power, no possible combination of powers can conquer the island empire on its own domain. Of all non-Christian States it only exists, not by sufferance, but by its own strength. Without interference it will work out its own salvation or its own ruin. It only, of all, dares claim a career of its own.
The new treaties sign and seal the triumph. Japan resumes all its sovereign rights. Again, it only of non-Christian States has jurisdiction over Christian foreigners within its bounds; it only forms treaties on the basis of absolute equality. The treaties with Great Britain and the United States were negotiated before the war had given its unquestioned proof of Japan's military and naval strength. They are the willing recognition of the nation's progress at home-a progress so great that it shows again that " Peace hath her victories No less renowned than war."
Thus is secured the object so long desired. An element of danger and difficulty is removed. No longer can demagogues use this topic to excite popular discontent and ill-wiil against all foreigners. Missions should gain as Japanese self-respect and laudable ambition are gratified.
With victory, military and diplomatic, comes evidence of a juster estimate of self. The terms imposed on China are themselves proof of the wisdom of the men who rule_ No victor could be more reasonable and self-controlled. And when Russia, Germany, and France interposed to deprive Japan of a portion of the fruits of victory, again the soundest and most far-sighted policy prevailed. The men who lead Japan to-day know at once their power and their limitations. The empire is safe in their hands_ Not less remarkable is the attitude of the nation. The modification of the treaty was a great disappointment, and the interference of the three powers was taken as a national humiliation. But the wisest self-control is everywhere manifest. Self-constituted critics have taken it upon themselves to fear insolence in the day of triumph_ One even thought defeat desirable lest the conceit of the nation become "insufferable." The event has shown how vain was the fear. There is no undue exaltation, but, on the contrary, the people have acquired just views of the progress made, and of the work remaining to be done. Doubtless there is a new self-confidence, a certainty that the career of progress has been no mistake, and that the lessons learned have not been superficial. There is a consciousness of strength, and an attitude born of the knowledge that Japan has merited the recognition so generally given it.
It turns,with earnestness to the works of peace. It knows that even military prowess in our day rests on wealth. It would prove itself also great in agriculture, commerce, and the commonplace business of every day.
The war has united the nation. For a year factional political strife has ceased. All have supported the government. There have been no dissentients. This is the more remarkable, as nowhere has party strife bep-n' more bitter or more unreasoning. Since peace was made there is evidence that the better counsel is to prevail, and that the nation will seek more calmly and unitedly its constitutional development.
THE NEW SITUATION ABRoAD.-Abroad the situation is threatening. Victory may be only a prelude to another and more serious conflict. In Korea Japan has a task of the last importance, but of the gravest difficulty. Japan fought that Korea might be independent; but Korea can be independent only as it is worthy of freedom. It is surrounded with enemies, and must be strong if it is to remain a nation. But it has not an element of strength. It is poor, ignorant, misgoverned, corrupt. The government is a confused centre of discord and intrigue. It needs reformation root and branch, but the very leaders who are pledged to reform and the new regime plot and scheme and seek their personal advantage. Korea needs regeneration. Can Japan give that? And over against Japan stands Russia, hostile, watchful, greedy. England in Egypt had a light task in comparison.
Formosa, too, has difficulties and dangers only less than Korea's. If Japan succeeds, it will prove itself worthy of a place among the very first. It needs the qualities England only has shown. It will be sharply judged, and by critics who will find their own gain in Japanese failures.
In seeking such unmeasnred responsibilities and duties Japan has entered upon a new phase of national being. It will need every power if it is to maintain itself. One doubts, but the history of the twenty years past has been a history of the triumphant silencing of such doubts.
THE CHURCH.-It is not surprising that the gain in converts has been small. Public attention has been fully occupied with other things; yet has there been much progress made.
The Church has proved its loyalty. Strange that it was doubted. But Christianity has been held a foreign religion, something of the ancient prejudice has remained, and the uncompromising teaching of the Bible making Christ Lord has been thought inconsistent with whole-hearted obedience to an earthly sovereign. The war has been more efficient in dispelling this charge than countless books and sermons. Persuaded that the war was" righteous," none has been more self-sacrificing and patriotic than the Christians. They have been wanting in no duty which pertains to good citizenship, and their conduct has been marked and approved in high quarters. So, toe, has the government shown its impartiality. It has been charged with hostility to Christianity, and in isolated instances subordi- nate officials have given occasion for the charge; but during the war the government has directly aided efforts put forth by the Church and the Bible societies. This has been the more noticeable as the war might have served as a pretext for a different attitude; but no pretext was sought, as'none was desired. Prince Komatsu, commander of the Imperial Guard, gave permission to distribute copies of the Bible to all in his command, thanked the workers, and appointed men to assist. Mr. Loomis, of the Bible Society, was given special permission to visit. all garrisons, and the missionaries and Japanese Christians in Hiroshima, the headquarters, had full opportunity for evangelistic work. Finally, two Japanese clergymen were allowed to go to the seat of war on the same terms as the Buddhist priests.
With the national triumph the Church feels an increased responsibility.
It has long talked of foreign missions, now it begins the work. A united effort is making for the evangelization of Korea. As part of this work it should be noted that some of the Korean students recently come to Japan have been sent to the school in Sendai which is maintained by the Re- formed (German) Church in the United States and is under the control of the Rev. M. Oshikawa.
At home more than ever the Church talks of independence. This is peculiarly manifest in the Kumiai churches (Congregational). Two years ago the General Conference decided to admit no church to membership which is aided by the American Board, and this year (the first; week in May) the Conference voted to receive no further subsidy for its horne mis- sionary society. .
Were this action the result of heightened national feeling only, it perhaps need not be regretted. One hesitates about it, and fears it is premature, but in other lines of action such hesitation and doubt have been proved mistaken. Why not in Christian work also? But the doubt is increased as we are told that the action is also from a desire for greater freedom of thought-in fact, of complete emancipation from all creeds.
No matter what a man may think about Christ, no matter what i!'l his belief about God, if only he seek to live the life of our Lord and to extend the kingdom. Some of the leaders, we are told, hold "not Christianity at all, but simply the Confucianism of olden times." And though" most of the pastors and evangelists are within the limits of a reasonable ortho- doxy, yet with almost perfect unanimity they stand for freedom of thought. " That is freedom for men who find" no room at all for an objective revelation," and eliminate from the "definition of God all that we of the West prize in the idea of personality." As neither the funds nor the missionaries of the American Board stand for such " free- dom, " complete independence is declared.
At the same time it must not be forgotten that the Kumiai churches are not the whole of Christianity in Japan, nor its only representatives. The other Protestant bodies stand firmly by the faith once delivered to the saints, and show no desire to widen their boundaries so as to include men who do not hold the common evangelical belief. During the year past the leading men of the Nippon Kirisuto Kyokwai (Presbyterian Reformed) strongly resented a public charge that they are untrue to their creed.
PROSPEOTS AND PROBLEMs.-In State and Church prospects were never fairer, nor problems more perplexing. The State has won victory and complete independence. It has conquered a peace, and the first demand is that the fleet be so increased that it may be invincible in Eastern seas. It commands the future of Korea, and its wisest statesmen are perplexed by the intricate difficulties disclosed. It possesses Formosa, and finds itself heir to many ills. It has shown its equality with the West, and already the politics of Europe influence its destiny. It has accomplished much, only to find itself forced to accomplish more. It has sho.wn its strength, and it has learned its dangers. In aU things it deserves our sympathy and best wishes. If it demonstrate that an Eastern nation may maintain itself, if it stop Occidental spoliation of the Orient, if it teach Europe to respect Asia, if through it the international law of Christendom extend throughout the world, it will have rendered a service to the West not second to its service to the East. Japan is said to desire a strong, self-dependent, progressive Orient, and every Christian must say, Amen.
The Church has never had fairer prospects. It has had official recognition, and that counts for much. It is representative of that spirit of Christ which aU the nation has honored in the work of the Society of the Red Cross. Confucianism in its stronghold has been shown unable to make citizens patriotic or officials honest. The influence of Christendom has been proved more effective in practical humanitarianism in a generation than was the influence of Buddhism in a millennium. The hostility excited by the old treaties against foreigners has been removed by the re- VISIOn. Missionaries can reside and travel without restrictions. The Church responds to its new conditions and undertakes with zeal work at home and abroad.
As the Church thus finds its opportunity, so does it find its difficulties increased. With Japan unevangelized, it must begin work abroad; as it comes on to self-support a minority deny the essential faith; with its increased self.consciousness and strength, it finds the greater difficulty in co-operating with foreign missionaries, and the foreign missionaries may· well question whether their increased facilities are not too late for the most efficient service.
Our prayer is that the Church may accomplish the work whereunto it is called. Our sympathies are all with it. Its triumph will be the vindication of foreign missions. Its success will mean hope and salvation to the lands beyond.
JAPAN'S DEBT TO CHRISTIANITY
JAPAN'S DEBT TO CHRISTIANITY.
BY REV. JAMES I. SEDER, A.M., TOKYO.
At this time of. comparatively slow progress, humanly speaking, of Christianity in Japan, it may be especially fitting to take a brief retrospect over the work which has already been done, and, with ihe gratitude to God, from the success of the past, take courage for the future.
In counting up a few of the mile-posts which Japan has set along the highway of her modern and marvellous progress, I set out with this funda· mental postulate: God is spirit, light, love, life, creator, and cause of all being. The spiritual is the genesis of the material. Spiritual light among men is the genesis of the merely intellectual, both together are the means of originating all that is good in the institutions and conditions of human society. Christianity is the embodiment of the highest spiritual or moral light, the genesis of the highest intellectual enlightenment of the race, a~d thus the source of the highest civilization. Being perfect as a doctrine of light and life, it is not responsible for the evils which attend t.his highest civilization. These result from man's perverted use of this light. If it be remarked, therefore, that some of Japan's progress is due to civilization rather than, or as well as to Christianity or to the work of missionaries, we confidently answer that ours is a Ohristian. civilization, itself the undeniable fruit of Christianity. Japan, too, has been made a partaker of the blessings of Christianity and its civilization, and thus has become infinitely a debtor.
The first doctrine, a tl'l1th fundamental to the whole superstructure of this nation's modern progress, and for which she is indebted to Christianity, is the idea of a personal God, who is at once supreme, absolute, eternal, infinite, self-existent, intelligent, spirit, and the creator of all things. This conception is utterly wanting in the old religions of Japan. At an interview with a leading Buddhist priest of the famous Nikko temples he told us that the universe was not created, but was caused to appear by a god called Bonten. This god sustains no further relation to the world, does not guide and control it, and the tiniest infant may in time also become a god capable of creating worlds. This is nothing more than the old atomic theory that possibly there was a great first cause which caused matter to exist, and out of which the world was evolved. It fails to perceive that the Being who caused matter to exist and made the laws of nature also executes them.
The teaching of the priests generally must, to judge by the results, be as much confused as the ideas of this priest, if not more so. The superintendent of schools of a certain city recently tested the religious knowledge of his pupils. He chose 118 of them, their average age being fourteen. To the question as to what is to be understood by the word" god," 97 of them, or 82 per cent, answered: "Our imperial ancestors and benefactors reverenced by us." These are really without God and without hope in the world; and this is the fruit of the old religions. Ten only replied that God is a spiritual Being outside of mankind, one adding that He is the Creator of the universe. This latter is clearly the result of Christian teaching, the fruit of missionary sermons, prayers, and gifts in the home land and of like efforts here. In God's own time these figures will be reversed.
Christianity has also given to this people the knowledge of the person- ality and immortality of the soul. In theory Buddhism teaches the trans- migration of the soul; but there are multitudes who do not know what " soul" is, nor that there is such an existence. Missionaries often experi- ence great difficulty in getting people to understand and believe that there is a soul. Out of the 118 pupils before named, 62, or over one half, denied the existence of any soul. Fifty-two believed in the existence of the soul, but 25 of these denied its immortality. Thus three fourths do not believe in an immortal soul. Said an intelligent old Samurai to the writer: "Th.ere is no immortal soul. When my body falls into the grave that is the end of me. " So these people think, believe, are I Deduct from the a~ove 118 the number of those who believed in God and those who no doubt had come under the influence of Christian teaching, and the remaining per cent of those who intelligently believe in the existence of the soul is extremely small. And yet it seems not unreasonable to infer that if the parents had any clear conceptions about the matter, the youth must have caught their ideas, so that it is not greatly unfair to apply these proportions also to the adult population. Then, too, the most hopeful thing the common adherents of the old religion have to look forward to is transmigration. The farmer or betto who maltreats his horse in this life becomes a farm-horse with a man's head in the next I Compared with the doctrine of the resurrection what a contrast I Said an old Japanese Christian lady, as she was nearing the end of her life, and after hearing a sermon on the resurrection: "The old people of Japan, for the most part, have nothing to look forward to but to fondle their grandchildren and die. How different with us who are Christians! How glorious and beautiful the new life that will be ours I"
The old religions contain no adequate conception of sin and its heinous- . ness. This is a logical consequence of their lack of the knowledge of a personal God as moral governor, and the soul as a responsible subject. When these religionists see a man who was born blind they ask, as did those of old: "Who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind~" (John 9 : 2). The evil that man experiences in this world is the effect of misconduct in the former world; and by good conduct a person may again rise to high degrees of virtue, even out of hell itself. That sin is the transgression of a just, perfect, holy law of a perfect moral Being of supreme authority, and that to break this law is infinitely sinful ,and degrading, is something scarcely thought of even among the priests. The worst feature about sin-e.g., lying or stealing-is to be caught at it. Hence the degradation and utterly corrupt moral condition of even the priesthood, so that a few years ago the government found itself constrained to give warning that the priests must reform, or punishment must be meted out to them-something never before known in the history of the nation. And if such is the moral, or rather immoral, condition of the shepherds (as even the Buddhist papers bewailingly ar:;sure us), what must needs be the condition of the flock ~ But even this, though of deep significance, is not yet the worst. Bud- dhism does have some vague conception of sin and its final punishment: Pictures of paradise, of hell, and judgment are on sale, and the representations of the latter are certainly awful enough; but its devotees know nothing of a personal Saviour from sin, of effectual repentance, pardon, peace, and a joyous salvation. Only through the Gospel do they learn the words and power of the song : " I have a Saviour, He's pleading in glory, A dear, loving Saviour, though earth·friends be few. II The priests tells us (and statements in this article are based on conversations with priests and observations of the people rather than on books) that a man may, by reading the Buddhist books, become sufficiently free from evil desires to become a Buddha-i.e., attain to perfect happiness before or at death. But when asked whether anyone, as a matter of fact, did really attain to such a state in this life, he could think of but one living priest who was so far perfected that he was entirely free from the desire to steal and the like. Thus it is evident the prospects, the hope of deliverance from sin, even among the priests, is extremely small. And what, then, of the laity ~ It is only through the Gospel that the dark night of despair has been illuminated and filled with hope. Buddha, or S.akya Muni, did not die for the sins of the people. Christ did, and Christianity offers, in place of the unattainable and scarcely desirable ideal of salvation by works, that by faith-present, positive, perfect, free- Christianity has, moreover, given to Japan the best literature of which the Bible is the foundation-stone. The best of foreign missionary and Japanese talent had been for a long time engaged on the work of translation, and by the best Japanese scholars the Bible in the vernacular is pronounced one of the best translations of any book in the language. The various Bible societies, with t.he co·operation of missionaries and colporteurs, are doing a grand work in spreading the Bible. The Japan Scripture Union proposes as one of its objects, to give every man in the country, who is able to read, an opportunity of possessing the Bible for himself. The Christian Physicians' Society of 70 members proposes distributing the Bible among the 40,000 physicians of the empire and the 1000 new men who annually enter the medical ranks. Until the funds permit giving the whole Bible, the Gospel of Luke will be distribut~d, 'fhil? work has already been begun, and is now being carried on. In creating a Christian literature a colossal work has been done. In books, magazines, papers, tracts, leaflets, the number and influence is almost beyond computation. Of the school-books many contain lessons from the Bible. A Japanese youth who refnsed to listen to stories from the Bible, willingly received them out of the Third Reader. The great non-Christian dailies and weeklies often unawares bring their readers stories, anecdotes, and illustrations Christian in source, sentiment, and tendency. But with this I would not make the impression as though Japanese newspaper literature were morally of a particularly high grade. One daily paper recently contained columns of information day after day concerning the gross immoralities of the" Remmonkyo," a Japanese new religious organization. No respectable and patriotic Japanese would translate it into English because of its vileness.
But Christianity has also come in, and by its varied agencies stirred the stagnant moral life of the nation. Gospel temperance work is carried on with vigor, and the crusade is directed also against the smoking of the " filthy weed," which was introduced into Japan by the Portuguese three centuries ago. Prostitution is licensed by the government, and parents still sell their daughters into these physical and moral death-pits with the sanction of the authorities. But Christianity has uncovered the shame of this inhuman business, and sentiment has been created against it. Women themselves have taken a prominent part in this agitation, notably also the woman's magazine. In some parts of the country these public places of shame have been abolished, and the tide is rising higher.
Lying, too, is considered in a different light than it once was. Christianity is setting forth the high ideal of perfect truthfulness and is pressing its claims. As an instance of far-reaching influence upon the whole national life, which shows that veracity and truth is being songht, it may be mentioned that some of the best scholars of the empire are engaged in sifting the national history and mythology in order to ascertain the facts. Truth is coming to be valued and desired ; and although it still meets with great opposition, it will win its way here as elsewhere. Here is another instance from the humbler walks of commercial life. Said a Buddhist orange merchant to the writer recently while praising his oranges: "I don't lie; I am a Christian." Although at the very moment he spoke his foot slipped from the path of truth, as the idols and shrines in and about the house testified, yet the restraining ideal was present. The more that missionaries and Christians generally speak and live the truth among this people, the more will its power and influence spread.
In religion in general, Christianity is substituting optimism for the former pessimism. The old religious ideal was "to leave the world of suffering" and enter Nirvana, or be absorbed into the universe and prilctical nothingness ; the new is to stay in the world and help reform it. This exceeding pessimism and materialism is justly charged to the old religion. It may be due in a large degree to the ill prospects for the future world as held out by its teachings, and as believed in at least by the common people. But yesterday I studied a pair of Buddhist paintings. The one represented paradise or heaven, with Buddha sitting in a huge lotus flower as his throne, surrounded with the sacred lotus flowers and absorbed in peaceful contemplation. The angels were beings with female faces and upper extremities, and having the wings and tails of peacocks. Similar forms were in a boat on the lotus pond gathering these sacred flowers and presenting them afterward to Buddha. This, with some minor details, was to represent paradise, heaven. It was extremely commonplace at the best, and but little calculated to create any strong desire in anyone to go there. Nearly every detail of the Christian's conception of heaven was conspicuously wanting.
The second was a representation of the final judgment and hell. It was certainly awful enough. Children were there as well as adults. Among many things else was a big brown demon who, amid streams of gore, was extracting the tongues of liars. Then there was also Pin Mountain (a mountain made of pins and needles with the points upward), on which scores of women were suffering and streams of blood were flowing. These were women who had not been as careful in this world as they ought in the use of pins. Such is the pessimism of the old religion as popularly believed. What a contrast between these and Christian ideals! Not that the hell of the Bible is described in any less terrible words and figures, but through the Gospel this present life has become worth living, and our heaven is unspeakably more lovely and worth gaining, and if! accessible not only to priests and their kind, but to all who trust in Christ for salvation.
Christianity has given to Japan an ideal for home life, such as had never been known in this land before-a Christian home. Not that it has changed all or even a very large per cent of Japanese homes as yet. Quite the contrary; but the model is here, criticised by the unthinking few, but admired and desired by the intelligent many. The ideal Christian marriage, the foundation of the Christian home, is based on individual freedom, mutual acquaintauceship, union of hearts in reciprocal love, and respect for mutual rights and obligations. The custom of Japan is that partners for life, or rather for a while, are selected by a "go-between." I say" for a while" advisedly, as one third of the marriage contracts are broken by divorce, to say nothing of other kinds of unfaithfulness. In Christian America, sad to sa], the proportions of divorces to marriages are one to sixteen; but here they are one to three. Christ allows but one reason for divorce-adultery-and that to both man and woman. Confucius, the Chinese sage, after whose ideas the Japanese laws, customs, and practices on this subject are modelled, allows man, and him only, seven grounds for divorce-disobedience, barrenness, lewd conduct, jealousy, leprosy or any other foul and incurable disease, too much talki.ng, and thievishness. Christianity is justified, therefore, in setting up her ideal for Japan's imitation, and it is to the credit of this country that she is accepting the best. Christianity has also set a stake to concubinage, which was introduced into Japan while Confucianism was regnant.
The social status of woman is much improved, and her rights are being recognized more and more by "the lords of creation," by the law, and in the courts. They are, moreover, being admitted to superior educational advantages in the various government and mission girls' schools, and are winning their way to eminence in literature and art, music, poetry, painting, and other vocations. Formerly woman was regarded as so much inferior to man, that by the teachings of Japanese Buddhism she was denied entrance to the higher joys of the future world. Christianity knows no such distinctions, and the work of woman's emancipation in Japan has at least been well begun.
Even for her general educational system and progress Japan is in no small degree indebted to Christianity. Early education was in the hands of Buddhist priests, and the studies were the Slltras. Three centnries ago Confucianism came into power with the rise of the Shogunate, and from that time on, the Confucian and Chinese classics were learned by heart, and instruction was imparted in the national history and literature. Meagre as it was, and excluding women as it did, with the revolution of 1868 the old system of education fell with the Shogunate, and an entirely new start was made. Americans, notably missionaries and mission schools, exerted a strong moulding influence upon the trend of the new Japanese education in its early days. Rev. Dr. Verbeck was the organizer and for some years the head of what is now the Imperial University at Tokyo. He was also for a long time educational adviser to the· government, and thus in a position to exert an influence for immeasurable good in behalf of Japan. The common school system of Japan was modelled after that of America. Dr. McCartee, now over fifty years a missionary in Japan and China, was also a professor in the university for some years.
Nor should the names of Griffis, Janes, President Clark, and others be forgotten in connection with the establishment of the new educational system, all of whom exerted a strong Christian influence and gave it direction and momentum. Should anyone think that Christian ideas have not yet sufficiently penetrated Japan's education, let him ponder what Professor Chamberlain, of the Imperial University, says of this people's original condition: "What is the situation g The nations of the West have, broadly speaking, a common past, a common fund of ideas, from which everything they have and are springs naturally, as a part of a correlated whole-one Roman Empire in the background, one Christian religion at the centre, one gradual emancipation, first from feudalism and next from absolutism, worked out or now in process of being worked out together, one art, one music, one kind of idiom, even though the words expressing it vary from land to land. "Japan stands beyond this pale, because her past has been lived through under conditions altogether different. China is her Greece and Rome. Her language is not Aryan, as even Russia's is. Allusions familiar from one end of Christendom to the other require a whole chapter of com- mentary to make them at all intelligible to a Japanese student, who often has not, even then, any words corresponding to those which it is sought to translate." All this and much more is fact, and in view. of this it may with truth be said that in the educational line a work of magnificent pro- portions has already been accomplished j and through mission schools and other agencies, Christianity is still exerting a widely felt and lasting influ- ence for the highest good, educationally, of the nation.
Under the Tokugawa regime more than five persons were not allowed for any purpose to club together under penalty of law. Associations and societies for mutual aid or for the common weal were impossible. The hand of God was in its overthrow, and since then Christianity has come in and originated a varied and organized charity in Japan, as it does wherever it goes. Orphanages and homes for the needy poor have been established and are receiving constant support, and their number is increasing. The Roman Catholics alone report 17 with 1772 children j then they have a hospital for lepers with 86 inmates, and another for the aged. Protestant missions have 3 hospitals with 760 in-patients treated during the past year. Then there is the Sanitary Society with over 6000 members, the Red Cross Society, under immediate patronage of the Empress, both of them Christian in spirit and purpose; but besides these there are a number of other hospitals, orphanages, relief societies and charitable organizations springing up throughout the land, the legitimate fruit of Christianity and its civilization.
Absolutism, moreover, has had to give way to a constitutional form of government which pledges itself to respect the rights of the governed and promises religious liberty to Japanese subjects, if that liberty be not set aside by the government's interpretation of the twenty-eighth article of the constitution. That reads: "Japanese subjects shall, within limits not prejudicial to peace or order, and not a:ntagonistic to their duties as subjects, enjoy freedom of religious belief." It will be seen, by a careful reading of the article, that there is still considerable room for absolutism to curtail the religious liberty of Japanese subjects by acts of tyranny on the part of heads of departments of government and other officials. In point of fact this tyranny has been, and still is being exercised against Christian soldiers, school-teachers, scholars, and others, and the question may well be asked, " Is Japan dealing fairly g"
And yet the promulgation of the constitution and the institution of a representative legislative assembly, both of which, let it be remembered, are in their origin distinctively Christian, was a magnificent step upward. True, the one is not absolutely perfect, nor the other working t~o smoothly; but that is only repeating the history of representative governmente! in Western lands. Continental European history furnishes ample proof of this.
In this same line other and important reforms, all for the amelioration of the condition of the people, and for their elevation and civilization, have been inaugurated. Local self-government has also been established. The social disabilities of the pariah class, or eta, have been removed, a law passed against nudity in cities, the samurai have been forbidden to wear their barbarous sword, the burden of land-tax lightened by one half per cent, new and more civilized, and it may justly be said Christianized, laws and courts established for the whole country. And all this within a little more than a quarter of a century. Now, many of these are unquestionably permanent Christian institutions, and will remain comparatively unaffected by the ebb and flow of pro or anti-Occidental sentiment. Thus the foundation of a new nation has been laid deep and strong, and it now remains to continue the building.
When the present treaty ports were opened trade was at a very low ebb. Long ages of aristocratic feudalism, with its vexatious and ruinous restrictions, had dwarfed trade, and put it into the hands of a class of traders utterly unsuited to produce a national commercial prosperity. They were of low caste, but of a commercial morality still lower, " tricky rather than clever," and "the largest dealer did not consider it a breach of moral obligation to break a contract which went against his interests even in a trifling sum." The standard of business morality has, however, been greatly improved since their contact with the better business methods and morals of foreigners; and there still is room for improvement ad infinitum.
Commerce rests on intelligence and mutual confidence, on character for honesty and truthfulness. Native businessmen recognize this, and are seeking to establish these. Christianity promotes these. Thus domestic trade has been resurrected, so to speak, and since the opening of the country to Western nations, Japan's domestic and foreign trade has marvellously developed. In 1879 its foreign trade was estimated at only $66,000,000 ; ten years later it had more than doubled, being $136,000,- 000 in 1889 ; and since then it has largely increased, the Trade Report for the past half year indicating a foreign trade of over $210,000,000 annually. About 70 per cent of this is with distant Christian America and England, while her near heathen neighbor, China, had only 11 per cent of the above. These figures and proportions cannot be altogether without significance. Without speaking of the numerous and important industries which have arisen within the last two decades, and without entering the subject farther, it is evident that Christianity has made work and honest trade honorable as well as in many respects profitable in this land.
These are some of the indications that Christianity, in its widest sensQ, iii by no means without influence in this land. Christianity has given
THE OPEN DOOR OF KOltEA. 6&1
Japa.n the highest po!!!!ible religiou!! and ethical ideals a.nd teaching!!, the basis for her highest possible intellectual, moral, and material development; and although internal forces were at work which would have brought about a revolution, even if outside influences had not come in, yet from former revolutions, as compared with this last, it is evident, that the impact of Christianity and its civilization has given to Japan such direction and momentum as have made the Japan we see to-day, and has opened a most brilliant and promising future for the nation. But infinitely more than all that, the Gospel has come and brought eternal life to the shores, the homes and the hearts of Japan, and still proposes to itself the great task of saving this land of the rising sun.
THE OPEN DOOR OF KOREA.
BY C. C. VINTON, M.D., SEOUL, KOREA.
A few remarks upon the advantages enjoyed by a missionary in Korea may be especially welcome just now to those who have been accustomed to think of Korea as the far-off Hermit Kingdom, yesterday guarded at every loophole against the intrusion of a single foreign idea, to-day brought miraculously in contact with the blessings of civilization through the good office of a recently transformed neighbor.
Ten years and some few months have passed since missionaries first gained a foothold in this exclusive land. In that time they have taken many steps toward an understanding of its people, customs, and institutions. One fact, early perceived, and more fully realized with fuller knowledge, is that this spirit of seclusion is not a characteristic of the people themselves, but is part of the subtle scheme by which China has held them for centuries in her toils. As the child shuns the garret because it has been told there are goblins there, so the confiding Korean has learned from generation to generation to dread contact with those outer barbarians whom his kind protector, the Chinaman, told him knew only guile. Once when, three hundred years ago, a horde of such barbarians actually gained an entrance and overran his land, he found it quite as the Chinaman had said. Now it is not my wish here to discuss the premises or to call in question the conclusion itself. I seek only to draw attention to the fact that the Korean, when left to himself, is not by any means an exclusive individual, as his Chinese neighbor s~ems naturally to be; that his dislike of foreigners is based really upon ignorance, and that whatever grounds have been thought to exist for the opposite view may be readily explained by his failure to understand the foreigner and the foreigner's failure to understand him.
Simple and childlike in all but the mark of sin the Evil One has stamped upon him, the native Korean is ready to sit at the feet of whoever will instruct him. At China's feet he has sat thus long because she has con- strained him by force and persuaded him by arts. She has told him that her knowledge, her faith, and her customs arc all·sufficient, and all others false and bad; and he has believed her because he had no means of know- ing otherwise, except to let in the very evils against whose entrance she persistently warned him. So, when at last the foreigner really came with peaceful intent, there were no standards by which to judge him but those China had taught, and by these he proved lamentably deficient. How ignorant, how stupendously ignorant he was I He could not even read. For surely no civilized man would call that reading matter which was not expressed in those grand old Chinese characters, the only perfect language. How comical his dress I How undignified his gait I Both utterly unworthy the bearing of a man of breeding. How debasing his habit of performing tasks fit only for a servant! Witness his tennis-playing. Witness his gardening. Witness the personal dressing of wounds by the foreign surgeon. And, then, how violent the language he used over small things! So often petUlant or even positively angry merely because the horses he had hired for to-day have since been let out to another. And withal how impious! Since evidence can be found neither of reverence for his ancestors, nor for the spirits of his abIding-place, nor for any tangible god. How wanting in good manners, in good looks, in good taste I How incomprehensible in everyone of his traits! Altogether how contemptible a barbarian !
From the Korean stan point, yes. Quite as much as the Korean from ours. How much, there: .re, of mutual concession and adaptation was needful before any common ground of appreciation and sympathy could be reached.
But, as was said, steps have been taken-and not alone upon one side. In these more recent years the missionary has come to be able in some degree to put himself in the place of his neighbor. He understands somewhat better the modes of thought, the ambitions, the various pursuits and employments, the family life, and the superstitions of those around him. If be has not come to feel as they do, he can at least appreciate in many respects their feelings; and, on the other hand, they, if they do not appreciate his, have lost no small measure of their distrust for him. They have gotten to understand how large a measure of humanity is common to mankind, and so have joined in seeking a possible plane of mutual intercourse.
It is due, perhaps, to this gradually changing attitude most of all, that the door has been opened so widely of late to admit the Christian preacher. That such is the case no one doubts who' is cognizant of the facts. The missionaries' ability to present the Gospel acceptably and the native's willingness to receive it have increased manyfold within a few years. Of casual hearers to-day, a larger proportion manifest an interest in sacred trutbs than formerly. Of those in whom a first interest has been awakened, more prove to b~ sincere inquirers. From among inquirers, an increasing number seek admittance to the church. Such a stage exists in the prog- ress of any field toward Christianization. It might be called the stage of mutual confidence. The missionary has learned the character of his hearers and knows how best to direct his shafts. The native has learned the character of his teacher and puts confidence in his sincerity and wisdom.
Korea's door was from the outset said to stand wide open; and it did. From the day when Dr. Allen first opened that door at the point of his lancet, the missionary has gone frcely in and out. He has been forbidden to preach publicly, never privately. He has conducted educational enter- prises, in government employ as well as under the home board. He has freely treated and conversed with patients of high and of low degree alike. He has enjoyed perfect freedom of travel and of quiet intercourse with the people. Many in official circles have listened to the explanation of Chris- tian truth, as well as those of lesser degree ; and many of the people heard gladly, and praised the doctrine, and made little objection and-failed to believe. It was as the seed that fell upon stony places. The door was indeed open, but few regarded him that entered.
The door may be no wider open to-day, but they that are within give better heed. The formal prohibition of public preaching is not removed, but it has long become a dead letter, so that foreign missionaries and . native evangelists discourse freely to few or many by the roadside, in the hostelry, or in established chapels. The schools now number their pupils by scores instead of by singles, and hours of Bible study replace those formerly given of necessity to heathen classics. Patients refuse less often the surgeon's knife, recognizing that Ilis dependence is on God. Where preaching before was barren, inquirers are wont to appear. Scattered liter- ature begins to fructuate in readers seeking further light. A better soil has been reached. Korea not only admits, but welcomes.
This change had been gradually coming about during a period of sev- eral years, when last summer the war cloud burst over Korea. No wonder the poor little nation lost its wits. With impetuous onrush the dreaded Japanese swept over the land, hurling before them the forces of her ancient protector and destroying the illusions of a thousand years. The subsequent political changes, if not many in fact, are significant. A new era has dawned,-the Kaiwha-the era of reform. The former cabinet of Chinese sympathizers has been replaced by one of Japanese proclivities. Europeanized dress, coinage, and police are being introduced. A printed newspaper is issued every two days, and has a fair native circulation. A newly established Department of Education contemplates the inculcation of modern knowledge. Railroads are planned, and a train is in actual oper- ation from Pyeng Yang to the river mouth. At the palace and in all the public offices Sunday is observed as a day of rest. Honest men are being sought to take the responsible office of magistrate in country districts.
The suggestion for these reforms originates with the conqueror. They were upheld at the outset by the strong arm of a military occupation; but they are not repugnant in the main to the nation. They meet with the hearty favor of the Iring, who is really a beneficent sovereign, and who never held with the Chinese party to whom he was obliged to bend. Many of the higher government posts are filled by young men of noble Korean blood who have lived abroad, in several instances for more than a decade. Having experienced the blessings of enlightened government, they have returned to become the standard-bearers of social reform in their native land. Shopkeepers, farmers, and the other substantial classes hail the prospect of an honest collection of taxes and an honest expenditure of government funds. Gradually throughout the first few months of its propagation the Kaiwha has accumulated prestige, until now public opinion is almost unified in its favor. Foreign ideas, foreign dress, foreign implements, foreign laws, foreign observances, foreign learning are everywhere being spoken of as good, the ancient customs of the past as foolish and unprofitable. Rumors of expected fresh innovations fill the air, not only at the seat of government, but in far-off country precincts; and such rumors elicit oftener the approval than the objections of their hearers.
With these social and political changes the new era brings also a changed attitude on the part of the government toward Christianity. Of the new cabinet and their immediate supporters several are professed Christians, members of churches in the foreign cities where they have lived. Many others have experienced the benefits of religious freedom. Both king and queen have heard during the past winter, and willingly, from medical missionaries in attendance upon them, something of the truths of salvation. Officials in high position request, read, and discuss copies of the New Testament and other religious books. In such an atmosphere the law of death to those who profess Christianity is forgotten, and such persecutions as that of the previous spring at Pyeng Yang become impossible.
This interest in Christianity in high qua_ters may be taken as an evidence of that on lower social planes. This spring, as never before, the people flock to hear the preaching of the Gospel. Chapels are crowded. The throng surround windows and doors to the full radius of the speaker's voice. Street preachers draw larger groups than ever before. Hearers at dispensaries give closer attention than nsual. In country districts a. wider circle and a higher social stratum are reached. Men who have hitherto disdained the missionary now seek his attention, and this not by ones and twos, but everywhere in numbers. Men who have lived in open sin come confessing, repenting, and taking up the cross. As an inevitable consequence of this growing interest, sessions and examining bodies find their work growing burdensome. At every communion season there are numerous admissions. Nearly every Sabbath some baptism occurs. The lists of catechumens are full to overflowing. With all due caution as to seriousness and permanency of impression, this steady increase continues.
To the missionary, looking backward, then forward, it s~ems that an era. of unlimited Christian exteneion hae come on Korea, that very period for which he has been longing and praying, for which so many prayers were offered during the month-long visit among us last winter of the saintly Bishop Ninde. Vistas of rapid church growth, of multitudinous con"versions, rise before him, of speedy extension into every province and magistracy and larger town. What is God's wiII? The Christian community in Korea waits to learn it-waits not, but presses onward to preach at His bidding and to see what great things He will do.
The nation is in expectation. They look for the changing of all that is past. They are not more wedded to their old religious ideas than to those of daily social observance. The nation nevcr had a religion-only a superstition. With scholars it is the following of the precepts of Confucius j with the common people the propitiation of local spirits. Shall ever a more favorable season occur for the wide uprooting of these beliefs and the presentation of Christian truth?
What is to hinder? Chiefly the lack of workers. There is already more laid upon those in the field than they are equal for. Enquirers at every hand, new avenues daily opening, country districts one after another giving the invitation to come and preach, here a group of newly born converts in need of careful nurturing, there a slightly stronger community building themselves a church and calling for the meat of the "VOl·d-this is all as we would have it j but the hands that are ready and willing to work are weary, and drop powerless with its magnitude.
Such a crisis in religious things as passed over Japan two decades ago is to-day passing over Korea-a time when work counts double, when the first harvest is ripe and calls for garnering, when the land may be rapidly won or slowly lost-the land spoken of as a whole, as we speak of the Christian nations. As in Japan, through fewness of laborers, are opportunities and advantages to be lost? Or shall the force be so increased and so speedily that Korea shall be won while yet a fair and unbroken jewel for Christ?
The open door does not fail to be seen by those who have lately been pushing it farther open. The Christian churches of Japan have not been slow in organizing to send missionaries across the straits that separate them from Korea. Their coming is looked for and longed for by those already in the field. May Japan crown her labors by proving not only the civilizing, but the Christianizing power of the far East. From her shores yet another body of propagandists have bp,en still qnicker to embark, and are spreading their cult with a zeal not heaven-born. Throughout the southern provinces, under the guidance of a horde of Japanese monks, the revival of Buddhism progresses with a rapidity which indicates a ready acceptance for higher forms of faith. Christian missionaries do not dread them. It is not for their teachings that the heart of the sinner hungers. They preach a dying faith, and its revival can never infuse real vitality. Would that God might see fit to rouse His people to come hither and labor 8S these are doing.
THE MISSIONARY WORK OF THE LORD JESUS. [September _
THE MISSIONARY WORK OF THE LORD JESUS.* A PLEA FOR MEDICAL MISSIONS.
BY W. P. MEARS, M.A., M.D.
As in spiritual, moral, and social life, so also in mission work the Lord Jesus Christ is set forth in Holy Scripture as the Great Example to be followed.
Thus in regard to mission work He says: "As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you." "As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I sent them into the world" (John 20 : 21 j 17 : 18).
In undertaking mission work, therefore, especially to the heathen, it is of first importance to inquire in what way the Lord Jesus carried out the mission on which He was sent, so far as concerned His work as a Man among men.
Limiting the inquiry to the Gospel of St. Matthew, the description of the first missionary journey (Matt. 4) is utilized for the illustration, by various typical examples, of the method Jesus employed in carrying on His mission work, just as the journey itself was used for the preliminary instruction of His disciples.
The Method of Work is set out first in summary. "Jesus went about all Galilee (a) TEACHING in their synagogues, and (b) PREACHING the Gos- pel of the kingdom, and (c) HEALING all manner of sickness and all manner of disease, . . . and they brought unto Him all sick people, that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and (a) those which were possessed with devils, and (f3) those which were lunatic, and (y) those that had the palsy: and He healed them." . Not only are three modes of work mentioned-viz., preaching, teaching, and healing-but also three distinct varieties of healing j for of the" divers diseases and torments" there were three groups-viz. (a) that consisting in the possession by the devil of the soul as well as of the physical organism j (f3) that comprising disorders of the mind; and (y) that constituted by diseases of the body.
The method of work is then described in detail: (a) As to Teaching.-He taught His disciples, in chapter 5, first, what manner of spirit they must have, since "theirs is the kingdom of heaven j" secondly, what kind of work they must do that others might see their" good works," and glorify their Father in heaven j and that they themselves, as children of Him who does good to all alike, might be perfect even as He is perfect. Thirdly, in chapter 6 He taught them that -whether for spirit or for body, for life toward God or life toward man- * This paper is but exteuded extracts from what is perhaps the most superb appeal for med- ical missions to be found in the literature of the subject, and which originally appeared in the (Jhurch Missionary Intelligencer, September and December, 1894. With great reluctance we have been compelled to abridge it, feeling that abridgment approaches mutilation. But we hope our readers may be led to send to Salisbury Square for a copy of the entire addrcRs.-A. T. P. implicit faith in their Heavenly Father for every detail was essential (verses 1-34).
(b) As to Preaehing.-In chapter 7 Jesus turned rather to the mul- titude, for we are told" the people were astonished at His teaching." In so doing He changed the character of His address somewhat, preaching rather than teaching. First, He reproved, invited, and encouraged His hearers (v~rses 1-11). Secondly, He drew from all that He had said the practical application: "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets." Thirdly, He appealed to the people to accept His message- proved true, as it was, by its fruits of good works of love and mercy- and to " beware of false prophets," whose message was in human words and not in God-like deeds. Lastly, He closed with a terrible warning as to the inevitable fate of those who might hear His words, but not do His works.
Through both teaching and preaching the same dominant theme runs -loving faith toward God issuing in loving work toward man.
(c) As to Healing.-While the summary statement indicates how broad is the meaning of the words "all manner of sickness and all manner of disease" (4 : 23), the detailed examples in chapter 8 show how wide is the sense of the expression" all sick people" (4 : 24).
These examples are four in number, and cover all classes of men-viz. : The unclean by the Law physically-a Jew, a leper j the unclean by the Law ceremonially-a Gentile, the centurion's servant j the follower of Christ-Peter's wife's mother; the possessed of the devil-many of the people. * " He healed all that were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, ' Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses' " (8 : 17).· It was part of the mission of Jesus to share in all the troubles of every man, and to save every man altogether, body and soul, in or from all. So He healed all who came of all sickness, not merely or only as a sign of His M:essiahship, nor merely to draw people to Him, but rather as an integral and essential part of His mission (11 : 5). Jesus identified Himself with those with whom He came into relation, putting Himself in their place, coming down to their level, and drawing them to Him by His deep sympathy with their seemingly small troubles (e.g., in the cases of Bartimoous, the Syro-Phcenician woman, and the hungry.multitude). Does it not seem as if the Holy Spirit at the very outset laid special emphasis on the practical side of the mission of Jesus for the salvation of the whole man-body and soul? Dare we overlook such an Example, so emphasized in a record inspired by God Himself ?
The result of all was that the multitudes so pressed on Jesus that He * Dr. Mears might have added that these four ailments were manifestly typical: Leprosy, of the guilt ohin ; palsy, of the impotence of sin ; fever, of its inflamed lusts; and demoniacal possession, of diabolical control.-EDITOR. was obliged tu go away across the lake. Meanwhile, on the part of the Pharisees and others, jealousy and opposition were steadily on the increase.
Then came the first apparent check. The cure of a demoniac coupled with the judgment of sin (in the case of ihe keepers of the swine) resulted in a request from the people that He "would depart out of their coasts." So ended the first missionary journey.
In His own district He encountered a second apparent check, not for healing the sick and judging sin, as in the last case, but for healing the sick and forgiving sin, in the case of a palsied man. This event, as a lesson to His disciples, preparatory to a more extended missionary journey, gave the key to the view taken by Jesus of His work. Sickness no less than sin was one of those works of the devil which He had come to destroy.
Thus, in the first place, He spoke of an infirm woman as one" whom Satan hath bound." So, too, Peter described Him as " healing all that were oppressed of the devil." So Paul spoke of his own bodily afHiction as " the messenger of Satan;" so in Hebrews it is said, " Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also • • . took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death-that is, the devil-and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."
In the second place, Jesus here based His action on an argument which, as a syllogism, stands thus: The cure of sickness and the forgiveness of sins are equally the pre- rogative of God; I heal sickness without usurping that prerogative (i.e., committing blasphemy); therefore I forgive sins without blasphemy.
Or, the cure of sickness and the forgiveness of sins are identical in nature; I heal sickness; therefore I can forgive sins.
In a similar way, in the cure of a demoniac, Jesus argued: By the finger of God (or Spirit of God) only can cure be wrought; I cure; therefore I cure by the finger of God (or Spirit of God).
No man, as a mere man, can make the statement in the minor premiss of either apgument. Just as no mere man can forgive sins, so no mere man can cure or heal. A farmer merely sows the seed, but God gives the increase; a doctor merely gives treatment, it is God who cures. A medi- cal man, going in the power of God among the heathen, and showing the practical mercy and love of the Master, would, if but wholly filled with the Spirit, undoubtedly come very near to a modern representative of Jesus as He appeared to the men among whom He lived. • After the record of the two checks, there follow examples of teaching in a centre of opposition-to opponents and questioners-arising out of the preceding cure. Immediately after that cure Jesus, making His healing power a text for His preaching, used a further application of the same argument to confute the objectlOn of the Pharisees that He associated with sinners, and said in effect: "I came not to heal the whole but the sick, the sick in body and the sick in soul, sinners and not righteous men." Then come examples of healing in a centre of opposition. There in His own district He could not openly work because of the unbelief of the people. To the wilfully blind there was no revelation, to the voluntary unbeliever no sign. Still He refused none who came to Him. Hence it happened that in such a district He helped those who needed His help secretly or under pledge of secrecy.
Thus He raised to life the daughter of J aims, one of the class most opposed to Him (the people being excluded) ; He healed the woman with an issue (no one seeing) ; He cured two blind men (" in the house," so that" no man might know it") ; He drove out a devil (presumably in His own home).
Starting again on a second missionary journey, Jesus at first worked alone, "teaching • . • and preaching. . . and healing every sick- ness, . . . "as on His first journey. Healing was part of His work in private as well as in public. So heavy was the work and so great His compassion for the people, that after prayer He appointed the twelve to assist Him.
In this and six other places Jesus is spoken of as being" moved with compassion;" and in every case the objects were persons suffering from some 'purely temporal trouble. In sending out" laborers" He gave them power, while preaching, to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. The arrival of the kingdom was to be shown by the good done by the messengers. The other passages are as follows: The trouble of Bartimreus and his companion; the sorrow of the widow of Nain ; the need of the hungry multitude; the sickness of the multitude and the sickness of the leper; the adversity of the demoniac of Gadara.
Next come the names of the apostles, and then the terms of the commission -viz., " Go . • . preach . •. heal."
Jesus then" departed thence to teach and to preach," and soon came first into contact with the truly good, and then into more violent conflict with the bad. '
First He referred John the Baptist for proof of His Messiahship to His good deeds coupled with His good message, associating together as one heal- ing and preaching. He referred the people, as He had referred John, to His works, saying, "The works which the Father hath given Me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of Me that the Father hath sent Me." Jesus did not in His public work lay weight on His fulfilment of prophecies concerning Himself, nor on the testimony of John the Baptist, but rather on the fact that His works of mercy, humanity, and healing were proofs that He was come from God the Father, and that His message of love and good-will was God-given.
He condemned the cities of Galilee, not for refusing to believe His words, but for refusing, in face of His works, to accept Him as the Mes- senger and Representative of God.
Rapidly the opposition grew. In contending with the Pharisees Jesus first argued that ., mercy is more than sacrifice," and that the satisfaction of even the temporal real need of man must take precedence of the ceremoniallaw, and even of the law of the Sabbath; that the greater law of whole-souled love to God, and of beneficent and philanthropic love to men, fulfilled all the canon of tbe law of Moses.
Jesus next illustrated this by the healing of a man with a withered hand. Nor did He lay the least stress on the miraculous power shown, but compared the bealing of the man simply to the lifting of a sheep out of a pit-to a deed of mercy which, being in man's power to do, ought therefore to be done. In a still more striking case-an infirm woman bent together-Jesus put this view forward very emphatically, saying in effect, " If it would be considered cruel and unmerciful to keep an ox tied up from the watering, would it not be far m01'e cruel, even inhuman, to rifuse to loose this woman, it being in one' 8 power to do so ? OUGHT not; the woman -if only as a deed of common humanity, how much more of God-like love-to be loosed eVen on the Sabbath day?" These passages give us not only the strongest indirect command, but the strongest logical argument for rendering benevolent, and especially medical help to all who need it.
In a rage the Pharisees went out to plot against Him, while He went out to continue His work of mercy among the" great multitudes" who were following Him, for " He healed them all."
The opponents of Jesus seized the occasion of His next recorded deed of healing-of a demoniac-as a pretext for ascribing His good works of mercy and love to the devil. Once more Jesus endeavored to show them how the devil is a destroyer and not a healer. Following up His withdrawal from open teaching and open works, He afterward spoke openly to His disciples only, but taught the people in parahles, because they would not see that He was the Healer not only of the body, but also of the soul, lest they "should be converted and He should heal them." So under a darkening cloud of conspiracy abroad and scandal at home, He brought His second missionary journey to a close in " His own country." It will be noticed that the works of Jesus produced three effects : (a) The people were attracted, andglorified God for what was done. (b) The religious leaders of the people were filled with malice. (c) The governors of the nation were undisturbed, or were rendered tolerantly curious. In His third missionary journey, immediately after the rejection and murder of His great forerunner, Jesus carried out His intention of withdrawal from open teaching and healing, and so ., departed into a desert place apart j" but, followed by the crowd, "was moved with compassion toward them, and He healed their sick," even in His retirement carrying on His work of benevolent love. To get clear of the people and to secure freedom from observation, Jesus dismissed the multitude, sent His disciples over the lake, and followed them Himself. Landing northwest of the lake, still bent on withdrawal, He went toward Phamicia, but was hindered in His progress by His work of healing. As soon as the. inhabitants heard of His landing, "they sent out into all that country round about, and brought unto Him all that were diseased, and besought Him" to heal them. What exact and literal repetitions of this scene occur in the experience of every medical missionary ! It is because Christians, as a rule, pass their lives in Christian lands, and are so accustomed to regard as entirely distinct the organizations for spiritual work and those for so-called philanthropic work, that philanthropy has ceased to be a distinctive sign of Christianity, and that Christians fail to realize the urgency and paramount importance of the close association of Gospel preaching and philanthropic labor, which is the most striking characteristic of the work as missionaries of our Lord and of His apostles; which, too, in the present day is proving to be the great lever by which alone, apparently, the fanaticism of the Mohammedan belt of Central Asia from Turkey to Thibet, and the utterly dead indifferentism of the small world of China, can to any very visible extent be moved.
Jesus passed beyond the Jewish pale and reached" the coasts of Tyre and Sidon," Himself the first to carry the universal Gospel to the Gentiles, by recognizing the faith of the Syro-Phamician woman, and by healing her daughter (15 : 22-28).
Passing thence, to avoid publicity He "went up into a mountain and sat down there." As before, He could not be hid. "Great multitudes came unto Him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet, and He healed them," so that the people " glorified the God of IsraeL" So with the medical missionary of to-day. The sick are brought to him from all parts, and are literally cast down at his feet for him to cure, with the result in many cases. that the patients and their friends have been led to glorify the God who has put such love in the hearts of men, and has given them such means for the carrying of it into effect. All the power to heal, all the medical and surgical knowledge we have, is given directly by God for the use of men through men. Are Christians like their Master when they keep to themselves gifts such as these through which their lives have been so benefited-gifts which the Master used so liberally for all, Gentile and Jew, saint and sinner alike?
Here, as if to drive this lesson right home, Jesus suddenly called His disciples to Him, and said: "I have compassion on the multitude." For what great cause? For nothing more than so ordinary a trouble as a temporary want offood. If so small a bodily want excited the compassion of Jesus, and led to so markedly delibemte an exhibition of it, how can His Church of to-day neglect the great inarticulate wail which hourly rises to heaven from half the population of the whole ,globe, as they vainly cry out in their sickness and miser,!!, theil' helplessness and hopelessness? If help for them does not come from the Church, whence can it come? These signs were quite insufficient for the religious leaders of the people, who wished for Rigns of power rather than of love. So once more refusing any further sign than His Resurrection, "He left them and departed. "
After coming back to His daily life, Jesus, in response to an appeal for mercy and help, incidentally healed the lunatic whom His disciples had failed to cure. On them His Spirit had not yet wholly fallen. So He showed them that to work as He did they needed the qualifications of the successful missionary-aggressive faith j prayer and self-denial (fasting) j self-sacrifice and daily surrender with reference to what He had just previously told them j and confiding trust as children of the King, in their Father in heaven (17 : 20-27).
Steadfastly setting His face for His great trial, Jesus left Galilee and came into Judrea, and healed the great multitudes which followed Him.
When He left Jericho for Jerusalem, with a heart as full as ever of pity for the troubles of men, whether of soul or body, seeing and hearing blind Bartimreus and his companion, He " had compassion on them" and healed them.
Arriving in Jerusalem, there in His Father's house, where He first went about His Father's business, He finished the mi~sionary work which His Father had given Him to do. And how did He finish it 1 "The blind and the lame came to Him in the Temple, and He healed them.' I So ends in this Gospel the record of the missionary work of Jesus among the people.
In an epilogue, as it were, in speaking of the final judgment, the Lord Jesus sets forth that only those shall enter into the kingdom of heaven who have shown that in this present life they have followed in the footsteps of the Master, who" went about doing good" -who in simple faith and for His sake have fed the hungry, given drink to the thirsty, provided for the solitary, clothed the destitute, cared for the sick, and visited those in any bondage.
Christians are in this world as their Master was in this world. It is by seeing their good works-as once they saw those of Jesus-that men are to be led to glorify the Father. As to what those works are, they are an indissoluble combination of verbal testimony to Jesus with such practical work as is to-day only just beginning to receive recognition by Christians generally-the work, namely, of a typical medical missionary. Can this combination be separated without direct challenge of the method of J esns ~ Is it not tautology to talk of missions and medical missions 1 Are those not the same if they resemble those of Jesus and His apostles and disciples 1 It is true that the work of preaching and the work of healing must be generally in different hands. Is not the one kind of work, however, the necessary complement and supplement of the other 1 Are they not the two sides of the same thing-the human and Divine sides of the gospel of goodwill ~ Joined, then, as these are by God, can they be put aiunder by any man without detriment to the work of God ~ II. Possibly it may be thought that the WORK OF THE APOSTLES after the bestowal of the Pentecostal gifts took a special departure in the direc- tion, chiefly, of two of the three methods of work described in the Gospels -viz., those of preaching and teaching; leaving that of healing to occupy a very secondary and temporary position.
A special study, therefore, of the missionary work of the apostles, as recorded in the Acts and as illustrated in the Epistles, becomes of impor- tance, whether as showing the continuity or otherwise of the indirect work of the Lord when He was "working with" the apostles, through His Spirit, with His direct work, while He " went in and out among" them in the flesh; whether as indicating the exactness or otherwise with which the apostles strove to imitate His example in the carrying out of that work.
In one respect the apostles had to commence and carryon their missionary work under conditions different from those obtaining in missionary effort of the present day: 1. They should be ready to carry the Gospel at once into all quarters and to varions nations; 2. They shonld have power to force home its teaching on men's hearts and consciences and to defend its doctrine against the evil ingenuity of men's minds; 3. They shonld be able, in their practice, to recommend its message of mercy by deeds of mercy.
The apostles and their co-workers and immediate snccessors, therefore, were endowed with special" gifts" for these various ends; and for only so long as they were needed until (a) the Church was firmly planted in the various great centres of the world, and (b) placed under the immediate charge of native presbyters and deacons, in whose hands were written narratives of the life of our Lord and epistolary doctrinal instructions from His apostles.
The special gifts were: 1. Of "divers kinds of tongues" and of "interpretation (understanding) of tongues;" 2. Of " the word of wisdom" (prophecy) and of "the word of knowledge" (teaching) ; 3. Of " the working of miracles" and of "gifts of healing. " None of these gifts are specially given now, because no longer necessary. The missionary of to-day has every means of instrqction at his disposal. As to the first, he can obtain a full Bible in every principal language, with grammars and dictionaries and scholars to aid him; and, as to the second, he can stndy it in the light of its own completeness, and of the teaching of a long line of commentators. Thus, by God's help, he can go out fully equipped as a preacher. Ro, too, as to the third, he can learn to wield a power of healing which would have seemed to be an actual" working of miracles" to the people among whom the apostles moved-as it does seem still to be to the heathen of to-day-and can go out fully equipped as a healer. Special gifts are no longer necessary, not only because the Church is firmly established in the world, but also because its members have (so-called) natural means at their disposal, wholly unattainable in the days of the aJlostles. There is no record of the performance of miracles where " na~- ural" means were available. But though special gifts are not now given in the same openly manifest way, the same Power, who gave them, works in the members of the Church still, and for the same ends, and the same spirit which pervaded the work and teaching of the apostles 8hould pervade their teaching and their work. As there is no longer a special gift for the healer, so there are no longer special gifts for the preacher, the teacher, 0]' the evangelist. If it be said that healing as a part of missionary work should not be employed, because there is not now a special gift of healing, will it not follow that teaching and preaching should cease also, since for these equally with healing there are not now special gifts? Preaching and healing constitute the Divine and human sides of the one Gospel message-a message which promises an "adoption, to wit, th~ redemption of our body" following on the reception of "the Spirit of adoption, whereby" our spirit is led to " cry, Abba, Father."
If the passages in the Book of the Acts are taken seriatim in which the work of the various apostles as missionaries is described, their work, as such, will be found to be a direct continuation of the work of the Master.
The apostles glorified Jesus, whose work they were continuing, and made healing of the body a proof of the truth of their message of healing for the soul. This proof they more particularly emphasized before the Sanhcdrim, who "beholding the man which was healed standing with them could say nothing against it." In the first and only recorded general prayer of the Church, there were only two petitions: "Grant unto Thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak Thy word, by stretching forth Thine hand to heal." The answer came immediately, for" they spake the word of God with boldness," "and by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought, . . . insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, . . . (and) there came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem bringing sick folks, . . . and they were healed everyone." Is not this record identical with that of the work of Jesus-viz., a record of mercy and healing for all, everywhere, in body and soul?
Such work was not restricted to the apostles only. Stephen," full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people." The people "with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did, for . . • many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed. h Healing and good works seem to have been recognized and essential parts of the work of the missionary, whether he were an apostle, a deacon, or an evangelist, going hand in hand with the preaching of the Gospel, and preceding, accompanying, and following the delivery of its message.
Further on Peter found a man sick of the palsy and healed him, pointing to Jesus as the real Healer. Also he raised Dorcas. He called upon Gentiles to come to Jesus, as to One" anointed with the Holy Ghost, who went about doing g'ood and healing all, . . • for God was with Him. " The healing of the body was to Peter a direct work of God, given as a sign of God's love and pity; as a necessary part of His message of mercy, and as a proof of itR truth. That proof Jesus had elaborated when He showed that healing of the body and healing of the soul were possible to God alone, since the one act was the correlative of the other. The same argument, reversed, is therefore used by Paul when he says: "If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies." In other words, the giving of life to the soul is a proof that life will be given to the body. The argument holds good either way.
Like Jesus, the apostles cared for every bodily as well as every spiritual need. Saul and Barnabas took a long journey to carry" relief" to the poor brethren in Judrea; and in their journey spoke" boldly in the Lord, which . . . granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands. " An example of their method was given at Lystra in the cure of a cripple.
Then comes St. Paul's first recorded address to the heathen: "This man has been healed by God, who has not left Himself without witness, in that He does good, filling our hearts with food and gladness, and enabling us to do these works of mercy." This address is very like a medical missionary's text and sermon.
It is remarkable that. these "miracles and wonders that God had wrought among the heathen by them" formed the sale reply which Paul and Barnabas gave to the Jewish Church, when questioned as to their mission to the Gentiles. That God was willing that the Gentiles should be healed in body was a sufficient proof that He had opened the door of salvation to them.
In hIS second journey Paul cured a demoniac at Philippi. In his third journey" God wrought special miracles by his hands, so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them." Paul restored Eutychus; he did not wait until he had finished his address, but he went at once in the middle of his sermon. Just as his Master went on healing to the last, so also did he ; for in the last chapter of the Acts he is described as healing the father of the governor of Melita, and" others also which had diseases in the island. "
In the Acts the means and methods employed are only incidentally touched upon, but quite sufficient is said to show that the apostles continued to work precisely as their Master had done. They made deeds of benevolence by no mians a secondary matte1', but did them so commonly and so constantly as to show that they considered them an essential part of their Gospel work and message.
III. Turning to the Epistles, it must be remembered that they give instruction in the truth to believers, while the Gospels and the Acts record missionary work among unbelievers. Naturally, the doctrine taught is deeper and fuller in the former case than in the latter, but it is the same doctrine. If searched through, there will not be found a single exhortation to Christians generally to evangelize, or a single appeal to them on behalf of the heathen around. Are we therefore to conclude that missions are not in accordance with the teaching of the apostles? Certainly not. For the same reason it cannot be urged that healing or work of benevolence is no part of mission work, more especially since these are several times referred to in the Epistles. In the life of Jesus, in His repeated instructions to His disciples when He sent them out, and in the record of the Acts, the duties of missionaries are plainly and sufficiently indicated. In the Epistles, on the othcr hand, the main objects in view are the building up of believers in the faith, and the giving of directions for the government of the Church. Yet on the question of benevolent work the Epistles are very clear. The practice and example of Peter and of Paul have been already dwelt upon. What say the Epistles to the Hebrews, and those of James and John?
The Epistle to the Hebrews says: "Remember them (the apostles) that had the rule over you, which spake unto you the word of God; and considering the issue of their manner of life (marg.), imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to· day , yea, and for ever. . . . Through Him, then, let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which make cOllfessl:on to His n«me. But to do good, and to communicate, forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased" (R. V.). Here the sacrifice of praise in witnessing for God is coupled with a similar sacrifice of praise in doing good to men, the one work being to the writer, apparently, as important as the other for the pleasing of God.
James asks, " What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith and have not works g • • • If a brothel' or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food (or be sick or in any other temporal trouble), and one of you say unto them, ' Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled (or cured or relieved) ; , notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit .?" The question at the beginning is repeated at the cnd. The kind of works to be done is indicated intermediately, works obviously similar to those before described in the first chapter as an essential part of " pure religion." St. James also indicates that it is the duty of the presbyters to look after the sick, and to use what means they can use to cure them. In this last-mentioned passage, healing of the body is once more coupled with healing of the soul: " The Lord shall raise him (the sick man) up, and, if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."
John says: "Whoso hath this world's good (Gr. j3{o~, anything and everything which appertains to living), and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" What language could possibly be stronger? Having this world's good, if money, we must give to the needy; if power to aid, IlS by- lifting- another man's sheep out of a pit, we must give our help j if benefit of medicine for ourselves, we must share it with those who have it not. Otherwise," how dwelleth the love of God in" us ?
With these words before us, and with the example of the apostleseven were we without the record of the Master's life-we should be guilty if we did not regard benevolent, and especially medical work, as an essential and important part of mission work. How much more shall we be guilty with the Master's example-four times repeated-confronting us, and with His injunction upon us to love our neighbors as ourselves, to " go (as tp.e Good Samaritan went) and do likewise" for all others, no matter whom, whether friends or enemies, wherever and whenever we find anyone in any trouble, sickness, or need. In our primary and supreme anxiety for the soul's welfare we arc often, and quite naturally, apt to lose sight of one not nnimportant point in regard to this injunction which the parable of the Good Samaritan brings out. Our Lord did not say that those who passed by the injured man were, for example (and as we might have supposed), a Pharisee and a Sadducee, professors and self·appointed teachers of religion, and His own special opponents in doctrine and practice j but He implied that those who were guilty of neglect were a priest and a Levite, men specially set apart by God for religious work, men with whom Jesus is never reported to have come int~ collision, to whom, on the contrary, He, the Great Fulfiller of the Law, had shown all deferences, as in the instances of His cleansing of lepers. Why did Jesus select these men for unfavorable contrast? Did He not mean to imply that they were wrong in interpreting their position to be one in virtue of which, as special servants of God, they were to be so exclusively occupied with spiritual things as to be warranted in passing by merely temporal sickness and trouble as something to them" on the other side" of the way-the merely human side of the way of our life here-something which did not fall within their proper sphere of duty ~ Did He not mean to show that the cultivation of His spirit of practical benevolence and mercy and healing was specially incumbent upon them as ministers of the sanctuary j and that in the service" of the true Tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man"-in which He Himself is the Great Minister-the exercise of that spirit, for His sake, is of primary importance, and" a more excellent way" of service than the' striving for the best gifts, the exercise of the highest powers, or the making of the greatest sacrifices ~ Surely it. was with the teaching of this parable, and with the text upon which our Lord founded it, in his mind and heart, that St. Paul, in writing to the Galatians and through them to Christians of the present age, gave, as the final summing up of his long argument on legal bondage and Christian freedom, this one concluding sentence for Christian practice and life: "For all the Law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' "
TIlE BA.SIS A.ND RESULTS OF MEDICAL MISSIONS
THE BASIS AND RESULTS OF MEDICAL MISSIONS.
BY R. H. GRAVES.
Though all humanitarian work may meet with the Divine approval, .the Christian feels much better satisfied when he has a " Thus saith the Lord" as the basis of his action and a Divine command as the great motive to his work. In speaking of medical missions, I wish, therefore, in the first place, to speak of the place of healing in the Divine plan for the redemption of our race.
In creating man, God made him with a soul and a body, and these two have the most intimate relations with each other. Sin in its origin affected and still affects the soul through the body; and body as well as soul suffers from its penalties. In His thoughts of mercy to our race God pities the body as well as t1le soul of man. Both were created by God, both have felt the curse of sin, and both are to share in God's redemption. As the soul infinitely transcends the body in value and duration, of course this is the chief object of God's solicitude, and still the body is not beneath His notice or His care. In the ministry of the Christ on earth He healed the sick as well as preached the Gospel. His tender heart was touched with pity for the lame, the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the palsied, the maimed, and the leper. At the grave of Lazarus, while He wept tears of sympathy for the grief of the broken-hearted sisters, we are told that He was" indignant in Himself" as He thought of the havoc which death had made in the fair form of his friend Lazarus. He saw Satan's work in men's maimed bodies, as well as in their ruined souls, and "went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil," thns fulfilling His mission to " destroy the works of the devil."
So in sending forth His followers, the healing' of the body had a place in the thoughts of our Lord as well as the salvation of the sou1. And here let me notice a distinction which is not without significance in showing the place which medical missions should occupy in our scheme for the evangelization of the world. In sending forth the twelve who were His apostJ ~s, those to whom were specially entrusted the continuance of His work and the interests of His kingdom, He says: "As ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise tile dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons." Their great work was preaching; healing was subsidiary (Matt. 10 : 7, 8). In Luke 10 we have an account of His sending out the seventy. Here the commission is, " Cure the sick, and say to them, The kingdom of God is come nigh to you." Notice the healing of the sick occupies the first place, and the Gospel message is to be announced to them. Here we have the warrant and the work of the medical missionary-as a physician to heal the suffering body, and as a messenger from God to tell his patient of Jesus. Thus we have two classes of laborers sent out by Christ: ordained preachers, who are to preach and found churches, and employ healing as im aid to their great work, and those who are to do the preliminary work of healing, but never to forget the immortal soul while caring for the perishing body.
If we turn to the Book of Acts we find the apostles working on these lines. The first great triumphs of the Gospel under Peter and Paul were accomplished by the preaching of the Word, but in Acts 3 and 5 we see how important a place healing occupied iu the early spread of the Gospel. So Paul mentions " he~ling" among the gifts of the Spirit.
I think we are to learn from this that the llealing of the sick should occupy the first place among the helps to the preaching of the Word. As being the only one mentioned in Scripture, it should take the precedence of schools, orphanages, and other agencies.
As the seventy were to do a preliminary work, so now Wi) find medical work of special service in preparing the way for the fuller preaching of the Gospel and founding of churches among the heathen. In China we find it especially useful in opening new stations, by overcoming the prejudices of the people and showing the benevolent aspect of Christianity in a way that the simplest may understand. We can often rent a house for a dispensary where it is impossible to secure one as a preaching-place. After the people understand our object and hear Christian truth privately their opposition melts away, and they are willing to have public preaching in their midst. Thus medical work serves as an entering wedge for the Gospel.
Having spoken of the Divine warrant for medical missions, let U3 now glance at the human need. In God's Providence the concomitant evils of sin and suffering have afflicted our race in every age and every land. In this same Providence the desire and ability to relieve suffering have accompanied the religion of Jesus. While perhaps one may be justified in saying that in God's mercy suffering is less acute among the ruder tribes, where the ability to remove it is small, and the capacity to suffer has increased with the nervous tension which is the result of civilization, and with the growth of medical skill which is able to relieve it, still the great fact remains that sickness and suffering are universal. As a general thing, heathen people have but little ability to remove or alleviate this suffering. Even in the more enlightened heathen lands, as China and India, men have no real knowledge of anatomy, physiology, and pathology. Microscopy, which is so important a factor in modern physical science, is entirely unknown. Their religious views or hoary prejudices prevent any minute investigation of the true causes of disease. Their theories are crude and unscientific, and their practice is mere empiricism. In China, as in Europe several centuries ago, the most disgusting and inert substances are prescribed as remedies for disease. One has but to read the Pwan Tsao, the standard dispensatory of China, to see this. In surgery the knowledge of the Chinese is almost nil. The overweening value they ascribe to astrology has dislocated what little practical knowledge they may possess. I have seen the charts of an army doctor, where the wounds are to be treated according to the hour of the day in which they were inflicted rather than the parts injured or the instrument which dld the injury. Female complaints go almost entirely unrelieved, as prejudice prevents their calling in even their own ignorant male doctors, and they have no female physicians, except a few women who deal in what we call" old women's remedies." Hence we see the need for educated and trained physicians, both men and women, from Christian lands.
The tendency of heathenism is to dull and harden the heart; and those who suffer from disease receive very little of that sympathy which we have learned from our Master, and which has become an essential part of our Christian ei vilization. A Red Cross Society has been organized at Tientsin by foreigners, to attend to the Chinese wounded. One writing from there says: "The Chinese indifference to their wounded has been to me the worst feature in this war." The statement is published that the Tao tai, the highest official there, when: appealed to, said: "Vhat do I want with wounded men q The sooner they die the better. China has plenty of men." This heathenish eallousness to human suffering seems strange to our ears, but is perfeetly natural to an officer trained in inflicting the tortures which are so common in Chinese courts. When God " makes men's hearts soft" through sickness and pain, they are often better prepared to appreciate Christian sympathy and to receive the Gospel message of comfort and hope.
That the heathen appreciate the efforts of missionary physicians to relieve their ailments is shown by the multitudes who crowd to the dispensaries and hospitals, especially in India and China. In China we sometimes have an amusing illustration of this, in the way in which native quacks try to palm themselves off as agents of foreign institutions. Some thirty years ago, after my dispensary had been opened for a few years at Shin Hing, a city seventy-five miles from Canton, the following handbill was circulated by a man who claimed to have been sent out by me : GREAT ENGLISH PILLS AND POWDERS FOR CURING DANGEROUS DISEASES.
This panacea is respectfully presented to you. In the early years of the Emperor Tau Kwang's reign we came into possession of a recipe, which was given to the foreigners by the great English sage, Jesus, at His appearance on the earth, and transmitted by them entire and unaltered to our house, where the medicine is now compounded. When this remedy is distributed in any place, the public health of that place will be restored in less than ten days. It is truly as efficacious as if given by the gods. Within the past two or three years the people of all classes, from laborers to gentlemen, have crowded the roads and the ferries in all quarters, pressing forward to our shop to obtain the medicine. They have therefore begged us to take the medicine to all the departments, districts, market towns, fairs, and villages of the land, that we may save men's .lives by its free distribution. These pills can cure cholera. Anyone having pains, cramps, diarrhooa, dysentery, paralysis, or children suffering from fright, may come. Men and women, the old and the young may be cured by a single pill. Swallow it and drink a little rice gruel after it. A.s soon as the pill reaches the stomach the disease will be perfectly cured.
Many have counterfeited these pills, but we have the only genuine article. These men sell their medicine through love of gain, but we do not take a single cash. Signed, Messrs. Ng., Hall of Tranquil Veneration.
P.S.-Sundays and days for seeing patients, as follows: etc.
Some of these quacks put some amusing attempts at English on their posters and handbills. In Canton, on the walls may be seen in large letters, " Dr. – – , Physician to Leprosy-nor Doctors' Fees Discharged," by which is meant "leprosy cured, or the doctor's fee returned." In Macao is a sign, " Ip. healer, can doctor to surgery line, medicine line, • all kinds illness dispensation." Ent enough of this.
H we look at the results of medical missions we will find them most encouraging. They were begun by Dr. Peter Parker, who was sent to Canton by the A. B. C. F. M. in 1835. The Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society, which has trained so many missionaries for the work in city slums and in foreign lands, was the outcome of lectures delivered by Dr. Parker in Great Britain. The Medical Missionary Society in China has held its fifty-sixth annual meeting, and in 1893 there were 1608 inpatients and 25,542 attendances at the hospital dispensing.room, and 31,637 at the dispensaries in various parts of the country and city, auxiliary to the hospital, making a total of nearly 60,000 patients prescribed for during the year. They report that hundreds have given up idol-worship, and scores have been brought to Christ as the result of Christian teaching here.
The London Missionary Society's physician at Amoy reports that ] 2,000 to 14,000 towns and villages are yearly represented at the hospital, and that, as the result of the cure of one man seventeen years before, no less than seven Christian congregations had been formed with a membership of from 30 to 100 each.
The English Presbyterians at Swatow report that of their 20 country stations, 7 or 8 had their origin through the hospital patients. In 1885 out of an attendance of 5500 patients over 80 publicly declared their faith in Christ and earnestly desired to join the church.
So we might go on with annual attendances of 5000, 10,000, 15,000 at the hospitals and dispensaries connected with various missions in different cities and towns of China.
From Formosa Dr. McKay reports that from the visit of one man to the hospital there exist four congregations of Christians with a membership of 350 souls and double that number of adherents and flourishing schools.
Korea, the country to which the eyes of the world are now directed, was opened to Protestant missionary efforts by means of medical mission work.
H we turn to India, we find 8000,16,000, 40,000, 43,000, and 89,000 given as the annual attendance at various hospitals and dispensaries, and numbers of conversions reported. Medical missionaries have unlocked the doors to the dominions of natil'e princes before closed to Christian evangelization.
In Syria and Persia we read of good results among the Mohammedans through medical mission work. Everywhere God's blessing seems to rest upon this form of Christian effort.
These hospitals and dispensaries are not merely institutions for the relief of present suffering, but they are training schools, where the natil'es are taught W"estern medicine and surgery and sent out among their feHowcountrymen as intelligent, useful practitioners. Thus the benefits go on to future generations.
In all these missionary medical institutions the truths of the Gospel are taught publicly or by-the bedside, and Christian Scriptures and tracts are given to the patients to read and to take to their homes. Thus the good seed of the vYord is cast into soil prepared to receive it by the ministry of suffering and the solace of Christian sympathy. May we not confidently hope that much of it will bring forth fruit unto the glory of God ~ I am glad that you have organized yourselves into a society to help forward the work of medical missions, and trust that your efforts may be crowned with success. Let me remind you that as the great object of medical missions is to employ the healing of the suffering body as a meaus of benefiting the immortal spirit, so the work must be undertaken not from mere humanitarian motives, but in a spirit of prayer that God may use the skill of the physician aR the means of saving the soul of the patient. Only then will the doctor be a missionary-God's messenger to the deathless spirit of man.
There are two theories of medical missionary work: The first divides it into two categories, one medical and philanthropic, aiming to gather kindly disposed crowds; the other, spiritual and missionary, seeking to lead men and women to Christ. According to this theory, medicine is a means to an end, and if the same end could be reached by any other plan, as by doles of bread or cash, it would make no difference to the Church.
The other theory is that a medical missionary is representative of the men sent forth by Christ, with the instruction, "Heal the sick, and say unto them, The kingdom of God has come nigh unto you." They were clothed with miraculous healing power-a power possessed temporarily and intended to magnify their Master's omnipotence, His truth, His compassion, and the fulness of His salvation to soul and body. The IJ}{)dern medical missionary is therefore a man clothed with a healing power-that is the fruit of the presence of the spirit of Christ among men; a power which is one of the marvellous gifts of God, which has been slowly evolved through the centuries till now it is a magnificent inheritance, and in the hand of increasing knowledge moves with surer aim to overthrow disease; a power which is permanently present in the Church, and which is to be possessed in constant union and under the direction of the Spirit for the service and glory of Christ.
According to this theory, medicine is not a means to an end, but is an integral factor. in the work of presenting Christ to the heathen. Along the lines of diligent and patient study the modern Christian enters npon this possession of healing power, and goes forth into heathenism to reveal in deed and in word the Master whom he serves as a mighty and compassionate Saviour, whose salvation embraces soul and body, and who permits His servants to evidence and to seal the power, character, and extent of His lIalvation.-Medical Missions.
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMEN'r
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY BEV. J. T. GBACEY, D.D.
India's New and Opening Fields. glad ring to his voice: "Thank you for that last word you said on leaving BY J. L. PHILLIPS, M.D., CALCUTTA, the other day. It was just what I FIELD SECRETARY INDIA SUNDAY- needed, and I went away and prayed SCHOOL UNION. for faith and for the blessings I craved It is very cheering indeed to find for our field; and you had not been American and European missionaries gone an hour before a Brahman pundit who are coming to see more in the pos· from that large village yonder, stood on sibilities and the promise of the Chris- this very veranda begging me for a tian Sunday-school as an out-and-out Christian man to teach his pupils the and successful missionary agency than Bible on the Sabbath. I have supplied ever before. In this, as in every other him with a teacher, and hope others department of effort, it is to us accord- will come now with a like request."
ing to our faith. I may illustrate with This is by no means a solitary case. I a case in point, for as a medicaJ. man I think we all are coming to see and seize naturally think more of cases than of our opportunity in the Sunday-school pet theories or stock arguments; and as never before; hence I look for larger I may add that I believe intelligent ingatherings from the non-Christian Christians attach more importance to ranks.
real cases than to finely spun theory, These children of our Sunday-schools be it never so pleasant. It was away are already beginning to be real mis- down in the very south of India that I sionaries of the cross, and are bringing had been at work for several days ad- their friends to Christ. I am constantly dressing men, women and children, hearing of cases where the whole fam- theological students, and Bible women, ily has been brought into the congre- on how to improve and increase the gation and the church through the lov- Sunday-schools, and I was going on to ing labors of a little child. Those another station. On bidding the mis- words of Isaiah's prophecy, "A little sionary good-by, he said something like child shall lead them," are being beau- this: "You must not expect to find tifully illustrated before our eyes in things so far on down here as in Upper these days, and our glad hearts are India; for instance, we've never heard thanking God in the very words of of a Brahman pundit coming to the Jesus when He said: "I thank Thee, mi2sionaries begging for a Christian to o Father, Lord of heaven and earth, come and teach his boys the Bible for that Thou didst hide these things from an hour on the Sabbath. Such cases the wise and understanding, and didst are quite unknown in these parts, but reveal them unto babes: yea, Father, I'm glad you have them in the north." for so it was well· pleasing in Thy Still holding my friend's hand, I was sight."
moved to say: "In all our work it is The rise of intelligent, hence sus- always according to our faith," and to tained enthusiasm among Christian ask him, ,. Have you been praying and workers here in this special effort for looking for this in your field?" After reaching the young with the blessed a few days I was once more his guest Gospel, I count a far greater token of on my way north. Standing on the cheer than mere numerical increase of veranda to welcome me, just where he schools and scholars, for it means a had bid me good-by, and while still large accession to our working force.
holding my hand, he said with such a Teachers are wanted now on every hand. Whereas twenty-five years ago ers, and about one hundred aud ninety- we were seeking the children of these two thousand pupils, of whom the populous lands, now, such are the mar- non-Christians are decidedly in the ma- vels of God's grace, the children are jority. About one third of the pupils seeking us. Had I ten thousand new are girls, a fact for which we have ;rea- and competent teachers to-day I should son to be sincerely thankful. Female have no difficulty whatever-such is the education is making rapid strides in rising demand for Bible instruction these Eastern lands, and the Bible is among all classes-in finding schools doing more for girls than all else com- for them all next Sunday. Our mis- bined. These five thousand Sunday- sionary superintendents on all sides are schools are taught in scores of lan-, crying out for more helpers. This guages, but the following ten are most growing demand is pushing us to more used, perhaps-i.e., Hindi, Bengali, prayer first, in obedience to our Lord's English, Urdu, Tamil, Telegu, Marathi, express command; but it is pushing us Karen, Kanerese, and Singhalese. But to more preparation as well, for this in scores more of the many tongues of noble work. Normal classes for the this very polyglot place-this broad and older scholars of our classes were un- beautiful field of ours-we should open known five years ago, but may be seen Sunday-schools soon. Few at most of doing grand service now in the way of the youth of the land can be brought training up teachers; and preparation under direct Christian training in any classes for Sunday-scbool teachers are other way than that of the Sundaybecoming quite common now in all school. Our great missionary societies churches throughout this broad field. will never be able to provide secular India's own hearty response to the ris- education for all these millions, but a ing plea of her millions of little ones thoroughly roused Christian Church begins to be heard, and hundreds of may hope, by God's help, to feed all the voluntary teachers, native and foreign, lambs of this great fold in India. The are enlisting in this delightful service. Master's command is urgent: "Give The year 1894 was one of marked ye them to eat." progress. By the organization of the For more than four years the friends Central India Sunday-school Union the in the Straits' Settlements had been work of planning our Sunday-school calling for help. This spring my work campaign for all India was completed. in British India permitted me to visit We are now thoroughly organized for them, and Singapore has organized a aggressive effort throughout India, in- Sunday-scuool union auxiliary to India. cluding Burma and Ceylon. In seven Here the churches are Anglican, Ameriof the ten Auxiliary Sunday-school can Methodist, English Presbyterian, Unions-viz., those of Bengal, Burma, and Plymouth Brethren. The mission- Central India, Ceylon, Northwest Prov- ary work is almost all in the hands of inces, South India, and Central Prov- the lIethodists and Presbyterians. I inces, there has been a decided growth find good schools opened and flourishin the number of schools, teachers, and ing, and a few small Sunday-schools. pupils. In all ten of these auxiliaries The prospects before this branch of our there has been an increase in the num- Sunday-school Union are most cheerber of teachers, which is very cheering. ing. At Penang also missionary work More accurate statistics, I hope, will is well started by the same societies, prove next year that there has been a and I hope another auxiliary Sundaysteady growth in every part of our school union will be organized there. field. The annual report presented to By prudent pushing of practical Sunthe Convention at Calcutta last Decem- day-school methods I hope our present ber gives us about five thousand Sun- statistics may be doubled within a day-schools, about ten thousand teach- twelvemonth. In this crown colony of England's, as in India, special atten- Christian work. It was good to look tion mnst be given to the training of into the animated faces of these men, teachers and to the creation and circu- to hear them sing the praises of our lation of Sunday-school literature. anorable Lord, and to tell them of scores and hundreds more like them, From Singapore to Batavia, the chief whom in seminaries of every church all city of Java, and capital of Dutch East over British India and Ceylon I had Indies, is but five hunded and fifty met face to face during the last four miles, and at the instance of interested years. Here were two men from Dutch friends I have been over there for a New Guinea and some from the west week, with a view to seeing whether coast of Sumatra. Meeting these Chris- Netherlands India would join hands tian Bataks from Sumatra brought to with British India in promoting Sun- mind a veteran missionary's graphic day-schools. My brief visit has been account at a convention several years pleasant and on the whole satisfactory, ago, of how his sailing-ship was once and I hope next spring to have more becalmed off this very coast, and the time for visiting the principal mission- cannibals were rowing out to them ary stations of Dutch India-viz., Java, greedy for capture and carnival, and Borneo, Celebes, Sumatra, etc.-and or- how in answer to prayer the gracious ganizing the workers for aggressive breeze sprang up and filled the flapping effort in behalf of the children. On sails and bore them beyond danger and the French mail steamer in which I toward their port in Siam. Now I was went over to .Java were three German told there are no cannibals in Sumatra, missionaries going to New Guinea. It and there are more than a hundred nawas very pleasant meeting them, and tive Batak missionaries publishing the our fellowship was sweet. Their field glorious Gospel of our Lord Christ. is in Northeast New Guinea, in German What a grand field for missionary effort possessions, and although occupied for i~ all this land of Netherlands-India! eight years, the first convert has not I wonder so few men from Holland are been welcomed to the church. The coming to reap those golden harvests. climate there has been found extremely There must be from thirty to forty trying for foreigners, and several of millions living on these islands of the the toilers have died there. In their Asiatic or ~'Ialaysian Archipelago bebehalf, as well as in behalf of all other longing to Holland alone. Surely the distant and lone workers in the great old Dutch Reformed Church, the State fever fields of the Church, I would beg branch of it and the Free together, the special prayers o£ the churches should be doing betler and more for at home. Letters from home reach this immense constituency. Motley German New Guinea but once in two and Prescott and others have told the months. These brethren will have to world how the Christian patriots of the wait weeks in Java for a steamer to Netherlands beat back the invader, take them on to their destination. Ger- flood or foe, and defended their hearthmany has sent out many noble men and stones. Let that spirit of loyalty to women into all these Eastern lands, God and home now show itself in orand some of the hardest and most un- ganized evangelization of these fair promising fields of Asia and Africa fields. Almost five centuries ago Islam have been supplied by her self-sacrific- conquered Java, crushing the old Hindu ing sons and daughters. faith, and to-day her twenty-four mil- lions are chiefly followers of the False The brightest thing I saw in Java Prophet. Now may the Cross conquer was the Theological Seminary at Depok, the crescent, and these millions bow at twenty-one miles from Batavia. There His feet who is Lord over aU blessed were forty-five young fellows from all forevermore. I long to hear the chil- Netherlands-India, Borneo, Celebes, Java, Sumatra, etc., in trainin~ fOl dren's hosannas on all these islands. of the world, but to one that bad turn' The bulk of the present adult popula- ed aside after strange gods, and been tion may die in sin, but if the Church sold into bondage to a heathen people. of Christ does her duty by their chilo He found the same condition we find dren, God's promise to rebellious Israel in the Oriental world to·day-the same will be once more iIIustrated and ful- physical suffering, the same poverty filled, when He said: "YOUR LITTLE and degradation, the same turning to ONES WILT. I BRING IN." magicians and enchantments for relief, the same cruel torture from the un· SINGAPORE, STRAITS SETTLEMENTS, skilled and unqualified, would·be heal· April 23, 1895. ers. .. She had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all Medical Work Among the Women and that she had, and was nothing better, Ohildren of the Heathen OOllntries, but rather worse," are the words used to .describe the condition of the one BY MARIA WHITE, M.D., PUNJAB, INDIA. healed by Christ, yet the cruel torture this woman suffered is by no means ex· I present this as a humane institu· pressed in these words, and the more tion, as a means of preaching the Gos- physicians the more cruel her torture. pel to the people. To have a correct idea of the benefits The work of the medical missionary derived from medical help, we must dates from the beginning of Christ's first look at the lives and condition of public ministry, and the fact that the the people. The picture may be a sad healing of physical suffering was to be one, and may cause many to inquire, a proof that Christ was the Divine. Does she mean us to understand this as loving, and compassionate Son of God, stated ? and I will here state that in willing to give Himself that we might this paper I will speak only of things be redeemed from greater suffering which have occurred in my own practhan that of this life, is contained in tice and are literally true, facts that can the answer returned to John the Bap· be attested by all doctors of India, and tist to the question, " Art 'l'hou He who may be known to the mass of the mis· should come, or shall we look for an· sionaries present, yet I can only give other?" "Go tell John the blind see, you a glimpse into the sorrows of the the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dumb heathen women. Much that my eyes speak, and the poor have the Gospel have looked on is too terrible to describe preached to them." Christ's field of in a public paper. My field for eight ministry was not the same as those of years was in the Punjab, India, but as His followers who are laboring in civ· I returned to America I had the privilized lands to-day – lands moulded ilege of visiting the Malay Peninsula, by the light of the Gospel, till every South China, and Japan, and find in breath we draw tells of the Son of each a corresponding condition, only Righteousness who came with healing varied in accordance with the customs in His wings. As we look over these of their country. Enter with me into fields we find cleanliness and an organ· a native city of India, and look on the ized means of promoting proper sanita- heathen as they appear to open view. tion and to check the spread of disease; The streets are thronged with ox·carts, hospitals, asylums, and homes for the donkeys, dogs, and the multitude of relief of the suffering people, builded people, men, women, and children— by the light which Christ brought into the halt, the blind, the deaf and dumb; the world, are on every side; but what the fever cases, with burning cheek and was the conditio!! of the human family panting breath; small·pox in the stage when He first entered on His public of desquamation, scattering the germs ministry? to all around; leprosy, with the unmis· Christ was a Jew, born a Jew, and came to the then most· civilized nation takable signs of the first stage or per- foot-fall is never hushed to lessen their haps the advanced stage, sitting at the suffering, no anxious mother or sister corners begging, showing hands and ever places a dish before them to tempt feet from which fingers and toes have their appetite, no skilful doctor or nurse dropped; scurvy cases, that dread dis- is called to administer to their wants. ease supposed to develop in persons de- Supposed to be possessed of some evil prived of vegetable diet and dependent spirit, they are objects to be dreaded, on salt meat, developed to the most in- and every possible cruelty must be re- tense form in those who have never sorted to that it may be expelled. seen salt meat or tasted meat of any Placed in the darkest, dirtiest room of kind, victims to a hot climate. and a the house, without light or ventilation, purely vegetable diet; the miserable their bed the most filthy of rags, de- beggar, or perhaps those who are not prived of food and water, often for beggars, but who, like Lazarus, are full days they are forced to inhale the of sores from head to foot, undressed, fumes of charcoal, given off from a uncared·for, and alive with worms. smouldering pot, which is always placed Take a glance down the two sides of by their bed, and are subject to burnthe street and mark the naked infants ing from hot irons and many other on their hard stools, lying in the burn- cruelties to expel this spirit. A few ing sun, left to fret their little lives examples in my experience will illusaway while the mothers are earning the trate their condition. daily pittance. Enter the doors of You will first visit with me the home some of the homes and take a clearer of a Muhammadan Molvi, a teacher of view. Do you find the well-regulated the Muhammadan religion, and one of homes of Christian lands? The hon· the best homes, one where both wife ored father, teaching both by word and and children are loved by the husband example the love and respect due to and father. that mother who has borne all, sacrificed On a bed lies a little child of three, all, suffered all for them; the children unconscious, a true case of infantile clustering around the mother's knee ecampsia (convulsions due to disease of pouring their tales of joy and sorrow the cerebro-spinal system). The father into their ears, or watching with long- and two brothers are seated, nativeing eyes for the return of father? No; fashion, on the bed at her head, the there is nothing in their religion to mother, sister, and two or three female sweeten life or elevate the human fam- friends on the bed at her feet, all so ily. It degrades women with an in- close as to prevent the possibility of finite degradation, dwarfs their intel- air of any kind reaching her: As we lects, so that women of twenty or thirty enter, a barber has jUilt finished shaving are but as children of eight or ten. De- the hair from the head just over the prived of every comfort, regarded as frontal sinus (the place where the brain mere cattle, the property of their hus- can be seen pulsate in an infant's head, band, bought and sold as other mer- and is called by the natives of India chandise, till all the worst passions of "the door to the brain".), and a Muthe human nature are stimulated and hammadan doctor lifts a red-hot piece developed, here envy, jealousy, hate, of iron from the fire and presses it to and revenge run to such an extent, the exposed part, destroying the tissues that I have often been begged and of- to the skull, and to my cry of horror fered money if I would take away the and dismay the father, in an agony of life of some objects of their loathing. sorrow, answers: "Oh, Miss Sahib, Contrast the condition of their sick for many days that door was open, and with those of our Christian homes. an evil spirit entered there and must be The tender hand of love and sympathy destroyed, or our child will die." never cools their fevered brow, thc An old blind woman was left on my veranda. After removing her to the for Vidhata's visit have been made, indoor department of the hospital I food consisting of a coarse graham learned the following: For years she flour and coarser brown sugar, equal had supported her husband by begging. parts, wet and kneaded together to be and this day losing her way, had walk- eaten raw, has been prepared for the ed into an open well. She was taken famished mother, but both mother and out alive, but hopelessly crippled. child are unconscious, and the foreign After having been fined for dirtying doctor is called in to bring them back the well, and beaten by her husband again to life.
for what he called her carelessness, but, Place the medical work at its lowest as she quaintly expressed it, for not standard, only as a humane institution, dying when crippled so as to be no is there any more noble profession than more use, she was left at my door as a that which relieves from physical suf- means of freeing himself from a use- fering the human family? And when less burden. we can enter such homes, rescue the I will take you to but one more helpless infant from such cruel barbari- home, the house of a high caste Hindu. ties, bring the women from their dark A mother and child of six days lie un- and dirty rooms and mud floors to open conscious. The mother has survived courts and bedsteads, give water to the nameless barbarities of the native those perishing from thirst, cool the midwife. and both are now dying of burning brow, sustain and support the hunger and neglect. Every step of weak with nourishing food, teach them her treatment has been laid down in how to care for their little ones and their sacred book. I cannot in this pa- the importance of cleanliness, clear and per describe the cruelties practised cleanse their mass of living disease, and during the hours of her suffering. For bind up the sores of the beggar-are we the first three days she has been <'Ie· not following closely in the footsteps of prived of food and drink, and on the the Divine Master? And when we bring third aHowed only onc grain of rice. them out from their homes, take them Her room has been prepared by placing into hospitals and give them the same her in the darkest and dirtiest of the care and treatment we would give the house, with the most filthy of rags, on a sick in America, are we not filling one mud floor for her bed. A cow's skull of the highest missions in the annals of painted red. an image of Sasthi, the history? But this is a position that can goddess who presides over the destiny be filled by any skilful doctor; the of women and children, made of cow- medical missionaries have a higher aim dung, is placed in a conspicuous posi- than the mere relief of physical suffer- tion. This and the pot of smoulder- ing.
ing charcoal, the only furniture, are They look beyond the body of clay placed there to expel the evil spirits and see in every patient a soul perish- tIovering around. During her three ing, eternally perishing, one for whom weeks of uncleanness neither father, Christ died, and the awful responsibil- mother, hUSband, nor sister can come ity to God for the souls of those who nigh her, leaving her to the care of the have been under our care is ever before barber's wife. Ou the fifth day the us, and this brings us to the most im· filthy clothing is removed and the room portant rart of our subject, medical cleaned, as on the next is to be the work as an evangelistic institution.
worship of Sasthi, and that night Vid- The position the medical work holds hata will write on the child's forehead as a means of promoting the spread of the main events of his life. The day the Gospel and winning souls for Christ has arrived, Sasthi has been wor- can be better illustrated by quoting the shipped. The woman has been given words of a high caste Hindu, when a cold bath, all necessary arrangementll asked as to the progress made in Indil by the Christian religion, and what in God 's Word wIthout some tangible method was most likely to con vert their proof.
people to Christ, answered: "We do not fear the usual method of mission work, such as the school, printing' The Mis~onary Outlook at Foocnow, presses, and bazaar preaching, but we Ohina. do fear your lady zenana·worker, lind we dread your lady doctors; they enter BY REV. J. H. WORLEY, FOOCHOW, our homes, win the hearts of our wom· CHINA.
en, threatening the foundation of our religion. " Another year of blessed fellowship One instance in my experience will with and service for the Master bas show how this method of giving the been granted us. Although at times Gospel had taken hold of the women there has been danger of riots on ac· of Sialkot, Indill. For the first three count of the unsettled state of the coun· or four years I had been accustomed to try caused by the war, we have been close the doors of the dispensary on kept in peace and safety.
Sabbath, that both myself and assistants Now that there seems prospect of might have an opportunity of attending peace the threatened rebellion by the church services, but the women, not vegetarians at Ku·Cheng, about a hun· satisfied with their opportunities duro dred miles from here, has subsided, at ing the week, though the Bible was least for the present. In the beginning taught throughout dispensary hours, it was pretended they were attackIng asked me to hold a special service for the Christians, but this was only a ruse, them on Sabbath morning, and I open· as their real object is to overthrow the ed the doors of the waiting-room, and government, and they are only a part for the last four years have held a of the great secret societies with which chapel service for heathen women, of China is honeycombed. Whenever the whom there were from forty to sixty government is imperilled they always present. After a few days the hus- come forth. The present outbreak was bands, learning they were coming only on account of the Chino·Japanese War.
to study the Bible, Objected, and the ", When the district magistrate under· women begged me to give them one or took to punIsh the leaders he was over· two little powders on Sabbath, only powered and compelled to beg pardon flour, they said, that they might show from the rebels. Several times the day to their husbands and be permitted to was fixed to pillage and burn the city, come. Some had themsel ves attempt. kill the magistrate, and drive out the ed to prepare powders, but the hus· mIssIonaries. When the magistrate bands knew the hospital paper and skil· was ovm'powered the people became ful wrapping. Often in conversation alarmed and began preparations for with women who had received relief, self-defence. The city wall was reo when in answer to their questions of paired, the gates barricaded, and the what brought me to India, I would tell citizens took turns patrolling the streets them the story of the Great Physician, and city wall, and a request was sent they would answer: "Truly your God to Foochow for soldiers, the soldiers at is a good, kind God; none other ever Kucheng having joined the rebels.
sent help to the women. " The medi· Most of the rebels were in the villages.
cal mission is a means of presenting the so the plan was to keep them from con· Gospel to the heathen that they can centrating within the city wall. For feel and appreciate, and speaks of a several days no one was allowed to pass living, loving, and acting God. Their in or out of the city, and nearly all intellects are so dwarfed as to make it business was suspended, and it was difficult to grasp the truth as set forth feared the rebels would lay siege to the city and starve them out; but just as years 1894-95 will be known as the matters were coming to a crisis word birth-time of the new era, the Renais- came that soldiers were coming from sance in China… Now is our greatest J!'oochow, and the rebels surrendered opportunity and responsibility. Will and signed a treaty of peace. How the Christian Church awake to her op- long the treaty will be kept depends portunity and responsibility as China is on how the war terminates. No one awakening to her need? has any confidence in their sincerity. If the war come to a speedy and satis- The past year was the most hopeful factory close, and the government gets in our history. The statistics are very on its feet, they will not dare to make significant, yet they give but a faint disturbance; but if not, then we may idea of the work done and good accom- expect serious trouble in this quarter, plished; increase over the preceding and perhaps all over the empire. year: Members, 616; inquirers, 1662; day-schools, 35; day-scholars, 358; As the schools were all broken up Sabbath-schools, 39 ; and scholars, 1545. and the scholars sent home, the lady The number of Scriptures, books, and missionaries have come to Foochow, tracts sold was several times greater but the gentlemen still remain to look than last year. Two years ago on the after the work.· The missionaries de- Foochow District we had 5 day-schools serve great credit for their patience and with about 100 pupils; last year, 15 fortitude during those trying days and day·schools with about 300 pupils, but nights. this year we have 110 schools and over 2500 boys studying Christian books. Weare now waiting anxiously to Every school is a regular preaching- know the terms of peace. It is rumored place, where nearly every Sabbath and that several of the European Powers several times during the week the Gos- wlll not allow Japan's claim. We only pel is preached to the parents and hope that nothing will be done by them friends of the pupils. Most of these to hinder Japan from completing the schools have been opened by request good work already begun. If she is from the people, and there still remain left alone she will effect such material places where we have been invited, but changes that many of the greatest ob- cannot enter for want of men and stacles to Christianity will be forever means. Only two days ago a man swept away. Crush Chinese egotism came nearly twenty miles to get me to and conservatism, and with them will go to his village of several thousand be buried superstition, and a wide door inhabitants to preach and establish a opened for the Gospel such as the world Christian school. Similar requests come has never witnessed. Before China is every few days, and, oh how hard it is redeemed these changes must be effect- to turn them away with the cold an- ed, and if Japan, as she seems to be, is swer that we have no money. or there the instrument to accomplish it, we bid is no one to teach you I Yet our won- her God-speed. During the last twelve- der-working God is raising up helpers month she has gotten the work well beyond our highest expectations. Many under way, and we hope that nothing more literary men than formerly are will be allowed to cut it short. being saved who, with minds already trained, soon develop into excellent Whatever the terms of peace, we are workers, either as teachers or preach- confident a brighter day awaits China, ers. Were it not for these men we and the spread of the Gospel will be ac- could not enter half the open doors. celerated manifold. The conversion On the other hand, many friends are of China is the greatest undertaking being raised up in America and else- which has engaged the Christian where who are furnishing the money Church, and the success of the enter- over and above the missionary society's , prise hinges on the next few years. This is II crisis, a turning-point. The appropriations to carryon this marvel- Chinese college and the theological semi- lous work. It is the Lord's doings, nary, who visit the day·schools and and is marvellous in our eyes! To His preach Sundays, we are reaching tens name be all the praise ! of thousands, and God is blessing our Barriers are melting away like frost efforts. This is only one district, and before the morning sun. One of our does not take account of the woman's Bible-women was abused and her dress work of our Church and the" other two torn off for preaching in.a certain town missions operating here.
last year. Now we have a prosperous I can give you only a few of the en- school there and regular preaching. couraging facts which cheer us from A formal and most polite request came day to day and give us hope for the from the village elders. Not long ago future.
the native pastor on an adjoining cir- Nothing is more encouraging than cuit and I visited this town, and for the growing desire on the part of our two hours preached to several hundred native preachers and members for a most attentive hearers. We could es- richer experience. The great awaken- tablish several more schools there if we ing probably had its origin in the hearts had the means. The ringleader and of the members. Revival meetings sevcral others who insulted the Bible- where men and women are convicted woman are now inquirers. and gloriously saved are more and more At another place, where there is a common. Inclosed is a native artist's large public building erected to enter- crude drawing of a great tent meeting tain the viceroy when he passes through held last fall, also a short description the town, the village elders sent an in- of it. Such meetings produce a pro- vitation with their cards for me to ap- found impression. I personally know point a certain Christian man whom of many who date their determination they knew, to teach a Christian school to be Christians from this meeting. The for them. Already several influential two on the rostrum are meant for Bish- families have given up their idols and op Ninde and J. H. Worley, the former joined the church on probation. preaching and the latter translating.
At the beginning of the present Chi- M. E. MI~SION, FOOCHOW, CHINA.
nese year (in February) I appointed a student to act as pastor-teacher at a place where a student had been sta- tioned during last summer vacation. Ohristian Unity in West Ohina. Not long ago I spent a night there; and for more than two hours we preach- " With this I send you a poster used ed to a crowded house of eager listen- by the several missions at Chungking.
ers, and eighteen persons publicly gave The title of this tract is "The Great up their idols and joined the church. Doctrine for the Salvation of the Over twenty had previously joined. A World. .. On the margin are the names man gives his house free for church of the four missions laboring in Chung- and school. I came from that place king, Methodist Episcopal, China In- laden with old, abandoned idols, and as land, Friends, and London Missionary I write my desk and floor are covered, Society, with the places where their notwithstanding I am constantly send- chapels, hospitals, etc., are. These ing them to America: one of my col- posters are stuck in every part of the porteurs came in only a few moments city by the Christians connected with ago bringing three, their owners hav- the several missions. I write of this to ing recently been saved. show how practically we on the field Thus with 25 pastors, 10 colporteurs, labor together; but this is not all.
110 day-school teachers, and about 60 Regular monthly assemblies are held teachers ~nd students from the Anglo- by the native Christia.ns together with the missionaries for the deepening of ince is to be held at Chentu, the capi· the spiritual life and for fellowship and tal, and all are looking forward expectprayer. Such meetings are useful in ing a time of great profit spiritually, helping to emphasize the idea of unity. and by the discussion of our common Always Olle will hear the natives in problems we shall be brought yet closer their conversation with the heathen em· together, becoming more truly a unit. phasize the fact of the unity of the different missions, and yet they are H. OLIN CADY. strongly attached to the missions where M. E. MISSION, OHENTU SZ'CHUAN, they were converted. At Chinese New via HANKOW." Years, when there is more of leisure among the natives, the native Chris- Death of J. L. Phillips, M.D. tians form in small bands, irrespective of the missions to which they belong, We bad just returned to the printer and with the missionaries post these the proof sheets of the article" India's tracts, distribute others, hold meetings New and Opening Fields," when the in all the principal streets during the following note was received from Rev. day, and at evening come together at Dr. T.•T. Scott, of India, at present one of the missions each in turn for temporarily at Delaware, O. He writes prayer and testimony and to listen to under date July 15th: the unfolding of some teaching pertaining to the Christian life; thus a My DEAR GRACEY: Kindly mention week is spent. These meetings year as an item of missionary news that Dr. by year prove of greater interest and Phillips, of India, is dead. No particu. power. The Christian Church, as dis· lars; as I got the news from the Suntinguished from heathenism and Ro- day·school secretaries at London, and manism, is in the minds and thoughts they had got it by wire. You may reof heathen and Christians a unit: but call that he was General Secretary of such a spirit in the native church would the India Sunday·School Mission, supnever have been developed if the mis- ported under appointment of the Lonsionaries had not recognized each other don Sunday-School Union, by the chilas fellow·soldiers. There is a decided dren of the International Bible Readers' brotherly feeling among all the mis· Union. He was doing a grand work in sions and missionaries. For the main- inspiring enthusiasm in Sunday·school taining of the unity and the minister- work in India. He had travelled thouing to the spiritual growth of the mis- sands of miles annually, and lived to sionaries a regular Thursday evening see all India, Burmah, and Ceylon overmeeting for prayer, testimony, and mu- laid with Sunday·school auxiliaries, thus tual instruction is held. These meet· binding this vast extent of Eastern counings are led in turn by the different try into one organization. He was a missionaries, and have been a great aid fine leader and most effective platform to holy living: some of the meetings speaker, ready in utterance, magnetic have been seasons of wonderful bless· in touch, and full of tact in managing ing when the Holy Spirit seemed poured an audience. He had eminent qualifiout on all present. These meetings cations as a leader in Sunday·school afford an opportunity for the mission· work, being a great lover of children. aries and their families to meet socially He never forgot their names, and was and so become closely united. always sending them charming little messages in his letters to their elders. What is true of Chungking is true in A grand missionary leader has dropped spirit of all Sz'chuan, and especially from the roll in India, and his place will of the cities where several missions lao be hard to till. bor together. Next January a confer· ence of all the missionaries of the prov-
FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY
III.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
BY D. L. pmRSON.
Japan,* Korea,t Medioal Missions,t Ohinese and Japanese in the United States.§ JAPAN. The aborigines of Japan, the Ainu, The Sunrise Kingdom has passed live in the island of Yezo, or Hokkaido, through the period of dawning great· and number about 17,000 against 350,- ness, and to·day shines forth brilliantly 000 Japanese on the same island. The as the foremost nation of the Orient, and Church Missionary Society started work one of the great nations of the world. among the Ainu in 1878; the first con- The Mikad'l, claiming direct descent vert was baptized in 1885, and there is through 122 Mikado ancestors-nine of now a church membership of nearly whom have been women; the first em· 200. The language has been reduced peror, Jimnu, having founded the em- to writing, and parts of the Bible and pire 660B.c.-has forsaken the traditions other books have been translated. The and customs of his ancestors in all things Ainu are small in stature and much save religion, and now seeks by every given to drunkenness and attendant means in his power to make Dai Nippon vices; they live in wretched little huts, a thoroughly civilized country. It is de- and the women are much oppressed.
voutly hoped and confidently believed Three schools and a hospital are doing that he will soon find that this is impossi- much to elevate them mentally and mor- ble without making it at the same time ally, and relieve them physically. The Eta is another ancient but dea thoroughly Christianized country.
Although there are over 3000 islands graded race of Japan, who live in many belonging to the empire, only five of small villages on the main island. They them (including Formosa) have any are ignorant and immoral, and difficult considerable size or support a large of access; but efforts are being made to population. The area of the empire is reach them by the Society for the Propa- now about 170,000 square miles, and gation of the Gospel and others. Japan the popUlation nearly 42,000,000. The has no State religion; but Shintoism, Japanese have never been conquered by having 10 sects, is considered the most an outside nation, and have had but one patriotic, and had, in 1887, 192,359 tem- civil war, which occurred in the last cen- ples. Buddhism is largely followed, tury. and has 12 sects and 40 creeds, with 71,991 temples. Many of the priests are * See pp. 18 (January), 127 (Febrnary), 221 ignorant and immoral, and the Govern- (March), 289 (April), 342 (May), 445 (June), 582 ment has recently passed a resolution (August), 648,653 (present issue)… The Mikado's that they should be better educated. Empire," W. E. Griffis; "Japan," David :Murray. Ph.D.; "The Religions of Japau," W. E. The common people of Japan are full Griffis; "Life and Letters of J. H. Neesima," of superstitions, and have peopled the A. S. Hardy; "Story of Neesima," J. D. Davis; earth, air, and water with imps who "Japanese Girls and Women," Alice M. Bacon; cause the thunder, wind, earthquakes, .. An American Missionary in Japan," M. L. and storms. As a nation the Japanese Gordon; ,. Prince Siddartha, the Japanese Buddha," J. L. Atkinson; "The Ainu of Ja- are very ceremonious and polite, though pan," John Batchelor. not always acting in accord with West- ern ideas. Mrs. F. S. Curtis, of Yama- t See pp. 15, 62 (January), 290 (April), 450, 458 quchi, writes an interesting account of a Japanese dinner party, of which we (June), 661 (present issue). .. Korea, the Her· mit Nation," and" Korea, Without and With· in," W. E. Griffis; "Korea, from its Capital,"
George W. Gilmore. give extracts as illustrating some of the :I: See pp. 208 (March), 666, 678, 686 (present social customs : Issue). "Medical Missions," John Lowe; .. Murdered Millions," George Dowkontt. "The Japanese Christians make their § .. The Chinese in America," Bishop Burt. annual social an aU<day affair, lasting from ten A.M. to five P.M•. At the last sauce, puts it on the rice, and takes up one about seventy people came to the a mouthful of the rice, fish, etc., all tohouse, and I kept passing wafers and gether. The rice bowl is held in the tea in tiny Japanese cups until dinner. hand and brought even with the lips The house was bright with flowers ; the while the rice is pushed into the mouth chrysanthemums and roses were from by the chop-sticks, which can be done our own garden. lllustrated books and very daintily. Soup and all liquids are photographs were on the tables.. with sipped from the bowIs with a sound like maps and fresh Japanese newspapers, drawing the breath through the teeth. and were enjoyed until dinner time. This sound is much heard; in sipping At about noon we went to our school next tea, and even in making polite observadoor, which is arranged in eight class- tions or returning thanks, it is usual and rooms, with muvable partitions, Japan- polite.
ese fashion; the partitions were re- "After dinner, most of the people moved and left a long room, where the wrapped up the bean paste and lotus in little dinner-trays were set out with the paper on which they were laid and everything on but the soup. The guests put them in their flowing sleeves, as is were seated in a row around the wall customary. (Alway8 take home what and in a double row, back to back, in you can't or don't eat, for it would be the centre, so that the rows faced each r'ude to leave it.) The guests then scat- other. It would never do to put them tered about and took part in games in- in two rows all around the room, for doors and out; there was singing in one would be sitting in front of the other. Japanese and English, after which all .. A regular Japanese meal was served gathered together for games with for- -,-soup, fish and vegetables, rice, cold feits, as they always do, with great mer- stew (of potatoes, meat, chestnuts and riment. The pastor, for his forfeit, had carrots, all cut up in mouthfuls), raw to sing and dance a sword dance with a fish sliced thin, with Japanese turnips ruler for a sword. It is a stately affair, and radishes shaved into small strings, and he did it well; he used to be a warand boiled yellow chrysanthemums- rior in the time of the revolution. About these last three were eaten with soy five o'clock they all dispersed to their sauce, and were what we liked the best of homes." all. They were laid on a long strip of pine, as thin as paper and doubled over; Educational work is one of the most the soy was in a tiny cup in the centre, and the other things in bowls. Wafers successful and interesting departments and some sliced orange (sliced skin and of missions in Japan. Doshisha Uni- all), and slabs of sweet bean paste (very versity, at Kioto, founded by Joseph good if well made), and boiled lotus-root cut in strips were on pieces of paper laid Hardy Neesima, has now graduated on the mats in front of the trays. nearly 300 young men, among whom " When all were seated, some of the are many pastors and Christian workschool girls brought in the little covered ers, 130 being from the theological delacquered bowls of hot soup. When all were served, Mr. Curtis asked the partment. Over 2000 have attended pastor to pray, and afterward, bowing without graduation; and last year there to the guests, said, ' This is exception- were in attendance 556 men and women.
ally poor food ; but please to eat.' All, The education of women is rapidly bebowing in return, said, ' It is an honorable feast.' We then all removed the coming a recognized feature in all covers from the soup and took up our schools, and the governmental Minister chop-sticks and fell to. The rice is of Education has recommended higher boiled very dry, and is so sticky that education: of women in all departments. one can soon learn to pick up little or much and carry it to the mouth. The A" ragged school" has been started by fish s~up was very nice, and must be the Friends this year at Sapporo. " It eaten with the chop-sticks.. Three girls is attended twice a week by from 25 to were kneeling on each side, holding 70 boys and girls ranging from six to trays and waiting to refill the emptied rice bowls, which they did repeatedly. sixteen years old. Many come regu- After all· were satisfied with rice, the larly, rain or snow, when the red lantea cups were refilled time and again. tern hangs at the door. They make ex- When eating the raw fish, one takes a cellent progress in their studies and in nice thin piece between the chop-sticks (which are both held in one hand), takes their habits, and were it not for lack of up a little of the turnip radish with it, funds to keep the school open regularly, dips them into the little cups of soy much more might be accomplished." A. wonderful work has been going on bath for a moral address, after w•hich a among the Japanese prisoners. Sunday·school is held, attendance at which is optional. In one prison, in "Convicts whose sentences range which Christian instruction was begun from twelve years to life service have latest, where there are 1506 prisoners, 510 been sent for some fourteen years past are studying the Bible and 148 pray daily to the wilds of Hokkaido (Yezo) to pre- and follow a course of daily Bible readpare the war for settlers. There are ing. While there is no chance during four great prISons, and a fifth is soon to prison life for a public confession of be opened. A few years ago these pris. Christ, the radical change wrou~ht in ons were entirely independent of each the character of some of the men IS such o~er, and the Government was lax. as greatly to impress those who have Two years ago they were all put under witnessed it. Many of the prisoners are one superintendent-a man feared and an example to believers. So few of the liked by the prisoners, and thoroughly prisoners have yet been released, that respected by everybody. His insight public attention has not been attracted convinced him that the principles of to them yet" (Mi8sionary Herald). Christianity are what are needed for the instruction of prisoners. When he be- The Greek Church has a membership came general superintendent he intro· of 21,239, and the Roman Catholics duced a Christian teacher into each claim 46,682 adherents. The following prison. There are many inquirers about are the statistics compiled by Rev. H. Christianity in each prison. The pris· Loomis for 1894 ; oners are obliged to assemble every Sab· .S j. , 2 iI . ~a:i ~I ~~.b~{)?-1- § ~~ a~l . =:g ~I Missionaries. S ~~~~ ..0~…. ~~a"d=~:'l.~ Q~)~~ '0~S50o.. S~~1;2 'W -; 'dd r~ggI >gj. Q~ 0~ Q) ..= p.: : ; 1'r~ao .~>~- "<"l)..~. +0::'l"'E'":o~t"- a '" NAME OF MISSION. .S::l 1-.4~'- • §'" "0.~d~ "<I~'"r0:<,.0I":~ «1 1=I"d p..Q ~Q)'o::tI o:l Cj.oj • Q) ~…. !:: ci. 0 ,,:@;j:S0,,» II S ~~I ~ ~~ ~E i ~ ~ ~i ~~ ~ ~ gt ~~~~ ~ >< ~PE-< illoo~ . . . . P-r-e-sb-y-t-er-ia-n-C-'h"'.o"'f-U–"-~S"""",.=-(-1-18-59, 20 20 59 10) 20 .. -'-"-'I~ E-< E-<ZPO Reformed Ch. in America 118591 10 8 27 'I 115 …….. .. 20 3 17 …… . U. Presb. Ch. of Scotland 1874 2 .. 3 1 ~8.2. 72 1,123 ii',126c 41 75 113 24,697:20 The Ch.ofChristinJapan …. 1 140 .. …. …… .. .. .. …… .. Reformed Ch. in U. S… '11879 5 2 11 1 I 14 .. …. …… 29 .. .. …… ..
Presb.Ch.in the U.S. (So.) 1885 10 8 24 6 Women's U.M.S., U.S.A. 1871 4 4 1 .. .. …. …… .. ……. . Cumberland Presb. Ch.. 1877 4 7 15 3 J 12 .. …. .. 2.. ii r American Lutheran Miss. l 1892 2 3 12 11 f!"c 22 io 2 … 2i:40 33 200 1,684 20 39 3,101.74 Amer. Prot. Epis. Ch. (a) 1859 14 9 77 …. 40 9 /41 29 17 7 84 .2.,.4.0.6…5.8 ….21'S 8,201 I .. Chnrch Missionary Soc.. 1869' 25 30 13 30 ..
Nippon Sei Kokuwai. … I …. Soc. for Prop. of the Gos. {l1873, 12 10 28 5 10 11 … . 1,260 11 9 12 Wyckliffe Coli. M. (Can.) 18881 3 1 7 111 2 1 6 44 4 36.69 English Ch. In Canada.. 18921 2 1 5 4 3 24 76.08 68 2 1 3 Amer. Baptist Miss. Union 1860 14 16 44 9 79 19 184 1,597 12 6 37 1,373.09 Disciples of Christ .•.•…. 1883 6 6 18 1 9 3 55 286 2 5 3 75.00 Christian Ch. of America.. 1887 2 1 4 1 24 4 21 225 5 2 11 538.48 BKuamplt-isatiSC'htsh.eAr.nBC.Co.nFv.eMn.t(iobn~ 1889 3 6 24 l' 9 38 4 21.88 18691 26 31 83 12 170 7( 670 11,079 65 42 97 23,204.18 AmericanMeth.Epis.Ch.(a 1873 19 23 58 10 67 55 424 4.006 61 41 18 8,357.00 Canadian Methodist Ch.(a 1873 6 15 27 7 23 1£ 116 1,981 2 16 19 4,562.37 Evan~. Assoc. of N. Amer. 1876 5 10 2 10 13 95 705 10 13 16 1,052.26 Methodist Protestant Ch… 1880 4 2 10 3 15 4 32 312 4 3 13 347.89 Amer. Meth. Epis. Ch. (So.) 1886 15 3 31 9 32 10 83 532 14 15 1,567.6*3 ScandinavianJapanAII'nce 1891 3 7 12 12 29 24 84 2 7 Gen.Evang.Pr.(Ger.·Swiss) 1885 2 3 1 2 1 6 208 6 2 2 50.00 …..* Society of Friends, U. S. A. 1885 2 2 5 1 2 . . 23 61 . . . . 6 50.00 Inter. Missionary Alliance. 1891 3 1 , , 1 … . Unitarian ……….. .. … 1889 1 .. 1 1 5 2 .. .. i7 2 ii Universalist …………… 1890 3 5 1 7 3 25 149 11 2 6 128.26 Independent.. .. .. .. .. …. …. 3 3 7 2 . . 4 13 to72 4 1 t550.00 Tot. of Prot. Miss., 1894….. 226 210 625 134 750:1:364 3,422 39,240 353 258 536 72,217.72 (a) Statistics to June 30, 1894. * (0) To December 31, 1893. (c) Including 1,474 classed al * No Report. .. children. " t Approximate. 78 Self·supporting. • The Fukuin Domeikwai, or Gospel manly spirit. Their main objection to Alliance of Japan, representing the Christianity is that it is joreign, and Protestant churches of all denomina- when they accept it they want to make tions, recently met with 140 delegates it distinctly Japanese. Such elements and appointed a committee to consider in the national character are likely to work in Japan's new territory. Besides produce stability in the future Church.
the missionary societies, many other Nevertheless, this spirit of independence organizations are at work separately or may lead to grave mistakes on the part with the societies. The Y. M. C. A. is of those who are still babes in Christ.
doing 8 very Important work, and the The danger is greatly increased when Y. P. S. C. E. has a very large mem- it is remembered that among the mis- bership; the W. C. T. U. and missions sionaries are Unitarians, and that among to police, postmen, soldiers, prisoners, European books produced in Japan a railway men and others are doing ag- large proportion are infidel or semi-infi- gressive work. del literature.
Dr. Joseph Cook mentions among the There are 123 towns in Japan, each with a population of 10,000 to 1,000,000, reasons for encouragement in Japan : but the missionary force is as yet dis- tributed in only 40 of them. There are "1. Her island position, making her besides 4512 towns, with populations the England of the Pacific and her peo- from 1000 to 10,000. About 25,000,000 ple a nation of sailors, brave and dar- live in still smaller Villages. mg. 2. The Japanese are patriotic, and obey their federal leaders. 3. Japan The great need for Japan at present has marvellous power of assimilation. is united prayer for the missionaries and They copy the West, but their importa· converts already in the field. tions are digested, and their scholarship becomes Oriental as well as Occi- KOREA. dental. 4. The Japanese obey superiors and make good soldiers and sailors. The " Hermit Nation," or " Land of The reverence for those in high place Morning Calm," has an area of 82,000 has a Divine basis. The transfer of square miles and a population of about their reverence for authority to Christ 11,000,000, among whom labor 40 Protwould make them eminent Christians. estant and 20 Roman Catholic missiona- 5. The Japanese have a fine physical ries. The first missionaries were the and mental organism. Jesuits, who entered in the seventeenth century, but suffered much persecution " Japan is also confronted with dan- from 1840-66. Evangelical work was gers. The people also have faults we begun by Rev. John Ross, of ~Ian hope will be overcome, among which churia, who translated the New Testaare conceit, caste, and false faith. As ment for Korea. The first evangelical the foremost nation of the Orient the mission was founded in 1884 by the Japanese have much ground for con- American. Presbyterian Church (North), ceIt. They are still in danger from the door having been opened through caste. The old families may arise to the medical work of Dr. Allen. Besides claim the advantages which have come this society, which has now 28 missiona· to-the nation. Divisions are possible by ries (including 8 ordained and 4 mediwhich late gains may be lost. Except cal) and 209 communicants, in five stathe country become Christian there is imminent danger from agnosticism and false faith which would handicap the national advance. Japan needs to copy the vital faith and not the doubt of the West. Neesima's last word was: 'Free schools and Christian churches will make my nation great and noble. ' "
tions, the Canadian and Australian and The great danger for Christianity in United States Southern Presbyterians, Japan is connected with characteristics the Methodist Episcopal (North) and the of the people which are noble and fine. Society for the Propagation of the Gos- They love their country; they are of a pel are at work.
EDITORIAl, DEPARTMENT
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
The March of Events. ern society, it will not be because energy. patience, and prayer have not combined Of course the event of the month of in the effort. July was the gathering of the 50,000 Christian Endeavorers in Boston. from The convention may be thus summed the 10th to the 15th. 'fhey had a right royal welcome, and left a fine up: impression on the whole, though there was no little criticism on the sight- There were 250 delegates from 22 seeing which occupied too much time on countries, who spoke in 250 pulpits and the Sabbath. The peril of this noble halls. Westminster Abbey gave resociety will be twofold: first, pride of served seats to the leaders of the differnumbers; and secondly, conformity to the ent countries, and a temperance sermon world. If they can escape these two was preached by the Bishop of Dover, risks, which numerical prosperity and in Which he welcomed the delegates, enthusiastic popularity inevitably in- and said the temperance cause was sacur, and can develop a thoroughly mis- cred, and was made light of only by the sionary spirit and a systematic giving, ignorant or thoughtless. It is probably and keep out of politics, no one but God the first time that a woman's organizacan foresee the future of this organiza- tion has ever been recognized in the tion, whose unparalleled growth is like most historic of the English cathedrals, that of a mushroom, and which is now about to call a world-wide convention There was an excursion to Windsor of Y. P. S. C. E. at Washington in Castle, a garden party given to 1000 1896. White Ribbon women by Lady Henry Somerset at the Priory, Reigate, etc. Meanwhile, a convention, not less significant in its way, had been meeting in The annual addresses of the two presithe world's metropolis in June. The dents and the resolutions adopted by the Wo?'ld's Women's Christian Temperance two great conventions, the" World's" Union celebrated its third biennial con- and the" B. W. T. A.," cover every vention by meetings in Queen's Hall on phase of that modern movement by Wednesday and Thursday, June 19th which Christianity is being applied to and 20th, Miss Frances Willard giving the customs of society and the laws of her masterly presidential address, whose the land. The Polyglot Petition will be scope was well-nigh universal, covering presented to the British Government, the problems of poverty and misery, of and afterward conveyed to the various temperance and purity, of color lines governments of the world. This will take a year or more, after which the petition will probably be placed in the archives of the British Museum.
and prison reforms, etc.
The Polyglot Petition by Women di- The Island of Formosa, about the rected against the Drink Traffic was fes- middle of May, was threateneo. with tooned about the Albert Hall on Thurs- anarchy, by the resistance of the peo- day evening, covering the whole fa<;ade ple to the recent terms of the treaty of the balcony and box sections-thir- with Japan. Chinese soldiers besieged teen immense rolls of paper pasted on the governor's castle; a young Chinese linen, containing over 7,000,000 signa- literatus named Chu was reported to be tures in over 50 languages, and repre- elected king, and to have repudiated senting all countries, the whole petition Chinese rule, and to be prepared to re- being occupied with this monster remon- sist annexation by the Japanese. Riots strance against the demon of the cup. were said to be of daily occurrence, and It these godly women do not succeed that Hakka had proclaimed himself in abolishing this greatest evil of mod- king of the northern part of the island. and many had joined his standard. The has long been a vexed question, and is Chinese and Japanese were in control not easily settled. Rev. Dr. A.shmore, of affairs at last accounts. of Swatow, has recited a "heart-rend- ing case," as he calls it : Reports from Chins indicate a con· A convert applied for baptism who siderable excitement in the Celestial bad two wives. He was told that he Empire, and repeated attacks on for- must put one of them away. The eign mission premises. The Canadian question arose, which one? and the an- Mission hospital, dispensary, and chapel swer was, the one married last. But at Chung Kung are said to be looted the first wife had no children, and the and burned, and eleven places of wor- second wife had several. On hearing ship, both Romanist and Protestant, what the decision was, the discarded were destroyed. The reports are some- wife went to Dr. Ashmore and put her what sensational, and perhaps lack con- case before him in this wise: firmation up to date of this writing. "But, teacher, he is my husband, But it is said that heavy ransoms have and I am his wife. You say that he been exacted as the price of personal ought not to have taken me; but he safety; that missionaries and their fami- did take me before he knew of your lies have been compelled to find hiding new religion. He is the father of my places in dirty holes and lofts from the children. I have a right to look to him mob; and that though the soldiers' bar- for companionship and for protection. racks are within five miles, no assistance You make my children illegitimate. has been rendered, and protection rude- You should not do that; you have no ly refused. right to injure my children in that way.
You have no right to put me in the posi- Correspondents have called attention tion of a disreputable woman, for he to what had not escaped us, that in the lawfully married me according to the July REVIEW there appear contradic- usage of China. I had a husband; now tory statements as to the issues of Sun- I havc no husband. I had a home; day newspapers in Japan (pp. 517 and now I have no home. If I go and 558). There is a conflict of authorities, marry another man I shall break the and we have written to Japan to find law. I had one to whom I could go as out the exact facts. This REVIEW is the father of my children; now I can divided into departments under separate go to my children's father no longer, members of the editorial staff, and such nor may I dare to speak to him." conflicting statements cannot always be avoided, as each editor in charge has Dr. Ashmore added that this led to his own sources of information. But his" studying anew the New Testament we seek, when such contradictions ap- teaching on the subject;" and the late pear, to reconcile them or correct mis- Dr. Happer said that, under like cirleading statements. cumstances, "after a long study of the subject," he "would not have inflicted such a trial upon that poor woman as Secretary Merriam, of the A. B. M. U., to deprive her of her husband, her home, calls our attention to a misleading para- and her children in the name of the graph on page 595 of the August num- merciful Redeemer, whose Gospel is ber. In the published report of proceed- best portrayed by His own words, ings we read: "A present attempt to 'Come unto Me, all ye that labor and estdblish such a union of treasurie8 would are heavy laden, and I will give you work confusion and not harmony," etc. rest.' "
(see p. 5).
This matter of how to deal with The action of the committee appointpolygamy, in case of heathen converts, ed to report to the next Assembly on this matter will be awaited with inter· .~ est. The question is not an easy one to of the tree, on the south shore cf Lake settle. There may be reasons such as Bangweolo, under which lies buried led that wise legislator, Moses, to deal the heart of Dr. Livingstone.
as he did with the matter of divorce.
But it is obvious that all polygamy vio- The statement in the June number lates the normal order; "from the be- that Dr. Cochran, of Persia, is dead was ginning it was not so." a mistake. It should read, the wife of Dr. Cochran. Thtl item was taken from Ed ward Evans writes from the Mis- another journal, in which the mistake sionary Home and Agency, Shanghai, was made.
China, as to the form in which money should be brought or sent from the In view of the famous so·called States, that a banker'8 draft on London " quadrilateral" basis of Church unity, is the most valuable and available form. it may be well to give it a permanent Gold has to be exchanged into currency, record.
post-office orders have to go through an The four principles of Church unity exchange, etc. An American banker's proposed by the bishops of the Prot- draft at from sixty to ninety days aftej' estant Episcopal Church at Chicago date saves interest on the time occupied in 1886, and amended by the Lambeth in travel, and is practically a demand , Conference of 1888, are as follows: draft when it gets round to London. 1. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as containing all The Cross Bearers' Missionary Read- things necessary to salvation and as be- ing Circle continues to grow, and its ing the rule and u.Itimate standard of programme for 1895-96 is as follows: faith.
" Lives of Henry Martyn and J. H. Nee- 2. The Apostles' Creed, as the bap- sima;" "Chinese Characteristics," by tismal symbol, and the Nicene Creed A. H. Smith; "New Acts of the Apos- as the sufficient statement of the Chris- tles" and MISSIONARY REVIEW by the tian faith.
Editor. The membership fee is but a 3. The two sacraments ordained by half dollar a year, and Rev. M. L. Gray, Christ Himself-baptism and the supper St. Louis, Mo., is the President. of the Lord–ministered with unfailing use of Christ's words of institution and The rumored death of explorer E. J. of the elements ordained by Him.
Glave, on the Congo, in Africa, isdoubJy 4. The historic episcopate, locally sad news in view of the youth of the adapted in the methods of its administra- brave Englishman. He was but seven- tion to the varying needs of the nations teen years old when he followed Stanley and peoples called of God into the unity in his expedition into that unknown re- of His Church.
gion for the first time ; and yet he soon became a trusted lieutenant, and was A well-known missionary writes: left in command of the camp at Luko- "In the April REVIEW was a letter lela. Despite his many African and from the German missionary, Mr. K6zle, Alaskan explorations since then, he had of Persia, regarding Mohammedan only celebrated the thirty-second anni- work. This account, as published in versaryof his birthday a little while be- Germany, fell under the eye of the Per- fore he set out upon this last trip to in- sian Minister at Berlin, who called the vestigate the African slave trade. It Persian Government's attention to it.
would be a fitting grave for him to be The withdrawal of the missionaries was buried in the Congo Free State, which demanded inside of ten days. The Ger- he helped to establish; and it is a curi- man Minister made objections (?) and ous coincidence that almost the last act the time was extended to thirty days.
of his life was the finding and marking Meanwhile Rev. lHr. Kozle died of typhoid-fever, and his associate, Dr. velop the missionary life in the Church."
Zerweek, with his bride, have left Per- It is called" The Missionary Pastor,"
sia. The ground of expulsion is that and is by Rev. James Edward AdamB, they came to work among Jews, but and has very helpful charts prepared by began to evangelize :Mohammedans." Robert J. Kellogg. It discusses mis- sionary methods, meetings, classes, Among new books calling for our books, and charts. It is little more reviewing, we mention con amore the than an outline, and is so designerl.
memoirs of Mrs. William Booth, "110- But jf any pastor cannot find here ther of the Salvation Army." They enough helpful hints to keep him busy, are in two bulky volumes, edited by and enough ~hintful helps to aid him in her son·in-law, Booth-Tucker, and are developing missionary interest, we are a perfect thesaurus of riches. We in- much mistaken.
tend to give these volumes a very large space hereafter in a more formal reo "Modern Missions in the East," by view of contents. Meanwhile, let it be the lamented Edward A. Lawrence, said that this biography will take rank D.D_, is from Harper Brothers' press.
alongside of the" Life of O. G. Fin· Though so recently issued, this book ney," and Hodder's "Life of Shaftes- has already taken its place by general bury," for cosmopolitan interest and consent in the foremost rank of the litera- pregnant suggestion. Everybody who ture of missions. First given in the cares for a high-toned character and a form of lectures at Andover, New world-wide service should read this Haven, and Beloit, before students, it is book. Its cost is $3.50 per set, post- the record of twenty months spent in a paid, and the publisher is Revell & Co., missionary world journey for the spe- New York. cific end of a personal acquaintance By the same publishers appears W. E. with the mission field at large. It is not Cousins' brief but valuable" Madagas- too much to say that it is a unique and car of To-day." This also will have remarkable volume. It is full of infor- more extended notice hereafter. We mation, carefully collated facts, inspir- have all learned that the story of the ing suggestion, and withal a devout Hovas is among the most thrilling in and loving spirit that rises above all nar- missions; and Mr. Cousins, himself row denominationalism, and sees good magna pars re!'um, here tells the story. everywhere, but not without impartial Read it, ye who love God's work, and perception of all defects.
lend it to others. The closing chapter, on the spiritual Revell also sends out Sir William expansioll of Christendom politically, Muir's book, " Mahomet and Islam," at industrially, intellectually, morally, $1, half the price of the former issue. spiritually, is a fair specimen of the 'rhose who know of the distinguished whole work; and while we may not author will understand his competency agree with every sentiment expressed to write of his theme. And this ques- in these three hundred and thirty pages, tion of the creseent and the power of we regard this as one of the most prince- the green banner of the prophet is one ly of modern contributions to missions, of the burning questions ot the day. and it is the more lamentable that so gifted a pen will write for us no more.
F. H. Revell Company are just pub- lishing a new book which seems to us Rev. Samuel H. Anderson, of Paris, decidedly an advance upon two thirds after two years' perseverance, has got- of the existing missionary literature in ten ready a most interesting" Histoire de its compactness, brevity, pertinency, Jesus, " a " history of the life of the Son and general availability for the supreme of Man, in all the words of the four Gos- purpose which it announces-to "de- pels, and the very words of His contem· poraries." He was led to this attempt have from that time been used as by intense pity for the masses of French chapels. In one of these we now have a native church of 126 members, and people, who do not know the thrilling the old man who gave us the building details of the acts and teachings of the is still the leading spirit in the work.
Lord Jesus. Multitudes of anti-clericals The work in the other temple has not in France regard the Gospel as a " cleri- been so prosperous, but there are now 14 members and several inquirers. cal" book, and so will have nothing to "In 1874 two more stations were do with it; and many who will not read opened, these in two cities about 80 an "Evangile" will read a " Histoire." miles apart; and that year 14 were bap- The four narratives are here combined tized. In 1875 another country station in one, so that the reader has a continu- was opened, a branch from the tirst temple, the native Christians providing ous story. Possibly some whom the the building, the mission providing the Lord has blessed may be glad to aid evangelist. Here we now have a mem- bership of 39. Pastor Anderson in the circulation of this valuable message of life, and will "Another need was apparent-viz., the need of having books in Romanized send him help at 37 Avenue de la Grande colloquial for our illiterate Christians.
Armee, Paris. He is known to us to A beginning was made by transferring the Ningpo primer into this dialect. be a most worthy man and self-sacritic· Then the New Testament was begun and completed in 1881, printed on the i~g minister. premises by men who had never done — A correspondent calls in question such work before. It has been in con- tinual use ever since. some statements in " Notes on Africa" published in the May REVIEW. He " I shall not soon forget the delight which the first sheet produced when says they" do not agree with the state- my wife took it to her women's class.
ment of Rev. Henry Richards, of Banza She had no sooner begun to read Matt. 2 than she was interrupted by them say- Manteke, who says he never saw or ing, 'These are our words; we can heard of a cannibal, and does not be- understand them!' and they wanted lieve there are any in Africa," etc. To copies at once. Other books followed, which we only reply that Jamieson, of such as 'Peep of Day;' the Book of Jonah, printed last year; the Psalms, Stanley's rear guard, was severely'cen- just finished.
sured for drawing and sending home " Up to 1890 the average increase pictures of a cannibal feast which he was about 14. During that year the witnessed.-D. L. -Po number baptized was doubled, and our little chapels began to be crowded.
Reaping time was clearly at hand; but W. D. Rudland, of the C. I. );I., we were not prepared for such an in· writes of the rise and progress of mis- crease as we have since had.
sion work in Tai·chow : " In 1891 another station was opened .. Tai-chow is a prefectural city in in a large market town, where we al- southeast Chekiang, famous for little ready had several native Christians. A else but robbers and opium; looked considerable amount of opposition was upon as the despised Nazareth of China. manifested by some of the leading man The populaion is about 120,000, mostly of the place, and one house had to be agricultural folk, with few shops and given up. But we soon found another no manufactories of any note. 1 came which was larger, and so reaped an adhere in 1870. The station bad been vantage. Now the Christians have so opened about three years, and two men grown in lAumbers as to be able to had been baptized. One of them is still lease an a<!!foining house at a cost of living, and his eldest son is one of our $50, all native contributions. There is most valued native evangelists. now a church of 78 members and near· " The country was very unsettled, on ly 100 inquirers. In another station the account of the recent Tientsin massacr(', native Christians opened an out·station and the prospect was not encouraging. in a village about four miles distant, But in May, 1871, two more were bap- paying the rent and doing the preach. tized. one of whom still lives, and is an ing themselves. evangelist. In 1873 six persons were ,. The year 1892 was one of organiza- baptized, In two villages, 40 miles tion and consolidation more than of ex- apart, idol temples were given to us, tension. But the number of inquh-ers the owners having been converted, and increased so much that the number bap· tized was 141-nearly three, times the and continued by Miss Cooke, proves number of any previous year. During itself an invaluable help to Chinese misthe last week of prayer we asked the sions by training up a body of Christian Lord for 500 souls during this year. We Chinese women, able to do good work, have already baptized 181, and still have either as teachers and Bible women, or about 400 inquirers. as wives and mothers of Christian fami· lies. Two years after Miss Grant's " Of our 13 stations, nine have been school was commenced she had the joy provided with preaching places by the' of seeing three of her pupils baptized natives themselves; three of them were into tLe Church of Christ. At that once idol temples." time the Chinese were greatly opposed to Christianity, and Miss Grant was A year ago Miss Rosamond Anne often in actual danger of her life. Dur- Webb, Secretary of the Society for ing the ten years of her stay in Singa- Promoting Female Education in the pore, however, a great change was East, wrote a letter, which simple press- wrought, and when :Miss Cooke arrived, ure of other matter has hitherto crowd- in the year 1853, all these difficulties had been removed, and she found not only ed out. She says: a peaceful and secure home established, "That society has been at work for but also a staff of native girls fitted to be teachers, and many houses open to fifty years in Singapore; the school, be visited. Three girls were baptized the Chinese girls' school (boarding), the Sunday after Miss Grant's deparand one or two other ones (day) have ture, and the work went fOIward rapidbeen nurseries for heaven. The Lord ly in Miss Cooke's hands. Making use has richly blessed the work. Many of of her native girls as interpreters, she the native young women educated there commenced Bible readings in some of are active Christian workers, and others the houses, and many women came to have gone forth as missionaries to for- these meetings. Noticing that men eign lands. By this post I send two would often stand outside listening to numbers of the society's little magazine, the Gospel, Miss Cooke was stirred to the Female Missionary Intelligencer, consider what could be done for the which give information on the subject -the article in that for February being men. just a reprint from the Malaysia Mes- The London Missionary Society, sage. Yet the Rev. W. J. Oldham, in his article on 'Malaysia' in the MIS- which for many years had flourishing SIONARY REVIEW (May, 1894), com- missions in Malaysia, had removed their pletely ignores this work, although he last man to China about seven years bewas appointed to Singapore some nine fore Miss Cooke's arrival, and the work years ago, and it is hardly within the among the Chinese had entirely ceased, range of possibility that he should have although Mr. Keasbel'ry was still carryknown nothing about it. Justice to the ing on his work among the Malays, and, devoted laborers in that island, to whom to some extent, among the Malaythe Lord has given many souls for their speaking Chinese. The entire field, hire, compels me to draw attention to therefore. was unoccupied. neither the this omission." Church of England nor the Presbyterian The information she refers to is as Church making allY attempt to reach the Chinese. Accordingly Miss Cooke follows: began to teach two men in her school- " The Society for Promoting Female room, with the assistance of a Christian Chinaman, the men walking twelve Education in the East was not estab- miles there and back every Sunday. lished until 1834, but, previously to that The number soon increased to twelve time, Miss Newell (subsequently Mrs. men, and the Church of England Chap- Gutzliff) had begun work in Malacca. lain, the Rev. W. Humphrey, becom- She was succeeded by Miss WaUace, to ing interested in the movement, advised whom the first grant ever made by this Miss Cooke to fit up a small bungalow society, a sum of £50, was allotted; and in her compound (originally built for a in 1835 the committee sent lIiss Thorn- billiard.room) as a chapel. Services ton, a missionary of their o~n, to assist were held regularly, and the con~rega her. After eleven years of labor, Miss tion soon increased to seventy or eIghty. Thornton returned home, and the com- The simplest Church prayers were semittee gave up Malacca as one of their lected, and were read by the interpreter, who was required to prepare his notes stations. for the sermon in English, so that Miss "Later. a school for Chinese girls Cooke might know what he was preach- ing. These services were continued was opened at Singapore, and as China was at that time closed to mission work, thus until the chaplain persuaded his a most important outpost was thus gained. for, through Singapore, China could be reached. To this day the school then commenced by Miss Grant, I
EDITORIAL
English congregation to employ cate· the Indian school at Carlisle, Pa. This chists, after which Miss Cooke gladly order has an advantage in missionary relinquished this branch of her work work. It is not only work for young that it might be carried on by other Indian women, but it brings them into hands. In like manner, the Scotch its membership and gives them an op- Church was stirred up to undertake portunity to work with others for the work of a similar kind. same cause. Other circles correspond " In the mean while, the work of the with these, and so keep in touch with Chinese Girls' School was progressing, the work done by each in its respective and waifs and strays and various cases field. 'The work.' says Miss Shafner of distress were frequently brought to (matron of the school), ' has a peculiar the school by the police and others. At charm for these Indian girls. The sim- one time six young women were brought plicity of its obligation, the modesty of to the school from China; two of these its purpose, its creed that it is better to became Christians, of whom one died be than to do, all find a ready response after twelve years of bright Christian in the timid but honest nature of our life, and the other remains a consistent Indian sisters.' The meetings are con- Christian. ducted by the leaders, all of whom are " In the year 1860 six little children of the school facultY', assisted by the who had been bought in China by president of each CIrcle, who are all some Malay sailors were taken from pupils. The weekly meetings are held them by the police and brought to Miss every Wednesday evening for prayer Cooke's school, grew up, and became and Bible study, and letters from out- true Christians,* and they are now the side circles are read, and other neces- wives of Chinese (clergymen, or) catc- sary reports are presented. Sunday chists belonging to the Church Mission- afternoon the circles unite for prayer ary Society. One of these five workers and Bible reading. There is corredied of cholera in 1873. One of the spondence with absent members who girls who was in the school in Miss have returned to their homes in the Grant's time is now the wife of a mis- West, and letters are also written to sionary to the Chinese in Melbourne. other girls to encourage their effort for " Another girl married a Chinese shop- good. Last year they made three quilts keeper in Batavia fourteen years ago, and sent to a hospital in Sendai, Japan. and her consistent life has been such as They pay one share of $50 for a bed in to cause others to bring their daughters, the New York Hospital for Women and begging that they might be educated Children. Fifty yards of flannel and here. One native catechist, sent to a $20 in money were contributed to sup- peculiarly difficult and arduous Chinese- ply clothes for Indian children in South speaking station, where he met with Dakota. Twenty-five dollars are annu- continual opposition, said he could ally sent to purchase Christmas gifts hardly have stood his ground without for Indian children in the West. A the support and courage and sympathy pulpit Bible worth $18 was given to of his Christian wife, who had 'been a mission; Gospel song books were trained as a pupil in the Chinese Girls' bought and presented to the Y. M. C. A.
School. of the school. They have raised funds " Such have been a few of the wonder- to help a Sabbath-school in Japan.
ful influences for good which have gone Thirty pin-cushions have been made forth from a school which has never and sent to hospitals in Philadelphia been able to boast of more than about and Indianapolis. In valid rolling chairs forty pupils, but where the great aim and other helpful things have been given of the teachers has always been to bring to the hospital of the school.
the pupils to a saving knowledge of "The ways in which the money is .Tesus, and early to instil into their hearts earned are many. Fancy articles made that simple piety for which so many of by the circles are sold at the annual fair; them have been conspicuous in after some of the girls earn money during life. " their summer vacation, and others while at the school. At the State conven- tions of the Y. M. C. A. the association As to the Indian Circle of King's of the school is always represented; Daughters, Miss Luzena Chouteau the Indian delegation is always asked to writes from Chicago : speak, and they always respond. It is "Interesting branches of the King's hoped that these organizations may not Daughters are found in the four circles at only be the means of giving an oppor- tunity to the white people to help the * One died soon after her arrival, from the Indians, but will unite them in each other in this one great efrort to better elfects of the 'cruel treatment [she had received on board ship. mankind."
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTEI.LIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY REV. D. L. LEONARD.
Extraots and Translations from Foreign ceeds village, surrounded by bamboo Periodicals. groves, their darker green picturesquely contrasting with the brighter green of BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, the rice fields. Thr~ugh the latter wind MASS. the silver threads of canals and irrigat- ing ditches. In the background rise CmNA AND JAPAN. the mountains in terraces of increasing height as they recede, until in the far -Missionary KUNZE, in the Missions- distance they lose themselves in the F'1'6und, gives some pleasing descrip- vaporous blue. The fresh green of the tions of landscapes iuthe province of growing fields is everywhere the foun- Canton. "The region through which dation of natural beauty in China." the East River pursues its course is, as almost everywhere in the Canton prov- -" English people are beginning to ince, mountainous. One mountain val- understand how the absence of interley follows another. The mountains communications makes the parts of are often bald. or only overgrown with China which are distant from the seat dwarf fir trees. Yet there are here and of war quite safe for missionary work. there romantic forest ravines out of Dr. Griffith Jobn, writing from a place which, it is true, an idol temple usually some days' journey further inland than rises, thus lowering our delight of the Hankow, says that the people' appear natural beauties around. Behind the to take as little interest in Peking and ranges of hills which line the banks of Canton as they do in Canada and the river rise higher and yet higher Wales. ' He has been making a most mountains, over which, on the north, successful tour in places where no Eurorises still higher Mount Lofen. This pean missionary, but only catechists, is more than 4000 feet high, and is cov- have hitherto labored. At Pah-tzeered with various Buddhist monasteries. Nau, Tien-Men, Tsau-shih, and Mau- It is said that among the monks are kia-po the mandarins were friendly, the many people of rank. The story goes opposition was silenced, and many conamong the people that mandarins, who verts were baptized. At the last·named had reason to fear deposition or con- town the ancestral hall was cleared and demnation to death, have feigned them- used for service. Out of 200 candidates selves dead, had themselves borne into for baptism, 66 were baptized, coming the mortuary hall, have there escaped from 14 villages. There are candidates from their coffins, and joined the monks for baptism in 12 more villages. This of Mount Lofen. In this way they part of the Hupeh Province is therefore saved their lives and saved their wealth very hopefuL" – Ohurch Missiona;ry Into their families, which, in the event of telligencer. their execution, would have escheated to the State." -" By the time this issue comes be- fore our readers, the Japanese occupa- -The station at Tshu-thong-au is tion of Formosa will have begun. There thus described: .. A beautiful chapel will almost certainly be some initial was built there, together with a helper's difficulties with the Chinese city popudwelling, and dedicated on Palm Sun- lations, and a firm hand may be required day, 1890. From the neighboring hill to insure the establishment of the new you have a splendid view over the whole regime. But if Japan continues to show valley. The region is very populous the skill and determination and adminisand wonderfully beautiful; village suc-
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
trative power which have been so mani- years fallen. The idea, it seems, pre- fest during the war, it will not be long vails, even in our great missionary so- before she is able to inaugurate a new cieties, that medical missionaries are era in the island by developing its re- not needed any longer for .Japan. 'In sources and improving the condition of Japan,' I am told, ' there is such progress its people. One thing will be looked that we do not now think it needful to for with eager interest. How will the send medical missionaries tbere.' Com- new government bear itself toward the ing from Japan as I do, it is news to me two Protestant missions which now pos- that its people do not need this agency.
sess a network of some 80 stations over Many skilled physicians there are in Ja- the island? We have the expectation pan, it is true, but these are not available -perhaps we are too sanguine-that for the poor any more than your leading she will not interfere with the mission consultants and skilled private practi.
work already existing, but will rather tioners are within the reach of the poor rejoice in its presence as a factor in the of your cities. Hospitals there are in interests of peace and civilization; and Japan, duly officered and appointed, that she will put no hindrance in the but among a thousand beds in these efforts to spread the Word of God still hospitals you would scarcely perhaps further. Japan has yet to find a relig- find a hundred apportioned to the poor- ion for herself in room of the old faiths est of the people. I only wish that from which she is now casting herself those in this country who are blind on loose; and it may be that in facing the this subject could know Japan as it is, problem of the government of a great and could have their eyes opened.
Chinese popUlation, she has to learn .. But now for a few words about the some lessons concerning the ultimate Bibles which you have, as an associa- principles of righteous rule which may tion, helped me to distribute among the lead her to consider more carefnlly the Japanese doctors. There are, as I have claims of Christian truth."-Medical said, many doctors in Japan-about 42,- Missions. 000 altogether. I myself have personal acquaintance with from 500 to 1000 of -At the annual meeting of the Medi- them, and I have found them always cal Missionary Association, held in Lon- most cordial and kind. The ready ac· don, May 2d, Dr. Whitney, of Tokyo, cess one has had to them one's self sug- Japan, said: gested the thought of seeking access among them for one's Bible as well ; "I stand here to represent Japan, that country in which so many are now and the naval and military surgeons interested; and also to represent the who were actively engaged in the war work of the distribution of the Bible to were our first care. .
the Japanese medical men. With this "To 160 naval, and to nearly 1000 work the lIedical Missionary Associa- military doctors, we have accordingly tion of London has been closely identi- lately sent a Testament and a book of fied, sending me at different times con· Psalms bound up together and printed siderable gifts from medical men and in the Japanese tongue. [Here Dr.
other of its constitnents-gifts which Whitney produced a small, nicely have very materially helped forward bound, tempting-looking volume from the distribution. his pocket.] Within we placed an in- "Since the opening of the country scription stating that the book was a thirty or forty years ago, medical mis- gift from medical men in America and sion work has been carried on in Tokyo, England who, knowing for themselves Kobe, Osaka, Niigata, and in many the value of its contents, were desirous other places. But I want to correct a that their brethren in Japan should also very erroneous notion into which I find find them to be spirit and life. Many that people in England have of late acknowledgments have reached me, and
GENERAL MisSIONARY INTELLIGENCE. [Septemb&r
parts of some of these you too may care lied medical missionaries in China, the to hear: • We thank you very much for better; but everyone from England your precious presents and for your should know at least something about kind writings. ' • There shall be no medicine, for whether he happens to greater happiness to me than if I get the know anything or not, medical work he truth for the grace of God's.' 'Cer- will have to do I" tainly I will read it with attention, and hope that I may not make your kindness It appears that even personal experivain.' 'Your work in distributing ence cannot rid some of the Chinese of Bibles among the doctors is doing much their fixed persuasion of the evil pracgood.' Here is one letter superscribed tices of the foreign doctors. Dr. Rigg without 'To my beloved teacher.' It says: " A little old woman came to me is, you see, rather of the lengthy order. one day who did not present a very [Here Dr. Whitney unrolled a letter pleasing appearance. Her eye was Which had rather the appearance of a swollen up. I wondered whether her parliamentary petition, trailing from the eyeball was injured, and did what I rail of the platform to the floor and could temporarily pending a fuller exalong for a length altogether of perhaps amination. Meanwhile my wife gave ten to twelve feet.] Time is so nearly her a cup of tea and some bread and up that I will not tell you all the'thanks butter, all of which she disposed of. that this letter expresses. " -ilfedicaZ though she had never seen bread and MisBion8. butter before, or had milk and sugar in her tea. The visit over, she went away -Japanese doctors are real physi- and told her neighbors, 'They gave cians; but, as we know, Chinese doc- me medicine at the dispensary to make tors are for the most part mere quack- my head dizzy, and then the foreign salvers. On the same occasion Dr. teacher took my eye out.' The next Rigg, C. M. S. missionary in Fuh-kien, day she came back to us, this time with remarked: "We have been told this her brother, a barber, who was greatly afternoon that medical missionaries are enraged with us for having excised his wanted for Japan-and that although sister's eye. The swelling having by there are 42,000 doctors in the country. this time somewhat abated, I was able And I can assure you that they are to open the eyelid and show the brother wanted in China, though there are that the eye was there all right enough, plenty of doctors there too. I am sure whereupon the old lady went back to I may say, indeed, that there are many her neighbors and informed them, • My more than 42,000 doctors in China; but brother went with me to the foreign I may add that for the whole lot of teacher and threatened him, and frightthem I would give-well, not much ened him so much that he put my eye more than twopence! Two helpers at back again.''' We see that this woman our hospital, the cook and another man, would be able to confirm the stories thought once upon a time that it would about the missionaries from her own exbe a fine thing to go into the medical perience, as according to her it was only line for themselves. So they left us, the valor of her brother that saved her bought some spectacles, and set up in eye from being used for the unhallowed business. In due course of time they dtsigns of the foreigners. quarrelled, and the partnership was dissolved. But this is a fair specimen of " A gong sounds at six, and patients the way in which many and many a throng to the dispensary, each of them Chinaman enters the medical profes- carrying a little bowl. This is for their sion. The fact that these men know so physiC. We have to take care only to little makes anybody who comes from give them a dose at a time, or they England useful. The more fully quali. would drink it all up at once. They are excellent takers of medicine. Cas- tor-oil is swallowed to the_last drop
1895.J EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONfl
without a wry face, and pills they will It poor heathen soul at this mission from eat if you do not look after them. the slavery of sin and death. There is Among the crowd as the morning went a knock at the door. The black sexton on, you may see a well-dressed student enters. "Morena 0 t8osicle!" .. Rure, dressing some loathsome ulcer. Three MO'l'ena 0 t80sicle /" are the mutual greetor four years ago this student shrank ings. sensitively from everything that was repulsive; but one day he chanced to read The same salutations greeted the misabout our Lord's washing His disci- sionary as he soon appeared in his vestples' feet, and from that day no service ments in the joyful· assembly_ The haa been too mean for him to perform whole congregation, men and women, for anyone of the patients. The ulcer young and old, were present. cases he has made his special charge; s:) much so that I have to take him off They came from a distance to a joythem at times and give them to a junior ful Easter festival. They were all neatstuden.t, for he is now one of our seniors. ly dressed, with joy visible in their There are as good Christians among my faces. No word was spo!o:en, but all students as there are in this hall. It is eyes were turned toward the reddening well worth all the trouble it has given horizon. Soon the Easter sun loorps me to have had the joy of training such forth which once before showed the men. It is well worth your while, any risen Lord. The Easter tones of the of you Christian parents who may be bell sounded now from the church here, to train up your children to such tower. The procession formed, the two work-to set medical missions before missionaries with the native helpers and your boys and girls, and to put them in teachers in advance, followed by the the way of preparing for the service. congregation. They go to the cemetery We must have missionary parents if we near the church to celebrate Easter at are to hope to have missionary chil- the graves of the departed. They stop dren." at the hill which holds the grave of the missionary Kobolde, who had been be- Ea.ster Oelebration in Africa. loved and had died young. The tolling or'the bell ceased. After a short prayer At two o'clock in the morning, as a jubilant hymn of praise breaks forth light began to dawn upon the quiet re- in this home of the dead in honor of gion, there was also an awakening tq Him who took away the sting of death life in the vicinity of the German mis- and brought immortality to light. sion in South Africa. Here and there black forms appeared between the fields There were also many Hollanders and corn gardens, singly or in small (Dutch peasants from the neighborhood) groups, on their way to the mission. present. The miSSionary therefore read Near the tower of the little church the the Easter Gospel in Dutch and made a. guests assembled. "Morena 0 tsosicle /" short address in the same;Ianguage. The (" The Lord is risen I") the tones of the festival sermon then followed from the bell proclaimed to the new-comers. other missionary in Sessutho (a native "Ru'l'e, Morena 0 t80sicle /" (" He is language), to which the white listeners truly risen I' ') was their answer. The also gave attention. The service was missionary stood at the window of his closed with hymns and prayer, a beaustudy and looked out into the dawning tiful, fitting Divine service. It showed Easter morning full of thanks and that this congregation, which once conpraise to Him who here again in Afrk-a sisted of heathens who had no hope, had shown Himself a risen and living now was composed of happy Easter Saviour, and who had also saved many Christians by the grace of God, for whom also the light of eternal life beamed across the dark portals of the grave.-li'rorn the Lutheran Kirchen- f'l'eund.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
English Notes. throughout Tinnevelly, and aggressive and earnest efforts are being made in BY JAMES DOUGLAS. many quarters, a root of bitterness has Ohu'l'ol. Missionary Society.-Not only sprung up, owing to the order of the the friends of this society, but of evan- diocesans that caste titles should be gelical missions generally, will be in- omitted in the pUblication of the banns clined to view as an augury for good of marriage. The result has shown the proclamation of a British protec- how deep-seated is the spirit of caste torate over the States intervening be- among those who as Christians should tween Uganda and the East Coast. have given it up altogether. Still all Though the Uganda :Mission has been are not tainted. A band exists of men in no way dependent on man's arrange- full of faith, of prayer, and of the Holy ments, yet it does seem as if, in the Ghost.
overruling providence of God, the way London Missionary Society.-The bearof the Gospel was being further pre- ing of the French invasion of Madagaspared through the introduction of set- car on evangelical missions has been tled government into the heart of Afri- seriously complicated by the Lenten ca, and the decision arrived at by Her pastoral of the Roman Catholic Arch- Majesty's Government to make the bishop of Paris, who speaks of the railway to Uganda. It is hoped that French expedition as a crusade on bethe pax Britannica, like the pax Roo half of Catholicism. This sentiment is mana of old, may greatly facilitate the re-echoed by the other bishops of France, progress of the Gospel as the means of and coupled with the stronglyanti-Britearth's regeneration. ish feeling which finds utterance among Oentral Asia.-Dr. Neve's recent arti- the French Colonial party, seems to cle on Central Asia as a further field point to anxious days in the future.
for occupancy has already borne fruit Lifu, New Oaledonia.-A wondrous both as regards offers of personal ser- work of grace has recently taken place vice and of substantial contributions. on this island. the like of which had As the editor of the Missionary Intelli- never been seen on the island before. gencer points out, every region beyond The results appear to have far exceeded that is entered, every fresh enlargement faith and expectation. "I confess," of the missionary field to lands still writes Mr. James Hadfield, " that when more remote, reacts fa vorably on the I started these revival services one chief other spheres which are already before idea in my mind was that I should be the churches. The new does not preju- furnishing the pastors with a weapon dice the old, but strengthens the organic which might be of value to them in the development of the whole network of future, when they had learned to use it agency. with effect; but a stronger hand than ours has used the weapon and left us Negro Mis3ionarie8.-The Bishop of all, teachers and people alike, under a Sierra Leone, believing that the Church profound sense of God's willingness to in West Africa would be much helped help us, and of the ease with which He if negro missionaries from across the works," As a result of these services, Atlantic could be procured, has gone to conducted throughout the island by the West Indies to see who among the four of the native pastors, no less than colored Christians are willing to offer 564 natives have decided for Christ, and themselves for this work.
South India.-It is reported that while the whole island has been roused to re- the congregations at the Palamcottale newed faith and zeal. One of the pas- Tamil Church are as large as ever, tors described the movement as a true numbering over 1200, and while bap- "Penetekosa," and records that while tisms are almost daily taking place working in a remote district a somewhat
ENGLISII NOTES
severe hUlTicane came on, but the peo· as much ehristian &1 many IIlf our home pIe would not allow of the meetings villages. There !tre few houses where being interfered with, earnestly protest- family worship is not observed. Let ing that it was no hurrieane, bjt sim- people try to realize what that means, ply the rushing of a mighty wind to ac- and they will rejoice and give God company the descent of the Spirit. In thanks as I did and do."
some of the villages there is scarce one Dr. .iJjJleck Scott.-The Blantyre Misleft who is not either a church-member sion of the Church of Scotland has sufor a candidate for admission. fered a grievous loss in the death of Dr.
Hankow, Ohina.-Dr. Griffith John W. A. Scott, at the early age of thirty- writes concerning the new leper home three. His words at starting for the at Hiau Kaw, and the prospects gener- Dark Continent were, "What a glori- ally in that neighborhood: "It is now ous thing to help to save Africa 1" In about twenty years since we began labor he was unsparing of himself, and work in that district. From the begin- though his time on furlough was long ning we have been greatly encouraged overdue, he refused to leave till a suc- by evident tokens of God's favor. But cessor would come to take his place and never have we seen so much to inspire his work. His career is brief but in- us with confidence as now. The whole spiring ; and the mantle of such a man district is being leavened with Christian cannot fall to the ground.
truth, and everywhere an interest in the Baptist Missionary Society.-Great truth is being awakened in the minds of grief is felt at the early and lamented men. .. We want more men. When death of Sidney Roberts Webb, M.D., shall we have them !" of the Congo, after a short two years of Prayer of a Hunan 0 hristian. -" 0 missionary service. Skilful in the sci- Lord, Thou knowest that Hunan means ence of medicine, he had an earnest south of the Lake, and Hupeh north of evangelical spirit, and was especially • the Lake; the Lake is Tung Ting. successful in attracting the Congo boys Thou knowest, Lord, that there are to his person and touching their hearts more people in these two provinces than by his appeals. The letter of his young there are fish in the Lake, and Thou wife, narrating the circumstances of his hast sent us to be fishers of men. In last illness and departure and burial at many places the Gospel net has not sea, is unspeakably touching. One who been let down, and there is no means of well knew him writes: "Sidney Webb catching the fish, nor is there any fish- died as he lived; and he has carried erman. We pray Thee, Lord, to grant with him the character and capacity that in every place there may be a Gos- formed by the experience and discipline pel net and skilful fishermen. " of earth,"
Presbyterian Ohurch of England.- Wesleyan Mi8sionary Society.-The Writing of a visit paid to the mission "'Wesleyan Missionary Notices" constations in Formosa, the Rev. John tinue still to be occupied with addresses Watson, M.A., says: "The brethren in given at the annual meetings by breth- Formosa have been unduly depressed ren from the foreign fields_ There is an by the relapses of which they have told unmistakable ring of faith in their utus among the Christian aborigines. I terances generally, while the results, as spent a few days at Awgulan, in the summarized, show in several cases gratinorth of our district, which is virtually fying progress. Educational agencies a Christian village. The people are all are carefully fostered, and evangelistic aborigines, or Sek Hoan. They speak efforts unfiaggingly sustained. Speaktheir native dialect, and also Chinese. ing of the Galle district of Ceylon, the Some twenty-five years ago they first Rev. Robert Tebb says, "Of the 500 heard the Gospel. Now the village is members there, many of them are work-
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
in~ for Christ, and are endurin~ for ·~The la.te Rev. E. A.. Lawrence lays Him in a way to be compared with that down this dictum, which is eminently of the noblest members at home. . . . Christian: .. Every church should work Then in the educational work we are out in. a mission, and every mission very thankful indeed that we have some should work out into t1 church. " 6000 childl'en in the day schools and Sabbath-schools." The testimony of -The Spirit of Mission8 is privileged the Rev. W. Arthur Cornaley. of Wu- to be able to state a fact which unforchang, Ohina, is no less valuable: "Dur- tunately is notable because so unusual: ing the nine years I have been out there "For a long time we have received the membership of the district has al- from the same anonymous contributor a most exactly doubled. Among those regular weekly gift of $5 for missions. 650 members there are more than double We recognize it by the address on the the number of workers there were in envelope_ It shows a constant thought those earlier days. We know our num- for missions which is very gratifying." bers now. They have been tested by the riots. Not one left us under the -Bishop Potter, of New York City, stress of that persecution and excite- takes a "vacation" by going into the ment. The living influence of some 650 heart of the crowded tenement district Christians must be enormous." of the East Side, and individually tak- ing part in the mission work among the THE KINGDOM. poor. His object is twofold. First, he wants to learn for himself the character -Paul is the prince of missionaries, and requirements of that particular misand Chapter viii. of Second Corinthians sion field. Secondly, he desires, by peris the most stirriug passage relating to sonal direction of the mission, to exthe missionary spirit that his pen ever emplify his idea of the cathedral, produced. If the Christian Church were which is, that it should be a church for only to learn those twenty-four verses all classes of the people, a free church, by heart, the world's redemption would for the poor as well as for the rich. be nigh, even at the doors. The place of beginning should be at the fifth -Truly, the Scudders rank high verse, which tells how the saints of among royal families, for they have MacedOnia first gave their own selvll8 to supplied 30 missionaries to the foreign the Lord. field, and have given 529 years of toil for the salvation of India. -" Do the next thing." That may be nothing but to stand still and see the -As the New York Sun reminds us : salvation of the Lord. Thank God, His " Two centuries elapsed after the disfaithfulness and power are not dependent covery of America by Columbus before upon our faith! Our faith may fail us, Europe began to turn America to much but if we obey simply, humbly, in the account, but a single century after Ausdark, God's light and power and salva- tralia drew the world's notice saw the tion will be clearly manifested at last. full flower of civilization there. The After all, we shall find that obedience is most of Africa is the discovery of the but faith with folded wings. As Bishop past half century, and yet we know far Thoburn puts it, " God's promises are more of that great continent in all its His commands." If we cannot always aspects to-day than was known of Amerreceive the Divine message with the ica three hundred years after Columbuoyancy and cheerfulness of faith, we bus had discovered it." can receive it with the determination and the faithfulness of obedience.-Ind- -After a meeting of Babus in Bow ian Witnes8. Bazar, Calcutta, the Rev. J. F. Hewitt was questioned by a man who was on the border-line between theosophy and Hinduism. An inquisitive crowd quickly iathered, questions and answers de· which art in Heaven, above .!.mericlI I veloped into a rather lengthy discus· Hallowed be Thy name, in Am8rica. sion, which was cut short in a very Thy kingdom come, in America. Thy pleasant way. ~Ir. Hewitt writes: "A will be done, in America, as it is in negro, a pure African, thrust his way heaven. Give us this day our daily through the crowd, and, taking the bread, in America; and forgive us our Babu by the arm, besought him most debts as we forgive our debtors, in earnestly to accept the Lord Jesus as America." his Saviour. Then he told them that he was once a heathen, but a black -The Church of Rome is in princi· bishop named Crowther came to his pIe about as tolerant as a Bengal tiger. country and told them sweet words When the tiger is in his cage he submits about the Lord Jesus, which he had be· to various circumstances which he does lieved, and by which he had become a not tolerate when free to follow his own Christian. It was a sight which I shall wishes. In the freedom of the jungle . not readily forget. It did one good to we see exactly what the nature of the bear a black, rough·lookingnegro plead· animal is. And if we would know ex- – ing earnestly in broken English with actly the principles of the Church of this educated, intellectual Babu, and ex· Rome and her theories concerning the horting him to accept Christ." -Ohurch religious rights of those who are not in Missionary Intelligencer. her own communion, we should study her procedure in those countries where -Two replies come to the time·worn she is virtually at liberty to carry out and slanderous allegation that only dead her own ideas.-Indian Witne88. Indians are good. First, the tables are fairly turned upon us whites when the -For a long period, the Dutch au· Indian preachers very earnesly assure thorities in Sumatra tried to win the . their hearers that there are good white Mohammedan population by excessive people, as Miss Collins declares they do. deference and even by special privi- And then in Boston the other day Lone leges. They thought to awaken the Wolf confessed, "that is true; but gratitude of the Moslems and gain their how? I am a dead Indian, because the adherence by spending lavishly on their fire of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus temples and religious arrangements; Christ has killed the Indian that was in the ruined mosque of Atschie, in Suo me." matra, was splendidly rebuilt at the cost of the Government, and the Dutch -It appears that something besides rulers went so far as to regard the work climate is concerned in making of West of missions as PCllitically dangerous. Africa a graveyard for missionaries. They even believed that the Mohamme· One who bas suffered there writes: dan insurrection in Borneo in 1859 was " It is said, 'So many die. ' And why provoked by the missionaries. But late· do they die? Simply because the nig. ly a change has taken place, and three gardly giving of Christian people com· years ago it was emphatically declared, pels them to do and risk what no hu· in an assembly of men thoroughly ac· man being can endure in any climate. quainted with the circumstances of the One man was left with work that at Dutch colonies, that missions were a home would employ ten, and then, if great help to the Government, and the Lord doesn't work a miracle to keep should be furthered in every possible him alive, it is attributed to 'the dread· way.-Evangelische8 ]tIi88'ionsmagazin. ful African climate.' " WOMAN'S WORK.
-This revision of the Lord's Prayer -It is said that the W. C. T. U. is has been made for those who do not be· the first women's organization to receive lieve in foreign missions: "Our Father official recognition in Westminster Abbey. At the late World's Convention ate course in medicine, and then return some of the most notable sessions were to Liberia, able to do better work in the held in the abbey, and the Bishop of line of medicine. I look forward to a Dover preached a sermon there eulogiz- long life to do good and help build up ing the organization. Surely the world Africa."
moves-even that part oj' it encompassed -Thirty-five deaconesses have gone within the British Isles. out from the Chicago Training School -A young English woman, a physi- this year into active work. They are cian, was l'ecentlyescorted from India distributed as follows: Chicago, 9; to Afghanistan by a special embassy Lake Bluff Orphanage, 4; Milwaukee, from the Ameer, and her ministrations 3; Fall River, 2; Minneapolis, 2; made an impression so favorable that Omaha, 2; Africa, 2; Peoria, Freeport, she accompanied the Buite of the St. Louis, Grand Rapids, La Crosse, Ameer's son to London. Providence, Eureka Springs, Des Moines, undenominational work in -This is written concerning woman's Chicago, each 1. Two others are can- day at the recent meeting of the Inter- didates for foreign work in India or national Missionary Union: "The most China.
interesting feature perhaps of the exer- -Two Chinese girls from Kiukiang, cises was Mrs. White's presentation to China, stood the highest in the recent the audience of three silver-haired ladies junior examinations of the medical dewith this record: Mrs. E. C. Scudder, partment of the University of Michigan. 21 years in India; Mrs. Henry Blodget, They came to America three years ago 40 years in China; Mrs. J. C. Hepburn, at the solicitation of Miss Howe, a mis- 50 years in China and Japan. The lat- sionary from Ann Arbor, hardly knowter, with half a century of good works ing a word of English, and graduate upon her, sat a queen among us. Full next year to return to China as medical of dignity, her narrative flashed with missionaries. quiet humor that brought out in happy relief the earnestness of her life. " -Miss Hu King Eng,M.D., who is -Miss Georgia L. Patton, M.D., born soon to return to China well equipped a slave, tells us this about herself: " I as a missionary of the Woman's Forworked on the farm until I was seven- eign Missionary Society. was baptized teen years old. My mother died when in China in her infancy by Rev. S. L. I was sixteen. I have attended Central Baldwin, D.D., Recording Secretary of Tennessee College since 1882. I have our missionary society. She is the been able to be in college only a few granddaughter of one of our earliest months each year, being compelled to converts in China.-Zion's Herald.
stay out and work to pay my expenses. -One of the most successful of girls'
I have paid my way and supported my- boarding·schools in the foreign field is self mostly by teaching district schools. Beirut Female Seminary, which has In 1890 I complcted the scnior normal been for many years a most valuable course, and in February, 1893, complet- part of the missionary work in Syria.
ed the three years' course in medicine. Other schools have been added to this I go to Liberia for the good I want to beginning and have had a great effect, do for others, to relieve the suffering, even upon the Mohammedan communi- and to assist in radiating the light of ties. One day-school, taught in Beirut Christianity and civilization to other by Miss Taylor, a Scotch woman, has parts of Africa. I expect to both prac- in it about 40 Mohammedan girls of the tise medicine and to teach school in better class. In self-defence, the Mo- Liberia. After two years I hope to re- hammedans started a girls' school of turn to this country, take a postgradu- their own, but it waS not successful. GENERAL MISSIONARY IN'rELI.IGENCE.
YOUNG PEOPLE. topics were considered: "An Efficient Missionary Committee, " " The Mission- -Again has the Christian Endeavor ary Meeting" and .. Systematic Givmovement astonished all Christendom ing." There was a large attendance of by the hosts it brought together at the those interested in home and foreign recent Boston convention. The names missions. of 56,435 delegates were registered, and 10,000 more are reckoned to have been -A novel method of awakening zeal present as visitors; and the spiritual and prayer in behalf of missionary work quality of that notable week's gathering has been adopted by one Christian Enfairly matched its prodigious propor- deavor Society, which has undertaken tions. The growth of the last year the support of a native preacher in the amounted to 7750 societies, making a Madura Mission, costing, above what total of 41,229, with 2,473,740 members. the people themselves raise, $40 a year.
In the sessions the place of honor among This makes 11 cents a day. A card is topics was accorded to good citizenship prepared for each day of the year, and and missions. More than $10 each had the member of the society taking that been raised by 5557 societies for the card pays the 11 cents and promises to spread of the Gospel among the nations, pray especially for that helper on that and it is estimated that the total of mis- particular day. Thus alms and prayers sionary offerings reached $425,000. The go together.
Friends reported that their Endeavorers -A call has been issued for the first sustain 15 missionaries wholly or in national convention of Young Lutherpart. Well might the Boston Adver- ans, to be held in Pittsburg, October tiser exclaim: .. What other human 30th and 31st. The object of the conconcern, belief, hope or ambition is vention will be" to promote Christian there, be it politics, business, pleasure, fraternity among all Lutherans in the knowledge, or sport, that could bring to United States, to organize a national asthis New England shore in midsummer, sociation, and to quicken practical from every State and Territory and Christian activities." province of North America, and from Australia and from Great Britain, and -One of the most interesting of the from ' the land of the midnight sun,' a missionary societies in mission fields is representative convention of 50,000 dele- the Missionary Children's Missionary gates ?" Association in Western Turkey. Its members are the sons and daughters of -The Chicago Tribune sent a staff of missionaries; its headquarters are in reporters and artists to Boston to " cov- Constantinople, and it has local societies er" the Christian Endeavor Convention; with suggestive names, such as " The the work was admirably done, and the Fishers of the Bosphorus," " Marsovan Tribune deserves the thanks of all Gleaners," " Mountain Jewel Seekers, " Christian people. in all the 7 stations of the mission. The -The Baptist rally was an amaze· local societies hold monthly meetings, ment to many. Where did all these and the annual meeting occurs in con- Baptists come from? was a general nection with that of the mission. For question. The session was full of in- a time the association supported an Ind- terest. Professor Vedder presided, and ian girl at Hampton Institute, and later greeted his fellow Endeavorers to " the the funds-about $50 a year-have been largest Baptist meeting ever held, not appropriated for schools in China and only in Boston, but in the world." Ceylon.
-The Brooklyn Christian Endeavor UNITED STATES.
Union has held a conference of mission- -The census report covering the ary committees, and the following statistics of churches has just been issued. It is a work of more than SOO Talladega must be a healthy spot for pages, with colored maps. The total of humanity, both black and white. communicants of all denominations is 20,612,806, who belong to 165,177 or- -This is a brief abstract of the hisganizations or congregations. These tory of another institution in the same congregations have 142,521 edifices, State: "Fourteen years ago Booker T. which have sittings for 43,564,863 per- Washington was still at Hampton, and sons. The value of all church property lmd not even heard of Tuskegee. He used exclusively for purposes of worship reached here in June, 1881, and all there is $679,630,139. There are 111,036regu- then was of the school was on paper. lar ministers, not including lay preach- It has closed its fourteenth year with an ers. There are 5 bodies which have enrollment of 809 students-150 in the more than 1,000,000 communicants and model school, and 66 teachers and super- 10 more than 500,000. intendents. The school owns about 2000 acres of land and has over 40 build- -The Ohicago T1·ibu.ne says that the ings either completed or going up. It total donations by gift and will in this rents 15 cottages off from the school country since January 1st. counting iIr grounds, and about 10 of the teachers dividual sums exceeding $1000, are as live in homes of their own. At least 25 follows: January, $1,698,900; Febru- industries have been carried on during ary, $1,873;300; March, $736,550; the year, covering almost every kind of April, $1,311.100; May, $4,239,300; pursuit necessary to the support of June (to date), $575,600. Total, $10,- more than 1000 people. In all of these 434,150. Of this amount colleges and operations $73,348 have been expended, universities have received $4,075,750; about one fifth of which has gone into hospitals, $1,593,000; churches, $789,- permanent plant, the balance to current , 000; and libraries, $208,000, or nearly expenses. Out of the above sum the two thirds of the total. The remainder, students received a benefit of $41,000, $3,768,400, has been distributed among which they paid in labor at an average museums, art galleries and various of 5 cents per hour toward their exclasses of charity: penses. "
-President De Forest is at the head -Rev. Dr. E. W. Gilman, one of the of a missionary institution in Alabama, secretaries of the Bible Society, has jnst and has lately informed the Ohristian been informed by its agent in Peru that public as to what it is not. Here fol- a number of Bibles consigned to him lows one paragraph from several: some time ago have been admitted " Talladega College is not a factory for through the custom house at Oallao. the making of dudes and dudesses. This result follows about eighteen Next to wickedness nothing is more months of persevering effort and litigapersecuted here than affectation, con- tion occasioned by the influence of the ceit, and finical foolishness. The long Roman Oatholic Ohurch officials, who trail is stepped on ; the stove-pipe hat tried every means to keep the agent, gets its banging; and the gold-headed Rev. A. M. Milne, from obtaining the cane, if it appeared at all, would be Bibles for circulation. made a stick for the owner's back. Neither display in dress nor the spread- -The July issue of Gospel in .All eagle in oratory command a premium ; Lands has an admirable article on « How while hard-handed industry and pains- to Run a Ohinese Sunday-School," by taking economy are advocated and de- Rev. F. J. Masters, of San Francisco. veloped. Pretence, display, and shams It ought to be reprinted in tract form, of all kinds are here persistently dis- and be in the hands of every teacher of couraged. They do not thrive in this Ohinese, whether West or East. particular latitude and longitude." –New York City continues to be GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
blessed with evangelizers of an heroic churches. The Spanish are cared for and energetic mould. Missionary Park- in New Mexico and in Brooklyn; the hurst has found a wortby coadjutor in French in New Hampshire, Indiana, Theodore Roosevelt, albeit the latter be- Chicago, and Philadelphia; the Bohe· longs away down in the secular police mians in Cleveland and Baltimore; the department. Note well these excerpts Portuguese in New Bedford, etc.
from one of his discourses : -Rev. A. Ben Oliel, of Jerusalem, " We suffer from over-legislation and has been baptized in the Jordan, has joined the Baptist Church, and already from lax administration of legislation." is stirring up his new-found brethren to " The American people will not ulti· plant a mission in the Holy City.
mately sanction the systematic violation -The Missionary Board of the Cumof law." berland Presbyterian Church is no long- er to wait for missionary candidates to " I had to choose between closing all apply for appointment, but is to search the saloons and violating my oath of out in the churches suitable men and office. I chose to close the saloons." women,and then proceed to "call" them (Hear!) to the work. And why not 2 " I would rather see this administration turned out for enforcing laws than see it succeed by violating them."
(Hear! hear!) , -A deputation from the American "I am an executive, not a legisla- Board to Japan, consisting of Secretary Barton, Mr. W. P. Ellison, of the Prutive officer. I indulge in no theorizing dential Committee, Dr. A. H. Bradabout the performance of duty." (..:1 ford, of Montclair, N. J., and Dr. J. G. Daniel I) Johnson, of the New England Church, Chicago, has been charged with an ex- Why, he could not have enunciated ceedingly important mission_ Japan's doctrine more orthodox or pungent an growing spirit of independence has put he were duly ordained by PreSbytery, bishop, or the Pope himself !
-Hillsdale College, Michigan (Free the missions there in a critIcal condition.
Baptist), has always been characterized Evidently leading strings will not be by a missionary spirit. As early as 1856 tolerated much longer by the saints 2 of its students went as missionaries in the Land of the Rising Sun; and it to the West Indies. Frequent visits bids fair to be a most difficult question from returned missionaries and the pres· to settle, just where and how to endeavor ence of students preparing for mission- to assist them with counsel and with ary work, especially the graduation of funds, and when to withhold influence, 4 of Dr. Jeremiah Phillips's daughters, leaving them to follow their own con· who entered the India field, has left the victions.
college in touch with mission interests. EUROPE. Of the stlldents, 28 have gone to the for- eign field-l to Africa, 3 to Jamaica, 2 Great Britain. – Well does tbe Evan- to China, and 22 to India, and 14 have gelical Ohurchman remind us that not all ,been home missionaries, with work titled personages are as a matter of course chiefly among tbe colored people of spiritual nobodies: .. It may be news Cairo and Harper's Ferry. to some on our democratic continent that in the great religious meetings held -In the aggregate a vast amount of during M.ay and June in London many labor has been expended in this country members of the House of Lords take a upon the foreign-born. The Method- prominent part. Scarcely a day passes ists, for example, minister to the Chi- without a peer baving taken part in a nese in New York, as well as to them meeting at Exeter Hall. Lord Bennet, and the Japanese on the Pacific Coast. son of tbe Earl of Tankerville, has been In Utah light gleams forth from 20 out on a preaching tour among the villages in the neighborhood of Chilling- -Shades of Sydney Smith and all ham Castle, the family seat in North- other mockers at missions! Read this umberland, and Lord Overtoun has been from the Reporter: co It is perhaps not conducting a number of services in too much to say that never since Sir Glasgow, and has presented a site valued James Stephens's article on the Clap- at £16,000 to the Y. M. C. A. of that hamites has the Bible Society attained city. All the members of the upper such literary recognition as it receives house are not followers of the turf and in the recent number of the Q:uarterly the prize-ring. A very large number Review. In many ways the notice is of them take a deep interest in all Chris- even more satisfactory than Sir James's, tian undertakings. for he only brought in our work be· cause it w~,s the pet scheme of the men -Dr. Pentecost is trying to mend he was dealing with. The Qnarterly things at the Marylebone Church. He Reviewer, on the other hand, starts is not satisfied with the weekly offer- with the work; to him the men are ing. He says that about 600 pennies what they should be, God's instruments, are deposited in the collection baskets by whom the work comes to pass. So every Sunday, and fears these coins may the Annual Report for 1894, and the represent the gratitude of 600 'people. co Gospel in Many Tongues," appear for And assuming that one person puts in the first time in that numbered list, at several pennies, he makes the sugges- the head of the Review, which many tion that it would be a .good plan for books have desired to enter into and those who give as much as threepence have not been able. We cannot do to take those three penny pieces on the more than urge our readers to look it Saturday and exchange them for a through, and our deputations to make threepenny bit, claiming that this opera- use of it, for it catches our society's tion " would be more honoring to God," operations from the true standpoint of and would be co a step in the evolution historical continuity, and confesses that of beneficence"-from copper to silver. 'in this work every gift is sanctified, -John Bull at the best is far removed and no pains are superfluous.' "
from sinlessness, or even saintliness; but well does the Indian Witnes8 enter -Dawn in India thus sums up the this protest; "Professor Thoumaian work of the Christian Literature So- and the Rev. A. W. Prautch are ad- ciety: "Fifteen hundred separate pub- dressing joint meetings in England on lications have been issued in 18 different , The Iniquities of Turkish Rule in Ar- languages of India, and of these more menia and the Iniquities of British Rule than 20,000,000 of copies have been in India.' The Anti-Opium Society in sold. Thirty-two missionary societies England deserves to fail if it permits its regularly take advantage of our books agents to do their work in such a ques- both for evangelistic work and for the tionable manner. What confidence can use of the converts. More than 1000 the public place in the reliability of men Christian teachers have been trained in who put England's treatment of India our institutions, most of whom are now alongside of Turkey's treatment of Ar- teaching in village schools, employed menia? Professor Thoumaian can by missionaries. There cannot have plead ignorance of India in extenuation been fewer than from 50,000 to 60,000 of his course; but a missionary who under their influence. In some cases knows India, and who reads the English churches have been formed and the papers on the Armenian atrocities, has teachers turned into evangelists and no excuse for libelling a government pastors, and 71 pupils are under train- that immeasurably surpasses all others ing in the institutions at Ahmednagar.
in just and generous treatment of sub· In Bengal 8000 children attend the cir- ject races." cle schools, and more than 40,000 chilo dren have passed through these schools. been sent out from Sweden, who are in The 15,000,000 of readers who have connection with the International Alli- come from government and mission ance of New York, and are supported schools loudly call for pure and Chris- by that association.-London Ohri8tian.
tian literature. This is the most urgent need of India. We have created the ASIA.
appetite, and if we do not provide wholesome food, the devil through his India.-Mount Maru, writes the F.ev.
agents in England and India will tempt T. Williams, of Rewarri, is, of all the them, and with the grapes of Sodom and sacred mountains of the Hindus, the the clusters of Gomorrah." most sacred. Its height, according to the Puranas, is 672,000 miles, or be- The Continent.-According to Evan- tween twice and three times the dis- , gelical Ohristendom, the Roman Catholic tance of the moon from the earth! Mr. Church in France, in providing schools Williams has lately been in the region of for the education of children free from the supposed site of this mountain, and governmeut control, in ten years has has been able, by geographical demonspent more than 30,000,000 francs. In stration as to the position of rivers and Paris there are more thau 200 such other mountains, to show the impossischools, with 76,000 scholars, and in the bilities implied in the myth. whole of France 1200 monasteries and nunneries, containing 30,000 men and – " It is the custom generally among 130,000 women. As home missionaries the Singhalese," writes the Rev. R. T.
there are 8500 priests, 33,600 nuns, and Dowbiggin, of Cotta, Ceylon, "to re- 3600 friars. ceive a dowry with the bride, and this -From the twenty· fourth annual reo varies from 50 rupees to 20,000 rupees, port of the Evangelical Church of Italy according to circumstances. A. dowerit appears that in connection with this less girl has not much chance nowadays body there are 26 churches and 35 sta- of getting married. However, there are tions, with 132 places visited regularly. exceptions. A young Christian man The ordained ministers number 21 ; evan. fell in love with a very poor fatherless gelists, 10 ; colporteurs, 8. There are girl, who at the time was also a Budteachers and Bible-women, Sunday- dhist. He wished to marry her, but schools, and associations for young peo- would not do so until she became a. ple. The communicants number 1697, Christian. He put her under the care and the adherents 6315. of a catechist and his wife, who taught her, and he paid for her board and lodg- -In 1887 the Swedish Mission in ing. After a few months she was bap- China was formed, and it has now in tized, and a month later married, the China 21 missionaries. This mission is bridegroom paying for her wedding atassociated with the C. I. M. In 1890 tire. The bridegroom wished to be the Holiness Union began work in married in our church, but in order to China. This mission. which has about do so had to travel a distance of eleven 10 missionaries, is also connected with miles in bullock carts, which took four the C. I. M. The same year the Swed- or five hours each way. ish l'Iissionary Union and the Swedish Baptist Mission took up work in China. -F. Becker Shawe, lately returned These societies have 20 workers in from Leh, on the borders of Thibet, China, but they are not connected with tells this about one of the" religious"
the C. I. M. In 1891, 50 Swedes were institutions of that country: "These sent out from America, who are sup· prayer mills contain a few written repe- ported from small Scandinavian congre- titions of some Buddhist pray,:, proba- gations in that land, and are also con- bly the six-syllabled formula, 'Om nected with the C. I. M., while 45 have mani padme hum.' Each twirl of the machine is supposed to multiply the -Miss Alice Ford thus describes in prayers placed within it, and so in- Helping Hand a jungle chapel in Bur- crease a store of good works for the wor- msh : "Some of you would have hesi- shipper in view of the future transmi- tated at the steps-two long bamboo grations of his soul. If he is wealthy poles side by side, with notches for foot- and can set up a big prayer mill to hold, and nothing to hang &n by, and contain thousands of prayers, and to be the doorway on a level with your kept in rotation by wind or water, then heads. By a helping hand above and he is supposed to be laying up a store encouragement from below, we man- of merit very rapidly. If you introduce aged to scramble up to the fioor, which steam' power into Thibet to·morrow, presented almost as many terrors as the probably the first use made of it would stairs. It was of the same kind of bam- be to turn a praying wheel. There are boo poles in splints, and where their huge cylinders in some of the monas· smooth curved sides were uppermost, teries with a million of prayers inside you stepped as if on ice. Being loosely them. One turn of these praying ma- laid down, they are apt to spread sud- chines is, however, too expensive for' den1y and let the unwary foot through.
the poor layman; he must content him- The cracks Were convenient at luncheon self with slower methods of amassing time, however, when we repacked the good works, such as twirling his own baskets, and there' were plenty of gaunt prayer mill, and purchasing little flags dogs underneath to dispose of all we or flat stones on which the lamas have threw down, to say nothing of the inscribed the sacred formula. There is chubby urchins, who are just as fond of quite an avenue of mani walls on the morsels of cake as home urchins are.
way up from the Indus to Leh. The There was matting stuck between poles flags will be placed in trees or on high but half way up the sides, so the Euro- places to flutter in the breeze. The in· pean part of the congregation spread scribed stones will be laid upon a umbrellas, and sat cross-legged on the mani, or long wall loosely built by mats, as did the native part of it. "
thousands of similar stones." -Bangkok was occupied as early as -In Dingah, Punjab, the missiona- 1840. Two tracts of land have been series of the Church of Scotland have met cured, the larger one for the church, with much opposition from the Hindus building for the press, and houses for (Sikhs). But one of the most prominent the three families. The purchase money of the adversaries had just been won for the smaller tract was given by the over in a remarkable way. He asked Siamese. For the first time the entire for a private interview with the mis- Bible in Siamese is ready for use. Sinsionary, who expected a fierce expres- gle portions are also bound. All the sion of hostility, and was immensely binding is done by native workmen. surprised when the man pulled out a The missionary medical work plays a New Testament an!! said: "Sahib, I strong part in Christianizing Siam. have read this book, and I find it to be Nearly 3000 in·patients have been treatpure and holy_ Up to ten days ago I ed. There are 13 schools and 307 scholwas a bitter opponent of yours. I gave ars, with 555 in Sunday-schools. There a public lecture against you and against are 7 churches, with a mission force of your work. Then I resolved that I 45. This includes 8 missionary wives, would expose your book. So I began lady missionaries, medical missionaries. to read it in order to pick faults in it ; native helpers and teachers. Siam has but, do you know, as I read I was contributed $2121, and its mission press drawn to it. My heart was captivated, has printed 4,600,000 pages.
alld now I cannot oppose you. I know China.-In Woman's Work/or Wom- God's light is in that book." an we read: "One of our inland missionaries went to the coaRt and • enjoyed of the country. The Buddhists are said shopping.' It had been four years since to threaten retaliation by a process simshe had been inside a store to make a ilar to excommunication. purchase. Her journey of 800 miles, taken in a mule litter with two children, -Rev. J. D. Davis has this to say had required 25 days on the road. This about Doshisha University. in whose is one of the superficial differences be- founding the remarkable life of Joseph tween life in China and in the United Neesima found its culmination: .. It States." has sent out over 400 graduates from its collegiate department, most of whom as -In Fatshan, China, the missionary Christian workers are helping to lift up doctor was stoned at first. Then they Japan; it has graduated more than 150 brought him hunchbacks, and chal- from its theological department, and lenged him to heal them. Happily they they are scattered up and down through brought a man who had lost his nose the land preaching the Gospel; it has sixteen years before. The doctor put a sent out several classes from its Girls' new nose on him, and the fellow bought School, and these young women are, as a looking·glass and became a mission- wives of pastors and of others, or as ary. He brought in a blind beggar, teachers in Christian girls' schools estaband his cataract was removed by the lished by the Japanese, exerting a surgeon's knife. Still the authorities mighty influence to regenerate Japan; were hostile until an explosion mutilat- it has sent out classes of trained nurses, ed 13 unfortunates. They were about who are to day found in the hospitals to drop these all into the river, as the of the army and among the sick in other kindest way to end their sufferings, places wearing the badge of the Red when they concluded to call in Dr. Cross and preaching the Gospel by their Wenyon. He saved 10 of them. Now words and by their works ; it has sent he is no longer" the foreign devil," but out more than 2000 undergraduates, the "angelic healer from beyond the many of whom are earnest Christian seas."-North and West. workers. "
-It is reported that a petition has -The Chicago Record has a special been sent to Pekin from South China correspondent in Japan, who makes the praying the Emperor to introduce con- following statements: "The number of stitutional reforms, to remove incapable converts to Christianity among the officials, to abolish the queue and foot- higher classes and the educated men of binding, and to allow freedom of speech Japan is comparatively small, but nearand of the press. If to any extent this ly everyone will acknowledge that the represents the feelings of a large mass influence of the missionaries upon civil of the population, it is a significant fact affairs and the progress of the country that such a petition, advocating West- has been immeasurable. One of the ern reforms, should be presented. common sayings is that the only exports from the United States to Japan are Japan.-The banishment of Buddhist kerosene oil and missionaries. Compriests from Formosa by the Emperor menting upon this the other day, an of Japan is a fact significant of the eminent statesman of this country, himprogress of the Sunrise Kingdom tow- self an unbeliever, remarked, 'Yes; ard religious freedom. The reason for both have brought Us light-light for their ejection is that so many spies were the eyes and light for the soul.' The caught posing as priests, and the pleas- progress of Christianity in Japan has ing consideration is that the Emperor been greater than in Ilny other country. does not fear to proceed to enforcement Church spires may be seen over the of a just precautionary measure against roofs of every city, and through the a cabal hitherto powerful in the affairs schools the greatest good ·has been and from Cape Colony, whose advent neceswill be done. A child who is trained sitated a partial dispersion of the Rietin the truths of the Bible seldom fails fontein Settlement. Locusts, drought, to follow its teachings in after life, and famine have also proved factors untowto close the missionary schools of Japan ard to the development of the nine would be to deprive the Christian faith Namaqua stations. Their progress of the fountain that feeds it here. It nevertheless, especially in the south, would be better to take the preachers has excited the warm appreciation of away and leave the teachers here, espe- Major Leutwein, though a weak spot is cially those who manage the kindergar- revealed in the inefficiency of the mistens and the primary and the normal sion schools, which, unlike those of schools. The portrait of the Emperor Cape Colony, are as yet uncountenanced hangs in every schoolhouse, and the by State grants. In Hereroland, the dechildren are required to bow before it spised Bergdamras, in contrast to the as they enter and leave the building. dominant race, have evinced a wider Patriotism is taught in every possible and more deeply rooted desire for the form and on every possible occasion." truth, displaying proclivities better cal- culated than those of the restless Here- AFRICA. ros for the formation of settled com· munities. In Ovampo, which since -The Brussels treaty nominally pro- 1870 has been worked by Finnish mistects the Congo Free State from the sionaries, the two Rhenish stations share liquor traffic; but actually it does noth- with them all the difficulties incidental ing. The traders are greedy to get to a hostile and irresponsible heathen gain in, a term of three years. They environment.-Church Intelligencer. patrol the front of factories, with a glass in one hand and a bottle in an- -Rev. A. B. Fisher, of Uganda, other. Workmen are compelled to writes to the London Chri8tian: "The take part of their wages in whiskey. native Christians are doing grand work. But notwithstanding this, the sales of In fact, what could we do without liquor are only one third as great as them? Praise God for the numbers of they were five years ago. The coast whole-he•. ~~ed, out-and-out helpers that traders are being Christianized. When we have here. I believe there are they are converted, these negroes will numbers of young men coming on, 1)f not touch intoxicants. The trader whom you in England have never heard, wanted to forbid the Presbyterian who will eclipse in preaching power and Church at Batanga from excommuni- general information all the older men, cating members who sold rum. who are much slower to learn. By far the ablest man here is Thomas Sem- -The recent disturbances in German fuma, one of the lay readers. He is the South Africa have naturally carried most fearless Gospel preacher that ever with' them disadvantage to the opera- I heard, and his sermons are of no mean tions of the Rhenish Missionary Society, order. Mackay bought this man's life whose sphere of influence coincides with for two tusks of ivory when a boy that of the Protectorate. The mission, Christian. I am convinced that God's which for five decades has worked in Word will win the day here. Oh! that Great Namaqua and Damara lands, and the Holy Ghost would touch the hearts since 1891 in Ovampo, has fully shared of those having means to send us Bibles the difficulties, social and political, in- so long as there is a man, woman, or duced by the last ten years' agitation child without one. Bibles are silent between the Nama Hottentots and the missionaries. If, therefore, Christian Hereros. In Narnaqualand the situa· people in England cannot come them. tion has been intensified by trekkers aelves, let them send us Bibles."