The Missionary Review of the World — September 1891
THE YEAR 1890 IN JAPAN
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XIV. No.9.-OldSeries.–SEPTEMBER.–VoL.IV. No.9.-NewSeries.
THE YEAR 1890 IN JAPAN.
BY REV. PROFESSOR GEORGE WM. KNOX, D. D., TOKYO, JAPAN.
The foreca!l.t of 1889 was fulfilled in 1890. The year was full of difficnlty, and in empire and Church the cheerful confidence of the past gave way to uneasy anticipations and fears.
THE SUFFERING PEOPLE.
A short harvest in 1889 sent the price of rice up so high that thousands could not buy it. The multitude who ever Jive near the starvation liue became wholly dependent. Had benefactions not been large and constant they would have died from the lack of food. In the spring and summer the suffering was at its height, the abundant harvests of the autumn first giving permanent relief. During the summer cholera carried off tens of thousands, and late in the autumn the influenza paid a second and virulent visit that was fatal to very many.
Business suffered in sympathy with the general distress. The poverty of the people interfered with the usual course of trade; and a number of circumstances, which need not be repeated here, combined to render business unprofitable; failures were very many. But for the most part the distress, both physical and financial, was endured in silence. These Orientals have not yet learned our Western fashion of loud wailing over the misfortunes which they accept as a part of nature. Does our thought of the Heavenly Father, in whose hands are the issues of life, render us less patient than these who know no such all-loving guide and God?
THE STRUGGLING POLITICIANS.
Politics occupied a new place of importance in the popular esteem. The struggles which had been obscure and underground came out into the light of day as the elections for the first members of the Diet drew near. But no great issue divided the nation, and the contests were between factions and individuals. No faction or individual obtained a decisive majority of the whole number of members, though the" Liberals" constitute the largest group. When the Diet met in the autumn, only one thing was settled beyond doubt-the Lower House of the Diet was not friendly to the present Ministry or to the system which that Ministry represents. It was clear that a struggle for power. involving fundamental constitutional questions, would ensue. The leaders on both sides deprecated such a struggle, but they have proved unable to prevent it. The weeks passed have been tempestuous. The Diet has won some victories on minor points; but the most Radical section has forced the fighting on the budget, demanding such reductions that the Ministry declares itself wholly unable to comply. The Moderates seek only such economy in administration as may reasonably he agreed to. The Radicals want the fundamental political problem solved at once j the Moderates seek a compromise that shall permit a gradual and peaceful emergence from the difficulties that everyone admits. There is no party which advocates the Government outright, or def4ilnds the present system. As in so many other questions, all are progressive, the dispute being as to the pace. And all well-wishers to Japan must Jeilire the defeat of the Radicals, since their victory will result in the sharpest crisis the empire has k~wn in years. Unfortunately they control the Lower House by a decisive majority.
THE MEDDLING YOUTH.
The oddest feature, and the most inexplicable, of the situation, is the fashion in which young men of no apparent claim to influence or position constitute themselves the guardians of the empire's honor. As in years past such men have assassinated ministers of State, so now they band themselves together that they may coerce the Diet. Their influence is Radical, and they have repeatedly attacked members not of their way of thinking, and their threats of vengeance are constant. Some of them have been banished from the city; but the strangest element in the situation is the comparative immunity from punishment which they enjoy. Some influence seems to protect them, and accordingly reports are not wanting that they are in the pay of various influential personages. Until Japan learns in private and in public, in the family, the school, and the State, to discipline and restrain the youth who now grow rank, we cannot expect a peaceful and orderly development.
THE FOREIGN TREATIES.
The parliamentary struggle has diverted attention somewhat from the question of treaty revision, but indications in plenty show that the subject is not out of mind. And t-he popular demand rises with each delay. The foreign powers missed their opportunity when, years ago, Count Inoue was ready to grant all that reasonable men had any right or wish to demand. But the foreign powers could not agree among themselves or with him. Now popular sentiment must be taken into Rerious account. No minister would dare make a treaty which public sentiment disapproved. His life would not be safe for an hour. And public sentiment is not more reasonable in Japan than elsewhere. Since in the past the representatives of the powers have been unable to agree with the most reasonable and fair-minded Japanese ministers of State, there is small chance that now they will listen to the people. In the past Japan has been in the right j but it is a question whether the popular demands do not put it in the wrong. This much is sure-so long as the treaties are unrevised, so long will the anti-foreign agitation continue, so long will it be impossible that foreigners in any calling shall regain their former position. At the same time every new demand makes foreign compliance more difficult, so difficult, indeed, that revision would seem to be indefinitely postponed.
THE YEAR'S MISSIONARY WORK.
All of the facts related above have affected injuriously the work of foreign missionaries. The hard times have reduced gifts to the Church and hindered its extension. The political struggles have diverted the public mind, the meddlesome young men have given some of their attention to missionaries and to foreigners, and the question of treaty revision has so affected society in general that even the Church has participated to some extent in the anti-foreign spirit. The table of statistics just published shows the effect of these and other causes. The entire net gain of the whole Protestant body in Japan for the year is 1199, a gain smaller than single missions have repeatedly reported in the past. The table is not wholly trustworthy, it is true, 111 spite of every endeavor to make it 80 j but I do not know that the errors are greater than in other years. The Methodist Episcopal Church reports a decrease of 198 in the total membership, and the Congregationalists a loss of 169. The latter is in spite of the facts that they report 1615 baptisms for the same period. It can be accounted for only on the supposition that the reports for the two years have been made up from different data. The Church of Christ (Presbyterian) I·eports 1280 baptisms and a net increase of 517, the losses being through disaffection caused by the Plymouth Brethren, and, to a much larger extent, the revision of congregational rolls. The Nippon Sei Kokwai (Episcopalian) shows the largest net gain, 578 j but the figures are only approximate, and appear not to allow for the losses so noticeable in the other reports. The Canadian Methodists are the only others who show a gain of more than one hundred.
The contributions show a gratifying increase, the total being, en 69,3.24.95, a gain of 15,821.22. (The en is equivalent to the silver dollar.) Most of this increase is to be credited to the Congregational churches, though the Methodists and Episcopalians also report an increase.
Most of the other columns show a decrease, and some hardly show the full extent of the losses. Especially has the year been full of discouragement to those engaged in the higher schools. The mission schools were never so well prepared for large and successful work, and were never before so little esteemed. Some of the boarding-schools have lost half their pupils, and the losses continue. A strong national feeling is asserting itself. It insists upon a training that shall be more distinctively Japanese in management, methous, and subjects. It strongly objects to institutions that seem to subject Rtudents to the control of foreigners. The change of sentiment on this subject within the past two years amounts to a revolution. It is to be hoped that a reaction will before long restore the schools to their old position. Shonld such prove not to be the case· the question of the discontinuance of some of the schools must be seriously faced.
THE MISSIONS AND THE MISSIONARIES.
One mISSlOn has been added during the year-the Universalist. The Unitarian Mission also gives its report. The entire missionary force is 577, including the wives. This is an increase of 50 men and women. The force is distributed in 29 societies.
I would again venture the opinion that our prescnt missionary methods are in the extreme wasteful of money and life. Rightly distributed and massed, one half the present force could accomplish all, and more than is now done. Instead of so much earnest appeal for men and money I propose a year of appeal for the better use of the forces we have. UntiI something is done to combine the Protestant forces the waste must continue. Is confederation in the great work of evangelizing the world still impossible ¥ Can we expect thinking men to continue and increase their gifts if the half goes to waste 1 Doubtless the case is not so pressing in other lands; but, for the things I see and know, my language is none too strong.
Nor can I fail to say that the time is not auspicious for an increase of missionaries, apart from the great waste resulting from divergent plans and aims. It is not impossible that in certain parts of the field the missionary adds little to the effectiveness of the work. The complaint is heard, e.g., that schools have too many missionarws in their faculties, and the popular demand for addresses and sermons from foreigners has greatly fallen off. The way iR not so open, nor the invitation so pressing, as a few years ago. It may be only a passing wave of sentiment, but while it lasts we may well give the precedence to calls from other fields, as they, in the past, have given way to us.
And yet the time is by no means past for foreign missionaries in Japan. In some parts of the empire, in the interior provinces and in the south and west, they can still repeat the triumphs of the days gone by. They are still welcomed, and their leadership is ardently desired. They can still, even in Tokyo, find work of the last importance in educating a Japanese ministry, and in the preparation of a theological literature. And wherever there are earnest, spiritually minded men, their influence must be felt. But beyond all this the missionary organization is still necessary. The Church and the work would suffer were it withdrawn. The missionaries supply the unmoved framework, the inner form little influenced by superficial change, that is essential to the strength and permanence of the Church as an organism. Premature withdrawal would subject it to a strain we may well wish for a while postponed. Such function may be far from the ideal entertained by the missionary of his own position; it is certainly less imposing than the missionary position in most lands; but if thus service is rendered to the Master, we shall be content.
TIm THEOLOGICAL UNREST.
Japan participates in all the movements of our age. No wall or tariff shnts the empire out from frecst communication with the world, and the ideas which agitate thinking rilen find ready entrance here. For years the leaders of the Japanese Church have followed with intense interest the course of theological thought. They read freely both sides. Papers, reviews, and books are in dcmand in proportion as they reflect the current intellectual life. Not the wisdom of ourfathers, but such as our age can furnish, they desire. Coufucianism has satisfied their longings for an ironbound conservatism. They are proportionatcly eager for progressive thought. Disposition and public sentiment combine to urge in one direction, and there is no opposing power that shall attempt to hold them back. If the intelligent, influential young men are to be orthodox Christians, it will be because orthodoxy makes the strongest appeal to mind and heart. The newest and extreme thought is not left to the printed page, it has its living representatives. The German Evangelic Mission is led by men of solid learning and strong ethical and spiritual powers. They are naturalists in their exposition of the Bible, denying all miraculous elements. '1'hey reject the Divinity of Christ, His miracles and His resurrection. Yet, with what seems to an American a peculiarly German inconsistency, they declare that their one desire is that Christ may be accepted by the Japanese, and in walk and conversation they breathe the spirit of the Master. They give in lectures and printed articles a wide circulation to the advanced views of the German schools, ancl their words are eagerly read and heard by the young men of our churches. The Universalists and the Unitarians, from different points of view, are in sympathy with the Germans, and the three bodies form one party of considerable strength and influence. Some of the ordained ministers of other bodies have returned from the United States more or less in sympathy with the cruder forms of the new theology.
This condition of things fills some of the conservatives with alarm. But I deprecate the views they insert in American periodicals. Weare not in a panic at all. We welcome and rejoice in this full and free and fair discussion. When did the truth ever ask more than a fair field and no favor ~ It is a strange novelty that we who profess to hold the truth should seek to hide timidly behind traditional defences. If the truth cannot protect itself-but who would thus doubt His power who is the Truth ~ If some of our opinions cannot stand, is not the truth better than our opinions, howefer venerable 1 For our part, we do not fear the result. We do not for a moment doubt the final triumph, nor can we believe that the Church has been mistaken all along in accepting Christ as Son of God, and the Bible as supreme in doctrine and life.
THE SYNOD OF THE NIPPON KIRISUTO KYOKWAI.
The most significant event of the year in matters ecclesiastical was the meeting of the Synod of the Nippon Kirisuto Kyokwai (the Japanese Church of Christ, with which are connected the Presbyterian and RflfOimed mis- sions). This Church has long been considering the revision of its constitu. tion. In 1877, when the present organization was effected, the Church yielded to the earnest desire of the missionaries, and adopted unabridi!ed and unamended a Form of Government, Book of Discipline, and Confession of Faith, imported from the United States. The Confessions-there were two of them-had not even been translated, but were adopted purely on faith. They were adoptcd, but thcy have never been the true Confessions of the Church's faith. Years ago a committee was appointed for their revision, but its labors were interrupted by the negotiations for union with the Congregationalists. After those negotiations were broken off a nf>W committee on revision was given df'fi~ite instrnctions. The committee rcported in the early summer and Synod met iu December to discuss the report.
Synod was a thoroughly representative body, most of the leading men being present. Foreigners were in a small minority, and from the start the Japanese took the lead. The result is their work, and this it is which renders the meeting so significant. We have a fair test of the true faith and spirit of the Church, and not a mere reflection of foreign missionary sentiment.
The Japanese Christians think for themselves, that is the most evident comment. They are almost morbidly avcrse to leading-strings-especially now are they eager to show their intellectual independence. Any attempt to coerce them will result in disaster. At the Rame time they will listen to advice and reason.
The Church is soundly evangelical. It stauds firmly by the great essentials of the faith. It is not infected with Unitarian or Rationalistic virus. No one expressed himself as other than in entire sympathy with the truth once delivered to the saints.
But the Church inRists that there shall be widest liberty in non-e8sentials. It is eager to reje,ct the systems of theologians. It would embrace all who truly accept our Lord and Saviour. In its brief creed it desired to embody these two aims, and to show itself thoroughly evangelical and yet so free that none may be excludEd who do not deny the faith. It would have no imported Confession. It asserted at onpe its indifference to thc strifes and shibb(lleths of Westem lands, and its desire to hear testimony against the errors that threaten in Japan. Whatever may be onr opinion as to the snccess of the endea'or, or as to the sufficiency of the Confession as finally adopted, there is no doubt about the sincere purpose of the Church. Nor need there be question that this purpose in the main was right.
The Church has a strong missionary spirit. The debate on the Confession was dominated by the desire to make it an effective missionary document. The Christians never forget their position in the midst of a non- Christian people, nor their duty as witnesses for Christ, however much their labors fall short of their admitted obligations.
The Church accepts gladly the Presbyterian polity as a form of organization, but it rejects all exclusive claims even for its own forms, and occupies theoretically no position that may hinder union with other bodies. A strong desire for the organic union of Christians of every name was manifest throughout, though there is no immediate prospect that such desires may be realized.
TIlE HOPEFUL OUTLOOK.
It is not to be denied that the year has left a feeling of uncertainty and fear in the minds of many. Some ev{;n look forward to indescribable dis-" aster; but a calm review of all the facts warrants us in saying that the out- look is full of hope.
Even with so strong an anti-foreign spirit as the last year has shown, our Japanese Christians have held their own. Thirteen were elected to the Diet. One of them was chosen President of the Diet, and a second, permanent Chairman of the Committee of the Whole. These two posts were most keenly sought, and their occupants are very prominent and important in the public's thought. Christianity has further shown its wide influence by the long-continued agitation against licensed prostitution, an agitation that has enlisted a large share of popular approval and sympathy. It is no small triumph that Christianity so soon manifests itself as a moral force in the national life, and that it is so secure in its place that its profession is no hindrance to high political advancement.
The fact that the Church contains so many men of prominence, so many men second to none in their wide influence, is high encouragement, although, as a natural consequence, the foreign missionary is thereby remanded to a somewhat secondary place. As the Church thus reckons judges, professors, members of the Diet, prominent journalists, and high officials among its active members, we cannot expect the same position we should occupy in lands where the converts are for the most part from the lower walks of life. But we must be narrow indeed if this success becomes a source of discouragement. Let us thank God and take courage.
Though the year has been a trying one to forcigners, still has the Church remained remarkably friendly. There have been sharp criticisms of lIlen and methods, it is true; but we should hesitate to demand submissive silence from our friends. And it is not to be forgotten that the prevalent hostility to foreign institutions of every kind, and the association of the Church with missionaries in the popular mind, has been the cause of denial;
OR. GRIFFIS ON JAPAN
that the Church and foreigners are identical-a denial that has sometimes been more emphatic than agreeable in expression.
The theological nnrest, too, gives rise to hope. One minister joined the Unitarians, bnt he carried no one with him, and there is no disposition to follow his example. Already there are signs that the Radical flood has Ilassed its height and begnn to recede. We shall hear less of it in the years to come. It is not to be overlooked that the Unitarian Mission has a new leader of a spirit very different from the former " ambassador, " whose hostility to orthodoxy and to other missions is rep~aced by friendli- ness and a desire for such co-operation as is practicable. . The Plymonth Brethren, too, have about exhausted their capabilities for mischief, and almost cease from troubling the congregations. Some of the keenest of the Japanese ministers feel that the tide now sets with us.
There is no falling off in the numbers of young men who press into the Christian ministry. And for the theological department of the Meiji • Gakuin I may say that our junior class is not only the largest but the best that has entered the school. There is no better test of the true condition of the Church.
The difficulties have culminated in Tokyo. In the provinces the state of things has been by no means so trying. In a letter just received, a mis- sionary of much experience and sound judgment writes: "The condition of affairs in Central and Western Japan was never more promising. Con- verts are not gained so rapidly, perhaps, as in some years gone by, but the churches were never in so good condition before." That testimony can be duplicated by many witnesses in widely separated fields. And even in Tokyo onr most intelligent pastors say they find no widespread opposition to Christianity, nor any cause for real discouragement.
Surely God has done great things for Japan, and His Church may trust Him for the days to come. lIe does not leave us without evidence of His presence and blessing. Through His grace the Church shall go forward, that it may be Hi~ witness and the preacher of His Gospel to all the inhab- itants of the land.
MEIJI GAKUIN, TOKYO, February 12, 1891.
DR. GRIFFIS ON JAPAN.
BY THE EDITOR-iN-CHIEF.
Dr. Griffis has recently published an article on the Constitution of Japan which deserves wider circulation. He refers to the meeting of the Imperiltl Diet, which entered upon the work of sharing with the Mikado the government of the forty millions of Japanese, and remarks that on July 1st, 1890, the national election took place and proved to be quiet and decorous. The privilege of voting for members of the House of Representatives was restricted to certain taxpayers, so that the electorate probably did not number more than one million yoters. Bya decree dated July 10th, the administration of the two houses was organized by the appointment of a Chief Secretary, ten assistants, two probationers, and twenty subordinatcs for each branch of the Diet, and the proccedings were opened by the emperor in person.
Mutsuhito, the one hundred and twenty-third Mikado, was born, by a strange coincidence, on the very day that Commodore M. C. Perry stood on the deck of the Mississippi ready to sail for Japan. 'Vonderful changes have taken place within these thirty-nine years, and Dr. Griffis asks what grounds have we for believing in the solidity and permanence of representative political institutions in such a nation.
The story of the Japanese begins with the foundation of the empire, B. c. 660, which is in many other respects a very marked era in the annals of the human race. Their actual hIstory begins very nearly a thousand years after. The dual system of government, under the Mikado at one end of the empire and the Tycoon at the other, lasted until 1868, when the Tycoon gave way to the Mikado. Japan has always suffered from having no external foe or force to compel national cohesion, and society was split up into eight or more grades from gods to pariahs, and the country itself into three hundred feudal clans. Historical research and the fear of subjection by foreign nations begat that new thing in Japan, public opinion, and to save the unity of Japan from divisions such a& were seen in India, the dual system of government fell at the dictation of public opinion. The American Naval Expedition of 1853 simply brought the crisis. The Tycoon, hitherto despotic, felt compelled to ask the opinion of the clans as to wtat should be the answer to Commodore Perry, and the first informal Parliament was summoned.
The events from 1853 to 1890 simply record the march of public opmlOn. Dualism first went. down and feudalism followed. Provision was made for a permanent national parliament, and the leaders of the revolution constrained the Mikado, then but sixteen years old, to swear that he would call a deliberate assembly and submit to it affairs of State. This charter oath of five articles forms the basis of the new Japan. The way was accordingly prepared for the complete separation of the executive, legislative, and judicial functions, and in 1878 provision was made for the education of the people in their new political duties.
After much popular agitation in behalf of a national parliament, on October 12th, 1880, the Mikado signed the decree promising to limit the imperial prerogative, and call a parliament to meet in 1890. The constitutions of various other governments were carefully examined, and on February 11th, 1889, on the anniversary of the ascent of the throne, B.C. 660, by the first Mikado, Jimmu Tenno, this grand document was published, the magna charta of Japanese liberties.
The constitution consists of Rcven chapters with seventy-six articles, which treat of the Emperor, his subjects, the Diet, mini8ters of State, the Privy Council, etc. The upper house, or House of Peers, is a mixed body. Members of the Imperial family, princes, and marquises sit for lif",. Counts, viscounts, and barons are elected for seven years. Certain men notable for ability and learning have a life term. There is also a provision for commoners to be elected to this house, which thus involves representation from the three estates of the realm.
The constitution approaches closely the model of Germany and Great Britain. Most important are the thirty-two articles of Chapter II., which grant and define the rights and duties of the subjects. Hitherto the masses had politically been ciphers, bound to obey, pay taxes, and hold their tongues. Now the status of every subject is fixed by law, and by law his rights are guarded. Modern Japanese law is based Oil the code of France. The judiciary conllists of local courts, district courts, court of appeal, and a supreme court, and judges are appointed for life..
Western nations look with intensest interest to the unfolding of Japan's future.
JAPAN AND THli: BIBLE.
Twenty years ago the people of Japan had never seen any part of the Scriptures in their own tongue, and placards prohibiting Christianity were displayed on the corners of the streets.
In 1872, aided by a grant from the American Bible Society, Dr. Hepburn's version of Mark and John wall printed in Yokohama, and a committee was formed for translating the Bible.
' The. first edition of the New Testament appeared in 1880, and the entire Bible in 1888. From 1874 until now the American Bible Society has circulated in Japan more than 550,000 volumes of the Scriptures; and there are now more than 250 churches with over 30,000 members.
In view of the many agencies employed, it is gratifying to have so competent an observer as Dr. Hepburn ascribe one half of all the results of Christian missions in Japan to the work of the Bible societies.
Similar work is being done in connection wi.th the labors of American mi2sionaries in various parts of the world, and a secretary of one of our largest missionary boards has recently said : "I know of no single agency which can for a moment begin to compare with that of the Bible Society in giving permanency to Ollr missionary work in every field. I find myself depending upon its work more and more as I come to appreciate more fully what its volume is and what its significance is."
Of the publication of the complete Bible in Japanese, Dr. Griffis further says: "An able English editor declared that the publication of the Bible in Japanese was 'like building a railway through the national intellect.' This was perhaps the proper metaphor to employ in this industrial age, when civilization moves on rails and wires. To ono not hlind to the !esthetics, or deaf to the harmonies, of a noble work of letters, the human mastery over difficulties suggests rather the slow building of a glorious cathedral. The Bible in Japanese as we have it to-day-despite our thrills of joy and pride that it is mainly the work of American missionaries-is not a finished product. It is, however, so substantially near the ideal that it must be the basis of all future enterprise. Even its very shortcomings, felt most keenly by the master·builders of this stately edifice of language, point in the direction of final triumph.
" When in Tokio on the 3d of February, 1888, the veteran translator, Dr. J. C. Hepburn, suiting the action to the word, took the Old Testament in one hand and the New Testament in the other, and reverently laying them down-a complete Bible-sa~d : 'In the name of the whole body of Protestant missionaries in Japan, and of the whole Church of Christ in America and England, I make it a loving present to the Japanese nation,' the audience, made up of Christians from three continents, was deeply moved at the simple and touching ceremony. It was less like capping the obelisk at Washington with its polished aluminum finial than it was setting the headstone upon a glorious cathedral. In that completed work of pen and type, as in the splendors of some saintly minster, were embodied the hopes and aspirations of a nation awakening to new life, the prayers and sufferings of martyrs slain for Christ's sake, the toil and tears, the patience and hope of noble missionaries, the triumph of success after many failures. Of one of the first translators who delved for the foundations, laid the first courses of the edifice, and even saw its fair walls arise, it may be said with truth that he rests from his labors, but his works do follow him. The labor is over; the work remains. As I hold in my hand the comely duodecimo volume, which moves the scale at twenty·one ounces avoirdupois, I think of the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory which it suggests.
" In the presence of the mountain of to-day it is well to remember the plain. Before our shoutings of' grace, grace unto it,' and praises richly deserved to consecrated workmen, let us look back at the toils of the masterbuilder!!.
" There is a pathos, and there are streaks of humor, in the evolution of this, the fittest expres~ion of the Word in Japanese, which is sure to be a survival of the first order. The naturalists who follow Darwin or Wallace may not be able, owing to ' the imperfection of the geological record '-or otherwise-to furnish at call the 'transitional forms ;' but in the processional movement toward a perfect Bible, even our slender Japanese library holds some interesting and grotesque 'missing links.' True, we have searched the story of Roman Christianity in Japan from 1539 to 1637, and find no translated Scriptp.re; nor does Mr. Satow in his' Jesuit Mission Press in Japan,' though he has ransacked all Japan and the libraries of Papal Europe. Have we not, however, the amazing and amusing first attempts of Dr. Bettleheim in Loo Chooan 1 Do we not possess that wonderful translation of Matthew, by an immersionist, in which we read of 'John the Soaker, preaching the Gospel of sqaking unto salvation;' , Whoever believeth and is soaked shall be saved,' etc.? It is 'soak,' , soaker,' '!loaking,' 'soaked,' to the end of the book, when hitashi, meaning to steep, macerate, moi&ten, is used to translate tho C; reek variants of a certain much·discussed word. VVould that we had what we know existed, the versions of ' the books of Genesis and Matthew, and the Gospel and Epistles of John,' made in China by Dr. S. Wells Williams, and the work of Dr. Gutzlaff; hath of whom learned the language from castaway Japanese sailors. It would touch heart and imagination deeply to look upon the translations made from the Dutch Bible by native interpreters for themselves or others! It was for reading these that men, groping after God, seeking Christ when there were none to lead them, suffered imprisonment, torture, aud bloody death. How thrilling also are the stories of the power of the Bible in Chinese, bought from junk-captains or Chinese tradcrs at Nagasaki, over such men as the father of l'tev. J. T. 1se, who started the first- Japanese students to the United States, and Joseph Ne~sima, of whom we all know! Mr. 1se's father was assassinated in Kioto in 1869, because he was a Bible student, and was suspected of being a Christian, as he indeed potentially was. In 1888, his son, pastor of a Christian church in Tokio, the new capital of the new nation, made the principal Japanese address at the completion of the Bible in his own and his father's tongue.
"The writer, in 1870, saw the chips in the workshop, the dust and debris of foundation laying. lIo hoard the groaning of the missionaries concerning the difficulties and hardships, the gloom of the situation, the refractory and unspiritual nature of tho vernacular, etc. Yot already Dr. Hepburn had made a beginning, and tho writer, on disappearing from civilization into the interior, in February, ] 871, took with him to Fukui a manuscript copy of the four Gospels, of which he made good use, in a Bible class which he began in h.is house, with some of the students. Stopping for a day at the sunny home of onr veteran, Rev. Dr. D. C. Greene, he found him already expert in nirely discriminating Japanese equivalents for the crystal-clear terms in the Greek New Testament. It afterward be· came Dr. Greene's pleasure to translate four of the New Testament books, to do years of work in revision, and with Rev. Dr. L. H. Gulick to superintend the printing, and to read all the proofs of the entire Japanese Bible.
" It was not till 1872 that a convention of missionaries formed definite plans for translating the New Testament. After several years of labor, in which Dr. Hepburn and Rev. Messrs. S. R. Brown and D. C. Greene were the chief, though by no means the only workers, the Scriptures of the New Covenant were issued, and at once widely read by the Japanese. Far more than is the custom in American churches, the Japanese bring their Bibles to church with them, and follow the minister in his reading.
"From the first the native brethren, with characteristic and laudable ambition, desired to take part in the work of rendering the word of God into their mother tongne, despite their lack of acquaintance with the original texts. Six years of training, however, and daily intellectual and spiritual contact with the missionaries during the prpparation of the New Testament, gave to several elect native scholars a wonderful grasp of the general subject, as well as mastery of the problems of translation. The men of God from America and Great Blitain enjoyed the reciprocal and inestimable benefit of these native scholals, such as Rev. Messrs. T. Matsuyama, Uyemura, and Ibuka, and of the brilliant and versatile man of letters, Takaha~hi Goro. From the very first day until the last, Mr. T. Matsuyama wrought with fervor and untiring patience, and· it is the testimony of a missionary of nearly twenty years' experience in Japan that' the influence of this native scholar is seen in almost every sentence of the translation.' Mr. T. Matsuyama, who is now pastor of the Hei-an Church in Kioto, is one of the most learned and painstaking students of the old Japanese literature. His acknowledged excellence as a scholar not only shows what kind of material and personnel the missionaries have been enabled in God's providence to utilize, but makes both ridiculous and contemptible some recent criticisms, spoken even in Tremont Temple, upon the work of our missionaries in Japan.
"Plans for translating the Old Testament were not made until 18'76, nor perfected until 1882. Portions were printed at intervals between 1882 and 188'7 ; but the difficulties were great, and the failur~s were many. Delay in this case proved neither dangerous nor fatal, but eminently advantageous; for it secured uniformity of style. In this one respect, the Japanese Bible excels even the English, and can safely be ranked among the most successful missionary translations of the world. Pmctically the same men, with many assistants, performed the whole work from Genesis to Revelation. In the gracious providence of God, Drs. Hepburn and Verbeck, Rev. F. K. Fyson, T. Matsuyama, Takahashi Goro, Rev. D. C. Greene, and Rev. David Thompson, were spared to see the completion of the work. The Rev. S. R. Brown was unable to witness on earth the crown of his hopes, for he died in 1880. The translation, first in separate portions, and then in its complete form, was printed at the expense of the American, the British and Foreign, and the Scotch Bible Societies, all of which had also made generous contributions for the snonort of the translators, and the expenscll incident to their work.
"The style of the version is as loyally close to pure Japanese as the form of the book language will allow. Indeed, it is the very simplest form of the book language. In it special prominence is given to the pure native element, as against the Chinese-Japanese so fashionable during the last half century or more. It is the style best adapted to liturgical use, and its fitness is generally recognized. Indeed, in his grammar of the written language, Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain, of the Imperial University of Tokio, and perhaps the highest living authority in Japanese literature, quotes from this version in illustration of points in Japanese idiom, thus acknowledging it in some sense as an authority as to idiomatic usage. The gem of the Old Testament work, as all acknowledge, is Dr. Verbeck's rendering of the Psalms. To this labor of love-one of the most scholarly pieces of work in the Japanese language-he devoted much time during a
BUDDillSM: AND CHRISTIANITY
period of seven years in .constant association with natives who were acute, learned, and devout.
" It is not too much to hopc thlt this version of the Bible may do for the Japanese mother-tongue what the English Bible has done for our own noble language and literature. Competent native observers declare that it has already exerted a noticeable effect upon the development of Japanese literature. How comforting and full of reward it must be to the translators, who have toilcd long on certain passages, to hear them quoted by the eloquent native preachers in impassioned discourse that sways the lives and eternal destinies of thousands !
" In briefly outlining the history of this noble monument of scholarship and consecration, the writer trusts that his brethren, Thompson, Davidllon, :Maclay, Cochran, Piper, '''right, Waddell, Goble, Knecker, Shaw, Blanchet, and others, who have borne a noble share in the grand work of giving the Bible to this nation of nearly forty million souls, will forgive the shortcomings of this article, limited as it is in space. In due time, the Japanese Christians, becoming masters of the Semitic and Greek tongues, will erect on the foundations laid by the missionaries a still more stately edifice of sacred scholarship to enshrine that word of God which liveth and abideth forever. Yet the writer is presumptuous enough to hazard the prophecy that even future generations of native Bible translators will no more be able to ignore Hepburn, Verbeck, and Matsuyama than were the English revisers of 1611 or 1881-85 able to forget Tyndale.-Congregationalist.
BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY.
BY REV. E. SNODGRASS, TOKYO, JAPAN.
The Buddhists of Japan, especially the well-informed Buddhists, are by no means ignorant of the scientific references in the Bible ; and, more than this, they were not ignorant of Sir Edwin Arnold's attitude toward Christianity, the deadly antagonist of their withering faith. This being well known on both sides, it was not surprising that Sir Edwin, in his addre~ses in Japan, should say that man is made" not of clay or dust, as is ignorantly said, but of carbon, lime, etc." And, moreover, it was not surprIsing that Sir Edwin experienced the unpleas~nt necessity of having to refuse "numerous influential invitations to address the Buddhists of Japan." Dr. Ellinwood's reference to the fact that Christian phrases and conceptions were read into Buddhism by the author of "The Light of Asia" is parallel to the fact of the same author's attempt to harmonize Buddhism with modern science in a lecture which he delivered here before the Japanese Educational Society the third Sunday in December, 1889. "The Sun Goddess is tempted from her cave by Ii mirror. This is more scientific and less mythical than the legend of a Hebrew chieftain commanding the snn to stand till he could finish a bloody battle. The now to us incognizable sounds, colors, and distances are the Maya of Buddhism. Darwinian evolution is the lJharma and Karma. " 'With these revelations before us, why has it not occurred to some one to start the cry 10at modern science is plagiarized Buddhism 1 But what is the worth of such an unfounded claim that Christianity has borrowed from Buddhism 1 Nothing. I, for one, feel grateful to Dr. Ellinwood for the excellent store of facts given in his article in the February REVIEW. I wish to simply emphasize some of them.
1. The very I!tarting-points of the two religions are antagonistic, and hence oppose the idea that the superior could have copied from the inferior. Ask an educated Japanese to-day, " Has Buddhism a god f' The answer comes, "None other than the man himself." Buddhism is now thoroughly atheistic, though it may not always have been so. The most reliable history we have of Buddha sets him forth as a reformer. His early teachers were two Brahman ascetics. At first Buddhism may have held an idea of a supreme being, a Brahma j for in the oldest writings it is often mentioned that the supreme Brahma influenced Buddha. This may have been the foundation for the divinity which was afterward bestowed upon Buddha.
In regard, again, to a supreme being, Dr. Oldenberg* reasons that the Indian Brahman worked out a supreme being from the inner consciousness -the ego, the Atman. Separating the Atman from the individual, a new being is found which converges back into Brahma, the one and supreme being. Mr. Collinsf would reverse the above and say that the Hindu had gradually dropped the supreme from his faith, and in Buddhism the Atman, the ego, the human mind, is the only god j and this the remaining vestige " of a once purer faith and a truer worship. "
2. An argument often used here by Japanese evangelists is that Buddha worked no miracles. This is another vital difference iuimical to the life of Buddhism.
3. The most serious obstacle probably in the way of the theory of Christianity copying from Buddhism is the date of the Buddhist scriptures. According to the Ceylon books (Buddhism still survives in Ceylon), Gautama Buddha was born 623 B. c. It is not certain that he was not born later. Job probably lived 1500 years before Buddha. Moses lived 1000 before Buddha. Daniel was contemporary with Buddha. This was the time of the captivity, when the Jews were scattered throughout the East, probablyeyen as far as to China j we know that Jews were in China, but at so early a date that we know not when.
As far as we know, Buddha wrote nothing. The claim for the earliest written Buddhist scriptures is about the beginning of the Christian era, or later. Before this date we have all the Old Testament books. We must not forget how the great Babylonian and Syrian kingdoms intellectually • Oldenberg, Buddha, p. 23, et. seq. t Buddhism in Relation to Christianity. linked Judea with the East. We remember some time ago the bronze gates of Shalmaneser the Second were discovered at Balawat. The date is when Jonah visited Nineveh. Upon this monument are shown Jewish sacrifices. It is claimed by some that the Jews in great numbers after the seventy years' captivity emigrated toward the East. I do not know how much truth is in such a claim j but the fact of the Jews being early in China would lend some weight. We cannot close our eyes to the fact that Jewish influence went into the East.
4. What is the state of the claim that Buddhism came West? It is easier rather to prove that Christianity extended East early enough to influence the composers of the Buddhist scriptures. There is no historical evidence that Buddhism came West before the third century A. D. Clement of Alexandria speaks of some who follow Boutha. He derived his information probably from his teacher, Pantamus j and the latter gained his information from Megasthenes, who in India wrote his Indica about 300 B.C. Between Clement and Megasthenes there is no reliable evidence that Buddhism exerted any influence westward.
5. But what abont Christian influence eastward? Cosmas Indicopleutes found Christians in Ceylon in the sixth century. There are still probably 250,000 Christians on the coast of Malabar. Near Madras is an ancient cross with Pahiavi inscription. It belongs probably to not later than the seventh century. There are other inscriptions. The most reasonable explanation of these inscriptions is the early connection between the Indian Christians and Edessa. One of those Pahlavi inscriptions reads: " Who believes in the Messiah, and God above, and in the Holy Ghost, is redeemed through the grace of Him who bore the cross." Pantamns found a Hebrew Gospel of Matthew in India in the second century. A bishop, " Metropolitan of Persia and the Great Indi," was at the council of Nicrea in 325 A.D.
6. Whether or not at first it was the genius of Buddhism to borrow, it is certainly its genius now in Japan. Externally it is becoming a parasite of Christianity. Besides adopting other Christian methods of propagation, it is plagiarizing Christian names. For instance, instead of using the word temple as the designation for their religious houses, they say church now. On the road from Tokyo to Yokohama was a temple to which was attached a school for children. Recently the temple and school were burned. The man who kept the school made an ingenious appeal to foreigners here for help for the poor school which was attached to the church. No doubt many subscribed, thinking that the church was a Christian house of worship. The story of the god Krishna is manifestly taken from Christianity.
7. It is said that asceticism came from Buddhism, and through the Essenes ; that John the Baptist was a half Buddhist j that he was a Gnostic, which has the same meaning as Buddhist. * " Bunsen's Angel-Messiah. Asceticism was practised in the time of Job, 1500 years before Buddha j and the doctrines of the Essenes connect them more with Greece and Persia than with India. The real marks of Buddhism, the Karma, are not found in the Essenic doctrine.
S. What are the false parallels resorted to to establish claims of Bud- dhistic priority ~ That Buddha was born of a virgin j that there is a close con- nection between Maya, the name of his mother, and Mary j that Buddha's birth was attended by miracles j that he taught the doctrine of " vicarious suffering j" that Buddha was born on December 25th; that prophecies were made of the coming Messiah. These and many other claims are made for which no reliable proof can bc produced, as that he was miraculously conceived, presented in the temple, tempted by Mitra.
9. From the earliest Buddhist writings we learn a simple story of his life. He was the son of Suddhodana, a king residing at Kapilabatthu. He married, but at twenty-nine years of age left his home and became an ascetic, with two Brahmans as his teachers. Dissatisfied here, he went to Uruvela, near Patna, where he spent seven years in discipline and study. It is said that he det.ermined to be a " follower of the Buddhas [sages] of bygone ages." In this we find nothing very remarkable.
But when we turn to what are true parallels, we find something remarkable. The Hindu temple is on the same plan as the Jewish temple-two rooms, an inner and outer one j priests, altars, sacrifices, propitiations, oblations, sacred feasts, sacrificial fire, etc. Whence came all these things 1 Mr. Collins claims that they came from the divine revelation of God made to man long before the dispersion. They are vestiges of the true and primitive revelation to man, carried both into the East and vVest. The Western worship was reformed by Moses.
Again, when we look into the two moral codes we find much similarity, which confirms a primitive revelation. The ten prel!epts of Buddhism are remarkable. The reader can note for himself their similarity to the Ten Commandments. The last six are uttered against the prevailing sins of * Buddha's day. It is discouraging to reflect that these rules have been so utterly abandoned by Buddhists in Japan to-day. Buddhism teaches that freedom from suffering comes by righteousness.
This presupposes a deliverer j and this idea must have come from some primitive revelation. But in emphasizing the precept the revelator has been forgotten. This revelator was surely the one true God. While Buddhism is now atheistic, and the doctrine of the Nirvana annihilation, in the be- • 1. The taking of life. 2. Stealing. 3. Adnltery and sexual interconrse. 4. Lying. 5. The nse of intoxicating drinks. 6. The eating of food after midday. 7. The attendance npon dancing, singing, music, and masks. B. The adorning of the hody with flowers, and the use of perfnmes and ungnents. 9. The nse of high or honorable seats or couches.
10. The receiving of gold or silver. ginning this was not so. A dialogue in a passage of the earliest writings represents the present doctrine of annihilation as unorthodox. Sariputta says: "Thus then, friend Yamah, even here in this world the Perfect One is not to be apprehended by thee in truth. Hast thou, therefore, a right to speak, saying, ' I understand the doctrine taught by the Exalted One to he this: that a monk who is free from sin, when his body dissolves is subject to annihilation; that he passes away; that he does not exist beyond death'~" Yamaka replies: "Such, indeed, was hitherto, friend Sariputta, the heretical view which I ignorantly entertained. But now, when I hear the venerable Sariputta expound the doctrine, the heretical view has lost its hold of me, alJd I have learned the doctrine. "
'Vhen the past course of all religions shall have been traced, the investigator will probably arrive at the primitive av.d divine revelation recorded in the Book of God.
BUDDHISM AND ROMANISM.
BY REV. GEORGE L. MASON.
The author of the chart, the" Twin Monuments," which appeared in the June issue, did not seek its publication in this REVIEW, and d028 not know how a copy of it came into the hands of Dr. Sherwood ; but he now begs to add a word of explanation.
A cartoon teaches only in broad outline. It deals with gpneral truths rat.her than details. It depicts a system or a tendency rather than individuals. The picture in question judges no man, but describes systems. That it is fairly accurate and just the following considerations may show.
By Buddhism is meant not the teaching of Gautama or the early Buddhists, but the developed form of doctrine and worship as it now exists practically in eastern Asia, and especially as seen in Thibet, at least since the fourteenth century. Its resemblance to the papal system has been noted by Nevius, Gilmour, Du Boge, and other Protestant missionary authors; and with such candor by the Roman Catholic traveller, Abbe Hue, that his book was placed on the" Index" of writings to be expurgated, as is stated by Max Muller in his "Chips." Professor Monier Williams, who has finely drawn the contrasts between Buddhism and Christianity, says, "Koeppen, Rhys Davids, and other writers have well shown thnt the Buddhism of Thibet, with its pope-like grand Lilmas, its cardinals and abbots, monks and mendicant friars, nuns and novices, canonized saints and angelic hosts, temples and costly shrines, monasteries and mummeries, images and pictures, altars and relics, robes and mitres, rosaries and consecrated water, litanies and chants, processions and pilgrimages, confessions and penances, bell-ringing and incense, is, in everything except doctrine, almost a counterpart of the Romish system." The most of thes() features exist in China proper, as well as in Thibet i and to the list might be added self-torture, vigils, compulsory fasts, charms to prevent accident, wayside shrines, dependence on State endowment, alleged miracles, indulgences, prayers to the dead, and worship in a dead language.
Further, is there not some resemblance in doctrine also, at least in its practical working 1 1. Theology. By this is meant here the teaching as to the objects of worship. In books the Roman Catholic Chinese are taught the truth concerning the Creator; but this teaching is invariably joined with many commands to worship men, so that man practically holds the place of God, as in Buddhism. Perhaps the most popular god in China is Kwan-yin, a female form of Buddha, often represented as a fair woman holding a child. Certainly the most devout worship of the native Catholics is given to Mary. That this is idolatrous has been clearly shown by Dr. Blodget in the Chinese Recorder. The cult of Joseph, "patron saint of China," is growing. The natives are taught to bow to the images and pray to the spirits of deceased Jesuit missionaries. Even the living 1ishops assume the title " A god (or spirit) by imperial decree."
It is not true that God alone is worshipped and all the rest only reverenced ; for the distinction between latreia, hyperdoulia, and doulia, which Catholics like to insist on, is very rarely made in their Chinese books, one word being commonly used for all degrees of worship.
2. 'Phe .Doctrine of Redemption. Sin against God, requiring His forgiveness, of course is not known to Buddhism. But the necllssary misery of life may be more or less, according to one's evil or good deeds. Here comes in the value of merit, stored up on one's own account or transferred to another's credit on payment of money. The rich often hire women to recite rosaries and monks to say masses, the merit of which accrues to those who pay the money, or to the deceased whom they designate. This is the precise principle of papal masses for the dead.
In theory both religions emphasize asceticism, especially celibacy, as the path of highest virtue. Destroy desire, reduce life to its lowest terms. In practice the "religious" of each are very comfortable livers. The monks may even be drunkards, or opium smokers, or dissolute, and still retain good standing. Immorality does not involve excommunication, but only removal to some other field.
3. Eschatology. The Buddhist heaven is a later addition to the popular belief. But the interest of the people centres far more in the dreadful physical pains of hell, which are represented by images in the temples; and most of all in the state of the departed souls who are awaiting re-birth in the endless round of transmigration. Chinese Buddhist monks get immense sums for masses for the relief of these souls, just as the Catholic priests everywhere become very rich by the pretended release of souls from purgatory. Indulgences reduce the pains of the good Catholic, according to the amount of money paid. And millions of Buddhists toil up to famous moun. tain shrines and buy of the monks stamped cellificates wl,ich have a cash value of thousands of dollars when presented at the bank-in purgatory.
4. Doctrine of the Clturclt. No higher authority can be named than T. W. Rhys Davids, who says, in the Encyclopcedia Britannica: "In Thibet especially the development in doctrine was followed by a development in ecclesiastical government which runs so remarkably parallel with the development of the Romish hierarchy as to awaken an interest which could scarcely otherwise be found in the senseless and fatal corruptions which have oVE'rwhelmed the ancient Bnddhist beliefs." In China the ecclesiastical resE'mblance is l~ss than in Thibet. The Buddhist monks, with vows of celibacy and poverty, though lIot of obedience, are more like the begging friars than like the regular Catholic pliests. Yet in each case superhuman sanctity and merit nre supposed to reside in the person, robes, and office, and espeCially in the ceremonies performed; and such belief is enforced by pious frauds and lying wonders. In both Romanism and Buddhism, not the whole company of believers, but the clergy alone are the Church, holding all property and privileges, and so recognized by civil law.
5. The Doctrine of Public Worship. The ritual resemblances have been sufficiently indicated in the sentence quoted above from Sir Monier Williams.
6. Ethical Teaching. Here there is both likeness and contrast. Both systems condemn murder, stealing, lying, adultery, covetousness; but Buddhism is without any authorized system of casuistry by which, when desired, these offences may be regarded as very light and venial faults or eveu as virtues. That this is true of Romanism, and that a lax Jesuit morality has during the present century repeatedly received the highest official approval of the Catholic Church, no one will dispute who has studied in the impartial Encyclopcedia B1·itannica the articles" Probabilism" and "Liguori." One example is enough to quote here-the four sentences which any priest may suggest to an unfaithful wife, with any or all of which she may deceive her husband, without harming her own conscience. Buddhist ethics are defective; but Roman Catholic ethics, a strange mixture of truth and error, can hardly be described in terms too severe.
With these resemblances in doctrine, do papal and pagan systems tend to produce the same practical results 1 Again let Rhys Davids answer, "That the resemblance is not in externals only is shown by the present state of Thibet-the oppression of all thought, the idleness and corruption of the monks, the despotism of the government, and the poverty and beggary of the people." Buddhism in temperate Mongolia or torrid Siam, and Romanism in Canada or Mexico, in Ireland or Ecuador, are fairly judged by their fruits. Widely varying environments of race and climate do not prevent a marked sameness in moral re.'Ults. It would have been quite as pertinent to picture an Italian wedged under the column of Romanism as an Irishman.
EDUCATION AND EVANGELISM
I might give from various parts of China ana .Tapan such testimony as this in a letter from an experienced English missionary, " It is well known that the Roman Catholic people are not a whit better than outsiders. Some smoke opium, many gamble; they are not a bit better in morals than the heathen. Their Sabbath consists of mass soon after daybreak, after which they work as on other days. The priests arc ever ready to assist in lawsuits; in this and in financial aid lies the secret of what success they have."
The apparent ruling motive with the leaders of each system is love of gain. "No money, no worship" is as true in Buddhism as " no money, no sacraments" is in Romanism. The revenue of great estates does not satisfy. By systematic begging, by sale of masses, and by taxation or through political influence vast sums arc got from the public, and no account is given of how they arc spent.
In conclusion, no friend of missions can afford to neglect the study of this chapter in comparative religion. One of the best-known American missionaries, with a very successful experience of thirty years in China, said to me last year. in substance, "During the next fifty years our struggle will be not so much with Asiatic idolatry as with Romanism. "
EDUCATION AND EVANGELISM.
THE FREE CHURCH MISSIONS IN INDIA.
BY REV. CHARLES C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
It is known how predominently Scottish Presbyterianism in India, especially as represented by the Free Church of Scotland, has devoted itself to education, particularly to the higher education. It would be impossible that Presbyterianism could neglect this and, above all, that Scottish Preshyterianism could. That remarkable intellectual strength of the North British race, which before the Reformation led the French nobility to en· deavor always to secure Scottish tutors for their sons if they could, makes it impossihle that it should ever content itself with missions that are not deeply interwoven with knowledge of the world as it is-in other words, with the higher education. This was first brought more distinctly to our knowledge in this country when Dr. Duff made his great "iisit to us in 1853. Those of us who have had the privilege of being helped onward all our lives in our interest for missions by his wonderful eloquence can never have had any douht that the deepest and most central interest for the evangelization of India glowed ill the mind of the man who, with a far-sighted regard to the future, was content for awhile to forego the repute of large immediate fluccesses in order that in Christian education he might lay" the foundations of many generations. "
To this policy of a firm and large prosecution of the higher education, the Free Church of Scotland declares itsclf immovably resolved to adhere, as providentially determined for it from the beginning, as hallowed by the memories of Duff and his a!lsociates, as crowned with many noble results, and as peculiarly agreeable to the Scottish genius. And of the many eminent gentlemen, clergymen and laymen, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Congregationalists and others, who have been consulted whether by the Established or by the Free Church, the great majority, as already shown in the REVIEW, heartily concur with the judgment of the Scottish churches themselves.
Nevertheless, the question has lately been moved in the Free Church at home, whether this prol'identially designated work of the higher education may not have been pursued with a disproportionate zeal, and whether the evangelistic side of missions, towards which the educational work ought always to tend, and from which it ought to be reinforced, may not have been unduly depressed. Accordingly, the Free Church of Scotland has sent out to India the Rev. Professor Lindsay, D.D., and the Rev. J. Fairley Daly, B.D., as a deputation to examine thoroughly every branch of the missions of the Chnrch in India, and to report accordingly. We wish to note the general results of their investigation.
The deputies begin with a cordial testimony to the work. "They have seen mission work growing and spreading out in every direction, a native church taking visible extent and increasing, devoting itself in some cases to hearty evangelistic work, and they have rejoiced to observe the beginnings of self-support. E"erywhere they have seen their missionaries enjoying the respect and confidence of the people among whom they are laboring, and their unselfish and devoted work appreciated by the most eminent and thoughtful members of the European and native official class." They say also: "Our mission work has vastly iucreased within the last forty years, and on one side has necessarily come in contact with the educational policy of the Indian Government. Our missionaries in the old days were accustomed to combine the evangelistic and the educational sides of our mission in a manner not possible now, owing to the pressure of the Government University and upper school systems, which has compelled them to concentrate their attention on the educational side, and to give an amount of time and strength to prepare their students for examinations which was not required in the earlier days. In former times one man could attend equally well to both sides of the work, but this is impossible now. We need one set of men to take the educational, and another to take the evangelistic side. " The Church years ago perceived this, and "during Colonel Young's Convenership much was done to increase the evangelistic side of the mission, and two resolutions of Committee attest the fact that the committee have had it in mind to cnrl, the educational Ride until the evangelistic bas been bronght into line with it." The deputation declares its sugge~ tions to be mainly in the line of this already determined policy of the Church. The deputation says: "We have been greatly impressed with the vast- ness of the missionary enterprise of our church in India, with the high po- sition almost universally accorded to our missionaries among their brethren of other missions, and with their devotion to the work given them to do by the Church." The Free Church, indeed, has in India not one miflsion, but four mission~, scattered over an area of 543,000 square miles~ and among a population of 12;,000,000. In Bengal, its centre, Calcutta, has a population of 872,000, commanding a population of 70,000,000, and a region of 193,000 square miles, almost as large as France. The South India Mission is centred in Madras, with 406,000 inhabitants, commanding a district of 141,000 square miles, with a population of 31,000,000. In the west the mission is centered in the twin capitals of Bombay and Poona, having a population respectively of 774,000 and 129,000, and commanding a region of 124,000 square miles, more than all Great Britain and Ireland, and a population of 16,500,000.' The Central India Mission, of Nagpur, and two outlying missions in Hyderabad and the Derar, make out the whole.
But this "astness of operation, while stimulating the imagination and increasing interest at home, has made it impossible to combine the work of the four: missions. There has been no esprit de corps. Help' given to one has done nothing for the others. They are in exact contrast to the concentrated and wonderfully successful work of the American Presby"' terian Mission of Lodiana, to say nothing of the Methodist Episcopal Mission around Bareilly, or the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Mission on the Khasi hills. The early Scottish missionaries, being bitterly opposed by· the authorities, were glad to find lodgments where they could. Later missionaries, since the tide of feeling has turned, have been at leisure to choose their strategic points in view of effectiveness and concentration. The deputies, however, after fuJI reflection, by no means advise withdrawal from any of the present centres. But they earnestly advise that new centres bo not opened, but men and money be given for the consolidation and development of the work at the centres already occupied.
The deputation regards the Free Church work as wisely cootred, like that of most of the missions, in great cities, but it finds less laudable that, beyond all others, it has been concentrated on them. Village and district work has not been neglected, but it has been too much subordinated, and wherever retrenchment was necessary it has usually been the country work that has suffered. The deputation expresses admiration of the self-denial which has led to the preference of the much harder work among" the large restless masses" of the great cities, but expresses a decided doubt whether this has always been guided by wisdom. At Bhandara, in Santalia, and at Chingleput (near Madras) the combination of country and city work has given a peculiar heartiness to the missions, which earnestly commends it to the forces at all the great city centres.
India, the deputation remark, is a mere geographical expression, co"- ering a perfect chaos of races, languages, creeds, social conditions, and degrees of civilization. No generalizations, therefore, can be ventured on without the most careful delimitation of meaning and application. And these varieties may be again included, though very inexactly, in three or four great categories. vVe must first set aside 50,000,000 Mohammedans, and six or seven millions of nondescript sects. Caste Hinduism, numbering perhaps 125,000,000, rests on a ba!;is of depressed castes, estimated at from forty to sixty millions. These again are surrounded by a ring of aboriginal tribes, which have no relation whatever to Hinduism. Of these, such as the Ghonds, the Santals, the Khasis, there are probably more than twenty millions. The Free Church l1as mainly worked within caste Hinduism. Those missions which have secured large numbers of converts have mainly labored among the depressed castes and the aboriginal tribes. These more numerous converts, a matter of great rejoicing in themselves, have as yet had little influence on Hindu society at large. Caste Hinduism has yielded few converts, but these few commonly men of great influence.
The main difference between high caste and deprflssed caste, or out-caste Hinduism is not so much religious as social. Hinduism, though having a curious pantheism as a common basis, has developed into the most widely divergent and, indeed, largely antagonistic variety of creeds. But the true castes put the caste above the family. The depressed castes put the family above the caste. Therefore, let a high-caste man be converted, and he is simply thrown out, and the wall closes up smooth behind him. But if an out-caste is brought in, he often brings in his family, and from that conversions not infrequently go on extending far out into the whole kindred community. Dr. Sheshadri's success in the Deccan, remark the deputies, is largely owing to this use which he knows how to make of the family as an indirect agency for propagating the Gospel. But within true Hinduism also, the deputies observe, family feeling (which in India is always intrinsically strong) 80emB to be asserting itself with growing strength against caste influences, and seems likely to become, as in thc lower strata, an important missionary agency.
As to the great qnestion of education versus direct evangelism, the deputies acknowledge that this problem, like all Indian problems, is exceedingly intricate. But they lay their general impressions before the Foreign Missions Committee.
Education, remarks the deputation, as a missionary agency may be regarded as a mcans chiefly of edification or chiefly of conversion-that is, it may chiefly be directed upon the successive generations of a Chris· tianized community, or upon the children of parents who are still heathen. The Scottish work has mainly occupied itself with the latter, and has too much neglected the former. It has done better by tIle daughters of Christians than by their sons. " It is certain tllat our Church, with all its educational work, does not use education as a means of upbuilding and consolidating our native Christian community in a way that many other missions do, an<l has undoubtedly mffered in eonsequel'ce." " To begin with, we must lay it down as a principle that the one ab- sorhing aim in all real mission work is to bring onr fellow-men to know Jesus Christ to be their Saviour, and to profess their faith in Him in bap- tism. . . . Therefore, in discussing the mission value of educational mis- sions, we must put aside all arguments drawn from the spread of humanitarian and civilizing idea~. These are welcome accompaniments, but, after all, the question is, Is all this educational work calculated to draw men to faith in .Tesus as their Saviour, and to a profession of that faith in baptism r'
As to this, the deputation remarks, the higher education must be given an important place among missionary agencies, if caste Hinduism is to be made an object of missionary effort. It is too much to say that only through this can high-caste or true-caste Hinduism (the Hinduism of Brahmans, Vaisyas, and Sudras) be wrought ul:>0n. But that great missionary authority, Bishop Caldwell, admits that, while few converts have come from caste Hinduism, these few have come from educational missions. And in the higher schools of the Free Church the overwhelming majority of the students (at Madras 83 per cent) are from high-caste Hinduism, although of late, especially in Bombay, there is an increasing proportion of Mohammedans.
Preparation is important in all missions, but supremely important among easte Hindus. The one unpardonable sin in Hinduism is that a man should act for himself. The caste is everything, the individual nothing, except within the caste. But for this very reason, when the leavening forces of Christian missions, one of the most potent of which is the higher education, have reached a certain point of advancement, the very disposition of castes to go or stay as a whole, is likely, as it now works against conversions, at some point in the future to work the other way. And although the deputies do nut say so, we suppose that what would be true of a whole caste might be sooner true of any large local section of a caste. Indeed, we judge that many, even of the true castes, are locally circumscribed.
Caste Hinduism is, in fact, seriously alarmed. The disintegrating infiuences of general British infiuence are great. But these are, above all, concentrated and brought to a determinate issue by missionary agencies, above all by Christian colleges, high schools, and zenana missions. That caste Hinduism feels itself gradually being undermined is generally allowed. It is comparatively indifferent as t.o whether the depressed castes and the aboriginal tribes are Christianized or not. But the manner in which it is bracing itself up now againRt Christian effort, founding Hindu high schoolR, denouncing zenana missions, forming Hindu tract societies of a singular virulence, and (like Julian befofll it) endeavoring to meet the Church at this point and that by heathen counterparts of herself, shows the seriousness of its alarm. This is not groundless, for it is common enough for caste Hindus to be found canvassing the possibilities of a general move- !TIent from Hinduism over to Christianity. The converts made by the high schools, though few, are precious. In themselves they are no more precious than other Rouls.. But they have far-reaching influence. "One of our educational converts," say the dep- uties, "has converted twelve hundred Mang j another has organized a splendid system of girls' schools at Mhdras, and has been able, by quiet, continuous work, to provide Christian schoolmistresses for every class; a third is a Jeading pleader in Calcutta, and the foremost Christian orator in Bengal-perhaps in India."
Nevertheless, direct conversions are no longer, as in the days of Dr. Duff, a frequent result of the higher education. Why!
(l) Formerly the only alternatives were gross Hinduism, with all its crudities and abominations, or Christianity. Rut there are now all manner of half-way houses, such as Brahmo Somaj. Prarthana Somaj, Arya Somaj, attempts to graft Christian morals on a Hindu stem. The same commixture of Christianity with all forms of heathenism and heathen philosophy, which in thc Roman Empire so long made head against the simple acceptance of the Gospel, is witnessed now in India. Hinduism is endeavoring, by all manner of concessions and accommodations and self-transmutations, to stave off the hour of the inevitable acknowledgment, "Thou hast conquered, 0 Galilean 1" And, as Principal Miller suggests, it may be with the Hindus, as to Hinduism, "a necessary part of the divine training that they shonld discover its futilities for themselves." Meanwhile, conversions from caste Hinduism are largely at a stay.
(2) The development of the government system of education makes necessary such a development in educational missions as, indeed, leaH'S unimpaired the attention to Bible study which, unless it be in Calcutta, is pursued thoroughly, and with genuine interest, by the non-Christian pupils, but largely takes away fro:o the educational missionaries their old times of leisure for quiet personal talks with the students.
(3) If the government standard is not to be maintained in the missionary schools, the government subventions would collapse in proportion to the resulting shrinkage in the number of pupils-a reduction of means that cannot be confronted without ample deliberation as to all that it involves.
" If our educational agency is to produce its full results it must be supplemented by an evangelistic agency working side by side, and in visible connection with it. Weare afraid that we must confess that our Church has not thoroughly faced this evangelistic work, and it must be prepared to face it and go through with it before the full fruits of her educational work can be gathered in." The deputies insist that every college centre ought to be also an evangelistic centre, and that although there should be an evangelistic missionary, who should act as a superintendent, having subordinate to him a whole force of vernacular workers, of various degrees of cultivation, yet neither side of the work can dispense with the presence in the evangelistic branch of it, in greater or less measure, of the educational missionaries. While fully maintaining the permanent importance of the high school., and colleges of the Church, the deputies declare: " We have no hesitation in saying that our Church is spending an amount upon the higher education which is out of all proportion to its present resources." In Calcutta they think that the college of the Established Church of Scotland ought to suffice for both, and that the cost of four of the high schools ought to be trans- ferred to the evangelistic side. How many high schools there are we are not quite sure, as the accounts of the four missions are given with tru~ British exhaustivtlness and confusedness, but we believe we have hunted out ten. This would be a reduction, indeed, in the second grade of in- ~truction. Poona has ceased to be an educational mission, and they recommend that it be kept up as an evangelistic mission, especially as its excellent climate makes it a good foothold from which to resume the long-abandoned work on the Konkan, or table-land abutting on the eastern wall of the "Vestern Ghauts.
The deputation is also dccidedly of opinion that the Church has far too many non-Christian teachers in her schools. The public service i~ much more remunerative-gives assured position, good social prestige, and a retiring pension. Bnt the deputies remark that those missions which arfl careful to provide boarding-schools for Christian boys as well as girls, are much less embarrassed to find Christian teachers.
They lament also that the educational missionaries, absorbed as they are in their English teaching, have no time to master the vernaculars, and therefore are at arm's length from all except the educated natives of European culture. Instead of gidng, like the American Board, two years to learn a native language, the Free Church seems to give no time at all. And Indian languages, say the missionaries, are not to be mastered by the way.
The deputies have also had occasion to consider the question of cheap miSSIOns. They designate as the type of such the China Inland Mission, where remuneration is small, but the European are twice as numerous as the native workers. On the other hand, in the Church of Scotland Mission at Darjeeling or Kalimpong, the missionary is paid a comparatively high salary, but is at the head of twenty or thirty evangelists. He thus " co,'ers a larger extent of ground, does more thorough work, and gets into closer connection with the people than a number of Europeans, who have no staff of native evangelists, can possibly do. He and his native evangelists cost the Church at home a great deal less money and do a great deal better work than a number of Europeans paid at a much lower rate could do." They therefore do not advise a reduction of salaries, nor a depression of the powerful evangelizing influence of the Christian family by tho employment of many unmarried men. At the same time, they admonish Scottish Christians of means, that in India there is a glorious opportunity for them to serve Christ at their own charges. They wish to know why women should volunteer in this way and men not.
They think, now that the government is doing so much for the WEldica,l, relief of the people that medical missions ought only to be maintained where they are distinctly needed, in the remoter districts, and that they should be made distinctly and effectively evangelistic, or given up as not within the range of the Church's work:.
The Madras Mission is much the most effective of the four educational missions of the Free Church, and its Christian college is pre-eminent in India, and at the same time the evangelistic work is much the best developed there. Yet there also the Scotchmen know but little of the Tamil.
The Santalia Mission is entirely different, being among an aboriginal tribe, and not differing particularly from other evangelistic missions of this kind.
This report has been submitted to tho judgment of the missionaries themselves, who have oriticised it with great pungenoy. They differ from it, however, rather in relative emphasis than in substance. They think that the deputies have kept the opponents of the educational work too much in view, and have been needlessly, and somewhat humiliatingly, deprecatory in their tone over against them. They think that they have made it appear too much as if the fornI of the Scottish work was determined by early obstacles to other forms of work, whereas it was laid out from the beginning with full consciousness of a providential call, and has been (however restricted here and there by obstacles) steadily followed up ever since in the same consciousness, having been largely normative for other missions. They think, moreover, that government pressure has much less to do with the rise of the educational standard than the healthy pressure of a growing public demand.
The missionaries themselves dosire, and have long urged, a large extension of evangelistio work. But they hold it agreeable to the providential vocation of the Free Church that this should be mainly not.in regions where caste Hinduism is weak, but in those where it is strong, and where, oonsequently, the number of conversions, even under the most faithful and immediate evangelistio effort, is likely for a long time to come to be comparatively small. In other words, they hold that while some missions have been well guided to work along the lines of least resistance, the Soottish missions have been speoifically called to work along lines of greater resistance. And undoubtedly the Soottish character shows at its best in continuous stress of effort against formidable difficulties.
The Rev. A. Andrew, of the valuable evangelistic station Chingleput, Madras Presidency, which the deputies have peouliarly commended, bears witness to the report as of exceedingly great value, but decidedly disagrees with it in one point-namely, in its apparent assnmption that the higher education only can reach oaste Hinduism. He points out that Bishop Caldwell does not say that the few caste converts have been the fruit of the higher schoo);., hut have been the fruit of mission schools. The higher education can reach bnt a fraction of the higher oaste~, and primary educa- "tion is an indispensable adjunct of evangelization among all the castes /lnr!
A PLEA FOR MEDICAL MISSIONS
ttibes. "In our Chingleput Mission we preach to thousands of Brahmans and other high castes as regularly and faithfully as to the low castes, and await the outpouring of God's Spirit on our labors. The testimony we give to the power of Christian truth in our rural mission is just as valuable as that given in mission colleges. The American Arcot Mission and other rural missions conduct the work, so far as I know, on the same lines." Mr. Andrew, therefore, thinks that the indefinitely large development of evangelistic work in the country districts (a work which has been starved in the past) is the next forward step lying before the Free Church of Scotland.
The Santal missionaries make one mihl criticism-namely, that the conversion of the aLorigines and of the out-castes is by no means so ineffective on caste Hinduism as the deputies seem to think. And, indeed, it is hard to see how the proudest castes could very long resist the influence of fifty or sixty millions of the humbler classes, if these were regenerated and elevated by Christianity. Hindu religion and Hindu language have both been influenced through and through by the aborigines when in a lower grade, and why not when they begin to ascend ~ But, after all abatements of criticism, it is evident that the general judgment, in India and in Scotland, is expressed by A. H. L. Fraser, Esq., of the Bengal Civil Servicc, who declares his" respect and admiration for the great pains, thc unwearying labor, the candid investigation that must have combined to produce, after so short a pcriod, so elear and generally accurate a view of the subject-matter of that report."
The Foreign Missions Committee of the Free Church of Scotland, having maturely weighed both the report and the criticisms passed upon it, has taken action substantially in agreement with its recommendations, and, in particular, has decided" still to limit to the present amount the resources spent on the educational institutions, and to devote to the evangelistic side whatever increase lllay be received and any saving that lDay be e:ffected with educational work, without detriment to its efficiency."
In other words, the Future is still to be kept steadily in view, but the Present ig no longer to be so much overlooked as in the past.
A PLEA FOR MEDICAL MISSIONS.
BY CLARENCE THWING, M.D.
The work of missionary physicians in foreign lands has been growing very rapidly of late. Introduced about fifty years ago as an adjunct to the preaching of the Gospel, it has by steady strides come to be in Ulany places the most successful pioneer work of missiuns. At the present time there are about three hundred medical missionaries, while twenty-eight years ago there were less than a score, and ten years later not more than forty * in all lands. Nearly every well-equipped mission now has one or more physicians constantly engaged in medical work; and not a few ordained clergymen have also a medical education and give a part of their time to attending the sick and digpensing medicines, particularly in their travels from one station to another.
The reasons for the rapid development of this branch of missionary enterprise and its present recognition as a prime factor in mission work are few but forcible. Iu accounting for thc success already attained by medical missions, we shall necessarily state the reasons for a still greater enlargement of the work and for the more hearty support of this very important department of onr Christian propaganda.
First, we IIave in the Scripture'S a divine warrant for medical as well as spiritual work in evangelistic operations. This is found in the example of both our Lord and His disciples. Jesus, the" Great Physician," cared for the body as well as the soul. Many instances are recorded of His healing the sick and arresting disease. His ministry'was spent in " preaching the Gm;pel and healing all manner of sickness" (Matt. 4 : 23). Moreover, He commissioned Hi,; twelve disciples and" other serenty also" both to "preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick" (Luke 9 : 1, 2, e ; 10 : 1, 8, 9). Thus the three orders of the first Christian ministry were aU engaged in a medical mission. In the third order, corresponding somewhat to our lay evangelists, the medical work was given the precedence, although joined with preaching (Luke 10 : 9), just as in the labors of the missionary physicians of to-day.
If anything further than the example of our Saviour were needed to show the divine sanction of healing as well as preaching by missionaries, we have, with the final command of Christ-" Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature"-the prophecy and promise of witnessing signs, among which is this: "They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover" (Mark 16 : 15-18).
Since, then, the wisdom and providence of God thougilt it well, for the glory of His name and the spread of His kingdom, that the preaching of spiritual truth should be accompanied by a ministry of physical benefits and the relief of bodily needli, should we not also unite these ministrations ~ The history of missions shows that where such union of effort exists we have far greater snceess than any achieved by preaching alone.
Second, the instincts of humanity and Christian fraternity move us to send the benefits of medical science with those of the Christian religion to our brethren in foreign lands. The science of medicine has made such advances in Western nations during the last century that we do not realize that in many of the most thickly populated Eastern countries there is almost no medical science, and those who profess to practise the art of healing are ignorant of the very principles of medicine, and are often mountebanks * Vide" Dr. Christlieb ell :MedIcal Missions~' in MISSIO~ARY REVIEW, August, 188l. and conjurers. The methods of treating injuries and disease are often barbarous in the extreme; and when sickness is not allowed to take its course by neglect, the suffering is sadly aggravated by careless or improper attentions, if not by positive cruelty. The reports frequently sent to us by those in mission fields concerning the destitution, ignorance, and suffering of thousands who are without proper medical treatment and often with no treatment at ali, should touch our hearts and lead to greater generosity (even to the point of sacrifice, which is seldom reached) in the matter of sending the help and helpers, the medicines and men that we can so easily spare in our own enlightened larrd.
It is well, in tbis connection, to recall the story of the" Good Samaritan," and our Lord's commendation of his neighborly and humane action in giving medical aid to the stranger of a different country and religious belief, whom he found in distress. The precept following this parable is one we should apply to ourselves: "Go, and do thou likewise" (Lukc 10 : 37). The Scriptures also teach us that ministry of whatever kind to our needy fellows is regarded in God's sight as service rendered directly to Him: "Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me" (Matt. 25 : 40). But if we had not this promised recognition of our Lord, the promptings of humanity and natural sympathy ought to impel u~ to offer to the sick and suffering, wherever found, a balm and cordial for the body as well as the soul.
The unselfishness and true friendliness shown in giving such succor and relief appeal most forcibly to the hearts of many whom we could not otherwise reach. They respond to our humanity when not to our piety. By exhibiting in a practical, helpful way our brotherly feeling for them, we secure an answering affection and respect which efforts at proselyting alone would never meet. Convinced of the generous regard of brother men, they are prepared to know and love the" friend that sticketh closer than a brother. "
Third, as an evidence of Christianity and an example of Christian beneficence, medical missions deserve a foremost place in our scheme of evangelization, and should be undertaken in all lands where suffering or diseased bodies are found with unsaved or misguided souls. Our religion should be shown to be a practical one-not simply a matter of faith, but also of good works. VV-e need to teach not only the doctrines of truth, but also the virtues of holiness. It must be explained that belief in a divine Saviour and acceptance of personal salvation are not all of Christianity ; that our religion is not for individual benefit alone; but that" faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone," and that" by works is faith made perfect" (James 2 : 17, 22). This is a lesson we have not well learned ourselves, and we cannot properly 'teach it unless our example is in harmony with our precept. There is no better way of teaching to the heathen the Christian charity that "seeketh not her own" than by practising it, and we cannot bettcr instruct them in Christian b~neficence than by a living exhibition of it. No morc convincing proof of the divine origin and truth of our rehgion can be given to unbelievers than the benevolent instituticn·; which it has established everywhere. The actual demonstration of whllt Christianity seeks to do and does for the temporal and material welfare of mankind is a potent argument in favor of its introduction. What benefit will be more readily sought than relief from bodily pain? AnJ what more welcome than freedom from exhausting disease ~ A tree that will bear such fruit will find grateful soil for its transplanting.
Experience has proved the efficacy of medical work in the spread of missions. It has placed thousands of people who were (or might otherwise have been) enemies of the missionaries under obligations to them which are long remembered, and whieh are often the motives for friendly assistance and the saving of life and property in times of peril. Many instances might be given to illustrate the friendly feelings awakened and antagonisms conquered by the quiet, generous, self-sacrificing labors of medical missionaries, but ~pace will not permit them to be quoted here.
Fourth, as the direct pioneer of the Gospel aud one of the most efficient aids to the Christian preacher, the medical missionary deserves our earnest sympathy and support. The efforts for bodily relief are undertaken as preparatory for and subsidiary to the higher work of saving the soul. A service to the physical man having been rendered, the spiritual wants are described and the source of divine help pointed out. The specific for spiritual maladies is prescribed with the remedies for physical ills. Patients are taught that their eternal interests are greater than the temporal, and they are directed to the" Great Physician," who will cleanse them from the leprosy of sin, open their eyes to the knowledge of the truth, save them from the pains of future punishment, and redeem their souls from eternal death. While failure may attend the most intelligent and faithful efforts of the human helper, and bodily ailments may be incurable by medical science, yet the assurance is given that, " He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him" (Reb. 7 : 25), and "The Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither Ris ear heavy, that it cannot hear" (Isa. 59 : 1). Many thousands every year CQme to the mission hospitals and dispensaries, and many ~ore are treated by the medical missionary in his country tours, who would not in any other way be brought in contact with Christian teachers, and to all alike are presented the story of the cross and message of salvation. The time and labors given for physical relief are well spent, though they be in some cases futile in recovering bodily health, provided they are the means of bringing darkened minds into the light of truth and of securing the gift of eternal life to souls which would otherwise be lost.
Admitting the value and duty of medical missions, there remains the question, Row may the cause be advanced and its usefulness multiplied 1 First-to answer briefly-by larger financial support for the work already undertaken and in operation. Second, by increasing the circulation of missionary intelligence, and awakening further interest in the subject. Third, by more frequent and earnest prayer, both individual and united. Fourth, by educating Christian young men and women to recognize the claims of the work upon them and the opportunity and privilege of engaging in it. Fifth, by giving a thorough training, both medical and spiritual, theoretical and practical, to those who offer themselves for service and those who intend to do so but arc yet employed in preparatory study. * There are not wanting many encouragements in the prosecution of medical missions, and the outlook is a hopeful one ; but there is room for all to help. The present is a time of particular nflcessity ; the fields are" white already to harvest," and" the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few j pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers" (Luke 10 : 2). The difficulty now is not so much to find consecrated laborers as to secure the means to " send forth" those who are ready to go. Let us all have a part in answering our own prayers.
In closing, it is fitting to repeat the words of a veteran missionary physician, Dr. J. G. Kerr, of Canton, China, who writes: "Itis no doubt a source of gratification to all missionaries-it is certainly so to us, who are among the older medical missionaries-to see the churches at home awaking to the great importance of medical missions, not only as a means of relieving suffering and saving human life, but of aiding in the evangelization of heathen lands, and we hail the addition of so many noble young men and women to this department of mission work as evidence that Christianity, with its blessings, is being offered to those nations which hitherto have not enjoyed them, in the manner best calculated to secure their acceptance "
We gladly welcome from that Prince of Missionary Biographers, George Smith, LL.D., of Edinburgh, Scotland, the following paper on " The Free Church of Scotland's Twenty-Seven Medical Missionaries-Men and Women." – [EnIToR. ] DR. DAVID H. P.A'fERSON'S EARLY WORK IN MADRAS.
Dr. Smith says: More than a generation ago, or in the year 1856, the Free Church of Scotland unitcd with the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society in sending out to Madras Dr. D. H. Patcrson, F.R.C.S.E. From the Medical Mission House, he was enabled, during sixteen years of incessant toil, to spread the rays of Gospel light and healing all around. He tended the souls and bodies of some 43,000 poor natives every year. He sent forth twelve educated nativcs, from all missions, to be medical missionaries in their own districts. His wife and he won an entrance into * This latter work has been undertaken iu a limited way by the International Medical Missionary Society of New York, of which Dr. George D. Dowkontt is the Superintendent. By means of a Training Institution (at 118 E. 45th Street) and several city mission dispensaries, students are educate1 in practical evangelical work as well as equipped with m~dical experience before going to tbe field. The society is doing a good work; it is carried on faithfully and economically, and deserves hearty support. native households from which all but the physician was excluded. He died of abundant labors in 1871. Himself son of Dr. Chalmers's" Missionary of Kilmany," he has given his eldest son, Dr. Alexander Paterson, to the Church's medical work in the Keith-Falconer Mission III South Arabia. Dr. D. H. Paterson was succeeded by Dr. William Elder, and he, for a time, by one of the native medical missionaries, Rev. T. K. Itty. The Free Church of Scotland purchased all the buildings, added to them, and made the mission its own. Now it has come to be worked by the first woman medical missionary sent out by the Ladies' Society, Dr. Matilda Macphail. She is likely to be joined by Dr. Janet Hunter, of the same Society; that, the two helping each other in the missionary work, the mission may go on in full strength, notwithstanding occasional sickness and furlough. This Tamil Medical Mission has borne rich spiritual fruit in the two native congregations of Rayapooram, the busy railway suburb which is its centre, one Tamil and one Eurasian.
DR. DUFF'S EARLIER WORK IN BENGAL. WORK IN CHINA.
The founding of this cnterprise in 1855 was not the first attempt of our missionaries to use the Lord's method of healing as a door into His kingdom. Twenty years before that, in 1834, Dr. Alexander Duff induced government to give his ablest students-Brahmans, till conTersion-the full medical training which has ever since sent a large nnmber of our best native Christians into the Indian Medical Service as army and civil surgeons and medical professors. The story of the first efforts to get Brahmans t6 dissect the human body, as told in our first missionary's" Life," reads like a romance (vol. i., chap. 8). That was the beginning of medical missions in India, just fifty-five years ago. Here, in this as in all missionary methods, Dr. Carey had been first-his colleague, Dr. Thomas, having in 1790, when surgeon in an East Iudiaman, begun to heal the sick as well as to preach to the sinful Bengalees. But that was long a solitary case. In 1740 the Moravians had sent five medical men to Persia, but unsuccessfully. In 1798 Dr. Vanderkemp, a physician, was a missionary in South Africa. With their more free medical system the Americans of the United States took up the policy, but by 1849 there were only twelve medical missionaries in all the non-Christian world, chiefly in China and Syria. Now there are four hundred, and every year sees an addition to the number. China, however, has the distinction of being the earliest scene of medical mission work, steadily developed. Dr. T. R. Colledge, when in Macao as an East India Company's surgeon, in 1827 began those Christ like labors among the poor, and especially the blind, which Chinnery has immortalized in a famous picture. The Rev. Dr. P. Parker, who had done medical mission work in Singapore in 1831), and in Canton, was the first to give an impetus to the whole· Evangelical Church in this matter, when his visit to Edinburgh resulted in the godly and skilled physicianA there establishing its MedicalMissionary Society. Now, besides that valuable agency, under Rev. J. Lowe, F.RC.S.E., for training medical missionaries side by side with the university and medical schools, there are three other training institutions-Dr. J. L. Maxwell's, 104 Petherton Road, London, N.; Dr. G. D. Dowkontt's, 118 East Forty-fifth Street, New York; and Rev. Dr. Valentine's, Agra.
WOMEN BECOME QUALIFIED MEDICAL MISSIONARIES.
This third step was the greatest. Long opposed by the teaching and licensing bodies in the United Kingdom, Christian women, yearning to relieve the misery, spiritual and bodily, of the millions of their sisters in the East, by teaching them of Christ the Healer, were dtiven to America or Switzerland for training. Of the women missionaries sent out by America, no nobler has lived and died for the women and children of India than Mary Seelye, M.D. She worked alone in the vast population of Calcutta, and the gigantic work killed her in the midst of her success. The same fate befell other solitary and unaided workers-establishing the lesson that it is more true of womeu than of men, and more true of medical than of other missionaries, that they must go forth at least two and two.
In the year 1860 Mrs. George Smith began to reside in the famous Bengal town of Serampore. Soon the jealously-guarded homes (zenanas) of the best Hindu families were open to her, and, aided by the municipality and the Baptist missionaries, she opened girls' schools for the poorer families. What she took up as a work of Christian vernacular education, sad experience led her to develop into a medical mission also to women, so far as that was possible without a fully qualified co-worker. What she witnessed, and often in vain tried to relieve, can be told only to women, but our Ladies' Society published these sentences from her pen on her return to Scotland : " The women of Great Britain would stare if they saw what we have seen. A woman of gentle birth kept apart with her new-born infant for a whole month, in a small chamber, with only a grating for a window, and , laid on a damp floor-a small fire in one corner, and no chimney !
,"A lady doctor, who was alone in her mission, felt it almost impossible to attend native women at the birth of their children, from the repulsive practices which prevail. . •. A son was born in a zenana to which I had access, and as it was a first-born, one would suppose that as much honor as possible: would be done the poor mother, who was only fourteen years of age. But she was kept apart in the damp little room, laid on the floor, and she and her babe were looked at only through the grating. Even her husband dare not touch her, nor his son j anyone so touching them would at once become impure.
" Need the people of this country wonder at the importunity of those who know that these thingl!! are-at their anxiety that teachers should be sent out to clear the minds of our poor Eastern sisters from the misti of prejudice and heathenism 1"
The writer gave up her little leisure to plead for the 127,000,000 of women in India that they might have Christian physicians of their own sex. She, bfling dead, yet speaketh. Great has been the progress since 1860, and even since 1876 when these words first appeared. In a paper on" Women's Work in the Mission Field,." read at the London Missionary Conference in 1888, Miss A. Marston, M.D., of the Zenana Bible and Medical Mission, made the following statement: "Of the sixty female practitioners on the English medical register, ten have given themselves to the work of foreign missions." That is only the beginning. Already the number is increased, and soon will be doubled.
THE QUEEN-EMPRESS AND THE MARCHIONESS OF DUFFERIN'S ASSOCIATION.
Because there were none to attend a Hindu woman in sickness save immoral native quacks, the Maharani of Panna, still the great diamondbearing state of Ceutral India, contracted a long and painful disease. An Englishwoman, a medical missionary, was the means of curing her, and when going home on, furlough took a ilhort letter from this Hindu feudatory queen to the Queen-Empress Victoria, petitioning Her Majesty to provide a remedy. Dr. Murdoch thus tells the story: "The letter was put into a small gold locket, which the lady was to wear round her neck till she gave it into the hands of the queen. An interview was granted, and the tender heart of Her Majesty was touched_ She sent a kind reply to the Maharani, and Lord Dufferin could say at a public meeting in Calcutta, ' In endeavoring to launch a scheme for the improvement of the medical treatment of the women of India, we are fulfilling the special injunction of Her Majesty the Queen. Lady Dufferin's first work was a careful survey of the field and consideration of plans. In August 1885 an association was formed to promote the following objects: 1. Medical tuition. 2. Medical relief. 3. The supply of trained female nurses. "
Lady Aitchison, after whom the Women's Hospital in Lahore is named, and others, took up the scheme in' each of the Provinces of India. The Marchioness of Lansdowne is now at its head. All classes of the natives have subscribed a sum, which is invested to the equivalent of £55,000.
"Five lady doctors and a nurse have been obtained from England. About two hundred young women are being educated in the medical colleges of India, a number of them maintained by the branches of the Association. There are twelve female hospitals and fifteen dispensaries more or less aided. Classes have been formed for the training of female nurses.
" One rule of the Association has been qtxestioned by some. Religious neutrality is to be observed by its agents. It was felt that the work: wa, of such magnitude that it could be carried out effectually only by the cooperation of native princes. Municipalitiq,s include Hindus and Muhammadans. Government officers would also feel unwilling to connect themselves with a missionary agency. One result is that large donations havc been made by non-Christians. The Hindu high priest of Tripati, a large temple near Madras, has offered two scholarships for hospital assistants, two gold medals, two scholarships for female nurses, beside other help.
" Indirectly, Christian Missions are benefited. Indian women, at present, trust mainly to charms and other superstitious ceremonies for the cure of disease. Successful treatment by medicine alone will help to dissipate such belief.
" The Christian Vernacular Education Society is co-operating as far as possible in the work which Lady Dufferin 80 zealously commenced. Its , Ranitary Primer,' with a few omissions, has been adopted by the Association as the most suitahle for diffusing an elementary knowledge of t.he laws of health. The Society has also published simple treatises on Childbirth, the Health of Children, and Sanitary Reform, which are having an encouraging circulation. "
RAPID EXTENSION OF MEDICAL MISSIONS BY THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.
The necessity is the greater that the Church of Christ, as such, should do its duty. In 1855 we began with Dr. David H. Paterson at Madras; in 1891 we find that the one medical missionary has increased to twentyseven. Our medically qualified mi8sionaries are: Rev. William M. Alexander, B.Sc., M.B., C.M., Glasgow, Bombay, India; Rey. William Carslaw, M.D., Glasgow, Syria; Rev. J. Kerr Cross, M.B., GM., Gla8gow, Livingstonia, Central·Africa; Rev. James Dalzell, B.D., M.B., C.M., Natal, South Africa; Rev. J. A. Dyf'r, L.Re.p., and S. Edinburgh, Santalia, India; W. A. Elmslie, M. B., C. M., AlJerdeen,
PAUL THE MISSIONARY
Living8tonia, Central Africa; Wiliiam Gunn, LR. C.P., and S. .n:dinburgh, Futuna, New Hebrides; Rev. R. Eannington, M.B., C.M., Glasgow, Constantinople ; l~ev. George Hem'y, M.A., M.B., C.M., Aberdeen, Livingstonia, Central Africa; J. B. Henderson, M.B., C.M., Madras, India; Rev. R. Laws, M.A., M.D., Aherdeen, F.R.G.S., Livingstonia, Central Africa; Adolf Lippner, M.D., Buda-Pest, Europe; Alexander Paterson, M.B., C.M., Edinburgh, Keith-Falconer Mission, South Arabia; Rev. Alexander Robertson, M.B., C.M., Glasgow, Nagpoor, Central India; Rev. J. Sandilands, M.B., C.M., Glasgow, Bandhara, Central India; Rev. J. Stewart, M.D., C.M., Glasgow, F.R.G.S., Lovedale, Souih Africa; D. W. Torrance, M.B., C.M., Glasgow, Tiberias, Palestine j W. Walker, M.B., C.M., Glasgow, Conjevaram, South India.
WOMEN.
Janet Hunter, M.D., Brussels, L.R.C.P. and S., Glasgow, to be appointed to Madras; Matilda Macphail, L.R.C. P. and S., Glasgow, Madras, South India; Agnes E. Henderson, M.D.
StUdying for Full Qualification.
Ladv from India, in Edinburgh and Leith; two other ladies.
NATIVES OF INDIA.
Not yet Qualified in British Sense.
Lazarus Abraham, Tanna, India: Rev. T. K. Itty, Madras, India j J. Nanji Kotak, L.M. and S., of Grant College, Bombay, India; T. Khisti, Bombay, India; James M. Macphail, M.A., Glasgow, Santalia, India; Dugald Revie, Glasgow, probably Livingstonia, Central Africa; A. G. Mowat, M.B., C.M., Glasgow j Dr. Fotheringham, M.B., C.M., Glasgow, Livingstonia; Rev. G. Steele, M.B., C.M., Glasgow, Livingstonia.
The Church has enjoyed the services of the late Dr. Robson in Calcutta, of Dr. Young in Bombay, of Dr. Cowen in South Arabia, of Dr. Weir in South Africa, of Miss Waterston, M.D., in Central and South Africa, and others. It has gladly sent not a few of its best sons to the missions of the Church Missionary Society, like the lamented Elmslie in Kashmir, and John Smith, Lake Nyanza; of the Presbyterian Church of England in China; of the United Presbyterian Church in Manchuria, and of the London Missionary Society in several lands.
For every living, and therefore missionary church, rejoices to remember that the Lord Jesus Christ, in proof of His power to utter the sweetest words ever heard by man, Thy sins be forgiven thee, ~dded, Arise and walle.
PAUL THE MISSIONARY.
BY REV. JOHN ROSS, MOOKDEN, MANCHURIA.
It is a cause for thankfulness that the church atmosphere is resounding with theories as to the best modes of evangelizing the world, for this indicates on the part. of the Church of Christ an acknowledged sense of responsibility. But it seems to me strange that in the world-wide proclamation of some popular theones, the missionary chapters of the New Testament appeal as if expurgated from the Bibles of many who have at heart the in- terests of the kingdom. -Where the influence and lives of the workers ana the spiritual well being of untold multitudes are at stake, it is surely a paramount duty to investigate, ~o understand and, as far as practicable aud wise, to imitate the example of those who initiated the work of evangelizingthe world. It is my desire in this paper to briefly examine, for the consideration of all earnest Christian people, the missionary career of the Apostle Paul. This task is the less difficult because the history of his career, as far as it was under the guidance of his own free will and judgment, is contained in nine chapters of the Acts, beginning with the 18th and concluding in the 21st.
Persecution drove from Jerusalem many Christians, who fled as far as Phenice in the north and Cyprus in the south. Preaching where they went, many of them made a favorable impression not upon Jews only, but upon Gentiles also. Some believers were originally from Antioch, and on their compulsory return spoke to Jew and Gentile of the way of life. The wonderful results stupefied the Church which had remained in Jerusalem, and Barnabas, as a well-tried Hellenist, was sent to examine and report. Learning what kind of men they were who became believers, and what sort of men opposed the movement, he went to Tarsus to find out and bring with him, as best adapted for the work, his former friend Saul, who was apparently living in retirement. How long the two men preached in Antioch we know not, but the time was long enough to prove their incomparable superiority to all the other preachers. This pre-eminence was the reason why they were selected (Acts 13) as the first Apostles to go to the " regions beyond."
Through Seleucia and Cyprus, where the Gospel had been already proclaimed, they simply passed on, and called a halt only when they got to Antioch, in Pisidia. Long and plainly did Paul speak in this place, reasoning with the people and fully expounding to them the truth. So great was the concourse of people to hear him on the following Sabbath that envious Jews drove him out of the city.
Driven from Antioch, the preachers made their way to Iconium, where they remained a considerable time preaching and explaining, till they were compelled to abandon the city. At Lystra they created a great sensation, which ended in Paul being left for dead from stoning by the enraged citizens. Having recovered, he retraced his steps, strengthening the hearts and more fully enlightening·the understanding of the believers.
After the question of circumcision, which threatened to create a rupture in the church, was settled in a common-sense manner by mutual concession, Paul and Barnabas separated over a dispute regarding a third colleague. Each took the man of his own choice, and Paul went through Syria, passing, as formerly, through the places where the Gospel had been preached, by the way strengthening and instruct.ing the believers, so that these ~ight be the better able to push forward the work in their own neighbor- hood. He rested only when he crossed over into Europe and arrived in Philippi, whither the Gospel had not yet penetrated. There he sought out those anxious to lead a better life, and continued his public preaching till serious maltreatment threatened his life.
From Thessalonica the animosity of the Jews compelled him to a speedy Hight. The people in Berea were more liberal and ready to listen to Paul's arguments. But jealous orthodoxy pursued and drove him away. Thence he went to Athens, where he encountered the Greek philosophers, whose contemptuous treatment sent him on to Cormth, where he remained for a lengthened period. A tumult there made him again a wanderer. Passing through Ephesus at that time, he returned to it and baptized twelve believ. ers. For three months he continned arguing from tho Scriptures that Jesns was the· Messiah, till orthodoxy closed the synagogue ngainst him. But a school was thrown open to him, where he daily discour"iJd for so long a time that all the people in the city knew somewhat of the doctrine and its preachers. After a brief absence, though anxious to go to Jerusalem and Rome, he went back to Ephesus, where a great uproar terminated his stay. Still eager to ilIlpart some further instruction, Ilnd because from his urgency, to depart for .Terusalem he was unable to go in person, he sent for the elders to confer with them at the port of Miletns. In this last discourse he informed them that he had declared to them the" whole counsel of God," which in modern language means that he had passed them through a theological course.
After his hurried journey to Jerusalem, he was no longer a free agent, but went where his soldier-keepers led him. Though his subsequent history is, therefore, a magnificent example of enthusiastic preaching ~f the Gospel in the most trying circumstances, it does not, beyond his epistles, show us the principles of action and the methods of work which his unfettered will would have suggested. "Ve have enough, however, in this summary to learn (1) the kind of agent, (2) the form of itineracy, and (3) the style of preaching which were considered the best, and which turned out the most successful in Apostolic times.
1. The agent was the man already proved to be the best in the Church -the best spiritually, intellectually, lind educationally. This" best" man did not go of his own accord. He was called to the work and" sent" by the Church. Now, the work of preaching the Gospel in China is more difficult than any the Apostle Panl had to undertake. He had learned Hebrew at his mother's knee. In the celebrated Rchools of Tarsus, with their famous stoics, he hau become familiar with Greek thought, literature, and language. And he whose father was a Roman citizen, and who lived in a Roman settlement, could not well have been ignorant of Latin. Whatever, therefore, the meaning of the gift of tongues, it did not signify in Paul's case the miraculous possession of a llitherto unknown· Janguage ; for from Arabia in the east to Rome in the west Paul did not preach in any place where some one of these three languages was not well and generally understood. He did not require to spend weary months in learning a new language before communicating Christian truth to a strange people, though his reception at Athens proved his Greek pronunciation not unimpeachable. He was not compelled to wade through a ponderous and foreign literature, nor patiently to wait to learn the manners and opinions of a people in order to ascertain their special mental and spiritual views. His early education and his knowledge of those languages enabled him at once to address an audience as if they had been old acquaintances. Let the Church learn the lesson proclaimed by this trumpet voice. God demands your best, as He did of the Jews. The beast with a flaw was not to be offered on the altar. The man with a blemish was not to become a priest.
2. The itineracy of Paul differed toto cwlo from the itineracy now recommended by many good people. Paul" itinerated" through all the places where the Gospel was known. But in places where the Gospel had not been preached he remained for days, weeks, months, and even years, till he was driven away by attempts on his life. To impart a knowledge of what Paul considered essential truth required not a few lessons, but the preaching and teaching of years. The lesson from this characteristic of Paul should be seriously pondered both by missionaries and all interested in mission work, and especially in China, which presents a field far more difficult than any in which Paul labored. A racing over the ground and a few addresses in a place which is then abandoned, is a mere waste of men, of labor, and of time. You must" teach" the people to " know," or your labor is in vain. Captain Bobadil's plan will convert China after it has destroyed the nrmies of France. Itineracy in a Christian country, where even unbelievers are theoretically well acquainted with Christian truth, is one thing; in China, where its elements are unknown, quite a different thing.
3. Paul had no particular form of sermon. He had no tricks of speech or manner, no craving for popularity. He first of all learned the mental and spiritual condition of his hearers, and adapted what he had to say to their knowledge and wants.· This is what he signified when he wrote of " taking people by guile." It is unnecessary to dwell upon the versatility of his mind, as shown in the manner in which he addressed his varied audiences, whether Jews or Greeks, soldiers or philosophers, an angry mob or a proud king. But in all we have evidence of remarkable human wisdom fired by the enthusiasm begotten of the Spirit of God. He reasoned, declaimed, recited historical facts, quoted from authors, and adopted every plan to further the end in view. His logical powers were employed in argument, his whole soul poured forth in appeal. He combined the art of the rhetorician with the reasoning of the logician. Thus he was able to make himself" all things to all men j" whence his unexampled success.
As to the matter of his discourses, he was not content with merely proclaiming that Jesus was the Saviour. He explained the terms he employed.
18911 THE RECENT AUDIENCE WITH THE EMPEROR OF CHINA
He spoke of the nature of sin and of holiness. He declared man's duty to man and his relationship to God, what man should be and do in this life, and what he may hope to possess in the life to come.
The success of Paul was not in the least degree dependent on the few cases of healing recorded of him; his miracles brought him into trouble. Nor yet was it by the plan of planting schools and colleges. But it was by the earnest, continuous, intelligent, and intelligible preaching of the sound system of truth embraced in Christ's Gospel. And if the facts of the modern mission field were properly understood, the lesson would be learned that, however excellent are subsidiary aids for levelling down the thick wall of prejudice which raises its proud head high against the Gospel in China, nothing can possibly gain that people for Christ but the plan of Paul. How can they believe if they do not understand? How can they understand if they do not hear intelligently? How can they hear intelligently if the preacher is without understanding? And how can they have preachers of understanding if the chUl'ches fail to send them? "I speak as to wise men i judge ye."
THE RECENT AUDIENCE WITH THE EMPEROR OF CHINA.
BY BOUDINOT C. ATTERBURY, M.D., PEKING, CHINA.
A most interesting episode took place in connection with the foreign relations of China on March 5th, this year. It was the interview granted by the" Son of Heaven" to the foreign ministers living in Peking, and repre· senting their various countries. For years past this question of the right personally to present credentials to the Emperor has been the subject of great discussion between the legations and the foreign office. In 1874 Tung Chih, the uncle of the present ruler, after much pressure was brought to bear, granted an audience. Since then, however, the questIOn, although agitated, has never been seriously insisted upon until the present young ruler him8elf took control of the government. Unexpectedly to many, three months ago an Imperial edict was issued stating that the Emperor was willing to receIve the ministers and charges d'affaires. No matter what may have been the reasons for this step on the part of the Chinese Government-reasons perhaps chiefly political, in order to cultivate more close relations with other governments one thing is certain, that the express wish of the Emperor himself was also It powerful factor in bringing about the wished-for event. Those living outside of China can scarcely realize how many were the preliminaries which had to be arranged before the interview could take place. Long conferences were held between the legations and the Chinese ministers. On the one side were a set of men anxious to sUl'round their ruler with all the ceremonies which they consider to be his due as the representative of heaven upon earth j on the other hand were the foreigners, willing to accord any etiquette customary at a European court, but determined not to do anything implying in any sense that their countries were in vassalage to China. The principal difficulties were the right' of separate audience and the place of meeting. Mutual concessions smoothed over these points, the former being granted by the Chinese, and the foreigners waiving their preferences in the latter. The place agreed upon was the" Hall of Shining Purple," where the usual receptions are accorded to the tributary States, sucb as Mongolia and Corea, with the understanding that on future occasions another place within the palace grounds must be prepared. The ministers with their suites started about 10 A.M. All the foreigners, thirty-one in number, sat in green sedan chairs, each carried by four men. Passing through the" Gate of Flowing Prosperity," they arrived at the point where the officials of the foreign office stood ready to receive. Descending from their chairs they entered, through long lines of soldiers, a temple, where some time was 8pent in chatting and eating various delicacies. Then the entire party advanced to the HaH of Audience. It is a picturesque building, with yellow tiles and painted in many colors. Three flights of steps lead up to a terrace in front of the hall doors. The central set are reserved for his Majesty; others use those on the sides. On the terrace were four tents comfOltably furnished with stoves and carpets. When the summons into the Imperial presence came, each minister, with accompanying interpreter, was conducted by two officials to a point where two columns, the" Dragon PilIars," marked a distance of about six feet from the raised platform on which the Emperor was sitting. First the German Minister was received; then follow('d the representatives of America, England, Japan, Italy, and the Netherlands. The large room presented an imposing spectacle, being lined with military officers. Back of the Emperor, who was sitting cross-legged on the dais raised about three feet, were some dark stone tablets carved with Manchu and Chinese inscriptions. In front was a small table, and at the side a naked sword on a stand. On the way to the" Dragon Pillars" each minister made the obeisance given at any court to the Sovereign. He then read an address which was rendered into Chinese by the interpreter and handed to Prince Chung, who, on his knees, translated it into Manchu. The Emperor responded in turn. The minister than advanced to the platform with his letter of credence, which was received by Prince Chung, who, with a low bow, laid it on the table. According to custom, the Prince should have knelt when presenting the letter. This, however, the foreigners would not allow, since, for the moment he represented them, thus kneeling would imply a concession of inferiority. Afterward a general reception was beld, and the entire company, with their secretaries, were presented. The German Minister, as doyen of the corps diplomatique, read an address; the Emperor replied in Manchu, which was turned into Chinese by Prince Chung, the head of the Foreign Office. A grand banquet the following ,jay ended the audience. Of course, the Emperor was the central figure.
ENCOURAGEMENTS IN THE WORK OF' MISSIONS
He has an intelligent face and large dark eyes. lIe looks even younger than he is-eighteen years old. His physique is not strong, but his bearing is manly and self-posse!sed. His dress was a purple robe embroidered with gold dragons. He wore a large official felt hat, on the top of which was a plain red button. All hope that the outcome of this interview will be a still greatcr desire on the part of the Chinese to break down the isolation with which they have snrrounded themselves.
ENCOlTRAGEMENTS IN THE WORK OF MISSIONS.
BY REV. A. A. PFANSTIEHL, ST. JOSEPH, MO.
One of the questions that is asked in regard to the work of foreign missions is, Does it pay? It has been figured out by those who look upon this work from a political-economy point of view that it costs about $1000 to make a single convert in heathendom, and that at the present rate of progress it will take two hundred thousand years to convert the world! In view of this they ask, Is it worth while to spend so many millions of dollars, to expend so much valuable energy-for it is admitted that the missionaries are among our most energetic Christian workers; were they not so, they would never go into the arduous work in foreign fields-when, after all, so comparatively little is accomplished? But look at this a moment. This calculation would perhaps be legitimate and correct were each convert a dead one; but as it is, he is a living influence, he has in him leavening power, so that he sets work of conversion in motion in remarkable ratio. Max Miiller well says: "An intellectual harvest must not be calculated by adding simply grain to grain, but by counting each grain as a living seed, that will bring forth fruit a hundred an(l a thousand-fold." Therefore, however comparatively little seems to be done in the vast fields of heathendom, yet when we take this work, representing hundreds of thousands of adult converts who, together with their families, form Christian communities scattered over nearly every portion of the heathen world, it represents a power that is incalculable, a power in itself capable of marvel- lous work for God, without help from abroad. * But now add to this power the additional force given to it with increasing intensity every year by the Christian world at large, will it take two hundred thousand years to evangelize the world 1 Missionary efforts and * As a matter of fact, to prove this take these figures of but one mission field: Burmah gave in 1880 to the Baptist Union $31,616.14, while Massachusetts gave the same year but little more-viz., $41,312.72, and New York gave only $38,469.78. "Japan," it is said, " is alive, energetic, eager-a nation with a destiny; and a Church of Christ in Japau would be throughout all EMtern Asia an ally that would be invaluable." And this is what Max Miiller says about India: "If we think of the future of India and of the influence which that country has always exercised on the EMt, the movement of religious reform which is now going on appe(lrs to my mind the most momentous in this momentous century." expenditures do pay! and there is nothing discouraging in the calculation, even though it be that it takes $1000 to make a single convert in heathen- dom. On the contrary, there is every encouragement possible to continue the work and make it more and more agressive. 'Tis this that I desire to press briefly from 1. What has been done in the past, and 2. What it is the declared purpose of God to do in the spread of Christ's kingdom.
Considering the extent, the power, the influence of Christianity to-day, and then looking back 1800 years, when it began with a mere handful of people, working against opposition that came from principalities and powers, the strong forces of Rome, the prejudice, the enmity of the carnal mind, and the deadly hatred of the Jews, have we occasion to be discouraged~ ay, must we not greatly be encouraged when the kingdom of Christ has now grown to be in the ascendancy 1 But look especially at the mission work of the last one hundred years! What giant strides have been made during these years! And these are but the first slow steppings of the Church, that will, if indications for the future mean anything, continue to advance rapidly. For 'tis but a short time since the vast openings for work have been presented to the Church-openings that were closed to the Christian world until these latter years-commercial openings, and facilities for work afforded by discoveries of religious books of the heathen, enabling missionaries to work intelligently among the people. " We have now be- fore us the canonical books of Buddhism j the Zend Avesta of Zoroaster is no longer a sealed book j and the hymns of the Rig Veda have revealed a state of religion anterior to the first beginnings of that mythology which in Homer and Hesiod stand before us as mouldering ruin. The soil of Mesopotamia has given back the very images once worshipped by the most powerful of the Semitic tribes, and the cuneiform inscriptions of Babylon and Nineveh have disclosed the very prayers addressed to Baal or Misroch. "
Hence, by the providence of God, we are led into the very citadel of the power of those whom we desire to win, and we know intelligently how to lay the siege. Discouragement ~ Nay, nay, for this advantage has already been so helpful that victory is in sight, if the Christian church will only vigorously press the siege for the next few years! '
But another encouragement. Max Muller, a few years ago, wrote about the dying and death of what he calls the nondescript heathen religions.
These, such as Zoroastrianism, etc., that he puts down as 8.7 per cent of the number of the population of the world, have ceased to struggle, and all we need do is to apply the strong battery of God's" truth as it is in Jesus"
to them, and they will live ancw with redeemed, everlasting life. Brahman- ism, too, one of the two living Aryan religions, is existing in a living death, and " for gaining an idea of the issue of the great religious struggle of the future, that religion, too, is dead aud gone." And Buddhism-what about it 1 Many of the readers may remember a significant paper that was sent, in 1887, to the Presbyterian churches of the Unitcd States, signed by all the Presbyterian ministers in Japan-31 in number-wherein we find this language: "Buddhism is condemned already. That is the common position assumed by the press. And what the press encourages the government allows. . . . The tone of Buddhism is a tone of defeat; Christianity is confident of victory." And this is confirmed by the quotation from one of the tracts published in India, given in the March, 1891, number of this REVIEW, which says, in order to call the heathen religionists to vigorous action against the progress of Christianity: "Missionaries have cast their nets over our children by teaching them in their schools, and they have already made thousands of Christians, and are continuing to do so. . . . Do you not know that the number of Christians is increasing, and the number of Hindu religionists decreasing cvery day?" The enemy himself here is the judge.
This much encouragement from the past. Now what, from a consideration of what we know, is the purpose of Almighty God in regard to the leaven of Christianity introduced in the world? It is His purpose that the .. whole lump" SHALL be leavened. And can anything thwart that purpose 1 Chri~tian churches and individuals need not lend their help with II discouraged feeling; they need not with a shrug of the shoulder look at this work of evangelizing the world.
To this appeal of Mr. Pfanstiehl, the editor cannot forbear to add that the only real discouragement in the work of missions is the slowness and sluggishness of the church to fall into line with the command and the lead- ership of our Royal Captain. Open doors stand before us on every side.
In the most difficult of all mission fields, India, the most abundant harvests since Pentecost have been reaped and continue to be reaped in the Tin- nevelly and Telugu districts. The church has numerical force and finan- cial resource sufficient without a doubt to bear the Gospelmess:tge to every soul before the century ends. The only real lack is the lack of the spirit of mis.~ions. In the Apocalypse there is a significant succession in the messages to the churches of Philadelphia and Laodicea. To Philadelphia the key-note is encouragement-" Behold, I have set before thee an open door." To Laodicea, which immediately follows, the key-note is warning-" Because thou art lukewarm . • • I will spew thee out of my month." Both these messages may be applied to the Church of our day. We are Philadelphians for opportunity and Laodiceans for lukewarmness. And if the church of this generation does not arouse herself to new consecration and enter God's open doors, it is to be feared that He will cast away such II faithless church, and out of its remnant construct a more loyal people.
Bishop H. T. Bachman, of the Moravian Church. is at present engaged in an official visitation of the Moravian Alaskan missions. He will have to travel from the Kuskokwim to Meshagak, some 200 miles, overland in pioneer !ltyle. It was two summers ago that the wife of Bishop Bachman went to Alaska to nurse the sick missionary's wife, Mrs. Kilbuck.
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS.
BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
-The Rev. J. Johnstone Irving, in the Voice from Ituly, says, what anyone moderately familiar with Roman Catholic affairs knows to be perfectly true: " Within the unity of the Roman Church there are divisions and differences as numerous and embittered as those found in Protestantism." It is, therefore, quite to the point when he adds: "I am not prepared to admit that a house divided against itself is in a more satisfactory condition than a number of neighboring houses whose social relationships are not all that might be desired." Indeed, as the clergy are so inordinately powerful among the Roman Catholics, theological acrimony is more apt with them to verge toward malignity than in Protestantism, which, comparatively speaking, is a religion of the laity. Unhappily, among the Roman Catholics the only class that has perhaps even more influence than the clergy-namely, the lay zealots, seem to be the most uncharitable of all toward their fellow-Catholics whom they suspect of liberalism.
-The Ohristian says, most appreciatinglyand justly: "The Friend of Missions, published in England, and the Friends' Missionary Advocate of America, are full of interesting information of Friends' work in India, China, Japan, Madagascar, Syria, Palestine, Constantinople, Mexico, Philippopolis, Alaska, and among the North American Indians, thus indicating that the spirit of ' early days' has returned to the Society of Friends. As a basis and incentive to foreign work home missions are growing and increasing in nearly or quite all the yearly meetings in the world. The needs of men socially, morally, and spiritually are pressing the hearts of Friends, and under the Divine impulse lives and money are being surrendered to the service of humanity and the glory of Him' who is the Head of all things' to His people. The Friends have a great and increasing place to fill, and are needed among the churches and in the world. Happily they are in some measure realizing their responsibility, and trying to obey Him who has given them their name if they keep His commandments: Their mission is that of living and teaching spiritual and vital Christianity as 3 commonwealth of believers. . .. Among them there is no ' layman.' "
-Notwithstanding the revival of a very vexatious law in restriction of church building in the kingdom of Travancore, in southwestern India, the Chronicle for April bears witness to the cordiality of the Maharajah, and remarks that miRsionaries have probably more freedom there than they would have in British India.
-The Moslems must be hard pushed to find their prophet foretold in the Gospels. One in India assured Mr. Greaves triumphantly that he had found Mohammed's advent clea.rly announced by our Lord. Being asked where, he produced John 14 : 30, "The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me." Mr. Greaves quietly remarked that he had no objection to the application.
-Missionary Gehring, of the Leipsic Society, remarks, apropos of an unexpected though brief attack of lIeasickness, that it did him the' good of ridding him of the disagreeable advances of the American ap<J!!tate, Colonel Olcott, " who in India makes it his business to flatter the heathen by disgusting eulogies on their reli~don. " This may not be very urbane, but the free expression of moral disgust toward "the enemies of the crOSH of Christ," whether their name is Olcott, Ingergoll, Bradlaugh, or BeS1lnt, is sometimes better than the smirking complaisance with which contemporary Christianity is somewhat too deeply infected.
-Here is part of a hymn addressed by hundreds of thousands to the cruel goddess Kali, in deprecation of a law which simply protects the persons of child-wives until they are twelve years old. We remember Kali, with her pendant necklace of skulls, and her blood-dripping tongue thrust out to her waist. Such a hymn wcll becomes her. "In great distress at thy door we have come, mother, source of all good. Horrified, that is why we raise this cry, 0 mother! queen of the universe. What to say ~ We are about to be undone, mother, by the word of some outcastes. Intending to do an act of kindness, the government is destroying our religion. Our hearts shudder through fear," etc.
-NachTichten aus dem Morgenlande, speaking of the needs of the Protestants of Bethlehem for church and school, says, "If the wise men from the East brought aforetime to Bethlehem the most precious gifts of their native land, would that the wise men from the vVest would also lay down there their art and their gifts of beauty at the feet of the infant Christ!" If Protestantism will not take its place and see to it that it finds a worthy representation in Palestine, by the side of the splendid outlays of the Roman Catholic and of the Russian Church, it mnst accept the consequences.
-It is known that the London missionarie3 in Madagascar have labored principally among the ruling and central race of the Hovas and the neighboring tribe of the Betsileos. The Norwegian missionaries, it appears, are also actively at work among Betsimarakas of the southeast, and the fierce Sakalavas of the west.
-The atrocions massacre of men, women, and children by a Hova governor in Madagascar (followed, it appears, by his own ex.eeution) has, remarks the Ohronicle, left a sad blot on the good name of the Christian queen. The general horror aroused by this act of her deputy, it is to be hoped, will recall her government from that retrogression into the old barbarons ways of which there have been signs lately. Her husband, tlw prime-minister, knew the governor to be an unworthy character, yet allowed favoritism to carry the day in his appointment.
-Mr. Barnett, of Jaffa. writing in Service/or the King, says: "It is very significant that while from various causes the Jews lire beginning to awaken to the fact that their future destiny is bound up with this land, the 'l'urks and Arabs seem to be nnder a presentiment that their time here is short. I am told by several friends who have great experience in this country that some of the natives are very negligent in the cultivation of their fields and gardens, and the reason they give when asked is, ' What's the good, the Jews will soon have it.' "
-Mr. Van Tassel, who devotes himself to the evangelization of the Bedouins, shows that, as with most remote tribes, accnrate knowledge not only monilies, but often almost revolutionizes previous ideas. He says, "The Bedouin Arabs are usually given a very unenvi.able character, and are looked upon as being most desperate men, thieves, murderers, and almost everything else that is bad; but that is almost entirely wrong. The Arab seldom takes life, unless it is in battle or eelf-defence. There is a standing law in the desert that in case a man is killed his death must be avenged by the members of his tribe. It is not necessary that the murderer himself be put to death, but anyone of his tribe who may happen to fall into their hands. Owing to this custom they are very careful about the shedding of blood.
" There are, of course, some thieves found in the desert, but not all the Arabs are such by.any means, and those who are so are despised by the others, and well puuished when caught."
Mr. Van Tassel remarks that the Bedouins, at least those of the north, have a very slight tincture indeed of Mohammedanism. Their feelings of natural religion are strong, and they are exceedingly fond of having the Scriptures of either Testament read to them. Of course, in the Oriental allusions of the Bible they are perfectly at home.
The North Arabia Mission is a branch of the North African Mission.
– " The missionary work of a church is both fruit and measure of its inner spiritual life. "-De Heidenbode (Rotterdam).
-The Free Church of Scotland Monthly. referring to Cardinal Lavigerie's far-reaching missionary plans, remarks, "Whatever may be said about the Papacy, it is showing at present a i'pirit of enterprise which we cannot but admire. The zeal it is manifesting ought to act as a stimulus to our Protestant sO<.:ieties to devise larger and, if we may say so, more adventurous schemes for the conversion of the nations."
-The Ghu1·ch Missionary lntelligencer for April, 1891, very justly refers to the American Board as " one of the best-managed societies in the world," and supports by its high authority its own preference of special contributions for objects designated by the Society, rather than for the somewhat narrowing and capricious designation of special objects by individual donors.
-The printing of the whole Bible in the language of the Sunda Islands (Dutch Ea"t Indies) is now complete, as appears by the Or.qaan of the Netherlands Missionary Society. Between 300 and 400 person~ have been engaged upon it.
– " The business instinct is indispensablj"l for the conduct of a missionary society; but it is not sufficient, it is even injurious, if it is not founded in piety and joined with a real zeal for the cause of the Gospel." -Journal des Mislions.
THE UNITED KINGDOM.
-The English Baptist Missionary Society, whose cen enary occurs in 1892, intends to endeavor to raise a Special Centenary Fund of £100,000, and to seek also to increase the annual income of the society to £100,000.
-The Ohurch Missionary Gleaner for April says: "The approaclling census again suggests a comparison of past and present. When the last eensus was taken in 1881, the society was working under a resolution, solemnly arrived at on account of financial pressure, to send out only five new missionaries each year for three years; but we were rejoicing that special gifts had enabled the committee to send out twenty instead of five. It is a fact like this which we have gleaned from the report of that year that makes one realize just a little of what God has done for us in the past ten years. Three times twenty is not considered a large number now. "
-This is a most racy bit from a tract, Do Not Say, published by the Church Missionary Society. The author is the Rev. J. Heywood Horsburgh, C. M. S. missionary in mid-China: "Imagine our sending to the heathen just one man more than we could spare, so that for one parish we could not find a rector! 'Vhat an outcry there would be! Why, even those who take the most thorough interest in foreign missions would be afraid we were' really going a little too far.' Yes, though that clergyman had left but five hundred, nominal Christians already (many of them true Christians?, and gone to a parish of a thousand thousand, all heathen, and. he the on y worker aILong them all, it would still be thought a dreadful thing for this English parish to be without a clergyman, albeit there were a dozen other churches half empty in that very place, and perhaps an excellent chapel on the other side of the road. When shall we wake up and understand that' taking an interest in foreign missions' really ought to mean something more than giving the heathen a few fragments, after spreading a most bountiful table for ourselves ?"
-The Reaper says that the flaw in Mr. Stead's sanguine and well-meant endeavors to bring about a social revolution has been pointed out very clearly by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Salford : "It seems to me we differ because we begin from different ends. You begin with the creature and his miseries and wants. We begin with the Creator and His plan or system of redemption and salvation." There is no use in trying to conciliate the Christian view of benevolence with the anti-Christian. The two may coincide materially in a thousand points, but their formative principles are irreconcilably antagonistic.
-The Christian says that Dr. Marshall Lang recently startled the Glasgow Established Presbytery by quoting the remark of a local historian, that" the public houslils in the' second city in the empire' were beating the churches," and that "one public house in a populous locality was capable of undoing the work of ten churches."
– " Let us not think less of what Christ has done on the cross by His death, but let us think more of His resurrection and what He is doing now. "-Rev. EDWARD BALMFORD, in The Christian.
– " Foreign missionary is an unfortunate term. To the Lord Jesus up there in heaven there is no home mission and no foreign mission. He sees at once on both sides of the wall of China, and to Him it is all one field and one work; and slowly we are beginning to see through His eyes and to find out that work at home and work abroad are not, so to speak, two things, but one; that this we ought to do, and not to leave the other undone; ano. that what we call foreign mission work is not a thing to be done by and by, when we get a lot of other things done, but that it ought to be going on all the time."-J. CAMPBELL WHITE, Esq., Convener of the Livingstonia Mission Committee.
-Medical Missions at Home and Abroad (cited in the Free Church Monthly) shows that of 13~ medical missionaries holding British degrees or diplomas, the Free Church of Scotland has 24; the Church Missionary Society, 21 ; the London Missionary Society and the English Presbyterian Church, 13 each j the United Presbyterian Church, 11. There are 13 ladies.
The largest proportion among all the missionaries belonO's to the English Presbyterian Church. 0 . • -Medical Missions at Home and Abroad, rejoicing in the great victory won in the House of Commons over the defenders of the opium traffic, says: "A few days ago an Indian general said, in my hearing, that the opium traffic is a heritage from Warren Hastings. He was right; and I would add that there is nothing in our Anglo-Indian history in which the strong, determined, but godless spirit of that remarkable man has seemed so to persist and to be incarnated as in the long, sad story of our opium traffic with China."
-The Accounts of the Schemes and the Lists of Collections, Contributions, and Legacies of the Church of Scotland for the year ending December 31st, 1890, as prepared by the auditor, are given in the May Record. The total income shows an increase of £18,812 14s. 9d., or 12t per cent over the previous year,. being in all £170,282 5s. 5d. Legacies alone are increased by £6643 16s. 5d. Foreign missions show an increase of £3049 15$. 2d. ; home missions of £2475 19s. 10d. ; the Small Livings Fund of £3316 6s. 9d.
-Arrangements have been made for the fusion of the two English Baptist missionary societies. The common management ill to be conducted according to the plan of the larger society-that of the Particular Baptists. It appears, then, that Calvinism and Arminianisffi are recognized in England as having ceased to be a dividing force among the Baptists. The qUElstion of strict or open communion has long been an open one in both the Baptist bodies. "The Particular Baptist Missionary Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen" was formed in 1792, and " The General Baptist Missionary Society" in 1816. The Orissa Mission, Bengal, in which our own Free Baptist brethren concur, will doubtless continue to be supplied with General Baptist missionaries.
-The Special Centenary Fund of £100,000 which it is proposed to raise will be devoted to seven objects, the first being the extinctit,n of the debt, the seventh the construction of a new Upper Congo steamer, estimated at £5000.
-It seems strange, but Northern Bengal, where Dr. Carey first preached the Gospel, has to-day no missionary provision (at least no Protestant missionary provision) for its 9,000,000 inhabitants.
-The debt of £10,561 88. lId. incurred by the English Baptist Missionary Society during the year is owing to a falling off in legacies. General contributions have been £42,257 28. over against £42,072 188. 7d. for last year.
-The Ch"istian states that many of the working classes in England have'lately joined the Society of Friends.
-,-" There are 400 workers in the Irish Home Mission connected with the Society of Friends, and Sunday-school work is progressing in their hands."- The Ohristian. .
1891]. INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. 1. T. GRACEY, D.D.
The Low Pressure Belt of Morality as Marked by the Marriage Law in India. [J. T. G.l It is very difficult for persons living sion among tolerably decent people and remote from India to realize the condi. even among low and lustful classes.
tion of society which has grown up there These memorialists specially empha- in the course of oenturies through un- size that all this is covered by the sanc- challenged customs in Ule matter of mar- tity of British law in the Indian Empire, riage. Even those long resident in the which permits marriage to be consum.
midst of the social order know but little mated in childhood, and even covers about it. The introduction of Western homicide in the marital relation, which physicians, especially of lady doctors, to under other circumstances would be practise in the homes of the people, has criminally punished. They say, " The resulted in the disclosure of a state of system panders to sensuality, lowers things at which even much of heathen the standard of health and morals, de- sentiment revolts. There lies before us grades the race, and tends to perpetuate the Memorial to His Excellency, the itself and all its attendant evils to all Viceroy and Governor-General of India, future generations."
presented by sundry lady physicians, They, with thousands of others, peti- which enumerates instances of cruelty tioned the great British vice-regal au- and. unnatural crimes occurring to their thority and his counsellors in the Ind- notice in the order of their own profes- ian Government to advance the age of sional duties, which, though couched in consent to fourteen years. And yet, professional phraseology, we cannot de- with all these facts before them, the scribe, much less translate into the limit of twelve years was all that this vernacular of ordinary literature. When great government felt it dare ordain. It young girls of seven, eight, and ten years is not our intent now to show that they of age are visited by physicians who ought to or could have gone further.
find their bodies crushed out of shape, Too many factors enter into this case to their flesh hanging in shreds, or now reach a summary conclusion. It is not crippled and crawling to the hospital for that we write. Our purpose is on hands and knees unable to stand rather to call attention to the debasing erect, others partially paralyzed, others influence of the heathen religions, which dying after days of agony, all because showed itself in the tremendous resist- of premature admission to the marital ance developed by the very fact that relation, sanctioned by the laws as well child-marriage was to be called in ques- as the customs, and largely by the sen- tion by the government at all, and the timent of the land, one can read a com- threatened outbreak of violence because mentary on " the habitations of cruelty" the council and viceroy did enact that quite beyond any strain his indignation twelve years should be the legal mini- will bear. Mrs. Nancy Monelle Man. mum of marriageable age. A corre- sell, M.A., M.D., and her associate spondent some while since thus de- lady doctors deserve unstinted com- scribed for us a specimen of this popu- mendation for the moral courage, which lar resistance : led them to the distasteful task of mak- "On Sunday, March 15th, a mass.meeting known to the Indian Government, ing of over 80,000 Hindus was held at that which they could testify to, as in- Kali Ghat-one of the Calcutta suburbs stances of such debasement as makes –to pray to the Goddess Kali and seone desire to find refuge in some theory cure her aid against the pending Bill of demoniacal possession, as a cover for raising the marriageable age of Indian lustful cruelty which passes comprehen- girls from 10 to 12 years. Two hundred native priests had been engaged for the occasion, and were observed preaching so that all unea.siness may cease, Her furiously in various directions among name is Nectar. Drink it, and your the crowds. Processions were formed hearts shall be cool, all your grief shall and marched up to Kali's shrine, shout. cease, desires be fulfilled, and all dan. ing as they went along, 'Hari bole!' ger averted. That is why we all, with 'Save us, Kali, from all interference hands uplifted say, save us, oh! kindly with our religion! ' Some of the more mother. Keep us at thy feet, oh! fanatical had come up from Calcutta on mother of the universe. Who else is their hands and knees; others had there but thee to protect that priceless measured the entire distance by pros. treasure, our national religion, which trating themselves continuously and we are about to lose by the King's mancrawling on their stomachs. A strong date. Help us, oh ! goddess, and for thy body of police kept order; there was help we are taking thy name to.dllY. much subdued excitement. One fanatic To ruin us the cruel law is about to he placed his head on the altar at which passed_ Stop this, oh ! mother, and let many hundreds of lambs and goats had us be happy, who are rich in religion, been sacrificed to Kali, and demanded by singing thy name. When Srimunto the officiating priest to sever his head, was in danger, thou didst take him up as 'he would die for his country.' in thy lap. Thou didst give protection The priest declined, and the man, ris· to Kalkatu at thy feet, source of all good. ing up, was heard to say that the' law We are thy children too; why shall we unfortunately prevented his setting suffer then, oh ! mother Kali P" them all a good example.' While the bulk of the crowd was composed of We are not presenting all this ail news. ignorant persons, there were lots of lawyers, pleaders, merchants, bankers, lt will,not be such to a great number of schoolmasters, and other heads of the people. Poor India !" our readers, yet to others it will be more We had from several sources accounts or less so. We present it as a conten.
of the 80ngs composed for and sung on tion. We want to thrust home the the occasion by theatrical companies. whole facts on that not insignifica;:;t The Statesman gave a rough translation company of excellent people who can see no difference between ., our heathen of one of these, as follows: at home" and the heathen society of a .. FOR THE PROTECTION OF RELIGION. great people; a patient, ingenious, in. .. Sankirtan of Kali at Kalighat. dustrious, intellectual, and in many reo .. In great distresR at thy door we have come, mother, source of all good. spects not an unlovely people, who have Horrified, that is why we raise this cry, oh ! mother, queen of the universe. been systematically debased and im- What to say? We are about to be undone, mother, by the words of some out- bruted through the most sacred avenues castes. Intending to do an act of kind. ness, the Government is destroying our to the human soul; and who, we may even religion. Our hearts shudder through fear. Oh! goddess, save us from this believe, are sincere when they say, that great danger into which we have fallen. We, sons of Hindu families, who have the removal of child-marriage will result hitherto forgotten thee, are now crying to thee for help, as your children, and in a more debasing condition of society pray take us up in thy lap. Protect the modesty of our domestic maidens, thou than has been depicted, or rather hintwho savest people from shame. Kings make laws to make their subjects happy, ed at by the petitioners above quoted, but this law will oppress the poor and helpless. Make this clear to Govern. and by thousands of others who know ment, and say, , Don't make this law.' FOl"give us, oh ! goddess. Make Govern- of similar brutality and bestial outrage ment to understand a.nd to put an eml to all this confusion and disOl·der." under cover of marriage rights. Take " • Sankirtan' sung by the Burra Bazar them at their own rating, and what Sadharan Rori SaMa. must be the sentiment. what are the re- .. Let U8 all to-day sing hymns to g()odess Kali. Let U8 sing in her name, straints on society of the religions they cling to, if there is a worse state, .. a lower depth" imaginable, in conse- quence of shifting the protection of law for girl wifehood from ton to twelve years? It is an open confession that reo ligion, as they understand it has fur- nished no moral restraint against lust, against debauchery, against lechery and .cruelty. And the worst of it all is that those who know them best do not esti- beginning with Alexander III., the Czar mate the moral power of their so-called of Russia, and so on down to Bulgaria religions any higher than they do them- and Greece, to obtain at an early date selves. an international, conference "to con· sider the condition of the Israelites and It is in our heart to make another their claim to Palestine as their ancient plea, and that for sympathy and more home," etc. [J. T. G.] prayer for those sensitive and saintly souls who have to go down into such a Dr. Hamlin said: "The Christian moral maelstrom for years, to try to re- benevolence of this petition is beyond lieve this moral (or rather immoral) con- criticism. The sufferings of the Jews in dition, and, if pity can go farther, then Russia and other parts of Europe defor those parents who for the love of mand the sympathy as they excite the their Divine Lord have to try to rear horror and detestation of all Christians their children in the midst of such un- the world over. But it would be well measured and unmitigated miasma of for the petitiollers to consider the folimmorality. And yet why our cry for lowing points: pity? They seek none of it. All they are asking 01. the Christians of the "1. Have not the Jews forfeited all homeland is help to stay there and to do rightful claim to Palestine? They were the Christly work they have undertaken given over to the Romans because they -and in which they are succeeding– were rebels against Jehovah and His even if it be only to lie down as these anointed. noble lady-doctors at the foot of the throne of power, and cry for relief for " 2. The right of property has limitathe heathen even against themselves; or tions of time and circumstances. After to create a sentiment, as all missionaries eighteen centuries of dispossession and have been aiding to do, which will en- foreign residence no claim can be alable the political powers who care to do lowed in earthly courts. so, to protect young maidens from brutal marital relations till they are at least "3. The people that now inhabit Paltwelve (!) years of age. estine are the rightful owners of the soil. Their ancestors had held it for many Dr, Cyrus Hamlin on Restoring Pales- centuries before the Mayflower cast its tine to the Jews. anchor on 'the wild New England shore.' What would the President pro· The symposium at the Annual Meet- pose to Europe to do with them? They ing of the International Missionary are Arabs, Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Union on the several points of special Syrians, and of some ten or twel ve interest in the Jewish discussions of the other nationalities. Destroy them? times, which was conducted by Dr. Drive them out? Whither? Kellogg, of Toronto, Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, and Mr. William E. Blackstone, Super- "4. The Jews are not agriculturists. intendent of the Chicago Hebrew Mis- They generally hate the employment, sion, was one of great interest and abil- and the colonies established there have ity. We had hoped to be able to give a still to be aided. synopsis of the subject by each speaker prepared by themselves. We are fortu- " 5. The Jews have shown no general nate in having the points of Dr. Ham- desire to return to Palestine. The few lin's paper thus kindly furnished by who have gone have been induced to go him for our use. by offer of aid.
The paper was occasioned by a peti- " There is a small number who fancy tion numerously signed to " The Presi- that Jerusalem is to be rebuilt, the tem. dent and Mr. Blaine" to use their influ- pIe restored, the altar of sacrifice rekin. ence with the governments of Europe, dIed, the Jewish state exalted above all nations, and its enemies destroyed. But this is to be done by Almighty power, and the President and Mr. Blaine would cut a small figure by their interference. "6. • The Sacred Places' and other Government provoke such a humiliation possessions of the Oriental and Latin before all Europe? The explanations churches will be an awkward thing to which would be made would go for nothmanage in the 'return.' They would ing. The worst construction possible be an offence to the Jew; but for a Jew would be put upon every fact. So long to touch them would fire tJ:.e heart of the as our Government, especially our Sen_ Latin and the Greek churches to a white ate and House of Representatives, are heat. under the control of saloons and saloon- iets, so long as alcohol is king, we had "7. But, above all, the petitioners better not champion any cause of humanwould plunge the President right into ity in Europe. the middle of the Oriental Question. This was expanded to considerable " The one insuperable obstacle to any length, and the impossibility of our in- general return of the Jews to Palestine terference made very clear. is the Jews themselves. An awful cloud is over the land. 'His blood be upon ., 8. Is it probable that Europe would us and upon our children.' It must be be pleased with such a movement on the purified of Christianity before the Israelpart of our Government? 'rhe powers ite can look upon it but with abhorhave generally accepted the Monroe Doc- rence. As mendicants, as 'assisted trine. But that forbids our appearing emigranti '-always a worthless set-or in their affairs just as much as it ex- escaping from the inhumanity and savcludes them from ours. agery of Russia, a few tens of thousands may return. But they will be a sorry ,. 9. As precedents sanctioning the lot, and will ' suck the milk of the genreturn of the Jews to Palestine under tiles' for a living. European dictation, the example of Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro, etc., under " , When the veil shall be taken away,' the dictation of the Berlin Congress, is and they shall become the glad and renot well taken. By the Berlin Congress joicing disciples of Jesus of Nazareth, autonomy was conferred to a greater or their own Messiah, and when they shall less extent upon those peoples in their see in Him the glorious fulfilment of ancestral homes. No man was deprived all their prophecies, there may spring of an acre of land. If Moslems wished up in many hearts a new love for Jeruto emigrate, as many foolishly did, they salem. Their flowing thither at their were allowed their own time and way of own expense would be a spontaneous doing it. In the • return' one people is and natural immigration that would acto be driven out and another brought in. commodate itself to circumstances. If It would be a very bloody and expensive only two or three millions should return affair all round, and the driven out and in this way they would soon possess the the brought in would alike perish. land, and there would be no question of oppression or of protection. Then all "10. Is our country specially fitted nations would hail their return, and the by her history for this proposed media- Church of Christ would see in it the tion? The outrages that have been dawn of the millennial day." committed in the United States upon the colored people in the Southern States, The Need of Speoial Preparation for Forand upon the Indians and the Chinese, eign Servioe. the murders, the expulsions from their native soil. the destruction of property, REV. A.. P. HAPPER, D.D., CANTON, CHINA. the slaughter of men, women, and children, the fiendish mobs, the rapes, the The General Missionary Conference thefts by Government agents, the' Cen- of China. in May, 1890, sent forth the tury of Dishonor' would all be brought call for 1000 missionaries for China up against us, and would make the persecution of the Jews in Russia appear in comparison a slight affair. Should our within five years. Within ten months he was a layman and an engineer, had after the issue of that appeal 127 mis- no special preparation to be a missionsionaries had arrived in China for one ary; and as he was so successful and mission, working in China, and 50 have uSPful as a missionary, it is supposed he arrived for all other societies. The is a proof that no special preparation is statement has been made in the news- necessary in order to be useful. The papers that when this appeal was pub- facts, on the contrary, in regard to Mr. lished in Australia, hundreds of young Mackay, are just the opposite of what is people offered themselves for this ser- supposed in regard to him. He had vice. The statement is also published very special preparation and experience in that the number of names given in to Christian work before he went abroad, the secretaries of the volunteer move- which led those who were acquainted ment in America is over 6000 ; and that with him to give the very highest testimore than 300 of those who had given monials of his preparation and qualifica. in their names have gone to foreign tion to be a missionary to teach and lands. preach the Gospel, in addition to being a capable engineer. Mr. Mackay had All the friends of missions will rejoice been brought up in his father's house, in these evidences of an extendinj:( in- who is an eminent Presbyterian ministerest in the cause of missions to hea- ter in Scotland, with special care and then lands among the young members under his own instruction. He had the of Christian churches in the home lands. best advantages of education in mathe- matics, the classics, and applied sci- But while rejoicing in this extending ences in the high schools and universiinterest in missions to the non-Christian ties of Scotland. He engaged in Chrislands, and in the increasing numbers of tian work in the original ragged schools those who are offering to go, I wish to of Rev. Dr. Guthrie and the Sabbathdirect attention to the great importance school of Rev. Dr. Horatius Bonar, in of thorough preparation for the work by Edinburgh. These educational and rethose who are sent abroad as missiona- ligious advantages were enlarged and ries. There is great danger that in the extended by a two years' residence and warmth of Christian sympathy for the practice in Germany, where he acquired perishing, and on account of the consid. a knowledge of the German language. eration that the people in heathen lands When he was appointed to go to Africa are ignorant, many will think that no he improved every hour of his time be_ special preparation is needed by those tween the time of his appointment and who go to teach them. It is evident his departure in getting some knowledge that many think that personal piety of different practical arts from compeand love to the Saviour and to the soulll tent professors and teachers, as those of of men are the only essential requisites for photography, printing cotton, and glass those who go as missionaries. This is manufacture, and the details of teacha very great mistake, and it is one which ing and training teachers. So that the will bring great injury to the cause of pre-eminent success and usefulness of Christian missions unless measures are Mr. :Mackay during the fourteen years taken to prevent its being carried into of his labors in Africa. which led Mr. practice. H. M. Stanley to speak of him as second to Livingstone, were the proper result I would call attention to the words of and outcome of the thorough and manithe lamented Mackay of Uganda, in his fold preparation which he had made last appeal for twenty men to come to during his youth and early manhood. Africa. His words are these: "You When, therefore, he speaks to the " sons sons of England, here is a field for your of England" and asks them" to bring energies. Bring with you your highest their highest education and greatest taleducation and your gre.atest talents; you will find scope for the exercise of them all. ' , Many suppose that Mr. Mackay, because ents, and assures them "they would widely ramified service as was necessary find scope for the exercise of them all, he in the details of government over such was only asserting what he knew to be numerous population, we must inquh-e a fact in his own experience. He only how these able and qualified men were asks for what all experience has proved obtained. They did not come by haphazt,o be necessary to success-viz., com- ard. The East India Company were petent natural gifts, with the necessary wise in their generation in some things. acquired knowledge and training. He The covenanted civil servants were aphimself is one of the most illustrious pointed under the system of open comexamples of the truth of this statement. petition. Thus the picked youth of the land are selected. The company estab- As the missionary work enlarges and lished a special college for their instrucexpands, the necessity that properly tion. Their college at Haileybury, in qualified men be serlt forth is more and Hertfordshire, had the ablest professors more emphasized. It should be spe- in the country in their several departcially urged upon all concerned in send- ments. The 'names of Henry Melvill, ing forth missionaries that they also James A. Jeremie, Richard Jones, Wilhave special care as to the quality of liam Empson, H. H. Wilson, Monier those they send forth. A few able and Williams, and Major J. W. J. Ouseley are well_qualified men will, with God's found among those of the professors. blessing, accomplish more than treble Selected young men from Rugby, Eton, the number of feeble and insufficiently and other distinguished schools and the qualified men. In confirmation of this, universities went there for two years' let all study the apostolic history. Paul, special instruction in the languages, the apostle of the gentiles, was a man of laws, customs, administration, etc., of great talents; he had the advantage of India, by these specially qualified teachthe best education at the celebrated ers. Is it any matter of wonder or suruniversity at Tarsus, and of the best prise that with such means such able Jewish masters in Jerusalem. He has and competent men were provided for left his impress on Christianity greater every department of the service, and in than that of the whole of the other numbers adequate to the needs of the apostles. two hundred millions of people? Is it strange that such men as Lord John There are two results of human efforts Lawrence, Sir Henry Lawrence, Sir Wiland labors that are marvels in their sev- liam Muir, Lieutenant-Governor James eral ways. One of them is the estab- Thomason, Edward Thornton, Sir Roblishment of the British rule in India, ert Montgomery, Donald Macleod, and the administration of the govern- George Edmonstone, Sir Bartle Frere, ment over such a numerous population and many others, literally too numerous to with such success. The other is the mention, were raised up to meet every German war against France in 1870. emergency, and to illustrate the energy But their wonderful results have not and efficiency of the Anglo-Saxon race? come by chance nor without the use of The training, the capability of the the appropriate means. As we study men, and the opportunity have produced the history of the establishment of Brit- such an administration of the Governish rule in India, the names of many dis- ment as has not been seen before in the tinguished names come in review be- history of the world. fore us. In the review of these names the conviction is forced upon us that the Europe was astonished at the results leaders in the successive decades of of the German War of 1870. But when this work were the picked men of the the facts are known, those results were public life of Great Britain. But if we the natural and sure results of the antewould fully understand how it was that cedent training of the officers of the Gerthere were a sufficient number of young man army. These officers had been men for every department of such a trained in the work to be done. Every Tarsus, after his conversion, was told strategic point in the French territory by Ananias of Damascus that " he was had been examined and marked out; a chosen vessel to bear the name of every difficulty and impediment had Jesus among the gentiles,' , he wpnt into been made known; the nature and char- Arabia to commune with the Lord; and acter of the country to be marched over it was three years before he entered fully had been mapped out; so that the lead- upon his glorious ministry. These ers of the invading armies knew what three years were the time of the special they had to do, what difficulties they preparation of the great apostle of the would meet, and, were trained to carry gentiles, though he, previous to his call, out the campaign as they had been in- had the benefit of the instruction in the structed ; and the proper and expected Roman university at Tarsus, and of the results all followed in their natural order. most learned Jewish teachers in Jeru- These results, however, were greatly to salem. How different is the course purthe astonishment of those who knew not sued in these latter days in sending of the thorough preparation which ,had forth many to the laborious and rebeen made by the German officers. sponsible duties of the Christian mis- sionary without any preparation or In the history of the world no such training! wonderful enterprise has been planned as that which has been committed to With the diffusion of Western knowlthe Christian Church-i.e., to convert edge and science, and of the agnostic this world to Christ, to extend this and infidel views of Western sceptics glorious Gospel of the blessed God till among the peoples of India, China, and the kingdoms of this world have become Japan, the importance and necessity of the kingdoms of the Lord and His the missionaries being more thoroughly Christ. prepared are strongly increased. They have now to meet not only the difficul- For its accomplishment it presupposes ties and hindrances of the native idolathe Divine aid of the great Captain of tries and errors, but also, in many cases, our salvation. When He gave the com- the objections and scoffs of Western inmission" to preach the Gospel to every fidels and atheists. Those who go forth creature," He prefaced it with the so readily without any really careful glorious assurance" all power is given preparation show how imperfect is their unto Me in heaven and in earth; go ye, conception of the work to be done, and therefore, and teach all nations, baptiz- give evidence of their own want of ing them in the name of the Father, and qualification and preparation to perof the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; and form it. lo! I am with you alway unto the end of the world." But the presence and It becomes the missionary societies power of our gracious Lord does not do and the committees having in charge the away with the necessity of providing examination and reception of candiand using the necessary and appropriate dates for missionary appointment to be instrumentality. The Saviour Himself especially careful in the reception of all spent three years in instructing His applicants, and to seek those of high apostles before He sent them forth on and suitable qualification and adequate their high mission. When the disciples preparation for the great and laborious filled the place of Judas, who had fallen calling. from that ministry, they placed in nomination two of "these men who A Word About the Student Volunteers. have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among usu_ In the minds of a great many people so careful were they to secure one who there is a marked incongruity between was thoroughly instructed and prepared the statement of the Student Volunteer for the solemn vocation. When Saul of Movement that some six thousand per- sons are enrolled by themselves as pledged from foreign service, and the to us all the more important that they unmet demand of so many societies for gat thoroughly prepared, because from men and women. All oC the societies them must come so much that certainly are not without candidates enough to cannot be looked for from the large supply their needs, but some say they number of persons who are nowencourare in vain calling for missionaries. aged to enter foreign service with very meagre intellectual furnishing. We do Several things ought to be borne in not enter upon the discussion to what mind. For instance, a great proportion extent unlettered and inexperienced, of this volunteer corps are not yet and. perhaps, even, untried persons through their collegiate and seminary should be encouraged to go abroad. studies. Certainly there is little dis· There is some difference of opinion on position on the part of experienced ad· that subject. There may be uses for a ministrators of missions to rush men greater number of men than mill be and women into the field with partial found ready trained or than the institupreparation, if they can remain to com· tions can furnish. Of that we are not plete their studies. Dr. Happer raises writing. But facts patent justify us in a note of warning on this sllbject in the raising the question as to tho pressure article we now present from his pen. that should be put on these in the He is entitled to speak on this subject. schools to hurry into the service. The He was of the original first company of Scandinavians have been rallied of late Presbyterian missionaries sent to China, both in Norway and Sweden and in and that was as long ago as 1844. It America by an earnest and probably WaB ten years from the time he formed well· meaning brother, to offer for the the purpose, God willing, to be a mis. foreign service. Some fifty or more sionary till he went abroad. During his have been recruited from Brooklyn, New college course his reading was connect· York, lind Chicago, and over a hundred ed with his purpose, and all his plans fmm Scandinavians in various quarters were subordinated to it. And yet, firm· of the world have gone to China alone, ly holding his purpose, he taught four and mainly are connected with a single years after graduation, then spent four mission- the churches at their startingyears in professional studies-medicirie place, we are informed, pledging them and theology-for the work, and in the fifty cents a day for their support, all of study of the history, geography, phi. course being unmarried. We are not losophy, and other features of China; prepared to say whether there is here a and medicine, teaching, and preaching movement which demands special guidhave been the lines on which he has ance by those experienced in missions, done such grand work these forty.seven but we do think that this emphasizes the years in that great empire. We could need of thorough preparation on the furnish instances enough to fill many part of the recruits which are to come page·s to show the great work accom- from these volunteer stUdents, and that plished by men and women who have the churches should not demand that developed a sturdy purpose through great numbers of them hasten away just similar years of steady subordination of now, but should rather advise their cauall aims to the one work of preparation tious preparation for wise leadership for a great life service. It is from this than press them too speedily into the corps of trained men and women repre- great responsibilities which await them. sented by the student volunteers that We say all this in the face of the fact we are to look for persistent patient that China calls for 1000 missionaries in leaders. Hence we suggest that too five years, and that they are not forthmuch pressure be not put on these coming in proportionate numbers. It pledged persons in our schools of learn- is true that some 175 have gone to China ing to hllsten unduly to the great fields since the appeal was iBllued, but of these which call so loudly for them. It seems 125 have gone to the Inlanu Mission, way to advertise so indiscriminately the leaving only about 50 among all the fact that 6000 persons are" waiting to other societies; and that would scarce· be sent," and much else of like phrase ly more than keep up the numerical that is not in accordance with the standard as it was. But let us not be facts. The great bulk of them are not disappointed if many of these student ret>dy to go ; but the fact that God has volunteers never go abroad. We are moved to create 80 missionary interest in quite confident that a very large propor- the hearts and minds of so many young tion of those enrolled by the excellent persons among those pursning their brethren who have charge of this stu- studies deserves very thoughtful and dent movement will never reach the prayerful consideration and devout field. They are not in position to form thanksgiving as well, while the" pledge"
a final judgment now in their school- should be made the" outward sign of days, and there has been no concurrent an inward grace" rather than an oath, judgment solicited from any boards or which it is not.-J. T. G.
churches as to the adaptation of these persons severally. Then they may be Men Needed in North Ohina. adapted to work which may not at the time when they offer themselves need Rev. C. A. Stanley writes to us from reinforcement, or the speciu.l church to Tientsin, North China: which they belong may not want men, "Our annual meeting has recently and they may not care to leave their de- been held here. At all our seven sta- nominational relations even if some tions there has been progress. Over other board would be willing to take 200 have been added to our churches those not of their own part of the fold. It during the last mission year in full will thus happen that a number of those membership. But our working force, honestly intending to be faithful to their both foreign and native, is not equal to pledge may not find the way open to the work in hand; and on all sides them. Then some of them will be there are doors of opportunity wide adapted to the demands of their own open, into which it is impossible for us societies at a time when the funds of to enter. There are several scores of the societies will not enable them to vlllages around Tientsin, in very few of send them. There are many good and which the Gospel has ever been able persons found in the churches be- preached, which, through the distribu- sides those just out of school, and some tion of relief to the sufferers from last volunteers may not be called by the so- year's flood during the winter, are cieties because such other persons are peculiarly prepared to listen to the at their command equally or better pre- Gospel message. Raving been appoint.
pared or more suitable. Thus from a ed to direct this distribution, and the great variety of causes there may be a work having been mainly done by mis.
great disparity between the total num- sionaries, it has associated itself in the ber of volunteers and the part who reach minds of the people with missionary the field. Thus not all the demand for operations. Thus they are ready to reo foreign service will be met from these ceive us and listen to our message.
ranks. Let this grand impulse of the Books were left in these villages when young people have time to find its provi. relief was given, and were there labor.
dential meaning and method. We see ers, native or foreign, to go and work many points at which these very capa- amc.ng them in the Master's name, I ble and devout young people of the Stu- have no doubt but that many would be dent Movement need wise guidance; brought to a knowledge of the truth. I but there is also need for wise conduct hope to be able, with my small force of on the part of the churches in relation workers, to do something in the fall and to them. It is, perhaps, not the best winter; but triple the force at my command would scarcely reach this imme- reache'! you of the riots of Wuhu and {liate need, not to speak of what is and Nanking. The animosity of the rioters would open beyond from this. Relief seemed to be directed chiefly against the was given in about 70 viJIages to about Roman Catholics. Demand was made 70,000 persons-not the entire popula- for the release of the children of the Lion by any means-the most distant Roman Catholic orphanage. At Wuhu one being some 12 miles. The city and all foreigners fled for their lives, and suburbs contain 600,000 souls. Similar their buildings were looted and prop- opportunities are present at all our sta- erty stolen or destroyed. At Nanking tions and with all the missionary socie- the Methodist property was looted and ties laboring in North China. And now destroyed, as well as that belonging to and again a devoted laborer is called to the Roman Catholics. No lives were his reward, largely because of overwork, lost. There seems to be general un- because the churches have not met the easiness all up the Yangtsi River. I demand, and he has had to attempt more judge the excitement to be largely politi- than he could do, and succumbed to the cal, aimed against the authorities and strain. The L. M. S. has just lost such rulers, and intended to make them un- a man in Mr. Gilmour, down from Mon- popular and to secure their removal. golia to attend tb e annual meeting of his It seems to have been instigated by society held here. He was sick twel ve some' secret society' men and literati, days, and had not physical strength to which abound in great numbers in the rally when the crisis came. And there Yangtsi Valley. They would like to stir is no one on the ground who can take up a rebellion if possible. Several of up his work, even at the expense of the rioters have been beheaded, and the some other phwe and work. This is local authorities have already begun to not a lone case-they are many." rebuild the premises, and will make restitution for damage done. We have The Riots in Ohina. no fear of trouble here; and yet I do not know that any place in China was We have long known that the great regarded as more secure for foreigners Chinese Empire had a dispensation of than Nanking. It was a great surprise " politics," as well as occidental nations, to have this outbreak there." and not unlike our own. They have the " ins" and the" outs,' , and it has been But it will go hard with the anti·forplain for a few years past that the eIgn party if they cannot find a better " outs" would make all the capital pos- way to manage their internal politics sible against the administration on their than by the murder of such missionaries conduct toward foreigners. The pres- as Mr. Argent, a lay missionary of the ent " Government," as they would say Joyful News Mission, for whose death in Europe-that is, the present prime there is no doubt the" secret societies" minister and his party-are strongly in are responsible. Those societies are not favor of advancement along Western good instruments for anti-administra- tion politicians in China, as they are as little controllable by the Celestial em· peror as the Mafia are by King Hum- bert. But the martyrdom of missiona- ries will only the more show the Church the way to the thorough evangelization of that great people.-J. T. G.
lines; but there are eminent and able statesmen who lead the anti-foreign feel- -We received some suggestions from ing. They may stir up the people even India some while since which indicated to a gigantic rebellion against General that Pundita Ramabai was restricted Li and his party. From private but very responsible sources our advices con- in even the mild religious teaching she firm the general statements as to the thought wise to introduce into the outbreaks in China. One correspondent school at Poona by representatives of writes from Foochow under date of June the American administrators of the 9th: funds raised for her use. We hope there is no ground for this thought. "You will have heard before this Ramabai knows how far to go to keep faith with the people of her own nation in the matter of religious neutrality; and nobody supposed that she would school, it is not fair to ask them to do receive any direction from American more now while it is so hard for them to management in simple and fundamental carryon the schools under their own religious matters. If she finds her way control. to have prayers or the reading of the Bible in her school, and can carry it -Miss Adaline D. M. H. Kelsey, with her Hindu constituency, surely no M.D., of Yokohama, writes to us as fol- Christian (?) hand would obstruct her. lows: If such should be the case, her American society would soon have no funds "It has been thought that the need to administer, and her executive com· of missionary physicians is not so urgent mittee would become executors of the in Japan as it is in other non-Christian school. Weare glad to see that the lands. This opinion is so widespread Harvest Field, the Wesleyan missionary it would be well to have it understood magazine for India, one of the ablest of in what respect the statement is true, our exchanges, .gives in a late issue the and in what other respect it is not true. chief place to some interesting articles on the wives and widows of India, in- " There is a medical department concluding a visit to Pundita Ramabai's nected with the Imperial University Home at Poona by the Rev. D. A. in Tokyo where advanced medical in. Rees ; and the history of the widow re- struction is given; an M.D. qualified to marriage movement in Bombay. With make a diagnosis and write a medical regard to the results of Pundita Rama- prescription can be found in every large bai's work we just quote one paragraph from the story of the interview. On city of the empire. being asked, "Are you satisfied with " It is also a fact that the Imperial the results so far?"' the Pundita replied, " I should have rejoiced to see larger University and normal schools of Japan results, but considering the difficulties, send out highly educated men and wom· I feel I have much cause for thankful- en capable to teach. Why, then, do we ness. Take that one fact-out of these send missionaries there to erect costly thirty widows I have the assurance from buildings and organize schools toleducate their own lips thai, their coming here has the children? Is it because we want to 8aved nearly TWENTY of them from SUICIDE, give them a secular education? If that STARVATION, OR A LIFE OF SHAME. This is our chief object, many givers to the fact alone is an abundant reward for all cause have been decei ved. But that has our toil and expense."-J. T. G. not been our avowed object. Our real aim and chief desire has been to get hold -Miss Susan A. Searle says of the of the people to influence and lead them American Board Girls' Boarding School to Christ by exemplifying His love to at Kobe, Japan: them in our own lives of self-denying labors of love for them. And do we send " During the last year and a half there physicians merely to heal the sick? Is have been urgent calls from the Japan- not the higher objQct the real answer ese themselves for such lengthening and here also? If there is not so much broadening of the courses of study in medical work to be done as in China and the school as shall make it, in fact, a India, more time and strength can be college. Having come at a time when given to the higher work of teaching the Japanese were especially impatient Christ's love and mission to souls that of anything like foreign control in are starving for the Bread of Life. To church or school matters. the request do this work the M.D. must of necessity seemed significant of their confidence be a real missionary as well as a physi. in the management of the Board. To ciano There is plenty of this combined accede to this request, and at the same work to do in Japan. 'fhe number of time carry out long-cherished plans for Christians among the Japanese physi. the school, it is necessary to have, for cians is so small that, in an extensive buildings and other equipments, a much acquaintance with them throughout the larger sum of money than the annual empire, only four are known to be appropriation from the Board. The Christians. Two of the four are women, Japanese Christians are supporting educated in mission schools, and studied nobly several Christian schools, which are becoming to a greater extent every mAdicine in America. These two are year feeders of the Kobe school. They doing a good work for their countryare already heavily burdened; and women in making greater revelations to though in past years they have given them than they themselves can at. pres. generously toward buildings for the ent know. There is such a difference between working for money or fame and working for love.
"There are two Japanese girls now in this country fitting themselves to return as Christian healers. More are needed,"
'EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS
III.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
The Student's Summer School a.t North· all about $5000 and upward raised for field. Bishop Thoburn's missions in two years.
The sixth of these remarkable gather. The movement was quite spontaneous ings has been held. They began in and, of course, quite free from all con- June. 1886, at Mount Hermon, and this, siderations of denominationalism. Not which was held from June 27th to July a few have found fault because for two 8th, was regarded by many as exceeding successive years the missions of the in interest as well as numbers any Methodist Church in India have had so preceding convention. About five liberal a support, while the boards of the hundred students were enrolled. Mr. Baptist, Congregational, and Presby- Moody, of course, presided, as he is the terian churches are struggling to keep main attraction, and daily services were out of debt. But the simple fact is, held, at whioh Bible studies were con- there was little or no thought of the fact ducted and addresses of various sorts that Bishop Thoburn is a Methodist occupied attention. The main purpose bishop. His plan struck the conference of these conferences is known to be the as apostolic and feasible and as accom- consecration of these young men to lives plishing more for the money than any of higher service. The controlling other that has been proposed, and the thought in Mr. Moody's mindwas a bap- response was very hearty and im- tism of the Holy Spirit. Much time was pulsively generous: perhaps it erred ( given to missionary meetings. "Round on the side of catholicity and generos· Top" has already come to be, like the ity. There may be a doubt whether it " Hay Stack" at Williamstown, connect. is expedient in a conference composed ed inseparably with missionary consecra· of all evangelical denominations to take, tion. Here, at twilight every evening, especially for two successive years, an the young men meet to consider the offering so large as this for the mission question of individual obligation to the work of anyone church. It is liable to world·wide field. Here the call for new be misunder,;tood and to occasion hos- volunteers was daily sounded, and the tile criticism. Bishop Thoburn's meth- claims of a dying world were weighed. ods have not the entire support even of We doubt not thatfrom that sacred spot his own Methodist brethren. No little many young men will date the begin- doubt has been expressed in our own ning of a new era in their lives. hearing as to the thoroughness and per- The missionary fires burned brightly manence of the work, and the expediency in more than one general meeting. Last of hiring such laborers, even at so low year Bishop J. M. Thoburn, of India, a cost. But the action taken was in told of his work and of the plan he is both years a simple outburst of genuine pursuing of employing native evange- missionary enthusiasm, and there was a lists, at an average cost of $30 a year, to noble impetuosity and liberality about proclaim among their fellow-country- it, peculiar to young men. It is not men the good tidings. The scheme im. open to the same criticism as a deliber- pressed the audience as so simple, eco- ate and previously planned course of nomical, and sensible that on the spot, action.
by Mr. Moody's enthusiastic leadership, This gathering was representative.
the pledges were made for support of It contained young men from all quar.
100 such evangelists. This year a re- ters. Not only were Great Britain, port was, made of the work done by Canada, the United States, represented, these hundred workers during the year, but China, Japan, Australia, Persia, and at once enough more was pledged Scandinavia, Germany, France, etc.
to support seventy-five such evangelists Indeed, it may be doubted whether for the current year. This will mnke in 'in any similar IIssembly so many various peoples and tongues have ever been "Our Oonntry." represented by Christian disciples. A new edition of Dr. Josiah Strong'8 They were like the Pentecostal assembly remarkable book is issued by our very " from every nation under he_en, " and enterprising friends, the Baker & Taylor every man might hear "in his own Co., 742 Broadway, New York. The tongue tho wonderful works of God." new edition, revised so as to embrace Too great care cannot be taken by the latest information of the census of those who have these gatherings in 1890, is greatly increased in value; and charge as to those who, on such a plat- the little book, already the most helpful form, present the truth. We feel con- contribution to home mission litera- strained emphatically to dissent from ture ever given to the American public, some teaching which we have heard, or has doubled its practical worth as a book known to be allowed, in such gatherings. of reference.
There is a special tendency in these Of this work of Dr. Strong we can days to depreciate the importance of say nothing too laudatory. It is muUum sound doctrine. Christianity is em- in parvo. But fifteen chapters long, con- phasized as a life, and often the doctrinal tained in 267 pages duodecimo, and side is treated as of little consequence. about 100,000 words, there is an amount H has been free. uently said that if one of information and inspiration which accepts Christ as his personal Saviour many ordinary volumes would not BUp- it matters little what he believes or ply. The words are picked and packed; doubts; that the creed is of small the illustrations are forcible and sim- moment if the heart is anchored to pie; the statements are lucid and Christ. Such teaching is perilous, es- vivid; the argument is terse and telling.
pecially before young men. Paul says, It is plain that the book is the product of 0' Hold fast the form of sound words with all time previous. It took many years faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." to prepare the hand and brain of its dis- There is no power in error to develop a tinguished author to give such a prod- beautiful life, and if there is any beauty uct to the public. And all this can in the life of a sceptic it is in spite of be had for 30 cents in paper and 60 his error, and in consequence of the cents in cloth! It has made a sensa- truth, mixed with error. Christianity is tion like" Uncle 'fum's Cabin."
both doctrine and deportment, belief and life. It is quite too fashionable in these Dr. George Smith, the missionary days to apologize for loose notions of biographer, who is also Foreign Secre- inspiration, atonement, the divinity of tary of the Missionary Board of the Christ, the work of the Spirit, and a Free Church of Scotland, writes from future state of reward and punishment, Edinburgh, June 3d, 1891 : on the ground that if one is sincere it My DEAR DR. PIERSON: Should I live matters little what he believes We to write Henry Martin, an even more protest in the name of all that is good important life has got to be writtenthat the highest Christian life, and es- that of Charles Grant, who inspired pecially the largest service in saving Wilberforce and Carey, and was himself souls, is inseparably connected with led to Christ by Schwartz. His grand- doctrinal soundness. A missionary son, the present Sir Charles Grant, has must believe the truth if he is to be an the necessary papers, which are in beaueffective and successful worker for God. tiful order, for myoid friend, John We regal'd the growing laxity in doc. Marshman, had them, and died before trine, and especially the prevailing dis- he could write the book. Meanwhile, position to tolerate all forms of unsound to test the matter, I will have, in an opinion, as tending to undermine the early number of Good Words, a con- whole structure of missions, both at densed sketch of the greatest Scotsman, home and abroad. next to Duff, who ever went to lorlia. Use my name as you kindly propose, respondents the lady workers in Madrid (Mrs. Fenn), San Sebastian, Puerto Sta if it will be of any service, on your list lIIaria, Figueras, Seville (Mrs. Barosso), Pradijon and Santander, to whom their of editorial correspondents. members may apply.
Do not overtax your strength. I From Manoh, SaJijah, Sierra Leone, W. Africa, April 27th, 1891, we have the began life in India at twenty, and have following: worked hard-sometimes too hard in I have to thank you for the MISSION- ARY REVIEW, which is so free from a Bengal, so as to suffer. But work just up party spirit, so full of fervor that we who are out in the mission field cannot to the limit of strength is as healthy and but feel how little we are doing to what we ought. May the Great Head of the delightful as work even a little beyond Church enable us faithfully to battle with the heathenism of the pagan and strength is perilous, and bad economy, the easily satisfied conscience of the converts, who seem to have grasped the and truly sinful. Gladstone is a noble truth of their redemption and justifica- tion, but seem to forget they have daily example of a hard worker just up to the to overcome and grow in grace. We who have had the blessed Gospel in our limit, who has feared God and done His country for generations cannot possibly tell what these poor children have to service as no other statesman in history overcome.
has done it, I think. He is a friend of I am the only foreign representative of the Episcopal Church here. Our missions, as I know from personal in. mission is situated at the most northern point of the republic of Liberia. Our tercourse with him. My book on " A work is entirely among the heathen. The Board appropriates support for 125 Modern Apostle" has just gone to a sec- children, 85 of whom are under my es- pecial care. There are two student ond edition. Yours truly, teachers to assist. I am hoping to wel- come a teacher from Sierra Leone soon• G. SMITH. Many of our girls are growing into wom- anhood, and it is a cause for devout God may move some generous souls to thankfulness that we have been able to respond to this appeal; but the editor keep them so long under the sound of owes it to himself to say that no funds the Gospel. Twenty-eight of them are have been yet entrusted to his care for regular communicants. Of course all any such purposes: their own mending, making, washing, ironing, and domestic work is done by DEAR DR. PIERSON: Confident of your them. The little boys work in the coffee interest and sympathy in the work of farm of an afternoon, as also do the the Student Volunteer Movement for senior department or elder boys, who Foreign Missions, I am writing you to are under the superintendence of Mr. say that we are in financial straits. To Jones. He also is a son of a convert, be more definite, we are in immediate and will be ordained next Christmas. and pressing need of $1500 for current He is very ambitious to establish workexpenses. shops, where they can be taught differ· I have been thinking that you might be inclined to turn over to our use some of the funds entrusted to your care for •, foreign missionary" purposes.
Whether or not you are led to send money, I venture to ask you to join with me in prayer that the Lord will send the money for His own work. I ask you because I know you believe in prayer, and because it is laid upon my heart distinctly that I shall see this money in view.
Yours very heartily, MAX WOOD MOORHEAD, Chairman Finance Committee. June 23d, 1891.
Rev. J. E. B. Meakin desires us to add to the statistics of the work in Spain that the London Y. M. C. A. has for corent trades -it is so necessary to train we had lengthened conversations on the their muscles as well as intellect out great subject of missions.
here. He published, many years ago, a In 1858 I was under the auspices of " Missiunary Atlas," accompanied with the C. M. S., London, and remained in most valuable explanations and histori- Sierra Leone for seventeen years. cal notices. As all the letter-press was The ages of the children vary from in Danish, the circulation of the work two to eighteen years. Our little ones was necessarily limited. He hoped an give us much pleasure, but we need edition might be published in English, more help. So much has to be left un· but, for reasons mentioned by the dean, done for lack of strength and time. the idea was not carried out.
M. It. BRIERLEY. Dr. Grundemann is another most dili.
gent and laborious student of mission From Forsyth, Georgia, Mr. J. C. history. He also published an atlas of Davidson writes: great value, which, in the rapid advance "Your statistician gave' the M. E. of missions, is now necessarily some- Church, Soutb, an incorrect report what out of date.
under the head of ' Foreign Missionary It is high time that we had a work Societies,' page 476, in June number of carefully representing the mission field REVIEW. as it now is. The two gentlemen I have "I send you the statistics of that named are ready to unite in preparing church's missions : it if they can be freed from pecuniary "Missionaries: Total maleH, 142; responsibility in connection with the wives of missionaries, 39 ; totalfemales, large undertaking.
30 ; total, 211. (From Woman's Mission In my conversations with Dean Vahl it Advocate, June, 1891.) Native laborers, was quite understood that the work 262 ; other helpers, 17; members, 14,. should be in English. Both Dr. Grun- 702 ; probationers, 291 ; total, 14,993; demann and he are acquainted with that churches, 184. language.
" These figures I take from the report You will see that the dean hopes that of the Board of Missions, 1891." the missionary societies may patronize These letters, from Dr. Murray Mitch. the undertaking. I trust that the pub. ell and Dean Vahl, are of great interest. lication of his letter may bring this im- Dean Vahl's "Atlas" is the best we portant matter under the notice of the have ever seen. societies in America and Europe, and of the public generally. It will be lament- EDINBURGH, May 22, 1891. able if, when two men so admirably DEAR FRIEND : The letter I enclose is qualified for the work as Dean Vahl and from Dean (Provost) Vahl, of N. Ulster, Dr. Grundemann are prepared to under- Denmark. take it, their proposal should not meet I doubt whether any living man is with a hearty response.
better acquainted with the history and If the missionary societies should not bibliography of missions than my much- see their way to help as Dean Vahl pro- esteemed friend, Dean Yah!. Every. poses, is there no large.minded, large- thing he has written regarding missions hearted friend or friends of missions -and he has written mueh-is brimful who will render the needful aid in this of accurate and interesting information. important undertaking?
After attending the late Evangelical I hope you can kindly insert Dean Alliance Congress at Florence, to the Vahl's letter in the MIsSIONARY REVIEW, work of which he made a very valuable and so draw attention to the subject.
contribution, in which he compared the I remain, dear Dr. Pierson, Protestant missions of 1845 and 1890, Ever very faithfully yours, he dE-all paid me a visit in Nice ; and J. MURRAY MITCHELL. Dean Vahl's letter follows: to.do people, and such a book would April 18, 1891. be too dear for them.
DEAR DR. MURRAY MITCHELL: 1. AA It could be done almost in the same you know, we have sometimes spoken way in which, a year ago, we started a with one another as to getting my missionary review in I::lcandinavia. If " Missionary Atlas" translated and pub- twenty of the great missionary societies lished in English. You have asked me in Great Britain and America would give to explain myself more explicitly about £50 each toward the publication of such this matter. As you know, the Re- a work, we should havo £1000 (and, if ligious Tract Society of London had necessary, perhaps twenty smaller socie. thought thereabout, and an agreement ties would give £25 each) ; thus, I think, was made; but the matter dropped, and a very large part of the expenses could I do not like to press it forward. Some of be paid. I think it would take three or the secretaries of the missionary socie- four years of our time to make the work ties have said that all that was in my book as complete as it ought to be. But a was quite correct, but they wished that complete budget of the expenses can I had dwelt more on the work of their on a later day be produced. I find that special societies. Had I done that, the Dr. Grundemann is willing to work on book would have been twice or thrice as such a plan. large, for all other societies must have been treated in the same way. Perhaps every society could open a subscription at net price, whereby it There have also been negotiations might be possible for numbers of them about a German edition, but they have come to nothing. The book has been to get the atlas at a reduced rate. You praised by German critics like Dr. War- may use what you will of this letter, neck, Dr. Grundemann, and Rev. G. and I should be glad if this plan were Kurze, as the most complete book on settled in one'way or another. this subject found in any literature. Yours very sincerely. 2. You know that Dr. Grundemann about twenty years ago published a (Signed) J. VAHL. " Missionary Atlas," the best ever published. Now it is a little out of date, and This REVIEW would gladly assume one a new edition should be brought out. subscription of £50 sterling ($250) to But it has been impossible to find a pub- insure the succes~ of Dean Vahl's plan. lisher. Some will say there is no need of Who will join us? Let the parties resuch an atlas, as the different societies sponding send names and amounts to can each publish an atlas of its own. the editor.-A, T. P. Quite true; but it would be only, or mostly, of their own missions; to buy One of our correspondents sends the them all would be very expensive; and following" unillersal prayer of all who besides, the outlook of the whole world read aright the signs of the times" : would be wanting. (TUNE, America.) Some time ago Dr. Grundemann wrote to me, proposing that we should " God save our fellow.men, work together; he would draw the Save them from every sinmaps, and I should give the letter-press Make them thine own. in the same way as I have done it in From heaven, Thy dwelling-place, my own .. Missionary Atlas." Such a Look on our helpless race. thing would be of very great importance Save them through Jesus' gracB, for students of mission· history. But Thou Holy One. how can it be done? No publisher in Germany would care to undertake it, " 0, Thou impartial Friend, nor, perhaps, any in England or Ameri- On Thee their hopes dependca. I fear it would not pay. The stu· Thou bidd'st them come. dents of missions are generally not well- May thousands turn to Thee, Thy true disciples be, And ever dwell with Thee In Thy blest home.
" Bless all who own Thy Word, O'Thou, our only Lord, , Thy will be done.' Bid all o~r strifes to cease, Let Christian love increase, Give us Thine own sweet peace Oh, make us one. "
Yours faithfully, W. K. AZBILL, Special Agent F. C. M.S. ,Indianapolis, May27th,1891.
THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
IV.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
JAPAN. oppressive and offensive ever since their adoption in 1858. The mihtary commander of the Japan- ese forces, when he saw the walls of the One of these exempts foreigners from fort crumbling beneath him, under the being amenable in Japanese courts. fire of Commodore Perry's guns, while Whatever offence a man from the West he paced to and fro, swore by all the may commit, he cannot be brought be- gods of Japan that he would find out fore a Japanese tribunal. He is only how it was done. The whole nation amenable in the consular courts of his presently thereafter resolved to find out own nation in Japan. The Japanese how Europe and America did everything recognized that this discriminated else. A people, whose written history against their equality among nations; reaches back in uninterrupted tale to but the foreigner urged against them the time of Nebuchadnezzar, was revolu- that they acknowledged standards of tionized in government, in commerce, offence, and "cruel and unusual punin its army and navy, in material and ishments" to which foreigners must not social science, in its very dress and be subjected. They said they must wait manners in a few months; and witbin until the Japanese civilization became a third of a century they underwent modernized in these particulars. Japan maze changes than they bad previously now comes forward to say that she has done since the time of Crcesus. The met the conditions and adjusted her result was a New Japan. Newspapers, jurisprudence and procedures so that a postal and telegraph system extending there is no longer any reason for this from end to end of the empire, and al- humiliating discrimination against her. most everything elsE! that entered into She demands the revision of this part of tbe externals of Western civilization the treaty. Many foreigners in the were adopted. great cities of Japan, however, still lire not willing to be subjected to Japanese The Christian missionary was ad- authority, and stoutly oppose this remitted as a part of this new regime. vision, and the result naturally is an The foreign schoolmaster, too, was in anti-foreign feeling among the Japandemand. Foreign literature was im- ese. ported until it flooded tbe land. But now-and suddenly in the estimation of A much more practical question than SOIDe people-aU this iii reversing. We, this of political dignity, however, is anhowever, can scarcely see it that way. other feature of the old treaty, which It rather seems to us that Japan is pro- dictates the amount of revenue that gressing straight along the same path Japan shall receive from imposts on she entered thirty-five years ago. She foreign importations. The Westernnacan recognize the standard of political tions set their own rate of customs for self-respect of the West as well as she Japanese goods entering their councan Western forms of dress ; and she tries, and then obliged Japan to take has never adopted any ideal of political what they chose to give her for their eJwellence that would lessen her inde- own products taken into her ports. And pendenue and equality among the na- this was fixed at the uniform rate of five tions. per cent. This was destructive of her national dignity in a still greater de- She was humiliated by the Western gree, and pushed her to the very verge powers and made to accept a treaty of bankruptcy. Our view is that in reagainst particulars of which she all the sisting these unjust obstructions Japan while most vigorously protested. 'l'wo did not start on any reactionary path. special features of the treaty have been way. She only still further demanded Church of Japan came to feel they must to be allowed to do as Western nations have something simpler, and concluddo. This agitation and resistance to ed that they knew how to state their Japanese demands only called the more faith for their own people much better attention to the fact that Western na· than the missionaries had done; anci tions hold to national pride and inde. hence the intensity of their resistance pendence, and developed a high spirit to any foreign aid in drawing up the of patriotism. Japan must do the preamble to the Apostles' Creed. '1'h6 same, they argue. She must love her preamble was, however, orthodox own and respect her national habits throughout; and in this respect does and life. This may be called reaction, great credit to the apprehension of the but is it not relll progress? Imitation Japanese Church of the fundamental is peculiarly active among primitive teachings of their missionaries. Some peoples. Asiatics from the Bosphorus very able missionaries think that the to the Yellow Sea are expert imitators. di"position to independent church ac- But Japan discovers that the strength tion has elements of good in it. They of the West is in its power to originate say it will shift the burden of responsiand appropriate without imitating. She bilityon to the Japanese native leaders, will do that way too. She will have and they will strengthen under it. everything now original. This may be There are some perils, doubtless. Some only a new phase of Japanese imitation, of the Japanese think they do not need and may not prove her strength. It has any more missionaries from abroad. exhibited some ridiculous instances. They feel the Japanese to be capable to One of the most curious was in the sixth develop and lead their own churches; meeting of the synod of the Japanese· but they, perhaps, never needed able Presbyterian Church, when they thought missionary guidance more than now. they must adopt an original creed ob. They have not measured the forces that jecting to all those of the other nations. are arrayed against them. Darwinism The committee nearly gave up in despair flourishes in Japan. Japanese flock to when the Apostle's Creed was objected Germany as well as to the divinity to as foreign. Finally one of their own schools of America. French Romanists, number went to his honse and drew Greek Catholics from Russia, Unitaup a creed, which being presented and rians, Universalists, infidels, and heterobjected to as foreign also, assured them odox forms of the Christian teaching of that np to a half hoUl' before its pres- every shade are present among them_ entation no foreigner had so much as They never needed the earnest prayers seen or known of it, and it was then and wise counsel, as well as financial only that they adopted it as a preamble resources of the West, more than they do at this hour. But they will have to the Apostles' Creed. It is true there strong leaders, or none, from afar.
wa!! other reason for this particular nov. IOREA. elty. The Prcsbyterians of Japan had combined that they might present fewer For four hundred years Korea was divisions of the Protestant Church to isolated from the rest of the world, exconfuse the Japanese mind. They cept as hostilities· now and again broke agreed in 1877 to the organization of the monotony. It is a small country the United Church of Christ in Japan about double the size of Ohio, with a out of the Presbyterians of America population variously estimated, but (North), the Reformed, and the United which we may put down at 12,000,000. Presbyterians of Scotland. They recog- It has a coast line of 1800 miles, though nized the symbols of the Westminster the tongue of land is only about 400 Confession of Faith. the Canons of thfl miles long; numbers among its mineral Synod of Dort, the Heidelberg and the products coal, iron, lead, tin, silver, and Shorter Catechisms, and the infant gold. It pays tribute to China and fields for trading purposes. On the Japan, but beyond that is not controlled seaboard modern missionary influences by them. Its' existing records reach flowed to Korea from Japan. The back for 3.0.0.0 years. Its trustworthy Methodists and Presbyterians began history begins about A.D. 2.0.0. In 1876 missionary work in Seoul in 1884. A the present progressive king entered great int erest was felt in this movement, into treaty relations with Japan, open- because this " hermit nation" was one ing to them three Korean ports. In of the only two countries that remained 1882 the United States made a treaty positively shut from missionary influ- with Korea, and in 1883 first sent a min· ences. Now all doors are open except ister to its court. The land is owned into Thibet. Korea may prove to open by the people, and held for them by the a pathway for Christian forces into king, and rented to the people, which Manchuria. takes the place of all other taxes. The capital, Seoul, contains about 35.0.0 MEDICAL MISSIJNS. hou~es and a population of from 15.0,.0.0.0 or 2.0.0,.0.0.0. In religion Korea has fol- Outside of Christian countries nearly lowed China and Japan from an original all disease is esteemed to be of supernature worship to the adoption of Bud- natural origin. The belief. in diseasedhism, Confucianism, and Romanism. spirits is found from the Eskimo to the Of late years there has exhibited a strong Patagonian; in Oentral, Western, East. tendency to emphasize the primitive ern, and Southern Africa; in Borneo, Australia, the Indian Archipelago, nature-worship. * among the Malagasy, and if! well· nigh world. wide, and has existed through Christianity was introduced into uncounted centuries. The treatment of Korea through some Jesuit books from disease is in consonance with the theory Peking in 1777. The first Korean con- of its origin. Even where the rude vert was baptized in 1783. The new medical notions of Greece, Egypt, and faith spread rapidly; but here, as else- Arabia have migrated, there is ever where, Jesuit political intrigue led to found the superstitious treatment of revolt against them, and sixty years of disease. Medicine and religion go topersecution followed, in which thou- gether in the thought of the non·Chrissands of Korean converts died within tian man. He is quite ready to receive this century with the names of Jesus them together from the Christian misand Mary on their lips. Other thou- sionary! "The recovery from disease sands apostatized; but some estimate is the kindliest exhibition of Divine that there are still thousands of secret power; and the Christian medical misdisciples of Christ in the land. sionary occupies a lofty vantage ground in his work." A missionary of the Netherlands Society reached Korea in 1832 and reo The results of medical missions mained one month, distributing tracts abundantly sustain these statements of and religious books. The missionaries what might be expected of them. Of of the Preshyterian Church of Ireland, the twenty stations in the region of the living in China on the borders of Korea, English Presbyterian Hospital at Swaexerted the first of the more modern tow, China, seven or eight are said to Protestant influences in Korea through owe their origin to hospital patients. Koreans that came over to their mission In the hospital of the London Mission- ary Society at Amoy it is said twelve to • Rev. J. Ross some while since gave It list in fourteen thousand towns are yearly the Chinese Recorder of over twenty gods which represented. Intelligent natives from are popnlarly worshipped in Korea; gods of the all parts of China going to Canton visit road, gods of the monntains, who protect from the hospital and dispensary there, it is tigers; gods of the rain and of war, gods of the said, as one of the great sights of the kitchen, the Virgin Mary, and Ancestral Tablets are enumerated. city. Twenty thousand patipnts a yEar, harm should befall either houses or peo· pie. SODle of whom have come hundreds of .. And so it came to pass, So grateful miles to it, are treated at this hospital, was Abdullah for services rendered by the doctor that he contrived to restrain and hundreds of them have been led by the ferocity of his men for the whole seven weeks during which the siege it to give up idol worship. All these lasted and firing was kept up. Not a missionary, not one of the five hundred institutions illustrate the power of native Christians who took refuge with medical missions to lessen the anti.for. the missionaries, was touched. Their goods and their cattle, too, were in eign feeling, to diminish the power of safety in the mission buildings. Even the five Christian villages outside the superstition, and to exhibit the un- town were, for Dr. Cochrane's sake, left unmolested. This is all the more reo selfish character of the Christian reo markable when we consider the natural disposition of the Kurd, the fanatic fnry ligion. Medical missions have opened to which he is roused by his religion-=- eminently a religion of the sword-and the way into many countries where the annoyance felt by Abdullah at the long reHistllnce of the Persians. prejudice otherwise shut out all Chris· tianity. It was so in Jeypore, India, ., I found that wherever I went in Koordistan Dr. Cochrane's fame and and in Korea. name had 8pread everywhere. I was asked aftpr his health and whether I The story is the same in every land had seen him," etc.
whither the medical mis,;ionary goes as There is a small pamphlet published to the effects in winning the people. by the Missionary Echo Publishing Dr. Scranton, of the Methodist Mission Company, Toronto, Canada, to be had of Seoul, Korea, says: by mail for six cents, entitled" Medical "Our patients, as well as stUdents, Missions: Facts and Testimonies to their come to us from all parts of the realm. The 'patients many times come with Value and Success," compiled by W. J. more faith in a cure than our diplomas will warrant us in promising or at· Wanless, M.D., which is brimful of tempting. We have thus far been per. mitted to influence hundreds of Koreans most interesting statements about medi. toward a belief and reliance in what foreigners can do and teach. and have cal missions at Canton, Amoy, Swatow, reliAved much suffering. Sometimes our simplest operations are not much Bangchow, Tientsin, Hankow, Fot. short of miracles in their eyes, and our renown and welcome are increasing shan, Chefoo, Pang.Chuang, Foochow, daily. One of Ollr first steps is to make the country glad we came, and make Hainan, and other parts of China; in them put reliance in what we can teach. This is fast being accomplished in all Mongolia, Formosa, Korea, Siam, Ara. departments … bia, Persia, Syria, Africa, Madagascar, Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop, author of •, Unbeaten Tracks in ,Japan" and other and other countries.
volumes about her wide wanderings over Rev. J. H. Corbett, of Shantung.
the world, in addressing an English China, says there would be a mighty audience recently, said she was an en· upheaval in China if into every district thusiast on the subject of medical mis. of the empire a Christian physician and sions. She told the well·known instance a trained preacher were sent two and of the effects of Dr. Cochrane's medical two. .. Missionaries who have some work in Persia. An English exchange knowledge of medicine may do good,"
thus reports the story as she told it, saysJ. Hudson Taylor, ., and win golden and testified to it : opinions while on journeys," But Dr.
,. On one occasion the chief of the Edward Chester well says, "The medi- Kurds-Sheik Abdullah–sent for Dr. Cochrane, and told him that he was cal work in missions is nothing save as about to make war upon the town, but that if he would indicate the exact posi. it helps to show to the heathen that the tion of the mission buildings, and warn the missionaries to keep within their Divine Christ is the centre, the soul, shelter, he would guarantee that no the life of Christianity, and that we are His disciples and followers."
America has not failed to see the value of medical'm:ssions for women by duly proof of their discipleship in holy livqualified women doctors. There are ing and moral reform, rather than in said to be 109 medical missionaries in formulating theories or musing specula. China, of whom 38 are women; and of tion. Already the earnest efforts to these women physicians 36 are from secure sexual purity, Christian mar- AmeriCl~. Medical missions have been riage, sound Bible instruction, purificabegun in all but four of the provinces of tion of the home, temperanoe, and hon- China. The work of American medical oring the Lord's Day, show the lines of lady physicians in India has been the activity and victory. Without undermeans of leading to a national move- valuing science or philosophy, our bement for sending women physicians to lief is that the American missionary to that country. We refer to the Lady Japan or the native preacher needs, first Dufferin Movement. This had its in- of all, to be a consecrated Christian and spiration in the medical mission work a minister of the pure Gospel of Jesus of the American lady doctors. But of Christ. the manifold and direct and indirect favorable results to evangelization from -It is cheering to report that the mismedical missions we cannot even fur- sionary societies are not yet so much ther hint. No department of mission- embarrassed by the uncertain monetary ary service will probably require greater condition as was at one time feared. expansion in the near future, nor yield Since the adjournment of Congress the more satisfactory results, provided the price of silver has been falling, and it is professional work be not allowed to ab- not now greatly in excess of what it was sorb the evangelistic accompaniment. last year at this time. So the oost of exchange is not likely to be so heavy the -Dr. William Ellis Griffis quotes and last six months of 1891 as it was the writes in the Presbyterian Review of To- first six months. ronto as follows: The prudential committee of the "Basil Hall Chamberlain, in his American Board, in view of the ad- 'Things Japanese.' says: 'Our … proph- vance of nearly $70,000 in this year's ecy is that the Christians of Japan will be contributions, has gladdened the hearts occupied with questions of morals and of the workers abroad by making practice-the temperance question, for $15,000 additional appropriatIOns to instance, and Sunday observance-· fields whence there has been an urgent rather than with subtle doctrinal theo- call for help. Six times this sum <'ould ries, the Japanese mind being too essen- easily be disposed of in extra gifts to tially unspeculative for the fine distinc- missions which have been terribly tion of the theologians to have any scrimped. charm for it, much less for it to seek to split new hairs for itself. The failure of -The Presbyterians of Canada did Buddhist metaphysical abstractions to better for home missions than for foreign take any hold of the national sympa- missions in the year recently closed, thies is a finger-post in history point- giving to the former $111,988, and to ing to what may be expected in the the latter $87,185. The great advance, future.' they say, has been made by the Women's Foreign Society. Beginning 14 years "This testimony, by a veteran and ago, they have brought up their income expert, will be concurred ie, I think, by from nothing to $34,629, and are every those who know the Japanese best. A year advancing in the vigor and success few of the Japanese 'will seek after wis- of their efforts. dom ' of the Greek sort. The majority of the forty millions need the Gospel, -The American Bible Society holds while of the 30,820 enrolled Protestant in trust the sum of $373,796.56. The Churoh Blembers the majority will give income is to be used for general benevo- lent and missionary purposes.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
Organized Missionary Work and Statistics. Edited by Rev. D. L. Leonard. Bellevue, O.
-How lavishly money is expended to India. The Bible Society has six auxgratify the lusts of the flesh! "The iliaries. From the Calcutta centre alone, annual beer product of the world is the circulation in 1890 was over 100,000 about 17,700,000,000 quarts, of which copies, and this was 27,000 less than the United States produces 3,200,000,- those issued, by the latest return, from 000." Madras. Lahore follows with about 47,000. Bombay reports some 40,000 -At a horse race, held in the vicinity for 1889, and Bangalore, 14,000. of New York City, the" book-makers" received the snug sum of $180,000. And -According to Russian sources, the lo! the Baptist Missionary Union closed total population of Russia is 103,912,- the year with a debt of $61,593, the 642. Of these, 75,541,644 are adherents Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions of the Orthodox Church. Of the others with a debt of $90,102, the English Bap- 11,000,000 are Pascolnites or "Sectatist Society with a debt of $52,500, the rians" -i.e., Stundites, etc. ; 7,6106,796 English Wesleyan Missionary Society are Roman Catholics; 5,104,200 are with a debt of $96,885, and the British Protestants (nearly all Lutherans); and Foreign Bible Society now has a 2,620,000 are Jews; and 2,000,000 are debt of nearly $100,000. Mohammedans and heathens.
-Why all this "waste" upon mis- -The principal missionary work in sions? is often the cry, though the savor Palestine is done by the English Church long since became decidedly ancient Missionary Society, which has a Euroand fishlike. But, if waste it were, how pean force conllisting of 9 ordained, 3 trifling by the side of the waste of war! lay, and 7 female missionaries. The According to the estimates of French native clergy number 8, with a total of 72 and German statisticians, 2,250,000 men lay helpers. The stations are Jerusalem, have perished in the wars of the last 30 Jaffa, Gaza, Nablous, Nazareth, and one years, while the money cost has been east of the Jordan. The number of bap- $13,000,000,000. The Crimean War cost tized is 1428, of whom 455 are com- nmnicants. A little over 2000 pupils of $2,000,000,000; the War the Rebel- are in the schools. The Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews lion, $5,100,000,000 to the North and also has stations at Jerusalem, Jaffa, half as much more to the South, etc. The and Safed, with a force of 4 ordained $12,000,000 a year expended for the con- missionaries and several assistants, version of the heathen is paltry by com- about 20 of whom are Christian Israelparison, but a bagatelle. Or, if set be- ites. side the amount that annually goes for liquors and tobacco! Not one tenth as -According to tables very carefully much has been given during the cen- compiled by Professor Dr. V. Juratury to Christianize the Zulus as was scheck, and corrected by Lic. Dr. G. paid to conquer them in the single cam· Dalman, the Jewish population of the paign of 1879-80. The expedition of globe is 7,404,250, divided among the Commodore Wilkes to the Pacific called continents as follows: Europe, 6,301,- for as great an outlay as the evangeliza- 550; Africa, 507,500; Asia, 294,000; tion of the Hawaiian Islands from 1819 and America, 285,200. Unfortunately until to-day. for them, more than half (3,236,000) re- side in European Russia, 1,005,000 in -There is nothing more significant Austria, 641000 in Hungary, 579,000 in than the steady and increasing diffusion of the Scriptures among the people of Germany, 400,000 in Roumania, 200,000 average of nearly $2 per member. The each in AbYRsinia and Morocco; but report speaks hopefully of the condition 195,000 in Turkey in Asia (Palestine in- of the evangelical work in Italy. cluded), and 230,000 in the United Statl"S. -According to the Annuario J!Jvan. gelico for 1891. the total number of Prot- -The National Bible Society of Scot- estant pastors, evangelists, and teachers land in 1890 soM outside of the empire engaged in Gospel work in Italy is 553. 36,796 Bibles, 108,115 testaments, and The Protestant churches and preaching 282,758 portions; in the colonies, 17,054 places in all number 479. The majority Bibles, 10,188 testaments, and 3f)34 por- of these are found in the larger cities, tions; at home, 118,919 Bibles, 70,919 Bologna having 6, Florenco 14, Genoa testaments, and 24,734 portions. Total, 12, Livorno 7, Messina 4, Milan 8, 172,769 Bibles, 189,222 testaments, and Naples 12, Palermo 5, Pisa 4, Rome 20, 311,026 portions. Total sales and gifts, San Remo 7, Turin 8, Venice 7. These 673,017. Total income, £35,5211s. 10d. Protestants are distributed among quite a number of denominations. The Wal- -The International Medical Mission· densians number 13,691 in the historic ary Socie•.y, whose work is to educate valleys, and 4428 in the so-called" Mis- physicians for the foreign field, has sionary Districts;" the .. ChristilID celebrated its tenth anniversary. The Church" (dei Prabelli) do not give exact income for last year was $9,976.50, statistics, but they number only a few and the number of students under its thousand. The Free Church reports a care was 52, of whom 9 were women, membership of 2350; the Wesleyan and they came from 7 denominations and Methodists of 1336; the EpiRcopal 17 countries. The United States led Methodists of 763 ; the Baptists of 885 ; with 19 students, alid Canada followed the" Catholic Church of Italy" (found- . with 7, and England 5, etc. The Bap- ed in 1886) has 119 communicants. In tists had 14 students; the Presbyterians, addition to these a number of inde- 13 ; Congregationalists, 8 ; Methodists, pendent but 8maller bodies are laboring 7, etc. for the evangelization of Italy.
-The British m:issionary societies, -The Board of Foreign Missions Qf according to Medical MUlsions at Home the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Gen- and Abroad, have 139 physicians engaged eral Synod, in its biennial report, shows in missionary work, 13 of whom are receipts for the two years $97,544 ; ex- ladies. Of the whole number, the Free penses, $100,128, though a balance on Church of Scotland has 34 ; the Church hand of $15,101 prevented any actual Missionary Society, 21; the London Mis- deficit appearing at the close of the cur- sionary Society and the English Presby- rent year. The Sunday-schools report. terian Church have each 13; the United ed collections of $6075, besides con- Presbyterians, 11, and 25 societies have tributing $5070 for the support of stu_ less than 10 each. dents and workers in foreign fields, making thus a total of $12,145 from the -From the twentieth report of the young people. The Woman's Society Evangelical Church of Italy, formerly contributed $17,363 out of the $42,268 called the Free Italian Church, it ap- collected for all purposes. Four new pears that it has 29 churches and 24 missionaries have been appointed, three stations, besides 61 places which are to India and one to Africa. In the visited regularly. Connected with these India Mission at Guntur there are 371 churches are 2350 communicants. Be- congregations, 7952 communicants,. 3103 sides 13 ministers, thllre are 16 evange- clIDdidates for baptism, 233 Sundaylists and 36 elders. The gifts of these schools with 9094 scholars, 220 schools churches for all objects amounted to with 310 teachers and 4960 students. 16.326 francs, which amounts to an The contributions by the native Church the Free Church for evangelization out,- were $2635. side of the United Kingdom £113,813, against £52,030 ten years ago. The -Of, say, 650,000 Caffres in Cape Col- number of missionaries emplo!'ed in ony, about one fourth have been bap- India. Arabia, Syria, Africa, and the tized. In Zululand, of 50,000, about New Hebrides was 165, including 35 2000 are Christians. In Pondoland (still sent out by the Ladies' Society, and 33 independent) out of 150,000 at least 3000 missionaries' wives; and the total of are Christians. Christian workers was about 800. The number of nati-ve communicants was -Japan is said to have 191,168 Shinto 6895. The additions to the Church temples, with 14,489 priests; and 72,039 were 696 adults and 731 children, and Buddhist temples, with 56,266 priests, there were 1788 catechumens. There or a grand (that is, lamentable) total of were 6 colleges and 307 schools, with a 263,207 buildings for the worship of total membership of 27,951 youth of false gods, and 70,755 men to lead and both sexes. inspire.
-Official reports from the Vatican -The Paris mission in Basutoland show that in the pontificate of I,eo XIII., has 6933 communicants, 3055 catechunow in the fourteenth year, the Roman mens, and 6502 scholars in the schools. Catholic Church has made substantial The number of adult baptisms in 1890 progress, The new positions created in were 626. the hierarchy are the following: the Patriarchate of India, 12 archbishoprics, -The Presbyterian Church of Jamaica 65 bishoprics, 43 apostolic delegations, has 1 synod, 4 presbyteries, 8814 comvicarates, and prefectures. Then 10 municants, 8000 in Sunday-schools, and bishoprics have been made archbish- 6213 in day schools. Two missions are oprics. The total number of dignitaries sustained in Africa, and one Zenana in the hierarchy are the following: 8 mission. Latin patriarchs and 5 of the Oriental Rite; 783 Latin Archbishops and arch- -In the Basel Mission upon the Afribishops and 52 of the Oriental Rite; can Gold Coast are 10 stations and 70 308 Titulary Bishops, 23 bishops nullius' out-stations, 35 missionaries, more than dilEceseos. The greatest progress of the 9000 adherents, and about 3000 pupils Church is reported from North America in the schools. The Wesleyan Gold and England. Coast Mission has about 6000 communi. cants and about 19,000 adherents. -The annual report of the Free Church of Scotland's Foreign Missions -The Presbyterian Church of Engshows a total revenue from all sources land has in its missions in China and of £94,385. Of this £16,394 were collec- India 19 ordained missionaries, 10 meditions, £5364 were donations, £8179 lega- cal missionaries, 8 native pastors supcies, £9351 from the Ladies' Society, ported by their people, 108 native £1853 juvenile offerings, £17,610 college preachers, and 41 theological students. and school fees, £13,588 grants in aid The Chinese communicants number from the Indian Government, and the 3716. The expenditures last year were greater part of the remainder was made £19,275 15s. 6d. up of special gifts to particular missions, interest, etc. The Livingstonia -The Methodist Protestant Church Mission received thus £7095. Other reports $13,322.73 as the total of receipts mission committees of the Church raised for missions last year. Of this sum £8991 for the Jews, £6872 for conti- $5788 came from ehurch collections, and nental work, £3247 for colonial work, $5798 was gathered on children's day. making the total missionary revenue of A new school building has been erected at Nagoya, Japan, and an additional missionary is soon to be sent -to Yoko- hama. -The North China Mission of the Syria, $58,824; 8iam and Laos, $55,- Methodist Episcopal Church was estab- 406; Africa, $35,040 ;.Korea, $16,117; lished by 2 missionaries in 1869, but is and Guatemala, $10,658. now represented by 15 missionaries and 58 native helpers. It contains 18 homes Monthly Bulletin. and 29 places of worship, 28 schools, with 569 pupils, together with Peking Africa.-The Bible has now been University, with an atten<1ance of over translated into sixty.six of the languages 200, as well as 4 hospitals and 8 dis- and dialects of Africa. pAnsaries. 'l'he churches have 1299 members and probationers. -Dr. Cross, of the Free Church of Scotland MisBions on Lake Nyassa, Af· -The Cumberland Presbyterian rica, has up)n the roll of his school the Church sustains missions in Japan and names of 300 children rescued from M:exico, with 3 stations and 3 out-sta- slavery. tions. 18 missionaries, of whom 6 are ordained, 2 native pastors, and 17 other na- -The King of the Belgians has hontive helpers. The 11 churches contain 632 ored one of the Baptist missionaries on members. The additions last year were the Congo with a decoration. This gen- 63. In the 4 schools 298 receive instruc- tleman, the Rev. George Grenfell, is not tion. The income for foreign missions only a preacher, but an explorer of was $22,260, and of this $10,169 came note. Great interest attaches to his from woman's societies. Native con- discovery of the Mobangi, which he has tributions for all purposes amounted to proved probably to be the Congo's great. $1812. est tributary.
-The Baptist Missionary Union re- -Bishop Tucker, the successor of ports $492,275 as the total receipts for Bishops Hannington and Parker, reach- 1890, aUlI of this the woman's societies ed Uganda in December last, and since gathered $127,690. The 68 principal then the situation has brightened very stations and 1322 out – stations are much. He found the bitterness which manned by 364 ordt.ined missionaries, existed between the Roman Catholic of whom 232 are natives. In addition, and Protestant parties was not based 216 women from America are employed, upon religious, but ~pon political differand 626 unordained native preachers. ences. The French priests have been The total of laborers is 1645. Of the jealous of the British East Africa Com- 681 churches, with 76,603 members, 481 pany, and the strife on the Nyanza was are self-supporting. The baptisms last between French and English as really year were 8708. In 1038 schools 20,107 as in Europe. These feelings the bishop are taught. Total native contributions, was able considerably to pacify. His $51,038.12. own joy was full in the Christian aspect in Uganda. The day after his arrival he -The Board of Foreign Missions of preached to fully one thousand men and the Presbyterian Church (North) re- women. ceived last year $942,691. Of this sum the churches, as such, contributed $346,- -The Rev. W. G. Lawes, one of the 780, and the woman's boards and the pioneer missionaries in New Guinea, has Sabbath-schools $374,258-a fact curi- translated the New Testament into ten ous only, or truly alarming? That mill- languages of the savage islands; the last ion almost was divided as follows, one, in the Motu language, being in the among the 13 fields with 23 principal publisher'S hands. missions: China, $164,986; India, $161,046 ; South America (Brazil, Chili, -The Wesleyan Missionary Society and Colombia), $104,827 ; Japan, $fl7,- has decided to begin a mission at once ~48 ; Mexico, $89,644 ; Persia, $83,662 ; in British Zambesi, South Central Af- rica. The country is a high plateau, fertile and well watered, rich in min· has been accepted. The Wesleyans have erals, and healthy for Europeans. many converts in South Africa, who have gone northward as colonists and A native Christian in Uganda will miners, and this fact gives them an adwork three months for a copy of the New vantage in efforts for the evangelization Testament in Swahili. Only a limited of the natives. Mr. Rhodes has p~om_ edition has been published. iset! to the Wesloyan Society a subsidy of 2500 fran os annually." One whole tribe of Zulus, in Southeast Africa, is likely to be exterminated by China.-·The Executive Oommittee of the ravages of rum furnished by the Foreign Missions of the SoutherD. Pres. white men. byterian Church has appointed Rev. J. M. Sykes and wife, of Meridian, The government of the Congo Free Miss., and Miss Ruth Swain, Alexan- State has granted a large concession to a dria, Va., nissionaries to China. They commercial comp.1ny covering nearly all will sail thig autumn for their work. of the southeastern part of its territory. This will probably lead to the opening -Over one hundred new Protestant of the country sooner than if it were left missionaries have reaohed China and to the government to effect. The com· begun work there since the Shanghai pany is called" The Company of Ka· Missionary Conference in May, 1890. tanga." -The arrival recently at the Boston -Bishop Taylor says "that when a City Missionary Society of 1000 copies Kafir dies the body is placed in a sit· of the Bible and 520 tracts in Chinese ting posture near the grave and left there from the native Christians in Hong for two or three days, that all who wish Kong, designed for their countrymen may come and give to him messages for now in Boston. shows that the foreign their friends who have departed to the lands are waking up to the needs of happy land; thus showing that even the Amerioa and its alien populations. Kafirs, whose very name, given to them by the Mohammedans, signifies infidels, -At the end of Maroh 12 applicants believe in the immortality of the soul. for baptism were accepted in Peking, 8 But of a Saviour they know nothing." of whom were from the village of San Does not the duty of the Ohristian Ho, where there were 70 inquirers, in- Church to disciple all nations become cluding 20 women. more important each day? -At the great Missionary Conference -The foreign population of the Congo in Shanghai, in May, 1890, one committee Free State is now over 800,of whom about of twelve persons was designated to se· half are Belgians, the remainder being cure a translation of the Bible in simple English, Italians, Portuguese, Dutch, but chaste Wenli ; another, to secure a Swedes, Danes, and French. Of the 72 translation in the higher classic style, English and 35 Swedes, as enumerated in and a third of ten persons, to secure an December, 1890, the greater part-over improved version of the Old and New 80 in all-are missionaries. The open· Testaments in Mandarin. ing in March of the Congo Railroad from Matadi to the Leopold Ravine is an -A band of 35 men and women for earnest of the great work that will soon the China Inland Mission recently be completed, and which will rendermiR. reaohed Shanghai. An additional 10 or sionary advance much easier and safer. 15 are expeoted, so that the whole band will be 45 or 50. To the Scandinavian -Says the Missignary Herald: "Mr. churches of the United States belongs Oecil Rhodes, the Prime Minister of the honor of having sent them as their Oape Oolony and leader of the British representatives, and to the China Inland South Africa Company, has invited the Mission the privilege of receiving them English Wesleyans to commence a miR- as its associates in the name of the Lord. sion in Mashonaland, and the invitation Half of this band are men and half are and Hungarian divinity students. A women. The majority are Swedish by new' financially independent German birth, though a few came originally from Reformed church in Buda-Peeth has Norway. mainly resulted from Scottish labors.
-The insurreotions against the Catho· The leading Hungarian pastors express a lic and Protestant missions in China are warm sense of this catholic co-operation: attributed to fanatical Buddhist priests. To stir up the people, they aUege that lndia.-Thecensus of Ipdiawas taken the Chinese childrQn are maimed by the in one night between February 26th and Christians, and that their eyes are torn 27th. Th'clre were more than a million of enumerators.
out for the purpose of making medicine -Before Christianity entered India, to bewitch the Chinese. lepers were treated with shocking in- F!ii.-The latest report concerning the humanity. Many of them were buried religious condition of this group of alive. The English rulers have put a islands covers the year 1889. The total stop t:> this custom, and for fourteeI4 area of the group is about the same as years there has been a special Christian that of the State of Massachusetts. mission to the 135,000 lepers in India.
There is a European popUlation of about -A correspondent of the Harvest Field 2000, while the natives, inoluding other thinks the Salvation Army workers in Polynesians and Indian emigrants, India have fallen into the snare of number 123,000. Of this native popu- .. premature reporting." Last year it lation 103,775 worship in the churches was stated that at Paij, a Gujarat village, of the Wesleyan Mission, while 10,302 hundreds had joined the Army. They attend Roman Catholic churches. The have now" in hundreds" left the Army.
Wesleyan Mission has 10 European mis'- He suggests that it would be wiser to sionaries and 72 native ministers, 49 wait a year to see how converts stand catechists, 1838 local preachers, and before rushing into print concerning 1095 teachers; these laboring in connec- them.
tion with 909 churches and 414 other -Dr. Sara C. Seward, a niece of the preaohing places. In the sohools of the late Secretary Seward, who fOT several Wesleyan Mission are 40,667 children. years has been a medical missionary The Roman Catholic Mission has 18 among the women of India, died recent- European ministers with 148 native ly at Allahabad. teachers and 76 native churches and chapels. Aside from the 18 Roman -In Jhansi, where mission work has Catholic priests there are three lay Eu- been carried on since 1886, the first ropeans and 14 female Europeans. It is Christian church is now being built. It interesting to notice that the total value will contain a reading-room for the eduof exports from Fiji for the year 1889 cated natives, and English books will be amounted to $1,821,000, while the im- provided.
ports were $945,000. Is there anyone -Pnndita Ramabai held the second who believes that there would be such a anniversary of her" Sharada Sadhau," record of prosperity for these islands or widow's home, recently. Mrs. Rahad it not been for the preaching. of the nade, the amiable and intelligent wife Gospel therein? of a cultured native gentleman of Poona, Hungarian Jews. – The Buda – Pesth a member of the Legislative Council, Mission among the Hungarian Jews had presided with grace and dignity; and an important incidental result in knit- another well-educated lady with remark- ting various closer ties of brotherhood able self.possession moved an address of with the Hungarian churches. Scottish thanks. This assuredly indicates prog- liberality has provided bursaries at the ress in the conservative city of Poona, New College, EditlQnrgh, for Bohemian a Iltronghold of Brahmanism. The Pundita a·elivered a long and eloquent ltaly.-There o.re in Florence two Walextemporo address with her wonted deosian churches, one Free Italian energy. She reports her work to be church, two Baptist churches, and one prospering. Plymouth Brethren church, all of which, except the Baptists, ha.ve good houses -It i~ said that every week there are of worship of their own. 'rhe Waldenprinted in the Bengali language in Cal- sia.n Theological School, with three procutta, and circulated, 10,000 sermonettes fessors and a dozen students, is there; written by Bishop Thoburn. If the and the Methodist School, soon to be funds are furnished, it is proposed to transferred to Rome, is there at present. print them in five different languages Of the Protesto.nt day schools the oldest every week. and largest is that of the German Dea- conesses, with more than a hundred -Dr. Pentecost writes: " An aston- pupils, all girls. Besides these instituhlhing feature of the National Indian tions there are the Domenge Institute, Congress was that there were lady dele· for boys, the Mackenzie Institute, for gates present; and on the last day one the training of lay workers, two evanlady, a native of high caste, appeared gelical orphan asylums, a medIcal mis. on the platform unveiled, and delivered sion, a soup kitchen, and six churches an address extemporaneously in pure for foreign Protestant residents. English. This is an innovation so marked that it will do much toward Japan.-Foreign missionaries resident shaking the foundation of the hateful in Japan are now granted passports to and terrible Zenana of India. Once the reside outside of foreign concessions, on women are set free in India, then away the ground that they are" employed in go the iron fetters of caste, and the church work"-a concession which has whole empire will be freed from super- hitherto been given only to teachers. stition." Coming at this time, it indicates a spe- cial appreciation on the part of the Jap- -The report of the M. E. Conferences anese Government of the beneficial in. in Northern India for the past church fiuence of the missionaries. year is cheering. There have been added to the churches 980 full members and -The Rev. Dr. William E. Griffis, 2935 probationers. There were 1256 writing on the outlook in Japan, asks adult baptisms. The number of schol- the question: "Does Japan want phiars in the Sunday-school hail increased losophy or the Gospel? Missionaries over 3000, making the present number capable of filling chairs of psychology 28,400. The mission is embarrassed by at Harvard, or consecrated Christians its very success, for the large ingather- and ministers of the pure Gospel?" ing requires an addition to the native And he answers unhesitatingly, "The pastorate, while funds do not increase latter." He says a few of the Japanese proportionately. will " seek after wisdom" of the Greek sort, but that the majority of the 40,- –Figures that are almost startling are 000,000 crave the Gospel, while the given in connection with the Telugu majority of the 30,000 Protestant church- Mission (Baptist) in India. The bap- members will give the best proof of tisms reported in five months of the last their discipleship in holy living and missionary year were over 5000. The moral reform rather than in formulating work is still progressing. theories or nursing speculation.
-The native Christians of Ko.limpong -The recent annual meeting of the are themselves undertaking a" foreign' , Congregational churches in Japan mission to Bhutan, within their country. marked a real advance toward unity. It is to be supported by the prayers and An earnest spirit pervaded the gathermoney of the Christians within the ing, and the theological tone was more Guild Mission District. conservative and harmonious than had patients were treated the last year, and been expected in some quarters. A religious services are beld regularly on statement of belief was formulatecl as a the Sabbath, with an attendance of up- basis of faith for consideration next ward of two hundred. One of the ladies year. A large share of the debt of $600 of the Presbyterian Mission has a week- on the Home Missionary Society was ly sewing class at her house, where raised by a spontaneous and enthusiastic women of all ranks and conditions come, outburst of benevolence among the dele- and, while engaged in needle-work, the gates themselves. A theatre meeting, Gospel story is read to them and ex- with 2000 people in attendance, was one plained. Another lady of the same mis- of the features of the season. sion has a class in the city away from her home. The hospital, in charge of a -One evidence of the reaction against Methodist lady, is the centre of a very foreigners in Japan is the fact that the interesting and efficient Christian work. empress and members of the aristocracy Sometimes women come, not because have given up the wearing of the west· they are sick, but because they want to ern style of dress for women, and the hear about' the new doctrine. ' " native historical costumes are again to be worn exclusively. -Korea presents a striking illustra. tion of the irresistible advance of the Arrangements have been made for kingdom of Christ. One of the most the preparation of a commentary on remarkable works of grace known in the New Testament in Japanese. Bish- modern missions is that among the op Bickersteth, of the Church of Eng. Koreans. Without having heard or land, is to be tho general editor. seen a missionary, thousands of people have heard of Christ and turned to the -All that Japanese law requires a service of God. These converts are the man to do in order to put away his wife fruit of the circulation of copies of the is to have her name erased from the offi- New Testament by the Rev. John Ross, cial register of his family. and have it late missionary of the Presbyterian re-entered on the register of her family. Church of Scotltmd in Manchuria. Strong efforts are being made to aUlend this easy plan of divorce. New Guinea.-At a recent meeting of native Christians at Port Moresby, the K07·ea.-Writing to the independent, collection taken for the missionary cause Mr. Appenzellos says: "It is less than consisted of $37 c!lsh, 320 spears, 65 seven years since the first Protestant shell armlets, 92 bows !lnd 180 arrows, missionary came to Seoul or to Korea. besides shields, drums, shell necklaces, Both the Methodist and Presbyterian feathers, and other ornaments. Most of missions have had lady missionaries in the people have no money. Korea from the beginning. Mrs. ·M. F. Scranton has the honor of being the frst Persia.-From Oroomiah comes the one to open direct work foJ," the women following good news: .. The villages of Korea. More than once have I heard are being revived little by little. In her say that the women think so little one, 58 persons have professed converand their ideas are very narrow. But sion, m!lny of them heads of families. the work of educating them was begun, In other villages 50, !lnd in others a less then medical work, and finally direct number have come to repentance. evangelical work. Results are not to be looked for before the seed has had time -Pastor Joseph, of Gulpashan, which to take root. Yet there are a few things is one of the self-supporting churches, that cheer us even while breaking the writes the following cheering news: fallow ground. Korea has two girls' .. The winter past, as you are aware, schools, with an attendance of about has had its share of difficulties. One 40; one hospital, where nearly 2400 great diffieulty W!ilI in, fegard to our church building; a fine of three hun- invaluable in the acquisition and proper dred tomans ($450) had to be paid by use of the Turkish language.
us. Another was a sad division made by Y. M. O. A.-Twenty. five years have 80me of the members that for a time. was seen a ma.rvellous growth in Young a great evil. Notwithstanding these, Men's Christian Associations. Then God's blessings have been abundant. they were only beginning to secure a Special meetings were attended with recognized standing, but now they have power from on high. Over 60 are can· gotten a hold in all our leading cities, didates, and at the next communion and exert an international influence nearly all of these will unite with the through their various organizations. In church." 1886 there was only one building erected Scandinavia.-The Swedish Mission- for association purposes; now there are ary Society is actively at work among 231, which have a money value of $1,946,- the Laplanders. The society has an 085. In different lands the entire prop· orphanage at Ange, and 6 mission erty owned by this Christian agenoy schools in other parts of Lapland, amounts to $11,907,381. Besides, the where 173 children have received in- contributions for its current expenses of struction. In spite of a grant of 2000 looal work foot up annually $1,841,966. crowns from the king, the expenses for These figures show progress, and indithe past year were 1500 ?rowns in exceSli cate a vitality and permanenoe for this of the receipts. form of Christian aotivity whioh augurs well for its future. -" The Norwegian Lutheran China Mission" is the name of a societyorgan- General.-Dr. Woloott Calkins, in his ized a year ago at Bergen, with John sermon before·the Amerioan Missionary Brantzaeg as president. During the Sooiety, on the responsibility of busiyear 5431 crowns have been collected. ness men, gave some striking figures. Brantzaeg, his two brothers, H. Seyf- The wealth of the oountry he found to be farth, and S. Samuelson will go to China over $62,500,000,000 distributed among as missionaries. The establishment of 13,000,000 families, of whom 11,500,000 a mission house at Shanghai is under, families are those of wage-earners. consideration. There are 135,000 families whioh have an average wealth of $186,000. Seventy- Syria.-The girls' school in Tripoli five per oeut of our business men are has 35 house pupils and 115 day scholars. members or adherents of Protestant -An association has been established churohes. Of the 68 riohest men in the in London to send colonies of poor Jews country only 4 are Roman Catholic. to Palestine. So many are going to .Teru- There are probably 400 Christian famisalem that it is one of the most rapidly lies in this country with an annual ingrowing cities in the world. come, over and above expenses, averag· ing $500,000 apieoe ; and 8000 Christian Turkey.-The work of evangelization families with an average income, above in Turkey will be greafy facilitated by expenses, of $25,000 each, and 100,000 the Turkish dictionary just published Christian families with an average in- under the editorship of the Rev. H. O. come of $10,000 above expenses. A Dwight, who has spent several years in great share of the $1,400,000,000 added a careful revision of the work previously yearly to the capital of the country be- done by Sir James Redhouse of Lon- longs to Christian business men. The don. Drs. Riggs and Pettibone and a gospel for rioh Christian men is not so former grand vizier have also scrutinized much that we need their money as that the proofs. It is a fine piece of literary they need to get rid of it, if they would work, there being no less than 2224 not have their wealth drive them into pages in the volume, and it will prove insanity or provE) a curse.
The Missionary Review of the World — May 1890
JAPAN; REVIEW OF THE YEAR 1889
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XIII. No.5.-0Id Series.—MAY.—voL. III. No. 5.-New Series.
I.-LI TERATURE OF MISSIONS.
JAPAN: REVIEW OF THE YEAR 1889.
BY GEORGE W~f. KNOX, D.D., TOKYO, JAPAN.
The events of the year 1889 have been of high importance. No year since 1867, the year of the restoration, has shown such rapid changes, or been so full of surprises. The hidden forces of popular feeling have manifested themselves with unexpected violence, and the warmest friends of Japan are, for the moment, uncertain of the future.
Nature has been in sympathy with society. Nowhere is nature more luxuriantly beautiful, and nowhere are ins forces more ready to display their overwhelming powers. It has been a year of earthquakes, typhoons, terrific rains, bursting rivers and engulfing waves. The calm and beauty that attract every beholder contrast sharply with the elemental fury, and one never knows when the pent up forces may explode. The relatively low estimate placed upon human life in the East and West has been clearly illustrated. The flood at J ohnstown horrified two continents, and was the occasion for a manifestation of sympathy and benevolence almost unparalleled. The disasters in Japan have exceeded the horrors of Johnstown, and have been thought worthy of an occasional telegram and newspaper paragraph. Here in Japan, funds have been collected for the distressed, but they can have met but the merest fraction of the terrible need. Months after the disasters, we are still without exact and complete details of the losses of life and property, and the great newspapers of the capital make but passing reference to the calamity, in their reviews of the year.
The .flew Constitution.-In its opening, the year was bright with promise. On the 11th of February, the new Constitution of the empire was promulgated amid the rejoicings of the nation. The Constitution promises liberty of religion, of the press, of speech, of public assembly and of petition. It makes a man's house his castle, to be invaded only with due forms of law. It carefully preserves the rights and liberties of the subject. It guards the independence of the judiciary. It transforms the emperor into a constitutional monarch with limited and well defined powers. It establishes an Imperial Diet, that shall assemble first in 1890. Thus Japan peacefully accomplished its reformation and forsook Asia for the companionship of progressive Europe and America. It was the completion of the first period of constitutional development, and only statesmen of clear dis- cernment, comprehensive plans and high executive ability could so su(;cessfully have surmounted the innumerable difficulties and dis- couragements. Foreigners, resident in Japan, warmly united with the Japanese in the rejoicings. • 1ft Tile Treaties.-The successful negotiation of a new treaty with the United States followed almost immediately. Again, foreigners united with Japanese in mutual congratulations. Japan seemed at ,once to place herself fairly in the company of the most advanced nations. Dif- ficulties with which ber statesmen had struggled for years, disappeared as if through the intervention of a higher power. The American minister was everywhere thanked by the people and the press. Upon his retirement to the United States, consequent upon the change in administration at Washington, he was honored, as perhaps no foreign minister before had been. The new treaty was extolled as another evidence of the fairness and frie~dship of the government of the United States. GermaJlY and Russia soon negotiated identical treaties.
It only remained for ratifications to be exchanged, and the new treat- ies were to be put in force on the 11th of February, 1890. Not a voice was raised" against tbe treaties, not an objection was made to their terms. On -the contrary, Great Britain was soundly berated be- cause her minister did not at once follow the same course. Certain young Samurai, of the baser sort, went so far as to threaten English- men with personal violence if their government should longer hesitate.
The new treaties abolished extra-territorial jurisdiction, and placed Americans under Japanese law. When Japan was first opened to foreign residence, the nation was neither ready nor desirous of juris- diction over foreigners. The Japanese desired to confine the intrud- • ers within the narrowest limits possible, and to have as little to do as practicable with them. Their presence was accepted as a temporary and most unwelcome necessity. On the other hand, Europeans and Americans could not be expected to submit to the laws of a land that made the profession of the Christian religion a capital offense; that openly used torture in its judicial process, and that possessed no modern civil or criminal laws. Japan was opened by force, and the treaties were made with the full knowledge that residence was possible only on the condition that foreigners have the protectio!l of their own laws.
For years the system continued with the full consent of the Japa- nese. Even after the restoration <;if the emperor, popular attention was not directed to the anomalous fact that sixteen different Powers were exercising judicial powers in the ports and the very capital of the empire. Indeed, for a time the old anti-foreign policy was intensified, as the watchword of the restoration had been "Expel the foreigners." By 1872, however, the new rulers of Japan had fully determined upon the policy of friendship and progress that has been consistently followed. Besides this extra-territorial clause, the old treaties bound Japan with commercial clauses that forced a policy of virtual free trade. The Government of Japan began to demand the revision of the treaties. At first, it asked freedom to revise its tariff. The United States consented, the other Powers unanimously refused, and their refusal rendered nugatory our consent. The foreign Powers formed a league and faced Japan as one. After this failure the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs resigned, and was succeeded by Count Inoue. He at once renewed the negotiations for revision, but now asked first for the revision of the extra-territoriality clauses. The ail' was full of revision. The press joined in the demand, and the nation seemed determined to assert its influence. But the foreign Powers stood resolutely together. "No, we cannot consent. Your laws are, it is true, being revised, but you cannot expect IlS to submit until they are complete." The codes were at last almost completed. Still the answer was: "No, your judges are without experience, and we cannot place ourselves under their jurisdiction." The difficulty was removed by the promised appointment of foreigners as judges. The negptiations dragged along, one demand being followed by another. It was impossible to satisfy this foreign league, and yet preserve the rights of Japan. Count Inoue yielded point after point, until, at last, the nation reached its limit of patience, and the negotiations came to a close. Count Inoue resigned, and the treaty revision seemed indefinitely postponed. Count Okuma took up the negotiations. Minister Hubbard of the United States was ready to meet him, and broke loose from the alliance of the Powers. These two men soon concluded a treaty satisfactory to both. Extra-territoriality was abolished. Americans were placed under Japanese courts and laws; and, on the other hand, all the empire was opened for residence and travel. In a diplomatic note, it was provided that five foreigners should be employed as judges for a space of twelve years. That was a concession to the prevalent foreign opinion, that Japanese judges are still too inexperienced, and the new codes too strange for foreigners to place confidence in the courts. It w.as a small concession, made for the sake of resuming soverign control. The tariff, too, WaS revised on terms favorable to Japan. Count Okuma was everywhere congratulated. Germany and Russia at once followed the United States. England and France were more deliberate, but at last were ready to act when a popular agitation began that rendered action useless.
The Soshi.-As the months went by the Soshi began an agitation. The .rapid transformation of Japan had been felt most acutely by the Samurai. These men have been at 'once the leaders and the sufferers. Patriots to the depths of their being, they have supported progress,. and have been ready for the greatest personal sacrifices. The over-· throw of the feudal system, accomplished by themselves, deprived them of their hereditary rights and privileges, and mingled them in- discriminately with the mass of the people. A certain number found employment in the government, for the police and the officers of the naval, military and civil services are, almost without exception, Samurai. But, after all, only a small fraction could be thus employed~ and the great majority were left to make their own way. As the legacy of feudalism, they retained a high sense of their own dignity and position, a lofty patriotism, an infinite desire for education, and. total ignorance of the arts of money making and of practical life. In most trying circumstances they have succeeded nobly. They arestill the dependence of Japan. As editors, lawyers, politicians, and, we may add, clergymen, they maintain their old position as the leaders of the people. But, in such a transformation, in so keen a struggle for existence, only the fittest survive. Some of the Samurai have disappeared in the mass of the commons. They are cooks, petty merchants, farmers, and pullers of jin-riki-sha. Another fraction still struggle against increasing odds. Their money is almost gone-of practical ability they show little. They are without guides, political or moral. The Confucian ethics that sufficed for their fathers have lost all power, and there is nothing in their stead. The old loyalty that had its well-understood code, is gone, and the new patriotism has not yet found its moral foundation. The old, narrow education is replaced with a smattering of misunderstood western learning. In Tokyo are scores of schools, with thousands of young men in attendance, that are a constant source of danger. The schools are for the sake of providing their proprietors with an income. The course of study is meagre; the teaching of the poorest; discipline is conspicuous by its absence. Here young men congregate, get a smattering of Spencer and :Mill, talk politics, and impress each other with their mutual importance. From these immature politicians come the Soshi. The Soshi are violent young men, for the most part extreme radicals, who openly advocate the use of physical force in the maintenance of their political views. They assault their opponents, break up public meetings, advocate assassination, and are ready to go to all extremes. Such men compelled the disbanding of the great liberal party some years ago, since they would not submit to the leaders, but by their violence brought discredit on the whole movement. There have been many such men in the years past, but only in 1889 did they make themselves felt as an open faction. The Soshi profess differing political opinions, but are in all cases the advocates of the free use of physical force.
The Agitation.-As noted above, they first interfered in the question of the treaties by threatening the English with violence if "they did not follow the good example of the United States." During the summer, however, they changed their tone and began an agitation against the revised treaties. Their points of attack were two: the .ownership of land by foreigners, and the employment of any foreign- -ers as judges. Their movement was not anti-foreign, but anti-Count Okuma. For weeks the agitation was as insignificant as it was violent. Meetings were held, and one or two third-rate newspapers advocated these views. But the leading newspap-ers, and the leading men, without exception, upheld the treaties, and gave their approval to the disputed provisions. Public sentiment emphatically approved Count Okuma's action, and applauded the action of the United States. 'The agitation was looked upon as unworthy of serious attention. Such arguments as the Soshi advanced were answered over and over again. The weight of reason was on the side of the Government. But the Soshi refused to be silenced, and found constantly new reasons, as the old ones were shown to be valueless. To the surprise ·of all, the agitation showed unexpected vitality, and gained in strength with the passing weeks. Gradually well-informed men began to say: "If this continues, the Government will find difficulty in maintaining its position." By mid-autumn they said: "The treaties will not be ratified by Japan." It became apparent that there was a ,serious political crisis in the Cabinet. Rumors of dissensions among the statesmen who ruled Japan began to leak out. The agitation waxed more furious, some of the influential newspapers changed their tone. Prominent politicians added their advocacy. Tokyo became excited, and the common people took up the talk of their superiors. The country had not been so agitated since the months preceding the .overthrow of the Shogunate. Then came the end.
The Assassination of Count Okurna.-Two men stood in the way .of success, Count Kuroda, the head of the ministry, and, above all, Count Okuma, the Minister for Foreign Affairs. The former is a man with no great reputation for statesmanship, but is of great firmness .and ready to stand ever by his friends. Count Okuma was his friend. Count Okuma stands among the first two or three men in the empire. He is wise, progressive and firm. So long as these two men remained in the ministry, the treaties would not be thrown aside. A f~natical :Samurai waited one day for Count Okuma, and, with careful aim, threw a dynamite bomb into his carriage. Through the skill of the -coachman, the carriage was so hurried forward that the Count lost only his leg, and not his life. The would-be assassin committed suicide on the spot. Count Okuma for weeks was unable to give any attention to public affairs, but was kept in the strictest seclusion. The news excited the city and nation. But Japan has not yet forgotten its feudal manners. A man who kills himself in the name of patriotism, the assassin who willingly throws away his own life, is a hero to million:l of the people. The assassin who struck down Minis- ter Mori on February 11, 1889, though his avowed reason was petty, and was shown at once to be without foundation in fact, was honored with ostentatious funerals, and poems in the newspapers. And this would-be murderer of Okuma, too, earned the plaudits of the unthink- ing of his fellow-countrymen. The act sent no thrill of horror 01' of indignation through the land. In talking with the people, admiration of the coolness and skill of the assassin was heard more often than indignation at the deed.
The Oabinet Orisis.-Almost immediately, to the astonishment of foreigners, Count Ito resigned, and his example was followed by the whole ministry, excepting Okuma, who was too ill to be informed. What the Soshi failed to accomplish, Ito finished in a day, and he chose the time when Okuma was lingering between life and death. Ito and Inoue are the most powerful statesmen in Japan. They have controlled t.be destinies of the empire for years. TheY'have been the advocates of every progressive movement. Inoue staked his political career upon the success of his revision of the treaties. Ito was the author of the revised new Constitution. No doubt they were not over friendly to Count Okuma. Kuroda had made a combination cabinet, in- cluding men of different opinions. Inoue had dissented from that policy, but had consented to remain for a while. He and Ito carried out their plans and withdrew just at the moment when such action would complete the work of the bomb. A confused political crisis ensued that is hardly.ended yet. Kuroda resigned, and his combination policy ended. Ito and Inoue withdrew finally, and are watching affairs from a safe distance. When Okuma recovered he found himself without Kuroda's aid, and obliged to resign. The new cabinet is constructed in the hope that it may last until the Diet meets next autumn.
The Situation.-The new treaties are dead. Accepted by the whole ministry before they were negotiated, accepted by the sentiment of the nation for months after they were negotiated, conferring great benefits upon Japan in the restoration of complete sovereignty and the revision of the tariff, they are slain by the Soshi, the wouldbe assassin of Okuma, and the resignation of Ito. No statesman would dare attempt their ratification. Neither his position nor his life would be worth a week's purchase. Japan is back in the old position by her own act. And yet not in the old position. Surely no minister of the United States will invite a repetition of this experience. The United States are laughed at for simplicity, while England is applauded for clear-sighted perception. Men are saying : "We told you so: England is too wise to trust her interests to Japan." Then, too, the old situation was morally unjustifiable on our side. Inoue was all reaSODableness, and the refusal to conclude tIle treaties was a grevious wrong in the sight of many foreigners. Now, Japan has rejected treaties made on her own terms, approved by her ministry and by unanimons public opinion. The anomalous jurisdiction of foreign powers, and the seclusion of foreigners in "settlements" and within "treaty limits," is Japan's own choice. Who will undertake ·the re- opening of this question, no one can say. The Government really has no policy beyond postponement. What the action of the Diet may be, it is impossible to foresee. The wisest statesman would hesitate to foretell what a year will bring forth Political Partie8.~The agitation against the treaties was of no importance until it became a question of political parties. Count Okuma has been the head of the Kai-shin-to Progressives. His enemies of every opinion, radicals and conservatives, combined against him, with the treaties as their rallying cry. There are anti-foreign conservatives in Japan who say, "Japan for the Japanese," and interpret that very propel' cry in the very narrowest spirit.. These men use Buddhism and Shinto as political instruments. Their following is small. Then there are the Liberals, with Count Itagaki as leader, and the Grand Association, with Count Goto as leader, and the Progressives, with Count Okuma as leader. Count Inoue is credited with the largest personal following in Japan. Then almost everyone of these "parties" has factions that refuse to follow in party lines. It is impossible, too, to understand on what "principles" these parties are formed. The conservatives have a policy, but no man can formulate the :party platforms of the other. The truth is, these are not partiel:l at all, but clubs and groups, factions of more or less strength attached to particular statesmen and leaders. But the leaders cannot control their own followers. There are Soshi in all, and the Soshi assert themselves in div·ers manners, and with disastrous effect. From last autumn's campaign, it is evident that these gl'OUpS can momentarily unite in opposition, but when the temporary aim is accomplished, the combination instantly breaks into its original fractions.
The Outlook.-Japan has reached its political crisis. It has successfully surmounted difficulties in the past. Prophets of evil have repeatedly declared that the end is at hand, only to find themselves speedily mistaken. Let us trust that this crisis, too, may be safely passed. It is not to be denied, however, that there are serious elements of danger. First, the statesmen who have guided Japan through the perils of the past are in retirement. Their future policy is a matter of speculation. Ito especially discredited himself. He is rumored to have been the power behind the whole agitation. Many think him unwilling that Okuma should succeed. The newspapers have reported interviews with him, which, if true, confirm these rumors. Second, it is apparent that the Diet is to be the scene of severe struggles between ill-defined factions. It is gravely doubted whether any faction will be strong enough to carry out a consistent )lolicy. It is evident that personal ambition is more powerful than political principles. Third. The mob has shown its power. The Soshi began its agitation against a ministry that combined more firstrate men than had before been gathered in one government. Whatever reasons were below the surface, the outward and apparent fact is, that these agitators carried their point. Their voice has not been heard for the last time. Their bomb was too successful to permit the hope that dynamite will not readily be used again. They have shown their strength. It may be doubted whether statesmen in the Diet who incur popular displeasure will be safer than Cabinet ministers. It may also be doubted whether a faction triumphant in the Diet will dare maintain itself in the face of opposition from these student agitators.
The friends of Japan wait the events of t.he next two years with anxious hope. We trust that the splendid achievements of the past will be repeated. We cannot believe that Japan's great experiment is to end in ignominious failure. Such a result would be a calamity, not for this empire alone, but for Asia-for humanity.
Religious Progress.-In mission work the year has been one of quiet progress. There has been little excitement, and the work has occupied less than usual of the attention of the public. Wellinformed missionaries have spoken of the year as one of small results. The statistics are not yet complete, but, so far as we can judge, the Church has made as much progress as in other years. The kingdom has come without observation, but the Lord has blessed abundantly the work of his servants.
The Revival in Tokyo.-In the beginning of the year there was marked interest in some of the Tokyo churches. Tsukiya Bashi church, Rev. N. Tamura pastor, held meetings every night for weeks. The interest was for the most part among professing Christians, and manifested itself in a deepened experience, in mutual confessions, and a stronger desire for the salvation of souls. In spite of the judicious teaching and example of the pastor, there was some excitement, threatening the good name and order of the church. But, so far as we can learn, the results have been only good. The whole church in Japan needs pre-eminently the outpouring of God's spirit upon the hearts of believers.
The Work of the Y. M. 0. A.-The Y. M. C. A. has found a wide and effectual door in Japan. Young men in astonishing numbers are found in all the churches. In all activity they are at the head.
Our pastors and elders are young. The activity, the prominence and leadership of young men in all departments of life is one of the most characteristic features of modern Japan. With all the church work, it would seem that there was no need for further organization. But the Y. M. C. A. is not superfluous; it has already made a field for itself. In the schools of Tokyo are tens of thousands of young men. Among these students are Christians in surprising numbers. Without .organization, they have remained strangers to each other. Again and .again, students have thought themselves alone in great schools with hundreds of pupils. Then the Y. M. C. A. became organized, and to the great delight and surprise of each student, many have come forward and enrolled themselves as Christians. Active associations have been formed in the Imperial University, in the leading colleges and schools ·of the Government, and in many private schools and academies. 'The associations maintain Bible classes, courses of lectures on Christian topics, and organize the Christians for aggressive work among their companions. This work is still at its beginning. Rightly managed, it will accomplish a great work for the Master.
The Stemmer School.-Mr. Wishard energetically visited the .schools in all parts of Japan during the first half of the year. He was everywhere welcomed, and large congregations of young men gave him respectful attention. The Christians were encouraged and .strengthened, and to the unbelievers the gospel was preached. His work culminated in the Summer school which was held with the Congregational college, the Doshi-sha, in Kyoto during ten days .of the last week in June and the first week in July. Over four hundred students, representing twenty-five different institutions, were present. Most of the prominent schools in the Empire had delegates present. It was a time of prayer and the study of G<1d's Word. The proceedings have been printed and form an attractive volume. The theme of every meeting was "Consecration to the Service of the Lord." The theological schools have already received students who ascribe their wish to enter the ministry to impulses received at the Summer school.
The Buddhist Missionary.-Buddhism continues to try missionary -experiments. It is quick to adopt our methods. But with all these activities and brand new methods, it is unable to resume its influence over the national life. Its day is gone forever. Col. Olcott worked according to his light and ability, but his mission was a complete failure. Large audiences assembled to hear him, but nothing permanent was accomplished. His presence in the country was soon forgotten by the public and his departure caused no regret.
Church Union.-The much wished for union between the Congregational churches and the United Church of Chirst failed of accomplishment. It is a very great disappointment. It was a noble effort, nobly planned and bravely attempted, but for the time it has failed. At the first it was hoped that the seeming failure was only temporary, but as time goes by we seem as far away from it as ever-far away with this history of failure behind us. It is not worth while to repeat the story. The fact remains that we are once more settled on strictly denominational lines, with the most hopeful in doubt as to the utility of further experiment. Everything favored success. There was' personal friendship among the leaders on both sides. There was past association in united work. There was harmony of tastes. There was a strong perception of the folly and wastefulness of present methods and the imperative need for union in the face of overwhelming unbelief. There were no strong inherited traditions and prejudices to be cast aside. There was general agreement in outline as to the terms of union. There was the repeated acceptance of the plan for union in its details by the strongest men, Japanese and American, on both sides. It did not seem possible that there should be a failure. But as the treaties have failed at the last moment through contingencies wholly unexpected, so was it with the union. And the history of the two failures have many striking points of resemblance. The union of Presbyterian and Reformed bodies is now complete. The churches and missionaries of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church mission have entered the United Church of Christ. Seven missions are now co-operating with this church. The union projected between the Methodist Episcopal Church mission and the Canadian Methodist Church mission has advanced 'a step. The difficulties are fully as great as those ~hich existed between Presbyterians and Congregationalists, but we trust that they may be overcome. 'Were the question left to the missionaries, there would be no question as to the result, but the"Consent of the churches in America must be obtained.
Perhaps this union of Presbyterians with Presbyterians, and of Methodists with Methodists, is all that we can expect for the present. Sectarianism is not yet dead. The last year has demonstrated that fact. Certain associations in the United States, and one Presbytery, were moved to protest against union. There were even threats of withholding contributions from the American Board if denominational peculiarities were yielded for the sake of union. Certain Congregational ministers and newspapers used their influence to hinder this movement. There are thus ministers in the United States who deliberately set themselves against union even on the foreign field. So, too, there are a few missionaries who value sectarianism above Christian unity. With our small force and with the tremendous pressure of an unconverted empire, they are still ready to insist upon the petty details of inherited polity. Such men are a small minority, but they must not be forgotten in plans for union. Then, finally, it must be remembered that the Christians themselves cannot wholly and at once put aside party spirit. We cannot edncate men for a: decade on strict denominational lines, and expect that all will prove ready for union when the day has come. It was party feeling among the Japanese that finally prevented union last year. Let us see to it
THE MISSION TOUR OF BRITAIN
that we do not establish our divided Protestantism so surely that we shall have in every land a multitude of petty sects. The multiplica- tion of denominations continue. With all their evils, divided councils continue. Were I to repeat the story of the evil of our divisions and schisms, I should lengthen this paper beyond all bounds. The evils exist. Union on missionary ground is not the easy and imme- diate solution of the trouble that it has seemed. Once more, may we not appeal to the Christian public at home to form their plans in common and to cease to perpetuate the sin of schism through Christ's . work of preaching the gospel to the nations.
THE MISSION TOUR OF BRITAIN-No. III.
BY ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D.D.
Dear IJoctor Sherwood: The month of January was given to England, taking London as a.
centre, and going out from thence to the great cities, Birmingham, Leicester, Bristol, Leeds, etc. Every Sunday was given to Westminster Chapel, where the savor of Samuel Martin still lingers, and where, next to Spurgeon's Tabernacle, there is the largest accommodation for the multitudes. A month in London gave opportunity for a partial acquaintance with London missions, which are of every vat:iety.
In no city of the world is there so large a population living in abject poverty and misery, and practically out of the reach of the churches. That startling tract," The Bitter Cry of Outcast London," published a few years since, but now almost out of print, revealed a condition of want and woe to which most of the inhabitants. of the great metropolis were strangers. It unveiled the iniquity, intemperance, improvidence of the vast multitude of poor and outcast classes; it called attention to their forlorn condition, their unhealthy dwellings and unwholesome habits, their meagre diet, their half nakedness, their indecent crowding into inadequate tenements, and their utter destitution of the gospel. That tract is still so true and so valuable, that it is proposed to reprint it in substance in these pages for the information of those who are studying just now the grave question of the crisis of cities.
Latterly a movement, known as " The Pleasant Sunday Afternoon Movement," has been undertaken in hopes to reach the non-church goers, There are many who are quite sanguine as to its success. It originated with Mr. John Blackham, of West Bromwich,who thought he saw that sermons were too long and services of worship too tame and bald to hold the masses of the people. At Westminster Chapel these " Afternoons" were introduced while I was preaching there, and are now in progress. The following programme may indicate the plan ·of Mr. Blackham, very successfully carried out in the Midland .counties: Chorus (St. Paul)-" How Lovely are the Messengers." Hymn-" The Son of God Goes Forth to War." Trio (Elijah)-" Lift thine Eyes."
(Miss Cherry, Miss King, Miss Layton.) Prayer-With Lord's Prayer. Anthem-" Ye Shall Dwell in the Land." Lesson-Psalm xix. Read alternately. Quartette (Elijah)-" 0 Come Everyone that Thirsteth." Hymn-" I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say." Solo-" 0 Ye that Love the Lord." Address-Mr. John Blackham.
Subject: "What's That !" Hymn-" Forward, Be Our Watchword." Benediction, Hallelujah Chorus.
It will be seen that this is simply a sort of free sacred concert, with an address thrown in. The singing and organ playing are of a high order, but the devotional element is manifestly lacking. It is calculated to draw crowds, but the question is, whether such attrac· tions do not after all displace the gospel, and cultivate a morbid ap- petite for a sort of artificial and resthetic diet that is substituted for plain gospel food.
In connection with this measure a peculiar and somewhat unique plan is adopted to secure a large attendance. A card is issued, ad- mitting the bearer to the Pleasant Sunday Afternoon Meeting, and stating time and place. At the bottom of the card is a blank space, to be filled by the name of the person inviting; and on the back of the card the party accepting and using the invitation signs a declara- tion: "I am over 18 years of age, and desire to be enrolled a mem- ber of the Sunday Afternoon Class," etc. This card, delivered on en- trance, serves to enroll members, and at the same time to record the number of successful invitations issued by any person who exerts himself or herself to secure attendants. Prizes are given to those who thus become instrumental in the enrollment of the largest num· bel' of perml}nent members.· The prizes exhibited are a fine family Bible and complete works of Bunyan, etc. One man in the Midland counties was the means of enrolling 176 members.
Now, there is no doubt that in this way people may be induced both to come, and to induce others to come. But the whole move- ment is exciting comment not always favorable. For instance, on one of these occasions an organist, leader, and choir of forty per- formers were brought by railway on Sunday afternoon from a long distance; the railway stations were all ablaze with large posters ad· vertising the Sunday Afternoon meetings, with all the attractions of the same, exactly as any ordinary concert would be advertised; and "
after the Sunday Afternoon meetings are inaugurated elsewhere, there is the same machinery for cre&ting a counter attraction to draw away to the most elaborate and artistic of the performances. The serious.
question is, whether the whole movement is not calcul31ted, under the name of inducing neglectors of worship to attend church, to promote desecration of the Lord's Day, and substitute for the simple worship of God and the bread of life, a concert programme, with elaborate iFl- strumental and vocal art. 'l'he question is worth a consideration.
The" Sabbath Committee" in London have already issued a remon- strance upon the subject, contending that it promotes needless travel on the Lord's day, etc.
For ourselves, it has long been our unalterable conviction that any and every departure from the simplicity of worship and of preaching means an ultimate reaction which promotes the very evil which such departure is designed to remedy. The appetite for novelty, for resthetics, for amusement, for entertaniment, for sensuous and poetic attractions, is essentially a worldly craving. It grows by indulgence; it grows more imperious and insatiate, until it will no longer be con- tent without this sort of diet. In our Lord's personal ministry and: that of the apostles, simplicity is the prominent and dominant charm.
The early church knew nothing of gothic architecture, of elaborate ritual, of operatic choirs and orchestral organs; of embroidered robes and multi-<lolored vestments, of imposing processions and poetic sym- boIs; of altars and reredos, of banners and cantillations, of solo singers and eloquent orators. Yet the apostolic age was marked by the miracles of Holy Ghost power such as are now unknown in the church. We find the gap between the common people and the churches already widened into a great gulf which will soon be un- bridgeable; frantic efforts are making by song and orchestra, essay and oration, elaborate structures and exquisite ceremonial, with the aid of flaming poster and flashing advertisement, to bring back to the churches the" lapsed masses." Our observation is that the more such methods are tried, the more they prove their total inadequacy.
The simple fact is that the masses in the slums can never be brought up to the churches until the churches are brought down to the masses, e., i. there must be a real love for souls that carries the gospel to them wherever they are; contact, habitual and sympathetic, must remove misconception and prejudice and awaken love and create fellowship; then these neglectors of churches will come to them with assurance of a warm, genial, helpful atmosphere. In London there is every effort made to draw the people, but without success. And by far the largest, most constant and most devout congregation I have seen is that in Spurgeon's tabernacle, where not an adornment or attraction can be found but simple praise, prayer and preaching; and as Mr.
Spurgeon grows older even the irrepressible humor of early days is moderated into deeper sobriety and solemnity. Every step and stage of this missionary tour demonstrates more fully the need of spreading information before the people. The vast majority, even of intelligent disciples, know very little of the facts of missions, either as to the need or the success of missionary effort. A lady in Edinburgh apologized to a Cambridge graduate, who was a public man and a Doctor of Laws, for her inability to take part in a certain meeting because she had her" Zenana mission" to attend to; and he very innocently inquired, " Where is Zenana? I have often heard of it, but I confess I do not know its locality!" This was almost as bad as the old lady in Dundee, who, when applied to for a subscrip- tion for "Old Calabar," asked if that "auld m(tn was yet livin',for she had gien to Mm forty years agone."
This may seem a mere travesty, but there are many signs of pre- vailing ignorance of missionary history and biography. These lauda- tions of Buddhism and Brahminism, of Mohammedanism and Confucianism, would make but little impression if the common mind were saturated with the knowledge of the real condition of peoples where the Buddhist" wheel," the Brahministic "caste wall," the Moslem" crescent," and the Confucian" tablet" prevail. With all Edwin Arnold's poetic glorification of the "Light of Asia," it has somehow failed to illumine the nations where it has shone! In these very lands, darkness and the death shade abound, and the habitations of cruelty are everywhere reared under the very shadows of idol fanes.
The extent to which the worship of evil spirits or demons prevails in heathen countries, is not generally appreciated. For example, on the coast of Malabar they have for centuries been worshipped by all classes of Hindus except Brahmins. To the lowest caste-that of slaves-is attributed power to cause the Evi.l Spirit to enter a man, or, as it is termed, to "let loose" the evil demon upon him; and when such evil spirit is supposed to possess one, exorcists are employed, using drums, with sundry charms and incantations, to effect the release of the party from the malign influence. Malabar was ceded to Britain in 1792 by Tippoo Sultan, and half a century passed before any attempt was made by British occupants to dispel this moral mid- night. In the district of Canara alone were 4041 temples to Evil Spirits, beside 3682 other idolatrous fanes.
Dr. Buchanan knew of his approach to Juggernaut, when more than fifty miles off, by the human bones that paved his pat~way, the re- mains of volunteer devotees who had been sacrificed to the cruel rites of this hideous monster. This was in 1806, and he called the place "The Valley of Death," and compared it to the vale of Hin- nom, and Juggernaut he called the modern Moloch.' The temples of this god are adorned with the representative symbols of that vice which is the essence of his worship, the walls and gates being covered with indecent and shocking emblems of sensuality, in massive and enduring sculptUl'e, as in Pompeii. Two other kindred idols, Boloram and Shudubra, accompany Juggernaut, held to be his brother and sister. Two words, obscenity and cruelty, represent and characterize Juggernaut festivals. All over his altars and temples Lust and Blood deserve to be written; for they are covered with the green slime of moral leprosy and th.e scarlet stains of religious mur- der and massacre. The extent to which all J uggernautworship is a tribute to the obscene, may be inferred from the fact that, when the great idol-car was drawn; it was believed that its vast weight would move easily on its wheels only when the god was especially pleased with the sensual songs chanted by the priests, and accompanied with the lascivious attitudes and gestures of the devotees. Yet so great were the crowds a quarter century ago that it used. to be said proverbi- ally that" one hundred thousand worshippers would not be missed."
How little would Canon Taylor's and Mr. Caine's criticism of missions affect minds that were familiar with the great facts of mis- sionary biography and history! For example, when Captain Cook touched at Tahiti, he wrote: "This island can neither serve public interests nor private ambition, and will probably never be much known." About the close of the 18th century, William Carey and his fellows so aroused the dormant missionary spirit in the churches, that the London Missionary Society sent missionaries to this island. There was a long" night of toil." Sixteen years went by withont a sign of blessing. One day a missionary, with a group of savages about him, read from a manuscript copy of the gospel according to John, the third chapter. As he came to the 16th verse, which Luther called" the gospel in miniature," a rude warrior iu the group asked him to read that verse again and again. Then he said, " This, if it be true, is for you only, not for such as me." But the missionary repeated that wonderful word, "Whosoever," and dwelt upon its meaning. "Then," said the warrior, "your God shall be my God; for we have never heard such a message as this; our gods do not love us so."
It is not yet 75 years since that first convert, who was also the first fruits of all Polynesia, was brought from darkness to light; yet now in Polynesia there are 750,000 converts; and the work has spread till it reached New Guinea. A band of not less than 160 young men and women going from Tahiti and the neighboring islands, as evangelists, seek to carry the life-giving gospel to other benighted tribes; and of all these native workers, not one has ever proved recreant or faithless. Yet these are the people who, at the beginning of this century, had lost all idea of God, save that, somewhere afar off some strange being dwelt, who exercised sovereignty as a tyrannical despot; and at the graves of their ancestors, they were wont to go and beseech them to plead with this unapproachable Deity !
SS6 FOREIGN MISSIONS IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES
FOREIGN MISSIONS IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES.
BY REV. EDWARD STORROW, BRIGHTON, ENGLAND.
(Continued/rom page 266.) Anglo Saxons have taken the lead in this noblest and most Christ like of all enterprises during the whole of this century, but far more was attempted by them during the 17th and 18th than is usually supposed. Evangelistic designs were by no means absent from the purposes of the men who laid the foundations of our magnificent colonial empire, in the days of Elizabeth and the Stuarts. To discover and possess new regions, and to wrest some already known from the hated Spaniards and Portuguese, were their most powerful incentives; but the zeal which characterized the latter, for the spread of Catholicism, was not absent from their powerful rivals in behalf of Protestantism. Nor are indications wanting, that this zeal was not entirely political, but largely imbued with religious and benevolent aims. The instructions, for instance, which Sebastian Cabot was authorized to prepare by Edward VI., for the moral and religious discipline of the fleet sent under Sir Hugh Willoughby to discover a northeast passage to China, are ample evidence of this. No swearing, ribaldry, or ungodly talk was to be suffered in the company of any ship. Dice and cards were prohibited. Prayers, with the devout reading of the Scriptures, were to be offered every day, morning and evening, on board each ship; and all had to be done "not only for duty and conscience sake toward God," but as an example to those they might meet with "in far countries," that, by this means, "friendship might be established among all men, and everyone seek to gratify all."
Christian aims were not absent from Sir Walter Raleigh's grand,. though ill-managed, enterprises. Two instances of this may be given. At his special request, there went with the fleet which sailed from England for Virginia, in 1585, his friend and preceptor, the eminent and devout Hariot. Speaking of his intercourse with the natives, he says: " Many times, and in every town where I came, according as I was able, I made declaration of the contents of the Bible, that therein was set forth the true and only God and his mighty works; that therein was contained the true doctrine of salvation through Christ, with many particulars of miracles and chief points of religion, as I was able then to utter and thought fltfor the time."
N or was his gentleness and devoutness without effect: " The Wiroans (or chief), with whom we dwelt, called Wingina, and many of his people would be glad many times to be with us at our prayers, and many times call upon us, both in his own town, as also in others, whither he sometimes accompanied us, to pray and sing psalms, hoping thereby to be partakers of the same effects which we by that means also expected. Twice this Wiorans was so grievously sick, that he was like to die and sent for us to pray, and be a means to our God that it would please him either that he might live, or after death dwell with him in bliss; so, likewise, were the requests of many others in the like case." Raleigh finally transferred all the rights to found a colony he had received from Elizabeth to a company in 1589, but he accompanied the act with a gift of £100 "in especial regard and zeal of planting the Christian religion in these dark countries." * Nor were such desires confined to a few persons, for when James I. granted Letters Patent for the plantation of Virginia in 1606, the duty of a nation to communicate, through its colonies and beyond them, the Christian faith was distinctly recognized. The Patent says: "So noble a work may, by the providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the glory of his Divine Majesty, in propagating the Christian religion to such people as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God, and may, in time, bring the infidels and savages (living in those parts) to human civility, and to a settled and quiet government."
That this was no mere formal statement, was proved by the numerous endeavors that were made, both by public bodies and private individuals, to reach the Pagan populations of the various colonies and dependencies which came under British sway. Some only of these can be mentioned.
Three years after the Charter just named, a new one was granted, and the first sermon probably ever preached by a minister of the Church of England, before those about to carry her name and principles to America, was delivered by William Crashaw, preacher at the Temple, before the Virginia Council, a few months before the departure of the expedition. It was a noble sermon, as the only two sentences space allows us to cite will indicate. "Remember," said he, "the end of this voyage is the destruction of the devil's kingdom, and the propagation of the gospel. Are not these ends worthy of thy prayers?" Addressing the newly appointed Captain-General, Lord De La Ware, and his subordinates, he said: "Look not at the gain, the wealth, the honor, the advancement of thy house that may follow and fall npon thee, but look at those high and better ends that concern the Kingdom of God. Remember, thou art a General of Christian men; therefore, principally look to religion. You go to commend it to the heathen; then practice it yourselves, make the name of Christ honor- a·ble, not hateful unto them." t Another sermon, a few weeks afterwards, preached by Dr. Symonds before a great audience of "adventurers, planters and others," contained many expressions like the following: "What blessing any nation had by Christ must be communicated to all nations." Among those to whom the Charter was granted were four eminent bishops, and John and Nicholas Ferrar, the latter the friend of George Herbert, whose declining years were spent so remarkably and devoutly * Anderson's "History of the Colonial Church," Vol. I., Chap. 3.
t Anderson's "History of the Colonial Church," Vol. I., p. 196. with his family at Gidden Hall, in ceaseless worship. It used to be said that the servants and officers of the East India Company on their way out, left their religion at the Cape of Good Hope, and resumed it on their return home. Some of the men just named were not so indifferent to their own piety, and therefore were sure to seek the htension of the kingdom of God, in any enterprise in which they embarked. One of the first measures accordingly of the new council, was to erect a college at Henrico" for the training and educating the children of the nations in the knowledge of the true God," as well as for the English settlers. Nicholas Ferrar, senior, bequeathed a legacy of £300 to it, to be applied to that purpose as soon as ten Indian Christians were received into the college.
There is a most interesting letter extant, written by James I. to the archbishops, authorizing them to invite the members of the churches throughout the kingdom, to assist in the prosecution of this and kindred works of piety. His Majesty reminds them of what had been done "as well for the enlarging of our dominions, as for the propagation of the gospel among infidels, wherein there is good progress made, and hope of further increase, so as the undertakers of that plantation -Virginia-are now in hand, with the erecting of some churches and schools for the education of the children of those barbarians which cannot but be to them a very great charge, and above the expence which the civil plantation doth come to them," and commends them to urge through the bishops, on the clergy and laity, the duty of "giving all assistance and furtherance to so good a work, in as liberal a manner as they may," and "that these collections be made in all the particular parishes four several times, within these two years next coming," the money "to be employed for the godly purposes intended, and no other." No less a sum than £4,000 was thus collected. This is the first public document of the kind ever issued in England for the religious benefit of its foreign possessions, ·and clearly recognizes the obligation of Christian people to uphold and spread abroad the faith they possess.
In the following reign, Charles gave directions in the Charter he granted to the Colony of Massachusetts, in 1628, that the people from England" may be so religiously, peacefully and civilly governed, as their good life and orderly conversation may win and invite the natives of the country to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Saviour of mankind and the Christian faith."
Such sentiments were not confined to one great religious party. The Puritans were more intensely and uniformly religious than their antagonists, and we find therefore, in the time of Cromwell, manifestations of evangelistic zeal of an unusual order, not only on the part of individuals, but systematic and public. It was in 1646 that John Eliot commenced his labors among the red Indians of New England, which continued until his death in 1690, and led to such remarkable results. He was the truest Protestant missionary England had pro- duced since the Reformation, and he did more to develop the mis- sionary spirit in England and America than any other person.
But at the time Eliot commenced his mission in Massachusetts Mr. Thomas Mayhew was preparing to engage in similar service among the Indians of Rhode Island. The Mayhews, for five genera- tions, until the beginning of this century, labored here with singular devotion and marked success. Inspired by the example of Eliot and Thomas Mayhew, Mr. Richard Bourne established a mission at no great distance from the two just mentioned. His labors soon extended to some twenty places, where the Indians resided, and enlisting the sympathy of others, the work extended,until, in New Plymouth Colony, there were, in 1685, no fewer than 1,439 praying Indians, exclusive of children.
The following century had a similar group of laborers. In 1734 Mr. Sargeant began on more systematic lines than any of his predecessors, at Stocksbridge, Massachusetts, and was followed by the renowned .Jonathan Edwards. Thirty years after, Mr. Birtland commenced to labor amopg the Oneidas, and in many instances with marked results. But of all such laborers David Brainerd is the best known after Eliot, and, though his term of service was brief, extending only from 1743 to 1747, yet, his -personal holiness, the entireness of his consecration, the remarkable power of his ministry on some Indians, and, perhaps, his early death, produced a profound impression in the religious circles of America and England. Brainerd was the agent of a society in Scotland for propagating Christian knowledge, and labored first in the province of New York and then in Pennsylvania. The work he so nobly and efficiently commenced was carried on, though not with equal results, by his younger brother.
The same principles which led to Eliot's noble endeavors in America caused the formation of the first missionary society in England. During Cromwell's Protectorate an ordinance was passed in 1649, authorizing the erection of a corporation to be called by the name of the" President and Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England," and a general collection was ordered to be made in its behalf in all the parishes of England and Wales. This Charter was renewed and enlarged at the Restoration, and styled "The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England and the parts adjacent jn America," and its object was defined to be "not only to seek the outward welfare and prosperity of these colonies, but more especially to endeavor the good and salvation of their immortal souls, and the publishing the most glorious gospel of Christ among them." The revenue of the corporation never exceeded £600 a year, but with this they assisted from twelve to sixteen English and Indian missionaries with salaries varying from £10 to £30, and also erected schools. and supplied them with books. Eliot derived substantial aid from its funds, especially to enable him to complete his translation of the Bible, for at one time he received £400, and at another £460, for this. purpose.
In his "Advertisement touching on Holy War," Lord Bacon, in 1623, complains that "the Christian princes and potentates are they that are wanting to the propagation of the faith by their arms," and suggests that some Protestant order of knighthood might do great service in this direction. Bacon's conception was political and Romanist, rather than Christian, but Cromwell had far truer understanding of the genius of Christianity and the means by which it should be spread. He is credited, on the authority of Stoupe and Bishop Burnet, with the noble design of forming a council for theavowed purpose of extending and upholding Protestantism throughout the world. "It was to consist of seven councellors and four secretaries, for different provinces. These were: the first, France, Switzerland and the valleys; the Palatin~te and the other Calvinists were the second; Germany, the north, and Turkey were the third, and the- East and West Indies were the fourth. The secretaries were to have £500 salary a piece, and to keep a correspondence everywhere, toknow the – state of religion all over the world, that so all good designs might be by their means protected and assisted. They were to have a fund of £10,000 a year at their disposal for ordinary emergencies, but to be further supplied as occasions should require it. Chelsea College was to be made up for them, which was then an old, de- cayed building." * We see no reason for questioning the substantial accuracy of this report. It comes to us from reliable sources, and it harmonizes with the character, the principles and the policy of Cromwell. Nothingequal to it for boldness, completeness and mature largeness of concep– tion had hitherto been suggested, or was heard of for some time afterward. There was great need of some more vigorous and well-sustained methods for Christianizing the colonies and reaching the lapsed masses of the heathen than yet had been adopted. The Patents granted to various colonies and companies, by the Tudor and Stuart monarchs, professed to care for the religious edification alike of settlers and aborigines, and this undoubtedly was one of their aims, but practically little was done, and that little was imperfect. The only colonies which in any adequate manner strove to be Christian, and to convert the pagans near them, were those of New England, and this they did in spite of enormous difficulties. No others had in them as large a_ proportion of avowedly religious persons, nor elsewhere were there thosewho were as devout, as earnest, or as self~reliant. Clergymen were sent * "Anderson's HlstQry, " Vol. II., p. 2Z7. "Burnet's History of His Own Times,"VoJ. I., p. 141.
PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS IN BRAZIL
{}ut, though not in adequate numbers, and it was usually a part of their instructions to teach the Indians and slaves, as well as minister to the colonists, but the double duty required far more ability and zeal than usually they possessed. Their services to their own countrymen were lacking in evangelical fervor, the native~ were despised and neglected. They were men usually requiring supervision and discipline, and this they had not. They were not amicable as Congregationalists and Presbyterians were to their congregations and fellow ministers. The instances were numerous in which they were ,at strife with the governors and councils of the colonies. Nor was there any ecclesiastical authority near enough and sufficiently strong to enforce duty and discipline. It was not until 1787 that any colonial bishop was appointed. The clergy equally in America, Africa and Asia were under thedistant authority of the Bishop of London, and the consequences of such a remote supervision may be imagined.
Through these causes and the want of such co-operation and continuous effort as missionary societies now give, less was accomplished than might have been. Even noble workers, such as Eliot, Brainerd, and the Dutch and Moravian missionaries, were either afraid or indifferent respecting the value of a native ministry, and when they were Jlersonally successful, the work .languished when their presence was withdrawn. The true missionary sentiment was of slow growth, and ·so were the methods by which it was to become effective. The end of the 17th century inaugurated a distinct advance in both sentiment and methods, but it was 100 years more before there was another marked advance, and now, after almost another century, we seem to be on the eve of a yet nobler, freer, and more extended development of missionary energy and power.
(Oontinued in our next.) PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS IN BRAZIL.
BY CHARLES E. KNOX, D.D., BLOOMFIELD, N. J.
We went to Brazil-Dr. J. Aspinwall Hodge and myself-at a critical time. We were spectators in the Chamber of Deputies when a public act took place significant of the rapid progress of free {}pinion. Within fifteen months from that day the Republic was proclaimed. It was the day before the Independence Day of the nation, in 1888, the celebration of which was a formal and tame affair. The Emperor, revered for his character, was already recognized, by the leaders, as having passed into an incurable decline. The Princess Royal was known to be under the guidance of the Jesuits. It was intimated that the Emperor might abdicate. Abdication or death would at once determine the end of the empire, and a declaration of principles in favor of large civil and religious liberty.
Our errand was to the missions of the Presbyterian Church. We were commissioners from our own General Assembly to the organiza- tion of a Synod in Brazil-the foundation of a National Preebytetian Church, by the union of the Northern and Southern Presbyterians in that country. We made rapid progress along the coast, looked in upon Para, Maranhao, Pernambuco, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and Santos, saw the missionaries of our own and of other churches, and gathered on our steamer a goodly company of our own missionaries on the way to the council at J erusalem. We mounted the Serra, from Santos t.o the heights of Sao Paulo, visited the church and schools in that important centre, and returned with another com- pany of inland missionaries by the Dom Pedro railroad, over the high table-land, past the thimble-shaped ant hills and the picturesque coffee orchards, through a half-score of pretty winding valleys, a score of mountain tunnels and a score of mountain zig-zags, down to the capital city again. We saw not a little of Bishop Granberry of the Southern Methodist Church, and his missionaries and fine' school property at Rio, and gathered information in respect to the missions of Bishop Taylor and of the Baptists. In a swift circuit, we were thirty-three days in close contact, on steamer and railroad, in church and home, with the mission work of the land, and returned with greatly enlarged conceptions of missionary possibilities in Brazil.
1. First of all, we were greatly surprised at the condition of civil affairs. The Liberty of Worship Bill, removing restrictions on Protestants, had passed the Senate in Brazil before we left New York.
Our inquiries at every port were whether the " stone" on the Bill in the Chamber of Deputies would be rolled off. The Jesuits were arrayed against it; the missionaries had little hope of its speedy passage; and we learned, on reaching Rio, that a petition signed by 14,000 women against its passage had been presented to the Chamber.
At the Chamber of Deputies we were informed by a member who bad been prominent in the passage of the Emancipation Act, that the Government was that day on the edge of a ministerial crisis, and that the bill would be declared" urgent" the next day, September 6th.
The information which we had received prepared us for a forwarcl movement, but not for the scene which we witnessed. The mission- aries had said that republican sentiments were extending in the South -openly and aggressively advocated. The American editor of the Rio News (English) had told us of the same growth of opinion.
The ex-President of Sao Paulo province-since President of the province at the time of the overthrow of the empire-a leading liberal, in answer to our question, "Will the I.iberal party go on?" had replied, "It will, or the empire will go off." "The Emperor is greatly afraid of the Jesuits. The Princess will protect the Jesuits, and then reaction." "Some of the Liberals are opposed to publishing our principIes, but I maintain free discussion is the first principle of our party."
In answer to other questions he had said: "There is no such thing as a libel in Brazil. At a meeting of 3,000 people the other day, it was said, 'This Princess is a fanatic, a lunatic, and not honest,' which is not true." "The bill for liberty of worship is certain to pass in the end, even if the Liberals do not come into power." "I am not a republican; republicanism is growing too fast~"
At Rio, Bocayuba, then editor of 0 Paiz (The Nation), perhaps the best Portuguese pen in Brazil, and now Secretary of State in the Provisional Republic, had said to us, on the evening after we had come from the Chamber: "The Indemnity Bill, which came near bi'inging on the crisis to-day, was a party trick to embarrass the ministry." "Not only will liberty of worship be granted, but dis- establishment is in the programme of the republicans-not of the radicals." "The growth of republicanism is genuine The ex-slave owners have come into the movement in a momentary passion, but'
they are not going back. They will be educated to the party."
Nabuco, one of the foremost men in the Chamber, had said to us that day: "Cotegipe, the leader of the opposition, did not wish t.o take the responsibility of bringing forward the declaration of the want of confidence. The crisis did not take place." "I am a mon- archist. Ultramontanism cannot stand. The Princess is an Ultra- montanist. That is not to be said, because she could not stand."
"The petition of the 14,000 women is of no influence. The Bishop of Para has written a letter, able and logical from his point of view, but it is vague, etc. You will probably find the bill declared urgent at the opening of the session to-morrow." But the scene the next day gave us a different and more important spectacle.
The chamber itself was a square room, with curved lines of seats, a platform four steps high, a long, high table and dais, behind which were the President and two assistants or secretaries on each side of him. A broad curtain in green, the national color, hung from the edge of the table to the floor, and a green-plaited tapestry sloped from back of the President, over his head, mounted with' a gold coat of arms. Three little tables stood on the floor in front of the President's table; and, endwise to the three, two smaller tables stood between the three and the delegates' seats. The seats had a rail in front, which opened at each seat and made for each member a desk. A public gallery was on each side. Facing the President or the members were six private galleries, which could be screened by green curtains.
Senl>or Nabuco had placed us in one of these private boxes. The President directed the votes and action by three electric bells of dif- ferent tone; one large one over the clock across the chamber, opposite his seat, and one small bell on each side of the clock-and not as the president of the senate chamber, who rung, by the handle, a large (silver?) dinner bell, when he called the senate to vote, with all the action and dignity of an old-time landlord of a country inn.
We were in our gallery about half an hour after the session be- gan. When we entered, the whole Chamber was in commotion. Senhor Maciel was speaking in quick, decisive accents, as we supposed, for liberty of worship. Ninety members were present, six or eight of them priests: six or seven bronze, the rest white. Four or five were standing, alert for action. The Portuguese was soft and musical; the action of the speakers, in posture and gesture, quick and graceful; the sentences short and pointed; the whole body intent, excited, but wholly self-possessed. Opposite us, in a private gallery, were Pastpr and Mrs. Kyle and their little daughter; Pastor Smith of Pernambuco, and others from the Presbyteries. Both public galleries were packed: Bishop Granberry and Missionary Tillie squeezed into one corner of one of them-the reporters in their gallery underneath.
It soon proved that a newly elected deputy-well-known as a zeal- ous advocate of a republic-had just arrived from the province of Minas Geraes, and had entered to take his seat. On the President re- q uiring him to take the oath, he refused. The oath involved the sup- port of the monarchy and of the Roman Catholic Church, neither of which he would swear to maintain. The President requested him to retire, while the matter 'Was considered! On thiR matter of admission, Maciel was speaking, the chamber crying, "Appoiado! Appoiado!" (Approved!) High, excited talk and retort bristled everywhere. A priest, replying from his seat in the interest of the Church, was answered that this was "not a theological question." Monso, a young man, with florid complexion, a moustache and side whiskers, followed Maciel. Cries of approval and disapproval rose into clamor. Monso's voice grew hoarse, the clamor at times drowning his words.
Gomez de Castro, a dignified and influential member from Maranhao, took the floor. He declared in favor of the fullest freedom. He said: "You all know that when I took the oath, I took it pro forma." "If a Republican maintains that the monarchy has lost its reason for existence, he has just as good a right to a seat here as anyone else." "I am just as far from threatening anyone, as I am from being threa~ ened." "The delegate, once elected, he has a right to his seat, oath or no oath." He spoke with dignity and force, as a strong man with matured convictions, whose character and opinions bore weight. He impressed the Chamber. Maciel challenged the President to put it to vote, if he should choose, and to see how many of the Chamber were Roman Catholic. Sentences and little speeches flew from side to side. The priests sat still or shot not more than an arrow. At length, Pembo, a grey-beard and bald forehead, made a motion that the subject be referred to the Committee on Rules ("Appoiado!"), and that· the Chamber take a recess for the committee to frame a minute. ("Appoiado! Appoiado!") N abuco came up to our gallery and explained the situation, so that the tangle of clamor and of Portuguese was made straight to us. Ma- ciel's motion was, that "no member's political or religious opinions shall decide his seat." Nearly all the members, the President and sec- retaries had gone out. Two groups were talking on the floor, and five -or six members were remaining in their seats.
After a half hour, the President returned, struck the electric bells, the members came in, and the chairman of the committee appeared at the side of the President. The chairman proposed, amidst silence, the following remarkable minute for consideration: "Every deputy elected to this Chamber, shall, on taking his seat, be required to take the oath to the government and to the established religion, e;ccept in -case of conscience!" ("Appoiado! Appoiado!") This astonishing report was then made the first order of the day, on the next business day. The next day was Independence Day, the following day a .saint's day, the next day Sunday, so that the order could not be reached before Monday. On Saturday we sailed for home, but we learned afterwards that the minute was approved, and the advocate -of a republic was received into the Chamber of the Monarchy with- -out an oath of allegiance. We accepted the act as foretokening what the same act in our own House of Representatives would foretoken- that a Chamber which not only does not require fidelity to its gov- ernment, but receives those who advocate the overthrow of the Con- stitution, is ripe for revolution. The republic was only waiting the fit occasion to assert its existence.
We went straight from the chamber with the missionaries, for a sail in the harbor, under the eyes of the Sugar Loaf and the Hunch Back, to Fort ViIlegaguon, where the Hugenots first landed, and where civil and religious liberty were first overthrown; and the same evening we were present at the organization of the Synod of Brazil.
2. The next thing which impressed us was the loss of power in the Roman Catholic Church. Here was a church founded more than a half century before the Pilgrims set sail from Delft Haven, or the London Colony had landed at Jamestown. Here was a land where the old civilization followed Columbus sooner than it did in North America-a land whose ports and provinces and towns a!1d rivers and churches are inscribed with the names of the saints of the Bible, and the saints of Rome, and where every device of the Popes and of the Jesuit propaganda have had the fullest opportunity for development. Here was a land swept clean by decisive stroke from French Huguenots and Dutch Protestants, and in whose oldest monastery Luther and Calvin are still dragged, in fresco, atl the chariot -wheels of the Pope and the Virgin. An empire of fertile and wealthy territory lies in the heart of a mighty continent. The rivers and the mountains inspire the sentiment of the sublime. Tropical exuberance and tropical productiveness invite the enterprise and the ambition of man. Countless forests of trees exude a peculiar sap, drop peculiar- nuts, which serve the comfort and pleasure of civilized nations. A shrub in fit soil and climate, capable of endless multiplication, produces a peculiar berry which supplies their home-table with whole- some beverage. Wealth in fine-veined woods, and in pure metals, minister to the luxuries of mankind. And yet the country has made slow progress. The Indians and the negroes have hardly felt the touch of an elevating power. The Portuguese have not maintained ahigh level of intelligence or of virtue, among the masses. The Church, whose seat is in classic Rome, and which professes to draw its life from the Divine SOUl;ce, has had no spiritual magnetism todraw the people's hearts upwards from the sordid and the sensuaL Her edifices have, in many places, gone to decay; her priests have become notoriously corrupt; the mental force of social and political leaders has broken from her lax virtue and depleted authority; thecivil power is ready to break from an institution which has betrayed her opportunity and her mission; and the people are filled with deep desire to know some better religion.
The Roman Catholic Church in Brazil has forfeited her place in the historical development of the nation. To all appearance, thfr national authorities have accepted the forfeiture. It is becoming more and more evident that she has also forfeited her power with the people, for they are quite ready to listen to the preaching of a pure gospel.
The central cause of this loss of confidence is the character of the priesthood. The priests have not simply betrayed their office: they have betrayed it in the most shameless manner, and they have perpetuated and diffused the shame. A stranger can hardly give an honest description of these Christian leaders without seeming to transgress propriety. The people kIww the priests to be dissolute. They know them to be deceptive, and a ,growing popular intelligence discerns more and more the shallowness and frivolity of the deception. Three forms of representation depict the base character of the clergy-the representation of Protestant missionaries, of travelers, and of their leaders.
While it is notorious among the people that the priests live in concubinage, the fact can not always be proved. On our voyage, a missionary told us that his acquaintance with a' priest led to calls upon him, then to an acceptance of an invitation to remain to tea. On entering the dining-room, he was introduced to the lady of the house, in this form: "Our Church does not permit us to marry, hut this is my housekeeper." By common consent, the missionaries declared this to be representative of the priestly life-a virtual denial of their professed obligation to celibacy, and an undenied violation of the higher law of chastity. Even loyalty to the essential principles of the Church is thus broken down, and only a formal and forced loyalty retained. Forty years ago Fletcher wrote what all our ministers· would now endorse: "In every part of Brazil that I have visited, I have heard from the mouths of the ignorant as well as from the lips. of the educated, the same sad tale; and what is worse, in many places. the priests openly avow their shame."
It is not, however, Protestant missionaries only who support thecharge. The boob descriptive of Brazil agree in the same representation. Wherever the traveler or the resident touches the moral character of the priesthood, it is to repeat this common testimony in one of twoforms: either to cite the general dissoluteness of these leaders of the Church, or to emphasize the moral character of a bishop or of a priest who is an exception. Dr. Gardner, the naturalist, who lived in Brazil from 1836 to 1841,much of the'time in the interior, says: "I say it, well considering the nature of the assertion, that the present clergy of Brazil are more debased and immoral than any other class of men.,t Even Agassiz, in "A Journey to Brazil," says: "Every friend of Brazil must wish to see its present priesthood replaced by a more vigorous,. intelligent and laborious clergy."
A historical testimony comes from their own leaders. There was published, in 1828, a treatise which became noted. It was entitled,. "A Demonstration of the Necessity of the Abolition of Clerical Celibacy," and was addressed to the General Assembly of Brazil. It was written by Deputy Feijo, who became soon afterwards Regent of the Empire, during the minority of Dom Pedro II. He was held in the highest esteem. After his Regency, he became Minister of State and Senator for life. He was nominated by the:: government to be bishop in the church, but declined the offer. He was a man of great. learning and of large reading in civil and ecclesiastical law. This treatise contained such topics as these: " The Necessity of the Abolition of this Impediment to the Clerical Order;" "The Impediment tothe Order is Unjust; " "The Impediment to the Order is the Source of Immorality in the Clergy;" " The Immorality of the Clergy influences, in a Special Manner, Public Immorality;" "The Law of Celibacy is Not Useful;" "The Abolition of Celibacy is the Choice of Wise Men;" " The Celibacy of the Priests is Not a Divine Institution;" '" The Celibacyof the Priests is Not an Apostolical Institution." It traces also the history of celibacy in the Church.
Citing the historical difference between the Eastern and Western Churches, it contends that the discipline of the Latin Church,. exercised towards clerical celibacy, is not wise. As the result of his studies aud observatious, Feijo recommends a separation of the Brazilian Church from the Romau Church in respect to the offence-that is, the abolition of celibacy in Brazil.
Although Feijo's beneficent recommendation was not adopted, his reasons were not answered. The reply made was such a total sup- pression of his treatise, that for sixty years it has been almost un- known. Recently a missionary in the interior discovered a copy of the treatise in the possession of a planter. When the missionary re- quested a copy of the long-lost document, the planter refused. But when he learned that it was desired for publication, he said: "Oh, if you wish it for publication, take it. It ought to be published." It came out therefore in an accurate Portuguese edition, just when we were at Rio, and has since been translated into English. It bears to its readers its own authenticity in its own pages. The prominent leaders of the Chur('~, as hi'ih prelates or as common clergy, would in vain deny the representatiC'ds of the document or the testimony of the man. Who;,ver may wish to read a description of the immorality of the Brazilian priesthood as it was sixty years ago, as it now is, and as it has been during these three score years, has only to read this treatise.
Written by a learned man, himself a priest, in high position as a .statesman, held to be more worthy of the episcopate than many others, it stands both as a historical document and as a description of the clerical succession whose reformation he vainly recommended. It is a testimony of a Brazilian leader out of its inmost life, supported by the consent of Brazilian leaders in Church and State. And to this testimony might readily be added the allusions in official messages of ministers of justice and prominent presidents, the articles of news- papers, and the unreserved expressions of public men.
Such have been the appointed religious leaders of the virtue and intelligence of that great empire. By them indolence and superstition have been comme~ded to the people; under their direction common -education has held, as its steady aim, servile, emotional obedience; under them, higher training has been pervaded with sensuous feeling, a.nd independent minds have swung off into materialism and positiv- ism. While th.e thirteen colonies of North America, beginning at a later date, and on a more sterile soil, developed into systems of gov- ernment and education which are producing a profound impression ()n the whole world, the United States of Brazil must begin'its moral history anew. While Protestant North America maintains a high standard of virtue and of spiritual life, the vast empire of the south- ern continent drowsily clings to a semi-pagan morality, and is un- able to read in the New Testament the law of its peace and joy.
The difference between the two continents is not wholly a difference in temperature, in physical configuration, nor in Latin and Teutonic blood.
(Concluded in our next.)
SHADOWINGS OF MESSIAH IN HEATHEN SYSTEMS. 349'
SHADOWINGS OF MESSIAH IN HEATHEN SYSTEMS.
BY REV. F. F. ELLINWOOD, D.D., NEW YORK.
The history of the religions of men, even beyond the confines of Christian revelation, is full of hints and adumbrations of the great principles of a divine redemption. Sometimes they take one form, sometimes another. It may be a dim reminiscence of lost prophecies, or half-forgotten rites, once known to mankind, reappearing in a gen- eral but vague expectation, or there may be the traceable out-working of a felt want of humanity-a cry in the dark, which can only be met by divine deliverers and redeemers. Not only Christian scholars, like Archbishop Trench and Bishop Horsford, have observed these things, but the enemies of the truth have seized upon them. The one class have hailed them as witnesses from afar, bringing their strange frankincense and myhrr as offerings to Christ: the others have paraded them as proofs that the Gospel story and the whole conception of Christianity are founded on pagan myths. There is, therefore, a two-fold motive for investigation, and whoever carefully and candidly examines the subject will be surprised at the manifold indicationsoften dim and vague-that Christ is verily' 'the Desire of the nations."
Traces of Vicarious Sacrijice.-A very remarkable conception appears in the Purusha Sukta of the Rig Veda, composed, at least, 1200, B. c., which represents the gods as sacrificing Purusha, the "primeval male" supposed to be coeval with the Creator. Again, in the Tandya Brahmana, is the declaration that" the Lord of creatures offered himself a sacrifice for the gods." Also, in the Satapatha Brahmana we read: "He who knowing this, sacrifices with the Purusha medha (sacrifice of the primeval male), becomes everything." Here is substitution.
Sir Monier Williams, in speaking of these passages, says: "Surely in these mystical allusions to the sacrifice of a representative man, we may perceive traces of the original institution of sacrifice as,a divinely appointed ordinance, typical of the one great voluntary sacrifice of the Son of God for the sins of the world." The late Professor Bauerjea of Calcutta, in his Aryan Witness, writing on the same subject, says: "These vedic sacrifices had this peculiar significance, that the sacrifices were identified with the victim as the vicarious ransom for his sin." And he says further: "It is not easy to account for the genesis of these ideas in the Veda, of 'one born in the beginning, Lord of the creation,' offering himself a sacrifice for the benefit of deified mortals, except upon the assumption of some primitive tradition of the Lamb slain from the fo'undation of the world."
There are in other faiths of ancient times certain references to the same idea of divine and sympathetic suffering for the good of men; very dim, and more or less shaded off into pantheism, they may be, and yet they are not without significance. Such was the ancient Egyptian doctrine that Osiris, after having been wounded by the god Set, sympathized with every wound of humanity, and himself felt it anew. There was also a dim trace of the idea that deity bore the sins of men for their healing. Thus we find something resembling this vicarious substitution when we read in the "Book of the Dead" that "when the Lord of truth cleanses away defilement, evil is joined to the deity, that the truth may expel the evil element. The God who wounds becomes a God who more abundantly comforts." (Ancient World and Christianity, p. S7.) Rev. R. W. Morgan, author of "St. Paul in Britain," thinks that he finds traces of the same general truth in the faith of the ancient Druids. He quotes from " Cresar's Commentaries" a statement that "the Druids teach that by no other way than the ransoming of man's life by the life of man, is reconciliation with the divine justice of the immortal gods possible." And he adds: "The doctrine of vicarious atonement could not be ex- pressed in clearer terms."
In Schoolcraft's notes upon the American Indian, we find a beautifullegend of the Iroquois, in which a divine or semi-divine sacrifice of spotless innocence is made to hallow the famous League of the Five Nations. There had appeared among the tribes the celestial visitant Hiawatha, who taught the Indians useful arts; and dwelt among them as their friend and sympathizer-their god-man. In their distresses from the invasion of other tribes, they called a council on the shores Qf Onondaga Lake, at which he was expected to preside. At the appointed time representatives of the Five Nations had convened, but their celestial protector and guide was waited for. He came, at length, in agony of spirit, attended by his innocent and beautiful daughter. He foresaw that there awaited him a cup of sacrifice for the good of the people, and just as he approached the council-fire, a swift messenger from heaven smote his daughter to the earth, and her soul was borne away to the Great Spirit. While all minds were solemnized by this strange event, Hiawatha proposed the solemn League by which the tribes, united as one man in plighted faith, should conquer all their foes and make themselves a power throughout the land. When the solemn pledges were ratified, and Hiawatha had pronounced a blessing on each tribe, as did Jacob upon the families of his sons, he entered his celestial canoe, and glided away into the heavens, the clouds receiving him out of their sight.
A counterpart to Hiawatha is found in the legends of ancient Mexico. The Toltecs, and after them the Aztecs, looked for the return of the mysterious and deified Quetzalcoatl, who had reigned as a mild and beneficent prince in Anahuac, who had taught agriculture and the arts of peace, whohad opposed all forms of violence and had abolished human sacrifice by drawing blood from his own 'Veins and offering it as a substitute. This glorious prince had been driven away by prevailing wicked- ness, but had promised to return and restore righteousness and truth. The credulous J'Iontezuma was too ready to believe the prophecy ful- JiHed in the advent of Cortez.
Expectations of a .Deliverer.-Besides the various traces of vicari- -ous sacrifice, there are even more abundant indications of a common .expectation among mankind, that a divine deliverer would descend to ·overcome prevailing sin and suffering, and to establish a kingdom of ;righteousness. Clearest and most distinct of all was that promise .and expectation which pervaded the history and literature of the people of Israel. But among surrounding heathen races also, there were traces of "the Desire of the nations." There was a promise in ,the Persian V eudidad, that at the end of time a son of Zarathustra .should appear, mysteriously conceived and born, who should over- ,come the prince of evil (Ahriman), and free the world from death :and decay; then the dead should rise and immortality commence. (Darmestetter's Intro., p. 79.) It is altogether probable that the Magi who followed the leadings ,of the Star of Bethlehem to the cradle of the Infant Messiah, had been influenced directly or indirectly by the prophecies of the Septua- gint Old Testament, but their own Iranian faith also had fostered a vague expectation of a divine deliverer.
But more explicit and lesl'l mystical is the Hindu prediction, that Vishnu having had nine incarnations upon the earth, shall have a tenth. In those which have preceded he has wrought physical deliverances ,or won by martial valor; in the tenth 'he shall conquer by moral power. He shall come at a time when the world is sunken in I great wicked- ness and corruption, and shall establish a kingdom of righteousness and peace. This significant prediction has been turned to good account in a very remarkable way. Some years ago Rev. J ohn Newton, D. D., Presbyterian Missionary at Lahore, wrote a tract designed to show that the great deliverer and Prince of Peace had already come in the person of Jesus Christ. Like Paul at Athens, he virtually declared to the Hindus, "Whom ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you." This little tract found its way into the hands of .a native officer of the Government, who was led to Christ, and found great comfort on his dying bed. But before he died he Bent for a friend, to whom he bequeathed the book as a priceless legacy. This man (Hakem Singh) was so attracted to the new light which had broken upon his soul, that he devoted the remainder of his life to teaching others,-though with more or less mixture of Hindu conceptions,-the glorious advent of this in- .carnate Vishnu as the Saviour of the world. Several hundred followers have been gathered, who are known as the Nish Kalanks. As the gospel in which they have learned to trust is Dr. Newton's presentation of the Christ, who shall say that they have not received saving truth?
Among the ancient Greeks there was developed, in the worship of Apollo, a. singular phase of belief, which, as Professor Tiele and others inform~ us, had been largely influenced by the introduction of Semitic influence. The supreme Zeus had long been worshipped under a distant and vague conception, often sinking into a mere na- ture worship. But after this mingling of new elements, borrowed from the East, a great change appeared. "Then it was," says Tiele, "that the knightly people of the Lycians, kinsmen of the Greeks, and their forerunners in civilization, after coming under the influence of the- Semitic spirit, wrought out the noble figure of Apollo, the god of light, the son and prophet of the most high Zeus, saviour, purifier and re- deemer, whose eultus, lifted high above all nature worship, spread th~nce over all the lands of Greece, and exerted on the religious, moral, and social life of their inhabitants so profound and salutary an influ- ence."
The Delphic Oracle of Apollo came to be the virtual court of appeal among all branches of the Greek race. Social and religious life, statesmanship, war and conquest were all regulated by its decisions. What was this regenerating influence which came from the East and raised the Greek myth of sun-worship to this mysterious and all embracing conception of deity? The Apollo cult reached its supreme power between the eighth and the fifth centuries before Christ, or from about the reign of Zachariah to the times of Esther. The kingdom of David and Solomon had- extended its splendors over the East and had sunken into decline, and the captivity of Israel had extended the knowledge of their faith throughout the Medo-Persian empire. Isaiah had heralded the coming of the Messiah as "the wonderful counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting father, the Prince of Peace." All the fullness of his Messiannic character had been portrayed as a healer and saviour and revealer; as a deliverer proclaiming liberty to the captives, a light to the gentiles, a King of righteousness before whom all nations should bow down. How much of all this "Semitic influence" had entered into the cultus of the Grecian Apollo worship, none can say, but it is significant that he should have held to the supreme and incomprehensible Zeus the relation of revealer and son, at the same time that he was presented as the perfect man, the sympathizer and helper and redeemer of the human race. That great and versatile British statesman, Mr. Gladstone, in his work on "Homer and the Homeric Age," has pointed out the lineaments of the Messiah with which this idealized deity of the Greeks was invested.
There is always danger that such analogies may be overwrought, but it is certainly worthy of notice that this very noblest figure of classical mythology should, in his divine and human character, and in his capacity of revealer and meditator, so far foreshadow the coming Christ.
A still more striking prediction of a coming deliverer and regenerator is found in the Fourth Eclogue of Virgil, and very significantly it was proclaimed less than a half century before the Christian Era. Virgil declares it to have been an inspired utterance of the Sybil of Cumae. It is as follows: "The last era, the subject of the Sybil song of Cumae, is arrived, the great series of ages begins anew. The Virgin returns, returns the reign of Saturn. The new Progeny from heaven now descends. Be thou propitious to the Infant Boy, by whom first the Iron Age shall expire and the Golden Age over the whole world commence. Whilst thou, 0 Pollio, art consul, this glory of our age shall be made manifest, and the celestial months begin their revolutions. Under thy auspices whatever vestiges of our guilt remain, shall, by being atoned for, redeem the earth from fear for ever. He shall partake the life of the gods."
I cannot quite share the confidence of Rev. Dr. Morgan, who regards this as virtually a Messianic prediction, but its coincidences are certainly remarkable.
Gropings After a Mediator and a Salvation by Faith.-Equally striking is the history of great changes which have occurred in certain systems which began in works but have ended in faith.
There came a time when the Hindu mind sought for something more human and sympathetic than the cold and distant gods of the 'rrimurti-when the mere bargaining of the old Brahmanic sacrifices and the endless toil of merit-making gave way to a desire for incarnations, divine helpers in human form and for a doctrine of faith (Bakti). And accordingly the worship of the genial Krishna, a successful hero in the wars and finally alleged to be an incarnation of Vishnu, became the most popular god of India. He was clothed with so many attributes of a saviour, that infidelity has seized upon him as a prototype of the Christ. The really significant fact is that Hinduism, in answer to a felt-want of humanity, changed its whole front, forsook the boundless resources of meritorious sanctity and sacrificial bargaining, and trusted in the free compassion of a god-man.
Still more marked are the transformations of Buddhism in the same direction. The original system of Gautama was uncompromisingly atheistic. No reliance was placed upon any other, god or man. The human intellect and human will were all sufficient. Every man was to be his own saviour, and as for the Buddha, when his earthly course was run, he became, according to his own teaching, entirely extinct. There was, therefore, no hearer of prayer-no divine helper.
But this did not satisfy the wants of men, and accordingly changes appeared from age to age in different Buddhist lands. Trinities of
THE IMPORTANCE OF MEDICAL MISSIONS
living Bodisats (Buddhas to come) were devised in Nepaul and Thibet. The mysterious Avalokitesvara became incarnate in the Thibetan Grand I"ama, and his female counterpart, Quanyin (goddess of mercy), became the chief resource in China, while in Japan appears a veritable doctrine of salvation by faith in the eternal merits of Amitaba. Buddhism has come to the very threshold of Christianity, and scarcely a vestige of the old system is left.
THE IMPORTANCE OF MEDICAL MISSIONS.
[We give the substance of an address by our associate at the annual meeting of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society, December 5th, last, in Free Assembly Hall, Edinburgh. The President of the Society, Rev. Principal Cairns, D.D., on introducing Dr. Pierson, "assured him of the hearty affec- tion which the directors and friends of the Society entertained for him, the deep interest they took in the errand on which he had come to Scotland, and the great gratification they felt at his presence with them that day."-J. M. S.] '.rhe amazing importance which Medical Missions are assuming in these days is not, after all, any mystery. The body interposes, in a double sense, between the missionary and the soul he seeks to save. It is like a threshold, which must be crossed before we enter even an open door. The wants and woes of the body are even more prominent and pressing than those of the soul. They stand out boldly; the grosser senses take cognizance of them, even when the finer senses, which discern good and evil, not being exercised, become hopelessly dulled and blunted. Many a man who has no sensibility as to his own sin and guilt and lost condition, is keenly alive to his bodily pains and the penalties of violated organic laws. Helice Christ gave heed to the bodily needs and ills of men; He fed the hungry, healed the si'ck, relieved the suffering, and it was all with an ulterior purpose, and on the way to its accomplishment, namely, the healing of a sin-sick soul. He had, no doubt, the keenest sympathy with even the physical ills of humanity, and He sought to reduce the measure of bodily suffering. But beyond this was a higher, grander service-to give holiness, which is, after all, only wholeness to the spiritual nature of men.
It is curious to observe how closely allied are physical and spiritual ills and ailments. In heaven" the inhabitants shall not say' I am sick,' " for sickness and sin are so inseparable that where no sin is no sickness can be found. Our Lord hints at the kinship between diseases of the body and of the soul when He says, "They that are whole have no need of the physician; but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." St. Ambrose calls the eighth chapter of Matthew" scriptura miraculosa j" it follows the great Sermon on the Mount, which was the utterance of words such as never man spake, by a record of works such as never man did, as though to indicate and vindicate Messiah's claim to speak with authority, original and underived. Surely it is by no accident that, in that one chapter, Matthew groups together four representative cases of disease, viz., leprosy, palsy, fever and demoniacal possession, and, in connection with their healing, quotes Isaiah, "Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses." It is a well-known fact that to the Jew, these and other diseases were typical in character. The Hebrew mind regarded leprosy as the walking parable of sin, guilt, and judgment. Palsy was an object lesson on the impotence of the sinner-lost power for good, a crippled will, an inert conscience. Fever stood for the unnatural heat of inflamed passion, lust, carnal desire…..2with the delirium or virtual insanity by the morbid excitement of evil desire and unholy angel'; and one possessed by a demon naturally suggested a soul entirely enslaved and controlled by Satan. Our Lord distinctly declared on one occasion that His exercise of healing power was designed to be evidential-a proof of His love, power and authority in a higher sphere : "But that ye may know that the Son ofMan hath power on earth to forgive sin "-then saith He to the sick of the palsy-" arise, take up thy bed," etc. And what a vindication and illustration that was, of such power, when he cured and healed men of divers diseases and torments! He who could cure leprosy and palsy and fever, and restore the maimed, and exorcise demons-could He not purge the guilt, remove the impotence, subdue the rage of sin, and even give back lost spiritual power, and cast Satan from his throne in the soul!
The resemblance between sin and sickness is a curious study, and suggests almost an analogy. Life is a tripod and stands on three legs-the brain, the heart, the lungs. If death comes by the brain, it is comaj if by the heart, syncopej if by the lungs, asphyxia. How closely spiritual disorders are akin to these! . How large a part of sin and alienation from God may be traced to, or manifested in, a disordered mind, whose thoughts and conceptions of divine things are beclouded, cOJ;lfused, abnormal, wicked! How much more may be connected with affections that are hopelessly astray, love turned into hatred, rebellion displacing obedience, and treason loyalty. And how often does the very power to inspire the atmosphere of holy things, and live thereby, seem gone-prayer is no longer the instinctive utterance of the child crying to a Father in the hour of need !
Oh for some medicine to give clearness to the soul's brain, to strengthen and regulate the action of the spiritual heart, to quicken and energize the respiration of the spiritual lungs, and to give a normal digestion to the food on which all higher life depends for nutrition!
It is very noticeable that Medical Missions have proved the last, and not the least important and valuable, of the keys by which God has unlocked, and is now unlocking, the doors of Hermit nations. Prominent among the marks of the curse that rests upon heathenism and paganism is this, that the most absurd, pernicious, and even cruel notions obtain as to the nature and consequent treatment of disease. Bodily ailments are held to be the result of malignant spiritual agencies, witchcraft, etc. Hence the medicine man, with his absurd methods of detecting the source of the malign influence, and remov- ing 01' antidoting it. In Africa the suspected witch must swallow tne poison draught. If it operates on the one hand as an emetic, or on the other as a cathartic, it is a sign of innocence or of guilt, as the case may be; and as the medicine man knows that the result of its administration depends on the strength and quantity of the dose, he can dispose of the suspected party as he pleases. There is an amus- ing story told in a book on the Congo, of a hydraulic press introduced into the country for manufacturing purposes, which the natives su~ pected of being endowed with supernatural powers, and which they . wished to test by the tangena draught; but, as it had neither stomach nor bowels, it was difficult to see how either vomiting 01' purging could be secured, and the test had to be abandoned.
This may amuse. But the whole subject is fraught with painful interest. The sufferings of the people in the Lao's country from the native" physicians" and their methods of treatment, cannot be be- lieved except upon the most reliable testimony. When I heard the first statement from a Medical Missionary of what he had. seen him- self, I said such facts should be "written in blood and registered in hell." Decoctions of the most repulsive sort, operations the most cruel and torturing, remedies the most absurdly unnatural, all calcu- lated to increase, if not engender disease, abound even among tribes that might be supposed to be comparatively intelligent and civilized. And where there might be no spiritual results to be hoped for, as a. mere matter of humanity it would be worth while to undertake to introduce a rational and scientific treatment by medicine and surgery, if only to diminish in some measure the temporal suffering of poor, deluded human beings.
But, as I have hinted, greater results are attained. God puts scientific medicine into our hands as the key to unlock closed doors to the unevangelized nations. Now, many a man has gone into a hitherto closed village or community by the simple process of vaccination, or by a successful interposition in cases of epidemic diseases, like scarlet fever, measles, etc. We have known a simple operation for the removal of a cataract to open up a whole town to the influence of a Christian surgeon. The fact is now universally known that Korea was unlocked and its hermit seclusion broken by Dr. Allen's successful treatment of wounds received in the civil war of Seoul. The nephew of the reigning monarch, Ming Yong Ik, chanced to be among the wounded. Dr. Allen found the native " surgeons" trying to staunch the flowing blood by pouring in melted wax. He at once interposed, caught up and tied the arteries and sewed up the wounds, using all the best appliances of bandage and balm ana lotion and antiseptic wash, and such was the success of his treatm3nt that the Emperor said we must have such medicine and surgery in our cwn dominions. Hence came the Royal Hospital, with Dr. Allen at its head, and the introduction not only of rational and scientific medical and surgical practice, but of the Gospel of the Occident within the long closed gates of Korea. Thus, in many instances, God has put Medical Missions into our hands as the potent key to unlock long barred portals opening into the territory of heathenism and paganism.
Dr. Burns Thomson tells an amusing story of one of his earlier encounters with a very pronounced specimen of physical womanhood, who approached him with her red arms akimbo, ready for a muscular demonstration of her disapproval of his house to house visits. He was then but a student, seeking to do good among the destitute, degraded classes of the city populat.ion; and this broad-shouldered, deep-chested giantess, flushed with anger at his intrusion upon her premises, seemed to threaten her somewhat frail visitor with annihilation. Looking into her face, he ventured to remark that he thought she looked like one who was scarcely well, and thus evoked a confession that jhe was suffering from some physical disorder, a torpid liver, etc. He put on an air of confidence, and said he thought he could administer a simple remedy that would relieve her, and by a penny's worth of castor oil purchased both her good will and everlasting gratitude. The young man was wise enough to conclude that if. such a simple prescription, from a novice unacquainted with the mysteries of medicine, could open the door to a human heart, a wider familiarity with the healing art might introduce him to many a heart and home among the unsaved heathen. And hence his career as a Medical Missionary.
Upon the matter contained in the Report I have not thought necessary to touch, inasmuch as the Report itself is in all your hands, and, like the mouth of a famous orator of America, Henry Clay, it "speaks for itself." But I may advert, briefly, to the pathetic fact that it is given to Edinburgh, and its Medical Missionary Society, to send Medical Missionaries to Damascus, where Saul the persecutor had the scales fall from his eyes and began to preach the healing Gospel; and to Nazareth, that despised city of Galilee, from which the ,,. Carpenter's Son" went forth to heal human bodies and to cure human souls by His all-powerful touch and word.
We have been reminded that the Jubilee year of this organization is near at hand. Would it not be well to hasten that Jubilee-and without waiting for a twelvemonth or more, enable them to sonnd the trumpet of their Jubilee, by delivering them from their present inadequate and narrow quarters, and by giving them enlarged premises and facilities for their noble work? A Society, so blessed of God, the pioneer in such heroic Christian service, should have the noblest support which we can give it, and I affectionately commend it to your sympathy, your prayers, and your alms. May God crown all the labors of this Society with His richest blessing, and make its Missions a benediction to all lands!
THE RAMONA MISSION.
BY REV. PAUL DE SCHWEINITZ, NORTHFIELD, MINN.
In the March issue of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD, there ap- peared an admirable article, by the Rev. Mr. Leonard, on the" Moravian Mis- sions Among the American Indians." The mission activity of the Moravians among the American Indians has extended over a period of 156 years, but up to 1889 all that remained of this grand and untiring work, owing to the disas- trous vicissitudes fully explained in the article mentioned above, was one station among the Delawares in Canada (where a powerful revi~al was experienced in 1887); one station among the Delawares in Kansas (which mission is subject to constant petty persecutions, and is gradually dying out); two stations among the Cherokees in the Indian Territory-in all, four stations, with 381 souls, under the care of the missionaries. But in that year, 1889, a new mission was begun among the so-called" Mission" Indians of Southern California, thus called from the former nominal connection of these tribes with the ancient Romish missions in that country. This mission was christened the " Ramona Mission," because Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson's " Ra~" was the principal agent in drawing the attention of the country to them.
In the REVIEW for February, 1890, in the article on the" Moravian Mission on the Kuskokwim," the Rev. William H. Weinland was mentioned as one of the pioneer missionaries to the Alaskan Eskimos. He was forced to return to the States on account of ill health, but in June of 1889 he gladly- responded to the call of the Executive Board of the Moravian Church to undertake this new mission among the spiritually neglected Indians of Southern California. It should be stated, that all the expenses of this mission are borne by the Woman's National Indian Association, and all that the Moravian Church has done thus far officially has been the supplying of the missionary.
Missionary Weinland first directed his efforts to the Indians on the Coahuila Reservation. (Coahuila: pronounced Cow-ee-ah.) After the degradation of the Alaskan Eskimos, these Indians, living in their well-built adobe houses, seemed to be quite civilized. Here, in the reservation schoolhouse, the Government school-teacher, Mrs.Ticknor, a Presbyterian, had, up to the time of her death, devotedlyendeavored to bring the Indians to the knowledge of Christ. Itseemed a very favorable point to begin a mission. But when a council was called, to the consternation of the missionary, and the utter surprise of the Indian agent, the Indians utterly refused to allow the missionaries to settle on their reservatiOI~. It was subsequently learned, that this sudden hostility on the part of the Indians was due to Romish Catholic influence, which had been and is opposing the new mission wherever possible.
Sadly, therefore, Mr. Weinland turned away and made his headquarters in San Jacinto, San Diego County, resolved to do itinerant missionary work among aU the" Mission" Indians. These number about 3,000 souls, living in twenty villages, scattered over San Diego and San Bernardino counties. It
TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY MAGAZINES
soon became apparent that this was impossible, and so he and his wife, up to the pI'esent time, have confined their work principally to Saboba and Potraro. .At the latter place the spiritual ground had already been broken. The Government school-teacher, Miss Sarah Morris, had, with great devotion, in addition to her regular work, opened a Sunday-school, and has since assisted the missionaries faithfully.
The greatest difficulty has been experienced in securing the right to erect mission buildings. The titles to property are very insecure and uncertain, and the Indians are exceedingly suspicious of all papers, having learned by sad experience that the signing of papers with white men has often'resulted disastrously to them. Finally, however, in December, 1889, the necessary land was secured, and, at last accounts, the logs for the missionary home were being hauled.
But in the meantime the missionary was not idle. The three languages used are the native Indian, the English, and especially the Spanish. Preaching as best he could, either directly or by means of an interpreter, he strove to bring home to these Indians the glad tidings of a Redeemer. And wonderfully has the Lord blessed the message of his servant. On October 24, 1889, he was permitted to baptize twenty-seven children and young persons, many of whom had been scholars in Miss Morris' Sunday-school. At subsequent meetings adults began to rise and ask to be brought to Christ. The missionary writes: "We tried to use our utmost discretion in selecting these candidates for baptism, and, as'later experiences have proved, the baptism of these persons was the best step which we could possibly have taken at that critical time, for it gave us a hold upon the people, which others (presumably Romish Catholics) were unable to wrest from us, though effort was made in that direction. "Ve at once formed all the young people of suitable age into a cl'ass for special catechetical instruction (preparatory to confirmation), and have since been adding a number of older people who desire to join our (Moravian) communion, so that by the coming (April 6, 1890,) Easter Festival we hope to have about thirty communicant members as a working force and nucleus."
Surely this is an age when the Word of the Lord at once enters the hearts of the once stolid heathen. The time of dreary waitings seems to be passing away. No sooner is the message proclaimed than eager hearts accept the glad tidings.
TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY MAGAZINES.
BY REV. CHARLES C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
" In the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church of Russia interest in missions had experienced a 4elightful increase, and a sort of Missionary House for the German colonies of Southern Russia was in course of establishment,when suddenly, by command of the sovereign, the Lutheran pastors were forbidden to hold any further missionary festivals, or to collect or send out money for missions. But what has been the result of this prohibition? This: that in many congregations where hitherto nothing has been done for missions, the people now begin to ask, What then are these missionary festivals that are not to be held? 'We have never celebrated such a one yet! That thus the indifferent are awakened. Furthermore, that' many friends of missions now feel themselves impelled to give yet more than hitherto, and, finally, that the clergy as a body have distinctly declared that missions are a command of the Lord Jesus, which is obligatory for every church and for every Christian, and which no human command can annul. They do, it is true, submit meanwhile to thewill of their Czar, but at the same time they urgently petition for a revocation of the edict, and thereby attest their conviction that missions are l).Il indefeasible duty-something which a few decades back it would have come into none of their minds to set forth."-Calwer Monatsbliitter, January, 1890.
-The Journal des Missions Evangeliques for January, 1890, in its editorial article entitled" French-speaking Protestantism and Missions," remarks: " If the nineteenth century has been the century of missions, the end of this century might be called the hour of missions. Never, in fact, since apostolic times, have the signs of the times so clearly recalled to the Church her duty toward pagan mankind. On the one hand discovery and exploration have opened new ways to every influence; on the other, European commerce and colonization, throwing themselves emulously, in all parts of the world, upon the archipelagoes or the territories lately independent, do not allow Christians to remain aoneinactive in this conquest of the heathen world; it is for the Church the hour signified by God to arise, and to take possession of the desolate heritages of the Lord. "
The Journal refers to their coming into the succession of the English work in the. Loyalty Islands. It says nothing of the odious injustice of the French Government in expelling the English missionaries, especially the Rev. Mr. Jones. The German Protestants, subjects of an almost autocratic empire, criticise with courageous freedom the attempts of their Government to push out from its territories missionaries of other nationalities. But to expect French citizens of a 80i disant republic to show either such impartiality,Or such courage, would be too much. After all they are Frenchmen still, admirable, peculiarly admirable, Christians in every other particular, but with annoyance and aggressiveness toward men of Teutonic speech, Germanor English, in their very blood.
-" Observing the attention and interest just now touching all that respects Africa, we cannot but see the hand of Providence in the events which have led us to concentrate on this continent the greater part of our efforts, and to occupy, in the whole body of evangelical labors whose object is to subdue it to Christ, several points of especial importance. Livingstone designated the great rivers which traverse this continent as the routes destined, in the mind of God, to introduce into it civilization and Christianity. Is it not a circumstance worthy of remark that among our African mission-fields there are three precisely so placed as to utilize three of these great avenues of access: the Senegal, the Congo, the Zambesi.
" Thanks to God, the work on the Zambesi, after the slow and painful beginnings familiar to all, is now entering on a phase of development very well suited to encourage our faith. The influence acquired by our missionaries over the principal chiefs, the softening effect noticeable in the customs of the Barotsis, the increasing number of pupils in the schools of our two stations of Sefula and Shesheke, and finally the conversion of a young man, first-fruits of the Zambesia Mission, all these first results of the labor of our missionaries give us sufficient assurance that in following the inner drawing which led him to the Zambesi, our brother Coillard did not deceive himself, and that God was reserving to our French-speaking churches a great work in this region.
"Our mission of the Lessuto country" [among the Basutos], "with its 17 stations, its 20 missionaries, its 111 out-stations, its 190 native helpers, its 6,543 communicants, and its 3,332 catechumens, remains as a type of that which our churches can accomplish, in the domain of missions, by the blessing of God. Weare profoundly grateful to him for the encou~agement which he does not cease to give us by means of this work, in which, however, there is no lack of embarrassments. Drawing inspiration from the great apostle who desired to bring his spiritual children to ripeness of age, and aimed only to render himself superfluous, we have been laboring for some years to endow our churches with a native pastorate which will make it practicable for our missionaries gradually to withdraw. But this apprenticeship to self-government cannot be accomplished in a day, and our native churches are the more in need of our support and direction as being so impoverished, and as being subject to the Catholic competition, which, profiting by our numerical weakness in upper Lessuto, is making serious efforts to dispute the ground with us."-J. d. M. E.
-M. Dieterlen, writing after a series of meetings in Lessuto, adverts amus- ingly to what is a very thoroughly Airican, and especially a thoroughly Basuto trait: "Anyone could speak who would, and those who would are never rare in this land of religious fluency. Apropos of this, I have heard to-day a very characteristic remark. I said to an old man: ; I am surprised that you have said nothing in all these meetings.' 'That is because M. Matille did not give me a chance,' he answered. 'Therefore I am hungry-I am not satiated.' He had been hearing no end of addresses and sermons. A European would have thought himself over head and ears in them. But no, not having himself spoken, he was hungry-he was not satisfied. That is Lessuto all over, where talking is such an enjoyment that a Basuto said in full religious assembly, 'It is so good to hear one's self talk! ' "
-The Protestant churches of French Switzerland, besides their operations in the Transvaal Republic and in the Portuguese possessions adjoining Delagoa Bay, are extending their work into the neighboring independent tribes. We give from their Bulletin Missionnaire a somewhat detailed account of the Khassa tribe, since it portrays very well the lights a~d shadows of the heathen character among these tribes of southeastern Africa, belonging, not to the negroes proper, but to the vast negroid family of the Basitus, whose various and widely diverging tribes occupy most of Africa south of the equator, although limited by the Hottentot family in the extreme south, and crossed here and there by the strange pigmy tribes, and doubtless by others. The best known hitherto of the Basitu tribes have been such as the Zulus, Basutos, Becheranas, but new tribes are all the time opening up to knowledge, belonging to the same wide family. This Khassa country has a considerable population which is interesting in many respects. Among the Gwambas of our mission, it is they who have best maintained their national character and their language. They have not yet accepted the Portuguese flag and have been the allies rather than the subjects of the redoubtable Gungunyane. By virtue of having thus alone =aintained their independence, they have a very strong organization, of which we have to take account. The king, the supreme chief of the country, has the right of life and death over his subjects. The· soil belongs to him, and no one can dispose of it without his consent. No stranger can settle in the country without having previously obtained the king's permission. But the latter never takes an important decision without having consulted his council, composed of certain ministers who dwell near him, and of provincial governors, who, bearing the official title of" Sons of the Lords," are dispersed throughout the country, where they are, according to the expression of one of them, "the king's eyes." The supreme power is now in the hands of a regent named Mavabaze, during the minority of Shangele, son and heir of Magude. Mavabaze has his villages very near our evangelist Yozefa, while Shangele resides with his mother, Nwashibugroane, a league off, not far from Lake Shoktoiya. The council of ministers has just given him a tutor in the person of his uncle, his mother's brother, who will take the charge of his education. In the same village and in some others near by live those widows of Magude who did not return to their various countries after the king's death.
The Khassas are a hospitable people, and very agreeable in their relations with strangers. The chiefs willingly accord an asylum and protection to people of the neighboring tribes who take refuge with them when in danger of death. But, on the other hand, the pagan superstitions are still very vigorous among them, and bear all their terrible fruits. Thus the belief in occult influences is uncontested, and the same Mavabaze who, while we were there, saved the lives of refugee Zulus from their pursuers, has lately massacred two of his own subjects who were accused of having cast maleficent lots. The accusation of being devoted to occult practices is a Damocles sword constantly suspended over the head of every member of the tribe, for it is enough to be ac– cused of it by an enemy to insure anyone's immediate condemnation to death. Whom does this advantage? First, the sorcerers, for people make haste toconsult them as soon as they believe ''themselves to be under these spells; and next, the king, to whom the cattle of every man put to death for witchcraft, escheat. These national customs, so profoundly rooted in the people, will constitute the essential'difficulty of the missionary work. On the other hand, I have observed with pleasure that drunkenness is much more rare there than here, and that liquors imported from Europe are generally regarded as a, bad thing. 'A good many drink, it is true, especially women; but we have seen a man and his five wives, after having indulged in intemperate habits for a good while, completely giving over the use of brandy, because theyexperienced that it did them harm. However, the maize-buyers begin to flood thecountry with liquor in payment for grain, and we observe with concern that the queen-mother is beginning to drink. Prompt and energetic action might yet stop all this, and preserve to the country its undiminished vitality.
.. It is in the midst of this interesting population that our excellent Yoze!a has been laboringfor several years. Statistics would reckon the result of his labors at zero; but we have only to. traverse the countryfor a few days in his company to be convincedthat this estimate is erroneous. He has known how to make himself loved of all, and to render himself acceptable to high and low. He is ,received with equal joy by the king and by his' humblest subject. He is on a footing' of good-fellowship with the leaders of the land, who visit him and whose visits he returns. At the moment when we arrived at Antioka with him, he had been absent about two months, and_ we could judge of the joy which all testified at his return. And yet, if he is so highlyappreciated, it is not that he compromises with their vices. Far from it; he has no sooner engaged in_ conversation with any person whatever. king, councillor or private person, but he brings it upon religious subjects; he speaks of the wrong doings of his interlocutors with an admirable courage. I have heard him in particular sharply reprimand the king for his belief in witchcraft" and make a pressing appeal to his conscience, to which the king has had no answer to make. Certain religious notions begin to have some influence everywhere-that of the last judgment, for example. Thus, one day that we were examining the country, we were accosted by thi-ee young people, who began to inquire into our business. .As Yozefa was speaking to them of my intention of settling among them, the face of one of them all at once lighted up, and he exclaimed: 'Then we shall not be burned; we shall have a misSionary!' This idea of the eternal fire pursues Mavabaze also, for during Yozefa'sabsence he again and again asked the wife of the latter if he should be bUl'11ed also.
"On arriving home Yozefa has had the joy of being able to show a palpable result of his work. During his absence nine women have been converted at Cossine, a day's journey down the riverfrom Antioka. These, with another woman converted some time ago in the same village, form the first fruits of the harvest of Khassa. "- M. Grandjean writes from another region: "Our evangelizing tours would be easy if we had solid ground to walk on, but the sand is very fatiguing. On arriving at a village, we begin by demanding of the chief of the district permission to speak of the things of God. It is generally granted if the people are sober, but very often they have been drinking and will not listen to what we have to say to them. On some Sundays our people have been repulsed from two places before they were allowed to speak. One da.y, when I was with them, we were received in this manner in a village. I wanted to persist, but the men of the village assumed so menacing an attitude that we had to leave the enclosure. ,Ve then stopped under the burning sun, on the other side of the thorn hedge surrounding the village, and began to sing one of our hymns. A large number of women and of young people came aJ;ld grouped themselves around us, and the work of God went on, while, inside the village, Satan reigned full master.
"Butif we are sometimes ill received, most commouly it is otherwise. Permission obtained, we establish ourselves in the shade of an oukoukhlou, a dense evergreen tree, of which there is one in the centre of almost every village. The people gather around us, and we evangelize them as much by our hymns as by our words, for they love much to hear us sing. It is always a critical moment when, after an address, 'there is a transition to prayer, especially if the one in charge requires them to kneel. They then begin to nudge one another, to make ridiculous remarks; little by little, they are seized with an inextinguishable fit of silly laughter, and it is a chance if they do not literally roll on the ground.
"I have once beheld such a scene of hilarity preceded by a general stampede of all the urchins, who foreboded something mysterious. I have more than once heard an individual exclaim, with a sigh of relief, after prayer, 'Ri sele,' i.e., 'Fair weather again.' It is not after a first nor a second visit to a village that we can expect conversions. We ought to have a more considerable nucleus of Christians than we have here, and to be able to divide them into groups, in such a way as that some villages might have gospel preaching Sunday after Sunday. For the moment our evangelization is still far too sporadic to afford hope of satisfying results. But we hope that the seed is dropping into some hearts, and pray God that he will do by His spirit what we cannot do by our word.
" If one from Switzerland should come to visit our native churches, he would be, I doubt not, not a little surprised to find how far our Christians are from answering the idea entertained in Europe. In some places at home people imagine that the Christian negroes are angels-that theyadoJ:e their missionaries. But they forget what are the works of the fiesh in a young church composed of members that have come out of heathenism and the deepest degradation.
" Our most sincere and faithful Christians have to sustain, in order to persevere in the good way, a daily and desperate strife against the pagan infiuence of their environment and of their own hearts. Then a great number accept the gospel simply as a doctrine and as a system of outward usages. But, despite the evil which is found in our churches, we are happy to note the powerful action of the gospel, and we can not but admire the love and the patience of God in this work of elevation whose steps of progress are so slow."
-The Evangelisch-Lutherisches Missions Blatt for January, 1890, begins with these New Year's thoughts: "Immanuel; God be with us! This is our New Year's greeting to our beloved readers. In the midstream of the fleeting ages stands this immovable rock, ' God with us,' as our sure refuge. If He, the source of all goods and gifts, conjoins himself with our poverty, what'a fullness of blessing then streams down upon us; his eternity gives to our brief duration of life an eternal worth, his righteousness covers our sin, his strength helps our weakness to stand, his life consumes our death-Immanuel! How consoling, at the portal of the new year, is the wealth of meaning in this name for all whose heart is in missiolls! Indeed, he has appended this name as his signature ben~ath his Great Commission; for what is the premise, 'Behold, I am with yent all the days, even unto the end of the world,' except an amplified explication of the name Immanuel? God with us and our work! What lleed we have of this comfort! The longer one works in missions, the greater appears to him the task imposed upon them, and the higher the towering difficulties of this work seem often to rise. Doubtless, in the last decade, in the various missions, a considerable number of heathen has been converted. But this increase is counted by thou- sands, while the great mass of heathen peoples is yearly increasing by millions.
Undoubtedly in this last decade Christian missions have, in the lands of the heathen, made victorious progress, but just in these last years has the reinforced opposition of Mohammedanism in Africa and the united opposition of the heathen in India, risen to withstand them; nay, even Buddhism in Japan and Ceylon appears minded to gather its strength for new conflict. And when, even out of the midst of the elder Christendom, many anxious apprehensions find a voice concerning the decrease of Christian faith and life, this decline cannot fail to lame the missionary activity of the church. Looking at these facts and at ourselves, we have no guarantee of success. Where do we find it? ill the name and Amen (Namen und Amen) of Immanuel. Is He with us in our work?
Then it mUilt succeed. On his banner Victory never fails to perch."
GENli:.RAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
n.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
Student Volunteer Movement for Poreign Miss}ons.
The time is drawing near when men unteer Movement. He not only took who are in our colleges and seminaries exception to the method of its use, but will be making plans for the summer. expressed the opinion that he could Many, perchance, who hope to be in :find no sufficient reason for its exist- active work in a few years are asking ence. En passant, Mr. Dechont is not themselves the question, How can I a volunteer. The spirited discussion aid the world's evangelization now? which followed the reading of this Last summer Messrs. Bond and McCall paper showed a division of opinion reported as a result of fifty-two meet- among the delegates on the pledge ings, held principally in New York question. Before adjournment, the State, $6,000 pledged, and thirteen house called on Mr. Robert P. Wilder, volunteers secured. Mr. A. N. O'Brien, of Union Theological Seminary, toex- in the summer of '88, devoted four press his opinion on the subject of the weeks in visiting colleges, and secured pledge. This gentleman gave con- sixty-seven volunteers. The latter vincing proof for its raison d'etre. In gentleman, when asked what he con- his line of argument he began with an sidered requisites for this phase of the appeal to the individual, urging that work, replied: First, an earnest con- men ought to take a stand during the viction of the needs of the field; sec- college course, or early in the seminary Qnd, a knowledge of what the Scrip- course, in order that adequate prepar- tures reveal of God's will in regard to ation be made for effective work in the evangelization of the world; third, the foreign fields. "The pledge," Mr.
personal need of humility and the Wilbur said, "indicated that a decis- presence of God. What has been ac- ion had been made, and it showed to complished in the instances given is one's fellow-men that the man had sufficient indication of what may be taken a definite stand; secondly, in done in the same line of effort this working for recruits, a pledged man coming vacation. There are good can say, Come, whereas a non-pledged fields open for the efforts of many man can only say, Go." Hethengave who will work in dead earnest, whose a brief account of the marvellous hearts the Lord has touched. missionary interest awakened in the Volunteers, who were privileged to universities in England and in Scot- attend the Central District Inter- land in 1885, and stated how that Seminary Missionary Alliance at movement had not been conserved, Chester, Pa., Feb. 27-28, will remem- for the reason that men had not com- ber the occasion with gratitude and mitted themselves to writing, and thanksgiving. About fifty delegates, without names it had been impossible representing nine theological semi- to follow up and utilize the interest naries from the four States, New York, already awakened. "The very exist- New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Dela- ence of' The Student Volunteer Move- ware, were present. The meetings ment,''' continued the speaker, "is were held in the First Baptist Church, due to the pledge which has been the of Chester. bond binding us together, and without After the address of welcome a it there could have been no move- paper was read by Mr. A. S. Dechont, ment."
of the Reformed Theological Semi- The Rev. H. Grattan Guinness, nary, Lancaster, Pa. His theme was F. R. S., of London, Eng., who estab- " Scope and Purposes of our Annual lished and is at the head of Harley Convention." The gentleman took House, the most successful missionary occasion to state his views regarding training school in the world, held on the pledge used by The Student Vol- Friday morning a question drawer. Questions answered covered a wide personal, and moved the men present range of inquiry. Many of them con- -more that that, he gave tone to much cerned Mrica, in which field Mr. that was said afterwards. The dis- Guinness has especial interest. To the cussion which immediately followed question, Is there any greater need in this address clearly indicated that· Mrica than in Mexico for missionary men had been stirred. No word of effort? he replied, "There is a glimmer adverse criticism was offered, but.
of light in Mexico; in the heart of the remarks made conveyed appreci- Mrica there is absolute darkness." ation of the address and gratitude "Can a minister who has not a good for the personal influence of the excuse for staying at home, ask an- speaker.
other to go?" queried some one, and A marked feature of this conference the reply was a most emphatic "No." was its true devotional character. In Space does not admit of a full state- almost all of the discussions there was.
ment of the significance of the Sec- a noticeable absence of the polemical ond Probation theory in its bearing on spirit. The meeting for volunteers foreign missions, but a few sentences will be remembered by many for all will show the drift of the speaker's time. Several present were about to views: "I am not prepared to say depart for foreign lands, and the that the Divine Spirit may not work prayers offered from that little circle without human instrumentality. In were most deeply- heart-felt. In Oriental countries, missionaries have things spiritual we cannot estimate found men so near' the Kingdom of results as in matters temporal. We God,' that the Gospel message has hardly dare even to gauge influences, found almost immediate response. • for "eye hath not seen nor ear heard."
But, as a matter of fact, we find sin We know by the working of the Holy almost as universal as conscience." Spirit that there is much good in the The most notable address of the secret of His presence which He alone conference was delivered on Friday sees. Two men decided to go into the afternoon by Mr. Robert P. Wilder, foreign field the last day of the con- and was entitled "Missionary Enthu- ference. The testimonies which were siasm, How Obtained and Preserved." made at the final meeting were brief, A request has already been made that direct and honest, and they manifested this address be printed and put in the a desire and a determination on the hands of every volunteer. Mr.Wilder part of many to live in the future spoke in his usual earnest, persuasive lives nearer to the Master.
and convincing way. His appeal was MAX WOOD MOORHEAD.
Notes on Afrioa., by our Oorrespondent, Rev. James Johnston, England.
-The English Wesleyans and the commissioners, the publicity of the Indian Missionaries. The Wesleyan inquiry, and the limitation of the dis- Foreign Missions Committee met re- cussion to the points originally raised cently to re-open the question of Dr. in his paper. The committee decided Lunn's charges against their represen- to request the attendance of a deputatatives in India. The Rev. H. P. tion in April next from the Indian Hughes, editor of the Methodist Times, field, and also Dr. Lunn and Mr. expressed by letter his regret that so Hughes, to confer upon the question much persOnal bitterness had been in council with their own members. shown in the controversy and of his The entire Methodist fraternity, many unsuccessful endeavors to pacify the of whom are weary of the strife, Indian brethren. To effect an amic- earnestly anticipate a satisfactory able settlement, he recommended the settlement of a dispute which has had appointment of an impartial body of no little disturbing influence on Wesleyan Methodism at home and abroad. happy state ot things is passing away Meanwhile two of the foremost Indian under the influence ofWestern civiliza- Wesleyan missionaries, Professor Pat- tion. The leading work of the year is terson, of the Madras Christian College, based on this idea. It describes the and Professor Findlay, of the Nega- fate of a family, the young men of patam College, have sailed for Eng- which begin to doubt the wisdom of land to represent their fellow workers. the head and to think for themselves ; -Current Literature and Education disputes and divisions follow; they in India. A recent Calcutta telegram lose their good name; and finally, by states that the movement to establish an awful fate, the family dies out al- societies to diffuse cheap ,and useful together.
literature throughout India, which was -The Church Missionary Society is commenced in Calcutta last January, currently engaged in reviewing the has spread to Madras. A large repre- claims of higher education in India, sentative meeting was held in Madras and earnestly solicits funds to be de- in February, which the Rev. James voted to this cause. It is observed Johnston (a namesake of the writer that the spread of infidelity among the and gifted contributor to the MISSION- educated Hindus is alarming. The ARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD) addressed admirable educational training, by at length. He has gone to India to which they are almost inevitably de- advocate this enterprise. He referred prived of belief in the gods of their to the advantages resulting from the forefathers, exposes. them to the circulation of healthy knowledge in charms of a false science, and to skep- English and vernacular works, and tical assaults. To cope with this emer- urged the Government to give aid to gency, it is proposed to disseminate the undertaking. It was resolved by ·literature saturated with the power of the audience to form a society to pro- Gospel revelation, and the institution mote the object desired. A strong of a staff of teachers who will ex- committee, including several leading pound scriptual doctrine in the high citizens, was appointed. schools and colleges in every part of -From the last report of the Di- India. Touching this question, it has rector of Public Instruction in Bengal, been noted that the Church Missionary discouraging intelligence is given of Society which, some years back, aban- the literary spirit in that vast Presi- doned its Calcutta school, has latterly dency. He expresses the opinion that made overtures to the Presbyterians English education has little impressed with a view to co-operating with them the Bengali, having chiefly stimulated in this department. It is not long the production of Keys, and other since a venerable Indian missionary helps to students. "Philosophy," he told a freshly arrived worker that he adds, "keeps in the old groove, and himself in his youth was vehemently medicine seems trying to return to it. opposed to education by missionaries, One looks in vain for a Bengali New- whereas he was now as enthusiastic in ton, or a Bengali Faraday." its support, although not set apart to Fiction and poetry both tlouri"h in it. Says an Indian missionary: "Edu- Bengal, and works in each have largely cational work demands more real se1£- increased. Some doubt is expressed denial, courage and patience than al- whether the substance or form of In- most any other kind of missionary dian fiction has been improved by the enterprise. It is the educational mis- English occupation of the country. A sionaries who have literally to bear great change, it is remarked, has come the heat and burden of the day in over native writers in Bengal. The India, and it is very much to be re- younger generation of writers of fic- gretted that the Church which sendS'
tion is permeated with the idea that a them out to the work, and in whose service they are spending their ing a journey to Karonga, if com- strength, should show them so little· pelled. This friendly Arab has assured ;sympathy." them of his continued protection, and -Lake Tanganyika Missions. affirms that Tippoo Tib had requested Through the courtesy of the French him to defend 'the Mission, even if Livingstonian traveler, Captain Tri- fighting were inevitable.
vier, who has crossed .Africa from My friend, Captain Hore, of the Loango to Quillimane without an Tanganyika Mission, who leaves Eng- ·escort, the London Missionary Society land for Australia in April, in the in- has received news of its missionaries terest of the London Missionary S0- .at the south end of Tanganyika and ciety, purposes returnjng to Great Fwambo down to Sept. 24. The Rev. Britain early in 1891, via San Fran- D. P. Jones and Mr. Hemans write cisco and New York. While in the from Fwambo, and Messrs. A. J. United States, he desires, if practi- .Swann, A. Carson and Dr. Mather cable, to address audiences on Central from the Niumkorlo station. In the African Missions. The writer will .summer' of 1889 the outlook was so give every assistance and information perplexing that it was difficult to re- to churches and societies wishing to solve whether the Mission could be re- have the privilege of listening to this tained or its agents have to withdraw. noble pioneer and effective advocate When the August letter was penned, of missions to every color and clime.
the situation was more cheering. -The Uganda Missions. The latest "There seems," it says, "to be no native letters, received at Zanzibar reason now for anxiety on our ac- from the Victoria Nyanza, report count; we are all in capital health and that Mwanga, aid!!d by the Europeans, spirits, and in no real danger at pres- has regained the throne of Uganda.
€nt. We have all the necessaries of There was severe fighting, in which life, and every prospect of doing sub- King Kalema and his Arab allies stantial work at our new station were defeated, very few Arabs sur- (Niumkorlo)." The return of the Arab, viving the massacre which followed.
Katunda, who destroyed many natives During the fight a dhow on the lake, at Lieudwe, at the time of the build- conveying a number of leading Arabs ing of the Good News (steamer) some and a quantity of ammunition, was years ago, was under altered circum- blown up and all on board killed.
stances, a guarantee of brighter days. Uganda is now in the hands of Mwan- He admitted that the Lake Nyassa ga and the Europeans. If Mwanga's conflicts were ruining him, and hence professed zeal for Christianity is sin- he desired peace. His Arab compan- cere he Iuight, as the re-instated mon- ions he believed were anxious for arch of the finest of Central .African terms, and he begged one of the mis- . aboriginal races, assist in the suppres- sionaries to go with him to Nyassa to sion of slavery and promote the ad- negotiate an agreement. The mission- vance of civilization south and west aries despaired receiving supplies for across vast areas which Mr. Stanley a time from Zanzibar, though the Af- well describes in the title of his new rican Lakes Company anticipated that work, "The Darkest Africa." The on the completion of their new vessel East Central African party belonging (Nyassa), five months hence, they to the Church Missionary Society, would be able to dispatch relief to the headed by Mr. Douglas Hooper, and missionaries. Mr. Swann in the mean- consisting of three Cambridge gradu- time had procured a little more cloth ates, viz., Mr. G. L. Pilkington, Mr.
from Mohammed – tin – Khalfan, at G. K. Baskerville, and Mr. J. D. M.
Ujiji; which prepared them either for Cotter, sailed in February for the East staying over another season, or mak- .African coast. -West African Missions. The the Bishop's latest epistle deals with heart of the veteran Crowther would be gladdened by the embarkation in the farce of the late Sultan's proclama-· the Lagos (s.s.) Feb. 15, at Liverpool, of the iron church which is to ~c tion, granting liberty to slaves and place an old wooden one at Bonny, which had become unsafe for worship. slave-born according to defined stipu- This new edifice which, like its predecessor, will be named St. Clement's, lations. On this he says: is intended mainly for the use of the "Last year we were rejoiced to hear that a· English-speaking merchants and their workpeople in the Bonny River. The great advance was to be made towards the total cost pf the building, including abolition of slavery in Zanzibar dominions. freight, is £430. Among the mission- Proclamations were to be issued thatall slaves ary heroes of the 19th century the imported after November 1 of last year were colored Bishop of Sierra Leone and the to be free, and that all children born within Lower Niger will fill a shining place. the Sultan's dominions after January 1 of this year would be born free. The first proclama- -Bishop Smythies and Slavery at tion was issued, but only remained posted up Zanzibar. Grief, and griefonly, must in Zanzibar a very short time. The second be felt by the admirers of chivalrous proclamation has not been issued at all. devotion in the mission fields on learn- Practically no action has been taken upon ing that Bishop Smythies, of the Uni· either, and we have every reason to fear, t<> versities'Mission, sailed from Zanzibar our bitter disappointment, that these prom- ises are entirely illusory, and are likely to· F, ::>. 26 for Aden, en route for Britain. remain a dead letter, in spite of urgent rep- resentations on the part of the English Gov- The imrp,pid Bish~ has been seized ernment and its representatives in Zanzibar. " with persistent fever, and it is feared he may not be able to return for If the good impressions which the some time, if at all, to this trying sphere of missionary operations. With new Sultan of Zanzibar has made by his accustomed straightforwardness releasing untried prisoners and taking counsel in matters of importance be continued, it will inspire hope that the humane edicts will be promul- gated. It is matter for rejoicing that· her Majesty's Consul General isColonel Euan-Smith, and Sir John Kirk the Sultan's Envoy at the Congress now'
in session at Brussels.
Aftica.-Kaffraria. Letters have interest that many of the people have taken in these meetings." Under date· been received by the Foreign Mission of Oct. 4, he says: "I have again the pleasure of informing you that several Secretary from the Rev. Alexander more individuals were admitted to the candidates' class this week. Not only Welsh, Emgwali, stating that a re- is there a large number of young peo- ple among the converts, but there are markable work of grace has appeared several elderly people, who seemed to be hardened against the gospel; they among the people at that station. The also have been arrested, and brought to the feet of Jesus." And on the people trace the awakening to the 11th: "I have again the pleasure of informing you that ten individuals week of prayer observed in February. were admitted to the candidates' class this week, on professing conversion. Under date Sept. 27, Mr. Welsh There are about 150 in the class now."
writes: "I have much pleasure in in- -We are always gratified by the forming you that over 100 persons have been admitted to the candidates' public recognition of woman's ability, dass here within the last three months on profession of conversion to God. and the following, in regard to a medi-· The great majority of these are young men and young women. For several cal woman and a former missionary, years we have labored, and looked for the conversion of the young people is especially appreciated: in the district, and now God has granted us a reaping time, and the joy Miss JaneWaterston, M. D., a Scotch. that accompanies it. Special meetings have been held in the ch,urch and the lady, has had quite an experience. girls' school, as well as at all the villages throughout the district. It has The daughter of a prominent citizE'll,. been very pleasing to see the hearty in disregard of the opinions then prev- rest upon the assembly and guide and alent among persons of the social bless all their deliberations. '
rank of her family, and against the There hasbeennoprevious timeinthe wishes of friends, devoted herself to history of missions in China when such missionary work. She went to the a conference could be held so oppor- Lovedale Institution in South Africa, tunely. There is a wide and general and conducted the girls' department preparedness for conference on great with great success. Desiring to be a and important interests connected physician, she returned home, and with the progress of the Redeemer's passed the preliminary examinations. Kingdom among this people. There is Scottish universities were then closed a large amount of experience in the against lady physicians, but in London methods and plans and purposes of she received her degree, and went to mission work which should be pre- Brussels, and passed "avec grande" sented for consideration and tabulated distinction. She immediately offered and utilized. The preparation of herself to the Livingstonia Mission, and papers in which the review of the did medical and educational work on work already done will be presented, the shores of Lake Nyassa. Her health and the survey of the work yet to be giving out, she returned to Lovedale performed will be sketched, is com- and engaged in private medical prac- mitted to a large number of capable tice, but her work so increased she hands, and will be efficiently done.
removed to a wider field in Cape The programme of subjects, as will Town. be seen from the following summary -The Cape Town News of Sept. 14, of them, covers the whole field of reporting the ceremonial of conferring Christian work in all its departments degrees by the University, the Vice- and ramifications. The first day will Chancellor presiding, said: "Dr. Jane be occupied with the sermon and the E. Waterston, Doctor of Medicine in organization of the conference. The the University of Brussels, allow me second day will be given to the Bible to say that your long services to the work as connected with the perfecting cause of education, especially in the the translations of the Scriptures, education of native girls at Lovedale, and their sale and circulation. On the in connection with my department, third daywill be considered the quali- and your services as medical officer of ficationsand preparations of Inission- the Free Church Mission at Lake Ny- aries and the methods and means of assa, have fully entitled you to any reaching the people. The fourth day privilege this University can bestow." will be given to the consideration of While Miss Waterston is devoted to women's work in its several methods her practice, yet she has never lost her of schools, visitation from house to interest in the missionary work. house, and the training of Bible J. T. GRACEY, D.D. women. On the fifth day the confer- China.-The readers of the RE- ence will consider the plans and re- VIEW will be interested in knowing of sults of medical missionary work, and the General Missionary Conference of institutions for the blind, deaf and which is to be held in Shanghai, dumb, and of refuges for the opium China, in May, 1890. The sessions of victims. On the sixth, the method of the conference commence on the 7th instructing inquirers; fellowship and of May, and continue for ten succes- methods of discipline of members; sive days~ All friends of missions cultivating piety and aggressive work should bear this meeting of the Chris- on the part of native Christians; self- tian workers in this large empire in support of churches and voluntary ef- mind, and make it a subject of special forts for the salvation of their fellow prayer, that the Spirit of the Lord may men. The seventh day will be given to the consideration of educational ili- ing that the secretaries of the principal missionary societies in London anstitutions, and raising up trained and nounce that their respective Board,; have unanimouslydetermined to maineducated native workers and assist- tain, with slight modification, existing methods of finance, government, and ants in all departments of Christian general policy.-Our Correspondent.
work. On the eighth day literature A Notable Testimony to a Missionary.
will engage the attention of the mem- [The following address was presented to Rev_ lIIr. Anderson on the completion of the bers connected with the preparation fiftieth year of his service as a missionary. He is still full of missionary fire and fervor, of school and text books, scientific and longs to be young, to give another life to the service.-A. T. P.] terminology, Christian literature, DEAR MR. ANDERSON-Fifty years Christian newspapers – and current having elapsed since you first left this country for work in the Mission field, Chinese literature. The ninth day will the Foreign Mission Board desire to congratulate you, and to express our be given to the important subject of thankfulness to God that you have been spared to labor so many years. comity in Mission work, and its rela- We recall with no ordinary interest and satisfaction the work that you tion to the Chinese government. The have been privileged to do, first in Jamaica, alld then in Calabar, not tenth and last day will be fully occu- only with your living voice, but also with your pen. You can look back pied in hearing the statistics of the upon the time when the darkness was unbroken in Calabar, and the people work for the thirteen years since the were sunk in idolatry and its abomina- tions. You now see the people enlast conference, and the openings and lightened, education advancing, and many gathered into the fellowship facilities for work among aboriginal of the church; and you have the un- speakable happiness of being able to tribes and bord&' lands. say that your labors have been owned of God as one of the agencies in bring- The request of the Committee of ing about the blessed change. We recall also how much you have done Arrangements will be favorably con- on the occasion of your visits to the homeland in the way of keeping alive sidered and acted upon by all who the interest of the Church in the Cala- -bar Mission field, and calling forth read these lines: "The Committee in- the gifts and prayers of the people on its behalf. vite all who are interested in the We rejoice that, even after so long progress of Christianity in China to and trying a service, you are still favored with a remarkable measure engage in frequent and earnest of health and strength, and we earn- estly trust that, though no longer laprayer that this gathering of Chris- boring in the field itself, you may be spared for a season to plead the claims tian workers, coming together in the of the people among whom you have lived so long, and who are so dear to name of the Master and seeking His benediction, may receive rich spiritual blessings and give an impulse that will be wide and lasting to every form of Christian _effort in this mighty Em- pire." A. P. HAPPER.
Eng-land.-Foreign Missionary Incomes. The incessant fire of criti- cism to which foreign missions have been subjected of late has not lessened their revenues. In the neweditionof the Directory of the Metropolitan Charities ()f London, Mr. Howe estimates the an- nual income for 1889 of the 23 foreign missions established in London, at £982,334, besides' £207,482, the prob- able return of 13 "Home and Foreign"
missions. This indicates an increase ()f £139,227 over the revenue of 1888.
On the other hand, the receipts of the 54 exclusively home missions have fallen from £649,851 to £617,361. With so gratifying a report in reference to the" sinews of war," it is not surprisyou by many tender ties, so that you meetings are attended by well-dressed, may have the satisfaction of knowing intelligent men and women,thegreater that you are still working on their be- number being young men. This is a half, and securing for them a still remarkable sign of the times, and larger share of the sympathy and aid one that cannot be over-estimated. At of the Church. We trust that your Marseilles, at Lyons, and in other mantle may fall on the younger men cities, the same interest is found. who are now in the field, and that you In one of the suburbs of Lyons, for may be cheered during your declining example, is a Fraternal Society of 130 years by tidings reaching you from yoUIig men, who meet weekly in the time to time of multitudes of the dark lIcAll station for instruction in {)hildren of Africa being brought to a Christian doctrine and practice. knowledge of the truth, and of those already gathered iJ;lto the Church de- The adaptability of the McAll Misvoting themselves to the service of the sion to meet every need as it presents Master, and seeking still further to itself, is one of the most striking feaextend the Gospel among their be- tures of this unique work. nighted fellow countrymen. Vnited 8tates.-In the RE- In name of the Foreign Mission VIEW for February reference is made .Board. by Dr. Ellinwood to the Moravian mission work among the Buddhists of DUNCAN MCLAREN, Chairman. Thibet. Although the mission is now JAMES BUCHANAN, Secretary. 34 years old, only 42 souls are in France. – The MeAll Mission. charge of the missionaries. The This mission to the working people of principal work must here consist in Paris and of France, which has been distributing the Scriptures and tracts, continually enlarging its field ever and these are now being studied by since it was founded by Mr. McAll the Lamas themselves in their monasamong the Communists of Belleville teries. The Lord must eventually immediately after the suppression of bless this work. the Co=une, has proved by its flexibility and its wonderful power of fit- The Moravians also have charge ting means to ends, to be admirably of a hospital there, in which large adapted to meet that reaction toward numbers of patients are treated. Their religious belief which is at present so main hope lay, however, in their marked a feature in French thought. schools, because many were. willing While even the secular press is notic- to come in order to learn English. ing the decline in materialism and But these met· with great opposition, skepticism, the new interest in religion and the work was exceedingly dis- -any religion, be it Buddhism, or couraging. Suddenly a change has Islamism, or Christianity-which is taken place, and it seems as if the felt .in intelligent and intellectual means were at hand to at last bring circles, we find those stations of the the Gospel more directly to the people. McAll Mission which are in the centre The hand of the Lord certainly seems of Paris crowded by a different class to be in this move on the part of the of peoplefrom those who first attended rulers of the people. We append the these meetings, and who still frequent latest news from this station as conthe halls in the faubourgs. In the tained in the last letter from Mission- Latin quarter a good number of stu- ary Karl Marx, under date of Nov. 1, dents attend the meetings, and in the 1889, printed in substance in The large Salle New York on the Rue Moravian of Jan. 15, 1890: Rivoli, a hall entirely supported in all its varied activities by the ladies of the "The latest intelligence from Leh in the New York McAll Auxiliary, the daily Himalaya Mission is of an encouraging nature. The ruler of the Province of Ladak, called the 'Vizier, has lately discovered, to his chagrin, that the inhabitants of the district in which
MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE FROM ALL PARTS
Leh is situated are much behind those of other people and explained matters to them, this· districts tn education. In order to remedy feeling of suspicion gradually wore away, and this defect he promulgated a decree that from when the ruler sent out policemen to look up every family tn Leh and the neighborhood, the children, they began to attend, so that by where there is more than one child, at least last accounts they had a very large number of one child must be sent to school, and betng day scholars at that station. The routine of satisfied that the Moravian lI1ission School is instruction embraces the Thibetan, Urdu, and the best tn the town, he decided upon having English languages, and a portion of the time them sent there. When this decree was first each day is devoted to religious and Biblical published all sorts of rumors circulated lessons. The missionaries have wisely left among the people. Some parents thought it attendance at' the religious instrnction was a plan to kidnap their children, that they optional. At first many absented themselves might be sent to England, and there com· during this hour, but gradually the number' pelled to become Christians ; others suggested who attend tncreases. By last accounts there that the latent object was to tratn them for are sixty present daily. Truly our brethren porters, to cross the mountatns and carry and sisters in the Home Churches should bear' packages from one part of country to another, this mark on their hearts before the Lord or at least, some surreptitious plan by which beseeching Him to open the hearts of this they might be induced to become Christians. stolid people to receive the Word of the In consequence of these rumors the decree of Gospel, that it may prove itself the power of' the Vizier was, at first, silently ignored, or God unto the salvation of many souls there." disobeyed; but as the missionaries visited the -(Rev.) Paul de Schweinitz.
I1I.-MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE FROM ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD-FIELD.
China. showers and favoring breezes. The annual going forth of these tnfiuences is coincident THE WORSHIP OF HEAVEN BY THE EMPEROR. with the commencement of the return of the snn from its southern decltnation. at the time [Though long, this descriptive letter from of the winter solstice, on the 21st of our our correspondent, Dr. Happer, will be read December. This betng, according to their with interest.-Ens.] system of nature, the commencement of the' going forth of the power ofprod,!ction of the Canton, Dec. 21, 1889. male principle tn nature, of which heaven is. DEAR EnITORs:-This date, designated the the head, this day is chosen for the time of the winter solstice, is noticed in some way in all special worship of heaven by the Emperor of lands. It is the shortest day of the year. It China. It is appotnted as an observance of the marks the time when the sun, having reached state religion of China; all the ceremonies, the farthest point in its southern decltnation, offerings, worship, prayers, hymns and sacribegins to return towards the north. . But in no fices connected with it are prescribed in a nation has this natural phenomenon such a ritual which forms a part of the statutes of significance, and so important an observance, the Empire. as in China. It is the time of one of the most imposing religious services tn the world. It is The worship is performed at the altar the day on which the Emperor of China, asthe erected by the Government for this special high priest of the people, worships heaven as worship. It is situated tn a park, which is the patron god of Chtna. This observance of located tn the southeastern part of the city of the day is connected with the state religion of Pektng, and which comprises some 500 acres Of China, which is a system of nature worship, ground. The altar is made of marble. This. or a worship of the objects of nature as the park is surrounded by a brick wall, and it is sonrce of the blessings which men derive divided tnto three divisions by brick walls, from them. Heaven, as the greatest object in running north and south. The southern part the world of matter, is regarded with the of the eastern division is the site of the altar highest reverence, and as the object from at which the worship is offered at the wtnter' which a great portion of the blessings of life solstice. In the northern part of this eastern comes, heaven is the object of special worship. division was built the imposing buildtng which This day, betng selected as the time for was burnt by lightning in September, 1889, at special worship by the Emperor, is connected which prayer is offered tn the spring for a with the system of natural philosophy which fruitful season. is believed among this people. It is held by them that there is a male and female principle The altar is a structure of a peculiar' in nature, by which all natural thtngs are character. There is, so far as I know, no other produced and in1luenced. Heaven is regarded one like it. It is circular in shape, and consistsas the head representative of the male of three successive platforms, the higher one principle, while earth is regarded as the head placed on the lower one. The first platform is, of the female principle. From heaven all 210 feet tn diameter, and is niue.feet above tha productive infinences proceed, as heat, fruitful .ground. The second one, placed on the top of the secondary objects of worship. On the the lowest one, is 150 feet in diameter, and the east side are placed the tablets of the sun, third platform, erected on the second one- stars and planets; on the west side of the nine feet higher than the second one-is 80 feet altar are tablets of the moon, clouds, rain, in diameter and Z7 feet above the ground. thunder and wind, in their respective tents. Each platform is surrounded by a marble There is also, on the middle terrace, a tent of open work railing, except where the stairways yellow silk, which is the imperial robing tent. are placed. Of these there are four, one from each point of the compass, and they continue In front of the Tablet of Heaven are placed in three successive flights of steps to the top an incense urn, two candelabra, and two vases of the altar. The altar is enclosed by two for flowers; and near the southern side of the -concentric railings of open marble work, altar is placed the table at which the ritual Bach railing having four gateways opposite prayer is read. the steps, which are for the ascent of the altar to its successive platforms. 'When the hour of service arrives. the Em· peror proceeds from his robing tent, arrayed To the south of the altar there is a furnace in robes of sky blue silk, to the place of wor- large enough for the whole carcass of an ox ship before the tablets on the highest plat- to be placed on the wood to be consumed as a form. The attendant worshipers are ar- burnt offering at the hour of worship. On the ranged in their respective pllWes, according to -outside of the railings are high poles on which their rank, on the middle and lower platforms, lanterns are suspended. Tbe time for the and on the adjoining grounds on the south- worship is at four o'clock in the morning. east and west sides of the altar to the number The Emperor goes to the park on the day of nearly two thousand. The sacrificial fire Is before. He is drawn in a carriage from the lighted to barn the whole burnt offering; the ·entrance to his palace by an elephant. On his grounds are lighted all around by lanterns; .arrival at the place he makes a tour of inspec- incense is burning in many places; the music tion to all places to see that the preparations is playing according to a programme enjoined for the grand ceremony of the morning are in in the official ritual. At the call of the master readiness. Among the places thus inspected of ceremonies. the Emperor takes his place for are the musicians' lodge, the stables in which worship, and bows three successive times the sacrificial animals are kept, the hall in before each of the nine tablets, knocking his which the sacred tablets are deposited, and head three times during each successive the buildings in which all the sacred utensils kneeling. In this worship he is accompanied are deposited. He then goes to the Hall of by the whole crowd of attendants, at the cry Fasting, where he spends the time in medita- ofthe master or-ceremonies, in their prescribed tion and fasting till he is called by the master order. The ritual prayer is read and then of ceremonies the next morning in time for burnt, that it may thus be wafted heavenward, the worship. The Emperor, when he goes to and the rolls of silk and other objects are the park, is attended by a large number of burnt in the numerous cast-iron urns that are high officials in their official dress, who find scattered about for that purpose. The differlWcommodation in various buildings in the ent parts of service are interspersed with park till the morning, when they all assemble music from the orchestra performing the preat the altar and take their respective places scribed pieces. among the worshipers. When the various ceremonies are a1l per- On the highest platform there are nine formed the Emperor retires to his robing tBnt, tents of blue silk, prepared to receive the tab- and, after resuming his usual imperial dress, lets which are to be worshiped. The principal returns first to the hall of fasting, and from one is the Tablet to Heaven, which is made of thence, in the imperial carriage, to his palace, wood, carved and gilded. It is about two and having, as the high priest of the people and as a half feet high by eight inches wide. On the the heaven-appointed ruler of China, renfront face four characters are carved: dered the appointed worship to the chief god "Imperial Heaven, Supreme Ruler." There of China. are pllWed also the tablets of eight of the ancestors of the reigning dynasty, four on one This is one of the most imposing religious side and four on the other side of the tablet to ceremonies in the world. It perhaps more heaven, according to their rank in the list of nearly resembles the ceremonies at the dediancestors. They are considered in the ritual cation of the temple by King Solomon than as the joint and equal receivers of the worship any other with which we are familiar. rendered. There are special offerings of silk, meats on trenchers, five kinds of grains, wine, A similar worship is paid to earth, as the fruits, fish, etc., spread before each tablet. A head of the female principle in nature, at the very special object placed before the tablet of summer solstice, on the 21st of June, at the heaven is a round azure gem, which, by its altar to earth, in a park on the north of Pecolor and shape, is to represent the object of l;ing, by the Emperor. When the sun bas worship. On the second platform are placed reached its farthest northern limit and begins to return south. it is supposed that the female principle in nature commences its sway. The "'ork of earth is to produce and ripen the grains and fruits which are to nourish man- the Lord and Ruler of China and all men. For kind. Hence, the summer solstice is fixed this great result we labor and pray. Will not upon as the time for the worship of earth as all readers of this statement pray yet more the co-ordinate power with heaven. earnestly that God may hasten it in its time ~ As some readers mIlS" be surprised that I Kingdoms wide that sit in darkness, should speak of earth being honored with the Grant them, Lord, the glorious light; same worship as heaven, I will quote some And from eastern coast to western, passages from Chinese authors as expressing May the morning chase the night."
their views. In the Book of Rites, which is Scotland. one of the Chinese Classics, it is said, "There- fore the Emperor sacrifices to heaven and LETTER FRoM: DR. MILLAR.
earth." A commentator on tliis passage says, Edinburgh, Jan. 22, 1890.
"Heaven has the merit of overshadowing all DR. A. T. PIERSON: things: Earth has the merit of containing all REv. AND DEAR SIR-I have just concluded a.
things. The Emperor, with heaven and earth, perusal of your article in the January number is a Trio; there/m'e, the Emperor sacrifices to of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD heaven at the round hillock, and t9. earth at entitled, "Is there to be a New Departure i~ the square pool." The" round hillock" and Missions. " I cordialIy approve of al] the sug- "square pool" are the terms by which the gestions therein made, especiaUy those bearing- altars to heaven are designated in the ritual. on the establishment of a more direct tie I quote a passage from the Chinese Classic- between the churches and the miSSionaries.
the Book of History-to show how the Classics This emboldens me to submit, for yonr s~ak of heaven as the patron god of China. approval, an idea which I 'have long enter- At page 418 of the Translation it reads thus: tained, that instead of the churches in Scotland "Great Heaven, having given this Middle being directed in their missionary operations Kingdom to the former kings, do you, our by one central board in each denomination, present sovereign, employ your virtue, effect- there should be a Mission Board in eac!.
ing a gentle harmony among the deluded peo- Presbytery, who should see that the churches.
ple, leading and urging them on. So also will in each Presbytery are doing their duty you please the former kings who received the towards extending the Gospel both at home appointment from heaven." Of another Em- and abroad.
peror it is said, "Great Heaven having re- I am a United Presbyterian, and was for garded yon with its favoring decree, suddenly fifteen years a member of the Foreign lIiission you obtained all within the four seas, and be- Board of the church. The board is composed came sovereign of the Empire, " p. 54. of one member from each Presbytery, who This worship of heaven is a part of nature sits for four years. That member is just worship which has come down from remote beginning to learn the work of the board, antiquity. All the objects in nature, as when his time expires, and, unless he is chosen heaven and earth, sun, moon and stars, moun- by some other Presbytery, he ceases to be a.
tains and seas, hills and rivers, and the member.
powers of nature, as clouds, rain, wind and Now, were there a Mission Board in every thunder, the fertility of the soil and of the Presbytery, every member of the Presbytery grains, are aU numbered amongst the objects (clerical and lay) would take his share of the of worship. While, therefore, the ceremonies work of the board, and could not fail t(} occurring on the 21st of December at Peking imbibe a missionary spirit, which he would in are a very imposing worship, yet it is a most turn communicate to the congregation he sad subject of consideration-that the ruler of represents. I have no hesitation in saying this numerous people is giving to a mere that this would lead to a greatly increased object of nature .that worship and homage interest in missions, and I believe this increased which is due to God only. "The Lord made interest would lead to Increased contributions the heavens and all things therein." They are in al] the congregations. A special hour· the work of His hands. The blessings which would be fixed in every monthly meeting of come to mankind through them, which are the Presbyteryfor the missions being taken up, many and great, really come from God, who and the churches would submit the work and created them for this very purpose. It is en- requirements of the past month.
tirely right and proper to be thankful for the I believe the Presbyteries of Edinburgh and blessings received, but the thanks should be Glasgow could easily maintain the whole given to the Creator and Preserver of these present/areign missions 0/ the United Presl>y- things which were created and which are con- . terian Church, and the other Presbyteries tinued in existence by Him for the use of man. would be free to take up other missions, or What a glorious sight it would be to see the to raise means to send out additional mission- Emperor of this numerous people stand up in aries.
his character of ruler and acknowledge the I write you thus frankly, and have to ask living and true God, the maker of heaven and you to think out and· mature the idea. If, on earth, and all the things that are in them, as considering it, you come to the conclusion·
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
that the suggestion is a sound one, I hope you put it mildly, a dislike for foreigners. Perhaps will elaborate it, and press it on the considera- not one in a hundred of them, through the tion of the whole church. interior, bas ever seen a foreigner. If their prejudices allow them to listen at all to our We want not centralization, but diffusion, message, it is, at the best, with a divided in the working out of the science of missions. attention. A missionary may be congratu- lating himself on the close attention of his Yours faithfully, audience, only to find before he gets through, J. V. WHITE MILLAR. from some remark or other, that the attention was given to some peculiarity of his personal United States. appearance or of his speech, rather than to the truth that he was uttering. Again, these WHAT IS IT TO EVANGELIZE •. PEOPLE? people have never heard one word of this gospel. In how many cases could you expect, Minneapolis, Feb. 22, 1890. in one hour's time-a longer average than Mr. DEAR EDITORS-Allow me to call attention Taylor's plan would allow-to get them t<> to what seems to be a misconception in Rev. J. grasp enough of the truth to become believers Hudson Taylor's article, "To Every Creature," in Christ? Is not the history of all mission which appeared in the February number of the work, especially in its earlier stages, a suffi· MISSIONARY REVIEW. Mr. Taylor shows how cient answer to this question? one thousand evangelists, preaching to an average of fifty families a day. could in three A truer conception, as I think, of what it is years' time reach every creature in China. to evangelize a people, is presente.d in the But to anyone who is at all acquainted with enclosed article from the Standard of January the practical work of preaching the gospel in 23 (published in Chicago), an article written a heathen land, the question at once occurs: by one who has been a missionary to the .. What is meant by •reaching every creatnre' !" Is it to tell over to them, one group Chinese for nearly forty years.* after another, the gospel story, regardless of whether they understand it and take it into I have felt the more impelled to write, their minds or not; and when you have finished because, as I most gladly acknowledge, Mr. wi:h one group, pass on to the next, and say Taylor has been honored of God in accomthat t,he work is done? This method has plishing much in the work of the gospel in been tried in some cases, and if this is all China. What he writes is, widely read and that is meant, it might, perhaps, be ad- carries great weight. The more reason then mitted that Mr. Taylor's proposition is not to gnard against misconception in a matter of quite beyond the bounds of possibility. But so great importance. is this what our Saviour meant when he commanded us to preach the gospel to every In closing, let me say that I greatly enjoy creature? Or did he not rather mean that we the MISSIONARY REVIEW, which is doing such should give to men a sufficiently intelligible good service in extending and deepening the idea of the way of salvation through Him, to interest in the supremely important work of enable them to believe on Him as their world-wide evangelization. Saviour? If this latter be true, as I think no one who reflects for a moment will hesitate Sincerely yours, to admit, then Mr. Taylor's plan would hardly WM. ASHMORE, JR. do, We m'lst remember that we are preaching * This article is too long to quote h~re.. ~t to heathen audiences. Most of them have, to treats the subject with firmness and dis~~ml' nation. Possibly we may find space for It III a future number.-Ens.
IV.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
Missionary COinity. * also have to be conceded, and if any- thing can be done to lessen these differ- BY BISHOP J. M. THOBURN, D.D., BOM' ences, and to promote f~aternal good feeling, and as far as pOSSIble, frat.ernal BAY, INDIA. co-operation, by all means let It be That it is desirable to maintain tried. But we must not forget, what friendly and fraternal relations among most persons who discuss this subjec.t do seem to forget, that the questions missionaries of all churches and so- inyol'ed are by no means new, and that a general line of policy has been cieties, will be conceded by everyone. followed in all the great mission fields That u~fq~ate d~ff~rences som~ times arIse III the mISSIOn field, WIll of the world, without, however, secur- ing the era of fraternal harmony which –;;;-;rhis article was prepared by request of t :lC many think possible, if not absolutely Calcutta Missionary Conference, but was not necessary to success. At rare intervals read owing to a postponement of the time ap· a new proposal may have been made, pointed. IiI the meantime, the manuscri~t had been promised for publication, and mentIOn of biIt in the main the discussion is carthe fact having been widely made in the papers and many inquiries having been made about It, the writer has not felt at liberty to withhold it longer from the public. J. M. T. ried on along the same old lines, and work, some of which may be briefly repeated and conspicuous failures only stated. seem to create a renewed cry for a policy which has been found weak 1. These boundary lines are very apt from the beginning. to create the difficulty which they are intended to guard against. So far from The traditional doctrine which, in keeping the missionaries apart, and outline at least, has been generallyac- thus preventing causes of disagreecepted on this subject, may be sub- ment, the very line itself becomes a stantially stated as follows: Let each fruitful source of contention. At the non-Christian country be divided into recent Missionary Conference in Lonseparate districts, and each society don, one brother, with admirable canconfine its operations to one or more of dor, admitted that his mission had sufthese, keeping rigidly within the geo- fered more trouble from disputes about graphical boundary line which en- boundary lines than from any other closes its field. This, it is thought, question. A boundary line is often a will make collisions impossible, and at very shifting quantity, and it is nearly the same time secure a division of the impossible to prevent contentions great work to be done in such a way when dealing with vast regions in as to hasten its accomplishment. In which there is no actual occupancy, the next place, let a code of inter-mis- while there is nearly always a strange sional rules be adopted, and made bind- and not verv reasonable eagerness to ing upon all missionaries, forbidding grasp as wide a territory as possible. all such lines of action as are unfra- It is by no means certain that the good ternal, and enjoining all such duties as effects which are often claimed for this Christian love and courtesy demand. policy, are at all owing to it. The in- These two propositions cover, substan- stances often cited are merely examples tially, the whole ground, although in of the wisdom and good sense of the detail, a few points might be added to parties concerned. They would almost them, but none that would affect the certainly have made the arrangements principle involved. Missionaryauthor- they did if no such rule had ever been ities in Europe and America have enacted, whereas the advocates of the generally approved both propositions, policy omit to notice that tile contenin theory at least, and both have tions over which they mourn are too usually passed unchallenged at the Dften caused, not by actual injury, but great missionary conferences held both by a trespass upon ~n imagi?ary at home and abroad. But in recent boundary line. For Instance, If a years the great mission fields of the brotherin China hears that an agent of world have been rapidly filling up, ex- another society has settled a hundred perience has been teaching many valu- miles north of him, he will naturally able lessons, missionaries have had think nothing of it, except to thank opportunities for careful and wide ob- God that another missionary has come servation, and the result is that not a to China. But if his society has drawn few thoughtful workers in all lands a line two or three hundred miles nOI th begin to doubt the wisdom of the policy and told him that aU the territory inin which so many have put their closed by that line is within his juris- diction, he at once feels that he id an trust. injured man, and protests against the The policy of assigning a separate advent of the man, for whose coming he would otherwise have felt thankful. field to each society is perfectly defensible if the object sought is solely that 2. These territorial allotments are of making a proper division of labor, unfair to those who come latest to the and at the same time occupying as mission field. We must remember that much territory as possible. In the missionary societies are constantly earlier stages of the work, and in coun- multiplying, that every few years a tries of vast extent, like Central Africa new society appears in such a field as at the present day, it is eminently wise India, and that its agents will naturalfor workers to agree upon such divis- ly look around for the most suitable ions where practicable, but the case is sphere of labor within their reach. It different when it is laid down as a fixed must puzzle them not a little to be told principle that missionaries must avoid when they reach Bombay, that ,ery one another in the interests of peace, little of India is open to them, that all and that these messengers of love must the centres of influence have been ocnot aspire to a better standard of cupied and are practically closed neighborly living than was known in against them, and that they must seek the dim twilight of the far-off era of some field which thus far has been neg- Abraham and Lot. Many practical lected by their more fortunate brethobjections to such a policy have been ren. who came earlier upon the scene. hrol1s-ht to light in the progress of the 'It will be said, no doubt, that they are painfully familiar, that good men should nevertheless go to some remote often object most strenuously to the district where no missionary is found, advent of missionaries of other sobut those who proffer this advice would cieties into regions where they them- possibly be slow to accept it if they selves are not able to give the gospel themselves were the parties concerned. to the people. One case, of many, will A man has a right to work where he illustrate what I mean. A good man can do the most good, where he be- proposed to plant a missionaryamon'Y lieves himself to be most needed, and a tribe of people who were utterly there may be reasons, perfectly clear neglected, to whom no one had' gone, and satisfactory to him, why he should and to whom no one was proposing to not go to a vacant place which is point- go, but was forbidden by some mis- ed out to him by others. The distribu- sionaries who lived at a great distance tion of workers can never be success- from the place in question, on the fully accomplished by mechanical pro- ground that their society had taken up cesses. If, for instance, another Al- the whole province in which the tribe exander Duff were to land in Calcutta, was included. The enterprise was ac- representing a new society, it would cordingly given up. The poor people be absurd to insist tha,t he must betake are still living in their darkness, and himself to some unoccupied district of the men who kept the gospel from some remote province, upon which no them, will, in all probability, be in missionary or missionary society has heaven many years, possibly genera- any claim. A strict and rigid applica- tions, before any other messenger of tion of this policy would work, not the gospel will attempt to reach those only unfairly, but almost disastrously precious souls. Let no one say that to any vigorous society which wished this is an extreme instance. It is one to enter the Indian field in strong of many, and beyond all doubt this force. rule is operating to keep the gospel 3 The custom has been for the agents from millions of people to-day. In of each society to decide for themselves fact, it is so impracticable in a country the extent of the field which they are like India, and in the nature of the to occupy. Some of them have made case must work so directly against the their selection with wisdom, while free progress of the gospel, that I do o~hers have chosen fields which they not hesitate to say that a rigid enforce- had no reasonable prospect of fullyoc- ment of the rule would put back the cupying for years, if not centuries to evangelization of India a thousand come. Experience has proved that it years.
is nearly impossible to persuade such 5. The word " occupy" is used in so men that they are grasping at more flexible a way that it often misrepre- than they can possibly reach, and sents the facts. For instance, a good hence we have inequalities of the most man, a very good man, once wrote to singular kind among what are called me that he had occupied a district con- the separate mission districts of India. taining nearly a million of people and In one small province we find seven hoped I would not enter it. The occu- societies represented, working at no pation consisted in sending a native great distance from one another, and, preacher to live in a small town, and I may add, without any serious col- preach in its bazars and the surround- lision with one another, while near at ing villages. Had there been any plan hand may be found a district four or for extension, or any resources to make five times as large, feebly occupied by extension possible, this might have one society, and jealously guarded been called an occupation in part, but against what are called the encroach- many years have since passed without ments of other missionaries. A very any vigorous attempt being made to slight study of missionary maps will occupy the field. A district is not oc- show how marked these inequalities cupied because a missionary station has are, and this evidence ought to con- been established within its borders.
vince any candid observer that the Missionaries who have lived in their policy is a practical failure in its ap- station for years have been startled to plication to India. find people living within a few miles 4. In its practical application this of their doors who had never heard the rule has tended to shut out the gospel name of Jesus Christ. What, then, from vast regions where it would shall we say of the million, or perhaps otherwise have penetrated. It will two millions, who live in other parts seem incredible to those in England of the so-called " occupied" district?
and America who so earnestly advo- I am indebted to my friend Mr.
cate this policy, and yet it is a simple Rouse for a definition of the word fact with which many of us in India "occupy," which, I think, covers the case. A blockade of a coast is never and that one society may not be able.
respected so long as it remains a paper or may not choose, to do all the work blockade. Unless war vessels are to be done. For instance, Santhals and stationed along the coast, no one pays Bengali people may live side by side. any attention to it. So with a procla- One missionary may wish to work for mation of missionary occupation. The the one people, and another for the district must be actually occupied, not other. If the s.ociety in occupancy will merely at one point, or even thrQe or do all the work well and good: let no four points, but practically through- one interfere with its agents. But if a out. That is, every man in the district tribe or a caste, or a separatepeople of ought to be able to reach a gospel mes- any kind, are wholly neglected, outside senger without walking more than ten people should certainly be permitted to miles. If there is a place twenty, come to these neglected people with the thirty, or perhaps fifty or sixty miles gospel. This is a practical question at from the mission station, which does the present time. Some are giving their not receive a visit from a gospel mes- exclusive attention to the aboriginal senger more than once a year, it tribes, some are working among low ought to be considered open to anyone caste people, while others avoid the who can actually give the gospel to the lowest castes altogether; and in the na- people. ture of the case, vast multitudes of 6. This policy annoys and harasses people in India must be overlooked, if men who love unity and concord, and this rule is rigidly enforced, or if it is seek peace and pursue it, and yet who applied as many missionaries in the are constantly put in the wrong byac- country interpret.
cusations of interference with the work 8. The rule ignores the freedom of of others. A single instance will illus- converts. As generally interpreted, it trate this point. Less than ten years assumes that all natives who become ago, an agent of a new society came to Christians within a given area, shall India, and wrote to me asking advice be assigned to the missionary working about the selection of a field for his mis- within the area in question. It is sion. He was particular in saying that taken for granted that the converts he wanted a field in which there was will do as they are told, but as a mat- no missionary. He was full of the ter of fact they are by no means al- traditional idea of not building upon ways willing to obey such directions.
other men's foundations, and anxious Anyone who has observed the course to go where Christ had not been of events in other countries ought to be named. I had some correspondence wiser than to expect that such a policy with him, and this wish seemed upper- could be enforced in a country like most in his mind all the time. After a India. In ninety-nine cases out of a year's delay, he at last fixed upon a dis- hundred, sincere converts will wish to trict in a remote part of India, contain- follow those who first bring them ing a million of people, and without any to Christ, and in ninety-nine cases Christian agency of any kind within its out of a hundred they will do better borders. He took his family and re- under the care of these persons than moved to the field of his choice, but under any others. It is said, I know, had hardly crossed the border line be- that Mr. Moody sends his converts to fore he was warned off by a mission- all the churches represented in his, ary from a distance, who assured him meetings, but Mr. Moody would not, that his society had pre-empted the and certainly could not, send his con- field in question, and in due time in- verts to churches out of sympathy tended to occupy it. The new mission- with himself. He could not, for in- ary had his eyes opened, and began to stance, send them to parties who view the policy of non-interference in would teach them as their first lesson, a new light. All over India instances that what Mr. Moody considered con- of this kind can be fouud. Men who version was a delusion, and yet, if he are loving Christians, who love peace were a missionary in Inda, and tried to and hate discord, who love all Christ's apply his evangelistic policy, he would servants and would delight to live in meet with this very difficulty. Again peace with all men, are made to ap- I must beg to protest that I am not pear transgressors, and the complaints drawing upon my imagination. Less, alleged against them are often made than twenty years ago I knew a Scotch by parties who themselves decline to minister, anxious to avoid every ap- recognize the very rule to which they pearance of what he incorrectly called appeal. sectarianism, to send the names of 7. This rule ignores the fact that forty converts of a union meeting to a '
within a given field there may be dif- clergyman in Bengal. Not the slight- ferent races, or castes, or languages, est notice was taken of the letter, and I believe that nearly everyone of the does not lead, but follows such a move- forty was utterly neglected, and in ment as this. He is told of inquirers due time drifted back into carelessness in such and such a place, goes over to' and indifference. A lesson which them, baptizes them, and organizes missionaries in all foreigncountries are them into a church. If India is ever very slow to learn is, that the humblest to be a Christian empire, similar move- converts have rights. It is for them ments will be witnessed all over this to say what their ecclesiastical affilia- vast country. But all such move- tions shall be, and if, for instance, they ments will ignore the artificial bound- chance to live within the limits of a ary lines which have been laid down field in which the missionaries tolerate by men who could not anticipate the caste, no low caste convert should be developments of the coming years. I compelled to join such a mission. It have been much perplexed by some of was recently said in print, that at this these movements myself, but some present hour there is a whole village years ago became convinced that the of inquirers inSouthern India, willing only way open to one who wished to and anxious to be baptized, but who follow where God led, was carefully are denied their right because they and conscientiously and tenderly to chance to live a very short distance nourish and,eherish every such develbeyond a boundary line which was opment of normal Christian growth. laid down long years ago by parties Missionaries everywhere should hail long since dead. These poor people, every such appearance with joy, and for reasons which they have a perfect pray that what is the exception may right to entertain, refused to go to the quickly become universal. missionaries to whom they were sent, and hence are kept in nominal heath- 10. This policy ignores the special enism, contrary to the spirit of the call which the Holy Spirit so often New Testament, and contrary to the gives to the Christian preacher. Paul spirit of Christian justice. and Silas were Spirit-led, and they planted permanent churches where· 9. This policy interferes with the they preached. If India is ever normal progress of the gospel. We brought to Christ, many successors to ought to look forward to the time when these men will yet appear. Could Christianity will free itself from the such men work in India as Paul narrow limits of the mission house and worked? It is constantly said that mission agencies, and begin to ad- Paul never built on other men's founvance over the country from heart to dations, but this policy forbids a man heart and from village to village, by to dig for his own foundation. If a steady process of normal growth. when Paul reached Philippi he had Whenever it becomes a living, indigenous Christianity, it will advance in been met by a deputation of brethren, this way. In some places we see indica- telling him that they had a monopoly tions of such advance for which we of all the foundation-Iayin~ in Greece ought to be devoutly thankful. I was and Macedonia, and directmg him to told recently that the well-known go elsewhere, he would have instantly movement among the Telugus in replied, " Not for an hour!" It is not Southern India is steadily creeping probable that India will ever see northward. It is becoming more and another Paul, but that she will see more a normal outgrowth, and it will hundreds of men of like spirit is ceradvance from heart to heart and from tain, and we should open a way for village to village on lines which no them rather than close It against them. human wisdom can either mark out or obliterate. We may as well try to Let us in the next place glance legislate against the advance of white briefly at the proposed code of interants as against the advance of a move- missional rules. Such a code, if agreed ment which is simply a normal out- upon with practical unanimity by all growth of vital Christianity. In west- the societies interested, would, no ern Rohilkhund, on perhaps a smaller doubt, be of value asa guide to young scale, a similar advance has been missionaries, and it would also greatly noted. The people have relatives or influence public opinion, which in the fellow caste men, and becoming earn- long run will be found the chief factor in settling points in controversy. But est Christians, they speak to these it is nearly certain that any attempt friends of Christ, who m turn becom- to give such rules the force of laws ing interested, wish to be Christians, will end in failure, and probably agand in this way Christianity has cross- gravate the evils which they are ined the Ganges at many points and is tended to prevent. A somewhat elabormoving westward. The missionary, or" ate code of this kind was actually the native preacher, as the case may be, adopted in the Panjab about a quarter of a century ago, but it proved a dead letter, or nearly so, from the first, and ridiculous light by being made the fre- at present seems to be unknown. A quent recipient of undignified com- code of laws cannot be effective with- plaints.
out a judiciary to expound them, and If then we are to have no code of an administrative department to en- rules and no mission boundaries, can force them. We have only to fancy a nothing at all be done to promote a civil code in India, with every plaintiff proper spirit of comity among mission- and every defendant assuming the aries? Beyond all doubt something function of advocate, judge and jury, can be done, but not on the old lines. in order to see how aLsurd it is to pro- First of all, there should be a radi- pose a code of laws which can neither cal change of policy. We should for- be officially interpreted nor enforced. eyer discard the notion that mission- This explains 'why it is that nearly all aries cannot dwell together in love attempts in this direction seem to fo- and harmony. Instead of saying. ment discord rather than allay it. How good and how pleasant it is for How could it be otherwise when both brethren to dwell apart in comity, let plaintiff and defendant attempt to us boldly and firmly maintain the pass judgment on the case in dispute? ground that it is a good and pleasant A close and faithful study of human thing for brethren to dwell and work nature will greatly assist us in con- together in amity. As a matter of sidering this question. Missionaries fact we all haye reason to know that are very much like other people, and brethren of different societies who will continue to be like other people. live and work side by side have fewer vThen any two human beings differ differences than those who live far warmly oyer any question, it is amaz- apart. We ought to be ashamed to ing how clearly each one can see his proclaim to the world that we cannot {)wn side of it and how blind he is to work side by side. In October last I the merits of the other side. As a saw Christians of the London and the matter of fact, has not the average Methodist Episcopal Societies in a com- missionary this infirmity in common mon assembly day after day, taking with other men? And if so, what council together, and waiting on God possible use is there in laying down a together, and it was impossible to dis- law for him which he will be sure to tinguish between them. How much interpret in the light of his own in- better this than to keep them separated terests? For instance, a missionary as if they belonged to separate castes! is asked to intervene in a neighbor's We need not plant our stations in the ~]uarrel, and allows his feelings to lead same towns for the mere sake of ex- him into the dispute. He is reminded hibiting our fraternal loye, but let us of a rule forbidding such meddling, no longer shun one another's presence, but at once replies, " This is a case of and thus almost ostentatiously progross injustice. I am merely helping claim to the world that we cannot live the weak," etc. Or, a discarded helper together. comes to him for service. He accepts 2. As far as possible both mission- him, and when reminded of the rule aries and converts should co-operate against such procedure, replies, "Yes, in their common work, especially in but this case does not come under that meetings for the promotion of their rule. This man is in the right," etc. spiritual life. Instead of having a It has been suggested that a com- committee of reference for the settle- mittee of reference might be appoint- ment of disputes, two or more societies ed, and that all disputed questions might have a joint committee for the might be referred to this body, but this promotion of their mutual interests.
would only be adding to the difficul- In former years the London and the ties of the case. Could such a com- Methodist 'Episcopal missionaries in mittee enforce its decisions'i' And Kumaon had such a committee. and would all missionaries be willing to the plan worked admirably. It is in- submit their cases to such a body? finitely safer for us to attempt to legis- VVould not a certain class of men al- late in the direction of practical amity, ways be ready to show special reasons than to attempt deliberately to make 'why each one's own particular case provision for the demands of future should not be sent up to such a com- discord. mittee? In important cases a refer- 3. For the correction of unfraternal €nce to such a committee might "eem conduct, and of all conduct which may fitting enough, but it is extremely be hurtful to our common cause, 'we probable that many trifling differences must, depend chiefly on the power of would be magnified by such a refer- public opinion, with now and then a €nce, and in this way a dignified com- reference to the home authorities. vVe mittee would be made t,) figure in a ""may as ,"veIl assume, once for all, that offences of some kind will come. It non-essential point of doctrine, he is has been so since the beginning, and not quite a gentlemal1, and much lesswill no doubt continue so. Some of a Christian.
these will be trival enough, but others (e) Per contra, he will not attempt will be grevious. In recent years, in to bind his helpers down to a low salary – India at least, every missionary is a for life, refusing to give them certifipublic man. Missionary opinion is a cates of character if they wishto leave, distinct and potent factor in the em- and thus virtually making them his pire, and when a man is tempted to bondmen. The Christian gentleman is do a brother a wrong, or to do himself bound to respect the rights of his a wrong, nothing will restrain him so native brethren.
much as the recollection that what he (f) He will not accept as true every does will be made public. Every mis- evil story brought to him about his sionary of moderate experience knows brethren, nor will he lend a sympa- that there is an unwritten code by thetic ear to those who speak disparag- which the missionary public will judge ingly of other missionaries. The mis- every case which comes before it, and sionary who is willing to listen to such respect for this code will powerfully talk will never fail to hear false or restrain those who might otherwise be distorted stories about his brethren.
inconsiderate. As a matter of fact the (g) He will not engage in undigni- force of this opinion has been distinctly fied disputes about trifling matters recognized of late years, and in my which are unworthy of his attention.
opinion it has done much to promote (h) He will not make himself un– good feeling among missionaries, and happy because others do not work ac– to prevent what, under other circum- cording to his ideas or methods, re- stances, might have been serious, or membering that each worker standeth even disastrous differences. or falleth to his own Master.
4. But after all, the question of peace (i.) He will not assume rights or and concord must depend very largely privileges, either of action or judg- upon the character of individual mis- ment, which he does not freely con- sionaries. Not long since a mission- cede to every other worker in the field.
ary was giving me a history of a sad This list might be extended, but it is dispute in a local church, in the course needless. It only remains to be said of which he said, "IfMr.P– had not that after all precautions have been been a Christian gentleman, he could taken we mayexpect to find ample op- have carried off most of the people and portunities for the exercise of our- have broken up the church. But he Christian forbearance. Weare not was a gentleman, and refused to inter- much better than our fathers, or much fere in any way, and in time the diffi- farther advanced than our brethren in culty was settled." If we must have Christian lands. We may expect to a code, let it contain but one rule, and see thoughtless brethren transgress at· let that rule be: Every missionary shall times, and we may expect to see sen- be a Christian gentleman. A Christian sitive brethren bring unjust accusa- gentleman will not offend in any of the tions against those who have done following particulars: them no harm, but in either case it (a) He will not meddle in a neigh- ought not to be a very serious matter bor's dispute. If asked he will act as for Christian men to bear and forbear, a peace-maker, but in no other char- and go on with their work in quietness acter. He will not even think of try- and love. Life is too short and eternity ing to profit by such a dispute byas- too near for Christian missionaries. of suming charge of one of the parties to all living men, to waste their time and it. destroy their peace by disputes about (b) He will not receive an excom- matters which in nineteen cases out of municated Christian, unless it be after twenty have no value whatever.
very satisfactory repentance and refor- A Word from Syria about the American.
mation.
(c) He will not enter a field where Bible Society.
another missionary is successfully The Syria Mission at Beirut appointworking, and try either to appropriate ed Rev. W. W. Eddy to write on their his harvest, or seize his opportunities. behalf to the Secretaries of the Ameri- In other words, he will not in any way meddle with another's work. can Bible Society. We are favored (11) He will not, however indirectly, with a copy of the letter, sent in ac- cordance with that action. The inentice another's helpers by offering debtedness of the Syria Mission to the them increased pay. If he does this under the pretense of obeying a reli- gious conviction, especially on some American Bible Society,acknowledged in this letter, but illustrates the indebt- second of April next, and to offer some appro- edness of well nigh every other Ameri- priate testimonial to him in view of his eminent can foreign mission to this same noble services to literature and science. The Sultan agency. The letter is dated January has signified his regard by presenting one of 2, 1890, at Beirut, Syria, and was read his highest decorations to honor the occasion. at the meeting of the Board of Man- Doubtless Dr. Van Dyck looks with more com- placence upon the work done by him for the .agers, March 6th, and at that very ses- American Bible Society than upon all his other sion the Board made grants of books labors, and certainly it is this work which the and funds amounting to $72,880, in- King of kings will most honor. cluding appropriations to the Presby- .. We have to thank the Society for the interterian Board of Foreign Missions, for esting and· profitable messenger which comes Bible work in the Lodiana Mission; to to us from them each month, in the shape of the American Board, for its Austria the Society's Record.
Mission; to the Missionary Society of "We thank the Soci9ty that for so many the Methodist Episcopal Church, for its years they gave us the frequent companion- ship and profitable fellowship of their repre- Sweden Mission; to the Bible Society sentative in the Levant,'the loved and lamentof France; to the Russian Bible Society, ed Dr. I. G. Bliss, to help us forward in our and to the Society's agencies in Mexico, work.
Cuba, and the Levant. .. We can but wish that in some way the The issues from the Bible House bonds which unite the Bible Society and the Syria Mission were closer and more perceptiduring the month of February were ble. We recall with pleasure the visit of Dr. 109,179volumes; issues since April 1st, Gilman, and esteemed it most conducive to this 1889,922,493 volumes. end; but such visits ought to be repeated at least once in a decade, or they fail of due in- The Syria letter reads as follows: fiuence.
"Our obligations to your Society are great .. Surely the Society should be congratuand constant. Itis the arsenal whence we draw lated, as well as thanked, for the magnificent the weapons for our spiritual confiict with the work they are permitted to do in this land of hosts of error and superstition on these old the Bible-in giving to it this past year alone battle-fields, memorable in the world's history. more than twelve million pages of the Arabic You give each warrior for Christ a sword which Scriptures-that thus they may re-sow these will not fail him in direst combat. With it we •holy fields' with the pure seed of the word, fear not to meet Moslem or nominal Christian where for centuries has flourished Satan's crop armed with weapons forged in Mecca or Rome. of tares unchecked and disastrous. Nay, more, you send us winged messengers, which we can let fiy over walls which we can- "We might tell you much to cheer you in not scale and capture citadels which we cannot your labor of love: how the colporteur who enter. visits the khans on the highways of travel, re- .. We have to thank you for the varied forms turning, has told us of groups of wayfarers in which the Arabic Bible is printed, adapted to all circumstances and wants, and for the listening nightly to the reading of the Scripexactness of its conformity to the original and tures, who then carry in their memories to the purity of its style~ so attractive to the Arab their homes treasures more precious than taste. Wben I came to Syria we had ouly a those laden upon their beasts of burden. translation made from the Vulgate, unfaithful to the original and full of grammatical errors. "We might tell you of a Bedawee youth wh() Now we have one to which we can refer when learned of Christ in a school in this city, and we wish to test the correctness of the revised visited lately his tribe in the desert east of English version. Horns, spending some time with them and de- lighting the people of his tribe by reading to .. I am writing this in a house separated by a them the stories of the Old Testament and the narrow street from the building in which Dr. poetry of the Psalms. Oh I how reluctantly Eli Smith lived, who labored so long and so they parted with him, returning to further successfully in your service, commencing the pursue his studies. immortal work of giving to theArabic-speaking races, in their own tongue, the pure word of "We might tell you how we hear of homes God. Dr. Van Dyck, whom God has honored In this city of Beirut whose inmates dare not by permitting him to carryforward and com- admit a missionary within their doors, nor plete this work, now stands at the threshold of even acknowledge his salutation before others the fiftieth year of his arrival in this land. when they meet him in the street, where the His numerous friends here, of all sects, propose Bible is read, yea, prized and believed in as the to celebrate this jubilee, which occurs on the only truth; but this will suffice.
"Ye who stretch your hands so far, and so full of blessings to your fellow-men, cease not also to stretch your hands upward to God in supplication that he may open more widely the doors for the entrance of the gospel into homes
1890.J THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS•
.and hearts in Syria, and that he may give Press, copies of the Scriptures are also multi· liberty of conscience and Qf profession of faith plying by thousands, so by the influence of the to all; that, as through the influence of the Holy Spirit may be multiplied the numbers of many schools in the land, readers are multIply- those who believe in the truth to the saving of ing by thousands from all sects, and as, by the their souls. "
V.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY REV. F. F. ELLINWOOD, D.D• .Buddhism and Christianity in Burmah Father, no helper in this world, no and Siam. Saviour for the world to come. Exist- There are three great religious forces ence is an evil to be gotten rid of.
now contending for supremacy in All desire, the purest as well as the Ceylon, Burmah, and Siam. These lowest, is to be supp~essed. The are Animism, or Devil Worship, Budd- ideal life is that which withdraws hism, and Christianity. The above from mankind and suppresses all symnamed are all known as Buddhist pathy and shrivels and destroys the countries. There is no such mingling noblest impulses of life. Buddha en- of religions as in China or Japan, and joined upon his "mendicants" to the type of Buddhism which they "wander apart like a rhinoceros," present corresponds most nearly to and to abide in silence "as a broken the original teachings of Gautama. gong;" thus theyshot4d attain Nirvana. The old Atheism is retained. No This ancient system has certainly personal God is recognized, and there is no such thing as a human soul; enjoyed fair opportunities in all the countries above named. Itwas intro- there is only a succession of thoughts duced into Ceylon at least two cenand conscious emotions. Continuity turies before Christ under the auspices of the ego after death is treated as an of royal authority. A son and a illusion; only karma, or character, re- daughter of the Indian king Ashoka mains, and that becomes the inherit- were its first missionaries. It was ance of an entirely different being. never crushed out there asin India by Southern Buddhism is a purely an overpowering Brahmanism, nor confronted by elaborate philosophies ethical system; it regards the Buddha such as it encountered in China. It as dead-his conscious existence ex- tinct. He is not a source of strength was transplanted into Burmah in the and help except by his example, his fifth century, A. D., and into Siam sacred Law, and the Sangha or Mon- and Cambodia in the seventh century. astic Order which he established. It became the state religion in Siam There is, therefore, no trust in super- and Burmah: It has for ages dominatural powers, and consequently no real prayer; there are only liturgical nated all educational ideas, such as formularies, or the expressions of they were, and regulated the national customs. t aspiration and desire. There is no Every youth in Siam is supposed to doctrine of sin in the proper sense; spend a certain time in a. monastery instead of sin there is only an untor- under priestly instruction. Princes tunate entanglement of soul with mat- have sometimes given years to mo.
tel', an inheritance of "consequences" nastic life, and notably the lathel which have come down from former of the present king. In Burmah, existences. There is throughout the children of the better class are sent universe a fatal disorder for which to the monasteries for day-school nobody in particular is respo:.!lible, instruction. In one sense Buddhism and. gods and men and beasts are impresses itself upon all things, upon simply victims of misfortune. There customs and the national thought, and is, of course, no doctrine of Provi- even upon the scenery. The archi- dence, no conception of a divine tectural curves of the pagodas seem as much a part of the country as the kindly and beneficent; even its atheism was better than the worship of malig- sweeping fronds of the fan-shaped nant spirits. It cultivated kindness. toward everything that lives; it palm, and the gentle tinkling of the mitigated the oppression of woman, stimulated intellectual activity, and temple bells is mingled with the sighs taught the equality of mankind as alike capable of enlightenment and and moans of the evening breeze. honor. It discouraged warfare and encouraged the arts of peace. But as The enormous wealth which ha.s it gave little instrnction and no spiritual help, it left the lower masses been expended upon the system in the to their fetichism; and to that they resort to the present day. Five or six distant past is indicated by many years ago the young king of Siam was compelled to rebuke, by public procla- splendid structures, which, though mation, certain superstitious customs which were working great public now in ruins and in some cases over- injury. A single example will illus- trate the cruelty of some of the usages grown by the forests, surprise the be- which widely prevailed in Siam and holder by their extent and elaborate- Laos. Any disease which leads to delirium ness. The following description, given or mental aberration is supposed to be by Bishop Titcombe, will illustrate the the work of malignant spirits who have entered into the patient at the magnificence of some of the pagodas instigation of some enemy living in the neighborhood. A" devil priest" which still remain: is therefore summoned, who, with some blunt instrument, like the point ., The Great Shway Dagone Pagoda of an elephant's tusk, prods the uncon- of Rangoon has a golden spire and scious sufferer in different parts of the jewelled top, which glitters in the sun body until a cry of pain reveals the from every point of the compass. location of the evil spirit. The next Even the terrace or platform on which question is, what relative or neighbor the pagoda is built rises over 160 feet has caused the mischief? This is, from the level roads beneath it, and is arbitrarily decided by the priest, who 960 feet long by 685 feet wide. The pronounces sentence on whom he will. ascent to this platform is by four From that moment human hope flights of steps, one opposite the cen- departs from the poor victim of his tre of each face. The pagoda itself, accusation. He is driven from his built on the centre of this immense home and possessions, to be thenceterrace or platform, has a ground cir- forth an outcast. No man is allowed cumference of 1,335 feet, and rises to to give him food or shelter, or show a height of 370 feet, which is about him any kindness; he is driven to the that of St. Paul's Cathedral in London. jungle, to subsist as best he may, or It is gilded from top tobottom, and its fall a prey to disease, or to wild beast.s. golden spire (or htee, as it is called) His family share his fate. contains at least $250,000 worth of jewels, with silver bells that are for- That devil worship prevails to an ever tinkling in the breeze. Chapels equal extent in Ceylon, is shown by a and shrines, also, of various sizes, are declaration made by Rev. S. R. Wilkins, built around this pagoda, on the plat- at the Missionary Council, in London, form of which thousands of wor- in 1888: "It is commonly reported by shipers pace during the days of high festival. Within these, hundreds of images of Gautama may be seen, of all sizes, sitting, standing and reclining, before which are continually burning tapers and &ndles. This building claims to be, and very probably is, more than two thousand years old; it is enriched by thfl supposed relics of eight hairs from the head of Gautama, besides the bathing garment, the water-dipper and walkingstaff of the three preceding Buddhas."
But how far has Buddhism over- come the spirit worship of these countries?
When first brought into contact with the old pagan superstitions, it no doubt :wrought great improvements, though it did not deliver from their bondage. In its earlier history it was those who believe in 'The Light of they are in distress th~y go to a Confu- Asia,' that the people of Ceylon are cian, or a Buddhist, or a Tauist temple, Buddhists. I say they are not. I do whichever may be most convenient, not know much of book Buddhism, or most strongly recommended, just as but I do know a very great deal of the men try a variety of nostrums for 13uddhism of the people as it is bodily ailments. The most common practiced, and I can say this, that of resort in every-day life is to the god the so-called Buddhists of Ceylon, of wealth, or to jugglers, who control ninety per cent. are demon wor- the fungshuay, or the influences of shipers. The creed of Buddha says good luck. There is no greater sham there is no God to worship, therefore in our day than the assumption that the people turn to demons, as they the masses of the people in a country have done in Ceylon. To-day the so- like China, or Siam, or Ceylon, are in called Buddhists of Ceylon are demon any intelligent sense Buddhists. The worshipers, and this is the case, not system never claimed to be an all- only with the people, but also with embracing church. It institutes a the priests. Two or three months ago holy order of monks, and they may I went out distributing tracts, and properly be called Buddhists; they· called at the house of a demon priest. profess that religion, and live by it.
I asked him, ' What is your religion?' There are general rules of life for the 'Buddhism,' he replied. I said, 'Why, laity, but they are under no organiza- you know it is quite contrary to the tion or systematic teaching; they are creed of Buddha for you to practice under no vows, or even enrollment.
those demon ceremonies.' , Yes,' he If we can imagine a Roman Catholic said, , I know it is.' , What about the country with no churches, but only Buddhiet priests,' I asked, 'do they monasteries and nunneries, with no ever preach against demon worship?' systematic instruction, or ordinances 'No,' he said, 'we go to them, too, and sacraments, not even baptism, when they are sick.' " we shall have a counterpart to a There are so many apologists of Buddhist country, in which the people Buddhism in our time who insist that receive more or less general influence at least one-third of the human race from the monks, but are left to follow are under its sway, that it seems their own popular superstitions. The necessary to present such clear state- proportions of devil worship and ments as the above from those who serpent worship are probably greater have lived in the East, and have been now than in former days, for every- careful observers of the facts. Rev. where modern Buddhism is in a state Dr. Happel', of Canton, has estimated of decline and decay.
that the Buddhists of the Chinese Bishop Bigandet of Burmah declares Empire, instead of numbering three or that: "Ignorance prevails to an ex- four hundred millions, do not exceed tent which can scarcely be imagined, seventy-five millions. Rev. Dr. Nev- and often the priests are less intelligent ius, of North China, in answer to the than the laity."
question, "What proportion of the Mr. Gilmour in his "Among the people are Buddhists?" replies that Mongols," says: " The grewt sinners in there are comparatively few, aside Mongolia are the Lamas (monks); the from the monks, who would call great centres of wickedness are the themselves by that name, if, indeed, temples."
they even knew what was meant by A Japanese Buddhist, in an address the question. The great mass are of welcome given to the Theosophist, nothing at all by self-designation; they Col. Olcott, on his arrival in Japan some have no religion whatever, except as months ago, declared that the religion occasion seems to require. When of his country is iI). a sad decline. Mr. Fukasawa, the eminent journalist It tells me by voices ever repeated, of TOKYo, has often represented the that I shall be subject to sorrow, im- system as effete. A published tract of permanence and unreality, so long as the Shin sect in Japan, says of the I exist, and yet that I cannot cease to monks: "They delude men, they de- exist for countless ages to come, as I ceive themselves; they forsake the can only attain Nirvana in the time of world, and are more worldly than a supreme Buddha. In my distress 'I. ever." ask for the sympathy of an all-wise and all-powerful friend. . • . But I Mr. Louis Liesching, an officer of am mocked instead by being told to Government in Ceylon, said at the look to Buddha, who has ceased to ex- London Missionary Conference of 1888: ist; to the Dhamma, that never was "I have never met with a Buddhist an existence; and to the Sangha, the priest who did anything for the benefit members of which are, like myself, of his fellow-creatures. Theyare men partakers of sorrow and sin." whose only care is to live in sloth and indolence, and to spend their days in Turning from the delusions of Buddgetting what they can from the people, hism and the prevailing devil worship and giving them nothing in return. we ask, what has Christianity done By the fruits of religion, religion for Burmah and Siam ? must be judged. I have been a judicial officer and a revenue officer in The history of the American Baptist Ceylon, and I can say that though Missions in Burmah constitutes one of the Buddhist professes to have such a the most thrilling romances of modregard for life that he strains even the ern times. The peculiar circumstances water he drinks, yet among no people which led Dr. Judson to Burmah, inis human life held at a lower estimate stead of India; the sufferings which than among Buddhists. Why? With were endured by him and his wife in Buddhists life is life, whether it be in the early days; the wonderful door of the form of a mosquito ora human be- entrance presented to Mr. and Mrs. ing; and to kill one is as bad as killing Boardman and others among the another. I have known a young man Karens-all these things are as housedash out the brains of his own sister, hold words among those who know in order that he might charge another even the alphabet of modern missions. who was his enemy with the crime." Even Gautama himself never ex- hibited a heroism like that of these But as there are many who, while devoted men and women. From the admitting the decline of the system beginning of his preaching as the (and Christianity, they say, has also Buddha, he was honored even by frequently declined and become cor princes. He spent his whole ministry in rupt), still maintain that the original peace among his own people and died system was ennobling, we add the an object of virtual worship. These testimony of Rev. Spence Hardy, of missionaries had forsaken country and Ceylon, as to the blighting character friends to bear an unwelcome mesof Buddhism in the very nature of its sage to the needy, to submit to privadoctrines and in its best estate. He tion and imprisonment, and disea.'!e says: ," The system of Buddha is hu- and death-not like him for their own miliating, cheerless, man-marring, glory, but for the glory of another. soul-erushing. It tells me that I am not a reality, I have no soul. It tells Whoever candidly compares the me that there is no unalloyed happi- living truths which they taught with ness, no plenitude of enjoyment, no the dismal negations of Buddhism, or perfect, unbroken peace in the pos- their lives with the lives of the monks, session pf any being whatever, from as above described, will not wonder at the highest to the lowest, in any world. the transformations which they and their successors have wrought. The
EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS
.Burmah mlSSIOns are among those been done mainly by the missions which are accounted the most fruit- of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A. ful, those at the contemplation of For many years great discouragements which all friends of Chnst's Kingdom were encountered, and among the thank God and take courage. Laos about twenty years ago a vio- lent persecution was suffered at the Witness the last annual report: hands of the king. But the last ten years have witnessed very encourag- Communicants. . . • .' . . . . . 29,952 ing success. Baptized during the year. • . • . . 1,912 Number of Churches . . • . . . . 521 The Government has uniformly Self-supporting Churches. . . . . . 377 been favorable. The young king of Total Number of Native Preachers.. 524 Siam has repeatedly uttered words of Churches and Chapels. . . . . . . 404 welcome, and even of commendation, Amount of Contributions . . . . . $46,067 and. both he and his governors of provinces have contributed material This certainly indicates a noble suc- aid toward schools and hospitals. Miscess, even statistically. But could any sionaries have been called to the highjust measurement be applied to the est positions as educators and superinmoral elevation of these Christian tendents of hospitals, and for the people as compared with the super- medical ,work especially valuable stitious masses around them, the re- properties have been given. In the sult would seem vastly greater. small Laos Mi~sion the last year has been one of great prosperity. Ovef a A prosperous work is carried on in thousand communicants are reported various parts of Burmah by the So- and about 700 pupils in schools. ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel. The Roman Catholics also claim large results.
The work in Siam and Laos has VI.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
Nicaragua and Oosta Rica. less specially favor the planting of The brief article we published in our missions both in Nicaragua and Costa March issue on Nicaragua as a prospective missionary field of the first Rica. importance, has, as we anticipated, attracted wide attention, and awakened Among the responses we have reno little interest and inquiry. We believe there was never a more prom- ceived is the following from" the isingopening for our great missionary societies to study and prepare for in only Protestant missionary in Costa the near future. The writer of that paper urged the great Presbyterian Rica," which we are sure will deeply Church to go up and possess the land, and she will disregard a loud Provi- interest our readers: dential call if she does not. But the call is to the whole American "The March number of THE MISchurch, and why should not the great SIONARY REVIEW contained an article Methodist Episcopal Missionary So- on Nicaragua, also referring to Costa ciety, and the great Baptist Mission- Rica. Having visited Nicaragua, and ary Union-both of which have some residing in Costa Rica, it occurred to special facilities and opportunities for me that a littleinformation respecting it-take hold of this enterprise? The the present condition of these repub- Hon. Warner Miller, an earnest and lics might be interesting to all Chriswarm-hearted Methodist brother, who tians, especially those interested in is President of the Nicaragua Canal aggressive Christian work. Should a ,conStruction Company, would doubt- waterway ever be made through Nicaragua, all that the writer predicts would doubtless come to pass. But whether the canal be made or not, one thing is certain: Christian mission work must be taken up in real earnest without further delay. As a result of a missionary tour to several islands and certain ports on the main land, the Jamaica Baptist Missionary So- ciety decided to commence mission work in Costa Rica. Two years have passed since we commenced the work and money for the much needed work in Port Limon, where we reside, and in these countries." which place is at rresent the centre of our operations. We hope to com- The statements of this letter abun- mence building our church very soon, although we have not enough money dantly confirm oUr previous paper. as yet to complete it. We conduct services four tImes weekly, including It cannot be that the powerful United the Sunday-school, in the largest building available. On the new rail- States, whose missionaries are going road in course of construction to San Jose, the chief city of this country, forth into .Africa, China, Burmah, we frequently hold services with the men in their camps; also among the India, Turkey and the Isles of the Sea, little settlements of people on the existing railroad. will utterly neglect these sister repub- " The condition of the people, mor- lics lying so near to us, and with whom ally considered, is of an appalling character. Drunkenness, immorality, we are seeking more intimate and. gambling, cutting and shooting, are common occurrences. .As the writer extensive commercial relations. is the only Protestant missio~ary in the Republic, you may conceive his In the Gospel in All Lands, for hands are more than full. To visit those people means a great deal of .April, the Hon. N. F; Graves has a, traveling. Bibles in English and Spanish, tracts, books and booklets, paper on "Costa Rica," which we are sold and circulated; thus the seed is being sown. While I am up coun- would like to reproduce here, but can. try my wife conducts services in the town. Our work at present is chiefly only refer to and cite a few points: with the English-speaking, of which there are many. There is a splendid Costa Rica is the most southerlyopening for Protestant preaching in republic of Central .America. It is a San Jose and towns near. .A mission- small country, containing only 26,040 ary speaking the Spanish language, square miles, and having a population possessing a clear head, a good knowl- of 210,000; but the population is now edge of human nature, a bright, genial rapidly increasing. _ disposition, a heart filled with the love of Jesus Christ, and compassion In all parts of the country except for men's souls, would soon get a good the sea-coast the climate is mild and foothold and make rapid progress. temperate. The thermometer seldom rises above eighty degrees or falls " .As far as I know there is only one below sixty-five degrees. The climate Protestant missionary in Nicaragua, of the coast is hot, but on the tableat Greytown. He is a good, faithful lands in the interior, with an elevation brother; he has recently rebuilt the of about 4,000 feet, there is an agreelittle Protestant church there, and God able climate, with moderate warm, is blessing his labors. Greytown is dry, and cool nights. Nine-tenths of an open port, enjoying religious lib- all the people live on the table-lands. erty. But outside that place there is Nearly all the people belong to the' scarcely toleration. It is gratifying to white race. It is quite different from know that the majority of the youn&" most of the other Central .American influential men of Nicaragua are agI- States. Here there is a very little of tating for, and will soon secure, the the Indian mixture and none of theboon of religious liberty. But at the negro. In the city of San Jose it is present time, one acting judiciously said that nearly nine-tenths of the could preach the gospel in private population are of pure Caucasian houses, scatter the Word of God, and blood, and you meet as many beautiful thus work on until the brighter day ladies, and as well dressed, as you do comes. The Jamaica Baptist Mission- in the Northern cities. The people of ary Society would gladly send more San Jose reside in elegant residences missionaries into these countries, but replete with not only every convenat present cannot for want of funds. ience, but every luxury. The mer- Possibly by giving these particulars chants and professional men of Costa publicly in your REVIEW, the means Rica stand high in manners as well as may be forthcoming for securing men in capacity for doing business. They appear like .Americans. Education is not so universal as in our country, but all leading families are highly edu- cated. The government is vested in a president elected for four years. The Senate is chosen, two from each province, and the representatives are elected, four from each district of ten thousand people, and alI persons who are of age and can support themselves. are voters. The schools are free, and compulsory to all children between will be" the highway of the nations," the ages of eight and fourteen. The the " gate of the world." Through it government university is at the capi- will pass, when it is completed, the tal, under the care of Dr. Juan Ferros, ships of all nations, and the peoples of who is said to be a learned man and every land and race. Not only will practical educator. He has able pro- the ships and steamers of all the ports fessors to aid him. There is a system on both sides of the American conti- of graded schools under the direction nent, from Labrador to Terra del -of the minister of education. There Fuego, and from the Straits of Magel- has been a constitutional amendment lan to Alaska, pass through this high- ;adopted which separates the Church way, but the ships of Russia, Scandi- from the State. Under that law the navia, Great Britain, Germany, monks and nuns were expelled from Austria, France, Spain, Portugal and the State, and the monasteries and Italy; of all the African and Medi- nunneries were confiscated and taken terranean ports, of all Asiatic ports, for school-houses and other public India, Burmah, China, Japan; all uses, and the power and perquisites of Australasian, Malaysian, Melanesian, the priests sUbstantially taken away. Micronesian and Polynesian ports, Still the Roman Catholic religion is the must find their way thither, for the State religion; but the constitution exchange of the world's commodities; and laws guarantee religious liberty and, either by the distribution of tracts, and toleration. pamphlets, and especially portions of the Word of God in all the languages There are no missionaries in Costa spolren by these peoples, or by the Rica. There are some Protestants in employment of colporteurs, or native the towns, and in the capital there is missionaries, to embark on all the a small chapel where services are read larger of these ships and steamers, and and hymns are sung, and I;lometimes a preach Christ to them, must these sermon is read by a layman, but there various nationalities be reached. is seldom a minister present to take part in the exercises. The English 2. It is indispensable that this move- .societies have talked of establishing a ment should be one in which all missionary station at the capital and evangelical Ohristian churches shall -<>ther places, but have not yet done have a part. The denominational so. The time has arrived when there missionary societies have accomplished should be missionary stations, and it very much towards the evangelization is believed there is a great blessing in of the world, and have been wonder- store for those who will raise the fully blessed in their labors; but here' standard of the Gospel in this land. is a point, where, by their united action, the time may be hastened, at [Since the above was written and in least by a half century, when the kingdoms of this world shall become the printer's hands, we have received the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ; and yet where no one of the the following bugle-blast from that churches may say to another, "Stand veteran and accomplished student and back, this is my field; 1 alone will writer in the missionary world, Dr. L. occupy it. " No! the sacramental host of God's elect must march forward P. Brockett, and we give it place here under the leadership of the Captain of their Salvation, for the conquest of -as a valuable and powerful indorse' not only our own great continent, but the conquest of the world for Ohrist. ment of the views expressed in the Let the advancing columns bear on their gonfalons the legend, " America article referred to.-J. M. S.] America for Christ.
DEAR DR. SHERWOOD: I was very much interested-as who that loves the cause of missions was not-in the <:ommurucation, in the March MISSION- ARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD, entitled .. Nicaragua as a Missionary Field."
The importance of occupying some accessible point on the Nicaragua Inter-Oceanic Canal as a universal missionary station cannot be over- estimated. In a higher sense than any other point on the globe, that canal for Christ!" and, as their conquests struction Company. Nothing would become greater and greater, let them, delight him more, we are confident, at a later time, inscribe upon their than to aid in this blessed work of the banners, "The Whole World for world's evangelization. Christ I" If this work be vigorously prosecuted, while the missionary work But by whatever agencies it shall be in the various countries is pushed for- wrought out, let not this great and ward with a constantly-increasing glorious opportunity of aiding in the zeal, I, for one, do not despair of seeing subjection of the world to Christ slip the prediction of your noble colleague out of the hands of the Protestant fulfilled, namely, that in the lifetime Christians of America and Europe. of the present generation the whole Rome, desirous of retaining its hold world shall be evangelized. upon the Hispano-American races of Mexico, Central and South America, 3. Who will take the lead in this will contend against us desperately, great enterprise-the greatest ever at- but her power is waning, and she will tempted by man? If the Evangelical fight a losing battle. Infidelity will Alliance could be inspired with such seek, as in India and Japan, to overa burning zeal, as to take the com- throw us; but, with God on our side, mand of this holy crusade, they could we shall win, and then on the head of accomplish the work better than any the Captain of our Salvation shall there other organization, but I fear that be many crowns of victory. their zeal might not reach or be maintained at a white heat. Like Gideon's Dr. Pierson's Visit Abroad. army, before they were tested and sifted, they are too many, and the number While a sense of delicacy has reof the fearful, timid, boasting, and strained us from saying much in these self-indulgent in their ranks are too pages concerning the mission of our numerous. associate to Great Britain, and the impression and effect of his visit and If our dear Dr. Pierson could be labors in the cause of missions, leaving multiplied by five others, we should his letters mainly to tell the story, yet need no better human leaders; or if now that his work is done, and he has Dwight Moody collJd be spared from left for France and Italy, where he his present beneficent work, he might will remain till the last of May, we lead our armies forth to the conquest. cannot withhold the following testi- mony, alike honorable to him and to Failing these, why should not THE the grand old historic church which MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD, presented it to him through their Forundenominational as it is, and with a eign Mission Committee.-J. M. S. zeal which is born of its Christly purpose, raise its banner of "America for "At Edinburgh, the 4th day of Christ," and seek to rouse Christians March, 1890, the Foreign Mission Comof every name to undertake this great mittee of the Church of Scotland met and glorious work? "They that be and was constituted. wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn " On the motion of Dr. Pagan, the many to righteousness. as the stars for following resolution was unanimously ever and ever." agreed to: The Foreign Mission Com- mittee desire to record intheir Minutes, It seems to be providential, that at and to convey to Dr. Pierson their this very time the HONORABLEWARNER most grateful appreciation of the MILLER, a man of great energy and service which he has rendered to the executive ability, of the strictest integ- cause of missions during the time he rity, and an earnest Christian, has has been in Scotland. His powerful been called to the Presidency of this addresses and unwearying labors all Nicaragua Interoceanic Canal Con- over the land, prompted by the single desire to deepen interest in the exten- tions, and address them on the subject sion of the kingdom of Christ, have of foreign missions. And it is no ex- made an impression upon the members aggeration to say that for such a mis- of the Scottish churches, which, by the sion he has no superior. He has a blessing of God, will bear valuable knowledge of missions, wide and fruit. The Committee resolve to re- yet specific, unsurpassed by any misquest Dr. Pierson to allow them to ask sionary secretary. He has stUdied the the General Assembly that he give an problem of modern missions, as few address on missions when their annual men have, in its underlying princireport is given in. They feel assured ples, as well as in its methods and histhat if he can comply with this request, torical developments. He has grace, his presence will be most cordially fluency and readiness in speech, which welcomed, and the cause which is so any man might envy. And there is dear to him will be more effectively an earnestness, a spiritual baptism, a helped than by any other arrangement sweep and vigor of thought and a which it is in the power of the repre- power of impression in all his adsentatives of the Church of Scotland to dresses, which thrill and sway and make. captivate the immense audiences which gather to hear him wherever "Extracted/rom the Minutes 0/ the he goes. So that his peculiar fitness for this kind of work, and the mani- Committee by fest tokens of Divine favor attending "J. MACLAGAU, Secretary." it, at home and abroad, clearly indi- cate that he ought to continue it. We While on this subject, on our per- believe that if a few liberal friends of sonal responsibility, in response to missioni were to provide a support for many inquiries from individuals and him for a few years, and let him go from societies and associations, as to forth continually among the churches Dr. Pierson's public work after his re- of all denominations, it would lead to turn to the United States early in June, grand results. we feel at liberty to say this much: And still we know that Dr. Pier- While in London, during the month son has very strong leanings to the of January, he occupied the pulpit, for pastorate. As a preacher, he is no less four consecutive Sabbaths, of the interesting and superior than as Westminster Church, which has a a missionary lecturer. Our ideal seating capacity of 3,000, and is close choice for him, on the whole, if by Buckingham Palace. He subse- we were allowed to chose, would be quently received a unanimous call to this: Let some comparatively small the pastorate of this church. We be- church in some central locality call lieve as yet he has not given a formal him to be their pastor, with liberty to answer to it. We think, for family carryon to a considerable extent the reasons and for the sake of his work general work in which he is now enin his native land, he will decline the gaged. ·With his long experience and tempting offer. He is. in heart and accumulated resources, he could meet purpose, committed with us to the the ordinary demands cf such a passustaining of this organ of world-wide torate, and still find time and strength missions, believing it can be made a to respond to the most important calls powerful instrument in rousing the from the general field. Dr. Pierson church at large to feel a deeper in- has the most work in him (brain and terest in missions, and to prosecute physical) of any man we have ever them with greater zeal and determined known, and that without fatigue. We purpose. Besides, we know that he ourselves know, and have known for feels that he has a special ca11 from more than fifty years, what hard work God to go among the churches and co11eges, and seminaries and convenis and a plenty of it, and yet we have praise Him, and bringing good out of never before known such an instance evil. The " two great curses of Africa of endurance. are pitted," in His providence, "against After the above was in type we each other," and what the Christian learned that Dr. Pierson's friends in powers might not be able to do to Scotland have crowned all their acts of abate the rum ruin, the Arab slavers appreciation of him and of his eminent may accomplish. Strong ~ords were services, by appointing him to the heard in the Congress, and the action "Duff Lectureship." This Lecture- taken " to surround the entire coast of ship was founded in memory of Dr. Africa with a cordon of armed dhows, AlexanderDuff, and has been filled by and confiscate every European vessel such eminent men as Dr. William containing liquors, and sell the crews Fleming Stevenson, and Sir Monier into slavery," looks like business, and Williams. In conveying to him the business of a vigorous sort. A few fact of this appointment, the venerable such captures and confiscations would Dr. Thomson of Edinburgh says: "I strike a wholesome terror among the suppose you will have heard that the European and American traders in Duff Trustees have appointed you as this infernal traffic. We could almost their next lecturer. Nothing could be be reconciled to see the "crews sold more cordial than the appointment; into slavery" by these worse than and I may add no appointment could piratical traders. J. 11. S.
be more gratifying to myself. I hope no obstacle will be found to stand in Mission to the Chinese Blind. A the way of your acceptance of the ap- note from Miss C. F. Gordon-Cum- pointment. You have proved that, of ming, the noted traveler, and a warm all the men of the age, you are most friend of missions, calls our attention qualified to do the subject justice." to the Third Annual Report of the J. M. S. Mission to the Chinese Blind, 1889.
The Khartoum Congress has been The report consists mainly of the de- mentioned before in these columns in tails of Mr. W. H. Murray's work in connection with the Congress of Brus- China, written out by Miss Gordon sels. It is not a little remarkable, that herself. We have given heretofore while the great Christian powers are some account of Mr. Murray's system convened by their representatives to of teaching the blind, by which they deliberate and to devise means to check successfully have been able to learn to and finally overthrow the horrible read with great facility. Mr: Murray, slave traffie in Africa, the slave traders previous to this, was a colporteur of the should also assemble to the number of Scotch National Bible Society at Pe- 200 delegates to devise measures to king, and sold more than 100,000 copies suppress the traffic in liquors, which is and portions of the Bible in the Chinese sweeping Africa with the besom of and Tartar languages. He now em- destruction. While the motive of these ploys the blind in stereotyping and Mohammedan slave dealers is a purely printing the scriptures and other books.
selfish one-the terrible ravages of the The books are produced at a remark- rum trade among the native races of ably low rate. His school at Peking the country greatly diminishing the has now an average of about fourteen number of their victims, and the conse- boys, who make great proficiency.
quent profit of their own trade in IlU- Miss Gordon-Cumming makes a strong man flesh-yet the Christian world can appeal for aid, both for this boys' school but rejoice in this feature of the Khar- and a separate one for girls. The toum Congress and bid it God speed. treasurer of the Mission states that the It is another instance of a d.i.vine special appeal made in 1889 for funds power overruling the wrath of man to to start this separate school for blind
ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS
.girls, has met with a very small re- various evangelical denominations sponse, amj. it is earnestly hoped that those who recognize how excellent a have given lectures or regular instructraining school for mission workers this may prove, will not rest satisfied tion to the students since it was opened, with giving only one donation, but re- free of all charge. Two of the teachers are members of the senior class, who solve to become regular annual sub- came from the London Institute, at scribers. Subscriptions and donations the suggestion of Rev. Dr. Guinness, will be gladly received by Messrs. Honeyman & Drummond, 58 Bath who is at the head of it. One of the Street, Glasgow. lady teachers is a student who expects [In the brief mention of "Missionary to return to India, where she was a Training Schools," in our April issue missionary for some time. Another (p. 300-2,) the one at Minneapolis was lady teacher is a teacher in the city overlooked. We cheerfully supply the omission by giving the following state- high school. Three of the instructors ment from Rev. D. E. Wells, Secretary of the Board of Managers.-J. M. S.] are physicians; some of the pupils go out as medical missionaries. The Missionary Training Institute of Minneapolis. Fifteen ministers of The prospect of a large accession of students from all parts of the country is created by the correspondence with the president. Thefirst Tuesdayof each month is observed as a day offasting and prayer at the Institute. A public service in the evening is conducted .
mainly by the students in some one of the churches in the city.
VII.-ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS.
Friends Foreign Missionary Association. Statistics of Korean Mission, Jan., 1890• . Secretary: CHARLES LINNEY, Hitchin, Herts, ~ .; -d " "" ., g ~j ~ ~ England. MISSION BOARDS. ..<:l·C ~ ."~ 52 REPORT FOR YEAR ENDING MAY 19, 1889. ~g ~ "'..<:l 'E Receipts………………… .••• £10,717 18 1 I-lA ~~E-< 0 Expenditures……. .. ……… 9,371 8 7 – – – – – -I-l – The Society has in Madagascar 3 stations: American Methodist Settled Board…………. 2 in Seoul 1 2 2 4 0 Antananarivo, Mandridano and Arivoninra- AmericanPresbyterian rao, with 6 male and 9 female missionaries, Board………….. 3 " 1 Australian Presbyte- 3 0 and a medical branch with 3 male and 1 female 0 212 missionary. rian Board .. : …… 1" 001 0 0 Toronto University, o country 100 0 0 In India 2 stations: Hoshangabad and Lo· Y. M. C. A……… hagpur, 5 male and 7 female missionaries. Toronto Korean Union In China, 1station: Hanchung, with 1 male Mission……… Government School 0 " 100 00 and 2 female missionaries. Teachers………… 0 Seoul 0 0 0 2 2 There are other out-stations, and the work, especially in Madagascar, is large and flour- — — ishiug, but it is impossible to gather the full 6 34592 statistics from the reports. If our friends would kindly be a little 'more complete in 1 ordained man and 1 lady teacher included their statistical department, they would con- who are to arrive this month. fer a great favor on those who watch the work with interest.. 5 of the above fresh arrivals. Missionaries returned home or quit field in Bible Ohristian Home and Foreign Mis- 1889: 1 doctor, 2 missionaries, 2 lady teachers, sionary Society. 1 missionary's wife. Total, 6.
.' Secretary: REV. I. B. VANSTONE, 73 Herbert SCHOOL-HOUSES, ETC. Road, Plumstead, Kent, England. REPORT FOR YEAR ENDING JULY, 1889. Boys' Orphan Home, Presbyterian…….. . Girls' ~~~, ~' ……… . Receipts…. .. . … ……… . • . . . . . £7,091 15 7 Expenditures. " " " Methodist ………. ,_ Missionary School " ………… Home…….. £3,667 1 0 Australia. . . . . 2,723 2 1 Government " ……•.•…………….. New Zealand. 320 11 8 China.. ……. 490 0 O. " Hospital (Dr. Heron), Presby- Balance. ….. 707 14 6—- £7.918 9 3 terian Board …… _ … .. ……….. .
The Society has in China 2 stations: Yun- Missionary Hospital, Methodist…. … .. ••. nan Fu and Chao-Tung-Fu, 4 missionaries, 4 preaching places, 7 members, of whom 5 were Population of Korea, from 12 to 15 millions; .. admitted during the year. population of Seoul and suburbs, within a 3· mile belt, one million. Belt around Seoul permissible of travel without passport, 30 miles. Ports open to residence of missionaries yet unoccupied, 3-Chemulpo, Fusau, Geutau. By REv. H. LOOlrllS, No. 42 B1BLIIl HOUSE, YOKOHAMA. [Obliged to omit several columns.-Eos.] ] il il E .e~ · ,,'" a~ j ~~ ~ ~ ~ t ~ £j :ga! g .~ " ~ . ~ §.li3rh8~ § ~ ~ J,..~ f~ to ..~., '/il ~'" ~ ~ .!!! ~~ w. 0 2 z=;", ~ OS ~ .9 ~ ~ ~ § as ~ S ~bc …:I ~ 0 ~ ] ~ 'Cl~£ ~ rn'~ ~ '" ",';."..,..M~ ~~ I~ ~g ! 1 " '5 = " " " " " " " t"1 t"1 NAME OF MISSION. "gfli ~<tl ~"·,Oglj ~~ Il-<.S <!l.,; ~ 0 A w. $1. ~ ~ z,·,:!~l §!a "'1: .<l ~" .£::.~ ~ iS~ ].~ ",&l :o§ '0 .S ~ ,'"; ,to; .S 's5, 's, .S i~.s'S.sO~. :8 ~ …. S'Ol .~ .<l'" is :~ ~ w. ~~ E."o,s:E0!:i '0 §'ie0II 0.a.s. ~aS i: . '§'~ ~'" ~,.;'~" r~ is': 0 – 0 ~'.".. ~ ~ ~·Ol ~.~ a,s; ]"P~o -0 :;l :;l .~ ~ 11 ~ iOllJ i>.,; ~- aSgJ – s-w.as ,,~ -0 ~~ '" 'O0l .~ psO·£la:s: p M… – Po – as -0 -0 aPso>" .<l 1il 0'; Po §o &.9 ~ 1l -A ~aS8 —- -~ – -&:- -w. w. – – -Z – 0 -~ Presbyterian Church in the U. S •……….. 1859 21 2 24 68 61 — Reformed Church in America ……………. 1859 10 1 6 27 4 Union Presbyterian Church of Scotland…… 1874 3…….. 6 1 United Church of Christ in Japan…… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . … 94 68 . . . . . ;. 1,348 90 .. … . …
Thlformed Church in the United States ……. 1879 3 …. 2 8 1 …… …. …… .. …………………. Presbyterian Church in the U. S. (South) … 1885 4 4 3 15 3 … …… .. .. ………………… . Women's Union Mission'ySocietyof America 1871 …….. 5 5 1 115 …………………….. .. Cumberland Presbyterian Church………… 1877 4 …. 6 14 4 .. …i "6.2…. .. . American Protestant Episcopal Church …… 1859 11 2 9 33 3 41) 248 77"… … …. 23…. . 25'" 597 1 .. in .. .. 2,372'43 Church Missionary SOCiety………………. 1869 12 4 7 35 9 0,20 242 99 59 218…. 46…… 19 411 1 25 3 22.. 2,274 18 ~~Jir~f!et~~p:O;::~ti~~·~fth~·G~;,:p~i(~). 1873 "'6 '''9 "io "3i '''5'ia 49 3 46 …. 90 ..25 .::: :::: :::: :::: .~:::: '''8 ';"4OO'i "io ~ ~~ ::"';;800'00 Wyckliffe Colle~e Mission (Canada) ….. " … 1888 1 1… 3 1…. …… …. …. … …… ….. …. 1 . 402 American BaptIst Missionary Union ……… 1860 12 2 13 39 7 39 11…. 11 163 …. …. 4 22 10 953 19 676 1 11 4 28.. 819 23 English Baptist Church(4) ……………….. 1879 1…….. 2 1 19 2 …. 2 40…. 1 2 9 3 a 200 1 67 2…. 1 4.. 153 53 Disciples of Christ……………………… 1883 3 1 2 9 3 4 1…. 11 49 …. .. 20 12 2 151 9 500 .. 2. 15 00 Christian Church of America ……………. 1887 2 …. …. 4 1 3 3.. 3 35…. 17 20 6 1 93 7 135 1 2 6 .. 78 80 ::t::.S:fu~::::~::::;~~;.. ~;~~..(~;:: ::: ~ ~… ..~~ 8: 1: .~~ ..~~ ..~ 14 .~:~~~ ~~~ ….. :::: .~~ ~~ '~',~~~"~ .~:~.~ ~.. 30 66 …. ~~:~~.~ Independent Native·Churches……………. …. …. …. 2 2 1… 2 2 …. 41 13 1 2 1 206 4 266 .. …. 1 1 1 542 16 Berk1ey Temple Mission, Boston…………. 1888 1… 2 1. … … … …. …. …. … ……… … ……………… … _ .. …. .C~fl American Methopist Episcopal Church(l) … 1873 18 1 23 60 9 36 53 7 46 _ 590 120… ……. 39 4,121 71 4,113 2 33 26 40.. 6,372 45 o>-~3 4 6 18 3 15 309 85 15 38 43 23 1,538 11 1,001 1 9 7 24.. 4,100 00 Canada Methodist Church(3) …………….. 1873 7 1 9 24 Evangelical Association of North America … 1876 5…….. 10 135 5 93 21 33 3 10 8 371 13 465 1 13 8 13.. 550 00 … Methodist Protestant Church…………….. 1880 5 …. 4 14 2 1 2…. 2 29 5… 2 …. 4 192 2 280 1 3…. 3 .. 188 60 Am. Methodist Episcopal Chnrch (South)….. 1886 6 4 3 19 4 7 5… 5 109 13 17 36 11 3 241 18 417 1 8 1 12.. 352 69 rp General Evangebcal Prot. (German Swiss)… 1885 1 1 …. 3 1 1 2 …. 2 …… …. …. 1 2 151 1 54 1 4 …. 1 .. 200 00 Socetr of Friends, America……………… 1885 2 .. – 1 5 1 1 1.. .. 1 4 …. …. …. .. _ …. 3.3 3 100……. . .. 3 .. 10 00 Christian Alhance……………….. _……. … 1…. 1 3 1……………………………….. ……………………………………. ..
Total, 1889………………… ,………. .. . 16~ 34 171 527 84 448 . 274 153i 151 5,007 535 365 544 286 351 31,181 350 21,597 ~ 275 135 409 ~ 53,503 13 Total, 1888……… " ………………… .:..:::. _150 ~ 124 443 ~ 3241 249 ~, 157 6,959 728 442 365 352 ~ 25,514 295 16,634 ~ 287 142 257 8 64,454 70(5) Increase. 1889….. …….. … …. .. . 16 7 47 84 12 1241 25 611…………….. 179…. 190 5,667 55 4,963 3 . . . . . . . . 152 . . . . . . . . . . . . ..
NOTE.-It is impossible to get exact reports from all the Churches up to Dec. 31st. It is probable that complete statistics wonld have increased the total membership about ten per cent.-H. L. (a) Approximate. (1) Statistics to July 31st, 1889. (2) This mission makes up complete statistics to March 31st. A part of those given above ~&~:r°e ia'p9p.ro~xli~me:aatesoinnlcyl.ude(3d) StatiStiCS. made up to April 1st, 1889. (4) No Report for 1889. The figures given are mostly the same as 1888. (5) In the Report of contribu- ~..-. a donatio!) of 30,000 yen towards the Doshisha. at Kyoto. Tile o!'dinary cOlltlibutjons of 1889 exceed those of tile previous year to the amonnt Established Ohurch of Scotland. Leipsig Evangelical Lutheran Mission.
secretary: J. T. MAcLAGAN, 6: N. St. David's Secretary: DR. J. HARDELAND, Leipsig, Ger· Street, Edinburgh, Scotland. many. REPORT FOR 1888. REPORT OF COMMITTEE FOR THE PROPAGATION Receipts……………….. , … Marks, 313,862' OF THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS, FOR Expenditures. .. …… …… .. .. . " 280,449 YEAR ENDING DEC. 31, 1888. The Society's.work is in India,where it has 24 Stations. Among them: Tranquebar, Poreias; Receipts (at home) ……………… £22,740 Trichinopoli, Madura, Madras and Rangoon. Expenditures. …. .. • .. •• …….. …. 34,421 There are also 141 preaching places, with These are the fignres furnished us by Mr. 6,947 communicants, including 240 additions. MacLagan for the tables published in the De· cember number of the REVIEW. The Church The missionaries (ordained) number 25. and' of Scotland Mission Record for May, 1889 gives there are 14 native ordained pastors, and 476 the total contributions (which we suppose in· other helpers, catechists, teachers, etc. cludes those above) at £28,485 5s Sd. The published Report, pages 138-9, gives the total The schools number 166, with 4,394 scholars. charge as £26,507 8s 1<1, aside from the balance Dec. 31, 1888, of £4,854 78 3d. We suppose that United Methodist Free Ohurches, Home the discrepancies are due to the,combination of and Foreign Missions. special funds with the general funds. So with regard to the expenditures, which, on page 141 Secretary for Foreign Missions: Rev. J. TRUS' of the general report, are given as £31,36115s 4d, inclusive of the balance of £2,250 15s 5d, COTT, Burslem, England. . leaving as actual expenditure then reported, £29,110 19s 11d, made up as follows: REPORT FOR YEAR ENDING JUNE, 1889.
Expenses of missionary establish· Receipts. ments…… …… ……. ….. £26,543 16 3 Ordinary…………………. .. £8,71810 2 Other expenses connected with Miscellaneous and Special.••••… , 529 142 missionaries.. …………….. . 842 Communicants' Fund .•••••••••••• 324 00 Travel·expenses, Mission Record, printing, etc……………… .. 320 Foreign Local Receipts….. …… 10,857 14 0'
Office management and miscel· Total ……………………. £20,429 18 4 Ianeous ………………….. . 990 17 11 Expenditures.
Extra for law expenses……… .. 414 3 7 Home Expenditure •••••••••••••••£ 2,555 1 3· Foreign Expenditure…. ………. 6,162145 Total…………………… £29,110 19 11 Foreign Local Expenditure… …. 10,857 14 O' Balance in hand …. .. …. ……. 854 8 8 The additional is probably made up from special fund expenses. Total …. '" ………….. £20,429 18 4 STATISTICS. STA.TISTICS OF FOREIGN WORK.
.; ,;, ii"'':"": ,~g .. " il .; ,;, M rn " '" ,;, .d.0 ;a ~ '0 '" ~ " .~ .~.. S " c '" " j '" " 0:: ~ ~ ,;, ~… .S .d .e: ~ .'s" 0:: " ~"" """ t '" ~'"1: ~ "'il .d .d -<j 0 0 -rn . _rn – Z 0 – – – '– – 1. Australia. Victoria and Tasmania… 29 67 1,684 123 57 47 54 3,181 2. Australia, New South Wales and – – – Queensland. 9 37 659 73 14 14 20 .1_,48-2 — – – – – – – – – Colonial ….. 38104 61 – 74 .4_,66-3 — Calcutta .. . 14 .. ,$ 153712477 2,343 196 71 31i.m~", ~ ~ P~A 1~ ~~ — 1i . g Madras .. .. .. 3. China…… 3 12 365 39 5 12 4 43 4 4 59 5 181 34 2,136 4. East Africa 4 9 223 36 5 6 226 Bombay … 5. WestAfrica 4 84 2,809 80 15 1 10 1,386 is Panjab .. .. Darjceling. 2 1 .. ~ ~ .. 26 15329 '5 29 1,091 UnPersities 6. Jamaica … 8 44 3,470 94 26 20 33 2,176 lIIission .~ 1 ~ 7. New Zea· £l (Indepen't – – – land…….. 12 37 898 21 23 11 22 2,216 — – ._- Sikkiml…. 11 .. ] 1 1225 S a 48 — East Africa 3 23 .7.,,-/,".. 3 16 3 425 Foreign …… 31 186 7,765 270 -74-44-7-5 6,047 China …… 1 " " . . 1 1 14 1 16 – —– — Total …… 69290 10,108 466145105149110,710 ———— TotaL … 16 17 11 38 8102 32 805 7218315,393 In the society's report the work in Australia is included in the foreign work. We have
PROGRESS OF MISSIONS-MONTHLY BULLETIN
.separated it, but given the totals as in the re- besides, the African Fuud, the receipts of port. The stations in China are Ningpo and which were £4,009 3s Sd, and expenditure Wenchow; in East Africa, Ribe, Jomon and £3.267 3s lld. Golbanti, in the Galla country, on the coast north of Zanzibar; in West Africa, Freetown, The statiDns .of the Society are at Fernando Waterloo, York, Bananas, Sencho.o, and Penta- PD, Santa Isabel and San CarlDs Bay, West .foo in Sierre Leone. Africa; A1iwal in SDuth Africa, and .on theZam- besi, the last two being quite recently estab. Reformed Presbyterian (Oovenanter) lished. They repDrt in Africa 7 missionaries, Ohurch of Scotland. 7 native assistants, 467 native members.
:Secretaries: Rev. RDBERT DUNLOP, Paisley, Basle Misirlonary Society. SCDtland; Rev. J. D. HDUSTDN, B. A., CDle- raine, Ireland. Secretary: HERR TH. OHLER, Basle, Switzer. REPORT FOR YEAR ENDING MAY, 1889. land. REPORT FOR YEAR ENnING 1888. .Annual expenditures•. __ ………. _. __ •••. £600 The mission field occupied by this sDciety is Receipts…………………..Francs, 1,021,074 Expenditures. …. . .. . . .• . • .• • " 1,046,610 Antioch, Syria. The missiDnary fDrce CDngists .of on" missiDnary, with his wife, and .one India has 152 stations and out-statiDns, .66 lady teacher, five native teachers, .one cDlpor- male missiDnaries, 49 female missiDnaries, 15 teur and tWD Bible WQmen. There is .one native .ordained preachers, 398 native other church, with fDrty members. The SCDtch and helpers, 5,027 communicants, 884 additions. Irish SynDds unite in the SUPPDrt .of this China has 41 stations and out-stations, 17 male mission. missionaries, 12 female missionaries, 6 native ordained preachers, 85 native other helpers, Primitive Methodist Missionary Society. 2,029 cDmmunicants, 196 additions. Gold Coast, Africa, has 107 StatiDnS and out-statiDns, 'Secretary: REV. JDHN ATKINSDN, 71 FreegrDve 33 male missionaries, 22 female missionaries, Road, HQlloway, London, N. 18 native ordained preachers, 149 native .other helpers, 3,235 CDmmunicants, 698 additiDns. , REPDRT FOR YEAR ENDING MARCH 31, 1889. CamerDDn has 11 stations and out-statiDns, 8 'Total income for HDme and male missionaries, 1 female missiDnary, 1 native .ordained preacher, 9 native other FDreign Missions ……. ' .•••.. £17,88280 helpers, 153 commmiicants, 10 additiDns. Expenditures. _.. .•••••••••..•.•• 13,626 8 0 These are taken from the published tables It is impossible accurately to separate the in the report of July, 1889. In furnishing a HDme frDm the Foreign expenditures in the statement fDr the tables in the December general accDunt. AbDut £6,000 are evidently nmnber, the number of missiDnaries was given fDr HDme MiSSiDuS in England. About £2,000 by Secretary Ohler as, male, 162; female are for what might be termed Colonial work, (including missionaries' wives), 110. These especially in Australia, aud about £1,500 for probably included all in commission. .strictly foreigu mission expenses. There is VIII.-PROGRESS OF MISSIONS: MONTHLY BULLETIN.
Af"rlca.-Recent telegraphic despatches ings in Africa, The li'ree Church Monthly for -show a determination on the part of Portugal March has the following: "In the Missions to enforce her IDng standing but unsubstantial Catholiques of Lyons, we learn no secret was ·claims to territDry along the East A.irican made of the fact that Cardinal Lavigerie had ·coast. A correspondent of Central Africa made arrangements with the King .of Portugal says: "In the Nyassa country the Portuguese to .occupy what were called' the PDrtuguese are pressing fDrward with the utmDst haste to provinces of the Shire and Nyassa.' Under secure all the advantage they may from the these arrangements Romish missionaries expeditiDn of Cardoza, and probably before would have been armed with powers and .another month has elapsed some arrangement privileges, partly from Rome and partly frDm "ill have been made between .our rulers as to LisbDn, and the result would have been interwhat portion of that part of Africa is to be ference of the most intolerable kind with given over to Portuguese influence; we cannot PrDtestant work in the whole regiDn." call it rule. This meaRS the extensiDn of the drink traffic and the maintenance of slavery. -A telegram from Zanzibar confirms the It is possible that all that part of Nyassaland rumDr that Mwanga had succeeded in re-estabto which this mission was originally sent may Iishing himself as king of Uganda. Itis stated that he has prDclaimed himself a Christian, becDme nominally PDrtuguese territDry. More and that the pDwerof the Arabs is cDmpletely we cannot say, .but this is enough to cause the overthrown, Christian men, either Protestants greatest amdety." or Roman Catholics, being nDW in authority.
-On the recent action of the English Gov- Mwanga's Christianity is dDUbtless altogether .ernment in the matter of PDrtuguese proceed- of the nDminal sort, yet he has had convincing evidence of the selfishness and wickedness of intercourse, the government cannot open a. the Arabs, and of the faithfulness of the railway from the port of Teintsin to the capi- Christians, and it is but reasonable that he tal, a distance of eighty miles, as the people should trust the latter rather than the former. have risen up in opposition. The central gov- The fact that MI'. Mackay is there as counselor, ernment has had to ask the advice of the gov- a man of unusual energy and clear head, ernors of the provinces. Some of the most inspires the hope that the government in noted memorials of these governors have' Uganda will be conducted in a fairly Christian lately been published, but none of them yet way. see that the defect lies in obstinately neglect- ing to prepare practical text books for their -The Baptist denomination in Liberia is schools. As they resist light, they cannot, the only self-supporting religious body in that complain if they reap the fruits of darkness. country. There are thirty-one churches, with 3,000 members. They have a mission among -The Empress. A Chinese paper has the the aborigines. following, which we translate: "At Peking' there is a pions lady, the wife of a foreign mer- -The extent of European territorial an- chant, who spends her time in doing good. One' nexation of Africa, provisional, protective day she went on a visit to the home ofa Manchu and positive, is quite surprising. The London lady of high rank. She took copies of the' Times says, that of the 11,000,000 of square Holy Scriptures. A young lady was present miles in Africa, six and a half millions are at- who took great interest in the conversation. tached to some European power, and of the She heard the old story of the gospel of Jesus, four and a half millions unattached, half lies who died for a world of sinners. The young' within the desert of Sahara.-African News. lady bent forward to catch every word, and when the Christian visitor had concluded, she -British West Africa. The Niger coun- said: •I am glad you have c~me to tell me try, that is south of the desert and north of this. Some day I will have a place built where the Congo State, extending far east from the people can meet to worship this God and hear' Atlantic, is gradually brought under British this gospel preached.' This young lady is now civilizing influences. The French have sought the Empress of China."-Our Mission. to hem the British in bykeeping them near the coast, and claiming for themselves a large -Napoleon said, "When China is moved,. country north of the Lower Congo. They still it will change the face of the globe." The fact hold much territory here, which England has to be noticed now is that China, having oneconceded, ~ut for some time they have felt the quarter of the population of the earth, ;S' encroachments of British influence on the moving. north and east, and were getting quite uneasy. Meanwhile England has been making her EDgIRnd~Missionaries wanted. The' claims and power more tangible and definite Missionary Bureau invites applications from by special treaties with the natives. Thus the earnest devoted Christian men and women for whole Yoruba country has been attached, and responsible positions now vacant in the foreign free access attained to and beyond the Kong mission field. Some of these posts could be mountains. This includes the cessions of "The held only by men of superior education and Royal Niger Company," and embraces a very ability, capable of superintendingthe work of large territory-some say more than all North others, while for other vacancies ladies with a America.-Afl'ican News. professional training in teaching are required. Two or three men are also wanted to work ChlnR.-The Hong Kong Daily Press among seamen in large shipping centres, and states that Dr. Mary Fulton, of the Presbyteri- there is an immediate need for several men an Mission, Canton, had returned from Poling, possessed of private means, to carry on missixty miles from Swatow, where she had been sion work in South Africa, setting the present, successfully treating two ladies of General workers free for more aggressive efforts. Fong's household. The G/'lneral's family entertained her in foreign style and with great The Secretary will be glad to communicate, courtesy. She also received two gold medals also with any earnest worker who feels led of in testimony of her skill. God to offer for the foreign field. For all who are chosen and set apart by the Holy Ghost. -The text books in China are the same as whatever their educational attainments may they were 2,000 years ago. The consequence be, there is ample room and urgent need. The is that the nation is kept in ignorance of the prayers of those who may be unable to go are marvellous progress of the world since then, earnestly desired, and the consecrated gifts of still thinking that China is celestial as com- any who may feel led to help in sending mispared with all other nations. The mission- sionaries out will be thankfully received and aries and the Christians are the only foreign wisely administered. class whose aim is to bring all sorts of blessings into China by means of churches, schoolS, The Missionary Bureau is entirely an unsecliterature, etc. But hitherto the authorities terian agency, and on its committee are wellgenerally have opposed their enlightenment known representatives of every evangelical up to the limit of violating the treaties. The branch of the Christian Church. All comresult is that after forty-five years' foreign munications should be addressed, " The Missionary Bureau, 186 Aldersgate street, Lon- -Opium smoking. Donald Matheson, Esq., don, E. C." Chairman of the Society for the Snppression of the Opium Trade, states on official author- -In a lecture recently delivered at the ity. that there are now about 10,000 licensed London Institution by lIIr. Scott Keltie, the opium shops in the British territories of India Librarian of the Royal Geographical Society, andBurmah. it was stated that the Empire of England now covers over 10,000,000 square miles, or nearly .Japan.-There are 6~ children In the three times the size of Europe. The population Protestant Orphan Asylum at Okayama. Mr. -of the empire Is estimated at 350,000,000. What Ishiis, its founder, is an ardent disciple of a mighty responsibility does this great expan- George lIIillier, and believes implicitly in the sion of dominibn put upon England in the prayer of faith. The home has had several direction of missionary effort I remarkable experiences during the past few months in answer to prayer. It uses at pres- India. – The following confession of ent an old Buddhist temple, renting ali but Keshub Chunder Sen, a half heathen, half one room, in which idols and tablets, beads and -Christian rhetorician of India, which was sacred books, are stored. recently quoted in a sermon by the Bishop of Huron, is worth repeating, as a remarkable -One of the leading daily papers of the testimony to the reality and success of Chris- empire reports that the Kyoto police are to tian missions in our Indian Empire: "The inquire into the morals of Buddhist priests, -spirit of Christianity," he says, "has already their reputation is so low. pervaded the whole atmosphere of Indian -society, and we breathe, think, feel and move in -In February a Convention of delegates a Christian atmosphere. Our hearts are from 12 Y.lII. C. A's, representing 800 mem- touched, conquered. overcome, by a higher bers, was held at Osaka, and "The United power, and this power is Christ. Christ, not Y. 1II. C. A. of Western Japan" organization the British Government, rules India. No one decided upon. The organization is to be com- but Christ has deserved the precious diadem pleted on April 3, at Kobe. The United Society -of the Indian crown, and He wlll have it." will adopt as their organ the magazine now published by the Osaka Y. M. C. A., and will -In connection with this subject, our read- work especially for the abolition of licensing ers may be reminded how two years ago Sir prostitution, the great moral question which W. W. Hunter, an eminent Indian adminis- is being agitated at present all over Japan. trator of 25 years' experience, has spoken of the whole fabric of native society being pro- -Yo M. B. A. have been organized in various foundlyaffected by the influence of Western Japanese cities. The B. stands for Buddhist. ideas. In a magazine article he also bore em- phatic witness to the eminent success which -The American Board has recently opened was attending the labors of missionaries in a new station at Tottori, a city of 30,000, on India. He has further stated his impression the west coast of Japan. lIIisses Talcott and that there will presently be a great religious lIIcLennan have spent the winter there, living revival in that country. It cannot, then, be in a Japanese house. Rev. G.lII. Rowlar:d and too often or too urgently pleaded, that it is family, and lIIisses 1II. Holbrook, 1II. D., and for Christian England, whose possession of Cora Stone, move therc this spring for per- India involves a very grave responsibility in manent occupation. The Eliot Church of religious no less than in civil and imperial mat- Newton, lIIass., made this possible by a special ters, to see that such a revival shall be in the gift of $5,000. ·direction of Christianity, which, in Sir W. W. Hunter's words, "comes to the Indian races -The trustees of the Doshisha College at in an age of new activity and hopefulness, as Kyoto have elected the blind Yamamoto, a a fully equipped religion of effort Itnd of former official of local fame, temporary presi- hope." It may also be borne in mind that dent of the school in place of the lamented there are millions on the fringe or beyond the Neesima. Rev. P. M. Kanamori, the college pale of Hinduism, to win whom to Christ is a pastor, serves under him as the actual head of vast and urgent task which faces the Christian the institution. -churches. -The annual statistics of missions in Japan -The great movement in the American have just been published. The number of Baptist mission among the Telugus in India, churches is now 274. Of this number 153 are in which 30,000 converts have been gathered in reported as self-supporting. The accessions twelve years, still continues, and is spreading last year were 5,542. and the total membership into the interior of the country. In the 31,181. The contributions amount to $40,662 Nalgunda district fifty-two were recently bap- (U. S. currency), and the increase during the tized in one week. year was $6,876. The whole number of mis- sionaries in the field, including the wives, is -More than 300 students in nine German 527. universities have joined a special school for training missiOllaries for the Jews, of which Norway.-Missionary Skrefsrud's anl'rof. Delitsch is the head. nual report of the Norwegian Lutheran lIIis- sion in Santalistan states that during the past year 415 heathens and 82 children of Christian parents received the sacrament of holy baptism. The membership is 5,272, and the num- Taylor's mission, sends us the following cheer- ber of stations, 14; these are supplied by Norwegian missionaries and native teachers and ing statement: , <!atechists_ After ten years of close observation of Hussla.-The Emperor of Russia is likely to relax the stringent restrictions on Bishop Wm. Taylor's Self-supporting Missions dissenters, as he has sent away the minister of public worship who established them. in Chili and Brazil, South America, I feel so 8yrla.-Revival in Aintab. "Theitemof impressed with the good results that I do not supreme interest in missionary circles is the revival in Aiutab. It is a source of great en- hesitate to state that it deserves the attention couragement to all who have a share in the missionary work in this country. At the last and support of our Church and all Christian accounts the religious interests continued, but the daily meetings had been suspended. Some people. It is no longer an experiment. It is 540 persons have already been received by the three churches-a gain of sixty per cent. upon a marvelous success. the previous membership. The Bythinia Synod has just observed its twenty-fifth anni- During the past ten years about $120,000, versary, and its late meeting is said to have been the best in its history. The revival at gold, has been invested in building colleges, Aintab helped to direct the current of the meeting. All hearts join in the prayer that schools and churches, and furnishing them. the whole land may be speedily blessed by a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit."-Dr. During these ten years over 20 missionaries H. N. Barnum, in New York Observer. have been constantly at work, and there are -The Annual Report of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions gives the following now 28 or 29 in the field. All have had self 'statistics of the Press in Syria: The issues of the Beirut Press are found wherever there is support, and some of the stations have had any call for Arabic literature in the Eastern world. Arabic literature has been enriched in $20,000 surplus over self support, all of which the year 1888 by nearly 2ll,000,000 pages, issued by the Mission Press. Of this vast number, has been invested in the work. 18,045,000 have been pages of Scripture. The number of volumes published is 106,900, of Hundreds have heen converted. Several of which 58,000 are copies of theWord of God. The issues of the complete Bible are proportionally the converts are now missionary teachers in very large, forming about two-thirds of the work of the year. The number of volumes of the mission schools. Thousands are under the Scriptures sent out from the Press in 1888 was '26,848,which is larger by about 3,300 than the is- influence of the missionaries. All the $120,000 sue of any previous year in the history of the Mission. As all missions to Arabic speaking invested could be withdrawn if the property races draw their supply of Scriptures from Beirut, this issue represents not the work of one were now sold. The college at Santiago is the mission in the item of Bible distribution, but the combined result of all societies laboring in finest of its kind in the world. the Arabic langnage. The mission of the United Presbyterian Church in Egypt is co.nspicuous The mission workers are an heroic band. I for its large orders for Bibles from Beirut. The American Bible Society has its depot for the would recommend those who wish to invest sale of Arabic Scriptures in the Press building at Beirut, and the printing of this kind done by their money so as to produce the greatest our Press is in 1llling orders of the Bible Society agency, which, in turn, supplies the orders results for time and eternity, to put it in selffrom the various missions. The call for reading 111atter throughout the East is increasing supporting missions in South America. enormously. Ourown Press is becoming more exclusively a fountain of evangelical truth and There are five stations now in Chili and two religious culture to educated minds, and is a mighty power in guiding aright the religious in Brazil. The need for Christian workers of thought and the intellectual development of many eager searchers after truth. the deepest piety and high grade of scholastic United states.-Self-supporting Mis- attainments is great. Any wishing to enter sions. Vice-president Fowler, of Bishop the work, or those who wish to contribute to this work, may correspond with Richard Grant, 181 Hudson street, New York.
The latest information from all the stations is that the opportunities for extending the work have never been so good as now. Fifty more missionaries could be employed, all of whom could secure ample self support when provided with'churches, schools and homes in which to do this mission work.
I consider that 'an investment of $250,000 would establish fifty missionaries, whose work would go on and on indefinitely until the country is saved. And even then the money invested could be realized if the propertywere sold.
-Missions at the Far North. The Govern- ment has offered to contract with the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church tor the establishment' of mission schools among the Arctic Eskimo, at Point Barrow and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska. Point Barrow is the most northern, and Cape Prince of Wales the most western point of land on the main Continent of North America. A similar proposition has been made to the Protestant Episcopal Mission Society in behalf of Point Hope, Arctic Alaska. The Episcopalians have formally accepted the offer at Point Hope, and it is understood that the Presbyterians will ac- cept the stations offered them.
INDEX OF CONTENTS OF THE MAY NUMBER. [May-
INDEX OF CONTENTS OF THE MAY NUMBER.
At the request of many friends we make Trial of this as an experiment.
PAGE CHINA.-Shanghai Missionary Conference, L-LrrEUTURE OF MISSIONS .•.••• 321-363 369; The Worship of Heaven by the Emperor, n.-GENERAIL MIssIONARY INTELLI- 372; Mission to the Chinese Blind, Miss Gordon- GENCE ………………….. 364-372 Cum~ing, 392; Dr. Mary Fulton, 397; Text m.-MISSIONARY CoRRESPONDENCE •• 37~75 IV.:-lNTERNA·~IONAL DEPAR~MENT… 375–383 Books in China, 397; The Empress, 397.
I V.-MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS 383–j387 COSTA RICA.-Letter from the only VI.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT Protestant Missionary there, 388; Hon. N. F. TOPICS………………….. 387-393 Graves on Costa Rica, 388. vn.-ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS………….. 393-396 FRANCE.-The McAli Mission, 371.
VIII.-PROGRESS OF MISSIONS: MONTH- GREAT BRITAIN.-Dr. Pierson's Mis– LY BULLETIN……………. 396–899 sion Tour, 331; Anglo-Saxon Missions in the 17th and 18th Centuries, 336; Dr. Pierson'sAd· dress Before the Edinburgh Medical Mission- ary Society, 354; Foreign Missionary Incomes, 370; Notable Testimony to Rev. Mr. Anderson, Authors. 370; Dr. Millar's Letter to Dr. Pierson, 374; Dr.
EDITORS.-A. T. Pierson, Mission Tour of Pierson's Visit Abroad, 390 ; Missionaries· Britain. 331; Medical Missions, 354; Editorial Notes; J. M. Sherwood, Editorial Notes, 387. Wanted, 397; Extent of England's Empire, 397; Report and Statistics of Established Churches of Scotland, 395; United Methodist Ashmore, Wm., Jr., Corresponaence, 375. Free Churches, 395; Reformed Presbyterian Ellinwood, Dr. F. F., ShadowiDgs of Messiah (Covenanter) Church of Scotland, 395; Primi- in Heathen Systems, 354; Buddhism and tive Methodist Missionary Society, 396.
Christianity in Burmah and Siam, 383. INDIA.-English Wesleyansand the Indian Gracey, J. T., D.D., 875. Missionaries, 365; Current Literature and Happer, Dr. A. P., Letter from China, 372; Education, 366; Church Missionary Society Shanghai Missionary Conference, 369. and the Higher Education, 366; Confession of Johnston, Rev. James, Notes on India, 365. Keshub Chunder Sen, 398; SirW. W. Hunter's.
Knox, Chas. E., D.D., Personal Observations Testimony, 398; The Telugus, 398; Opium in Brazil, 341. ~ Smoking, 398.
Knox, G. W., D.D. (Japan), Review of the JAPAN.-Dr. Geo. W. Knox's Review of'
Year 1889 (political changes and present the Events of 1889, 321; Orphan Asylum at· outlook in Japan), 321. Okayama, 398; Y. M. C. A. Convention at.
Morrow, Rev. Edward, Missipns in 17th and Osaka, 398; A New Station at Tottori, 398.
18th Centuries, 336. ~a:t0um Cong;ess, The…………….. ~2 Moorhead, Max Wood, Student Volunteer MISSIOnary ComIty …………….. 3.1; Movement, 364. Missionary Training Institute at Minneap- Starbuck, Rev. Charles C., Translations, 359. olis ……….. : …………………….. 393· Schweinitz, Rev. Paul de, The Ramona Mission, NICARAGUA AND COSTA RICA, 387; 358. Rousing letter from Dr. Brockett on the same Thoburn, Bishop, Missionary Comity, 375. subject, 389.
Countries and Subjects. RUSSIA.-EvangeJicul Lutheran Church, AFRICA.-Lake Tanganyika Mission, 367; 359. The Uganda Mission, 367; West African. Missions, 368; Bishop Smythies and Slavery. at SYRIA.-Work of American Bible Society, Zanzibar, 368; A Revlvalin Kaffraria, 368; The Work, and the Honor Conferred Upon Miss 381; Revival in Aintab,399; Annual Report. Waterston, M. D., 369; Work on the Zambesi, 360; Work of the Protestant Churches of Presbyterian Board, 399. French Switzerland, 361; The Khassas People, 361; "Immanuel," God he with us, 363; Eng- THIBET.-Moravlan Mission Work, 371. land and Portugal, 396; Mwanga Re-established, 396; European Territory, 397; The UNITED STATES.~BishopTaylor's Self- Niger Country, 397. supporting Missions, 399; Missions in Alaska,. BRAZIL.-Dr. Knox's PersonalObserva. tions in, 341. 399; Evangelization, What is it ? 375. Buddhism and Christianity.. . • . . . . . .. . .••. 389 Statistics. BURMAH AND SIAJ)I.-Buddhism and Christianity in, 383. Annual Statistics of Japan Mission for 1889,. table, 394.
Basle Missionary Society.. …. .. …. .. …. 396' Bible Christian Home and Foreign lIlis- sionary Society.. …… .. …. … …. . 393 Friends Foreign Missionary Association .. 393 Korea: Statistics of Missions, 1889….. 393- Leipsig Evangelical Lutheran Mission … 3950