The Missionary Review of the World — April 1891

A JESUIT MISSION IN INDIA

MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.

VOL. XIV. No. 4.-Old &ries.–APRIL. –VOL. IV. No. 4.-New Series.

A JESUIT MISSION IN INDIA.

BY REV. EDWARD STORROW, BRIGHTON, ENGLAND.

The Portuguese found their way to India before aLY other European nation, in ] 497. From the beginning they were zealous, after their fashion, in the spread of the Roman Catholic faith, but their zeal, being neutralized by great moral laxity, commercial greed, and political ambition, the" European idolaters," as they were called, made but few and mostly doubtful converts. But it was seen that India presented a' splendid field f~r the propagation of the faith, so Xavier was selected as " the apostle to the Indies. " He went with every human advantage. Ignatius Loyola sent, him forth with the inspiring words, " Go, my brother. Rejoice that you have not here a narrow Pale8tine or a province of Asia in prospect, but innumerable kingdoms; an entire world is reserved for your endeavors.' , The pope conferred on him the authority and dignity of Apostolic Nuncio throughout the East, and commended him to the respect and protection of all princes and governors. The King of Portugal sent him with every demonstration of interest and authOt'ity, and aided him all through his splendid but erratic career with whatever royal zeal and power could command.

Xavier landed at Goa in May, 1542. For three years he was ceaselessly active, passing from one part of Southern India to another; then, in 1545, he left for Malacca, and after visiting several other islands returned to India in January, 1548. Here he remained for fifteen months, busily occupied in the affairs of the college he had founded at Goa, visiting some of his former scenes of labor, and arranging for the prosecution of the mission, and then, in April, 1549, he sailed for Japan.

It is difficult to ascertain with any degree of precision the results of his " wild but splendid" career. Roman Catholic biographers and historians, having now Protestant eyes on them, are guarded in their statements, but in the past, when not so liable to criticism, gave almost as much rein to fancy as a Hindu panegyrist writing a Purana; By them Xavier is credited with all manner of gifts, natural, supernatural, and spiritual, and with an extraoldinary amount of success, his converts being said to amount to 500,000-" all fervent, and desiring nothing more than to become martyrs for their faith;" while, on the other hand, the Abbe Dubois affirms that Xavier left India in disgust, disheartened at the difficulty of making any real converts.

The latter opinion is the true one. He made many Christians, according to the Jesuit theory, though far fewer than is reported, but the vast majority were Christians only in name. Most were infants, baptized craftily and surreptitiously by the agents of Xavier.* A large number of adults submitted to baptism through fear and greed, and almost all the converts baptized had but a formal and most inadequate acquaintance with the doctrines and requirements of Christianity. That Xavier was himself dissatisfied and discouraged at the inadequate results is proved, first, by the fact that after so brief a span of labor he should have abandoned an enterprise 80 extensive, so splendid, and to which he had been specially appointed; and, secondly, on his owno testimony. In a letter to a missionary in Travancore he writes, in December, 1548 : "If you will, in imagination, search through India, you will find that few will reach heaven either of whites 01' blacks, except those who depart this life nnder fourteen years of age, with their baptismal innocence still upon them." In the following month he wrote to Loyola: "The natives, on account of the enormity of their wickedness, are as little as possible fitted to embrace the Christian religion. They so abhor it that they have no patience to listen to us. To ask them to become Christians is like asking them to submit to death. Hence, all our labor is at present to guard those who now are Christians. Hence, since there is not the least need of my labors in these parts, and as I have also learned of Japan, I have determined to start for that country as soon as possible."t In these letters Xavier obviously refers to the Roman Catholic missions generally, his own and those which had been conducted for the previous fifty years, at least, with the concurrence and aid of the Portuguese Government.

But the most condemnatory proofs of the want of success on the part of Xavier and all preceding missionaries, and of the genius of Jesuitism to adopt" ways that are dark and tricks that are vain," are seen in the methods adopted by the Jesuit missionaries in Madura, and persistently prose- * " When these children," says Father de Bourges, "are in danger of death, our practice is to baptize them without asking the permission of their parent_, which would certainly be refused. The catechists and the private Christians are well acquainted with the formula of baptism; and they confer it on these dying children, under the pretence of giving them medicines."-Lettl'es' Edijlantes, tome xiL, po 107.

t" The Missionary Life of Xavier," po 156, by the Rev. Henry Venn. Some Roman Catholic authorities state the number of converts, soon after .the death of Xavier, at 300,000 iu the western portion of India. In the beginning of the eighteenth century the native converts in the Madura district are reckoned by Father Martin to amouut to 150,000, and each missionary is said to have baptized at least 1000 each yearo Bnt the Abbe Dubois, who labored in India from 1790 to 1815, states the number of Roman Catholic Christians in all India, inclnding half·castes and Portnguese, at 635,000. Now, no one will claim that the Roman Catholic native Christians nnmber more than a million and a quarter; or for the whole Roman Catliolic popnlation more than a million and a halfo Where, then, are the boasted resuits of Roman Catholic missions, of which we hear eo often, and whose methods we are advised to follow l" cuted for one hundred and fifty years, which, as an instance of ,religious imposition, has been declared " to be without a paralleL"

The various steps by which this was done were kept secret, as Jesuit methods usually are, but of the fact there i" abundant evidence, as the following account will show.

Early in the seventeenth century, about fifty years after the departure of Xavier, Robert de Nobilibus, a nephew of Cardinal Bellarmine and grandnephew of Pope Marcellus II., and other Jesuit fathers in Madura, perceiving the strong prejudices of the Hindus against Europeans and the Christian religion, devised a plan, as subtle as it was criminal, whereby they hoped to overcome native prejudices by pretending that they were substantially one with the Brahmans themselves, and that Christianity and Brahmanism were essentially one, only that the former, being older and purer than the latter, should be accepted in its place. Studying the native language carefully; attaining a minute acquaintance with the usages and customs of the priesthood; preparing themselves, by a long course of austere training, for the part they were to act, and armed with writings made to resemble certain portions of the Vedas, and declared to be of equal authority, they entered Madura, not as Christian missionaries, but as Brahmans of a superior order, who had come to restore the most ancient form of the native religion. Their success, at first, was not great, but when charged in a large assembly, specially convened, with being an impostor, who sought to deceive the people, in order to introduce a new religion into the country, Malihilus produced his manuscripts, affirmed that the Romaca Brahmans were of much older date than those with whom he was contending, and in the presence of all declared and made oath that he was really descended from the god Brahma. On this, three Brahmans, impressed by his specious evidence and earnestness, advised that they should not persecute a man who declared that he was one of themselves, and gave such evidence of the truth of his assertions. Thus audacity and speciousness gained a certain amount of credence.

To sustain these pretensions spurious documents were produced,* and the fathers adopted names and usages which gave them a close resemblance to Suniassis, men devoted to the most ascetic forms of Hinduism, and greatly reverenced and feared by the more ignorant and superstitious of the people.

As Father Tachard wrote: "The missionaries have resolved to assume the dre!s and manner of living of Brahmanical Suniassis. This was a very difficult undertaking, and nothing less than apostolic zeal and love cOlild have enabled them to sllstain its hardships and austerities. For, besides * The most important of these was a work pnblished in Paris in 1778, nnder the title, .. L'Ezour Vedam, ou Ancien Commeutaire du Vedam, contenant I'exposition des opinions religieuse. et philosophiques des Indiens, Traduit du Sauscritam paiun Brami." An elaborate and scholarly analysis of this remarkable production is given in the fourteenth volume of the" Asiatic Researches" by Francis Ellis, Esq. He declares it to be "an instance of religious lmposition without a parallel." The author is unknown. abstinence from everything that has life-that is to say, flesh, fish, and eggs, the Suniassis must bathe every morning in a public tank in all weathers, and do the same before every meal. ,,* The Father did not think it expe- dient to add that Suniassis, among others t.hings, must wear an orangecolored dress j rub cow's dung on their foreheads and breasts j have a tiger's skin across the shoulders j have a club or staff on which are seven natural knots, and go daily through numerous .ceremonies, and that all these have a close association with heathenism. Thus armed and equipped did these "Brahmans from the north, " these "Roman Suniassis"

(" Lettres Edifiantes," tome x., pp. 15, 46), go forth to teach idolaters how to worship and serve the true God ! All the missionaries did not resort to these methods. They were adopted by a class, certainly with the assent of some others, for the purpose of winning over, if poss?ble, to the Catholic faith the social and intellectual leaders of the Hindus. It was seen that the Brahmans were excessively hard to wiu, and that between them and the lower castes and out-castes marked distinctions existed, but that if the former were gained over the conversion of the latter would be comparatively easy, if not inevitable. But this method involved the recognition of caste and of much beside utterly subversive of Christian doctrine, and even truth and honesty. "The catechist of a low caste," writes Father Maduit, "can never be employed to teach Hindus of a caste more elevated. The Brahmans and the Sudras have great contempt for the Pariahs. . • . We must, therefore, have Pariah catechists and Brahmanical catechists for the Brahmans, which causes us a great deal of difficulty." And then he illustrates the difficulty thus: A catechist came to beg him to baptize some Pariah catechumens and.to confess certain neophytes. But" the fear that the Brahmans and Surlras might come to learn the steps I had taken, and hence look upon me as infamous and unworthy ever after of holding any intercourse with them, hindered me from going." Subsequently he went, and writes: "I made these poor people go to a retired place about three leagues from hence, where I myself joined them in the night, and with the most careful precautiolls, and there I baptized them"!t Not only had the Pariahs separate catechists, but separate churches j nor ~<luld a Christiau Suniassi enter one of their dwellings to administer the 1allt rites of the Church, though he would do this if the dying were removed out of their own d welling-contamina.ted by low caste or no caRte-into the open air, or a proper caste church. The results of such a policy were such as might have been anticipated. As the Roman Brahmans had their poitas, cow * See "Lettres Edifiantes et Curienses," tome x., p. 324. Paris, 1780.

Also" Systema Brahmanican Fra Paolicio Bartolomeo," pp. 47, 56, 57. Romal, 1791. The leading features of Nobilibu8'8 or Nobilis's course are stated by the Jesuit Jouvincy in his history of the order, and in vindication of the policy pursued when it was subsequently called in question, the Secretary to the Congregation de Propaganda Fide wrote in 1676 to Pope InnQC('nt that Nobilis, although he called himself a Brahman, was not guilty of falsehood I t " Lettres Edi1lantes," tome x., pp. lJ43…!.:.5. dung ashes, and strict ritual, their converts, really few in number, ill- instructed and beguiled into Christianity, rather than intellectually ac- cepting it on conviction, retained with but slight modification the superstitious manners, customs, and beliefs of Hinduism, a residuum or virus of heathenism which has kept the Roman Catholic community of Southern India ignorant, poor, weak, uninfluential, up to the present time.

The boasted unity of the Church of Rome has always been more of an Rssumption than II reality, and these proceedings were too scandalous, es- pecially in the eyes of the Dominicans and Capuchins, to be alJowed un- challenged. An appeal was made to Rome, and Pope Paul V. appointed the Archbishop of Goa to investigate the charges. His report confirmed the charges, and condemned the policy of Nobilis and his party: To this the Jesuits replied with their usual speciousness that the rites and practices now challenged and condemned were merely civil .observances, having in them nothing of a religious nature; that they were neither opposed to the faith nor morality, but were absolutely essential to the spread of Christianity in India, and nothing more than prudent and innocent concessions to native distrust, superstition, and ignorance! On these conflicting reports a Papal declaration was issned, in 1623, condemning some of the practices, and counselling great care on all points in dispute, and to avoid scandal and. exposure, it was sent privately to the Jesuits only. The worthy fathers received it in silence and went on doing as before, so th'lt it was not until fifty-seven years afterward that the Capuchins so much as knew of the existence of such a document!

The Jesuits about ,this time were at the zenith of their power, and so for a long time were able to defy their enemies. And so, like other mortals, they abused their power and acted with more audacity and less caution, so that public attention was again called to their proceedings. So numerous and flagrant were their alleged compromises with Hindu rites and practices, that Pope Clement XI. was moved, in 1702, to send out C. T. Maillard de Toumon, a man of high rank and great repute, as Legate, with power to investigate the charges and report. The decree he issued condemned, among otlier things, the marriage of children six or seven years of age; the hanging of the talz about their necks–the usual Hindn symbol used in such cases; the abolition of certain nuptial ceremonies–" for they overflow with the pollutions of heathenism ;" the disuse of the twig of a certain tree which was emblematic of the Hindu Triad-Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva; of the circlets used for averting misfortune; the use of seven vessels filled with growing rice, emblematic of the seven planetary gods. The Christians were condemned for taking a part in idolatrous festivals; bathing at set times, and in tlie manner of the heathen; passing themselves off as Suniassis; using the ashes of cow's dung, with marks on the forehead, chest, and elsewhere, practices common among the" most superstitious Hindus;" and among other things condemned was a feminine ceremonial the decree characterizes as " the festival of immodesty and wanton- ness. ,.

A great outcry was raised against the decree. Father Tachard sent to all the missionaries under his charge a set of inquiries in detail asking if the ceremonies thus condemned were necessary, or could be dispensed with. The answers declared it was necessary to continue the methods in use. And this was affirmed in the following solemn document: "I, John Venaut Bouchet, priest of the Society of Jesus, and Superior of the Carnatic Mission, do testify and swear on my faith as a priest th.at the observance of the rites, as set forth in the preceding answers, is of the greatest necessity to these missions, as well for their preservation as for the conversion of the heathens. Further, it appears to me that the introduction of any otller usage contrary to these would be attended with evident danger to the salvation of the souls of the neophytes. Thus I answer the Reverend Father Superior General, who orders me to send him my opinion as to these rites, and to confirm it by my oath, for assurance and faith of which I here sign my name." Signed, November 3d, 1704, in t.he Mission of the Carnatic, Jean Venaut Bouchet.

" Fathers Peter Manduit, Philip de la Fontaine, Peter de la Lane, and Gilbert Ie Petit took the same oath, and attested it by their signatures; and after like fashion, swore all the Portuguese Jesuits in Madura and Mysore" .<" Memoires Historiques," Luques, 1745, tome iii., pp. 8-10).

Thus the reverend fathers publicly, solemnly, and deliberately make oath that, in these missions, the religion of Christ must necessarily be joined to the idolatry of the heathen, and that the introduction of Christianity alone, and in its purity, would be fatal to the salvation of souls!

This document was carried to the Pope at Rome by Bouchet and Lainez, who did their utmost to have the report of Cardinal de Tournon set aside. In this they were unsuccessful, but with wonderful audacity, on their return to India they affirmed the opposite! Norbert states that on a day when a large congregation of French and native Christians were assembled at Pondicherry, Bouchet "came forward in his sacramental robes, and calling to witness the body and blood of J esns Christ, protested before God that of a truth he had obtained from the lips of the Pope himself that the decree of Cardinal de Tonrnon was in nowise binding, and that the missionaries might permit the practice of ceremonies which the Legate had condemned, because so doing they might the more easily convert the heathen to the faith. ,,* Lainez, now Bishop of St. Thomas, made to the Superior of the Capuchins a similar declaration. These statements were denied by the Pope in a brief addressed to !:.ainez himself, dated September 17, 1712 ; in a letter addressed to the Bishop of Claudiopolis, Cardinal Sacrissanti, Prefect of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, encloses a copy of ,. .. Lettres Edifiantes," tome iii., p. 320. the original acts of the Congregation of the Holy Office. "They will show you," he writes, "that the report you have heardin your co'un- tries announcing the suspension or annulling Of the decrees of the Cardinal de Tournon, Visitor Apostolic of happy memory, is false and without the slightest foundation." * The fathers, though hard pressed, were not yet vanquished. They reo ported that the Pope had been misinformed as to facts on which his de- cision had been founded, and prepared a document which was signed by many of their converts and three eminent Hindu Pundits affirming that the rites in question were all mere civil observances. But the contrary was affirmed by other Brahmans, yet with little effect; for the wily Brother- hood held on their way. Again Clement XI., in 1714 and 1719; Benedict XIII., in 1727, issued briefs, insisting on obedience to the decree of De Tournon, to which no attention was paid. But· a yet more ~x­ traordinary instance of disregard of moral obligation followed. Pope Clement XII., in 1739, issued a brief insisting on instant and absolute submission. Every Jesuit bishop and missionary in India was required to subscribe on oath to a most binding document, part only of which can here be given: "I, – – , of tha Society of Jesus, . . . obeying the precept of . . . Pope Clement' XII., . . . issued in 1739, enjoining all the missionaries • • . to take an oath that they will faithfully observe the Apostolic determination concerning the Malabar rites, . . . promise that I will obey fully and faithfully, that I will observe it exactly, entirely, absolutely and inviolably, and that I will fulfil. it without any tergiversation; moreover, that I will instruct the Christians committed to my charge according to the tenor of the said brief, . . . and especially the catechumens, before they shall be baptized, and unless they promise that they will observe the said brief . • . that I will not baptize them; further, that I shall take care, with all possible zeal and diligence, that the ceremonies of the heathen be abolished. . . . Thus, touching the Holy Gospels, I promise now and swear.

• • . Signed with mine own hand, –." t This evidently was designed to be a net from whose meshes no fish should escape; nevertheless, though it was signed by every Jesuit father, the Madura Brotherhood went on their way, systematically doing what~ according to the common understanding of mankind, they had taken an oath not to do !

The fathers yet continuing their methods, another Pope, Benedict XIV., issued a brief, so precise that it was difficult for even Jesuit ingenuity to evade it, and to make it public, commanded that it should be read every Sunday in their congregation, and that all converts should be made to promise obedience to its requisitions. Thus for a century and a half was this deliberate and systematic lying and imposture persevered in, and even then was but reluctantly, sullenly, and partially abandoned, not because it * "MemoireB Historiques," par Ie R. P. Norbert, Lucca edition, tome L, pp. 319-61.

t The original of the brief at full length is found in " MemoireB HiBtoriques," tome ii., p. 465,.' was evil and unchristian, but under the extremest pressure. Jesuitism remained true to its principles of concealment, evasion, and double meaning, if an end is to be gained, and submitted, but did not recant.

And the evil wrought remained. As a Roman Ca~holic historian writes: " In order to take away every pretext for tergiversation, Benedict XIV. issued the bull Omnium Sollicitudium, in which he recited all that had passed on the matter, . . . and left nothing undone in order to put an end to the disputes in regard to the Malabar rites. N6,"ertheless, a leaven of discord always remained between the Jesuits and the other missionaries, aud the latter reproached the formerfor not observing the bull honestly."* What have been the issues of this most shameful and systematic deception, this doing of evil that good might come ~ Ignominious failure, since Christianity has been slandered, the success of missions been hin- dered, and native Christian life and character permanently degraded and weakened! The natives discovered that the Roman Suniassis were, after all, only Feringhees, Europeans in disguise. This enraged and disgusted them. It stopped conversions. It aspersed the Christian name, and men of Western race. It lowered the standard of native Christian life and character almost iJ.leradicably. About twenty-five years after the bull of Benedict was issued, Fra Bartolomeo describes the :Madura Christians as "living in the lowest state of degradation and ignorance." The Abbe Dubois, who was a Roman Catholic missionary in Southern India from 1790 to 1815, gives in his remarkable volume of " Letters on the State of Christianity in India," a most humiliating account of the weakness, ignorance, and superstition of the Roman Catholic converts. Hereis one of his statements: "During a period of twenty-five years tbat I have familiarly conversed with them, lived among them as their religious teacher and spiritual guide, I would hardly dare to affirm that I have anywhere met a sincere and undisguised Christian."

Nor has the evil leaven yet been purged away. In the Harvest Field of this year, p. 329, an experienced and intelligent Protestant missionary in Southern India, the Rev. S. V. Thomas, M.A., thus writes: "Their converts are now to be found in certain districts of South India, in Madura, Trichinopoly. Tangore, and other places. These Catholic Christians, as they call themselves, are living monuments to attest the Jesuit policy louder thatl Pascal's letters or European proverbs. They wear marks on their foreheads as their heathen neighbors do, go to Hindu temples on festival occasions, and bow down before the images of pagan gods, while perhaps they inwardly repeat Paters and Aves. Part of their marriage ceremony is performed in the Christian chapel, and the oouple is blessed by the Catholic priest. When this is done they go home, kindle a fire and walk round it, tie the wedding knot in the presence of Agni, and call upon that fire god to witness the solemn contract. Their church is divided into compart- * " A Continuation of the Church History of Bersult Bercsstei," by Comte de Robiano, tome 1., p. 197. ments, so that the high-class Christians may worship the image of Him who was the friend of outcasts, without being contaminated by the touch of the low-caste worshippers. Christians and the descendants of Christians for several generations, they are sunk in such gross ignorance that, like the good lady in the" Monastery," they are often puzzled to know why Eve forgot to ask the advice of St. Peter or St. Paul before eating the forbidden fruit. Three hundred years of Christianity has left them only where it found themthe slaves of Brahman superstition and of Brahman fraud. Their condition is worse than that of the Samaritans described in the Second Book of Kings, ' Who feared the Lord and worshipped their own strange gods.' "

Such is Jesuitism and its fruits. The leading statements in this paper rclative to the Madura Mission are taken from a remarkable article in the second volume of the. Oalcutta Review, called" The Jesuit Missions in India," by the Rev. Dr. Mackey. The following are the Roman Catholic authorities on which it is principally based: 1. "Lettres Edifiantes et curieuses, ecrites des Missions etrangers, par quelques Missionaires de la Compagnie de Jesus." The original consists of 25 volumes, printed in Paris. The first volume was published in 1717, the last in 1741. The letters they contain were written at various times between 1699 and 1740. 2. "Annales de la Propagation de la Foi." The publication of this was commenced at Lyons, in 1823. . 3. "Memoires Historiques presentes (en 1744) au Souverain Pontife, Benoit XIV. Par Ie R. P. Norbert. Besangon, 1747 j et Luques, 1745. Avec la permissiou des superieurs." Norbert went out as a missionary from Rome to Southern India in 1737. He subsequently held the office of " Procureur General en Cour de Rome des Missions aux lndes Orientales." His work is most condemnatory of the proceedings of the Jesuits, not only in India, but China, and gives ample documentary evidence in proof of his statements. Like the Papal Legate, Cardinal de Tournon, of whose mission he gives a full account, he suffered much from the implacable hostility of the Jesuits.

From the Congo Balolo Mission, Lolongo Station, Lulanga River, Upper Congo, F. Theodora McKittrick writes, correcting a statement in the June number of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD regarding the Mission at Lolongo : "Only one lady here has suffered from fever since our arrival fourteen months ago j three of us have enjoyed wonderfully good health. We are living in what appears to be a healthy neighborhood; the combined fevers of all three of us may perhaps have lasted twenty-four hours. "

MI~SIONARY METHODS OFFICIALLY REVIEWED

MISSIONARY METHODS OFFICIALLY REVIEWED.

BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.

Partially owing to adverse criticisms and partly to increased general intelligence in the Church concerning missionaries and their work in heathen lands, large sections of the Church in Great Britain and some in America, have been led to make a patient and thorough investigation into existing methods of missionary work and their results.

The Wesleyan Missionary Society was precipitated into an investigation of mission economics and mission resnlts in India, by the hasty and extremely indiscreet criticisms of a young missionary, only one year in the country, finding access to the home public through an influential journal, and fostered and fended by its popular and vigorous editor. The result was, the society was obliged to make investigations into the charges against it for allowing extravagant living of its missionaries, and for general expenditure to which results were not commensurate, whether judged of in themselves or by comparison with results achieved by others at less outlay. The ill-feeling and general critical attitude of parties, equally eager to ascertain what was right, but working from wholly divergent points, did not place the society in tile best attitude, to ascertain the calmest judgment, of those whose testimony was essential to a thorongh judicial investigation; but it did result in the severest testing of ,all evidence rendered in the case, and the discarding of everything that did not stand the fiery ordeal of a stiff controversy. We think very good results were obtained, but we cannot discern that anything was elicited under this burning.glass that might not have been better reached by other processes. Be that as it may, this was one of the forms in which answers" were wrought out to clitieism of a dam-· aging nature to missions in general and to those of this society in particular.

The London Missionary Society was favored with a more peaceful method of examining its work and of considering all suggestions that were made commonly public, by the agitation of the missionary critics. They appointed a special committee of investigation on all these subjects of metb(~ds, polio cies, and fields of labor. They secured able men to discuss these questions in formal memoranda. They also invited missionaries of recognized standing of the most prominent and widely separated fields, as China, India, and Madagascar, to lengthened interviews with the ::::pecial Committee.

The Free Church of Scotland sent an able delegation to India to examine all these questions of policy and methods on the field. The Church of Scotland Missionary Society instituted inquiries by correspondence with eminent laymen as well as missionaries, especially concerIling educational methods compared with evangelistic methods of work.

We caunot follow these various investigations in detail. They should convince the Church that missionary societies are careful to keep their whole work on the most approved plans, and are ready to make any advance movement that circumstances and experience demand and justify. We select from the topics specially considered a few, and give the result of the iuquiries, not, however, strictly confining ourselves to these official reports.

CELIBATE MISSIONARIES.

The London Society's committee represents the general concensus of opinion in the matter of sending out unmarried missionaries on the ground of economy and efficiency. The conclusion reached was that the system of celibate missionaries was bad. The results in the case of both native and Roman Catholic missions were unsatisfactory and often worse. China testimony was unqualificdly against celibate missionaries, as presenting insumountable obstacles to the work. In every field it was recognized that the Christian home and Christian family were absolutely necessary for exhibition of Christian life. The committee, therefore, made a minute in accordance with the testimony, and condemned the practice of sending celibate missionaries, exccpt in special cases and for a limited time.

LAY EVANGELISTIC MISSIONARIES.

The general drift of thought among those who have given largest attention to the subject in all fields and all societies is undoubtedly more and more favorable to the employment of If much larger number of Jay missionaries. The openings for their labor are increasing constantly along the avenues of commerce, colonization, and geographical extension; and coincident with this condition is a sort of general movement, which it is judged may be divi~ely originated, among great numbers of young men as well as young women, to engage in some form of work among heathen abroad, as mechanics, teachers, professional persons, engineers, clerks, and other secular offices.

The directors of the London Society have decided to accept offers of service from men who have not passed a course of theological collegiate training, and to send them out for a term of years as lay evangelists; the object being to open the door to foreign service, to men of good education and of proved experience as Christian workers, having missionary enthusiasm. They have to admit, besides, that the theological schools are not at present able to supply the increasing demand for workers. They, however, deem i~ desirable that the study of Christian missions, of the history of philosophy and comparison of religions, should form part of the course of preparatory study for all missionaries, especially for those appointed to India or China. The committee after thorough investigation approved of this action of the directors.

NATIVE AGENCY.

It is often urged that native agents should be relied on to meet the great demand, now unsupplied, for workers. But as yet it is plainly acknowledged that such agency is deficient in quality and quantity, and this, in fact, only points out the necessity as yet but partially cared for, of more institutions for the training of a native ministry, and more trained men to develop them j but as yet these trained men are not forthcoming, and the native ministry is not forthcoming as needed, hence the emergency must be met by accepting others whom God has raised up and thrust on the notice of the societies-laymen eager to be evangelists and teachers abroad.

EDUCATION.

The relation of Christian missions to education, and of educational work to results in conversions, was the gravest question that these societies were called upon to investigate. The Church of Scotland invited one hundred persons to give their opinions on the desirability of maintaining their col- leges in India. Of the eighty-five replies received, sixty-eight were favor- able to their continuance and sixteen unfavorable. Of the seventy Pres- byterians to whom the testimony was submitted, sixty voted favorably to the continuance of the schools. The symposium, composed of the sixty- 'eight opinions received in answer to tho crircular letter of inquiry, is in- structive reading, though mnch of it is quite too general and too long to admit of our making such extracts as would do justice to the authors.

Sir William Muir, formerly Secretary of the Government of India, said: " I have no hesitation whatever in saying that it would be a calamity for . India if missionary schools were withdrawn. Apart from immediate con- version to the faith, their influence on the mind of the people has been of. inestimable value. It was the t!cotch schools and colleges which first called forth the sympathies of Hindus toward Christianity. The country has by them been inoculated with Christian sentiment.

•, I take the Brahmo community as the exponent of this new phase of Indian life. The two sheets enclosed are random specimens of the hold which Christian truths and ideas have gotten of the minds even of those who ostensibly reject them. The Brahmo faith, no doubt, is but a poor travesty of Christianity j but it takes the life and teaching of our Saviour for its real basis, and through it vast numbers have access to the Bible and do study it. The process will go on if our missionary schools are maintained i and they are the only means at present available for leavening the minds of the young."

Sir Richard Temple, Bart., G. C. S. I., argues at length to show that the Educational Commission of 1881-83 felt itself obliged to recommend that the IJducation supported by the Indian Government should be religiously neutral, and though the foremost Hindus of the land deprecated that coarse, circumstances had justified the decision. He says: " If, therefore, the Scottish Missions were to withdraw from educational work in India, the state system of public instruction would be deprived of one of the most important class of institutions which have hitherto tem- pered the exclusively secular teaching of the Government schools. Further, as the native religious leaders have been encouraged to give spiritual in- struction in aided schools of their own, the Indian races would be left to the influence of a constantly increasing propaganda of Hinduism and Islam, while the Christian teaching hitherto given by t1>e Scottish Mission schools and colleges would be curtailed. " In short, just as Hinduism and Mohammedanism are entering more largely into the field of religious instruction in the schoob, Scottish mis- sionaries would be withdrawing from it. So far as regards the welfare of the people of India, therefore, I should deprecate any relaxation of the educlltional efforts of the Missions of the Scottish Church."

Sir Charles E. Bernard, Chief Commissioner of Burmah and Home Secretary of the Indian Government, at the close of .an able paper, says: " In so far as the existing educational system leads men to reject Hindu- ism, it prepares the way for Christianity. But if no effort is made to teach Christianity, and if Ohristian Rchools and colleges were closed, atheism would be unchecked until some extension of Brahmoism or some new sect like the Brahmos arose. If Protestant colleges and schools were abolished or greatly diminished Roman Catholics would probably extend their educa- tional work, and would occupy much of the .ground vacated by Protestant missions. "

Hon. George Edward Knox, formerly Sessions Judge, now Legal-Remem- brancer, Northwest Provinces, say~ : " I feel assured of this fact, that educational missions have, under God's blessing, conferred a boon upon India, and have been permitted by Him to be the means of bringing many souls to Christ. Of the extent of the boon, and of the number of souls, we shall not and cannot hope to have a com- plete record, at any rate until the day when we attain perfect knowledge. I have long entertained a belief that His Word is working secretly to an ex- tent which we cannot perceive, and that the day is not far off when the number of those who are added to the Church will be as unexpected as was the draught of fishes after our Lord's resurrection. May we be prepared to me~t it! The practice of employing heathen teachers should, I say unhesitatingly, be abandoned."

Sir William W. Hunter, an unquestioned authority on all things per- taining to India, as preface to a most interesting paper, says: "With reference to the welfare of the peoples of India, I should regard any withdrawal of the Scottish Missions from the work of education as disastrous. The weak point in our system of Indian public instruction is our inability to give any form of religious teaching in our state schools. We cannot teach Christianity, for the great proportion of the tax-payers are Hindus and Mohammedans. We cannot teach Hinduism or Islam, for we are a Christian Government. The result is an absence of religious teaching of ar:y sort, which the natives of India deeply deplore."

Rev. J. Murdoch, LL. D., of the Christian Vernacular Education Society, says: " It would be a great calamity if the higher education in India fell exclusively into the hands of Government, the Jesuits, and Hindus."

We cannot pursue this repertoire of very thoughtful expression of judgment and of most expert testimonv. It is fair to say, however, that the whole question is not covered in the above extracts.

SOME OF THE DIFFICULTIES.

But the troublesome kernel of this whole question still remains. Are these schools giving Christian education and reaching definite results in conversion 1 One of the recognized difficulties is the scarcity of Christians competent to do the teaching, and 1ence the employment of non-Christian teachers. The London Society's Committe(; thus conclude on the whole subject: " Ad things stand at present, such a course of instruction as will pre- pare for University degrees and Government service, necessitates the em- ployment of non-Christian teachers. An adequate supply of Christian teachers is not forthcoming. Difference of language forbids the trans- ference of teachers from one part of India to another. The non-Christian teachers are, of course, confined to secular subjects, and work under the eye and control of the missionary. Still, it is evident that their presence and influence detract from the Christian character of the school ; and may even, in some cases, seriously hinder the work and influence of the mis- sionary. By some devoted friends of missions, in India and at home, this danger is deemed so serious that they are ready to abandon our edu- cational work sooner than tolerate the presence of non-Christian teachers in mission schools. The grave responsibility and inevitable results of fluch a course must be fairly faced. It would mean the reduction of our schools to the level of elementary vernacular schools-the surrender of our hold on the young mind of India, in this crisis of its intellectual and moral history, when the first stirrings of ~ national mind are beginning to be felt, and old faiths are tottering to their fall. It would mean the handing over of the cultured youth' of India, the hope of the future, either to schools from which religion is systematically excluded, where morality has therefore no firm footing, and where there may be Agnostic and Positivist teachers as bitterly hostile to Christianity as the heathen; or clse to Rome and the Jesuits, eagerly watching the opportunity to step in and fill our empty place. "

THE EXPLANATION.

A really much more penetrating view of the whole subject is found in the conclusions reached by the Free Church Delegation. vVe do not know how far this has been made public, nor how far we are at liberty to make public what was committed to us witb the implication that it was official matter, for exclusively official uses. But surely the following most impor- tant general points are of too great value, and quite too general to make our use of them obtrusive or too enterprising. They admit that the Mission Colleges do not now produce the number of converts they once did. In fact, they produce hardly any, and they are not to be looked for. This was not the case in the old days. Dr. Duff and his colleagues had a noble band of converts from the college in Cal- 'cutta. So was it in Bombay and Madras. Why should this have been, and yet not even be anticipated now 1 We wish we could give much space to the reasons so ably assigned. 1. In the earlier days of mission colleges and lligh schools there was no balf-way house between Hinduism and all its abominations, and Christianity. Educated young men had to remain Hin- dus and accept what they came to loathe, or become Christians. There is now no such limitation. Oriental scholars have recovered the earlier Hindu faith, which has fewer disgusting elements, and even some elements of morality. There has, besides, been a decided attempt to read the spirit of Christianity into Hinduism. All this makes new conditions ; the then and now are not alike.

2. There is also the position which the higher schools are obliged to take in the Government system of education. The colleges are affiliated to the universities, and must satisfy Government educational requirements. This results in a pressure on the missionary for an amount of teaching which precludes the quiet personal talks on religious matters, and the private companies gather.ed formerly for instruction in Christian truth. The school is in the toils of competitive work and its secular results are essential to its Government revenue, and the teaching force is, at the minimum to reach this secular standard alone. The preparation former1y wont.to be made for conversion in the class is well-nigh out of the question.

3. In the old days baptisms sometimes suddenly emptied the school for a time, but the support of the 8chool being drawn from the missionary treasury, it was financially unaffected; but now these colleges and high schools are dependent on Government because its grants are conditioned on the fees raised in the school, and Ii stampede from the school means a finan· cial collapse in that portion of mission work; aud neither the local mission nor the home treasury is prepared to meet such emergency.

Professor Miller, in the Contemporary Review, October, 1889, cautions the public what to expect of mission high schools. " Education," he says, " is not fitted to bring men of immature minds, whose characters are only in process of being formed, into the organized Christian Church upon any extensive scale. . . . But it is fitted to plant thoughts and awaken impulses which may make the work of the missionary tell more powerfully.

It is in rare cases more than preparatory." There is no doubt that the general opinion is that educational work absolutely mnst be supported by evangelistic work. But there is still another side to this entire question, which has not been touched in any of the quotations or references we have made. What about the schools, the higher schools, as essential to the existing native Christian community V They cannot be educated in Hindu or Moslem schools, and the Government schools are positively negative or worse in religion. What then V We will let R,lV E. W; Parker, D.D., and Rev. E. H. Badley, D.D., of North India, state this case. This is their utterance about the work in the North India Methodist Mission: " Our evangelistic work is bringing in converts at the rate of 6000 per year, with a rapidly increasing ratio, and our s«hools have had and are haying a very important share in this work. We never could have had this work without our schools, and we dare not continue it without them. If we go forward-and go forward we must-we must educate or we will have a heathen Christian Church. "

But the Free Church Commission boldly puts the question also of the relation of higher education to the higher class of the Indian population. It is, they say, the only way of reaching them. They deliberately assert that, " Unless the Christian Church is prepared to abandon its efforts to get a hearing for Christianity among caste Hindus, unless it is prepared to confine its missionary enterprise to the sixty or eighty II ilIions outside Hinduism proper, this higher education must be included among missionary agencies and given an important place."

The Rev. Archibald Turnbull, B.D., of the Church of Scotland Mission in Darjeeling, with its 1200 converts, remarks that the discipline exercised by the monthly Panchayat (church-court) would seriously decimate the home churches. Our Scottish brethren have a high standard, and apply it strenuously.

Our readers already know that another of the "Soudan Pioneer Band," Mr. Helmick, who received the best medical treatment, has, like others before him, fallen a prey to the African fever. His letters show that even his short career in Africa has left the seed of a blessing in that dark soil. Mr. Brooke was also very sick with typhoid, and had to go away for a rest. We fear that too much blame has needlessly attached to other members of the Soudan Pioneer Company, because they refused medical treatment. One of the principal physicians of New York City has recently stated to the editor that if he were going to explore Africa, he would rather trust to the vigor of his constitution, with care as to his habits, than to risk a greater injury to his system by the daily use of quinine. He says the quinine habit is sometimes as dangerous and enslaving as the opium habit.-EDIToR.] Mr. A. R. Miles, referring to Treasurer Dulles's note in November REVIEW, writes from Bogota, that while the silver law has caused exchange to depreciate, the loss this year will not fall on the Boards-at least not on the Presbyterian Board. The appropriations being made on a gold basis, the loss is borne by the stations in the countries where silver is the monetary basis. The salaries of the missionaries of the Presbyterian Board North are fixed on a gold basis, and do not fluctuate from year to year.

Reginald Radcliffe, Esq., writes from Liverpool urgently appealing for greatly increased prayer in behalf of world-wide missions. He says it is time to " call a halt!" that we may consider whether the greatest need of the mission work to-gay be not that believers unite with each other in believing appeals at the Throne of Grace. We believe Mr. Radcliffe is right, and have often urged this as the grand and imperative demand of our missionary work. The laborers, the money, the energy, the enterprise will all be abundant when we get on our faces in penitence, in faith, in obedience, independence; and when our confidence is only in God. Then every door now shut will open. and every door now open wilL.be entered, and every field be sown with the good seed of the kingdom.

LING CHING TING, THE CONVERTED OPIUM-SMOKER

LING CHING TING, THE CONVERTED OPIUM-SMOKER.

BY REV. S. L. BALDWIN, D.D.

In 1863, as the Rev. S. L. Binkley was preaching one day in the Mission Chapel at Ato, in the southern suburbs of the great city of Foochow, China, a mim about forty years of age, seeing the chapel doors open, strayed in out of curiosity, and took a seat with the congregation. He listened with great attention to the preaching; and, at the close of the service, when all the rest of the audience had gone out, he made his way up to the altar, and said to the missionary, "Did you say that Jesus (I never heard of Him bcfore : 1 don't know who He is); but did you say that He can save me from all my sins ?" "Yes," replied, Mr. Binkley, "that is"just what 1 said." " But, ,. the Chinaman responded, "you didn't know me when you said that; you didn't know that 1 have been a gambler and a sorcerer for many years; you didn't know that I have been a licentious man; you didn't know that I have been an opium-smoker for twenty years, and every " one knows that any man who has smoked opium for that length of time can never be cured of the habit. If you had known all this, you wouldn't have said t.hat Jeflus can save me from all my sins-would you 1" " Yes," r-eplied the missionary, " I would havc said just what I did; and I tell you now that Jesus can save you from all your sins."

The poor, sinful Chinaman was bewildered. It seemed to him impossible of belief. Yet there was a charm about the very idea of a Saviour, who could deliver him from all his sins. He went away in deep thought. The next day he sought Mr. Binldey at his residence, to talk with him about this wonderful Saviour j and day after day for many days he came, examining the proofs of Christianity, and bringing his objection~ to be solved by the missionary. But one day he came to the missionary's study with a radiant countenance, exclaiming as he entered: "I know it! I know it ! I know that J csus can save me from my sins; for He has done it !"

He had a gteat battle to overcome his habit of opium-smoking, but seeking help from his new.found Saviour, he soon conquered, and said, " I don't want to smoke opium any more; I don't want to do any of the evil things I have been doing; but I want to go and tell the people of Hok-chiang that Jesus can save them from their sins." When his friends heard of his purpose, they tried to dissuade him, saying, " Don't go down, there j the people are fighting there all the time j they will soon take your head off, and that will stop your 'Preaching. If you will preach the , foreign doctrine,' stay here at Foochow and preach it where you will be safe." But he replied, "No j I must go to flok-chiang. The people there need the Gospel, and they are my people. I came from there, and I must go and tell them about Jesus. "

There was no time for a college course or for theological training. He went out with the Word of God in his hand, and the experience of his Saviour'8 love in his heart. His lSimple message to the people everywhere was, "Jesus can save you from all your sins; I know it, for He has saved me from mine!" He suffered much persecution-stoned in one place, pelted with mud in another, beaten in another, he pressed on with ill.domitable energy, proclaiming everywhere his simple message of salvation. Many listened to his earnest words anrl became followers of Christ.

After a time he was caught by his enemies in the city of Hok-chiang, and brought before the district magistrate, with false charges against him, and false witn~sses to testify to them j and the too-willing heathen magistrate sentenced him to be beaten with two thousand stripes. This cruel sentence was executed with the bamboo upon the bare back of the victim. I well remember the day when he was brought to our Mission premises, apparently almost dead. I well remember the sorrowful countenance of our good Scotch physician, as he came out of the room, after examining his patient, and said, " I don't think we can save him. I never saw such terrible injuries from beating. The flesh on his back is like quivering jeUy. But we will do our best to save him." I remember how I thought over some of the comforting words of Jesus, as I made my way toward the room, that I might try to comfort my brother in his great distress; and I remember, too, the smile with which he greeted me, and how he, speaking first, before I had a chance to say anything, said: "Teacher, this poor body is in great pain just now; but my inside heart has great peace. Jesus is with me ; and I think perhaps He will take m!> to heaven, and I will be glad to go. " And then I could see the old fire flashing again in his eyes, as with effort he raised himself a little from his bed, and said, " But if I get up from this, you'll let me go back to Hok-chiang, won't you ~"

He was in a precarious condition for some time, but soon began to mend; and before the missionaries thought he ought to leave the premises, he was off again to Hok-chiang, preaching to the very men who had persecuted him, and with such effect that some of them were converted, and became members of our church in that city.

He continued to preach with much energy and success for a period of fourteen years. He was ordained by Bishop Kingsley, in 1869. Soon after he was appointed to Teng-tiong in 1876, finding himself very ill, he went to his native island of Lam-yit, hoping to improve in the sea breezes, and under the care of physicians there. But when, after some weeks, they told him that his case was hopeless, and that he could not live many weeks, hc said: "Then I must go back to my station. I only came here in hope of getting well, so as to do Jonger service; but if I cannot, then I want to go where my work is, and die at my post. " So, in his feebleness, he made his way back to Teng-tiong ; and when he could no longer stand to preach, he sat down, gathered the Christians close around him, and talked to them of the love of Jesus, and His power to save from sin.

On Saturday – evening, May 19th, 1877, he sang two verses of the " Saturday Evening Hymn," beginning, " To.night all worldly things we clear away; To.morrow, keep holy the Sabbath day."

Finding himself unable in his weakness to sing more, he slowly repeated the last lines : " Resting on Jesus, my heart has no fear ; I shall reach heaven, my evidence is clear."

Casting a look of tender affection upon his family and the Christian brethren who were present, he gave them his parting blessing, and in a few moments, peacefully breathed his life away, leaving hundreds of converts to Christ, and among them a score of native preachers, brought into the Church through his labors.

Mr. Binkley was obliged to return to the United States, by the illness of his wife, before he had been two years in China. I remember how the tears flowed down his face, as I stood with him on the deck of the steamer which was to bear him away, and he said, " I can't bear to go home, when I haven't yet been able to do anything for Jesus here." But in leading this one man to Christ, our dear brother was honored of God in doing a work which will go on in increasing power while the world lasts.

Our last reports show over seven hundred members, over five hundred probationers, and over fifteen hundred adherents in the Hok-chiang district. Does it not pay to preach the Gospel to the Chinese ~ [The above article has already been published in tract form j it has; however, awakened such deep interest that the editor has asked permission of- Dr. Bald win to reprint it in the pages of this REVIEW. Among all the narratives of the mighty power of God in the conversion of a human soul, we believe that not even the Acts I of the Apostles give a more convincing example. We commend the reading of this tract to those who have charge of missionary meetings and monthly concerts. It is of itself a sufficient vindication of missions. -EDITOR.] Word comes from Figueras, Spain, of thi opening of the new hall and schools, in October last. Over 1000 persons were present, and most decorons was the assembly. Copies of the New Testament and religions tracts were distributed as the crowd dispersed. About $3000 are needed to pay for the new accommodations. The Town Council of Figueras has actually granted £5 sterling to the Protestant hospital or dispensary in acknowledgment of charity exteuded to patients, and there was only one dissenting vote! Here is an act unparalleled in th~ religious history of Spain. The work seems reaching all classes of people. Children from high Catholics are being transferred from the convents to these Protestant schools. We regard this work of Signor Rodriguez as very remarkable and promising.

WHY MISSIONS ARE SO ,MODERN

WHY MISSIONS ARE SO MODERN.

BY REV. DELAVAN L. LEONARD, D.D.

How happened it that the work of evangelizing the world, after centuries of such vigorous prosecution, attended with such marvellous success, was afterward well nigh suspended, and for well nigh fifteen hundred years? This most serious question we answer correctly Dy alleging that Europe became semi-barbarized and half-heathen, that the Church became secularized and religion formal, that Gospel faith, and love, and zeal went into long and almost total eclipse.

But this only leads to another question equally pertinent, and corriing much nearer home: Why, when through the Reformation ensued an astonishing spiritual quickening, a widespread revival of New Testament fervor and force, was not the sublime task at once resumed and pushed as at the beginning? Or, how happened it that for nearly three hundred years longer next to nothing was even attempted, so that the nineteenth century ·of grace was well on its way before the ears of the Christian Church began to be opened to hear the agonizing wail of a dying world? To this latter question let us seek a reply more at length; and also together with it, to the further and pleasanter query, How came it about at length that His disciples began to reperuse their Lord's Great Commission, and, though slowly, began to obey his last command? It is my purpose to set briefly forth some of the principal and more patent causes which hindered the beginning of modern missions and postponed them to a day so painfully and so culpably late, and also other conspiring forces which in the fulness of time made a beginning easily possible, and communicated the heavenly impulse, and then carried the majestic movement onward from strength to strength, from grace to glory.

And, first of all, be it remembered that in God's strange providence Protestantism was compelled at once to engage in a most terrible life-anddeath struggle with Rome, one whose fury did not in the least abate for five or six generations, and which has continued to the present time. The new doctrine must establish a right to existence, must conquer standing ground for itself, define and then enlarge to the utmost its bounds in Christian countries. So that as yet there was neither much time nor energy left to expend upon the vast and even far more benighted regions beyond. In Babylon, out of which they in horror had lately fied, the reformers found a foe ever present. wily, unscrupulous, and most determined to crush them, and commonly with the ruthless civil power in close league and co-operation. The horrid enginery of the Inquisition was steadily at work, and the Jesuits were. plotting destruction night and day. All Germany was in perpetual chaos, social, political, and religious. Recall the unspeakable desolations attending the almost constant "religious" wars of those dark days; the hapless and most tragic lot of the W alUenses and Albigenses; how the Huguenots found no rest from persecution, and finally were slaughtered by the wholesale, imprisoned, impoverished, and driven from France. For the better part of a century little Holland bent the utmost of her almost miraculous energies to save herself from utter destruction by the diabolical schemes of Philip II. and his Duke of Alva. And as for England, in the persons first of the Lollards and later of the Puritans, those who would have none of Rome suffered manifold afflictions from Henry VIII., Bloody Mary, Elizabeth, and the four Stu'arts, for a hundred and fifty continuous years in all j nor was the fearful stress finally over until happy 1688. Therefore, it is not at all to be counted strange that the dreary and bloody sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed no evangelistic crusades to speak of aimed at remote Africa, Asia, America, and the islands of the sea.

But besides the theological and ecclesiastical strifes which began from the Reformation, esteemed one and all by the frenzied combatants " wars of the Lord," were almost as bitter, as exhausting, and even more interminable thau the clash of arms. And, indeed, the task was tremendous, full of difficulty, demanding the .utmost of wisdom and skill, to separate Bible truth from Romish error, with which for more than a millennium it had become worse and worse intermingled. The trouble extended to all matters of both belief and practice. The reformers of necessity resorted to the Scriptures anew and investigated for themselves. The human mind and conscience now jllilt set free from age-long and galling tyranny, of course were altogether unused to untrammelled exercise, and so not strangely they ran riot sometimes, and went to the other extreme of license, lawlessness, anarchy. Sects sprang up by the score, all manner of hobbies got upon their feet and performed their antics before high heaven. While some would bring the least change possible to religious beliefs and customs, others would reject to the utmost, and thus be as unlike as possible to the harlot of the Reven Hills! But the most temperate and conservative were compelled to fashion fresh creeds and church forms. And, should ecclesiastical rule be monarchic or aristocratic, as aforetime, or democratic rather ~ And the confession, should it be of the Augsburg pattern, or of the Helvetic, or the Gallic, or the Belgic ~ Which was verily nearest to God's Word, the Heidelberg, the Westminster, the Thirty-nine Articles, or the Savoy 1 The spirit of war filled the air, fighting was the chief business in all realms, and hence Luther was hot against Zwingli, and both against Calvin, and all three could by no means in the least tolerate the heresies of Servetus, Arminius, and the rest. In England for long it was not only Protestant always against Catholic, but also war to the knife between the Established Church and Presbyterians, and Puritans, and Independent~ and Baptists, and Quakers, etc. Nor, indeed, in the nature of things, could it be any light matter, a short and simple process, to escape altogether from the intellectual and moral night of the Dark Ages, to return fully to the , truth as it is in Jesus, or for Protestantism to come thoroughly to itself, to a knowledge of its sublime mission, and as well to fashion the needed instrumentalities for its accomplishment.

A further difficulty as good as insuperable was found in the fact that everywhertl Church and State, the spiritual therefore and the material, were closely united, and so long had the relation existed that now it seemed to most to be not only eminently proper, but also necessary. This was another portiQn of the evil inheritance received from Rome; but as a result religion had come to be largely a political affair, to be managed in cabinets by kings and statesmen and generals, by them to be fostered and guided, to be defended by the secular arm. Force was in common use to punish opinions and convictions which by theologians, or philosophers, or politicians were adjudged pestilential. And such a wretched caricature of the teachings and example of Christ as resulted was not at all fit to be carried to the ends of the earth. Better wait for generations until this unnatural and unchristian alliance is ended, and a sharp distinction is made between the things of Cresar and the things of God.

And then, in addition, as yet nothing of importance in any realm of activity was undertaken and prosecuted by the individual of his own motion, from an impulse abounding~ within, but every movement was by prescription, authority of pope or king, and under the lead of orders, and companies, and guilds. The day of voluntary associations was not yet, and far in the future. The benighted people were nobodies, but cattle to be driven or clay to be moulded, instruments to be played upon by the few enjoying the divine right to originate, and shape, and manage. As we shall see, what little was done to carry the Gospel abroad was devised wholly and engineered in every case by royalty and privileged corporations. As far lUI possible all this from the glorious days of the apostles and of their successors, when missionary effort was mainly individual, when the entire body of Christ was instinct and overflowing with celestial aggressive force. No world-wide progress could be made uutil such ignoble and enfeebling bonds were in some way broken, and if need be through violent civil .and ecclesiastical overturning, and the rude shock of war. The English revolution, with the sublime outburst of the Puritan spirit, must precede, and the American, yes, and also the French, with the terrible throes and destructions included 'of the Napoleonic campaigns, to end a great host of old abuses, to teach p·riests and nobles an unpalatable lesson in humility and modesty, to exalt the rights and privileges of the many. Above all, the religious world was waiting for the rise of a great people beyond the sea, untrammelled by tradition, God-fearing, intelligent, each one trained to think and act for himself, with democracy in the State reacting upon the Church, a people loving liberty of thought and conviction better than life. Then, at fellgth, the Gospel, free as at the first, left to itself to do its appointed work under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and the guidance of the Word, an<l with reliance only upon spiritual forces, couId enlarge itself indefinitely on every side, and spread around the whole earth.

• There was yet another obstacle to the origin and growth of mIssiOns, well nigh prohibitory, and resident in the fact that for nearly a hundred years after the rise of the Reformation Protestant peoples possessed no point of contact with the heathen world. Hence the existence of any widely extended and deplorable moral darkness was a mere matter of hear- say and untested theory. All navigation to distant paris of the world, all commerce, all colonization were exclusively in the handt! of such z!lalous servitors of Rome as Portugal and Spain. Because Catholics saw with their own eyes they also felt, and sent out missionaries in abundance. It •was not until after the destruction of the Spanish Armada and the rapid decline of those powers behind the Pyrenees that Prot~stant England, Holland, and Denmark stepped forward to the first rank as rulers of the ocean. But a few years more elapsed before colonies were planted at Jamestown, at Plymouth, and on Manhattan Island, while factories were opened in South Africa, Asia, and the Indies, both East and West. And when thus finally the supreme naval and commercial hegemony passed into Protestant hands, it was the Lord's sure token that the pure Gospel was about to fly abroad.

Then, in due season, followed yet other and even more astounding victories for the rising faith of Luther, and these chiefly through British valor and aggressive enterprise. It was nothing less than one of the greatest epochs in human history, especially in relation to the career of all English-speaking people, and the publishing of the message of salvation to all mankind, when almost in the same year Clive conquered at Plassey and Wolfe at Quebec, and thus 200,000,000 Hindus were brought into closest intercourse with English Christians, and the French were driven from this continent to make room for the speedy rise of a " Greater Britain," which should fairly rival the mother country as an ardent evangelizer, and continually provoke her to Gospel good works.

One more step of a similar character remained to be taken, nor was it long delayed. Since the generation which followed Columbus. and Magellan, and the Cabots there had been a litrange and long-continued apathy with regard to carrying forward to completion the discovery of unknown regions. Little progress was made in that direction save by a few like Barentz, and Tasman, and Behring, until Captain Cook's three famous voyages (1769-79). In· particular he turned the attention of the civilized world to such continental land spaces as Australia and New Zealand and New Guinea, and brought to light in the vast and hitherto untraversed expanse of the Pacilic, the South Seas of a century since, islands innumerable, such as the Society, the Friendly, an<f the Sandwich groups. We can little understand. the great stir that was made, the boun·dless en- thusiasm that was kindled by his achievements. The deeds of our Living- stone and Stanley were received coldly by comparison; and the impulse . directly given to the cause of missions was immediate and very great. Two facts in evidence of this must suffice. It was the reading of Cook's narrative that first set Carey's soul on fire with holy zeal, and his original purpose was to proclaim Christ to the heathen in Tahiti. And, moreover, the London Missionary Society, at whose organization such a remarkable wave of religious zeal arose and spread all over Britain, was formed expressly to carry the cross to the South Seas, and in Tahiti its earliest representatives first touched land and opened their work.

A final step remainp,d in preparing the way for successful attempts to turn the heathen from their idols to worflhip the living God. A mighty and widespread outpouring of the Spirit of the Most High had long been the chief desideratum. From various causes in conjunction during the.' latter part of the seventeenth and extending far into the eighteenth, a sad and dark eclipse of faith had befallen the reformed churches throughout both Europe and America, a serious decline of vital piety, a lapse into frigid formalism and rank rationalism. The only zeal left was for an orthodoxy which was stone dead. After the Restoration in England had ensued a woful reaction, a descent into infidelity and immorality. "Never has there been a century in England so void of faith as that which began with Queen Anne and ended with George II., when the Puritans were buried and the Methodists wp,re not born." In 1732, when the Moravian Church came into being, cheering evidence began to appear that the Lord's grace and mercy were not clean gone forever from his apostate people. And a little later began to descend those refreshing showers of divine blessing through the fervid and tireless labors of the "'IVesleys, Whitp,field, and our own Edwards, whereby were supplied to hundreds and thousands a spirit truly apostolic, a zeal fiery and vehement, a faith hardy and venturesome, . like that which inspired the church in the pentecostal age. Without this almost unparalleled anointing from on high modern missions could never have begun to be, but now it was possible for the kingdoms of this world to become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.

Closely akin to what has just been mentioned, and in great part as a result of the operation of the same spiritual forces, the heart of Christendom began to be strangely touched, and melted, and filled with compassion for the millions who were perishing-that is, the spirit of humanity, of philanthropy, of the Good Samaritan, which is inherent in the 'Gospel, was everywhere active in the early days, but had long since been almost quenched, was wondrously revived. Even Christian souls were in an unfeeling, an inhuman frame, reflecting thus the old pagan and barbarous times. Sorrow and woe found slight sympathy. When the general case was so forlorn little heed was given to the misery of others, especially if .of a different nation, out of sight, !It a distance. But a marked change in this regard was at the door. Howard had started upon his painful journeys to mitigate the grievous wrongs inflictcd upon prisoners; the voice of Wilberforce was lifted up in denunciation of the sin of African slavery, and Raikcs had opened his first ragged school. And all this was but the feeble beginning of an era of reforms which constitute one of the most striking characteristics of the passing century, as well as one of its best claims to be remembered with gratitude in centuries to come. And of this pity and compassion the heathen world presently began to receive at least a portion of its share. '

This brief glance at the Protestant Christian world, extending from near the beginning of the sixteenth century to near the end of the eighteenth, is sufficient abundantly to show that the long failure of the Lord's host to go up and possess the earth for Christ, though in no inconsiderable degree their sin and shame, and because of their indifference and unbelief, was also in yet greater part their misfortune, the result of their evil environments, for which they were not responsible, and which they were compelled to endure. Moreover, those tempestuous years were not by any means wholly wasted, but, on the contrary, were an all-important and indispensable period of extensive seed-sowing in preparation for the magnificent missionary harvest to follow. At length the time was fully ripe. Rome was now so badly battered that no longer need any live in mortal fear lest either by guile or by open assault she should recapture lost territory, and therefore Protestant Christianity could well afford to face some other way than toward the Tiber. Freedom, both ecclesiastical and civil, had extensively become the inheritance of the masses, and to them the printing press and the public school were fast bringing intelligence. There were no more lands to be discovered, and the steamship and the rail car were soon to make easily accessible the very ends of the earth. And, finally, in the nick of time a few, at least, in loving obedience to the command of their risen and ascended Lord, were ready to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.

The news from the Micronesian missionaries, received January 6th, by way of Japan, Was brought there by the steamship Alliance, Commander H. C. Taylor. It is briefly summarized as follows: The shelling of Ouas Ponape and the burning of the mission premises by the Spaniards took place September 20th. The missionaries, Mr. Rand, Misi Fletcher, and'Miss Palmer, were then at Kiti, on the other side of the island. On October 16th, the United States man-of-war Alliance arrived at Kiti, and after some effort, Commander Taylor was permitted to take Mr. Rand, the ladies, and seventeen girls from their school to Kuraie. There are now, therefore, no American missionaries on Ponape. It was useless for them to remain, for the governor had strictly forbidden the holding of any meetings or the opening of schools. It is a sad day for Ponape ; and it is neither to the honor nor to the advantage of Spain, as it breaks stipulations with the United States.-Missionary Herald.

England, Germany, Italy, and Portugal have signed an agreement for the reCiprocal protection of missionaries of these four nationalities who settle in Africa, in regions accorded to their respective States by the recent treaties. For liberty to exercise their ministry the missionaries must have a passport from the government to which they belong. -Missionary Herald.

THE LONDON PAPERS AND INDIA'S WOMEN

THE LONDON PAPERS AND INDIA'S WOMEN.

BY MRS. J. T. GRACEY.

An impression prevails that many of the stories concerning the evils of child-marriage and enforced widowhood in India are somewhat exaggerated.

Upon opening a recent India paper, I read the following: "In one of the largest cities of Southern India a marriage was recently arranged between a young man of twenty-three years, suffering from white leprosy all over his body, and a bright young girl of only twelve. The girl was bargained for, and rupees five hundred were paid down in hard cash. She of course knew nothing of the arrangements made until told by her father, ~hen she quietly submitted to her fate with a resignation characteristic of a Hindu maid."

Turning over the page, another item fell under my notice : "On Sat- urday last a young girl-wife, aged eight years, was admitted into the hos- pital suffering from burns all over her body, caused by her husband having branded her with a hot iron because she was absent from the house rather longer than usual." Still another: "A marriage has been celebrated within the week in which the bridegroom (name given) is aged 35 years, to an infant nine months old!" A marriage was recently performed be- tween a Brahman and fourteen girls belonging to one family. The corre- spondent of a native paper says : " We learned that fourteen Misses Ban- nerji were to be given away; I went to the spot out of curiosity. I saw the bridegroom older than a grandfather, seated on a painted wooden scat, and fourteen girls, varying in age from three to twenty-six years, seated about him in the form of a crescent. The ladies were veiled, and faces east down, as if they were cursing their parents for shambling them in this fashion." This was not done a century ago. It was done in the latter half of this year of grace, 1890.

Instance after instance could be given, but these facts, a few of many occurring within the last few months of ] 890, will surely prove that the statements have not been exaggerated. Then another item attracts our attention: "The number of persons who died by violence or accident in the Bengal Province alone this past year was between thirty and forty thousand; more than ten per cent of these deaths were from suicide, and the greater number of suicides were among women. " Poor women, with life so intolerable it cannot be borne ! .

For several years past the London Times has most ably discussed these evils in its columns. At one time a series of articles appeared gi.ving most startling facts in regard to existing customs, and demanding a reform in the interests of humanity, and when it became known that these articles were written by a Hindu woman, who knew from bitter experience whereof she wrote, a most profound 8ensation was created.

In a recent issue of the paper a very able editorial appeared, headed, " The Fundamental Problem," in which it explains the origin of the social condition of caste women in India, and deals with the general subject of legisla- tion. This is followed by a letter from a Mr. Malabari of Bombay, an Indian reformer and a Parsee, who has for many years been indefatigable in his efforts in India to stir up the natives to' the physical, social, and moral evils of these customs. He has been recently in England, nsing vig- orously both pen and voice in the hope of arousing public opinion, where legislation onght to begin. He sayR: "The system of infant marriages in India has spread under the regis of British-made laws." He has writ- ten a pamphlet entitled, "An Appeal from the Daughters of India." He urges English women to use their influence, and the Government its authority, to help banish these terrible evils.

Rukhmabai, the young and accomplished Hindu lady, whose sentence of six months' imprisonment for refu'sing to marry the husband to whom she had been betrothed in infancy, awakened such sympathy a few years ago, comes out in a very excellent article on the subject ia the September num- ber of the New Review.

And now Punch takes up the subject, having for its text the following extracts from the T!mes editorial : " It is our national boast that odious and cruel institutions cannot long breathe the atmosphere in which the Queen rules. But in India we have long connived at cruelties-cruelties none the less odious because practised in the name of religion, and upon victims that mutely acquiesce in their fate-which need only to be understood to excite profound repugnance and compassion. The time has arrived for the rulers of India to ask them- selves whether they can any longer throw the shield of British law over the tortures perpetrated upon the Hindu child-wife and the Hindu child-widow."

Again: " Before the' silent millions' who make up the rank and file of Hindus, discard the cruelties of their marriage system, their opinions, preju- dices, and habit of thought must change. Nothing is more certain than that they will change slowly j but we hold to the belief that judicious leg- islation will hasten the process more powerfully than anything else."

A full-page cartoon is given to the subject under a legend, " The Shield and the Shadow": "At the feet and clasping the skirts of the armed Island Queen-the Shield, kneels in agony the child-wife or child-widow, behind whom, closely pursuing, is a dark menacing shadow, ' Caste,' " and in a dozen or more ringing stanzas Punch states some very plain truths, and closes with these lines: – " Poor child ! the dark shadow that closely pursues her Means menacing Terror, she sues for a shield, And how shall the strong lEgis-bearer refuse her? '.rhe bondage of caste to calm justice must yield.

" We dare not be deaf to the voice of the pleader For freedom and purity, nature and right, Let Wisdom, high-throned as controller and leader, Meet cruelty's steel with the shield of calm might!"

WOMAN'S WORK

Docs anything practical come out of this agitation? Yes, but it comes ·slowly. In England !J, very influential' committee has been formed including the names of three ex-viceroys of India, as well as several ex-governors and lieutenant-governors, who are familiar with the facts, and such a committee will have influence.

Then the Christian women of England are being stirred as never before, and as a result, a society has been formed called" The Indian Widows' Union." It is an organization of the Christian women of England for the purposeof improving the condition of Hindu and Mohammedan widows in India. The members are" widows only," but any Christian woman may become an " associate member." They pledge themselves to prayer that God will break the yoke and set the captive free. They raise money to be expended in training widows to useful industries, and they gather and diffuse information with regard to the condition of the widows. At the head of this institution is the Dowager Lady Dynevor, and a depot for the work done by the widows has beep. established at West Kensington.

The agitation in India by the native press, and by liberal and advanced natives on the platform, and this agitation in England should, and surely must lead the Government soon to act j but the evil lies too deep for the Government to remove. Nothing but the teachings of the Gospel of Christ will reach the root of the evil, or cure the disease.

WOMAN'S WORK.

The Woman's Board of Missions of Boston (Congregational) held its twenty-third annual meeting in Hartford, January 13th-15th.

Over two hundred delegates represented its constituency in New England, New York, and Pennsylvania.

At the delegates' special meeting on Tuesday, the subject of first importance was the pressing, imperative need of money. This was ably emphasized in a paper on "Aggressive Work" at home, presented by Miss A. B. Child, Home Secretary.

It marshalled such an array of startling facts that it ought to take every woman's auxiliary by storm, and make "aggressive work" for the treasury of each a success, so that the advan,ce called for this year, $25,000, may be secured without fail. This leaflet, "Aggressive Work," is already in print for circulation.

This Board is invited to meet in Brooklyn, N. Y., III 1892.

One result of General Booth's scheme will be found, we hope, in renewed attention to the rescue work done by the clergy. Looking into an appeal sent out by the Rev. J. H. Scott, rector of Spital fields, we find that in this one parish "during the past year 230 cases [women and girls] have been dealt with, llO of whom were below the age of twenty years j 104 hav~ been sent to rescue homes, 13 returned to their parents, 21 sent to hospitals, 11 to service, and the remainder dealt with in a variety of ways." This is, of course, b,ut one side of the work carried on from year to year in such parishes fiS Spitalfields and WhitechapeI.

THE LIGHT IN DARKEST ENGLAND

THE LIGHT IN DARKEST ENGLAND.

BY FRANCIS EDWARD SMILEY, EVANGELIST.

The.!' Bitter Cry of Outcast London," ., In Darkest England," and other startling announcements of the social and spiritual destitution of our cousins across the sea have conveyed to those, unfamiliar with the numerous agencies struggling to deliver the" submerged tenth," the erroneous im- pression that the misery has resulted from the Laodicean apathy of the churches themselves. We hear so much about the lapsed classes and so little of the saved masses, that the pessimistic world regards England, and especially London, as synonymous with heathendom. So many clouds and so few sunbeams, so much darkness and so little light have furnished 'th~ material for the sketches of rhetorical writers, that one is not s~rprised to hear the question seriously asked, Has the Kingdom of Light in Chris· tian England been overshadowed and blotted out by the Kingdom of Dark~ ness ~ While it is our duty to penetrate the darkn~ss, we can do so more safely and speedily even with tapers to encourage us. Let us hold up a few lights, then, that light even "darkest England" for the encouragement of those at home and abroad who seek to penetrate the darkness and bring the perishing out from the regions of the shadow of death into the light and liberty of a Christian life.

In the city of London, where are to be fomid the darkest spots in darkest England, the herculean efforts of the churches to rescue the perishing are as astounding as the gigantic evils to be grappled with. There are literally hundreds of organizations employing thousands of missionaries, colporteurs, Bible women, nurses, Scripture readers, deaconesses, and teachers, who are striving night and day, on the streets and in the tenements, to raise from the mire the souls and bodies of the "submerged tenth." In no city in the world is there exhibited a more aggressive Christianity, or are more evangelistic agencies effectively organized, or more money spent for philanthropic purposes, than in so-called " heathen London."

If the malignant forces that seek to destroy the moral life of the world's metropolis are legion, so also are the benign influences that oppose with irrepressible energy every evil tendency that manifests itself. If the devil is active, so also is the church or the true diRciples in it.

Among the numerous agencies that hasten to answer the" bitter cry" is the London City Mission. "Lux in tenebris" should be its motto. This single society sends out daily five hundred agents, who occupy as many districts in the poorest neighborhoods of the city. Three hundred halls have been provided in these parishes, wherein the missionary gathers his motley congregation for religious services. The missionary is practically the pastor of the outcasts. He lives among them, is their counsellor and friend. The London Female Preventive and Reform Institute, with its mission- aries, matrons, and seven homes adapted for the classification of all ages and conditions of unfortunates, may be taken as an example of the twenty- five societies engaged in similar work. The girls are induced to forsake the streets for a comfortable home, where Christian influences, motherly sympathy, food, shelter, and employment are furnished as stepping-stones to a virtuous life.

The St. Giles' Christian Mission for men and the Elizabeth Fry Refuge for women are prominent among the numerous agencies laboring among discharged prisoners. Their agents are at the prison gates every morning to invite the discharged men and women to partake of a warm breakfast, and to offer them a friendly shelter and secure for them situations, away from the evil influence of former companions.

Such institutions as the MiJdmay Mission and the Bible and Domestic Mission send out daily hundreds of deaconnesses, nurses and Bible women, who, with food and medicines for soul and body, labor among the inmates of hospitals and asylums, among the toilers in factories and dwellers in the tenements. They visit among the poorest of the poor, nursing the sick, relieving distress, teaching the helpless mothers by simple economic and , sanitary rules the valuable lessons of health and thrift, and proclaiming by precept and example the joyful messages of Christ.

It is idle to attempt in this article even the enumeration of the numerous enterprises sustained by the Christian people for the evangelization of this great metropolis. There are at least one thousand agencies, recorded in the Oharities' R~gi8ter and .Digest, at work relieving distress, both physical and spiritual.

There are two thousand places of worship with all the evangelistic agen- cies for aggressive work. There are, moreover, a number of churches ex- clusively for foreigners.

In addition to their usual services, many of thc London churches carry on mission enterprises among the poor. They send out evangelistic bands to conduct meetings in the open air and call the attention of the thoughtless pedestrian to eternal things. They support colporteurs, Scripture readers, and missionaries, who devote their entire time, visiting among the people of the parish.

To reach those who will not attend the churches, special religious ser- vices are held in concert halls, theatres, and other popular resorts through- out the city, where attractive music, .spirited singing, and brief Gospel addresses interest, instruct, and influence many to a better life. There are special agencies that look after the spiritual welfare of the soldiers j others that care for the sailors. The policemen, firemen, and post-office em- ployes have their special services. There are missionaries that visit the cab-stands, market-places, and railroad stations. There are missions to the Jews, Catholics, and foreigners, w.hile the thousands of toilers along the riV<lr are not neglected. The ~riminal is met as he ('ornes from the prison gate in the early morning j the prostitute is accosted as she plies her trade in the streets at midnight, and urged to forsake her life of sin j and the homeless urchin is aroused from his hard couch, with literally a stone for his pillow, on the bridges and in the parks, and provided with comfortable bed and board, and brought under the influences of a Christian home.

The messsge of salvation is proclaimed through tens of thousands of Bibles, tons of tracts, and numerous volumes of Christian literature, which are scattered broadcast through the agencies of the religious publication societies.

Nor does this charity remain at home. Evangelists are sent out to neigh- boring towns and cities; mission boats cruise about the coasts, visiting the coastguards and lightships in their isolation j hospital ships are dispatched to the fishing fleets in the North Sea, to administer both temporal and spiritual nourishment to the toilers of the deep. Nor does this expensive service diminish the magnificent sum annually contributed to send the Gospel to heathen lands.

In addition to these united efforts there are many individuals engaged in evangelistic work. England's Christian queen becomes an evangelist to the families of the poor crofters in their Highland cabins, and other mem- -bers of the royal family count it a privilege to visit the poor and dis- tressed in hospitals and asylums. Members of the nobility lay aside the cares of State to preach the Gospel to the outcasts. The Christian banker, merchant, and editor supplements his daily labor by mission work after business hours. He erects a building or rents a hall wherein to gather the lost sheep. while he himself. often becomes the pastor of the flock. Sons and daughters of the aristocracy, students of the universities, repre- sentatives of learned professions, have given up their homes to live among the people, and have consecrated their time, talents, and means for thtl, " help of the Lord against the mighty."

Back of all this personal and combined effort for extending the king- dom of Christ, are the sympathy and encouragement of the English Govern- ment, whose sovereign bears the title, "Defender of the Faith." Every- whtlre one sees amid the surrounding wickedness traces of the nation's trust in Almighty God, and professions of Christianity. It is inscribed upon her chief commercial establishment in the humble declaration, "The earth is the Lord's and th~ fulness thereof." Upon her public buildings, her monuments and fountains scriptural quotations are carved in stone.

These evangelistic agencies, stationed like a mighty army throughout the metropolis-contesting every foot of territory against the encroachments of the kingdom of darkness, and winning glorious conquests for the King- dom of Light-have weakened the power of the destroyer and defended London from his complete mastery.

. There have been marked improvements during the last thirty years in the moral and social condition of the people. London is wicked, but Lon- don is growing better. Official statistics testify to a healthier atmosphere, and the Christian visitors notice It decided improvement. The prisons have fewer occupants, the poorhouses fewer boarders, and the public houses fewer customer!!, than three decades ago. The wage-workers live better and dress more neatly. They have discarded corduroy for tweeds, and fustian for more substantial cloth. The wife and mother keeps herself and children more tidy, and her home more inviting. A few pictures or chromos, in rough frame8 or no frames at all, adorn the walls; a flower-pot or box, witb a bright geranium or an aspiring fern, decorates the windows. The people show more respect for the clergy, and welcome the Christian visitor to their humble homes. The minister is invited to the workingmen's crubs, and his address is cordially received.. The deepening interest in spiritual things is manifest in the increased attendance at the churches and other places where religious services are held.

Through open-air preaching, colportage work, and mission services, the people have been brought more into contact with the Gospel. and through the visits and instruction of devoted missionaries, the poor fI~cognize the church as their friend.

We do not mean to imply that this improvement is noticeable uniformly among all the lower classes. It is noted principally among the working people, who a few decades ago were very indifferent to the claims of religion. • Such is the testimony of many of the clergymen laboring in the East End.

All the Christian world is anxiously watching the contest that is being waged in London between sin and righteousness, between the followers of Christ and the followers of Belial. This anxiety arises from the intimate relationship existing between this noble city and the cities of other lands.

The throb of London life is felt throughout the world. If her moral pulse is weak, the effect is visible on people that live afar. Moreover, every city must witness the same struggle within its walls as is now being waged in the British metropolis. It is only a question of time when the fair cities of our own land will house a population as !arge as London. Places that are designated upon our maps to-day as villages will, in a few years, be metamorphosed into citics with teeming populations. The Rame enemies mllst be faced ; the same evils must be resisted that threaten our most sacred institutions. The same social problems will arise. The" bitter cry" will be heard. A" way out" of the darkness will have to be devised. Tbose of us who are laboring in the cities are already in the midst of these burning questions.

We will do well, therefore to turn to the mother country, which has given us so much instruction in art, science, literature, and law, and learn from its Christian activity the methods adopted and the success attained in evangelistic work among the millions dwelling in "the greatest city of ancient or modern times." vye will thereby be better able to grapple with these same evils before they reach the same threatening proportions, and thereby stay the destructive onslaught of the enemy by weakening and scattering his gathering forces. And while we face the" dark forest," let us generously acknowledge the work of the pioneers, who have blazed the trees for our guidance in leading its helpless inhabitants out from their bondage into the light of the glorious liberty of Christ.

Harriett Warner Ellis, No. 64 Mildmay Park, London, North, writlll, with regard to women's work for women: "As one of the oldest survivors of the littld company called together in 1834 by the saintly Abeel, Baptist Noel, and others, and having continued to be a member of that first committee up to the present day, you will, I feel sure, pardon my intrusion. When the first twenty ladies were selected from members of all Christian denominations holding the great vital truths of Christianity, it was suggested by Dr. Abeel, or one of his eo-workers, that four young ladies, who were themselves Christians, should be added to the number, to learn about the work, and so be trained to take the place of others when removed by death or other causes. I was the youngest of those so chosen, not being nineteen. My dear father, John Sherman Elliott, was an active member of the Britil:!h and Foreign Bible Society and other similar work, and missionaries of all names were frequent visitors at our house. The first ladies sent out found, as a missionary's wife wrote, ' our efforts as yet are all among the very dregs; in time all may get access to the higher or more respectable native females.' Miss Wakefield was the first lady sent out to India by the new society. Miss Thornton went, in response to an earnest request from Mr. and Mrs. Medhurst, to Batavia.

" On the 29th of March, 1836, Miss Wakefield wrote: 'All attempts to get at femaleI'! of the higher classes appear to be utterly useless.' In that year, Lady Bryant, who had just returned from India, and who joined the committee, wrote: 'By cautious and persevering efforts it may be done,' and in June, 1837, four native gentlemen in Calcutta gave Miss Wakefield permission quietly to visit their wives to teach them Bengali, from Christian school books, and needlework. But nothing was to be said on the subject in public, and the word Zenana was not to be used, as it might stop the work altogether. In March, 1838, Miss Holliday, afterward Mrs. Leider, obtained the same permission from Mahomet Ali in Cairo.

"Prior to this a ladies' association had been formed in Calcutta to maintain the Central School, established by Mrs. Wilcox, and it had a branch in London. That branch had become extinct before the Female Education Society was formed. While rejoicing that now there are twenty-two ladies' societies, we ask for help, not only as being the first in the field, but because it comprises in its sphere China, Japan, Persia, the Straits, the Levant, and West and South Africa. We have no expense of offices, but still meet at each 'other's houses."

THE CREATION ACCORDING TO KRASI TRADITIONS

THE CREATION ACCORDING TO KHASI TRADITIONS.

BY REV. WILLIAM WILLIAMS, ASSAM, INDIA.

First of all God created the heavens, the earth, the sun, the moon and the stars. He created also the beasts of the field.

Heaven and earth were connected by a very high mountain, which is called" Heaven's Navel."

The beasts of the field, at the beginning, could talk like men, and the tiger was their king. They had a market also of their own, which is called the Lurilura-market. As far as I can gather, the word Lurilura carries the idea of "confusion" or " hurriedness."

After that God made man out of red earth, and He put him out in the sun that he might become hard.

The tiger saw this" son of humanity" and said to himself, "This one will be the king j" and being filled with the spirit of rivalry, he asked his subjects, the beasts of the field, "Who among you will go and tread under foot that son of humanity ~" No one responded. After that a creature which goes under the name of "Horse-divine" came forward and offered his services, saying, " I will go and tread him under foot." He went and bruised in pieces the son of humanity.

This" Horse-divine" was a red creature, and the descriptions of him remind me of the pictnres I have seen of the " Welsh red-dragon."

Early the following morning God came to see the" lion of humanity," but to his great sorrow he found out that he had been destroyed.

Now God called together all the beasts of the field and asked them who did it,but no one answered a word-there was a great silence !

At last the dog came forward and said that it had been done by the " Horse-divine."

God made man the second time in the same way as before, and commanded the dog to watcJ:!. him lest he should be trodden under foot and destroyed again by the enemy. The dog obeyed and watched. The "Horse·divine" made his appearance again, but the dog barked at him and threatened him, and being afraid of the dog, he went away.

After that God breathed spirit or soul into that " model of man," and it became a living creature and it spoke.

God said to man, " Come to me to-morrow morning." When the morning came, the tiger got to God's presence before man, and God gave him twelve bodily powers j and the tiger went his way. After that man came, and God gave him twelve inventive or mental powers.

Having received these mental powers, the son of humanity wended his way to the market of confusion, and to his great consternation he found the tiger waylaying him on the road that he might kill and eat him. Man went back and told God of it, and God presented him with a bow and arrow in addition to the twelve inventive powers.

Thus equipped, man went back and followed the path in the direction of the above market, and he found the tiger still waiting for him. He proceeded this time, and when the tiger came forward with an open mouth to eat him man drew the bow, and the arrow, to his great joy, went straight into the tiger's mouth, and he died.

God saw that man was very lonely in the world, being without a companion ; and He caused a deep sleep to fall upon man, and when he awoke he found the woman standing by him.

God married them; and two genii, one representing" an oath" and the other" a curse," acted as witnesses, who also received power from God to destroy, or, as they express it, " to eat them," if either would be guilty of bigamy.

The Khasis were most strict on this question and other questions relating to the sexes previous to the coming of the English to the Hills. And it was an attempt among the Sepoys to violate their rules and customs in this respect that was at the root of the massacre which took place on the Hills in the year 1829, when two European officers and several Sepoys were killed.

The next thing in the tradition is the existence of sixteen families in the world; but a separation took place; nine houses or families ascended into heaven by that" H!)aven's Navel" referred to at the beginning, and seven families remained on earth. And for a long time there was a continual intercourse between the two parties, and God used to talk with men.

The Khasis very often call themselves" the children of the seven families," or" the children of the seven nests."

Now God commanded His servants to prepare a throne on earth, that He might- hold a durbar to judge and to administer justice. When the throne was ready, and before God made His appearance, man ascended the throne and sat on it, saying to hims~lf, " I also will judge together with God." God came and saw man sitting on the throne prepared for Himself, and He went away in great indignation.

The communication between heaven and earth was ended. God and man were separated. The pride of man's heart drove away the divine favor and fellowship- aspiring To set himself in glory above his peers, He trusted to have equalled the most High."

God determined to punish man for his pride in aspiring to equal his Creator and Judge, and He caused a great tree, which is called" The Tree of Shame," to grow in the middle of the earth, the branches of which filled the heavens, and the world became quite .dark; it kept away the rays of the sun, the light of the moon and stars, and the dew fell incessantly night and day.

The children of men were in a very great trouble indeed. With such darkness and dampness life became almost unbearable.

A great durbar was held to consider their trying situation, and the best way to get out of it; They could see no better way than by trying to cut down the tree. They all agreed to this, and went in a body with their billhooks and axes and worked hard all day. When the evening came they returned to their homes to rest for the night. The following morning they all went again to their work and found, to their great astonishment, that there were no marks whatever of their work the previous day. The tiger, their great rival and enemy, went there in the night and licked the cut they had made, hence the filling up. This aggravated their situation.

When thus overwhelmed in their calamities, God showed mercy to them by sending a .little bird whioh is called in Khasi I Phreid, something like the wren in size, to teach them wisdom. The little bird asked them, " What will you give me if I teach you wisdom g" The children of men said, ' , We shall give yon grain and Indian corn." The terms were accepted, and the little bird 8aid, "When you go home in the evening do not take your billhooks and axes with you, but leave them at the foot of the tree with their edges pointing outwards, and when the tiger comes in the night to lick the cut he will cut his own tongue." Man believed the little bird, and acted according to its instructions. The plan proved snccessful, and the" Tree of Shame" was felled at last, to the great joy of humanity. The branches thereof fell into the land of the foreigners (the Bengalese and the Assamese), and this accounts for their lands being plains; the enormous trunk remained where it fell, and this accounts for the land of the Khasis being hills !

The tradition we see does not improve as it goes on. It begins well, and in several point~ it agrees with Divine Revelation- (1) The order of creation, man being the last and the best-the" roof and crown" of the whole fabric of the world. (2) Man made of ., red-earth." (3) And God breathed ~pirit or sonl into that model of man, and it became a living creature, and it spoke. (4) A deep sleep falling npon the first man, and the woman standing by him when he awoke. (5) The fall of man, cllUsed by the enemy and the pride of his own heart. (6) The" sixteen families" and the" seven families" (see Gen. 10 : 2, 6, 22).

NOAH I JAPHETH. SREY. HAM. ' 13. Cush, 1. Gomer, 8. EIam, 14. Mizraim 2. Magog, 9. Asshur, 15. Phut, 10. Arpbaxad 16. Canaan. 3. Madai, 4. Javan, 11. Lud, 5. Tubal, 6. Meshech 12. Aram, 7. Tiras, The Khasis also have a tradition of a nniversal flood, and their religions ceremonies are full of the atoning and the mediatorial elements.

Mr. J. B. Braddon, an officer of the Indian Government, wrote: "It would be well if those persons who speak and write 80 earnestly respectin/!: mission work should spend some time among the Khasees, and look without prejudice at the work that is going on there. I feel very certain that they would no longet think that the missionaries labored in vain."

LETTERS FROM EUROPE

LETTERS FROM EUROPE.-I.

MISSION WORK IN THE SCOTCH ATHENS.

BY DELAVAN L. PIERSON.

Scotland is generally known as a religious country. One can readily understand this after walking the streets of Edinburgh on a Sabbath morning, and seeing the numerous and magnificent church edifices lifting their lofty spires on all sides, and the populace thronging the thoroughfares in every direction on tll e way to their places of worshi? Not a street car is to be seen on the Lord's day; and, as a natura] consequence, the vast majority of the people walk, if they go to church at all. Yet the congregations seem to gain rather than lose from this cause, for it may be doubted whether in any city in or out of Britain the average audiences exceed those of this modern Athens.

It would be strange, however, if, as in other cases, there should not be found a darker side to the religions life of the city. One needs only to take a stroll through the Lowgate or Canongate on a Saturday night to be convinced of the truth of that fact. It seems as though the higher the spiritual life of one factor of the citizens, the lower would be the degr~da­ tion of the other. But however that may be, there is at least plenty of opportunity for earnest missionary effort to be expended in behalf of the lower classes of Edinburgh.

In the former residences of the nobles in the High Street and Canongate, some of the lowest classes now have their dwelling places. It seems oddly out of place to see fine panelled ceilings and carved oak woodwork in the homes of the paupers, and it is a peculiar fact that the mansion once occupied by the Duke of Queensbury is now used as a House of Refuge for the Destitute. There three hundred paupers and inebriates find their homes; forty destitute men and women nightly find shelter, and hundreds of the poor buy there daily their twopenny dinner of soup and bread for a penny. Great improvements are being made in the homes of the poor. Dark and dirty closes and narrow winding stairs are being replaced by light and airy courts lined with glazed brick and stairways of iron, so that it is next to impossible for the dirt to find a sticking place. In the lodging houses, too, there is noticeable a vast improvement. Instead of the close, dingy, crowded" metropolitan lodging houses," fit only to breed and foster poverty and vice, " model lodging houses" have been erected that are provided with all necessary sanitary arrangements. Here, at the small price of from four to sixpence per night, so much better accommodations may be had than most of the, poor men enjoy in their own homes, that many leave their wives and families to take advantage of them. A reading-room, with newspapers and Sunday services, is connected with them, and a kitchen with a huge range, where each man may eook his own food. In the washhouse, with its drying room, reminding one of the fiery furnace, a man may wash, rinse, and dry his whole wardrobe in the space of fifteen minutes. Everything is clean, comfortable, and well ventilated. No profanity or vulgarity is allowed, and fines or expulsion are the penalty for every offence. S~arate lodging houses are provided for the women, and each has accommodations for some three hundred and eighty.

But while all this is being done for the moral aud physical improvement of these men and women, their spiritual natures are not neglected. There are missions of every description scattered throughout the city, some of them peculiar to Edinburgh, and all apparently accomplishing a noble work.

The Territorial 'Mission was instituted by Thomas Chalmers, and has continued in a flourishing condition ever since his time. After the disruption he first held his meetings in an old tan loft in the West Port, and in the surrounding district carried out his ideal plan of city evangelization. The church which was afterward erected for him there, and where he preached for several years, is now used as a mission hall in connection with the Chalmers' Territorial Church. In this old church meetings of various sorts; carried on by the members of the church, are held nightly. These meetings include temperance, evangelistic, song, children's, and other services. But the principal emphasis is put upon the" from·house-to-house" visitation, which is carried out most systematically and regularly. Over this mission department of the church work is a missionary, and under the missionary some seventy or eighty workers, each ten having its own superintendent. Each worker visits from five to six families on e,very Sabbath afternoon, so that all of the four or five hundred families in the district are visited at least once a week. Spiritual effects are those sought, and each worker endeavors to become intimately acquainted with the family history and cares of those with whom he comes in contact. Tracts of educational, temperance, and religious character are distributed regularly, and differ in character from Sunday to Sunday. The temporal wants of those who prove worthy are also looked after to some extent. The missionary and workers have lodging house and bakeshop tickets, marked with symbols to denote their worth, so that they cannot be exchanged for drink; these they distribute to the needy, and clothes and food and other assistance are often given when the nature of the case seems to warrant it. Many ladies of the church are interested in the work of reclaiming the fallen women, many of whom are from high familics of the city and neighborhood, and are weary of their wretched life and long for better, nobler things. If Christ is the one whom they seek, some home is usually speedily found for them, and their old life buried as much as possible in oblivion. If, on the other hand, respectability only is their aim, they must agree to spend eighteen months in a reformatory or "home," where they are clothed and fed 2nd are obliged to do a little work. After this a situation is usually obtained for· them, and they may begin life practically anew, apart from all their old surroundings and companions. Open-air services play an important part in the evangelisti,c wo!.k of the church, and every Sabbath f evening they are held in various parts of the city, by which means people are gathered and are led singing down the street to the door of the church, where an evangelistic service is held at eight o'clock. The singers remain without for a time, to endeavor to attract more wanderers, fer music seems to have especial powers over the Scotch nature, and then all are invited in, and the pure Gospel is preacbed to them there.

There are many difficulties and disappointments connected with the work, but one soul saved would put ten thousand misgivings and fears to flight. The scene of the work was, in the early part of the century, the scene of the ghastly tragedy of the" Burke and Hare murders," wheril unsuspecting strangers were decoyed into a so-called lodging house only to come out corpses, sold to the medical students. The body of Burke himself was afterward delivered as that of a criminal to undergo the same treatment that his victims had undergone before him. The most difficult people to) reach are those who have lived in t,hese low circumstances from their childhood. As a rule, they marry early and live a drunken, brawling life. It is those who have falien in some degree at least who appear most susceptible to earnest entreaty. Many are the dangers and inconveniences which the workers are obliged to undergo in carrying on their work, often being called upon to stand between the knives of knavish brawlers or remain up until daylight with those whom they are seeking to reclaim.

Newton's great law of motion seems to apply as truly to religion as to matter, and for every energetic evangelistic action there appears to be an equal reaction in the religious lives of the workers. Never was a church more thriving than the Territorial Church of the West Port. It is noticeable even in the very walk of the members up the church aisle j it is energetic, and not as if the congregation only came to the church to attend a funeral service.

Another excellent example of the Edinburgh mission work is that of the " close" missions. The Carrubber's Close Mission is the most interesting and influential. It was founded in 1858, and for over twenty years carried on its work in small, insufficient, and dingy quarters at the foot of one of the old closes in the High Street. Finally, through the energetic efforts of Mr. D. L. Moody, a fine seventy-five thousand dollar building was erected for their use, with all necessary class-rooms and an audience room with a seating capacity of about twelve hundred. Here meetings are held nightly in connection with the various departments of the work. There are over six hundred workers identified with this mission who, under superintendents, work in connection with one or more of the thirty-two sections. These sections carryon work very varied in character in co-operation with open· air meetings, temperance and evangelistic, together with societies foJ." women, girls, young men and boys, and special work among the J."ailroad men, coalmen, and policemen. During the last year there were 4500 meetings in connection with the Carrubber's Close, including prayer-meetings, open-air services, temperance meetings, Bible classes, and meetings for the young in country and city. There are ten open-air meetings in various parts of the city every Sabbath. A prominent feature of the work is the temperance movement, in conjunction with which a monthly periodical is published, the Gospel Temperance Appeal. Every Saturday evening a temperance meeting is held, at which everything is done to provide an attractive programme of temperance addresses and sacred music. Although m.'lny of the meetings are considerably disturbed by those under the influence of liquor, still often these very men are led to Christ and become earnest and enthusiastic workers. Pledges are to be had at the close of the meeting for those to sign who will, and always a number remain to take the pledge or, at least, be spoken to on the subject. The names of those who take the pledge are written down with the address, and thus they are put into communication with the workers, several of. whom follow up each one and endeavor to help them on in their new stand for the right.

The Girls' Sewing and Bible Class is also very helpful for reclaiming those who have fallen, and for saving many another from a downward course. At a meeting recently of the girls who had been reclaimed through the efforts of the lady in charge of this department, there were present over one hundred and sixty, all in good situations, and leading respectable lives. Need it be said that they have a great affection for their benefactress, and most of them for Christ as well ~ Many tracts are distributed throughout the streets also in connection with the mission work, and have the naHle of the mission upon them· as a guide to those seeking further light.

As an instance of how much influence thc mission exerts for good in the city, we need only cite a letter from the governor of the Edinburgh prison to the Superintendent of the Gospel Temperance Section. It reads : 30 Waterloo Place, Dec. 8, 1890.

DEAR MR. BARCLAY: Will you kindly do me the favor to express to the Directors of Carrubber's Close Mission my thanks for the interest manifested by themselves and their workers in the reformation of the criminal classes. I think you are aware that for many years I have given you the credit of keeping down the daily average number of criminals by about one hundred, and I do trust that you will not diminsh your exertions, as this is 8 very important time for action.

****** ** * Unfortunately, I have not been able to attend so many of your meetings as I could have wished, but when I have been present it has often been a matter of wonder to me, on seeing so many familiar faces, to imagine where they might have been and what trouble they might have got into had it not been for such meetings j although I am aware many of your people have dond much in the way of individual help. With many thanks, Yours very truly, J. E. CHRISTIE.

The Edinburgh City Mission, like those of like character in other cities, takes a large part in the evangelistic work of the city. Its efforts are confined to the poor of no one portion or district, and, unlike other forms of missionary societies here found, employs a number of salaried men to devote their whole time to the visitation and care of the lower classes. For this purpose the city is divided into nine sections of about four hundred families each, and over each section is a missionary who holds services in the mission hall of the district, and whose business it is to visit as often as possible the families in his section, and to care for the general spiritual welfare. There are besides five special departments of the·work for specified classes, having missionaries for each department; these include the cabmen, policemen, lodging houses, prisons, inebriates, and public houses and fallen women. In the division of the city care has been taken not to interfere with any well-organized work of a church or other mission, but there are many churches which work in connection with the city mis- sionaries, thus supplying a large body of workers to assist them in their vis- itation.

The City Mission is entirely undenominational, but is thoroughly evangelical, and in consequence its workers do not as frequently meet with a cold reception at the hands of the Roman Catholic portion of the city. The methods used are very similar to those of the other societies, first and foremost being that of personal contact with the men and women on the streets and in their homes, thus seeking to raise them morally and spiritually, and in raising the individuals from the degradation into which they have fallen to raise the whole community. As a rule, the city missionary is the only pastor and adviser that they have; but the men are well chosen, and keep their hands to the plough faithfully, endeavoring, by becoming all things to all men, to try if by any means they may save some. The results are tangible and encouraging, though the work is one fraught with trials and discouragements.

A fourth form of mission work, and one peculiar to Edinburgh, is that of the" Students' Settlements." These are conducted by the students of the university or theological colleges, and are found to be of the greatest benefit both to the students and to those among whom they labor. The Ponton Street Mission, in connection with the university, originated about four years ago, largely through the efforts of Professor Henry Drummond. Its object is .nominally secular, but much religious work is done by the students who are engaged in the work. A large hall has been erected in one of the poorest districts of the city, and here the students live and endeavor by personal contact, especially with the young men, to raise them intellectually, morally, and spiritually. Classes in wood-carving, drawing, history, and other departments are conducted during the week and, together with the reading·room, furnish an opportunity for the personal contact sought. Sabbath-school and Bible classes, with an occasional evangelistic address, and now and then a meeting for social intercourse, also form an important part of the scheme by which the work is carried on. About five or six students usually live in thE' mission and devote much time to the work, often at great inconvenience to themselves.

The other settlement is in connection with the Free Church College Missionary Society, and has only recently been organized. Its object is solely religious, and avowedly so; other benefits are expected to follow the spiritual uplifting of the community. The" settlers," six in num- – ber, comc into contact with the men, chiefly in the Young Men's Club, where they have an opportunity to converse with them as they at the same ·time endeavor to entertain them at games of dominoes, check- ers, and in other ways. The men's club forms' the chief feature of the work. There is a fee of one shilling a year to entitle one to membership, and the men make their own rules, elect their own officers, and have entire charge of it, subject to the approval of the" settlers. ,. Of their own free will they prohibit gambling and profanity, and are, as a rule, orderly and appreciative. The club is intended to take the place of the public house in the leisure hours of the men, and to afford an opportunity for the students to come into direct contact with the individuals whom they seek to benefit. Other departments of the work are the Sabbath-school,- chil- dren's church, Band of Hope, library, savings bank, Boy's Brigade, Bible classes, prayer and temperance meetings, and meetings for women, chiefly under the charge of ladies from St. Andrew's Church, which works in connection with the students.

The subscribers to each of the various departments of mission work form the society from which managcrs, directors, and the variolls officers are elected, and who guarantee the financial support of the mission.

There are many other, and private, missionary enterprises carried on by individuals and churches, besides many charitable societies for the relief of the poor and distressed. • Few cities of the size seem to be so thoroughly and energetically cared for as this home of Knox and Chalmers, and the results of the labor ex- pended may be seen as much in the spiritual life of the churches as in bet- tered condition of the poorer classes. But there is no l.ack of room for workers, and in spite of all that has been done or is being done, the con- dition of the poor in many districts seems as wretched as can well be im- agined. The workers, however, continue faithful, taking to themselves the consolation and promise given in the word.s. " Let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. "

. EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, January 17, 1891.

Few things impress one more in all Scotland than the old gate in Dundee, where the martyr, George Wishart, preached to the plaguestricken people gathered outside the gate, while the inhabitants of the city were gathered just inside. What a type of the true missionary, standing between a living church and a dying world, and preadhing the gospel of spiritual healing!

THE TELUGU MISSION

THE TELUGU MISSION.

BY C. B. WARD.

This Telugu Mission was born in a prayer-meeting, February 22d, 1879, in Goolburga, Ii railway station about three hundred miles from Bombay, in the dominion of H. H., the Nizam. Two persons were present, a padri and an engineer: the padri, a member of South India Conference, pastor at Ballory, and thc engineer a district officer in the Public Works Depart- ment of the Nizam's Government.

This event took place at the close of the great famine of 1876-71'1, in which five millions perished.

The Bombay Guardian, editor, George Bowen, missionary, first announced the" new arrival" in its last issue of February, 1879, and commended the" little one" to the confidence of the good. March 12th, 1879, we took over from a famine poorhouse, kept up a yenr on private charity, five boys and girls. Here began the actual work.

In the order of Providence, Rev. T. S. Burnell, over thirty years an A. B. C. F. M. missionary at Melun, Madura district, South India, had the honor of taking the firiit financial share in the new concern. His] 0 rnpees were received by us March 20th, almost one month from the prayer-meeting. March 29th on this Rs. 10 we took 14 more waifs from an overcrowded famine camp at Adoni. These, with 2 more taken at Goolburga by Mr. Davis, gave us 21 in all-Telugu; Canerese, and Mohammedan, both sexes.

. The Bombay Guardian of April 5th published progress, and declared rising faith and intensifying purposes.

April 1st the padri got married, and received for the orphan work Rs. 50 from an unknown friend, who continued to do the same thing monthly for a long time. We have since learned he was the great-hearted Henry Conder, Esq., General Traffic Manager of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway.

And so the work went on. At a later date we took up ;30 new ones, at a later, 50, and a later, 13, and the la"t large accession, September 30th, 52 boys and girls from Adoni. A few more scattering ones came in, till about October 1st we found we had actually collected over 180 orphans at Mr. Davis's place in Goolburga. Death did so quick work, however, that we never reached above 122 on hand at anyone time.

The Bombay Guardian, the India Methodist Watchman published our testimony and helped us much.

Thus began the work. God's Word supplied the base for the faith the Holy Spirit inspired in our hearts. We boldly avowed our purpose to trust God and never solicit, except in prayer. The Holy Ghost was chancellor of the exchequer, and in the first six months He called in from whom He would about Rs. 2000.. And in this time the bulk of the care of all these little ones feU upon Mr. Davis. He wrought not by proxy. His own hands fed, dressed, washed, assisted, and he spent hours a day trying to impress these precious souls for God; and surely we shall meet some of those little ones who passed away with Jesus' name upon their lips and His truth in their newly opened hearts.

I saw now the providence of God in the last ten years of my life-from the plough to four years of student life, one and a half years of work in Chicago among the street Arabs of Halsted Street, till William Taylor (now Bishop) found me in December, 1875, and sent me to India.

God's Holy Word, Finney's" Autobiography," and ~Hiller's " Life of Trust" were the pabulum our souls thrived on in those days. How won- derfully the great God led us! Starting as we did without bank or missionary treasury, from the very beginning we b'"gan to cast about us for a productive footing somewhere. We dreamed and prayed over factories, farms, industries, etc. But the Lord had us in hand, and first gave "r the orphans some public road-making on which they realized something like Rs. 100 in a short time. e had no idea of greasing our wheelsforever with charity, but rather designed to repay to the Lord the charity money lent us, and send workers to the " regions beyond" and support them there.

We cannot follow in detail the wonderful history of these ten eventful years. But what have we now ~ 1. C. B. and E. M. Ward and their children, Wesley Asbury, William Taylor, George Fletcher, Susanna Ruth, and Nellie Marion, in all 7 souls.

2. Eurasian orphans, boys, 8, and girls, 5. 3. Native families, 19, blessed with 24 living little ones. Unmarried boys, 4 j girls, 2. One widow with her son-in all, 67 souls. Grand total of 90 -adults 50 and children 40. So we cannot, as of old, say" orphan children," for we are become a colony of families. 4. Of the whole number, 40 are full members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and another dozen we rank probationers. In most of these honesty, diligence, observance of the Lord'tI day, prayer, testimony, and general upright character give us much ground for believing a work of grace is wrought. We have no tobacco, or liquor, or jewelry Christians in our" little church in the wilderness." 5. When we gathered up famine waifs we found them from five to twelve years of age. All our native people except one, my assistant, Nunsoya Naidu, have been a full ten years with us. Our Eurasian orphans have not been with us so long, but most of them during eight years. 6. For years stern necessity has made us two houses: one in Secunderabad, where Mrs. Ward, our children, and the unmarried girls stay with one or two pairs of the married ones as servants j and one in the district, wherever I may have work for all the field force of our colony, migrating as work leads us on railway construction and mining. The bulk of the family have been in camp with me for about four years now. We find much to encourage us in the Christian character of those we have spent ten years with, for Jesus' sake. They are our" seals." '1. The entire work which we have had upon our hands has cost about Rs. 10,000 per year (ovcr $3000). This includes not only our own mission work, but doing something to help other work. We have spent outside of our own work in this time several thousand rupees-contributions to other missions and support of other missionaries, distribution of religious literature, the publication of tracts, and our own India Watchman, etc.

Of this Rs. 100,000 passing through our hands in ten years more than half are our own earnings. Formerly contributions exceeded, but for four years our earnings have by far exceeded the gifts made to us. In the whole ten years our receipts from places outside of India fall below R8. 5000. Our contrihutions have always come unsolicited, except in prayer. Weare not concerned about money, and never beg. But we do believe and plead God's promises, as they are neither lies nor out of date.

8. Weare not in debt. In an honest and rather daring endeavor to realize the capital needed for a Chr~stian colony, on a large railway contract we lost Rs. 20,000. But God enabled us to make it up and pay the loan with liberal interest.

9. God started us in orphan work in 1879, and kept us closely to it and learning the language up to 1883. In these years God cheered us with the genuine conversion of half a hundred of our orphans.

Then came three years (1883-86) of very steady and vigorous evangelistic work, in which we were much blessed, but the only abidirtg, visible fmit was the conversion of two natives, who are both preachers now.

Insurmountable difficulties in the way of acquiring any land under the Mohammedan Government made dropping into the present" two house" arrangement a necessity-No. 1 at Secunderabad, No. 2 at Beersheba or Dothan, as good grazing leads us. Wonders hath God wrought for us during these years. We can only bless and praise Him.

10. We hope to publish soon a report for the ten years, in which we shall try to rccord something of the goodness of our prayer-hearing God.

11. In the years of our history God has been good, but it has been hard to understand all His ways. Three of his handmaidens, than whom we expect no more spiritual and successful workers in India-Cecilia O'Leary Moore, Hapley Freer, and Hester Ann Hillis-God took from us, each one suddenly. They did work that lasts, and now enjoy reward everlasting. One lady after leaving us became the wife of a Baptist missionary in Bengal. One from iII health was compelled to return to America. Our brethren, Ernsberger and Blewitt are now both honored members of India Methodist Conferences. The latter took away from us Ruth Freer, a good worker with us, a good wife with him. One young man apostatized fearfully. One found the work uncongenial. Miss Bell went to study inedicine in Hyderabad Medical College. One native preacher and wife, lent to us, stayed but a little time. One of our converts left us, and is now promoted to the post of head native preacher in Conference work.

12. Eight little ones hath God taken. Our firstborn first; after him seven other children in our native families. Six of our native orphans have died, ~ giving us their testimony to Jesus' saving power. They surely await us. Three Eurasian orphan boys have died, of whom we have hope, one a poor, ,suffering epileptic all his life. Several have fallen back into the world. Some Eurasian orphans, after two or three years with us, were taken by friends or relatives. A few have died, leaving us no certain word. Our total death-roll in ten years reaches a little over 20.

13. But the best of all is, God has at last answered our earnest prayer in giving us a large piece of land (over' 2000 acres) on an annual rental of Rs. 800. This is what we have besought of Him for years. Our utter extremity has become God's gracious opportunity. And now what! Our migrations may cease, our two homes become one, and our colony be the base of supply for dozens of workers. We may again get into shape for vigorous evangelizing. Our 20 families of native Christians have of their own efforts acquired cattle and caris, and cash to the amount of about Ra. 2000. They are not paupers, and are ready to go to work at once in our village. The rental we can as easily pay as the rent of Secunderabad house. And we believe God has arrangements on foot for the small capital required for the immediate restoration of the entire village, thereby making it worth at an early day several thousand rupees per annum.

We have no complaints, but we can clearly see it has taken ten years to f;ubdue the missionary aristocracy in us, and teach us truly humble, economic, and New Testament lines of life and labor. We have also learned that physical labor is conducive to health in the tropics by these years in India, and are just ready for many more, if it please God.

Trusting God, we have begun work upon our village, and with a home and a promise that" we shall be fed j" with a fine field of souls about us, with our years of experience among the people, and naturalized in India, we look forth after this ten years' journey-not forty, as the Israelites hadto a grand future in this goodly land God has glven us.

Bishop Thoburn recently recognized us fully as a part of the great Methodist Church, and henceforth our members shall have a place in Methodist totals, as they have not had for a few years lately, though we have prided ourselves upon the fact we belonged there. Our only contention has been to be le;ft alone as non-subsidy workers. This is now granted us, and God is with us.

The hard work is not done. Years yet must be spent teaching native Christians confidence in their own ability, and teaching them how better to utilize and develop the resources of the country, making foreign aid unnecessary either for their support or such work as they should do for tIle salvation of the heathen. We have some fine specimens of natives who, under God, will make good business men and women for Him, and some who will make good Christian workers and preachers.

We believe God is with us j we need no other aid to live upon or learn by. God has given us, as capital, strong bodies, common sense, rich soil, aU tributary to our faith. Our prayer has been for a piece of land, that

A. B. C. F. M•

with this productive base we might maintain a whole force of Gospel workers in the surrounding country, whose lifework, and exchequer and methods of filling it, might all be open to the gaze and study of the surrounding heathen. God has schooled us for ten years to ·fit us for the work before us, and now given u!' the land, and here we are a happy family, a monument of God's care in the midst of a heathen land, subjects of His continued love-a little church of Jesus Christ of His own planting. To God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost be all the praise and glory, world wit-hou-t e-nd-I – – – – On January 20th last, a party of five sailed for Secunderabad, India, to join the self-supporting work of Rev. C. B. Ward. One of the party-' Rev. M. F. Smootz-who already spent several years iu this work. bas now married and gone back to the Deccan, India, for life. Rev. R. H. Madden, wife, and son, who accompanied him, have been doing successful mission work in New York City.

There sailed the same day for South America, Mr. T. W. La Fetra and an experienced teacher, Mrs. Anna Dodd. Mr. La Fetra has already spent seven years in mission work in Santiago as auxiliary and helper to his brother, Rev. I. H. La Fetra, in the large college in Santiago. He visited the United Stateil to purchase a complete outfit for printing-costing about $5000-a religious paper and books for educational work in South America.

A. B. C. F. M.

A despatch from Nagasaki, Japan, published recently in the daily press, stated that the United States steamer Alliance, in its visit to Ponape, found that the war between the natives and the Spaniards had been instigated by the American missionaries, who on that account were forced to retire from Ponape to Kusaie. "The story," says the Missionary Herald, "is so absurd as to be comical. The only Americans at the point of conflict on Ponape were two women, who at the time of the difficulty between the Spaniards and the natives sought to their utmost to preserve peace, but failed. And when the revolt occurred, these two women, aided by a native teacher, risked their lives to save from destruction two Spanish priests and some soldiers. And they succeeded in their efforts, only to be accused by the Spaniards of having incited the natives to their deeds of violence. "

The following item is found in the report of the Hiroshima circuit (Methodist), given by Rev. B. W. Waters in the Missionary Reporter: " Hiroshima has been well chosen as the centre for our work in that part of . Japan. But the city itself, a strong Buddhist centre, is not as open to Christianity as some of the smaller neighboring towns. Neither the city nor the country work ought to be neglected. But owing to school-work and passport regulations, it is difficult for one man to carryon both. We really need two additional men for Hiroshima and for the work that proper- ly can be connected with it. "

THE MISSIONARY'S SHOES

THE MISSIONARY'S SHOES.

BY A. J. GORDON, D. D., BOSTON, MASS.

The homely and the sublime were never more closely conjoined, we venture to say, than in the following from the history of Herrnhut : Zinzendorf sent one day for a Moravian brother and said to him : "Will you go to Greenland to.morrow as a missionary F' The man had had no previous intimation of his call, but after only a moment's hesitation he replied: "If the shoemaker can finish the boots which I have ordered of him by to-morrow, I will go."

Need we say that if such a spirit of prompt obedience were universal in the Church, there would be no highways unoccupied or byways untravel1ed in all the regions beyond now waiting for the Gospel. But we have not to tarry even for a day for our shoes to be done. What saith the Scripture, and how much it saith in a single comprehensive sentence ~ "Having '!lour feet shod with th,e preparation of the gospel of peace." The law said to Moses: " Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." Grace says: " Put on thy shoes upon thy feet, for the place where thou standest is missionary ground. " "All roads lead to Rome," says the proverb j but since the day of Pentecost all roads lead from Jerusalem j "that remission of sins should be preached among alnations, beginning at Jerusalem." Therefore Christ's witnesses were sandalled at the outset for their journey j and of this we desire briefly to speak.

The Gospel is its own preparation. For our shoes are not the preparation for, but the preparation of, the Gospel. The tendency is inveterate and constantly recurring to introduce some forerunner of grace into the missionary field in order to make ready for its coming. Even those who firmly believe that" Christ is become the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth," have not infrequently thought that they must take their starting-point from Sinai, again employing the law as a school, master to lead men to Christ. The story of Henry Richards's experience on the Congo-which has made such a profound impression of late wherever recited-has its chief interest in this idea. Brutal and bloody savages, among whom the murder of innocents was a sacred rite indispensable for the solemnizing of the funeral of their chiefs, and man·slaying a medical prescription to be adopted as a matter of course on the order of the witch. doctors, what impression could the Gospel of the grace of God make upon such sonls if immediately applied ~ No wonder that the thunders and lightnings of Sinai should be invoked as a necessary prelude to the sweet strains of redeeming love. "Grace, of course," said an old Scotch preacher, "but did you ever know a woman to sew without a needle? So I say unto you, thrust in the needle of the law till the sinner is pricked to the heart and cries out, and then you may draw as long a thread of Gospel consolation as you choose." But these degraded sons of the C;ongo did not wince in the least under the needle of the law. "Thou shalt not kill," "Thou shalt not steal"-instead of" kicking against these pricks," or being in the least wounded thereby, they were absolutely insensible to them. As for being sinners, when this charge was made against them they blandly conceded that while the missionary and his countrymen might be such, they certainly were not.

But now, after the seven years' fruitless ministry, comes the great change. In translating the Gospel of Luke, and reading therefrom the story of the sufferings and death of Christ, and pressing home upon the people the message, " And all this for you," tears began to fall, exclama- tions of astonishment began to be heard, and then conversions began to occur, till within a few weeks more than a thousand were added to the Lord of such as should be saved. As this story has been repeated of late before churches and theological students, the missionary has rarely been allowed to stop at the expiration of an hour; cries of " Go on !" break- ing out at every attempt to pause. "So astonishing; so well-nigh incredible !" people say.

And yet it is but the repetition of an old stQry, though on a larger scale. What student of missionary history does not know of the work of Hans Egede in Greenland, with its long, weary years of moral teaching, ending with the farewell sermon, " I said I have labored in vain and spent my strength for naught g" And then the translation from the gospels of the story of the Saviour's passion, by John Beck, the Moravian missionary, and the astonished exclamation of the listening savage, Karjamack, " How was that ~ Tell me that again, for I would be saved ;" and through this Word the savage changed into a Christian and a faithful preacher of the Gospel to his countrymen? So it was when Mr. Nott opened the third chapter of John to the hit~erto stolid and unconcerned South Sea Islanders. When reading the golden text of redemption, " God so loved the world," a man rose and demanded, "Is that true ~ Can that be so? God love the world when the world does not love Him ~ God so loved the world as to give His Son to die! Can that be true f' And as the verse was read once more he burst into tears, and the long-delayed blessing began.

It is a lesson which we have constantly to relearn, that" the preaching of the cross is the power of God." Not that evangelical Christians are likely to doubt the efficacy of such preaching tor accomplishing the one thing of bringing peace to distressed and penitent souls; but that it can also effect the opposite result of bringing contrition to hardened and indifferent souls, it is difficult to credit. Yet this is one of the paradoxes of Christianity, that the cross, which is the highest exhibition of divine compassion, should also serve as the most powerful instrument for human conviction. It has proved true a thousand times over that by His wounds we are wounded, as well as that " by His stripes we are healed." As the same sunlight can warm and comfort when falling gently on our persons, or scorch and blister when focussed by a burning glass, so the same love of God revealed on Calvary- can be Ilsed by the Spirit to bring the most tender consolation or the most poignant contrition. 'l'herefore, the Gospel in first, and its fulness, to the most degraded heathen!

Then let us refer to the sandals of education which have so often been bound upon the feet of the Christian herald.

One may well wonder why the temptation has been so constant for the missionary to turn schoolmaster. "No greater than for the pastor to turn pedagogue," it may be truly replied. Yes, and here is the most serious defect of our present-day Christianity, that it is leaning on crutches when it ought to walk by faith, undertaking to accomplish by culture what God has ordained to be effected" by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. " Art, architecture, music and ritual, how prominent the place which these are coming to occupy in our modern churches! Ask their promoters why 1heyattach snch importance to them, and they reply, " For their educational influence. " But we make bold to say that their tendency has generally been to educate away from Christ rather than toward Him, prepossessing men with forms, sensible impressions, and so disinclining them to the things of the Spirit 1 We have more faith a thousand times over in the regenerating power of the simple Gospel than in the educating power of all these elaborate accessories of Christian worship.

But we are speaking of education in the strict sense of the wordgrammar, arithmetic, and·· the arts, as introductory to the Gospel. Has 8uch a dispensation of teaching ever proved really helpful in preparing the heathen ,mind to receive the Word of life ? No more probably than a gymnasium in the basement of an American church, with its curriculum of dumb-bells and vaulting-bars, has conduced to a change of heart in the young men who have entered therein. The tendency is inevitable for these preparatives to become substitutes so prcoccupying the interest and attention with themselves as to render thc heart less accessible to the Gospel than before they came in. Education by all means! But in the school of grace the law seems to be not" know, in order that you may believe," but " believe, in order that you may know." Culture, when set forward as a forerunner of Christ, has constantly failed to become such, because it Ja~ks the humility to say: "He it is who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose shoe latchet I am not worthy to unloose." It being true, according to our Lord's own words, that the Father hath" hid these things from the w'ise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes," it cannot be the missionary's business to make men wise lind prudent in order that they may receive the Gospel, but rather to tell the wise and prudent, that except they repent and become as little children, they shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.

A wide observer of missionary operations in Japan has recently expressed the opinion that the chief occasion of solicitude.for the country is found in the excess of education over evangelism, and that the wisest missionary policy would be a bold immediate movement among the lower classes, who are as yet untouched by Western 'culture. Let this call be heard, then, all over our country-not for more teachers merely, but for more evangelists.

Concerning industrial and mechanical forerunners of the Gospel we may speak with equal emphasis. So ingrained is the notion that what has been called" a propredeutic dispensation of civilization" must prepare the way for Christianity, that colonization has not infrequently been proposed as a John the Baptist to evangelization. Ninety years ago Wilberforce lent his influence to a great scheme for ameliorating the condition of Africa by this plan. Artisans with saw and hammer and anvil were despatched to- her western coast, with the understanding that after a considerable progress had been made in civilization, missionaries should follow up tho ~ssault with Bible and catechism. But the onterprise had not momentum enough to reach its destination, and proceeded no farther than Sierra Leone.

Even had it entered the field, its work would have been a gratuitous one.

For the trce does not bear the root, but the root the tree. As certainly as the planted acorn produces the oak, so surely will the incorruptible seed of the Word yield the fruits of righteousness and social order when believingly re~eived into the human heart.

David Brainerd gives a remarkable testimony to this fact, when sum- ming up the results of his labors among the American Indians at Cross- weekslllJg. Indeed, his witness supports all that we have been saying in this paper. Lest any should accuse his work of being the outcome of excitement and fear inspired by the preaching of the terrors of the law, or charge that his converts were only such as had been" frightened by a fearful noise of hell and damnation," he says: "God left no room for this objection in the present case, this work of grace having been begun and carried on" by almost one continued strain of -Gospel invitation to perish- ing sinners." Not the law of Sinai, but the cross of Calvary must have the credit for this remarkable work. Amid the multitude of inquirers and the urgency of the claims of perishing so~ls, he had little time, he tells us, to inculcate moral reforms or social llnd domestic improvements.

He could only sound out the message of salvation 1>y the blood of Christ, "and eternal life through faith in His name, and pass on. But note the result, as he records it : .

" When these truths were felt at heart, there was now no vice unreformed, no external duty neglected. Drunkenness," the darling vice, was broken off from, and scarce an instance of it known among my hearers for months together.

The,abusive practice of husbands and wives in putting away each other and tak- ing others in their stead was quickly reformed, so that there are three or foul' "

couples who have voluntarily dismissed those whom they had wrongfully taken, an(l now live together in love and peaco. The same mignt be said of all other"

vicious practices. The reformation was general; and all springing from the internal influence of divine truths upon their hearts, and not from any external restraints, or because they had heard the~e vices particularly exposed and repeat- edly spoken agaim.t. Some of them I never so much as mentioned-particularly that of the parting of men aud their wives-till some, having their conscience awakened by God's Word, came, and of their own accord, confessed themselves guilty in that respect.

" The happy effects of these peculiar doctrines of grace, upon which I have so much insisted, upon this people, plainly discover, even to demonstration, that instead of their opening a door to licentiousness-as many vainly imagine and slanderously insinuate-they have a directly contrary tendency; 80 that II close application, a Bense and feeling of them will have a most powerful influence toward the renovation and effectual reformation both of heart and life."

By as little pains as Brainerd labored to introduce" Christian Civilization," by so much are many modern missionaries anxious to exclnde if -from their fields. Its avant-coureurs in these days are the whiskey bottle and the powcer-flask. " If only we can keep out European and American civilization," says an earnest missionary in Africa, " there is hope for our work in the Dark Continent." On the whole, what a mockery there is in this much-vaunted word! And how little apprehension of the subject does an eminent writer on the evidences of Christianity exhibit in saying that" The wisest modern missionaries admit that they mnst civilize heathen nations in order to make Christian institutions permanent. " No! ~ot the sandals of law, of education, or of social science for the missionary of the Apostolic school j but" feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace." The first take but tardy steps, and rarely those condescending steps that reach the sinner where he is j but the latter: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace j that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation. "

THE BURMAN BIDLE.-The first edition of Dr. Judson's translation of the Bible into the Burman language was in three large quarto volumes, twelve by nine inches. The second edition was printed from the same type but upon thinner paper, and was bound in one volume. It bears this imprimatur: "Maulmain: Printed at the American Baptist Mission Press for the American and Foreign Bible Society and the American Baptist Board of Foreign Missions; 1840. " Now after the space of fifty years a third edition is published by the American Baptist Missionary Union at its Mission Press in Rangoon, copies of which have just been received in America. It is a royal octavo, much smaller and more convenient than the earlier editions, having been newly set up and stereotyped, with many corrections noted by Dr. Judson himself inserted in the text by the careful hand of Dr. E. A. Stevens. This translation of the Bible into Burman was made amid great difficulties, Dr. Judson being obliged to make ~is own grammars and dictionaries as he went on, but it is remarkable as being one of the most accurate and idiomatic versions of the Bible in any language. It is an imperishable monument to the great ability of America's first missionary to the heathen, Adoniram Jlldio1on.-Baptist Missionary Magazine.

EXTRACTS ANlJ TRANSLATIONS FROM: FOltElGN PERIOlnCALS

EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS.

llY REV. C. C. STARllUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.

-The Church of Scotland, Home and Foreign Mission Record for January 1st, 1891, has the following statement: "A collection on behalf of the Committee of Correspondence with Foreign Churches is appointed to be made in all our churches and chapels on Sabbath, the 18th inst., provided always that wherever this day may be unsuitable the collection shall be made on another Sabbath.

" The great object of this committee is to foster friendly relations with the Reformed Churches of the Continent, ani to give aid to those who require it. We are especially brought into contact with the Reformed churches of France, Italy, Bohemia, Switzerland, and Belgium. With these churches the Church of Scotland in former days maintained constant correspondence, and it would be a loss both to them and to us should· such communications cease. Since the last appeal was made in 1888, deputies from the Church of Scotland have been present at one or two memorable meetings (If Continental churches. The celebration of the Bicentenary of the glorious return of the Waldenses took place in August and September, 1889, when the Rev. Dr. Mitchell, of South Leith, represented the Church of Scotland. At the jubilee of the formation of the Missionary Church of Belgium, which was celebrated in June, 1890, the Rev. Duncan Campbell, of Rosemount, Aberdeen, represented our Church, and received a cordial welcome. To enable the Church worthily to maintain these relations, and to bestow assistance in accordance with the needs of the struggling communions on the Continent, the present collection is made. "

-Says the Record: "A correspondent in Aberdeen reports a much appreciated visit of our Foreign Mission Convener to that city. Dr. M'Murtrie preached an impressive and an appropriate sermon to the students ill the university chapel 011 the 7th ult., and addressed a crowded congregation in Rosemount Church at night. On the Monday morning he addressed a full meeting of divinity professors and students, to whom he stated that the Mission cause was now attracting to its service a portion of the flower of our divinity halls, and that no less than twenty-four of our present missionaries (including missionaries' wives) in the foreign and Jewish mission fields came from Aberdeen and its neighborhood. At noon, on the same day, Dr. M'Murtrie addressed the South Church Ladies' Work Party ; in the afternoon he took part in the monthly meeting of the Ladies' Association Committee, and in the evening he addressed successively the Rosemount Young Men's Guild, and an Old Muchar congregational social meeting. Verily our Convener does not spare himself !"

-We give two of the collects of the Church of Scotland for the Week of Prayer. For Tuesday: " 'Ve beseech Thee, 0 Lord, on behalf of Thy Church Universal, in all lands and places, under whatever name or form, worshipping Thee in various tongues, and approaching Thy presence in the name of Jesus. We pray for union, for unity of spirit, for love; that Christian life and teaching may be increasingly subject to the Holy Ghost; that Christian people may witness unto Christ by living in godly love; that we no longer be opponents or rivals, but all one in Christ Jesus; and that for His sake, Amen." For Thursday: "For Thine ancient people, o God of Abraham, we earnestly pray that the veil may fall from their eyes, and that they may be turned tu the Lord; and for our Home Missions in the darkness still found in our land, we beseech Thee that the labor of Thy servants may be blessed in bringing many to the cross: through Jesus Christ, thy Son, Amen."

-In the Conferences Fraternelles, held in Paris, last October, various judgments were expressed of Roman Catholicism; but Pastor R. Hollard seemed to strike the centre when he gave as its damning sin, " It destroys the conscience." J esuitized Catholicism values blind obedience above everything else. It will be a sad thing for France to recur to this as her best conception of Christianity. But the leaders of intelligence seem to be awaiting the issue. Professor Atlier said: "The University is deliberating whither it shall go. It has made the round of all the systems, and now is eager to reach a goal. One of its professors said to me, ' My ffiend, count us as belonging to whosoever shall know how to conquer us.' "

Pastor Hollard thinks that Protestantism is not qualified to take the place of Catholicism in France until it understands better than now to respond, in evangelical simplicity, to those spiritual wants which Catholicismconsults the instinct of adoratiou and the craving for unity. Why should Pere Hyacinthe and the Protestants with the same aims be so little inclined to friendship ¥ The sentiment appeared to be very decided, that evangelizin~ work and charitable work ought to be carried on by distinct agencies. At Geneva, M. Ernest Favre attests, evangelization has been much more effective since this separation was made.

-The indian Standard, speaking of a recent Church Congress, allows that sanitation is important, but very reasonably insists thaI; the Kingdom of God and the Cross of Christ have not lost their prime importance. Speaking likewise of Brotherhoods (whose result!! in India do not thus far appear very marked), it wishes to know why the absence of God's unit of human society, the family, should be so highly esteemed. And asks why Archdeacon Farrar contends for vows where a celibate life appears a call of duty. Semi· monastic Sisterhoods and Brotherhoods, as Count Gasparin long ago pointed out, are apt to be of dubious results on Protestant soil. Every plant has its native and congenial habitat.

-The Rev. C. A. Schonberger, through the Jewish Herald, reports " that notwithstanding the sad fact that all open preaching to the Jews is prohibited in Vienna, yet they are constantly flocking, as inquirers, to the missionary's house, where Bible and other classes are regularly held. The Bible-class is largely attended, and this branch of the work is most encouraging. "

– " Regions Beyond," quotes Mr. Stanley's description of the proud Wahuma race, which he discovered, "being clearly of Indo-African origin, possessing exceedingly fino features, aquiline noses, slender necks, small heads, with a grand and proud carriage; an old, old race, possessing splendid traditions, and ruled by inflexible customs which would admit of no deviation." Stanley pronounces the features of the great KafEr race to be ., a subtle amalgamation of the Hindu and West African types." Although the foraying W ahuma have abundance of heathen vices, yet their higher type, mild and courteous manners, and salubrious country, render them hopeful for missions. To Stanley they brought up thoughts of "those blameless people with whom the gods deigned to banquet once a year upon the heights of Ethiopia. "

~ ".'. -The Universities' Mission in Central Africa, which now has 2000 adherents, is rejoicing in the ordination of its first native priest.

– " The Paris correspondent of Evangelical Ohristendom," says the Indian Standard, writes: 'There is a fearful increase of crime, conwadicting strikingly those who hoped that 'schooling' and 'good behavior would go together.' Increased schooling and increased crime proceed pari passu. Youthful literates, fifteen years ago, were 68 per cent, now 78 per cent. "The evident failure, in a moral point of view, of education without religion, is throwing weight into the Roman Catholic scale; children are crowding their private schools."

-Mrs. Dods, of the McAll Mission, says: "The old hall at the corner of the Rue de Rivoli, where the dirtiest of people used to crowd in night after night-some said to get warmed-has disappeared; its successor- Boulevard Sebastopol.-has come and gone, and now in its place are not one, but two or three large halls in densely crowded streets-St. Denis, Temple, and Salle Rivoli-the last redeemed from its evil uses as a rendezvous of atheists, anarchists, and lovers of guilty pleasures j wafihed and purified materially and morally, and consecrated, with its 600 seats, to the service of the Lord."

-Charlie, a convert of the Universities' Mission, having fallen into the handt,; of the heathen Gwangwara, was asked by them, " Why do not these white men and you fear us, seeing that we can kill you all~" He answered: "Because you can only kill our bodies with your spears; it is our souls we care about, and you can't touch them, and so we don't fear you." I heard from others at the time that Charlie had made this answer, and that the Gwangwara were not only awed but actually made afraid by these words. Doubtless it was the first intimation they had ever received that there was anything about a man they could not kill. Yet they believed it when Charlie told them, and, cowards at bottom-like all bullies-they trembled at the news."

-It has been decided in India, says the Bombay Guardian of January lOth, that if a full. grown minor appears capable of caring for himself he may lawfully be baptized against the will of his guardian. But a violent persecution against the Wesleyan Mission at Banknra, Bengal, has been excited by such a case, resulting in the burning of a school.

-A Christian New Year's Mela (or fair) has been held on the banks of the Jnrnna (as lately recommended by the S. F. G.) attended by Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians, meeting " in oneness of spirit, as sheep of one fold." It was held in the Presbyterian grounds.

– " Several thousand representatives of the eight chief Indian languages," says the Indian Witness, "lately met and transacted all their business in English. And no one seems astonished."

-The Ohinese Times, as quoted in the London and Ohina Telegraph, says, of Chinese appropriation of Western science, that it has as yet had very little effect on the national life. "Her dalliance with the skill and science of the Vest is rather a species of coquetry than honest wooino-. The truth is that powers less tangible and material, yet far more pote~t than railways, telegraphs, balloons, or phonographs, must be evoked before any deep or lasting impression upon this slnmbering mass of stagnant life can be expected. Spiritual forces cannot be conquered with material weapons."

tNTERNATtONAL DEPARTMENT

II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.

EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.

The Religious Attitude of the Ohinese which he is entering, is somewhat like Mind. a scientific farmer who studies and BYREV.W. A. P. MARTIN, D.D., PRESIDENT OF analyzes the soil into which he intends to cast the precious seed. He may find THE IlIIPEBIAL TUNGWEN COLLEGE, that that soil was produced by the disin- PEKING, CHINA. tegration of many kinds of. rocks, some deposited from water, others thrown up Religion consists of two elements by the action of internal fires, others thought and feeling. Its thought i~ yet affected by atmospheric influences. directed toward the mysterious prob- We find, in a similar manner, the lems of existence. In this aspect mental soil of China composed of three every religion that emanates from hu- leading elements which have been comman thought is, to a certain extent, to mingled and brought into interaction be regarded as a philosophy, hence in such a way as to present to the superworthy of careful study, not as throwing ficial observer a homogeneous aspect. light which to us would be valuable on These are known as the three religions the question of human destiny, bdt as -Confucian,Tauist, and Buddhist. throwing light on human character on national character, and the relation's of Before attempting to point out their nations to each other. The religious interaction, which, after all, is the objecexperience of the Chinese people, the tive point, allow me briefly to sketch the elements forming their religious beliefs, leading characteristics of each, as they constitute the subject which I have to rise successively before our eyes. I discuss. No field could perhaps be of shall not be able to go into detail in greater interest, partly on account of the our allotted time, nor would it be demultitude of people who are affected by sirable, inasmuch as I have in mind the these views, partly on account of the distinct object of pointing out only a vast antiquity, presenting records reach- few salient features by which these reing back, without a break in the chain for ligions have acted upon each other. many thousands of years, and also because that great people have been seg- The Confucian system did not origregated by mountain chains and ocean inate with Confucius. He said: "I am breadths, from intercourse with the rest an editor, not an author." He took the of mankind, to a very large extent for records of remote antiquity and sifted the greater part of their national exist- them, in such wise, however, as to exert ence. In order that our lessons may be in a most effective manner the influence of value, it will be important that we of an editor, giving to the readers of all should take them out of the stream we succeeding ages only that which he may say, at a point prior to the in'flux wished to have produce its effect on the of the living waters of Christianity; national mind. We consequently date for Christianity has to some extent Confucianism from the beginning of his affected the modes of thought of that people beyond the pale of Christian com- twenty~ records, from the time of Yao and Shun munities which, for the last three hundred years, have been growing up in his favorite models of virtue, that land. But the systems of which I have to speak date back far beyond that tw~ two centuries before the Christian era time. The missionary, thoughtful, and accustomed to study the field upon Viewed as a religion, it' presents leading features: the first is the worship *Addrc•• before the American Society of Com- of Shang-ti; the second is the worship of the spirits of men under the title of anparative Religion. cestors. Shang-ti signifies the Supreme Ruler. Coming before us in some of the most ancient books extant in any language, that august being suggests at once the Jehovah of the Clll:istian Scrip- show, by the influence of other religions, tures-the Lord, the Most High, who more or less corrupting even the com- was worshipped not only by those who parative purity of the primitive ideas. are recognized in the canon of Scripture as' possessing the guidance of inspira- Confucius was himself strongly in- tion, but by such men as Melchizedek, clined to agnosticism. In his intimate the King of Salem, who was both king conversations with his disciples he re- and priest. We find the earliest sov. fuses to give them any positive state- ereigns of China combining this double ment in regard to the things beyond the function of king and priest, signalizing reach of hnman sight. He said: " We their accession, especially in the case of know not life. How can we know founders of dynasties, by going to death, or what lies beyond the grave? mountain tops, the highest points ap- We are unable properly to render service proaching to heaven, and there offering to onr living parents; how should we up burnt sacrifices to the king of know how to render fitting service to heaven, by whom kings reign and those who have passed into the other princes decree justice. If there were any world ?" Yet he enjoined service to doubt as to the lofty spiritual conc~p­ those who have passed into the other tion connected with this grand object world as the cardinal dnty in his reo of worship of the one alone to whom all ligious system, and it is that, more than kings and princes were recognized as anything else, which makes it a religion accountable, we may find it in a single potent and living to this day. The worpassage among many scores that I might ship of Shangti, the Supreme Ruler, cite to you if I only had time. The grand as it is, is nevertheless like a ray founder of the dynasty of Chow, eleven of the sun falling upon an iceberg, so hundred years before the Christian era, far as its influence on the publio mind is leading a small army to attack the in concerned. It is limited to the empowerful host which upheld the thron-e peror and to a few remarkable and au· of a tyrant. On the battle-field, before gust manifestations of public ritual, but the critical engagement, he addresses an you do not find it in the household. eloquent harangue to his soldiers, and You do not find it on the lips of the the most eloquent passage is that in people. You do not find that God in which he points upward and says: " The that form has taken up his abode with Most High God, the Supreme Ruler, is ' men. He is still far remote, on the sum· looking down upon you. Let not your mit of an icy Olympus, as it were, hearts waver." The worship of Skang- although to a certain extent dimly per. ti, the Most High (for that is almost a ceived by the mind of the Chinese naliteral translation of the name), contin- tion. ues to the present day, the sovereign now on the throne acting, as did his Tauism rose next. The founder of predecessors of four thouand years ago, Tauism preceded Confucius, but by a as high priest for the empire. On an kind of paradox his religion is of later altar within the walls of Peking he offers date. The founder of Tauism goes by up burnt sacrifices to the Supreme the name of Lautse, which signifies the Being. In the earliest days, however, .. old philosopher," probably because this worship was impure. We find no he was old when Confucius was young. point in Chinese history where it was They were contemporaries. The Tauist not mingled with the worship of sub- system is not found clearly developed in ordinate deities, nature.gods-gods of the only book which bas been transmit. the hills and rivers-and that intermix ted to us from the hand of Lautse, and ture not only continues to the present the authenticity of which has been to a day, but it has b!)en very largely in. large extent questioned. His followers, creased, as I shall have occasion to however, deduced from the obscure hints contained in that book two ideas, or rather one idea, which afterward sub. divided itself into two. The one idea genii. The term genii we usually em· was that by persistent effort we may ac- ploy as a translation for shensien or quire a mastery over matter in such a sien)in, both forms being used, which is way as to command all its potencies, and the word the Tauists apply to their employ them in accomplishing objects adepts, those who obtain the precious which would seem far beyond the reach gift, the elixir of immortality. This of human power, unless it were elevated view may be illustrated by the following by this process of discipline. The mat- lines from a Chinese poem : ter thus spoken of is subjectively that of our own bodies, the discipline of " A prince the &ought Immortal went to seek, which would result in a possible immor- And finding it he soared above the spheres; tality, and objectively the material objects surrounding us, but chiefly the In monntain caverns he had dwelt a weekelemental forms, the careful study of Of human time It was a thousand years." which would enable man finally to transmute the baser metals into gold, and to The Tauist system, deifying, as it were, accomplish many things which have the matter, being essentially materialistic, air of miracle. You perceive at once laid hold upon that august and sublime how naturally from this root conception conception of the ruler of the universe, springs the two fundamental ideas of and incorporated it into the material alchemy-the transmutation of metals world. Not only so, having arrived at into gold and the attainment of immor- , the idea of the five elements, it subditality. These came forward under the vided the idea of the supreme ruler, influence of perhaps the two leading de- and made five gods, each a god of a 'sires which characterize human exist- special element. Thus it corrupted the ence-the first to be rich, the second to idea of God, and it has been one of the live long, or to Iive forever, in order most fmitful sources of corruption in to enjoy wealth. This system has, how. the history of the Chinese mind, introever, a close relation to what preceded ducin" a multitude of favorite idols, it as a cause and explanation of the nature·gods of material origin, which power with which it took hold of the continue to be worshipped to the preshuman mind. I have just l18id that ent day. Confucius was something of an agnostic. He dealt largely in negations-refused The Buddhist system came in, as you to give any light beyond the grave, or are aware, early in the Christian era, the to hold out any hope of immortality, Emperor Ming Ti having sent a mission although that is to some extent implied to India to bring Buddhist priests and in the formal worship of ancestors. books from that country in the year 66 The longing of the human mind for a of the Christian era. The occasion for future life sought satisfaction in the the introduction of Buddhism was, on Tauist conception of a possible immor- the one hand, the eclipse of Confuciantality which was to be conquered by a ism, and, on the other, the religious long and laborious discipline, and which thought, or phases of thought, stimucould not be the heritage of the many, lated and introduced by Tauism. The but Which might become the possession defects of both were supposed to be of a very few. supplied by the stronger, more intel- lectual, and more spiritual creed of In- This system, at the same time, im. dia. The eclipse of Confucianism was parted a kind of life to all nature; every not caused by the ascendancy of a rival form of matter is instinct with an in- creed. It was caused by a political revextinguishable, divine essence, which is olution. The buililer of the great wall capable of assuming personality. In rose up in his might and conquered the this way it peopled the whole world with rival kings,-and resolved that he would a new Pantheon of gods, fairies, and extirpate the feudal system. He was made to believe that without extirpating the books of Confucius he never could eradicate that system, and that though he might overthrow one king after an- a very powerful attraction in contrast other, yet after he should pass away the to the meagre promises of Tauism and system would again spring from the the cold negations of Confucianism, pages of the Confucian books. He re- which preceded. This was connected solved to burn the books, and then, lest with the doctrine of the transmigration these books should be reproduced from of souls, which "Was common to almost the memory of able scholars, he put all Indian creeds. The Indian philosthem to death, and thus flattered him- ophy on that subject regarded transmiself that he had swept away Confucian- gration as something amounting to a ism from the face of the earth, and with physical necessity, that it is absolutely it the whole of the feudal system. It impossible for a man to extinguish his was during this eclipse of Confucianism, being-that he has, as it has been exwhich lasted for about two centuries, pressed, come into this world without that the Emperor Ming Ti sent his em- his own choice and will go into the next bassy to India. without his own choice, and thence go on in a succession of changes forever. The Chinese people, having got the This succession of changes is described, idea of immortality from Tauism, were under the figure of a wheel, the turn of at first fired with it, but disappointed destiny, or wheel of fate, which is repthat through that system there was no resented as revolving rapidly and drophope for any but a very few; they were ping out human souls to be born again fascinated with a report they had heard in the form of man or of some higher or of a blessed religion in India, which lower being, there being six categories offered salvation to all. Hence the em- in all, according to the Buddhist diviperor sept his embassy to India and in- sion. The religious view of the founder troduced this new religion, which had of the faith was pessimistic. To escape perhaps to some extent already found from this series of changes constitutes its way into China, and begun to exert happiness, and he devised a method for some influence, but which from that day that purpose. In the Northern School became a potent factor in the develop- of Buddhism, especially in its popular ment of the Chinese mind, and contin- phase, we seldom meet with this idea_ ues to the present day to be the leading We meet more frequently with the idea religious influence in that country. I that to rise in the scale of being is hapmay say, as an illustration of the posi- piness. Sakyamuni had in his system tion which Buddhism acquired and no heaven. The Northern Buddhism, holds in China, that I hold in my hand which has prevailed in China, has a a document never given to the world in heaven, borrowed, it may be, from the the English language, nor, perhaps, so Christian's Paradise. It has, presiding far as I know, in any other Western over that heaven, a goddess of mercy, language, showing that if in the year 66 borrowed, perhaps, from the Catholic an emperor was so impressed with conception of the mother of Jesus Christ. Buddhism as to send an embassy to the Many other ic!eas present a transforma- West to introduce it into China, four- tion-Iwill not say a travesty-of Christeen centuries later another emperor tianity. was so much influenced by it as to send an embassy to introduce the Buddhist Weare asked particularly the relation classics from Thibet. (The paper, which and the interaction of these three syswas an edict of the Emperor Yungloh, tems which we have thus briefly 1412, was here read.) Various doctrines sketched. You have noted that they are alluded to in that paper, only one rose one after the other, each of them or two of which I will touch upon. I introduced by a felt want, and that each have already referred to the full and 'was preceded by a yearning of the hnbounteous offer of salvation and immor- man soul for something better; consetality made by Buddhism as furnishing quently, in a religions point of view, each one may be considered as an ad. to the doctrine of immortality, in the vance upon that by which it was pre- duty of worshipping departed spirits. ceded. They were a long time antago- But this is faint, very faint, in compari. nistic, sometimes even inciting bloody son with the religious teaching of the persecutions, but in this day they have other two sects. Buddhism has been become comparatively quiescent, like especially potent in instilling ideas active chemicals, which, being brought which are so nearly akin to those prop· into juxtaposition, exert for a time their agated by Christianity as again to pre. various qualities, but which soon be. pare the way for the introduction of ancome quiescent and inert, until they are other system. Buddhism, no doubt, brought into contact with some more en· vastly enlarged the area of Chinese con. ergetic agent. We shall find that in ceptions, To borrow a mathematical Christianity. A remarkable illustration illustration, the religious ideas of the of the quiescence of these long, active, Chinese were limited, before the intro. and conflicting systems is found in the duction of Buddhism, to two dimenfact that there are in some parts of sions, something th!t may be described China little shrines or temples where as a "flat-land," with length and the three religions are seen represented breadth, but no height. Buddhism by their founders-Confucius, Buddha, gives it height, soaring up to the heav_ and Lautse-all sitting sid" by side and ens and developing the conqeption of a receiving at one and the same time the universe, the grandeur of which perhaps homage of worshippers who acknowl. nothing can exceed. Is it possible that edge all three. You might object that after this universe of three dimensions it would be a strange mind that would we shall have one of four dimensions? acknowledge and swallow all these Mathematicians tell us that with space creeds, yet there are many who assert of four dimensions it is possible to 'do that the three creeds are identical, if you many things which cannot be done could only get down to the bottom. In without it. There is, in my view, room fact, nothing is more contradictory. The for the fourth dimension, or, to drop the Confucian system is essentially ethical; figure, there is room for a fourth stage the Buddhist system is pure idealism, in the progression, one which Ohina is as pure as that of Berkeley or Hegel; waiting for-that is, the introduction the Tauist system is materialistic, be- of Christianity. Each of the previous ginning with gross materialism. How religions was ushered in by a felt want. is it possible that three systems so Christianity alone can supply the de· utterly divergent should ever be recon· fects of all the systems and present one ciled? The fact is, they are irreconcil· harmonious unity. If I were to express able. Each one presents some one thing in one word what Christianity is to con· which meets a human want, Qut recon· fer upon China, it would be this: Not ciliation there is none; peace, union, a God seated far away, upon some reo harmony, there cannot be, though 0. mote Olympus, as in the Confucian systruce, a permanent truce, seems at pres· tem ; not a God inherent in matter, as ent to exist between them. They are in the Tauist system; not a God, as in' no longer belligerent. The question the Buddhist system, who has risen from may be raised, What benefit has each the ranks of the disciples of virtue, a one of these conferred upon the Chinese mere deified man, but God, the Spirit people? Each one has enlarged and of the universe, in Christ Jesus, coming widened the speculative thought and reo into the human Boul, taking up his abode ligious conceptions of the peop] e. Con. there and working by his Holy Spirit a fucianism gave them, or, at least, pre· regenerating influence such as none of served for them, and preserves to the these creeds has ever possessed, and of present day, the grand idea of the Suo which they have presented only a faint preme Ruler, and it bears witness, too, and dim frophecy. This I believe to be the mission of Christianity, and I be- tombs. Here these mounds are, howlieve the Chinese, though it may be un- ever, the great hieroglyph of Americaconsciously, are waiting. for it and up in the mining regions of Michigan, reaching out after it. a thousand miles up the Missouri River, all over the Ohio and Mississippi basins In reply to a question as to what re- five hundred of them, if our memory ligion preceded Confucianism, Dr. Mar- serves us correctly, in one county of the tin said: State of Ohio alone; and all over the Southern tier of our States. How old "Confucius edited the canonical they are is an antiquarian's conun_ books 'of China, the earliest of which, drum. Trees have been found growing or rather the records contained in it, go .upon them with upward of four hunback twenty·two hundred. years before dred rings, recording their annual Christ. These two religious elements growth; and these, the" primeval forof the Confucian system, worship of est" of our forefathers, were a second Shangti (conjoined with that of the growth on the .. primeval forests" of hills and rivers) and that of deceased the civilized races, on whose graves ancestors, were in full flower at that they have grown, and who, some think, time. These mUl!lt have taken some retreated from the Ohio valley two time to attain the form in which they thousand years ago ! appeared. As to the idea of the Supreme Ruler, which, so far as it goes, But monuments they are of a people is very analogous to the Christian's idea of settled life, who had organized inof God, whether that is from a pa- dustries, habits of intelligent work-as triarchal tradition, as I am inclined to skill in masonry and pottery, and in think, I will not affirm." weaving and spinning cloth; and who could mine and move blocks of copper The Mound·Builders of America. ore weighing sixty tons.

We are paying large attention in these Who they were and whence they days to 'he antiquities of Oriental coun- came will be a scientist's riddle for tries. But the more one pursues the many a year to come. .Had half the atstudy of the antiquities of the pagan tention been bestowed on the dead lanpeoples of our own continent, the more guage of these sun·dried or burned interesting does it become. brick books which has been bestowed on the brick books of Babylon, and had The study of the mounds of North the arrow-headed alphabet of these our and South America is equal in interest own prehistoric peoples received the to those of Egypt or Assyria, and no one attention that has been given to Asc.an now say how important their study syrian research, it might not now be 1<0 may become. mortifying a failure to try to answer this question. They are the .. lost All the pre.historic mounds of North tribes of Israel," say some; Malays, and South America are of one type from say others, whose empire, maritime and Peru and Yucatan to Mexico and the commercial, and whose fleets of great Mississippi and Ohio valleys, in being ships reached all over the Pacific island a terraced elevation. Some, possibly, and to Peru; Phcenicians, cry others, once furnished the foundation of a the great colonizing navigators of anbuilding, as did those of Guatemala tiquity. Not so, say others still; they and Southern Mexico, where ruined are" Atlantics," from the lost" islands stone edifices still remain on the sum- of Atlantis," a portion of the American mits of similar earthworks. It is high- Continent now below the waters of the ly probable they were constructed for Atlantic Ocean, which once stretched in religioUI!I uses, some say, giving indica- neighboring groups from the West Intions of sun.worship and other sacred dies to the Allorefl. But, leaving all symbol, while othel"S think theIr} only these external theorizings out of view, arrested at the instigation of the eccle- we have two most adverse theories of siastical authorities on a charge of pub- scientists to amuse U8, if they do not licly performing religiolls services not satisfy us. sanctioned by the Rcman Catholic Church. On a hearing before the Crim- First, the civilized life of the ancient inal Court in November, it was proven Mexicans and Central Americans origi- that his religious services had been nally began and reached its climax in conducted privately within closed doors, South and Central America, and extend- and entirely within the' limitations of ed itself with gradually lessening com- the law, and he was acquitted; but in- pletcness over large portions of Ameri- asmuch as the parties urging the prose- ca, the civilization being less perfect as cution appealed the case to the Superior the colonies were remote. Second, the Court he was remanded to prison. The theory of the modern passionate evolu- Superior Court, after visiting the site of tionist, who would show that the begin- the chapel, affirmed the decision of the nings were everywhere, the gradual de- lower court and directed his release ; velopment reaching highest in Mexico, when his enemies again interposed, and Yucatan, and Peru. by appealing to the Supreme Court, suc- ceeded in having his imprisonment pro- These diyergent schools teach-the longed. Mr. Hicks, of the United States one that this is a great prehistoric race, Legation, telegraphed on the 16th of with arts of civilized life, reading, writ- January, that he bad watched the case ing, and aJ:chitectural decorations, and closely, and had had almost daily prom- skill not to be excelled by the best of ises of Mr. Penzotti's release, which tlie our constructors and decorators. These Foreign Office deemed certain; but al- ( find in the mounds of the United States though his imprisonment has con· evidence of a civilization such as the tinued for more than six months, a race of Indians known to history could decision dops not seem to haTe been never have produced. The other school rendered as yet. thinks there is nothing about these earthworks that may not be accounted Penzotti is an Italian subjeet. He has for after the most ordinary manner as been twenty-five years in South AIDer- belonging to the modern Indian. More ica. He was converted in Buenos Ayres entertaining literature is not easy to and became a colporteur of the Ameri- find, though it be only a babble of can Bible Society. He was some while books. ago placed in charge of Bible distribu- tion on the west coast of South Amer- -A brother kindly sends us a note ica. For threE years, amid a great deal stating that we inadvertently used the of persecution, he has been selling wrong title when we alluded to the Bibles in Peru. The priests had him "Church of England Missionary So- arrested and thrown into prison, where ciety," in Persia, in the February num- he has remained till now, among the low- ber. He says the missionaries whose in- est and vilest criminals in a dark filthy trusion in the Persian Presbyterian mis- cell. The charges cannot be sustained; sion field is complained of are an .. in- but, under Peruvian law, he must prove dependent mission under the special himself innocent. The Italian minister direction and patronage of the Arch- at Callao has sought his release as an Ital- bishop of Canterbury, and receive part ian flubject, and the American Bible So- of their funds from the Society for the ciety has appealed to Mr. Blaine for pro- Propagation of the Gospel." tection of certain property and other rIghts of Americans involved in the At the meeting of the American Bible case. But meanwhile Mr. Penzotti is Society in February, letters were pre- behind those barH, the representative and sented from the society's agent in Peru, champion of religious freedom. who has been in prison at Callao since the 25th of July last. Mr. Penzotti was

EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS

III.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.

COMPARATIVE RELIGIONs.-The New which Dr. Martin himself was good York University has shown commend. enough to reyise and place at our dis- able appreciation of the thought.need posal. We present it now, with the im- of the age, in establishing a Lectureship pression that it is one of the very best on Comparative Religions, and is to be and most suggestive papers we have congratulated that it has secured Rev. published. We are also pleased to an- F. F. Ellinwood, D.D., as Lecturer. nounce that we hope to present, in an We understand that two courses of lec- .early issue hereafter, a paper from Dr.

tures are given. In the first, Dr. Ellin- Martin on "American Influence in wood considers Hinduism, Buddhism, China." G.

Mohammedanism, Zoroastrianism, and Confucianism, giving a large proportion A NEW MISSIONARY CYCLOPlIllDIA.-We of attention to Hinduism, as embracing soliciteil from Messrs. Funk & WagnaIIs all phases of the religion of the Hindus for temporary use, some advanced sheets from the first Aryan faith through Brah- of the new "Missionary Cyclopredia"

manism, Buddhism, Philosophic Ra-· they are about to issue. We were so tionalism of the schools, etc.-in a delighted with the excellence of the word, all that belongs to the> composite work, that we venture to violate a rule which may be called Hinduism. In of the house, admirahle though it be.

the second course he subsoils these It is, we believe, understood that their same fields with a more thorough study, own books are not to he presented in taking also the ancient religions of the this way in their periodicals. It is our world, studying them with a view to the pleasure to establish that rule by an ex- light which they throw on the question of ception. It is not too much to say that a primitive Monotheism, the testimony for more than a dozen years a missionary which they give by their traditions to the cyclopredia has been a desideratum.

general truths of Christianity. He con- We do not know of an edition of New- siders also Tauism and Shintooism, comb later than 1860. Aikman's Cyclo- and the religion of the Druses. He predia appe'ared in 1859, and reached a takes up particularly the relations of the second edition in 1861. Hassell's" From Dhammapada and the Bhagavad Gita to Pole to Pole" and Elliot Stock's Christianity. . He gives a full written "Handbook of Christian Missions"

lecture. He also furnishes lists of books were issued in 1872, as was also Boyce's to be read in connection with the lec- invaluable" Statistics of Protestant Mis- tures. His classes, as a rule, are enthu· sionary Societies, " which was published siastic in this study. Out of these only for private circulation, but worth courses of lectures has grown the organ- its weight in precious metal. Grunde- ization of "The American Society of man's "Allgemeiner Missions-Atlas,"

Comparative Religion," which though Vahl's" Missions-Atlas," and Werner's young is enterprising. On February 6th "Atlas der Evangelischen Missions,"

last it secured Rev. Dr. A. P. Martin, are of high value within their sphere, President of the Imperial University at but are not in English dress. There Peking, China, to deliver before it a lec- are smaller works, as Badley's" Indian ture on " The Religious Attitude of the Missionary Directory" and Dobbin's Chinese Mind." As the lecture was not " Foreign Missionary Manual," and the a written one we solicited the kind admirable "Missionary Year Book."

offices of the Corresponding Secretary But the great gap is unfilled. We of the Society, Rev. C R. Blauvelt, want a comprehensive, well-digested, Nyack, N. Y., in securing for publica- historical, geographical, and statistical tion in our columns a report of the lec- Bummary-a vast dictionary of mis- ture, and he 'furnished a full synopsiS, sions, And at great cost and pain!! that desidemtum is, we are confident, China is a greater scourge than war or now to be met. We base our judgment pestilence." These China Christians on some two hundred pages which we are taunted with having adopted the re- have examined and tested, by working ligion of "the foreign devils, who are with them for a month. Those who making China into a hell by their opi- know the nature of such a production um." Worse still, the poor, weak lit- will not expect a faultless volume. It tle Christian church in the Celestial Em- will not be free from some inaccuracies. pire is being well nigh decimated by Biographically, it will be like heaven: the use of the drug. G.

one will find persons there he did not expect to see, and miss persons whose -" Maokay of Uganda" has been is· sued by the Armstrongs. Alexander names he thought certainly would be Mackay was styled by the Pall Mall Ga- ·zette the ., St. Paul of Uganda." Stanthere. That is inevitable. But, after ley, Grant, Jephson, and scores of the great Afrioan "lights" have poured all such natural and necessary exception their vials of odors on Mackay's grave. We doubt if he is not to stand out the is taken, this promises to be a mission- foremost missionary layman of the cen· tury. This book is one to " read, mark, ary cycloprodia on a scale and of a char- learn, and inwardly digest." It is a religious tonic. acter such as we have not had. It will be hailed heartily and studied dili- gently. Missions represent more than anything but the Bible the nnity of Protestant Christendom. Manyare eager to get a glance at the whole field down to date. We believe from what we have seen of these sheets they are not to be disappoin ted. Our readers may observe that, for unity's sake and convenience of refer- The leading articles which we have ence, we have assigned to each month a general field, as follows : examined, snch as "Buddhism" and January: The general outlook of the "Bantu," must have been written by world field.

persons speoially competent to furnish February: China, Thibet, and Con- fucianism. them. We understand that.llpeoial care Maroh: Mexioo, Central America, has been exeroised in the assignment of West Indies, Cuba, and Evangelization of Cities. the several classes of work, by which the April; India, Ceylon, Java. Brahmanablest talent has been brought to bear ism.

upon the whole wvrk, which is editorially May: Burmah, Malaysia, Siam, Laos. Buddhism. in the oharge of Rev. E. M. Bliss. June: Africa. Freedmen in North The publioation of such a book or America.

books, for it is in two large volumes, July: Islands of Sea-Polynesia, Me- lanesia. Utah and Mormonism. North requires the investment of a large sum Amerioan Indians. Chinese and Japan- ese in Amerioa. of money, and deserves the encourage- August: Italy, France, Spain. Papal ment of the Christian publio, as furnish- Europe. Bulgaria.

ing a thesaurus of missionary informa- September: Japan, Korea. Medioal Missions. tion. Dr. Rufus Anderson's axiom Ootober: Scandinavia, Germany, ought not to be lost sight of-" The Switzerland, etc. Turkey, Persia, Arabia. Mohammedanism. Greek interest which truly Christian people Oh~roh, Nomu.al Christianity take in missions is equal to their correct knowledge of them." G.

-There is a traot entitled" Christian Woman of North China to the Christian Women of England upon the Opium In-· iquity." In' this these Chinese Christian women deolare to all Europe and to all nmnkind that" forei6n opium in November: South America. Y. M. Bulgaria to the Bulgarians and Servia C. A. Home Missions. Papacy. to the Servians now give Palestine back to the Jews? These provinces as well as December: Syria and Jews. Green- Roumania, Montenegro, and Greece, land. Educational Missions. were wrested from the Turks and given to their natural owners. Does not Pal- A remarkable movement, headed by estine as rightfully belong to the Jews? It is said that rains are increasing, and MT. W. E. Blackstone, of Oak Park, Ill., there are many evidences that the land is recovering its ancient fertility. If is on foot to present an overture to the they could have autonomy in govern- ment, the Jews of the world would rally leading nations of the world, to buy Pal- to transport and establish their suffering brethren in their time-honored habita. estine and put it at the control of the tion. For over seventeen centuries they have patiently waited for such a Russian Jews, for occupation. The list privileged opportunity. They have not become agriculturists elsewhere, because of signatures to this document, already they believed they were mere sojourners in the various nations, and were yet to obtained, include editors, lawyers, mer- return to Palestine and till their own land. Whatever vested rights, by poschants, and men in every secular call- session, may have accrued to Turkey can be easily compensated, possibly by ing, as well as clergymen of every de. the Jews assuming an equitable portion of the national debt. nomination, inclusive even of Roman We believe that this is an appropriate Catholics. We have seen no document time for all nations, and especially the Christian nations of Europe, to show for twenty years that so impressed us kindness to Israel. A million of exiles, by their terrible sufferings, are piteously with its five hundred signatures. appealing to our sympathy, justice, and humanity. Let us now restore to them The following is the text of this me- the land of which they were so cruelly despoiled by our Roman ancestors. morial: . To this end we respectfully petition " What shall be done for "the Russian His Excellency Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States, and the Jews? It is both unwise and useless Honorable James G. Blaine, Secretary of State, to use their good offices and into undertake to dictate to Russia con- fluences with the Governments of their Imperial Majestiescerning her internal affairs. The Jews Alexander III., Czar of Russia. have lived as foreigners in her domin- Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Empress of India. ions for centuries, and she fully be. William II., Emperor of Germany. Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austrolieves that they are a burden upon her Hungary. Abdul Hamid II., Sultan of Turkey. resources and prejudicial to the welfare His Royal Majesty Humbert, King.of Italy. of her peasant population, and will not Her Royal Majesty Marie Christina, Queen Regent of Spain, and, with the allow them to remain. She is deter- mined that they must go. Hence, like the Sephardim of Spain, these Ashkena- zim must emigrate. But where shall 2,000,000 of such poor people go?

Europe is crowded and has no room for more peasant population. Shall they come to America? This will be a tre- mendous expense and require years.

Why not give Palestine back to them?

According to God's distribution of na- tions it is their home-an inalienable possession from which they were ex· pelled by force" Under their cultiva- tion it was a remarkably fruitful land, sustaining millions of Israelites, who in- dustriously tUled its hillsides and val- leys. They were agriculturists and pro.

ducers, as well as a nation of great com- mercial importance-the centre of civil- ization and religion.

Why shall not the powers which un- der the treaty of Berlin, in 1878, gave Government of the Republic of France, and hopeful that our Government should and with the Governments of Belgium, initiate this friendly movement, to give Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, these wandering millions of Israel a set- Roumania, Servia, Bulgaria, and Greece, tled and permanent home. to secure the holding, at an early date, of an International Conference to con- " The President listened attentively to sider the condition of the Israelites and Mr. Blackstone's remarks, and promised their claims to Palestine as their ancient to give the subject serious considerahome, and to promote, in all other just tion." and proper ways, the alleviation of their suffering condition." The editorial staff of this REVIEW is now unusually complete. It embraces, Several petitioners wish it stated that besides the editor-in-chief, Rev. Drs. the lews have not become agriCUlturists, Gracey and Gordon, leading Methodist because for centuries they were almost and Baptist divines, Rev. C. C. Staruniversally prohibited from owning or buck, an Episcopalian, Rev. D. L. Leontilling land in the countries of their dis- ard, a Congregationalist, besides a leadpersion. ing Presbyterian clergyman whose name does not appear. Neither effort nor ex- On March 5th, Mr. William E. Black- pense is spared by the publishers and stone, of Chicago, presented this remark- editorial staff to make this the leading able paper, with its signatures of the review of world-wide missions. Mr. most prominent men of the country, to Starbuck, who has charge of the foreign the President of the United States; and exchanges, is seeking to make his dethe following is the report of the inter- partment the American review of review, as found in the daily press: views.

"Mr. Blackstone explained to the The greatest embarrassment which President and Secretary Blaine that the attends our work is perhaps the lack of memorial was the result of a conference trustworthy statistics, or rather, conof Christians and Jews, recently held in sistent and uniform statistics. One of Chicago, and called especial attention to our correspondents complains of the the fact that it did not antagonize Rus- statement on page 232 March issue, of sia, but only sought, in a peaceful way, the work in Africa. He compares this to give the Jews control of their oIa with the figures of Mr. Liggins in his homes in Palestine. He pointed out ., Value and Success of Foreign Mismany evidences of the possibility of sions," page 31, who reports 175,000 great development of ihat country, both communicants and 300,000 baptized agriculturally and commercially, under members of churches, etc. Now we ask an energetic government, and said that our friend to bear in mind, first, that the railroad now building from Joppa Mr. Liggins's estimates, published in to Jerusalem, if extended to Damascus, 1888, were probably taken from reports Tadmore and down the Euphrates, can- made in 1887, and covering the year not fail to become an international high- from 1876-77. These estimates in the way. He said that the poverty of the REVIEW are from the most recent reports Turkish Government gives emphasis to available. But most of all must it be the proposed indemnity by funding a borne in mind that scarce any two portion of the Turkish national debt statisticians proceed on the same printhrough Jewish capitalists, and that only ciple of estimate. A Baptist connts only peaceable diplomatic negotiations are baptized adult believers; an Episcoasked for, to the end that all private palian or Catholic would reckon every ownership of land and property be care. baptized infant; and some high churchfully respected and protected. In clos- men have been Jmown to reckon all the ing, he said that, being on such friendly household of a baptized communicant. terms with Russia, and having no com· plications in the Orient, it is most fitting For years we have been seeking to get not detect the fact that on page 149, some uniform basis for such tables line 17, immorality would read better adopted, but in vain. If we could have for another" t". If any reader thinks uniform forms for such tables, no errors that proof.reading is a sinecure he or contradictions would seriously occur. should try it. For example, if we could have a column for baptized adults, one for baptized in- By some strange oversight in the brief fants. etc., one for adherents, etc., we article on "Missionary Training might prevent confusion. As it is now, Schools," page 300, Vol. III. of thid our only way is either to discard figures REVIEW, no mention is made of the Interentirely, or else publish such as we can national Medical Missionary Society and get, and ask our readers to take them Training Institute, at No. 118 East fortyfor what they are worth as approxi. fifth Street, New York. This institu· mates. We say this once for aU. tion was founded in 1881 and incor- porated in 1886, its objects being, "to Another esteemed correspondent heal the sick and preach the Gospel in thinks the word" boasts," on page 205, New York and other cities, and train March issue, a "venomous word to young men and women to go abroad as thrust at a bishop." The editor will medical missionaries." The medical only say no such indignity was intend· director and founder of the institute is ed. The word was used in a mild sense, Dr. George D. Dowkontt, a devoted misof a perfectly lawful exultation at a very sionary and able manager. creditable increase. This word has a legitimate use. Camp. Psalm xliv., 8. Seven dispensaries have been estab- lished-6 in New York and 1 in Brook. In his annual report of the Congrega. lyn, and upward of 25,000 cases of distional Union's work, Secretary Cobb ease have been treated. suggested, and Dr. Taylor advocated. for promoting the progress of mission. In 1889, 59 students, 12 of whom were ary enterprise: (1) a clear presentation, ladies, were received; and missionaries at least once a year, in every pulpit, of from this training I>chool are working in the work of the various departments India, China, and Africa. of Christian service in the light of the latest facts; (2) the adoption by every At the time of writing the artiC'le, we church of a plan by which offerings of had in mind general training schools, money shall be made, precisely the same and not medical. Hence the inadvert· as offerings of prayer and praise, to ence. carryon the work of the on.coming kingdom of God; (3) a greatly awakened A writer in the Christian suggests that apprehension of the fact that evangeliz. a good service could be rendered by ing work is rapidly growing, so that mllny Christians if they would write let· funds which sufficed twenty.five, or ters to missionaries in foreign lands. even ten, years ago can by no PORS;- There are many who can write a few bility do the work demanded to.day. simple sympathizing lines that would cheer lonely hearts, but perhaps could Our correction in the February num· not otherwise do much for the Master. ber, page 142, needS correcting. The There are also many earnest believers line misplaced on page 51 of the Janu· whose interests would be widened if ary number belongs on page 50. And they were to write to missionaries in in the February number, page 83, line different fields, for wherever their let- 12, Siberia, should, of course, read Libe· ters go their hearts would go thereafter. ria; and even Dr. Gracey's eagle eye did In most cases such letters will be an· swered, and thus new and holy bonds would bind together the hearts of the writer and the lonely workers in far· away fields.

THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS

IV.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.

BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.

-Asia is the most populous of con- ism, in the strict SQnse of the word, they tinents. But its population is un- say is, what may be called a cellular sysequally distributed. Taking the whole tem of society, where the cells are built area of Europe, it has a denser popula- up separately, and kept from all possition proportionately than Asia has. It bility of coalescing by an elaborate sysaverages 90 to the square mile, while tem of boycotting in food and in mar- Asia averages only 46. riage. And this has given rise to a hab- it of thought which is the deadliest foe But four countries of Asia-India, to Christian aggressive work. The one Java, China, and Japan-with five- sin which the caste Hindu regards as sixths of the total area have double the unpardonable is to think and act for population of Europe. himself. Individual responsibility, one of the most important elements in Chris- INDIA- BRAHMANISM. tian morality, is the one great sin to the caste Hindu. The individual is noth- The population of India is roughly ing, the caste is everything. If the classified as : (1) Hindus, (2) Aboriginal caste Hindu is to accept a new faith, tribes, (3) Mohammedans, (4) Miscella- then the probability is that he will come neous sects-Buddhists or Jains, Parsis, to it by a movement of masses and not Sikhs. The first two are estimated of individuals_ at 206,000,000, the Mohammedans at ronndly 50,000,000, and the miscellane- This finds at this moment an emphatous at 6,000,000. In counting the Hin- ic illustration in North India, among dus and Aboriginal tIibes together, we the Methodist missions. A great movedo not mean to say that Gonds, Rhonds, ment among certain low-caste peoples Santals, and the Hill tribes are Hindus. has taken place by which the communi- Many of them are so counted, but per- ty, as such, is turning to Christianity; haps 20,000,000 of them, at a low esti- and 5000 were baptized last year, and mate, are not even Hinduized, and pos- perhaps as many more were ready to be sibly 50,000,000 of them must not be baptized, but the missionaries preferred counted as Hindus. they should wait for further inRtruction and testing; yet they will, notwithstand- Of the 186,OOO,000-if we reckon it so ing this repression, baptize at least 5000 high-of the Hindu community, a large more this year, and have at least 10,000 number are out.castes by the system, eagerly awaiting baptism. It is a moveor are very low·caste people. These, ment much like that in Ongole among strictly speaking, are religiously with- the Baptists, and in NellorEl also. out privileges and socially without standing, separated necessarily and In the Deccan, this Scotch delegation eternally from the body politic of the thinks, the family feeling is stronger four castes which constitute the Hindu than the caste feeling in the depressed community. classes, and they think that there, the aggression will be along the family line. Professor Lindsay and Rev. J. F. Dr. Sheshadri's success is based on the Daly, deputized last year to visit the family as an indirect agency in the prop. Free Church missions in India, report- agation of the Gospel. It is confessed ed that caste Hinduism includes all man- that the mission does not show the sa~ne ner of religions in our Western sense of proportion of results in conversion the word, varying from a refined theos- among the strictly caste Hindus, but it ophy down to what is little better than is certain that, through mission and govrude fetich worship, and has no com- ernment schools, and other contact with mon creed, although beneath all there Western civilization-in society, letters, lies. a curious pantheism which is the one common religious basis. Hinducommerce, and laws-caste Hinduism is community, . which challenges fresh being seriously undermined and greatly effort on the part of the Christian modified.* Church; for it shows that, after all the European scholarship has disclosed to advance of the Christian community in these Hindus their own original scrip. India, there were more heathen in India tures, now overlaid with the debris of at the end of the decade than at its be- Iustful and foolish idolatry and fetich- ginning. Itmustnot be a source of dis.

ism; anu. whole segments of this commu.i couragement, however, for the Christian nityare breaking from the strict social community in India was shown to have order and organizing at a sort of half.way increased at nearly double the ratio of house between Hinduism and Chris- the non-Christian population. Then we tianity, while individuals in large num- must not overlook t.he fact that Brah- bers have swung to a stage of infidelity manism has been deteriorating for a in all religion. India to·day is not thousand years. It has died at the top.

the India of even fifty years ago. The It has been struck in the head; as a re- British Government steadily urges a ligious sYRtem it has been brained. It European standard of morals on the has added nothing to its philosophy for community. The pressure brought to centuries, nor to its aggregate of re- bear on them just now on the family and ligious force. If because of its exten- marriage life is in illustration, by which sion among depressed masses it has the" age of consent" has been raised found geographical or communal ex- to ten years. Gross abuses forced the tension, it has yet seriously declined in government to this action; but what us its purity. If there are more Brahmans, feel more hopeful is that the public there is less Brahmanism. It has even sentiment of the native community has been compelled to take a back seat on been elevated so far as to fortify the gov- the school forms, while European schol- ernment in this action. This gives en- ars should teach it what its sacred books couragement to hope that the govern- say it is. It is a learner and not a ment may be induced to press the mar- teacher of its own literature.

riage laws of India in the near future A preacher of the Brahmo Somaj is yet nearer to a standard becoming a reported as saying in a sermon : Christian nation. But in considering the " Men's minds have become restless. contact of Christianity with Brahman- Their minds now are filled with doubts ism, high caste or low caste, it is always regarding those things which formerly well to bear in mind that it is an absolutely local religion. It is confined to commanded respect. . . . A great flood the soil; crossing certain geographical has come and swept over the face of the boundaries, a caste Hindu loses his caste. Caste HindJlism, therefore, can have coun'try, carrying away the roofs of the no geographical extension. It is also edifices of past creeds and customs. confined within blood boundaries. It Drowning men, in their despair, are catching at whatever they find nearest their hands. They are finding it diffi- cult to obtain peace of mind."

can only be propagated along race lines. The New Light, an organ of the Brahmo The only possible increase, therefore, of Somaj, has the following: the Brahman community is as the " Christ Jesus … is as much necessary birth.rate exceeds the death.rate. If in this age and in India as He was 1800 the census can be relied on, Hinduism years ago in Judrea. As sinful children (not Brahmanism) increased in the re- of men, we, the people of India, are as cent decade six per cent. This marks a much in need of the Living Son of the great aggregate increase if a heathen Living God as the people of Judrea were in days gone by."

• The part of this official report of the Free But let us not overestimate the utter- Church of Scotland delegates to India, which an~es of the more intelligent classes. we have followed, would make a very excellent Below them is still the vast horde who tract. eat. drink, and are given in marriage, The extensive influence of the San- caring only how to plough, and reap, and skrit language on the Javanese is in evi- trade, and keep from starvation, not able dence of long intercourse. Every to read, not caring what the brains of language of the Eastern Archipelago will India are occupied about at all. Only be found to have engrafted upon it a 11,000,000 out of a total of 250,000,000 quantity of Sanskrit proportionate to the can read. extent of its own cultivation. The Kavi, / Mission work was never more neces- a language of Java, is chiefly SanskTit. sary, never so vast, so intelligent, so co- One sixth of the Malay language is San- operative, so compacted, so jealous of the skrit. The Mohammedans came in 1478, efficiency of its own methods, so intro- and Arabs and MaJays drove out every spective as now. The ratio of conver- description of Hindus, even a sect of sions steadily advances as weil as the Sivaites, who attempted to propagate ratio of the Christian community rela- their peculiar worship. tive to other portions of the population. Bishop Thoburn is authority for the Islam, so modified as to form almost statement that the largest missionary a distinct religion known as Javanism, conference in the world meets monthly remains the religion of the Javanese in Calcutta. race, and is reported to have rapidly ex· tended. The Sundas, who occupy the The next Decennial Conference of the west end, are less civilized than the Jav. ruissionaries will be held in 1892, and anese, who occupy the rest of the island. we have no doubt the summary of re- Politically the country is divided into sults will be greatly uplifting. 24 governorships. It has the electrio telegraph and two railroads. JA.VA.. Missionary work on this island as Java is about equal in size to one a:c.d nearly records a failure as in any part one-third of Great Britain, and count- of the globe. The Christianity of the ing little Madura, in its bosom, with Netherlands has had this eighteen or less than one·fifteenth of the area of the twenty millions of people within touch whole Eastern Archipelago, it has more for two centuries and a half, and enrolls than half the population of the group; not perhaps more than 4000 Christians. and its population is rapidly increasing. The Netherlands Missionary Society has It is the third in size, but first in trade labored here. The Dutch Missionary of the group. It is the granary of the Society commenced work among the archipelago. It is the most noted, too, 4,000,000 of Sundanese in Western Java for its ruins. Brambaban abounds with in 1863. It has schools and perhaps stupendous relics of Indian origin, the nearly 1000 in its congregations. It hilS remains of an extensi ve and splendid translated the entire Scriptures into city, while prodigious monuments of an- Sundanese. The Dutch Reformed Mis- cient Hindus appear in every direction. sionary Society labors in Central Java. The finest Sii ecimens of Buddhist stat- It reports a remarkable movement in ues in the world are in Java. Boro the last two or three years among the Buddha is the most magnificent relic of populations ruled by Moslem Sultans, Buddhism remaining in any country. notwithstanding that no missionary can Three hundred Buddhist images are preach without a government license, here. Buddhism was the prevailing re- and that license restricts him to one po· lision of the ancient Javanese. Civili- litical division. Over one thousand zation spread from West to East in the souls were reported converted in one Indian Archipelago. district where permission to preach hIlS beE'n persistently refused, and no min. The Javanese trace their origin to In- ister allowed to administer the sacra· dia. Probably commercial intercourse ments. The Mennonite Society, or- existed between the Coromandel coast g,an"iz._ed–in. 1849, made Java its first neld and Java from time immemorial. but it reported not more than 133 adhe- tered the field in 1813, by the ap- rents in 1889. pointment of four missionaries. This Board has given great attention to the (lEYLON. establishment of a well-ordered educa- tional system. They have had encour- Ceylon, the natives say, is the" Seat aging results in the way of self-support. of Paradise." Its 3,000,000 of people They now enroll 1477 communicants, are crowded about 118 to a square mile. and number 3116 adherents and 328 na- It is about two_sevenths the size of Great tive workers. The contributions of the Britain. It is called the "adopted native church last year amounted to country of the persecuted Buddhists." $4878. Singhalese and Tamils are the two principal races of the island. These are The Wesleyan Missionary Society endifferent from each other not only in tered Ceylon in 1814. The story of Dr. language and religion, but in vigor, in- Coke dying on the way to found this telligence, and personal characteristics. mission is a familiar one. The Church of England Missionary Society entered The Tamil is industrious and enter- in 1818, and the S. P. G. in 1838. prising, while the Singhalese is just the opposite. The HindUIsm of the Tamils In a large public square in the northdiffers but little from Hinduism in South ern part of Calcutta missionaries preach India. They are mostly devil-worship- every Sunday afternoon to large and repers, and devil trees and temples are spectful audiences. Recently a man common. The Buddhist Singhalese, like appeared in the audience interrupting their Tamil neighbors, have retained the preacher. He was remonstrated many of the lower forms of superstition. with, but continued his impertinent questions. Suddenly a native police- Ceylon has been mission ground for man arrested him, though he called nearly four hundred years, and has been loudly on the Hindus to rescue him; made the victim of some of the most re- and he was taken to the police station markable experiments in Christianiza- where, before the magistrates, he con- Hon that the world can anywhere show. fessed that he was a paid agent of the Its missionary history may be divided Madras Hindu Propagation Society, sent into three epochs, corresponding to the to Calcutta to put a stop to street governments which held it : the Portu- preaching! This illustrates the tactics guese, the .f)utch, and the English. now being pursued in India. When the Portuguese held most of the island, the Roman Catholics, in the be- Dr. W. A. P. Martin, in the librum, ginning of the sixteenth century, sought contradicts the impression that China to introduce Christianity, but it was lit- will menace the world's peace. Chinese tle less than paganism itself. The traditions are opposed to war. Defence, Dutch, in 1556, made the great blunder not conquest, is the aim of her military of seeking to turn the natives from Ro- organization. Internal improvements manism to L)ltheranism, by offering are progressing. To meet the needs of government offices only to such as were commerce, the rich coal-fields of the baptized in the national church. They Empire are being developed. These banished the priests, Catholic rites were mines are connected with the sea by a forbidden on pain of death, and the railway. Soon other railroads will be people were commanded to become built. China, Dr. Martin says, will Protestants. The 30,000 Christians soon mine her own iron and produce which they soon reckoned were of little her own steel rails. She is mining for worth, and there is only a feeble rem-. silvel.' and gold, and is prospecting for nant of them to be found. petroleum.

The English Baptists came in 1812. They number now about 1000 communicants. The American Board en-

GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE

V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.

-The North Afrjca Mission has in lem are in protracted unhappy friction.

all 58 missionaries engaged in its field Complaint is made by the Society that of operations, embracing Morocco, Al- the bishop'S late charge, instead of geria, Tunis, Tripoli, and North Arabia. being primarily addressed to his clergy, -·Last year the Foreign Mission Fund was evidently intended for English of the English ;Presbyterian Church High Church friends. More deplorclosed with a debt of £3100. able, it magnifies "points of external service and ceremony," to the exclu- Italy-Evangelical Alliance.- The sion of the truths of the Gospel of president of the Roman branch of the Christ. Other charges ar~ made which Alliance had the honor of a private audi- mark strained relations. As the Society ence with King Humbert, before whom provides a large proportion of the bish- were laid the arrangements for the ap- op's salary, some change is inevitable. proaching international conference at Bishop Blyth decla.res that he will not Florence. He expressed his cordial in- resign. terest in the meeting, and hoped that the Alliance would ~e warmly greeted Archdeacon Maples. – Rev. James by the Italians. The subjects for dis- Johnston has recently, in Manchester, cussion comprise" Religious Thought listened to this nobly devoted worker, in Italy," "Florence and the Reforma- identified with the Lake Nyassa branch tion," "The True Unity of the Chris- of the Universities' Mission, over which tian Church," "The Divine Authority Bishop Smythies presides. The archof Holy Scripture," "The Relation of deacon belongs to a family of eminent the Church to Modern Society," "In- solicitors in London, and was educated ternational Christian Co-operation," at the Charterhouse and University Col- "Christianity and Social Questions," lege, Oxford. Upon taking holy orders, and " Foreign Missions." in 1876, he left for East Central Africa, where he has bravely remained, an inde- India-Salvation Army.-By the fatigable missionary pioneer. He gives toilers continued advance is reported a cheery account of the conquests and throughout Ceylon and the Indian Em- prospects of the Universities' Mission. pire. In 1886 the Army had 15 corps, One of the chief trials which the Uniwith 39 European and 41 native officers, versities' missionaries have to face is the while in 1888 some 56 corps had been irritating effect produced on the nerves established, represented by 166 Euro- by the malarial climate, and the consepean and 102 native officers. The re- quent difficulty of dealing justly and turns for 1890 show 96 corps, 171 Euro- gently with the natives. ~'his may pean and 273 native officers. Out of a partially account for, though not excuse total of 4673 conversions there had been the cruelties practised by secular ex- 263 Europeans, 317 Roman Catholics, plorers in many parts of Africa.

592 native "Christians," and· 3501 East Africa.-A Berlin correspond- "raw heathens saved." In December ent of the London Times telegraphs that last 55 new officers embarked for India, the Central Board of the African Society where some of the Army's social work of German Catholics has granted 25,000 is being attempted. As regards the marks toward the fund for placing a.

position of the Salvation Army in the Wissmann steamer on Lake Victoria, United States, the figures are 86,662 on condition of the success of the enter- members, 40 church buildings, and 287 • prise being otherwise assured, and fur- halls, with sitting accommodation for ther sums, amounting to 75,000 marks, 102,261 persons. for the promotion of missionary enter- -The English Church Missionar,}" prise in various districts of German East Societs and the Bishop of Jerusa- Africa. Although Major VOIl Wissmann, on his return to Berlin, last summer, in and Christian manner," and continues, comparing the work of Catholic and " I shall never forget ODe time, when Protestant missionaries in East Africa, speaking on this subject with his late awarded to the former the palm of much Highness the Maharajah of i Travancore. greater success, his statements were His Highness said the day of rest was stoutly challenged and, in some cases, observed by his Government in the certainly disproved. jails, public offices, etc., but he asked, Would it not be a strange thing if he, English Wesleyan Missionary So· a Hindu prince, had to interfere to ciety.":-The discouraging statements make Christians keep the Sabbath? ' " made in the January issue of the REVIEW The missionary concludes by observing relative to English Wesleyan finances that the question is one which, so far may now be considerably modified. as the obse"ance of the day of rest is With the disappearance of the contro- concerned, "very closely affects Chrisversy on the Society's Indian policy, tian missions." which led to a serious decline in receipts in Great Britain, there is reported at Hindu Child Marriage-" Age of the opening of 1891 a "marked improve· Consent" Bill.-Moderate as the Inment." Fresh sympathy has been awa· dian Government measure is to raise kened. From Tonga good news still ar· the minimum age of a girl capable of conrives. With the return of religious sent,ing from ten to twelve years, it is liberty the native Wesleyan chapel is some advance toward the removal' of a regaining the ground which it lost by shameful abuse in relation to Hindu the recent persecution. child marriages. By the majority of representative subjects in India the bill India.-The eminent Baptist minis· will be deemed inadequate. It was ter, Rev. E. G. Grange, of Bristol, who only a few months ago two thousand has just returned from India, says that Indian women asked that the consenting the style of life in which missionaries age should be fourteen yearli. This live does strike a visitor as being luxu· memorial to the Viceroy was supported rious, but it is inevitable. His general by fifty.five ladies practising medicine impression is that the life is a trying in India. For this step in legislation one, and nothing save the love of God great praise is due to Mr. lblabari, or the love of money would keep a man whose efforts have been of the most in India. self·denying character. He thought that fourteen years might be adopted, Indian Factory Commission.- an opinion similarly held by the medi- Although this commission, at the con. cal profession, and likewise long recogelusion of its sittings in 1890, recom· nized by the Parsee and Brahman commended important amendments touch. munities. The Rajpoots have lately fol· ing the excessive working hours of lowed this examp1e. Fortunately, the women and children, there is a further l'rincipal Hindu reformers are press. call for humane -legislation in such na· ing amendments by which to strengthen tive States as Travancore, where the the rights of parents in withholding Factory Acts have no operation. A their daughters from cohabitation with friend of the writer, the Rev. J. Knowles the husbands they have married as mere (L. M. S.), Travancore, South India, re- children, till they have reached a proper marks that" professedly Christian men age. It is admitted that the Viceroy may and do work women and children has escaped being charged with violating from dawn to dark, with only a short outrageously social custom and ecclesipause of about twenty minutes in the astical tradition. The ultimate developmiddle of the day." Referring to the ment of this measure is scarcely less imneed of intervention, Mr. Knowles says, portant than the virtual abolition of " The only thing I am pleading for is the legal status of Indian slavery in 1843. that things shall be done in a humane Monthly Bulletin. year of 42,124. All the Methodist de- nominations in the United States nUll!- -The Christian Alliance has some ber 54,711 churches, 31,765 Dnnisters, suggestive words on taking secondary and 4,980,240 communicants. places in service for Christ. We must learn to help as well as lead, if we would -The Deaconess movement is spread- be used of God. It is a great thing to ing. In connection with the Baptist be wiIIing to be second, or third, or Forward Movement, a new Deaconesses' fourth, or hundredth, if need be. Paul Home was recently opened in London. went out second, but God soon reversed Ladies will be trained in nursing and the order, and so it reads now, " Paul other work among the poor, and will be and Barnabas," not" Barnabas and placed under the direction of such Saul." Andrew Milne was refused as churches as may desire t.heir aid. missionary, and then offered to go as a servant. Be blacked Robert Morrison's -The Rev. G. W. Morrison, of the shoes, and did a servant's work for a American U. P. India. mission, may be time, bnt became at length one of the compelled to return to this country this greatest missionaries of the world. spring to bring his motherless babe.

-There are in the United States, -The Rev. J. Kruidenier, of the Canada, England and Scotland, 34 American U. P. Egyptian Mission, who women's missionary societies, and they has been laid aside for :five months with have 1397 missionaries in the field. critical illness, has recovered, and has resumed his work at Assiout. -The work of telegraph building in South Africa has pushed far ahead of -The Rev. Dr. Lansing, of the railroad enterprise. A line now reaches American U. P. Egyptian Mission, is the new capital of King Khama, 1700 slowly recovering his health, and is bemiles in an air line northeast of Cape ginning to take some part in public ser- Town. Savage Africa will thus be vices. Be is at La Grange, Mo. joined with civilization by electric wires. Two hundred and sixty wagons, -Dr. Pentecost reports the outlook each drawn by from ten to twelve yoke for India most hopeful. The older misof oxen, have taken their way northward sionaries are .full of expectation. Imloaded with nothing but telegraph wires. portant conversions are occuring at all No recent enterprises of the sort surpass the stations. Be emphasizes the fact, in magnitude, or in the energy with however, that the mission field is sadly which they are being pressed forward, undermanned. Be appeals to all Christhese railroad and telegraph projects, tians in America for special prayer for now far advanced in South Africa. India, for the outpouring of the Spirit upon the workers and on the people. -It is said there are about thirty Be pleads also for increased gifts to the thousand children of school age in Chi- mission boards. "Let our men of cago who are not in school, and not at wealth double their SUbscriptions, work. This means that, in most cases, and let one hundred of our very best they are on the street. Verily, there is young men offer themselves. It is need of Gospel work very near home. absolutely of no use to send second- class men· to India. _ . .. Do not -The Methodist Year BooTe for 1891 believe the report of the unbelieving gives many interesting facts. The spies. God is able to give us the land." Methodist Episcopal Church in this Dr. Pentecost presided lately, at the country has a membership of 2,283,154, Town Hall of Calcutta, at the annnal a net gain of 46.691 over last year. The prize distribution of the boys' and the den()mination is serv~d by 14,792 min- girls' schools of that city, and Mrs. isters. It has 2,264,832 Sabbath·school Pentecost gave away the prizes. Dr. scholars, an increase over the previous Pentecost's work among the Englisheducated Bengalis is declared by the home with ruined habits. The Rev. Indian Witness to have been attended Eugene Dunlap, for many years con- with much blessing. One address, at nected with the American Presbyterian Duff College, made a profound impres- Mission at Siam, is making the arrange- sion. Young Bengalis present have ments, Up to the present time only since signed a solemn covenant to take four young men from Siam have been Christ as their Saviour, declaring they educated here. One. is now in the will make a public profession soon. Auburn Theological Seminary. " 'rhe feeling prevails among all classes who know the facts," says the Witness, -October 2d, 1792, the Baptist Mis- " that we are on the eve of a mighty sionary Society waa organized, the first work among this class, who have so long society in the world organized exclusivestood at the very threshold of a Chris· ly for sending the Gospel to the heath- tian life." It is a notable fact that thA en. The first offerings amounted to Englishman, the leading daily paper of about $66. Now there are 223 evangel- Calcutta, gave a sympathetic as w,ell as ical missionary societies, 5594 foreign elaborate account of Dr. Pentecost at missionaries (over 3000 of whom are orthe outset of his mission. It ascribes dained ministers), 33,543 native helpers, much of his success to his striking per- 681,503 native communicants, and in sonality and manner. 1890 the contributions reached $11,42::1,- 58.8. -From Tahiti and the adjacent islands a band of not less than 160 -There are several excellent training evangelists have gone forth, carrying the schools for nnrses in Japan. One of message of salvation to other benighted these is under the direction of a lajy tribes, and yet less than a century ago who left the superintendency of a Bosthe ancestors of these evangelists were ton hospital for her laborious post in lying in the grossest darkness and su- Kyoto. Another school in Tokyo is perstition. raising money for a building. Its man- agers consist of both American and Jap- -A Young Men's Christian Associa- anese ladies. tion has been established in Jerusalem, and modern methods of reaching the -Recent reports from the Presbytemasses are to be instituted in that his- rian mission in Shantung, China., are of toric city. a most encouraging character. The meeting of Presbytery at Wei Hien -The Rev. Dr. R. Hamill Nassau, a brought together about forty mission_ Presbyterian missionary on the Ogove aries full of enthusiasm, besides a goodly River, West Africa, is preparing to re- number of native preachers_ This Presturn to this country with his motherlells bytery has twenty organized churches on little daughter. Mrs. Nassau died in the its roll, with applications forfour or five wilds of Africa, with no white person new organizations. Four hundred and near except her husband. Dr. Nassau fifty-eight additions to t)le churches expects to reach Philadelphia about the were reported for last year. It is estifirst of May. mated that there are fifteen thousand in- quirers in the different districts. -Arrangements aTe making by the King of Siam to send six young men to -The Young Men's Christian Assothis country to be educated. They are ciation work in India is most encouragto enter Westminster College, at New ing. The number of members on the Wilmington, Pa., an excellent United roll of the Madras Association increased Presbyterian institution. The reason in three months from 85 to 165, 50 of given for bringing them here is that whom are active members. The influsimilar experiments in England have ence of the work is great, first in failed, the young men having returned strengthening and enconraging those I who are Christians, but who are exposed the Britons. They were too lazy and to many temptations, and then also in illiterate, he said, for any good. The reaching those who are not yet Chris- darkeys saw the point. It is a good tians. thing to look at the hole of the pit whence we were dug, especially when -British papers announce the death we are impatient enough to say that the at Newchang, China, of the Rev. J. H. lower races about us cannot be civilized. Fitz Simon8, missionary of the Irish Presbyterian Church. He had been -Leading Hebrews in San Francisco, only three weeks in his chosen field it is said, have dt!cided to raise a fund when called home. of a quarter million dollars for the re- lief of their persecuted brethren in Rus- -It is said that not more than one sia. The plan includes the purchase of eighth of the people of Japan live in a million acres in Mexico on the Pacific cities having more than 10,000 inhabi- coast, which will cost only one dollar tants ; the vast majority are farmers or an acre. This tract will be divided into fishermen. small farms, on which large numbers of these Hebrew exiles, who are mostly -The Evangel, the American Baptist farmers, will live. Colonists are to be mission steamer on the lower Congo, is sent out through the English Society of the first vessel to make the passage from Israelites. All the rabbis and rich the mouth of the river to Matedi in a Hebrews of San Francisco ar(}active supday. porters of the projE!ct.

-There are said to be 11 provinces in -The Shah of Persia, it is said, re- China, with 982 walled cities, in 913 of cently paid a personal visit to the Amerwhich there is no missionary. ican mission home and school in Te- heran. This is the first visit ever paid -The American Baptist Mission on by the Shah to a private foreign resithe Congo has founded a new station on dent, and it is not surprising that it the upper river at Irebo, 375 miles made quite a sensation. His Majesty above Stanley Pool and 750 from the was greatly pleased. sea. -From the report of the Japanese -Two new editions of the Burman Minister of Education it appears that Bible are being printed by the Baptist there are nearly three million pupils in Missionary Union, one in Rangoon and the public schools of the Empire of Jaanother, from reduced plates, in Boston. pan. The cause of education is rapidly advancing. -The American Baptist missionaries on the Upp!'r Congo have made discov- -The Rev. A. W. Thompson, the eries which show that Lakes Mantumba new Presbyterian missionary to Triniand Leopold are connected and form a dad, was recently designated at Dursecondary course for the waters of the ham, Nova Scotia.. Mr. Thompson Congo. The Upper Congo Valley is one leaves with the full confidence and the vast network of lakes and rivers. earnest good wishes of his church.

-There are three mission steamers on -The Rev. John M: Greene, D.D. the waters of the Upper Congo. They now for some years at the head of the convey preachers and teachers to the Presbyterian Missions in Mexico, was various stations on the great river and obliged, some six months since, to decarry supplies when needed. sist from his manifold labors and cares, and return home to recruit his health. -A missionary in South Afriea was We are gl ad to learn that he is now reading Cicero's Orations with his negro again in nearly fnll strength, and expects students. He came upon the passage to return to Mexico at once. where Cicero advised the general to make slaves of all the prisoners except -On November 29th last Dr. Henry ing the high passes of the Himalayas H. Jessup, so long of the Presbyterian and fording dangerous streams. They Syria Mission, had the pleasure of wel- have not seen a European for ten years. coming a son as a recruit to that mis- sion. The Rev. William Jessup and -The Presbyterian Mission in Chili wife arrived that day in Beirut. Mr. has five organized churches as well as Jessup left Syria when a little child in preaching halls in the principal towns 1864, and now returns for the first time. in the country, Evangelists make long Educated in Princeton, he was ordained tours, sowing the Bread of Life. There by the Presbytery of New Brunswick are two schools: an elementary one at last April, married to Miss Faith Jad- Valparaiso, attended by 200 scholars, win, October 15th, and sailed for Syria and a superior institution at Santiago early the following month. He is now with 80 scholars, some of whom have stationed at Zahleh, on the eastern side come from homes in Peru and Bolivia. of Lebanon. A young Spanish pastor, M. Francesco Diez, who studied at Lausanne, has re- -The Rev. Hunter Corbett writ~s to cently settled at Santiago in connection the Presbyterian Banner from China: with the mission. " During a journey of two months in the interior visiting churches, stations -McCormick Seminary has at present and schools, forty persons were redMved 40 young men who expect to enter the into the church on confession of faith, foreign field. They appeared before making ninety-two this year. Three Presbytery lately, and asked permission church.buildings were dedicated. Two to visit the churches to present the work of them are built of stone and the other so dear to their hearts. They hope by of brick. These buildings cost the these meetings to stimulate large lib- ChriRtians no small amount of self- erality, so that when the time comes denial." During this year about five the Board will be able to accept them. hundred members were added to the They received the hearty endorsement churches in the Presbytery and five of the Presbytery. men were ordained to the ministry. -As showing the vitality of the sim- -Cardinal Lavigerie proposes to re- ple old Gospel, a missionary from China claim large regions of the A.frican Sahara says: ., If there is anything which lays by monkish settlements. He is organ- hold of the poor people in that country izing a French Sahara Brotherhood, who it is the simple story of the crucifixion will live as engineering monks, and of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not the after five years' trial devote themselves morality, or the miracles of the Gosfor life. They will be posted near old pel, or even the wonderful sayings or wells in the Sahara, and will reopen teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, those wells and start new ones and but the old story of the cross, of the plant fruit far~s to form a series of blood, of the sacrifice, of the satisfacoases in the desert. They will make it tion of Christ in dying for sinners on their special work to gather the scat- the tree, that is the power for good in tered nomads, suppress their slave trade, touching the heart and awakening the and convert them if possible. The conscience … system is to extend itself until vast tracts are fertilized, as was the case in -The anti-rum congress at Khartoum the time of ancient Carthage, seems to have been a vigorous one. It was held at the same time with the anti- -AMoravian missionary and his wife slavery congress in Brussels. Bishop have been laboring for thirty years at a Taylor's magazine says: "While the station in the mountains of Thibet, Christians in Brussels were resolving to with the nearest post-office fourteen • search all vessels and dhows suspected days distant and reached only by cross- of having slaves on board, and to con- fiscate the vessels and return the slaves,' the Arabs were adopting a resolution are also 27 80cieties on the continent of • to surround the entire coast of Africa Europe. As to results, it is said that with a cordon of armed dhows and con- within the past seventy-five years 100,- fiscate every European vessel contain- 000 Jews have been baptized, and that ing liquors, and sell .the crewS into sla- the number of Hebrew Christians with very.' " their children reaches a quarter million. Many of the converts are men of influ- -It is said that for what it costs to ence. fire one shot from one of our largest cannon, a missionary and his family can -The work among the Chinese in be supported over two years in Japan. America has a very important bearing Would we not better spike the cannon on the evangelization of China. The and send the Gospel abroad? number of Chinamen converted in thi's country who go back to extend Gospel -The Woman' B Executive Committee influences in their native land is surpris- of Home Missions of the Presbyterian ingly large. They are valued helpers in Church has for several years prosecuted the stations of both the Presbyterian educational and industrial work for Ind- and AmericllnBoardmissions, and some ian children and youth in schools in of the strongest churches have been New Mexico, Indian Territory, Arizona, founded by Chinamen who have been Nebraska, Iowa, and Wisconsin, with converted while living in California. In gratifying results. There are now un- four or five cities natives who are either der the care of this band of Christian now residents of the United States, or women thirty-two schools, where chil- who have sojourned there, are provid- dren are thoroughly instructed in gos- ing the funds for evangelistic enter- pel truth, and through the influence of prises. There is said to be less opposi- which many savage homes have been tion to the Gospel in those sections from transformed. Chapels have also been which there has been emigration to built, and the precious seed of living America. These facts should urge us to truth scattered broadcast. greater activity in behalf of the Ori- entals now among us. -A Methodist medical missionary in India makes a strong plea for a prelim_ -Here is a pleasant item from Glas- inary service in the home field for those gow, Scotland': "Mr. Quarrier was vis- who go abroad, Such experience would ited the other day by friends from the not only be a test of their qualification, West Coast, who laid on his table £2000 but would also be educational, prepar- in bank-notes, saying they wished to ing them for wiser and more efficient build a house for the orphans in mem- service when they enter the foreign field. ory of a beloved husband and father. They were most anxious that no name, -Dr. Tucker, who succeeds the heroic not even initials, should be published. Bishop Hannington in Equatorial They refused to take a receipt, saying Africa, under the appointment of the to Mr. Quarrier, "You have got the Church Missionary Society, found his money, and that is enough." journey to his post at Uganda one of great peril. But for the opportune help -It is not pleasant to read in the of German soldiers the missionary would Christian World that ., Black Mass" was , have shared Bishop Hannington's sad celebrated in 250 Anglican churches on fate. All Souls' Day. Prayers for the dead were offered, and the altars were drapeu -It is usually supposed that mission in black. Straws show which way the work among the Jews does not yield wind blows, and when 250 of them blow sufficient results to encourage its con· in the same direction it is not difficult tinuance. But our friends in Europe to decide the tendency of the prevailing do not appear to share this feeling. breeze. Other indications of 8 Bomish Great Britain has 14 missionary soci- eties. which employ 312 agents. There tendency are furnished by English Epis. the Roman Catholic, and the Anglican copal clergymen in abundance. Church have missions in Alaska.

-The London City Mission has 300 -Yes, even our aborigines can be Gospel halls in which religious services touched and renewed by divine grace. are held during the week, in many cases To the wildest and worst of them, a livevery night in the year. ing Indian can be a good Indian. For Bishop Hare, who knows whereof he -The American Bible Society has reo writes, exclaims: "Nine Sioux Indians ceived from the National Bible Society nobly working in the sacred ministry! of Scotland a copy of the New Testa. About 40 Sioux Indians helping them as ment translated into Tannese by the licensed catechists. Forty branches of Rev. William Watt. the Woman's Auxiliary among the Sioux Indian women. Seventeen hundred -One consecrated man may set in Sioux Indian communicants! Sioux motion great influences for good. Sir Indians contributing nearly $3000 an- Keith Falconer founded a mission at nually for religious purposes! But Aden, in Arabia, and with his last what impression have all these solemn breath begged that it be not given up. but cheering facts made upon the pub. The Free Church of Scotland has ac. lie mind as compared with the wild cepted it as a legacy, and Professor Lan- antics of the heathen Sioux Indians, sing, of New Brunswick, is preparing which excited the attention and stirred some young men for the mission. Mean- the feelings of the country, and daily while a German, reading the life of occupIed column after column of the leith Falconer, was moved to give newspapers for weeks ?" himself as a missiopary, and proposes to enter upon the work of evangelizing -Woman's work for woman in forthe Bedaween Arabs who dwell around eign lands, which had its beginning Mt. Sinai. So the torch is passed from only about 20 years ago, has been atthe dying to the living, and new con- tended by a marvellous development. secrated men are never wanting to take In all 70 societies are in existence, supthe place of those who fall in the field. porting a force of 1468 missionaries, and gathering and expending last year the Organized Mi.~ona.ry W"ork and Statis- snug sum of $1,692,963. Of these so- tics. Edited by Rev. D. L. Leonard, cieties 34 are found in the United States, Bellevue, O. 10 in Canada, 24 in Great Britain, and one each on the Continent and in South -England has 8 Jewish missionaries; Africa. The American societies alone Scotland: has 5 ; Ireland 1 ; and these sustai~ 926 missionaries, and raised organizations in all employ 312 agents. $1,087,568 last year, or almost three- There are 27 societies upon the Conti. fifths ~f the entire amount. nent, and in the United States 7, with 34 in their employ. The total of organ_ -In connection with the Day of izations designed especially to carry the Prayer for Colleges, statistics appeared Gospel to the Jews is 48, and their mis- of an interesting and important charsionaries number 377. acter from 24 colleges having" substaJ;l. tial relations with the Presbyterian -According to Dr. Sheldon Jackson, Church." These figures throw welthe Presbyterian Church now has 7 mis- come light upon one or two weighty sions and 4 churches, with from 70 to questions. Omitting the colleges for 80 communicants each in Alaska. The women only, and including only the church in Sitka has 360 communicants. students in institutions for men, or Besides the Presbyterian Church, the those where co-education exists, it ap- Moravian, the Protestant Episcopal, the pears that 82 per cent of the attendants Methodist Episcopal, Congregationalist are church members in the college classes proper, or 61 per cent if pre- the women 28. The visits made aggre_ paratory students are included. And of gated 22,766. They conducted 2946 the 1509 students, 361 are reported as church, cottage, and mission meetings, "meaning to be ministers." Making 549 children's meetings, 235 tent meetall due allowance for women found in ings, and taught 2163 Sunday-school the mixed colleges, the conclusion is that classes. The number of visits made to not less than one in three has the minis- saloons was 1932, and the number of try in view. inquirers professing conversion was 2729. It is evident from these figures -The educatiox{al work of the vari- that while a large proportion of time is ous societies is always to be borne in zealously devoted to Bible study and mind as only second in importance to attendance upon lectures, attention to the direct preaching of the Gospel in " applied Christianity" is by no means pagan lands. And the aggregate of neglected. In vocal classes 448 were schools of all grades, and of pupils as taught, while 74 received private inwell, is cheeringly large. Thus the strnction for the voice, and 91 received London society alone supports no less private instrumental lessons. than 1615, with 105,980 in attendance_ The Church Missionary Society has -No friend of missions can watch 1796 schools with 75,581 scholars, and that unparalleled movement known as the American Board 1025, with 47,319. the Partition of Africa, without wonder- The Methodist Church, North, is edu- ing what is to be the effect upon the cating 30,049 in foreign lands; the Pres- well-being of the 200,00,0,000 that inbyterian Board, North, 23,935, and the habit the vast spaces of the Dark Con- Baptist Missionary Union, 20,615. The tinent, or without hoping that it will be schools sU'ltained by the various Ameri- blessed in almost. every particular. can societies contain almost 175,000 Eight European nations ~re concerned pupils, and the 12,000 Protestant mis- in the colossal affair, if we count the sion schools are training to Christian Congo Free State with its 1,000,000 intelligence an aggregate of not much square miles, as Belgium'S share in the less than 600,000 children and youth. " deal." France easily leads in the ex- tent of her acquisitions, having her hand -The first annual report is out of upon Algeria, the Sahara country, and Mr. Moody's Bible Institute for Home other regions farther south, or a total and Foreign Missions (and Chicago of 2,300,000 square miles. Though, if Evangelization Society), and will be a to Great Britain's 1,910,000 in South surprise to many. Three departments and Central Africa we add her most exhave been in operation during the year, cellent prospects in Egypt and the Souone for men, one for women, and one dan, and the superior soil and climate for instruction in music; and the num- of her possessions, then her share is ber of persons enrolled in them is most valuable by far. Germany, just at 173, 80, and 578 respectively-in the present, is content with 1,035,00,0 square two first named 253, or a total of 831 miles, Portugal with 775,000" Italy with students. Upward of 20 denominations 360,,000, and great expectations as touchwere represented in the attendance, ing Tripoli, while Spain brings up the and more than 3.1> States of the Union. rear with the trifle of 210,000. Upon Sixteen came from England, 15 from the entire continent-some 50,0,0, by 50,00 Canada,· 9 from Sweden, 4 from Ire- miles in extent-are found some 12,00,0,- land, 4 from Germany, 3 from Norway, 000 square miles, of which only 2,500,- 2 from Turkey, and 1 each from Russia, 000 remai!l unassigned. It can scarcely Bohemia, and Finland. They came be but that roads, the locomotive, and from 51 secular occupations, and 41 stable government will Boon follow; and were ministers or evangelists. The so let the Lord's people make haste to average age of the men was 30, and of go up to possess the land for Him.

The Missionary Review of the World — March 1891

THE REGIONS BEYOND. .[March

MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.

VOL. XIV. No. S.-OldSeries.–MARCH.–VoL. IV. No. S.-New Seria.

THE REGIONS BEYOND.-PART II.

[EDITORIAL. ] Beside the literal ground unoccupied for Christ, there is the unclaimed, untrodden, territory of Divine promises. What did God say to Joshua in chap. i., v. 3 1 "Every place that t~e sole of your foot shall tread upon, . that have I given unto you," and then "He draws the outlines of the Land of Promise-'-all theirs, on one condition: that they shall march through the length and breadth of it, and measure it off by their own feet. They never did that to more .than one third of the property, an'd consequently they never had more than one third; they had just what they measured off, and no more. Now, if we turn to the New Testament, in the Second Epistle of Peter we read about that other" Land of Promise" that is opened up to us, " Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be "partakers of the Divine nature, having es- caped the corruption that is in the world through lust." Mark the close analogy between those two passages. Here is God's true Land of Promise, "exceeding great," " exceeding precious j" and it is God's will that we should, as it were, mtlasure off that territory by the feet of obedient faith and believing obedience, thus claiming and appropriating it for our own, becoming partakers of the Divine nature, and escaping the corruption which is in the world through lust and which was typified by the Canaanites that had to be expelled before the Land of Promise could be possessed.

Now, let us look at these promises. They are marvellous I How many of us have ever imagined the wealth and the extent of that land 1 And how many of us have ever taken possession of the promises of God in the Name of Jesus Christ? It is a territory for faith to lay hold on and march through the length and breadth of, and faith has never yet done it. The faith of the Church has, thus far, taken possession only of a very small portion of this exceeding great and precious land, and the rest lies in " the regions beyond." .

We are limited by sight; sight makes a great deal of the visible and temporal, and unbelieving disciples prefer that which iil tangiblQ tQ that which is unseen and eternal. Sight emphasizes numbers. Hear what God says: "One of you shall chase a thousand, ~nd two put ten thoueand to flight." That is God's arithmetic. Twice one thousand is two thousand, but in God's arithmetic twice one thousand is ten thousand. God is sublimely indifferent to numbers. It is not quantity but quality for which God cares; He would rather have one consecrated Ulan or woman than a thousand who are halfhearted in His service; so He keeps sifting down, and down. and down, just as He did Gideon's great multitude, till He gets the choice "three hundred" with whom He can do mighty works.

Sight emphasizes power. See how'sublimely indifferent God is to power. While we are seeking the patr(mage of great, or rich, or mighty men, God is taking up the poor and the weak, and the despised and the base, and the things that are nothing, and with them bringing to nought the things that are something.

Fellow-believers, we have to take possession of this region of unclaimed promises; and, inasmuch as we are applying this truth especially in the interest of missions, let us give onrattention to a most important distinction. Christ says, in Matthew: "Go, . • . make disciples of all nations. All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age." That is His promise. Then, in Luke, He says: "Behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you, but tarry yc in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high."

THE PROMISE OF CHRIST AND THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER are not the same thing. Christ's promis~ is the promise of His personal presence, and the exercise of His omnipotent power in behalf of His missionary band. The promise of the Father is 'the promise of a descending Holy Spirit to break down internal barriers in the minds and the hearts of men, and to endue His own disciples with the wondrous unction from above. Now, these are two promises–not to speak of any others. Think of them in their bearing on Christian missions.

When Joshua saw a man standing in the neighborhood of the city of Jericho, he said, challenging him, " Art thou for us or against us~" This strange personage said, " Nay, but as Captain of the host of the Lord am I now come;" and Joshua perceived that He was the Angel of the Lord, and took off his own shoes in reverence, and waited for His commands; and, in accordance with the precise directions that He gave, Joshua moved round that city once a day for six days, and seven times on the seventh day; and then, without a blow being struck, the walls fell, and they went into Jericho and took captive all that were within it. What is that but an historic allegory in the Old Testament illustrating the facts of the New 1 When. the Acts of the Apostles opens, which corresponds, in the New- Testament, to the book of Joshua in the Old, we have there the hosts of God on the Day of Pentecost simply surrounding the fortress of Jewish prejudice, superstition, and alienation from God, with the trumpet· blast, the preaching of the Gospel, and on that day also without a carnal blow being struck, without any human philosophy to account for it, three thousand were pricked in their hearts, and said, " What shall we do 1" and were taken captive for God. What is all this bnt. the Captain of the Lord's host going before the missionary band, and repeating the miracle of Jericho ¥ Walls fall at once that might have stood for a thousand years but for His presence. All human calculation is disappointed when the Captain of the Lord's host appears on the scene.

The promise of the Holy Ghost is one of special grace from above on teachers and preachers; and then also on those that hear the vVord j as, in the house of Cornelius, it becomes converting grace to the hearers as it has been anointing grace to those that speak.

Look at this territory of promise. Suppose that the Church should pass all that has been attained, overleap all barriers, disregard the measure· of past human attainment, and simply march over the length and breadth of these promises, claim the presence of the Captain of the Lord's host, claim His intervention, the fulfilment of His word, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age," claim the prostration of barriers that no man could prostrate without the power of His presence and influence! Suppose that the Christian Church should get down on her face before God to-day, and pray the Captain of the Lord's host to remove the obstacles that prevent our going into Thibet, that has stood there on her heights, walled about by her mountains, and thus far defied even the Moravians to obtain access to the shrine of the grand Lama worship,-what might we not see in the year 1891, if we believed that this Jericho that could not be taken by the power of man could be taken by the simple fiat of the Captain of the Lord's host I And suppose that there was this believing appropriation of the Promised Spirit in anointing power on teachers and preachers, and in converting power on audiences that hear the Word in the communities in the midst of which these men are laboring, vhat new things we might see! It is vety noticeable that Peter did not say, on the Day of Pentecost, that this was the fulfilment of what had been spoken by the prophet Joel. TiLe more minutely we study the Scriptures the more we shall believe in the inspiration of the very words of Holy Scripture. Thore is no mistaking the words Peter uses here. He does not say, "This is the fulfilment of what Joel said." He simply says, "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. This is not spirituous intoxication, but spiritual exhilaration. It is not new wine, but it is the new wine of the kingdom, even as Joel foretold." This wa~ a foretaste; the fulfilment of Joel's word is yet to come. There is to be a greater Pentecost, to which that was only like the first few drops that indicate the mighty rain that is to come down on the mown grass and refresh the earth j and we ought to pray to-day for, and claim from God, a Pentecost so much greater than the first Pentecost, that it should at last begin to fill up to the full the language that Joel uses in that remarkable prophecy. III.-REGIONS BEYOND OF PRAYER.

is This suggests regions beyond even the promises that faith has not taken possession of,-namely, those regions beyond that prayer yet to tread. Faith and prayer are so intimately associated that we cannot speak of one without at least implying the other. But let us mark that there are different levels of pmyer. As we follow our blessed Lord, as He teaches His disciples, He goes from one rung in the ladder to [mother, and lifts them with Him, higher and higher, to a sublimer level of prayer.

Our Lord's first lesson on prayer was, " Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." But then, as we go on in Matthew and come to chaps. xvii. and xxi., a new element is empltasized: "Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shan receive." Now, it is not simply asking, but asking in faith and receiving according to faith. But when we come to the Gospel of John, we read, in chap. xvi., the most marv:ellous words our Lord ever spoke on prayer, in the New Testament: «Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My Name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My Name He will give it you." Now, this is beyond simple asking; beyond even asking in faith. This is asking by virtue of, and because of, our identification with the Lord Jesus Ghrist. His Name is His person. To ask in His Name is to ask by virtue of our identity with Him, our individuality being merged into His personality in the sight of God, so that God does not look on us as we are, in ourselves, but looks on us as we are in Ghrist Jesus. Here is a " region beyond," in the matter of prayer, that one man or woman in a thousand has scarce dreamt of. When I go to the Father in Jesus' Name-reverently let me say it-Ghrist is the suppliant rather than myself; and because th·e Father can deny the Son nothing that He wants, it is certain that what I ask in His Name I shall receive-nay, I have already received it; and it is my privilege to believe that I have received that which I ask.

Now, suppose the Christian Church should get hold of this power of prayer, and get above the level of simply asking, or even of asking in faith, and realize her identity with her Lord and the privilege of praying in the Name of Jesus; then, keeping in fellowship with Christ, nourishing and cherishing this daily walk with Him, and therefore having, within, the motions that His Spirit creates, the groanings unutterable awakened by the Holy Ghost-.these, presented in the golden censer of Christ before the throne, shall certainly be heard and heeded by the Father. And so I believe that the greatest need of missions to-day is NEW PRAYER-prayer on the highest level of prayer.

IV.-REGIONS BEYOND OF GIVING.

There is yet another" region beyond" that has not been taken possession of, and that is the region of sanctified giving. We are coming now to a very practical matter. There is a whole world of promise and of power to be 'taken possession of in the matter of consecrated means. The Church of God is doing nothing to-day in comparison to what she might do and ought to do. We feel ashamed, however, to speak of giving as a duty, because it grows on our convictions more and more that we ought to lose sight of it as a duty, and only think of it as a transcendent privilege. There is something in love that takes off the asperities of duty. "I delight to do thy will, 0 my God." That is the atmosphere of service-not the law atmosphere-" I ought to do this thing," but the love atmosphere, " My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work." Now, in this unclaimed and untroddcn region with regard to giving, there are three or four things to which we want to call especial attention.

In the first place, individual giving is a region beyond, yet to be reached by the Church of God. "Let everyone of you lay by him in store." God's principle is not that the rich should give, nor that the poor should give, but that rich and poor should alike give j and every man, woman, and child thus have part in this consecration of substance.

Then we need systematic giving. ".Upon the first day of the week let everyone of you lay by in store j" at stated times, with regularity, as a matter of habit, so that, just as regularly as the week comes round, there should be an account with God that is audited, corrected, adjusted, to see that there be no failure in this part of our duty. Just as we are to bring a certain portion of our time and set it entirely apart to God, so we are to bring a certain portion of our substance, statedly and habitually offering it to the Lord.

Then there must be proportionate giving. We must give, first, according to our ability, and, secondly, " as God hath prospered us." And this law of proportion must never be overlooked. The difficulty with the Church to-day is that, too often, we are calculating how little we can give to satisfy the claims of conscience, whereas we ought to ask, " How much can I give to God ¥ and how little can I reserve for myself, and yet satisfy the absolute necessities of my own reasonable wants ~" Vv'e ought to turn the rule of our giving entirely round. Give to the Lord the first portion, not the last. Give to the Lord the largest portion, not the least.

Then there ought to be self-denying giving, which lies still further beyond in this untrodden territory. A woman went round in a church to get offerings from the women of the congregation for foreign missions, and her uniform plea was, "You can give this, and you will not feel it a bl:t." That was the damaging recommendation. Here is the trouble in the Church of Christ: we give and we do not feel it j neither does the world feel it very much! 'We cannot conceive how God can take much pleasure in a gift that costs us nothing j and let us pray God never to let us use such an argument as that. Rather give until you do feel it.

Much is said from time to time about the generous giving of disciples. There are thirty millions of Protestant Church-members to-day, and twelve millions of dollars is the aggregate sum that is given to foreign missions by these Christians; whereas, if everyone of them gave one cent a day, it would amount to over one hundred millions, and if everyone of them gave three cents a day, it would give us over three hundred and twenty-fh'e millions a year! There is something wrong when, in the coffers of American and British Christians, there lie twenty-live thousand millions of dollars, and God cannot get for the whole work of foreign evangelization more than twelve millions of that immense sum!

At the same time, individual examples show us what giving is possible. There was Sarah Hosmer, of Lowell, Mass., a poor woman living in an attic, and working with her needle. She saved, on six different occasions, fifty dollars, and sent it to educate a native preacher in Oriental countries j and, when she was borne to her rest, six men were preaching in foreign lands whom she had helped into the ministry.

Travellers pass by, in Scotland, the estates formerly owned by Robert Haldane, in the neighborhood of the Bridge of Allan, and one feels a degree of reverence that inclines him to take off his shoes, for it seems that he is standing on holy ground. The fragrance of the act of that godly man who sold those estates, and offered the $175,000 that they yielded to establish in Benares, the centre of Hindu idolatry, a mission for the Lord Jesus Christ, is still shed abroad all through that country, and people pass those estates not without a reverent thought of Robert Haldane, and a grateful recognition of the power of a consecrated life.

Then, in Alloa, when the writer of these lines was delivering the closing words of one of his addresses, he saw an old man there, leaning on his staff. He was nearly ninety years of age, and the chairman whispered, " That is David Paton. He has given his entire fortune-$l,OOO,OOO-to missions, and he is living now on a little annuity which has been reserved that he may not come to absolute want." And yet, when that man heard my plea for missions, he managed to get out of the little that was left him $1250 more, which he gave the next day, and subsequently sent yet another $2000.

There was Mr. Hamilton, a mere clerk in a surveyor's office in Glasgow, and all the income that he had was perhaps $350 a year-yet he annually gave to the U. P. Church $100, nearly one third of his entire income. And when, in 1887, there was a special call made by the Synod for $100,- 000 for missions, that man furnished one-hundredth part of the amount. He sent $1000, one hal£ of the savings that he had made all through his lifetime. And after his death his cash account was found, with the Lord's offering indicated there, and it was discovered that he spent only one shilling a day on his own needs, besides the three shillings a week for lodging -ten shillings sterling a week in all-that he might give the more to the cause of the Lord J csus Christ.

Well may we feel that we have never denied ourselves anything for our Master when we read the story of such a man as that, living seventy-one years with slender income, and in that frugal fashion, that he might be one of the noblest givers in all Scotland, giving~unobtrusively and quietly" as to the Lord, and not unto men. "

God showed the church in that annus mirabilis, 1878, to which we have referred, what could be done by a few consecrated givers. In that one year there was given to the Lord, on the altar of missions, by less than twenty individuals in the United States and in Great Britain, nearly one million pounds sterling, or $5,000,000! Thus God first showed ns, in 1858, what wonders He can do in opening the way before His Church. And then, in 1878, lie showed both what wonders He can do in giving la1'ge harvests from the seed sown, and what other wonders He can do in moving His people to come forward, like Barnabas at Cyprus, to lay the proceeds of their estates on the altars of Christian missions.

V.-THE REGION BEYOND OF HOLY LIVING.

We notice one more region that lies beyond-namely, the region of holy living. That is the most important region of all. We must not measure onrselves by ourselves, or compare ourselves among ourselves, or stop where others have stopped, or where we have now attained; but we must go on, if this world is to be evangelized, to a life of which very few know much. We compress all that we would say on this point in one maxim: ".A holy life is a life in a supernatural realm-a walle with God." That is strong language, but the New Testament is stronger: "He that dwelleth in love d welleth in God, and God in him. " Notice the expression that Jude uses – " praying in the Holy Ghost"-as though the Holy Ghost were a divine atmosphere in which the praying disciple moves, which he breathes, which exhilarates him, which nerves him to duty, which vitalizes him, which strengthens him 1 And that is exactly the truth. A man that is a truly holy man is breathing the Holy Ghost as a sacred atmosphere. And that is the atmosphere of missions.

The thing that, more than anything else, has led the writer to devote hims.elf to the advocacy of missions has been that he has recognized in the working of missions the nearest approach to the repetition of all the supernatural occurrences of the Old Testament and of the period of the Acts of the Apostles. There is the Pillar of cloud and fire, going before God's people,' causing Red Seas to present a passage on dry ground, causing fortress walls to fall instantaneously without a blow being struck, causing the enemy, like Amalek, to be defeated as long as the arm of faith and prayer is extended. When Christ says, "I am with you," He means omnipotent power; He means guidance, guardianship, government. Jesus Christ is with us in even sense that is most precious, when we seek to proclaim the Gospel to a dying world.

We must learn to look for DIVINE INTERPOSITION. In Psalm ii. the kings of the earth are represented as conspiring together to break the bands of Jehovah, and cast away the cords of His dear Son. Wh~t does Godeay,to them 1 "Yet have I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion j" and He says to His King, •• Ask of Me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. " That text has been preached from a great many times asa missionary text, as though it meant that the whole world is to be converted. But the next verse addR: "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron: thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." This Psalm is the encouragement of the Church of God, but not in the direction of the harvests that are to come from the sowing. There are abundant such encouragements elsewhere; but here the encouragement given is that, although the kings of the earth conspire and rulers take counsel to obstruct the work of missions, to defeat the plans of the great King Himself, He who has even His enemies as His inheritance, and the hostile territories of conspiring kings with which to do as He wills, shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel, and break them with the iron rod of His just rnle.

Missionaries of the Cross have seen many such interpositions of God. We refer again to two as examples of many.

In Turkey, in 1839, at the crisis of missions, the Sultan Mahmoud said, "There shall not a representative of the Christian religion remain in the empire. " And Dr. Hamlin came into the house to Dr. Goodell, and said, " Doctor, it is all over with us-we have to leave; the American Consul and the British Ambassador both say that 1t is no use to meet, with antagonism, this violent and vindictive monarch.!' Dr. Goodell, sitting in his chair, rocked to and fro with undisturbed serenity. Dr. Hamlin said, " Well, you do not seem to give yourself much anxiety." That devout and godly man looked up to heaven and said, " Dr. Hamlin, the Sultan of the Universe, in answer to prayer, can change that decree." And they, gave themselves to prayer, and the next day the Sultan Mahmoud died, and the decree has never since been mentioned, save as a matter of history. There a ruler conspired against the King of Zion to defeat the plan of evangelizing His empire, and to expel His missionaries; but He stretched forth His rod of iron and instantly " dashed him in pieces, like a potter's vessel. "

And in Siam, in the crisis of missions, in 1851, when another hostile king would not even allow the missionaries to get premises in which to live, or ground upon which to build, and would scarcely lIuffer them to obtain a lodging; and when they were only waiting for a vessel to bear them away from the harbor of Bangkok, believing that their work was all in vain ; meanwhile they called upon Almighty God to interpose, and again the King of Zion stretched forth His rod and smote that monarch, and broke him likewise in pieces, "like a potter's vessel." And when his corpse was borne to burial, the question came up, " Who is to be his successor 1" and again God was besought to interpose. The man that was selected was the only man in the empire that had ever been trained by a Christian missionary. Though not himself a Christian, in studying language and philosophy and history and political economy with the missionaries, he had imbibed tolerant and catholic principles and impulses, and he inaugurated in the Empire of Siam the n;l.Ost aggressive and the most liberal policy in all Asia j and his successor, Chulalangkorn, is to-day the most enlightened sovereign on that continent. He and his wife are nursing father and nursing mother of Christian missions. Only two years ago they made munificent presents to our American missionaries to enlarge the borders of their hospital and dispensary work, as they have again done more recently.

Verily, A NEW STANDARD OF HOLY LIVING IS NEEDED. These" regions beyond" must be entere,d. Faith must enter the unclaimed territory of promise. Prayer must enter the unclaimed territory of divine power in the diviue presence. We must get a new standard of giving, that shall be individual, that shall be systematic, that shall be proportionate, that shall be cheerful, and that shall be self-denying. And we must get a new standard of living, that shall dare to invade the supernatural, that shall walk with God, and dwell in God, and pray in the Holy Ghost, and shall recognize the word of our Master, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world," and the word of the Father that the Holy Ghost shall come down to anoint disciples, and bring the unconverted to the knowledge of Christ. Oh! we must enter this nnclaimed and untrodden territory, and then it may be permitted to some of us to see the glorious day come, when the Gospel, having been preached as a witness among all nations, the King himself shall come in His beauty, and those that have looked long for Him, with fainting desire, shall be permitted to share in the glory of His enthronement and coronation !

A very dear friend of the Editor, Miss Agnes E. Henderson, M.D., daughter of ex-Provost Henderson, of Aberdeen (for many years a director of this society), goes out to. India as a medical missionary in connection with the Free Church of Scotland. At a large and deeply interesting farewell meeting held in Aberdeen, Professor Salmond, who was in the chair, stated that Miss Henderson had with high distinction completed her curriculum as a tnedical student, obtained her degree, and dedicated herself to the service of Christ. She was about to go first to Bombay, there to stay for a year, to learn the language, and acquire a knowledge of the peculiar character of Indian diseases. After that she would proceed to Nagpore to labor as a medical missionary. Her services would cost the Church nothing, as provision had been made by the liberality of her father for carrying on the whole work of this post of which she was to be the first occupant without any charge to the Church.

That was not the only instance of It missionary going out at her own cost, because,. as Professor Salmond said, another missionary was present who occupied precisely the same position. How is it that there is not far more of this kind of thing? Many a Christian family might with ease support one of its number in foreign service, and thereby show allegiance to the Master, take a noble share in evangelizing the heathen, and bring a rich blessing upon themselves.

THE MISSION' OUTLOOK

THE MISSION OUTLOOK.-III.

BY REV. J. MURRAY MITCHELL, M.A., LL.D., NICE, FRANCE.

Let us now glance at the Asiatic countries in which Mohammedanism is the ruling religion. There has been, in varIOUS quarters, a disposition to think well of Mohammedanism. Its one merit is its discouragement of intemperance. It may raise savage races up to the Arabian civilization of the seventh century, but it fixes them there; and further progIess is attainable only by rejecti ng it. But how difficult to make it relax its grasp! Mackay of Uganda speaks of the" strange venom" in Islam which makes it almost impossible to Christianize any race that has accepted it, however imperfectly. Still, when Mackay speaks of "the universal failure of missions to Moslems," his language is much too strong. In fact, he admits so himself when, at a later date, he writes of " the work already accomplished among Mohammedans in Persia and India" as having proved "a decided success" (Memoir, p. 419).

Throughout the Turkish Empire work among Mohammedans is exceedingly difficult. After the Crimean War it seemed as if the door was opened for work among the Turks; and good Dr. Schauffier said to us in Constantinople, in October, 1859, that the prospects were most cheering. But from about 1864 Islam has wakened up as from deep lethargic sleep; and the command has evidently gone forth from high quarters that mission work among Mohammedans must be suppressed if possible, and in all cases opposed. This is what is called" the new departure of Islam." Theconcessions of the Hatti Humayoon of 1856 are ignored. Mission schools are closed, and when representatives of foreign powers are able to compel their reopening, Moslem children are forbidden to attend. Mohammedan schools and mosques are provided with a zeal formerly unknown.

In Persia the repression is not so strong. The missionaries believe that the Shah's three visits to Europe have considerably liberalized his views; and although the persecution of the Babis shows that fanaticism is not dead, yet the Bible can be circulated to some extent among Mohammedans, and religious inquiry goes on in private.

In Arabia, so far a~ it is under Turkish dominion, the public preaching of the Gospel would be at present impossible. But a majority of the Arabs do not acknowledge Turkish sway; and a definite effort ought to be made, on their behalf. Medical'missionaries at least would be safe, perhaps, even where the blighting shadow of the Turk has faUen. The Scriptures can be circulated-from Aden especially. On the whole, Arahia has been unreasonably overlooked in the distribution of the missionary force.

We come now to speak of Africa. Every portion of the field at which we have glanced has interested us deeply; but as he names Africa one feels his heart swell in his breast. The Dark Continent! Dark as Erebus it has been for generations without number. One of the latest testimonies regarding its religion is that of Mackay. He tells us that the Africans aCknowledge God, but worship only devils. They are "guilty of every form of uncleanness, and robbery, and tyranny, and murder." Yet we must not despond. The possessing demon can be cast out. Mackay de- clares it indisputable that" the African is capable of Christianization, and of rising to take his place among the foremost races of men.' , We ask anxiously, as the prophet did of old, 'What of th'e night 1 that is, how much of it is past ¥ Thank God, the midnight is gone j yes, there are streaks of light on the eastern sky.

Let us glance first at North Africa. Time was when all North Africa, from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, was Christian j and not a few of the men who stand high in the records of the Church were born and flour- ished there. But the sword of the Moslem swept the professors of the faith away, all except a small, oppressed remnant in Egypt. It is a Rolemn question why this was permitted by Him who has the hearts of all men in I1is hand j and the answer is equally solemn which good men have given- namely, that the civilized people of North Africa took little or no interest in the extension of the Gospel among the aboriginal inhabitants, and that the lamp-stand was removed because the lamp gave little or no light. Steadily Islam has advanced in all North Africa to within six or perhaps * four degrees of the equator, almost exclusively by war and conquest j and the Arabs have ruined many fair provinces to the south of the line. But we believe that the wave of devastation ,has stopped in its onward march, and in the goodness of God will henceforth steadily recede. Stanley has spoken of an early date, when he hopes that Islam will no longer be seen to the south of the equator.

But let us begin with Egypt. Much toleration prevails j conversions from Islam take place from time to time; the circulation of the Holy Scrip- tures is considerable; and more than 800 Mohammedans attend the mission schools.

Then, as to the rest of North Africa, under which designation we include Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, Tripoli, and the Sahara, more than forty agents are at work exclusive of those connected with the Bible societies.t The people generally are not hostile j but the priestly and 'political authorities are strong in their opposition. Yet conversions take place. Travelling south, we come to the Soudan-a region more than three thousand miles by fifteen hundred, and containing perhaps fifty millions of people. Here reigns the Mahdi with his fixed belief in his commission to conquer the world. The Moslem in this region have set up schools for the blacks-schools which succeed in proseletyzing. Protestants are doing next to nothing. A young Englishman, Wilmot Brooke, is working his .. So said Mr. Joseph Thomson some years ago. But now that Emin Pasha's power in the equatorial parts has fallen, we must say the sway of I.lam reaches the Equator.

t Mr. C, F. Baldwin mentions that there are more than thirty in Morocco and Mogador. See MISSIONARY lbrvlBw, Oct., 1890, p. 776. way to the Soudan by the Niger. Several young men from America bad chosen this sphere of labor, but alas! they all perished on the way.

Then comes Central Africa-between the Soudan and the Zambesicontaining the mighty Congo, with its innumerable tributaries, and the region of the Tanganika, Victoria, and Nyassa lakes. The churches have not been regardless of the claims of. Central Africa; in the Congo Free Statc alone eight missionary bodies are laboring, the London Missionary Society on Tanganika among them; the C. M. S. has done admirable work at Lake Victoria; the Universities Mission and the two Scottish Missions are diligent in Nyassa land. Here, then, is an excellent beginning.

To the south of the Zambesi there are older missions, all of them doing admirable service. How eagerly the great European Powers have partitioned nearly all Africa among themselves! We trust it is well; for at least the hideous slave-trade will be retarded and gradually extinguished; but while we rejoice that Divine Providence will overrule for good the earth-hung.er that infects the European races, and while we acquiesce in this part being for Germany, and that for France, and this other for Britain, and so on, let the desire and determination of the Church be-all, God helping us, for Christ !

Our remarks are lengthening out too much ; yet we dare not' conclude without a reference to the work among Eastern Christians. Under this name we include the Nestorians, the Armenians, the Jacobite Syrians and the Syrians in South India, the Copts and Abyssinians, and the members belonging to various nationalities of the Greek or " Orthodox" Church. The work among these venerable communities is carried on-chiefly, though not solely-by the American Congregationalists and Presbyterians. It is of immense consequence for the Eastern churches themselves. It is hardly less so for the Mohammedans among whom the Christians live, inasmuch as the spiritual life of the churches has been low and languid, and their ritualistic worship appears, to the followers of the Koran, to be absolutely idolatrous. Unhappily it is believed, in many influential quarters in England, that the Americans desire to break up the constitution of the ancient churches among which they labor. This the missionaries very earnestly deny. In faet, they began by endeavoring to spread light among the clergy, and turned, only when the attempt was unsuccessful. to the ordinary members of the churches. And new communities have been formed only when those who receive scriptural truth and seek to walk in accordance with it are persecuted and excommunicated. One of the most statesman-like acts of the" great Elchee" (" the great ambassador," as the Turks called Sir Stratford Canning, afterward Lord Stratford de Redcliffe) was the securing of the recognition of the Protestant Armenians as an independent community with guaranteed rights. This was in 1846. Since then the Protestant Christians in the Turkish Empire, including Egypt, have increased to fully 70,000. Their teachings among the Nestorians in Persia and the Bulgarians in Europe have also been greatly blessed. Bulgaria has wonderfully sprung all at once into national life j but had it not been for Robert College on the Bosphorus, such an.,awaken- ing would have been impossi?le.

The influence exerted on the old churches of the East by these new communities is by no means small. In some cases the missionaries, or the pastors of the reformed churches, are invited to preach in the pulpits of the older. The priests, as a rule, oppose the reformation j but the people are often friendly to it, or at least not unfriendly.

. We dwell on these things all the more earnestly because of the scant justice that is done in certain quarters in England to these important missions.

We must now hasten to conclude. We do so, as we promised, with a few remarks suggested by the survey we have taken.

We have expressed our·admiration of the feeling which prompts the Shanghai Conference to make the demand for a thousand missionaries. Mr. Hudson Taylor asks as many for the" China Inland Mission." But these things unavoidably suggest the question, What are the claims of China as compared with those of other mission fields ~ Missionaries in India will be slow to admit that the necessities of that great continent are inferior to those of China j they .will probably maintain that, in its present sorrowful unrest, the claims of India are paramount. Then, not to speak of Japan, Korea, and Siam-each, it may be urged, in a condition that may rightly be called critical-what are we to say of Africa? As now so won- derfully revealed, its demands are overwhelming. Its hideous superstitions, its fetich-worship, its demon-worship, its human sacrifices, its cannibalism, its inter-tribal wars, its slave-trade-yes, we now see the heart of Africa, and we see that it is bleeding at every pore. Then, let us remem- 'ber what fearful mischief the Christian nations of the West have done to unhappy Africa by the drink traffic. Oh, that it were possible to be as great a blessing as we have been a curse I The population, perhaps, ex- ceeds three hundred millions. What is to be done for the vast Dark Continent' It seems to us that, when God Himself has opened a dooraye, doors-which were closed from the beginning of the world, He is distinctly calling on His people to enter. But further, there are the Mohammedan kingdoms, both in Asia and Africa, and the battle with Islam is barely begun.

The question then occurs, Is it not needful that a survey be taken of the entire heathen world, and an estimate formed of the relative claims of each portion ~ It is a difficult task, and would require the co-operation of many men to do this with any approach to accuracy. Yet the Romish Propaganda attempts a solution of the problem j and the comprehensive mind of Cromwell contemplated the formation of a similar institution.

It might, perhaps, be possible to form an international commmittee, representing all Protestant missions, to map out the great battle.field and suggest a plan Qf campaign i at present, each mission, each regiment chooses its own field and fights its own battle, with little or no reference to others.

But, in the mean time, the topic should be taken up in such magazines as the MISSIONARY REVIEw,and suggestio~s offered, out of which some orderly scheme might erelong be evolved. Unless something of this kind is done,. there will be increasing collision, however unintentional, in the foreign field. Connected with this is the question of what is called mission comity, which is of vast importance and no small complexity.

In the earnest call for European missionaries, in which we heartily rejoice, let not the Church forget that the evangelization of each land must be conducted mainly through its own believing children. When conversions take place churches must be formed and, after the example of Paul and Barnabas, elders" ordained in every church" (Acts. xiv. 23). Next, the raising up of native preachers and teachers is a matter of primary im- * portance. We say teachers-i.e., schoolmasters, as well as preachers.

At the present time a large body of Christian teachers would be of unspeakable value in India and Japan. This matter has been far too much overlooked. In recent discussions we have heard much about the necessity of self-denial. But we have not heard enough. The principle is both deeper and wider than many think. We have been told that it is binding on all missionaries-" Missions arc 80 expensive j" but is there any reason for saying that it is more binding on missionaries than on other Christians? Ministers at home j all office.bearers in the Church j all members of the Church; every man that professes himself a Christian-is not self-denial the imperative duty of all such? Yet how much luxury among multitudes who, in the judgment of charity, mnst be held to be real Christians!, Has any Christian a right to try to be a millionaire? If he has become so, has he a right to remain so? For meanwhile the outlay of the Church by no means keeps pace with the increase of the wealth of the nation or, as we believe, of the Christian portion of it j and all our missions languish for lack of funds. A trumpet-blast is needed to rouse the slumbering Church. Fields are white to the harvest j the laborers are ready to go forth; but means to send them are a-wanting. "Well," says a ~elf-complacent church, " let us have cheap or even self-supporting missionaries. " Self-support, in many places, would be easy j for example, in India a well-educated man could readily find Government employment, and have three or four times the salary of an ordinary missionary. Is that desirable, seeing that very little time would remain for evangelistic work 1 Many seem to think it is. Yes; these are enlightened days j many have got far beyond the standpoint of St. Paul, and they think it well to muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn.

As we have glanced over the recent history of missions, we have been greatly saddened by the many deaths that have met our eye; and the .. In a paper read before the Decennial Conference at Calcutta in 1882, the writer had occasion to dwell on this snbject at considerable length. question has repeatedly arisen, Was this a necessary sacrifice 1 We gaze with tearful admiration on the men who go forth in entire devotedness to meet, in Christ's name, almost certain death j but how awfully accountable are they that send them forth if they do not, with much prayer and forethought, take every possible precaution against danger! It is certain that, in the ardor of their souls, the young warriors, eager to. be in the high places of the field, will themselves seldom do so j it must be done for them. And we must give a word of waUling to the young warriors too. Is there no danger that sometimes they may take the suggestions, of their own fallible minds for an impulse from on high 1 do they prayerfully seek to distinguish between these things 1 We have been led into this train of thought espccially by what has happened in the case of the young American missionaries whom we referred to as having lately sought to reach the Soudan. All have perished. * Their precious lives were simply thrown away. So has it been in other cases. 0' est magnifique; mais ce n'est pas la guerre. Of old the enthusiasm of martyrdom became in many cases the fanaticism of martyrdom j and the Church had to put forth her most strenuous efforts to repress the evil. Something of the same kind may rise up in modern days. Weare aware that these remarks may be thought to savor of cold, worldly prudence. "Ve are willing to bear the imputation, if we can only help to save very precious lives which ought to be dedicated to the Master's cause on earth. Heaven, we believe, can afford to wait for these men. Earth cannot afford to lose them.

Already there are cheering examples, not a fcw, of men and women possessed of means who have dedicated themselves and their possessions to the work of God abroad. Such cases will multiply as the pulse of the Church beats higher. Let rich parents encourage their children to go forth, and supply them with sufficient means to do so. We must not rest satisfied till the noblest of the land shall count it their highest distinction to become missionaries of the Cross. So was it in former days. Columba and many of the Celtic missionaries were of noble jf not princely descent. Raymond Lull was a nobleman of Majorca. Xavier was a Portuguese of position. And in our own day Keith Falconer, so early snatched away, was an earl's son. If such examples awaken any snrprise, it only shows how deplorably defective is the conception which the modern church has formed of the" grace" of being called to "preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. "

There are not quite three hundred medical Il!issionaries, men and women, in the foreign field at present. Why should there not be as many medical missionaries, whether ordained or unoruained, as there are ordinary missionaries 1 Why not more 1 Such Mohammedan countries * See the MU8Wnary Herald, Oct., 1890, p. 394. They were three young men and the wile of one of them. They arrived at Sierra Leone at the beginning oC the rains. They were implored to wait till the dry seasou before penetrating into the interior. But they refused. .. It was the Lord's work, and He would surely protect them I" Here was beautiful zeal, but not according to knowledge. ' are Turkey and Arabia, which will hardly tolerate preaching missionaries, will pay high respect to medical men. We believe that medical ladies also 'Vould be welcome. Assuredly there is much need of them! What a glorious sphere of usefulness would be opened up to lady doctors among the inmates of the Harems, accessible only to women, throughout all Mohammedan lands! But now we really must conclude. May God grant that the heart of the Church may glow with a warmer and warmer mis- sionary spirit-not mainly the excitement aroused by passionate appeals from pulpit or platform or press, but with the deep and holy zeal which springs from a clear perception, imparted by the spirit of truth, of the supreme glory of the enterprise; yea, may we all drink more and more deeply of the missionary spirit of the great Master Himself-a spirit that combined the most perfect devotedness, the most perfect calm, and the most perfect assurance of full and final and eternal victory I [P.S.-Since the above was in type, Dr. Mitchell sends the following additional notes.-ED.] I.-MOHAMMEDANISM IN CRINA.

There is great diversity among the estimates that have been given of the number of Mohammedans in China. In the last issue of the Nordi8k Missionstidsskrijt they are reckoned as 20,000,000. In the reports of the British and Foreign Bible Society they are said to be 30,000,000. Some years ago inWestern China-especially in Yunnan and Kashgar- the Mohammedans were active in proselytizing. In these provinces, however, they were entirely crushed; the cruelty they had shown being far exceeded by the retaliations of the Chinese.

From 'the beginning of Islam efforts were made to win over the Chinese. An uncle of Mohammed visited the Chinese Emperor Tai Tsong in the year 628. In 755 about 4000 Arabs were sent to the assistance of the Emperor Song Tsong, and for centuries thereafter there was a close con- nection between the Chinese and the Arabs. * H.-SCANDINAVIAN MISSIONS.

As the readers of the MISSIONARY REVIEW are probably not so well lOformed about these missions as about many others, we may give one or two notices in addition to what we have mentioned above.

In Zululand the Norwegian missions have 9 stations. In Natal they have 3, and the Swedish Mission, 4.

In Madagascar the Norwegian missionaries, in 1888, baptized 4393 persons. The attendance at church was 49,069, being about 10,000 more than in 1887. Among the Sakalavas, on the west coast of Madagascar, they have in Morondava (which is under the Hova Government) a church of 140 souls. On the south coast there are 2 Norwegian missionaries and 7 native teachers.

In the Congo Free State there are about 20 Swedish missionaries. ~<bout two years ago Dean Vahl, writing in the Allgemeine Missions Zeitscnrijt, said : "Including teachers in Lapland, there are 57 Swedish missionaries' of these 16 are ordained, 18 are women, and 31 are native helpers.

ANSWERED PRAYERS

ANSWERED PRAYERS.

BY MISS LAURA M. LATIMER.

The 16th of September is the great day when the Mexicans celebrate their independence. I was living in the city of Guanajuato–a strange, quaint city, where the streets are veritable stairways, and the houses are so built into the rocks and the rocks so encroach into the houses that onp. can hardly tell where rocks end and dwellings begin. Because of its rich silver-mines, it is one of the first cities taken in revolutions. Its towering crags that. surround the city afford a safe hiding-place for the attacking army. This national festival was my holiday, and for a little rest I went to Silao, a city thirteen miles away. When I reached the mission house I found the portera and his wife alone, and greatly alarmed. He told me that a thousand robbers had entered the city of Guanajuato to commence a revolution, in order to sack the city. The Governor of the State had telegraphed to the President of Mexico for fresh troops, and they were just beginning to arrive. The mob was already gathering in the streets of Silao. To quiet their fears, I reminded them of the Sabbath-school lesson that week. I opened the Bible and read to them-" And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray Thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the. Lord opened the eyes of the young man i and he saw: and, behold, the moulltain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." All that day I could hear him reading aloud to his wife from the book of Kings; Sev- eral members of our little church came and stood with them all night by a little grated window, watching the street. With an earnest prayer for protection I went to bed and slept soundly all night, although the streets were filled with a mob, who broke every window in the great hotel, with yells of, "Death to the Americans." The next day the stones began to come into the mission house, but I securely locked the great street door, and the crowd passed by, and we were not molested. When I returned to Guanajuato the portera oiold me that at the time of greatest danger the surgeon of the hospital called at my house. He said that he was very tired, for he had been dressing wounds all day, but he could not rest until he knew that I was safe. He stood by the door, on the street, until all danger was passed, and his presence there was a protection. He was a Catholic, and a stranger. But I always felt that a kind Providence had in this way, in answer to prayer, protected my home. The mayor of the city sent two policemen to guard the street door. The daughter of my cook heard one policeman say to the other, " Why were we sent here ~" " To protect a lady," was the reply. " But who is the lady 1" he still questioned. "She is a Protestant i" and that satisfied him. The soldiers quelled all disturbances, and the robbers fied.

In this same city, several years before, the missionary heard the mob coming down the street with yells of " Huerte a los Protestantes /"-death , to the Protestants. He ran in haste to the street door to close it, but it was too late. He could see the flash of the knives with which they were to kill him and his family, and with an agonized prayer to God for help, he turned to face death, when suddenly peal after peal of thunder shook the house; the rain began to fall in torrents; and the terrible lightning so terrified the mob, just as they had reached the threshold, that everyone of them fled affrighted to their homes. And thus the lives of the missionaries were saved, and the mission church was not destroyed.

At the time of the last revolution in Mexico, the army marched upon Pachnea, and from the hills that overlook the city they threw their bombshells upon the defenceless inhabitants. The mission church had just been completed, and the congregation had assembled for the first time in this new chapel to worship God.· Mr. Ludlow, the pastor, knelt down to pray, and he commenced by thanking God that now they were able to worship under their own vine and fig-tree, with none to molest or make them afraid, when suddenly, without any warning, the bomb-shells came crashing into the city. He opened his eyes and discovered that everyone had left the church in haste, and he was alone. The bomb-shells fell thick and fast. First one part of t.he mission house went crashing in, then another. The pastor and,his family took refuge in a little passage-way be~ tween the school-room and house. He opened his Bible and read to them the promises of God, promises of protection in hours of peril, and they sang" Jesus, I rest in Thee," and then they knelt in prayer. When they rose from their knees the danger was over and they were safe, but their beautiful church was in ruins. There were cannon-balls everywhere in the school-rooms, fresh and hot. The doors and chairs and benches were riddled with bullets. The streets were filled with the moans of the wounded. Death and ruin was everywhere, except in the little passage-way where they prayed.

One of the most unmistakable interpositions of God in answer to prayer was the way that Mexico was opened for the Gospel. It took an army of soldiers to carry the Bible into Mexico. The Americans won every battle. They were in a strange country unknown to them. They had only a few thousand men to battle with the vast hosts of the enemy. It was not nqmbers that won the victory. It was God. Our invading army changed the future of Mexico. The Bible agents and chaplains who accompanied the United States Army scattered Bibles everywhere along their route, and the Word of God broke the power of papal Rome in that oppressed country. Those who have carefully studied the marvellous results of the Mexican War have been amazed at what God has wrought.

AFRICA.

In the depths of a dark African forest, Henry M. Stanley was obliged to wait for a company of his men who were missing. It was midnight. He was hemmed in by hostile savllges on all sides. The terrible shadowhaunted, pathless wilderness lay dark and dismal before him. All his plans had been brought to naught by une~pected obstacles. He was sick with fever. " Death and disaster, disaster and death," encompassed him. He feared that his brave followers had been massacred, and he prayed earnestly to God to protect those brave men who were in peril. Alone with God in his tent at that midnight hour, reaHzing his utter helplessness to accomplish what he had 80 bra~'ely undertaken, conscious that the issues of every effort were in other hands, he made a vow that if the lives of his heroic men were spared, and his own efforts crowned with success, he would acknowledge to the world that all the way through that perilous journey it was God who had led him and brought him safely, iu answer to prayer, when all his own plans had failed. The following day the missing ones arrived, and they soon emerged upon the plains, and the deadly, gloomy forest was behind them. The marvellous success of that expedition has given to the world one of the most inspiring examples of the power of prayer. One day Dr. Livingstone, in the heart of that Dark Continent, became disheartened. He was surrounded by the cannibals, sick with fever, and his men were about to desert him to return to their homes. He says : " The prospect of being obliged to return distressed me exceedingly, and I went into my little tent with the mind directed to Him who hears the sighing of the soul j but soon the men entered, and with the most artless simplicity of manner told me to be comforted, they would not forsake me, thcy were all my children and would die for me." Dr. Livingstone was 'greatly oppressed with the vastness of the " Dark Continent," and his constant question was, ""Vho will penetrate Africa~" The weeks that Stanley remained at Ujiji with Dr. Livingstone were a time of preparation and inspiration for future work. Was it chance, or was it God in answer to prayer, that led the most successful of all explorers of Africa through so many dangers to find Livingstone 1 During the recent cruel persecutions of the Christians in the kingdom of Uganda, the missionaries, driven from their homes, found refuge near the lake, and there they waited, praying to God to interpose and put an end to the cruelties of the brutal king l'Iwanga, for their mission was broken up, the native Christians were clubbed to death, burned alive, and torn to pieces. Their prayers were soon answered, for just as Mwanga was meditating a general massacre of all the Christians, he was dethroned, pursued, and hunted by his enemies. ,This bloodthirsty, savage king fied to the Christians for safety. One of the French missionaries took him into his house, fed him, clothed him, and King Mwanga became a Chris- tian. And he wrote this letter to Mr. Mackay : June 25, 1889.

I, Mwanga, beg of you to help me. Do not remember bygone matters. We _are now in a miserable plight; but if you, my fathers, are willing to come and help to restore me to my kingdom, you will be at liberty to do whatever you like. Formerly I did not know God, but now I know the religion of Jesus Christ. Consider how Ka1ema has killed all my brothers and sisters; he has killed my children too. Mr. Mackay, do help me; I have no strength, but if you are with me I shall be strong.

I am your friend, MWANGA.

The scattered, persecuted native Christians placed the penitent king again upon his throne, and restored to him his kingdom.

Every year the river Nile overflows its banks and floods the country. The natives go out in little boats and sow their seed by casting it upon the waters. The rice sinks down into the mud, takes root, and when the flood is over they gather a rich harvest. For many years the brave missionaries in Africa have been sowing the seed of the kingdom upon the water in floods of persecution, and now the harvest has commenced.

At Banzameteke a missionary had labored six years with no success, when suddenly he was astonished at the pentecostal answer to his prayers j for one Sabbath morning the people collected all their fetiches and gin bottles and burned them in the public square, and nine hundred men, women, and children were baptized that day.

The saddest of all stories is the story of the graves in Africa. The heroic Bishop Taylor, on foot, going from station to station, and at each mission finding new graves of his missionaries j passing on his weary way, leaving the silent dead in their lonely graves, to " wait till Jesus comes j" passing missions where the carefully built houses are vacant, the churches deserted, the school-rooms silent, and only a missionary's grave to tell the sad story.

Slavery and rum have so desolated Africa that a cry, piteous and awful, ascends from that country, " How long, 0 Lord, how long~" "Home after home is made desolate, region after region is ravished, State after State is demolished, nation after nation is mowed down like grass."

I attended the Women's National Temperance Convention which met in Chicago. I sat in Battery D, and watched the ladies as they came pouring in at the door by hundreds. There were ladies from, California, from Oregon, and from every State all the way across this continent to Maine-earnest Christian women, who had come from the East and from the West, from the North and from the South, to plan together how they could put down intemperance. They were reaching out their hands to help remove this evil from every country on the globe. .

That same month across the sea there was a remarkable conference in session at Brussels, a congress unique in history. The representatives of seve~teen great nations-Great Britain, Austria, Belgium, Congo Free State, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Persia, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Turkey, and the United States-the nations that rule the world, had come together to put down slavery in Africa, to save a land that had no claim upon them but its utter helplessness.

While the great Christian powers were convened in Europe to devise means to ,overthrow the horrible slave-trade in Africa, the slave-dealers were having a remarkable congress on the Nile-200 delegates, Moham- medan Arabs, met to suppress the traffic in liquors; for the rum-trade, which destroys so many lives, diminishes the number of their victims. The action taken by them is " to surround the entire coast of Africa with a cordon of armed dhows, and confiscate every European vessel containing liquors, and sell the crew into slavery." It seemed to me that God had rallied all the great religious forces of the world, Christian and Mohamme- dan, to help those patient, suffering, praying missionaries in Africa.

The whole history of missions is made up of remarkable answers to prayer. The beginning of the great work in Japan was traced to a little room where the missionaries met every day to pray.

In the State of New York is a little village nestling among the hills. , Near by is a river, where the high ruggeq rocks and rainbow falls have a wildness of beauty unsurpassed. In this little village a minister once lived in a parsonage which was much too small for his increasing family. His salary was hardly sufficient to feed and clothe the six little children. He had been for several years principal of one of the public schools in Brooklyn, and his oldest son, who was sixteen years of age, was ready for college. He was eager and impatient to continue his studies, and the father found it hard to control the impetuous boy, who would not brook delay. He was at work in a store, but complaints came constantly fro.m the merchant that he was more interested in his books, which he concealed behind the counter, than in selling goods; and finally the boy declared that he would run away to sea if he could not go to college. It was a time of great anxiety to the father and mother. They could never expect to feed and clothe and educate six children on a preacher's salary in those days. After much worry and planning and anxious thought they could see no way out of the perplexity, and so they dropped the burden that , they could not carry, and gave their children to the Lord for special work in His service, with earnest prayer and as careful training as the mother of Moses gave her little one, though she knew that he was no longer hers, but the king's. The children grew to realize more and more that the prayers of their par3nts followed them constantly.

In those days people knew but little about misi>ions. -A few years be- fore Lee, with one of the flat-headed Indians from Oregon, had visited them, and after t.hat there was a new interest in the cause of the heathen in the minister's family. The pastor carefully scattered the Missionary Advocate among the children Of the Sabbath-school. There was one little girl in his congregation into whose heart the preacher's words sank deeply. She eagerly listened, and stndied with intense interest the missionary paper, with its strange pictures of lands and people be- yond the sea, and always as she gazed upon those dark pictures of heathen cruelty a feeling came to her, a dim foreshadowing of the future, that sometime she herself would sit under those palm-trees in India. As the years passed by, and there seemed no way to realize the dreams of her childhood, she forgot her early resolve to. be a missionary. But one day, years afterward, just a few weeks before she graduated in the medical college, suddenly the forgotten VOWI3 of her childhood came to her. The rush of recollections came like a revelation, and in a flash she realized what all the training of years had been for, and she was so overcome that she burst into tears. She was the first lady physician sent to heathen lands from America as a medical missionary. The daughter of her early pastor said to her, "How were you led to become a missionary 1" She replied, " It was your father who did it j the result of his labor and prayers."

The faithful minister lived to see his prayers answered also in a remarkable way in his own family. His sons became ministers of the Gospel, and his youngest daughter a missionary. His eldest son was the late Dean of the Theological Seminary of the Boston University, a school which has sent scores of missionaries to foreign lands-to China, India, Japan, Mexico, South America, and to the islands of the sea.

Captain Hore, F.R.C.S., is returning to England via United States, after a successful mission tour in A~stralia, New Zealand, and Tasmania. To the regret of his co·workers and admirers, he is forbidden to return to the region of Lake Tanganyika, where he has for thirteen years done such ser- vice to missions. The doctors prohibit such return. He built a steamer there, made valuable explorations, surveyed Tanganyika, for which he re- ceived the Royal Geographical Society's Award, and for two years lived at the famous slave and ivory mart of Ujiji, where he was much in contact with Tippoo Tib. American friends who know of his journey through the States will doubtless avail themselves of his presence to get him engaged in lectures describing the Central African missions, native tribes, and customs, and the development of civilization. Mr. S. E. Bridgman, College Rook Store in Northampton, Mass., will act as his medium of communication. . Here is a rare chance for those who wish missionary lectures.

Dr. G. F. Pentecost seems to have met a cordial reception in India. He held his first meeting with the educated natives of Calcutta on December 24th, and the Albert Hall was full to overflowing. The Opera House was then engaged for a fortnight miEsion to the higher classes of residents, and 'great expectations are indulged. We hope they may not be disappointed. Nevertheless, we believe that our brother has taken on his hands what Lincoln would call a " big job," and nothing will make thiR mission a true success but the power of prayer. We know personally that many, both here and on the other side of the sea, are engaged in earnest supplication to God that this errand may prove to be guided by God's good Spirit. The Engtish residents of India are very difficult to reach. They are mostly of two classes, either very High ChurchAnglicans-mere formalists and rituaIistsor else absolutely indifferent and often infidel. Such walls are of adamant, and only the power of God can break them down.

1891·1 THE GREAT COMMISSION

THE GREAT COMMISSION [EDITORIAL. ] The four Go~pel narratives, at the close of each, and the Acts of the Apostles, which has been well called the "Fifth Gospel," has at its beginning words which are intended to instruct and guide disciples as to the great mission and commission entrusted to the Church. Each differs from the other, yet each presents something essential to the full and complete knowledge of the Lord's will and our duty. And as in a composite photograph we get various facial forms and features blended in one portrait which combines individual peculiarities in a collective result, so, if we carefully project these five forms of the commission upon one sensitive plate and get a composite picture, we shall see at a glance the mutual relations of each special word of instruction, and the completeness of the grand total. While we reverently seek to combine these five fragments, we do not mean to imply that they were all thus blended in our Lord's own teaching, nor to assume to settle either their logical or chronological order; our aim is simply to present a summary from which nothing shall be omitted which belongs to anyone narrative, and to group together words of instruction or promise which seem to belong together by closer affinity. The attempt so to arrange and combine has been attended with such profit to the writer that he hopes it may prove no less a blessing to the reader. The obvious parallelism of the thought we seek also to represent.

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying: •• Peace be unto you!"

And, when He had so said, He shewed unto them His hands and His side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again: "Peace be unto you !"

All power is given unto Me In heaven and in earth.

As My Father hath sent Me Even so send I you."

Then opened He their understanding That they might understand the Scriptures; And said unto them, " Thus it is written, And thus it behooved Christ to suffer, And to rise from the dead the third day; And that repentance and remission of sins Should be preached in His name Among all nations, Beginning at Jerusalem: And ye are witnesses of these things.

Go ye, therefore, into all the world, Make disciples of all nations, And preach the Gospel to every creature : Baptizing them in the name of the Father And of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

Teaching them to observe all things Whatsoever I have commanded you: He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; But he that believeth not shall be damned.

And behold I send the promise of my Father upon you. Depart not from Jerusalem But wait for the promise of the Father, Which ye have heard of Me.

For John truly baptized with water, But ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, Not many days hence. But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem Until ye be endued with power from on high. Ye shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost Coming upon you; And ye shall be witnesses unto Me, Both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, And in Samaria And unto the uttermost parts of the earth." And when He had said this, He brElathed on them And saith unto them, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost !"

., And 10 I am with you alway Even unto the end of the age.

And these signs shall follow them that believe : In My name shall they cast out demons ; They shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; And if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them ; They shall lay hands on the sick And they shall recover. "

So then, after the Lord had spoken unto them, He led them out as far as to Bethany; And He lifted up His hands and blessed them, And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them ; And while they beheld, He was taken up And a cloud received Him out of their sight And He was carried up and received up into heaven, And they worshipped him And returned to Jerusalem with great joy And were continually in the temple Praising and blessing God. And they went forth and preached everywhere, The Lord working with them And confirming the word With signs following, Amen.

1891.J JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH, AS DEVELOPED BY BUDDHISM IN JAPAN.

BY HENRY C. MABIE, D.D.

Among the objects of most striking interest which the traveller sees in the ancient city of Kioto, Japan, are the temples of Hon-gwan-ji- " Eastern" and "Western," so called. One of these temples is quite new, in fact it is yet building. To those sanguine souls who are inclined to think that the force of idolatry in Japan is spent, that idolatrous shrines generally are in the last stages of decay, and that no more will be built, we commend a few facts concerning the present building of this new Hongwan-ji structure. It is built entirely from the free-will offerings of the people of the Buddhist sect which it represents, from all parts of the empire. These contributions are of costly jewels, metals, woods for the building, human hair, and money without stint.

On one of the platforms of the temple are twenty-four coils of rope from three to four inches in diameter made of this human hair. Attached to one of the coils is a placard with this inscription: " Since the thirteenth year of Meiji (1880), when the rebuilding of the two halls of the Eastern Hon-gwan-ji was 'begun, the faithful laymen and laywomen of every place have been unanimous in presenting to the principal temple, Hon-gwan-ji, strong ropes made of their own hair, to be used for the work of erection. The number of these ropes reached fiftythree. Twenty-nine of them became worthless from use. The total length of the remaining twenty-four is 4528 feet, and the total weight 11,567 pounds. "

Besides these ropes were several large coils of hair, several of them gray, the gifts of the aged, which came in too late to admit of being used. The total cost of this temple is to reach the enormous sum of $11,000,000. The offerings of devotees in Kioto, apart from gifts for erecting the temple, ' to these two shrines, during the year 1889 amounted to the sum of $367,000, Mexican. And yet most of the contributions were from people who are extremely poor. Out of Kioto's population of nearly half a million less than five hundred people pay a tax amounting to $15, so poor are they.

Magnificent, however, as the temple is, and regal as the offerings were, the peculiarities of the sect whose primal shrine is here are of far more interest to me. Specially so, on account of the characteristic worship and belief of the sect.

These people are a sect of the Buddhists, but they represent a departure from pure ancient Buddhism of rare significance. They worship Buddha, indeed, but him only in the character of Amita, or Amit,abha, whom they conceive to be the idealization and glorification of highest discipleship to the primitive Buddha; they eschew all works of merit; they depend on the absolute unconditioned mercy of Amita j they have a doctrine of justification by faith only, apart from meritorious deeds; their priests are not celibates nor ascetics; they carryon active and aggressive missionary operations, and to this end they highly educate their young priests,send- ing some of them to the Doshisha Congregational College in· Kioto, and even to Oxford, England. Three hundred of these neophytes are gathered in one school near their chief Kioto temples.

They base their doctrine on that portion of the Buddhist Scripture known as the" Sam-bu-Kio," in which is recorded the peculiar vow made by Amitabha that he would ., accept Buddhaship, but under the condition that salvation was made attainable by all who should sincerely desire to be born into Buddha's kingdom, and should signify their desire by invoking his name ten times." This vow is called the "Former, or Real V ow," and hence the name given to the two great temples in Kioto, " Hon-gwan-ji," meaning" Temple of the Real Vow," referring to their basal doctrine.

This sect is now divided really into two, the one known asthe "Jodo" sect and the other as the " Shin Shin."

Originally they were one, taking their rise in the beginning of the· twelfth century under a great teacher, known as Honen Shonin. This man was enough in earnest to break with earlier Buddhists, and to outline a doctrine far in advance of Buddha's in some respects. He taught the worship of Amita, and also the doctrine of justification by faith in Amita's boundless mercy; but he also urged the value of meritorious deeds, and insisted on the cardinal idea of Buddhism, that no help can be expected in the conquest of passions outside of one's self. It was at this point that there sprang up early in the thirteenth century a departure from the teaching of the Jodo sect. The man to inaugurate the departure was Shinran Shonin, a disciple of Honen.

This Shinran is described as a sort of Luther of his time, and presenting a striking parallel in his teachings and in his martyr-like devotion to their maintenance. He was determined enough to submit unflinchingly to banishment for conscience' sake, and to bravely maintain his school in a monastery among the mountains at Takate in Shimo-tsuke. He is buried at Otani, on the mountain-side above Kioto. To his grave myriads of his disciples make annual pilgrimages from all parts of Japan. The Shin Shin sect is the outgrowth of his influence, and the new Hon.gwan-ji temple is specially to his honor. The Shin Shin sect differs from the J odo sect in its teaching at the following points: first, it holds that salvation is due to faith only in the power and willingness of Amita to save mankind, and that the invocation implied in the Real Vow is to be used only as an act 'oj thanksgiving, and not .as an act of merit, for mercy received; secondly, that this Elalvation is received at once, and not at death, and that the believer is taken thenceforth under Amita' s merciful protection; thirdly, that morality is of equal importance with faith; fourthly, that while Nirvana, or eternal happiness, is to be attained (as all Buddhists teach) by the extinction of the passions through many deaths and re- births, yet this extinction of passions (contrary to the usual Buddhist teaching) may be reached through help from another-that is, from Amitabha, he being the chi~f of the Buddhas. The name Amitabha signifies "boundless life" or "im- measurable light."

The Shin Shins maintain that their rival sect, the Jodos, have departcd from the former and true teaching at these several points. The Shin Shins have undertaken to restore the true teaching respecting the" Former Vow." Hence they are sometimes called the Protestants of Japanese Buddhism. The proportions to which this sect of reformers has grown is remarkable. They have in all Japan 18,000 temples and shrines, and are accounted the wealthiest and most powerful of all the sects. They possess no fixed properties which might be considered endowments, but depend entirely on the offerings of the people for support and for purposes of propagandism. They actively undertake missions abroad, especially in Corea and China.

In support of these general statements respecting their belief, I quote a short creed prepared by one of their later apostles, Rennio Shonin, and given by Murray in his " Handbook of Japan. " The creed runs as follows: " Rejecting all religious austerities and other action, givi~g up all idea of self-power, we rely npon Amita Buddha with the whole heart for our salvation in the future life, which is the most important thing, believing that at the moment of putting our faith in Amita Buddha our salvation is settled. From that moment invocation of his name is observed as an expression of gratitude and thankfulness for Buddha's mercy. Moreover, being thankful for the reception of this doctrine from the founder and succeeding chief priests, whose teachings were so benevolent, and as welcome as light in a dark night, we must also keep the laws which are fixed for our duty during our whole life." A most extraordinary statement this to proceed from men presumably destitute of revelation. Substitute for Amita Buddha, here conceived of as the chief of the Buddhas, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and you have substantially the New Testament doctrine of justification by faith as amplified by Paul in the Epistles to the Romans and Galatians.

A still more modern statement of the belief of this remarkable sect is given by Mr. Akamatsu, a distinguished member of the sect in Kioto, and published in the April number, for 1881, of the Ohrysanthemum, now discontinued.

Says Mr. Akamatsu: " Amita Buddha always exercises his boundless mercy upon all creatures, and shows a great desire to help and influence all people who rely upon him to complete all merits, and to be re-born into Paradise. Our sect pays no attention to other Buddhas, but putting faith only in the great desire of Amita Buddha, expect to escape from the miserable world, and to enter into Paradise in the next life. From the time of putting faith in the saving power of Buddha we do not need any power of self·help, but need only to keep his mercy in heart, and invoke his name in order to remember him. These doings we call I thanksgiving for salvation.' "

I Is this an uninstructed groping for" the grace of God which bringeth salvation," which is accurately and specifically met in Paul's great exposi· tions ~ Is this an ignorant worshIp of the essential Christ under the phrase of Amita Buddha r We would not dare say that these doctrinal conceptions, purely considered, are generally entertained by the adherents of the sect, much less that they have popular power to bring spiritual rest and the sense of salvation to the mass of q,evotees! But who shall say that, where so explicit ideas of mercy, grace of some sort, justification through belief of some sort, and hence salvation, however inadequately conceived, are formulated and taught, that they have redeeming power over none ~ How shall we account for the existence of the conceptions at all in any measure, by even a single mind, except on the ground that " He hath not left himself without a witness among any nation" 1 Be all this as it may, what a prepared soil is here, in the providence of God, for such missionary endeavor as shall be able. to go in among such a people and explain to them the real way of God more perfectly! What an evangelizing oracle the Epistle of Paul to the Romans would prove in meeting this unique state of heathen mind! May God raise up and bring some man to the Kingdom of the Sunrise for such a time as this !

KIOTO, JAPAN, Oct. 15, 1890.

How MISSIONARIES ARE MADE.-Dr. Cyrus Hamlin has told in a fiveminute speech how it was he came to be a missionary. He said: "In the vast majority of cases missionaries are made by the influence of the family. My widowed mother made me a missionary. She had me read every Sunday out of the Panoplist, and then later out of the Missionary Herald. We had in those days in our town a missionary contribution box, a cent box, and we were enoouraged to earn some special cents for that box. I remember well one occasion which was, I think, a turning-point in my experience. When the fall muster came every boy had a pocketful of cents to spend. My mother gave me seven cents, saying, as she gave them, I Perhaps you will put a cent or two in the contribution box in Mrs. Farrar's porch on the common.' So I began to think as I went along, Shall I put in one or shall it be two ~ Then I thought two cents was pretty small, and I came up to three-three cents for the heathen and four cents for gingerbread ; but that did not sound right, did not satisfy me, so I turned it the other way, and said four cents shall go for the heathen. Then I thought the boys will ask me how much I have to spend, and three cents is rather too small a sum to talk about. I Hang it all,' I said, I I'll put the whole in.' So in it all went. When I told my mother some years after that I was going to be a missiollllry, she broke down and said, I I have always expected it.' "

lIIISSIONARY GEOGRAPHY

MISSIONARY GEOGRAPHY-COMPARATIVE OPENINGS FOR THE GOSPEL IN DIFFERENT SYSTEMS.

BY REV. DR. J. H. SHEDD, OROOMIAH, PERSIA.

In glancing at the fi~ld which our Lord says" is the worIel," one thing is clear now which was not so clear one hundred or even fifty years agonamely, the actual condition of the inhabitants of our world. The maps and globes have changed. Vast tracts of Asia, Africa, America, 2nd the islands of the sea, that were a terra incognita or laid down as unknown deserts, have been explored and now are delineated j and the names of lakes and riverll and nations, and their populations and resources, and their political and religious condition are known. The missionaries have usually been the pioneer explorers. In crossing China, in describing the tribes and haunts of the Himalayas and all Western Asia j in first setting foot on the cannibal islands of the sea j in penetrating the thousandll of miles of interior Africa, the constraining motive has been the same which led the great Apostle to preach the Gospel not where Ohrist was named, but carried him from Jerusalem to Philippi and Athens, to Rome and to Spain. This exploring work has been done, and few places upon the surface of our globe -from Greenland's icy mountains to India's coral strand or to Africa's sunny fountains-remain unrevealed. We know the actual state of the unevangelized world in all its terrible depravity, suffering, and need.

This vast increase of knowledge is acting and reacting on the Christian Church and Christian nations. The parable of the Good Samaritan is better understood. The question, Who is my neighbor ~ is answered from the seven hundred millions of Asia, and the two hundred millions of Africa, who are our fellow-men, fallen among thieves, wounded by sin, and robbed of their birthright by the vices and superstitions and errors of their false religions. Certainly there is a growing interest and sympathy. The dense mist of passive neglect that hung over the Protestant world has lifted. A great and happy change has taken place since Carey, the shoemaker, in England, began to plead for the heathen a century ago, and was told by the wise old fathers, "Young man, mind your own business. When God wishes to convert the heathen He will do it without your help j" or since the young men by the hay-stack at Williams College began to pray eighty years ago, and only. two or three of them dared to offer themselves to the cause lest the Church would take alarm, and refuse to have any part in so fanatical a movement. Now the volunteer missionary students in this country number nearly 5000 since the Northfield meeting in 1886., and some 200 of these have already sailed for the foreign work.

This increase of knowledge also awakens a deeper sense of responsibility for those with whom we are brought into relation and contact. The world is brought together by commerce and easy and rapid travel. The prophetic words are fulfilled, "Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. " Every day the telegraphic wires flash the news from distant lands-so often the echo of the woes and miseries of mankind without the Gospel. To the ear that is open, what sounds of sorrow and cruelty and suffering come from the dark places of the earth! Now it is the .horrors of Siberian prisons; next, famine, with several millions of famished and dying in.en in China; then the cholera, starting up from the hot-bed of Hindu or Mohammedan shrines, and the sacred festival and holy pilgrimage carrying the seeds of death to myriads of victims; or it is the open sore of the world in the awful slave-trade of Africa. Surely the dark places of the earth are filled with the habitations of cruelty even to the bodies and earthly life of our fellow-men, such as we, in the comfort and ease and security of this happy land, little understand. Yet here is the responsibility, not only for the temporal welfare, but for the immortal souls of onr fellowmen. Here is the fact that the world is daily growing smaller, that a young lady in seventy-three days can travel around the globe.- In no time in all the Christian centuries has the providence of God been so plainly p'ointing to momentous events and changes. The present century has cleared the way for rapid movement.

Another fact stares us in the face, that whithersoever we turn the people are fast awakening from the mental and moral apathy of centuries. The Bible and the missionary have set the world to thinkmg. The crisis is confronting us of a world awake and alert for action. The current of intellectual activity is very sluggish in Oriental and tropical lands; but there is not a nation, nor tribe, nor island but has been touched by the awakening from afar; and every year the breeze is fresher and stronger. The calico and sheeting, the sewing-machine, the telegraph or other wonders of science, :ind the missionary tract and testament are everywhere; and men are wondering what will come next. As in the host of Midian, when Gideon and his little band were encamped against them, men are telling their dreams to their fellows, and expecting conflict and change.

Another very significant fact is that in the van of this ceaseless and onward impulse of progress is the English-speaking race. Says a recent writer: " 'We stand at the dawn of a new epoch, which from the point of view of universal history is quite as momentous as that in which the Northern tribes broke in upon and destroyed the fabric of the moribund Empire of Rome. It is a revolution vaster and more rapid than that which founded the modern European world on the wreck and ruin of the Roman Empire. The world is passing into the hands of the English-speaking races. Already the English tongue is becoming the lingua franca of the planet. Already the territories over which the laws are made and justice administered, in the language of Shakespeare and Bacon, exceed in wealth, in extent, in the number of their populations and in the limitless latent possibilities of their development, all other lands ruled by all other nations of the earth. In a hundred years, unless the progress be checked, Englishspe3king people will outnumber all the men of other tongues in the world. English, ideas, English laws, English civilization are becoming as universal as English speech. The future of the world is English."

The young Greek who marched with Alexander across Asia to the waters of the Ganges and back saw a most wonderful expansion of human knowl- edge, and was filled with expanded views of human destiny. The man who could say Romanus sum considered the world his tributary, and his heart dilated at the extent and power of his empire. The young Christian soldier. who marched with Constantine under the luminous symbol of the cross to the overthrow of Paganism saw a brighter vision-Christianity ruling the world in equity and love. The young reformer who was thrilled by the religious fervor of Luther's age was lifted to a higher elevation still. The heroes of the Elizabethan era, with their legend, "Westward ho I" and the new world and new seas to be explored and delivered from the Spaniard, were inspired with a still nobler purpose and wider vision. What shall the young man to-day diseern? Have the romanee and adventure and high purpose of life all faded out? Or is there an inspiring vision} The Christian young man to-day leads the progress of a raee of exhaustless resourees and energies that is re-making the whole world. How great must be the responsibilities of living at sueh a time, at the threshold of such momentous changes I Reverently we may say: .. We are living, we are dwelling, In a grand and awful time, In an' age on ages telling- To be living is sublime."

Add one more fact : it is the rapid and great increase in the resources of the Church in connection .with the openings and changes in the world. In the century past Christian population has more than doubled, and the Protestant population has quadrupled. It is not now a little company of despised Galileans who hear the command, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature," but it is the mighty Christian Church of the foremost nations of the earth, with means and men and women in exhaustless abundance. It is especially to the generation noW' coming forward to whom God intrusts the great commission to take possession of all nations not for worldly gain or honor, but for Christ's kingdom and glory.

It were pertinent..to ask the question here, How far our so-called Christian nations shall yield to the spirit and law of Christ in their dealing with ignorant and heathen people ~ Vice is more easily planted than virtue. Shall drink and opium and fire-arms and social immorality go to the ends of the earth in every ship? Shall purely selfish and mereenary counsels rule in our intereourse with China ~ What profit if Africa is saved from Arab slave-traders to be ruined by European rumsellers ~ How far the nations of the earth are open to Christian influenee depends largely on the treatment they reeeive from Christians. But this broad subjeet I pass, calling attention simply to the great work yet to be done before Christian nations and rulers shall love their neighbors as themselves, doing justly and loving mercy toward the weaker and inferior races.

We turn now to the outlook in unevangelized lands. To what extent can true Christians work in faith that all other religions and systems shall yield and fall before the religion of Christ F We can see that the influence of steam, electricity, science, education, commerce, and civilization-the mingled good and evil-is permeating all lands. Row far can the true religion conquer?

Let us not overlook the difficulties. The cry, " On to Richmond," in the great Civil War was a sad illusion. There is no mistake worse than to under-estimate the stubborn resistance and mighty power of evil in the world. When we review the forces of Christianity, go about Zion and count her towers and weapons, think of Providence and truth and enlighten- ment and the Divine Spirit and grace, all on the Christian's side, it may seem easy to many missionary volunteers to go out into the heathen world, or to gather in the ignorant souls and teach them and see their conversion.

But in reality the spies who have gone and examined can truly say, "The cities are walled and very gteat, and we saw the children of Anak there. "

Let us notice some of these strongbolds that are walled and thoroughly entrenched in opposition to true Christianity. Geographically we fiud : , 1. Buddhism, and the allied systems connected with it, holds sway over a full third of the human race in Eastern and Southeastern Asia. Thibet, China, Japan, Siam, and Burmah contain nearly 500,000,000 souls.

2. Hinduism, in Southern Asia, in India with nearly 200,000,000 votaries.

3. Mohammedanism, from India westward over Asia and Northern Africa, with nearly 200,000,000 adherents.

4. The corrupt forms of the true religion, Judaism and the Russian and Roman power in so many parts of Christendom, might be mentioned.

These are the Religions of the Books, entrenched by ages of dominion and tradition, and defended by organized systems of worship, education, and priesthood. Then beyond the Religions of the Books are the outlying regions of barbaric heathenism-all Africa to the west and south, the islands of the sea, the primitive tribes of Asia and America, a mighty host of nearly 200,000,000 of lost and dying men. – A fact of great significance is that in all phases of this great conflict there are, with special difficulties, also special features of encouragement.

Let us turn our faces to the two hundred millions of heathen without sacred books. They are the lowest in the scale and the most repulsive, requiring for their redemption that the messengers of Christ follow them in patient sacrifice of comfort and of life to the habitations of cruelty and the abodes of cannibalism in the jungles of Asia, the islands of the sea, the forests of America, and the recesses of the Dark Continent. These, it might be thought, are the most hopeless and the last to be elevated; certainly they are not the races that human wisdom would select for mission work. Let us remember that our ancestors were such barbarous heathen till Christian missionaries planted their schools and stations of beneficence in the forests of Europe and Britain. The colored population of this country is but one hundred or two hundred years removed from savage ancestors. The Indians of our country and of Mexico and South America are not yet fully Christianized.

But we should notice that in the last eighty years wonderful changes have taken place through missions for these lowest heathen. We see the Hawaiian, Fijian, Samoan, and other groups of islands as truly Christian- ized as any of the higher races. Thirty years ago cannibals in Fiji were eating missionaries and their converts j now 100,000 out of a population of 110,000 are found in places of Christian worship. We see Madagascar turning from the bloody work of martyring Christians only thirty years ago, now to ask admi.ssion into the family of Christian nations. Heathen- ism is virtually ended in the islands of the Southern Ocean. The greatest island in the world, New Gui.nea, is waiting for God's law. A greater Bririn is rising in Australia and New Zealand and South Africa, and the Southern cross is fast becoming the brightest constellation in the Southern Hemisphere. .

In Africa we see changes quite as wonderful. April 29th, 1873, Liv- ingstone died. Alone, upon his knees, in the heart of Africa he died. He thought himself a defeated man, a failure! But he had travelled 29,000 miles on foot to explore that continent j and instead of .failure his life thrilled the world and converted Stanley, and his death opened the very heart j)f the Dark Continent. There is that heart of Africa to-day, throb- bing with savage humanity, and waiting for the touch of divine compassion and sympathy. Shall the disciples of Christ go and teach the savages by the slow and sure ministries and the loving words of the Gospel, or shall the cruel trade in rum and fire-arms destroy them q The King of Uganda is a case in point. He is seeking a religion-at least a change j a year or two ago accepting the Arabs and murdering native Christians and such men as Bishop Hannington j this year turning from the Arabs and begging Stanley to come and help him Christianize his whole nation.

Here is certainly in Africa an immense missionary field, among millions of men too degraded and ignorant to have any learned systems to set against the Gospel. Their very ignorance and barbarism is an encourage- . ment not for one Bishop Taylor only and his mission to strive for self- support j but a field so ripe and perishing that it will be strange indeed if the next half century does not witness laborers by the thousand, foreign and native, braving all the difficulties, and gathering in the souls by the million.

In Asia, too, this class of heathen is the most hopeful of all mission fields. The Karens are such. Among them the Baptists have hundreds of churches, and thirty thousand strong are marching on to conquest. The lnlooloos, of whom thousands were baptized in a few j1j.01).tps, ~re of the same class. In fact, according to Sir William Hunter there are fifty millions of indigenous races in the confines of India that in the near future must succumb to one or another of the stronger religions. The query is, Shall it be the holy religion of Christ ~ It is well to distinguish this most inviting and open field in all parts of the world. It is well to know that among our Indians and Africans, and among all this class in Asia aud Australasia, there is no organized obstacle to the pure and loving faith of Christ. The only obstacle is the wicked heart, full of sin and superstition, on the one hand, and the lukewarmness of the disciples of Christ on the other. It is well to know that thus far the greatest successes of missions have been gained among these ignorant and barbarous races.

But do you say that these are only the outworks, and, if captured completely, beyond them are the mightier systems rearing their walls in defiance and scorn at the soldiers of the cross?

What of Buddhism in China and the East? The answer comes back again of special difficulties and special encouragements. The difficulties certainly are great. The conquest of China will be a greater event in the Christian annals than when the religion of the Nazarene ascended the throne of the Cresars ; yet though so far off I can remember when Neander, the historian, wrote words like these: "It will be a great epoch in the history of the Church when the Gospel enters China, and Chinese converts truly accept of Christ." At that time Japan was entirely closed. There is still one isolated land from which Christian teachers are entirely "excluded. This is Thibet, the home of the high-priest of Buddhism.

But look on the other side. The barriers have given way. The Christian religion is well established to-day in China and Japan. The native brethren and the missionaries also consider that the thirty years before us will suffice to plant the Church in Japan, and to cast the mould for all future time of a natIOn of forty millions to be on the east of Asia a Christian power, as the British Isles are such a power on the west of Europe. It is not impossible, for now is the hour of opportunity for Japan. Later will follow Siam, where the prime-minister says, "My country was not opened to the West by cannon nor by fleets, but by the American missionaries."

Then also comes China, where the way is open to Christian missions on a scale never before seen. The China Inland Mission sent out over one hundred men and women in a year. The advance is clear, and America, with Christian influence and intelligence, is in the van. Every town in our land. could as well as not send a missionary to China, and support him or her in that land. It is nothing chimerical nor improper, with the cheap means of travel and the love of Christ constraining us, and the awful condition of China's millions, that we make the same efforts we would to rescue men and women from famine and death or from fire and earthquake ill our own land, Let us tum to Hindustan. The same might be said of Hinduism ih India that I have just said of Buddhism and China; except that Brahmanism is more firmly entrenched, is the very citadel of heathenism; and the key of the citadel is Ca8te. The encouragement to mis~ionary labor in India is constantly increasing. The field is completely open surely, and the' opinion of Sir John Lawrence, the wise statesman and thoughtful observer, may be taken as correct: " It seems to me that year by year and cycle by cycle the influence of these missionaries must increase, and that in God's good will the time may be expected to come when large masses of the people, having lost all faith in their own, and feeling the want of a religion which is pure and true and holy, will be converted and profess the Christian religion, and having professed it, live in accordance with its precepts."

The contest must be more difficult and longer against such a system than among the savage heathen, but the results are just as certain. Already a church of more than 150,000 members is gathered, and this church is doubled every ten years.

But what of the still more difficult system of Islam 1 I can only allude to this field and to our work in Western Asia, the Bible Lands, the lands where our Saviour lived and the Apostles preached. The centre of the enemy's camp is stm there.

There meets the missionary in those lands first a false or corrupt Christianity that blunts the conscience and hardens the heart by its selfrighteousness and formalism. Back of this confronts us the religion of the false Prophet, aspiring to rule the world, and hence the bitter supplanter and enemy of the cross of Christ. How is this stronghold of specious error and half-truth, of blind fanaticism and pride, to be pulled down 1 Where is the weak place that invites assault and promises victory? Let me answer in a word: Fifty years ago Islam would allow no Christian missionaries to labor for Mohammedans, and by its organic law will allow none to-day. Every apostate is an outlaw, and is exposed to the death penalty. But in India under the British Government this penalty cannot be executed. In Persia the government is weak and the system is divided against itself, and the rulers are not disposed to aid the ecclesiastics in religious matters. In Turkey the pressure of Christian powers is also felt, and Christian missions cannot be entirely destroyed. In Egypt the revolutions of the past few years give practical toleration to Christian work. In all North Africa there is as much toleration as existed in the Roman Empire in the days of the Apostles and early Church. This may be said of all Moslem lands, even of the Soudan and Afghanistan. Consider, also, that over against this mighty system of intolerance is another advancing power, the Englishspeaking races, pouring into every Moslem land an increasing volume of capital and commerce and influence. This is true of Egypt and the Upper Nile, Arabia, India and Afghanistan, Turkey and Persia; and we can see that the chances of Islam making head as a rival power are indeed small.

Then we should reckon another factor still more important. The old churches of the East, by their unfaithfulness, were the occasion of the great heresy or apostasy of Islam. Their revival is the pledge of its downfall. There is now an evangelical church of 2500 members in Persia, a similar church in Egypt, a similar church in Syria, and another of over 12,000 active members in other parts of Turke,y. These are bodies of living Christians in the midst of Moslem conquerors; the scattered leaven to leaven the whole lump, inwardly; the materials for the spiritual assault, outwardly. They and the missionaries are at work with the Bible, the press, the power of prayer and of the daily life. The Moslem is now on the defensive, with no hope of converting the Ohristian to this faith, while the Ohristian is on the aggressive, full of faith in the ultimate triumphs of the truth. The converted Moslems all along the line, from the Ganges to the Straits of Gibraltar, are the pledge of many more. Great events may transpire suddenly to change the face of the East, and when such events come we know they wiIl be guided by the pierced Hand that rules the world. Thus the very difficulties of the problem invite to greater achievements. There is no more inspiring work in the world than to labor for the overthrow of Islam. The conflict may. be a long one before the last Moslem yields to Jesus, but the irresistible influences are at work, the motives of the cross are sufficient, and the end is as sure as the promises of God.

I cannot pursue the subject further, and will only add: Happy is that young man of education and "Ohristian experience and consecration who shall enlist for his life work in some one or other of the divisions of the great conquest of the world for Christ!

"ON Sabbath, January lIth, 100 ministers in Edinburgh and Leith preached, by common consent, on the divine authority and permanent obligation of the Sabbath Day. The preachers included ministers of all evangelical denominations, mauy of them prominent men in the three great Presbyterian churches, Episcopalians, Congregationalists, Baptists, and Wesleyans. The evidence of unanimity in conviction and feeling in defence of a divin(> institution which is at prtlsent the object of continual assault, it cannot be doubted made a good impression on all the churches, as well as on the general community.') So writes that prince among men, Dr. Andrew Thomson. May we not suggest that if, on the same Sabbath, at a future day, all pastors conld similarly agree to present the great facts of modern missions with especial reference to the increased obligations resting upon God's people both to occupy the whole world field and to multiply very largely their gifts, the effect would be like a thunderstorm all around the sky.

FAITH HALL, LERADO, MEXICAN BORDER MISSION

FAITH HALL, LERADO, MEXICAN BORDER MISSION.

BY MISS JENNIE BROWN, TUSCALOOSA, ALA.

Faith Hall, of Lerado, stands as a proof of Miss Holding's descent from Israel, "who as a prince had power with God, and prevailed"-a witness to the world of God's power and willingness, in answer to believing prayer, not only to open the windows of heaven in spiritual blessings, but when the material interests of His kingdom must have pecuniary aid; in proof that the gold and the silver are His, and that His stewards, solillited only by the influence of the Holy Spirit, will respond to the prayer of faith, and send their gold from afar to build the" waste places of Zion.", When the recipients of God's bounties will not give even the crumbs that fall from their children's tables for the Master's use, the disbursers of the impoverished treasuries of the house of the Lord are obliged to protest many drafts written in love, and signed by the blood of perishing souls. When this Christian heroine's petition was refused on earth, with inspiration high as heaven she turned from the limited treasuries of earth to the limitless pledges of heaven, and made request, "The heathen, thino inheritance," are in want, and "man shutteth his bowels of compassion against them. " The fixed and eternal laws of the kingdom were fulfilledknock, ask, receive.

In the year 1887 Miss Holding attended the Woman's Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, which met at Catlettsburg, Ky., to requestthe society to grant her $7000 with which to build a house containing a hall that could be used as a school-room and chur~h. None who heard her will ever forget her earnest pleadings. Such words could only come from a heart where human love had touched the Divine, and gone forth reflecting the Christ-like compassion for the multitudes" in • error's chains." She drew a strong contrast between Mexican darkness, defilement, alld falsehood, and Christian light, purity, and truth. The mission buildings were so small they could not receive those who were longing to learn to read the message of life. They had no room to accommodate those who would see Jesus.

"For months they had not been able to take those who crowd their doors. None but a missionary who stands in the midst of a down-trodden and poverty-stricken people can comprehend the anguish of spirit when compelled to turn away from their pleading 100K;S and words, and leave them in their helpless misery."

"Can't you, won't you, my dear sisters, give us $7000 for this building? God's work demands it; we must have it this year. " As that saintly woman resumed her seat, she must have felt, Surely my petition will be given me.

When the Executive Committee had made the appropriations for the obligations of the society, it was found impossible to give a grant of $7000 to the Lerado Mission. None but those who have assisted in distributing missionary funds know how the heart aches as they look at the discrepancy between the demand and the supply j how the soul cries out, " 0 Lord! how long shall those who are clothed at the expense of Thy love, and called by Thy name, shut their ears to the cry of a perishing world ~"

The president sorrowfully told Miss Holding of the inability of the society to grant her request, assured her of their continued sympathy and prayers, commending her to the care of the God of Jacob; who would de- fend and" send her help out of Zion."

What seemed disappointmeut proved to be love most true. Christ would lead His chosen one into a richer experience, a broader faith j into extremity, that she might prove the exceeding greatness of His promises.

Miss Holding rose to bid the society farewell, preparatory to leaving for her mission at Lerado. With a voice full of tears, she said, "My dear sisters, we must have that building this year." With inspiration she said, " I have asked for that building j God's work demands it j we shall have it." Every heart present, touched by sympathetic faith, repeated the as- surance-" shall have it." Heaven echoed back to earth-" shall have it." A triune Deity ratified the promise of incarnate God, " according to thy faith be it unto thee."

On Miss Holding's return to Lerado she was greeted by many anxious and expectant faces j because of the tumult of hope and fear, all hesitated to ask the question so near to their hearts.

As soon as possible, Miss Holding assembled the whole household. She did not wish to give them disappointment without sharing with them her hope and expectation that" deliverance should arise from another place."

After explaining to them that it was impossible for the Woman's Mis- sionary Society to give them the building that year, she asked them if they would all join her in a day of fasting and prayer, asking the Lord to supply the means for building. All heartily joined their beloved teacher in. calling upon the Lord, who had promised to deliver in the day of trouble.

Three public prayer-meetings were appointed for the fast day. As Miss Rolding was stepping out of the door at the close of the evening prayermeeting, a little girl-the youngest pupil in the school-took her by the hand and said: " Will we commence to build to-morrow 1" Miss Holding said, " The child's faith had gone beyond mine. " I hesitated just a moment, and replied, ., No, dear, we will not commence to build to-morrow, but we will get the lot ready.' " Miss Holding requested that the pupils, and all that could help. be in the orchard at six o'clock in the morning to transplant the trees and prepare the lot for the building of the house. . Promptly at six o'clock they were on the ground to show their faith .by their works. Accounting Him faithful who had promised, they made ready the ground. As soon as the orchard was cleared the first pledge of a covenantrkeeping God arrived-a letter containing money for the buildings.

Miss Holding, surely gathering that God intended that she should com- mence to build, without gainsaying began the work, knowing that He who had begun the work would also finish it.

Miss Holding said, " I knew God had heard our prayers, and would give us the building; but I thought in my heart, surely our Heavenly Father will move on the heart of some rich man or woman to send us the $7000 ; but it came in small sums, just as it was needed. I had to pray and believe all year." .

The bountiful Giver of all kept the dire~tor of His building, the con- servator of His funds, asking at the door of mercy, tarrying at heaven'i!

gates with thanksgiving; not that he would weary His beloved, but that in the audience chamber of heaven, beholding His glory, she might" be changed into the same image from glory to glory," and become to this people a living expression of the graces of thc Holy Spirit.

This sanctuary, which is of the Lord's own right hand planting, is an inspiration to the faith of the donors from almost every State in the Union, and those which hear of it will rejoice to know that justification by faith alone will be preached to a people" where superstition usurps the place of the Gospel, and priestly absolution supplants a divine forgiveness; where baptism is synonymous wit~ regeneration, lying wonders of relics are put in the place of the work of the Holy Spirit."

At the next meeting of the Woman's Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1888, at Nashville, Tenn., Miss Holding presented the fOllowing report : " , This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.' As I come to my fourth annual report, I find in my heart only a feeling of praise and thanksgiving. So manifestly hath the Lord been with us our cup runneth over; prosperity in every part of the work, health and happiness maketh the soul glad. We would not rejoice so much in these outward things if we did not look upon them as the manifestation of , the good hand of our God upon us.'

"Last year we realized the necessity of enlarging our buildings. We asked for an appropriation for that p,urpose. / You did not have it in your power to grant our request j we remember how sorrowfully you refused us j we turned to Him 'who holdeth the wealth of the world in His hands,' and whose spirit' moveth upon the hearts of men,' and He gave us the thing which we asked.

" The new building or, as we call it, the house we prayed for, and which you have christened' Hall of Faith,' is completed and occupied, and free of debt. It is a large two-story building, containing nine rooms. How eagerly we have watched it grow into its present fair proportions, becom- ing, indeed, ' a thing of beauty!! There it stands, a blessed reality- a tangible evidence of direct answer to the prayer of faith. "

" So great has been the increase in numbers that we have found it necessary to become an organized church. To meet the exigencies of the case, by my request Brother Sutherland preaches twice a month at the seminary, both in English and Spanish. We have a membership of twenty-four. The Sunday-school numbers seventy-nine.

" Our missionary society-Lerado Band-has a membership of seventytwo. The year's contributions, $59.60. The baby of the school-Maria Villareal, six years of age-is supported by the Band. All things stand out as beautiful tints. upon the dark background. When we take into consideration the sloth and utter carelessness of the Mexican character, we can more perfectly approximate the advancement of our pupils. Our souls are encouraged by drawing comparative lines, present and past. From one flashes rays of light which give promise of the full life ; the other, only a dark line of simple existence, into which no glimmer of light had ever entered. The three natures of the household have in a measure kept pacephysical, intellectual, and spiritual. This one school upon the border can no more meet the demand of this people tban one drop of water can quench the thirst of famishing millions. We have pleaded, 'and we plead again, and will continue to plead as long as strength and life remain, for the establishment of Christian schools in every city of Mexico. The rapid growth and unrivalled prosperity of this border mission lead us to hope that th-e Board, and through the Board the women of the Southern Methodist Church, will be encouraged to enter the numerous doors now standing invitingly open."

Weare told of an Irishman who, when his opinion was asked as to the comparative merits of the sun and the moon, replied that he preferred the moon, because the moon shone by night and the suu shone by day when there was no need of shining. He reminds us of some Christians, who, in their comparative estimates of Christianity and morality, give morality the preference, on the ground of the Irishman, that Christianity is an unnecessary luminary in the presence of nineteenth-century ascetics, forgetting that nineteenth-century ascetics are the reflection and product of Christianity.

The Presbyterian churches of Great Britain and Ireland held their annual season of prayer for foreign missions during the week beginning November 30th. The Presbyterian churches in the United States, in accordance with the direction of the General Assembly, held" simultaneous meetings" for the same purpose during the week following December 6th to 13th.

A native Japanese, in Bethany Church, Philadelphia, gave a fine definition of prayer and its answer. He said: "They remind me of two buckets in an old-fashioned well, while one was going up the other was coming down."

'tHE WALDEN'SIAN' CHURCH

THE WALDENSIAN CHURCH AND ITS EVANGELICAL MIS- SION IN ITALY.

BY PASTOR J. P. PONS, TORRE PELLICE, ITALY.

[Last April I had the pleasure and honor of a visit to the Vaudois Valleys, as the guest of that rare man of God, Rev. J. P. Pons, President of the Synod. and author of the paper which follows. I spent the whole day- Saturday-in" walking over the hills and valleys of Angrognia, and visiting the beautiful and historic scenes connected with the Waldensian history. I went to the Rock Simon, where one saint, bound about with cords, was" hurled one hundred and fifty feet on to the rock below. I went to the Church of the Cavern, where for centuries the little body of believers escaped persecution, hiding from their implacable foes in the merciful shelter of a cave. I had to get down on hands and knees, crawl through a narrow opening, and then I found myself in an apartment cut out of solid rock by some convulsion of nature, and where hundreds of people could be comfortably accommodated; and I went also to the neat little chapel of Pra de Tour, and saw the very pool that the persecutors threatened to make flow red with the blood of the martyrs. On Sunday I preached four times at successive services in the valley, from 9 A.M. to 8 P.M., to attentive and decorous audiences, Rev. M. Peyrot, Bonnet, Meille, and Pons being my courteous hosts and attendants. The impression left on my mind by these experiences was that God has a great work to do for these descendants of His precious witnesses who counted not their lives dear for His sake. The young men studying in the college at Torre Pellice on a few francs a week, that they may get into the sacred calling; the self-sacrificing pastors, accomplished men as they are, who are living on a pittance that they may serve these poor saints; the whole aspect of affairs in these valleys, where a baptism of blood made every spot a Golgotha, impressed me with a peculiar solemnity, and seemed to say that before this martyr people a great future lies, in the evangelization of Free Italy. Think of a people, poor and few, who since Apostolic days have steadily and steadfastly kept the flag of the cross at masthead even in the stormiest seas, and when the little ship of their ecclesiastical organization seemed to be sinking, and would have sunk had not Christ been in it-think of all the marvels and miracles of deliverance God wrought for them, of which the siege of La Basille is only the most prominent and historic-and then say, whether a people so preserved and so persevering for Christ must not, like the Saviour, have been made perfect through suffering, in order to become Captains of Salvation to the poor, down-trodden, priest-ridden people of Italy. Let us help the Waldenses by prayers and by money, and make up for their poverty by our liberality.

The Waldenses in Piedmont, Italy, have recently held festivals in various places, celebrating "the remembrance of the return of their forefathers to the paternal firesides, where they learned to pray to God, where their fathers fell asleep in peace, where they struggled and suffered for liberty." Although the persecution of the Waldenses did not wholly cease until about the middle of the eighteenth century, an event of much importance in their history occurred in 1689-the permission then granted them to return to their mountain homes from the various parts of Europe to which they had been driven. Here they have since remained. In 1848 the Sardinian Government granted them full religious and c~vil liberty. They are now also permitted to establish congregations elsewhere in Sardinia besides the three retired valleys of the Cottian Alps to which they had before been obliged to confine themselves.-EDlToR.] The Waldenses both are and always have been" a peculiar people," not only of Italy, but of Europe j and the place where they live and have lived for more than seven centuries is also totally different from the country which surrounds them j and the valleys of the Cottian Alps, near Pinerolo, seem to have been especially provided by God for their preservation. If they had not been hidden from their enemies behind a rampart of mountains, they would have perished as a nation long ago.

I.

As to the origin of the Waldensians, my confined limits do not allow me to speak about such a controverted question. There certainly is a great interest in knowing whether they werQ a pure, primitive church, which never went wrong nor needed reformation, or whether their religious principles were due to Peter Valdo, the merchant of Lyons. After all, we would better leave this question to the historians as a matter of no consequence in the present state and to the present duties of our people.

For ages every man's hand has been against them, though their own has been against nobody except in self-defence. Nor can we wonder at this, because they have ever been, since the twelfth century, a thorn in the side of the Church of Rome, a perpetual witness against the errors of the papacy, a light, greater or smaller, shining in darkness, as the Waldenses' motto says, " Lux lucet in tenebris. •, But though thus preserved from destruction, the Church of the Valleys was not shielded from great and numerous persecutions, nor guarded from cruelties such as have been seldom equalled, and never surpassed j and all that during not less than five centuries. That such things should have been allowed may seem mysterious, but we know that the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church, and that seed is even now bearing fruit, and will, we trust, do so henceforth.

When God prepares a suitable instrument for His will and purpose, before everything He breaks it! The last of this series of persecutions has been the most atrocious and dangerous for the existence itself of the little flock. It took place in the year 1686, the year in which all the people were imprisoned-viz., 14,000. The following year about 3000 emaciated

1S91.J TlrE WALl>ENSlAN Cnu1WJt

beings crossed the Alps and took refuge in Switzerland; but alas! about 10,000 had perished in loathsome dungeons! The remnant of the exiled were hospitably received, housed, and fed by the generous inhabitants of Geneva and other cities of that generous country, or in Germany.

But after living some time in foreign countries, the poor Vaudois were seized with an unconquerable home-sickness, and resolved to return to their native land, to kindle again their lamp. After much prayer and consultation a party of 800 men, led by the heroic Henri Arnaud, succeeded in entering their valleys, on Sunday, August 27th, 1689.

That glorious return was solemnly celebrated by the Waldenses in the year 1889, and we had the honor of seeing our king partake of our joy, who was there represented by Count Lovera, Prefect of Turin.

The worst days were over, but still the Waldenses had troubles from the Church of Rome, till the beginning of this century living in constant dread of bad edicts. They received moral and temporal aid from their brethren from England and Holland, which enabled them to keep up their schools and their worship.

In the early part of this century three noble men of England-Dr. W. S. Gilly, General Beckwith, and the Rev. Dr. Stewart-were providentially sent into the valleys to help us in the foundation of the College of La Tour and in the improvement of the instruction of youth, as in the foundation of a theological seminary. We said, providentially, because the 17th of February, 1848, the King of Piedmont, Charles Albert, emancipated the Waldensian Church from the oppressive disabilities and restraints under which she had so long suffered and labored, and that event found us ready to occupy the field open to the truth of the Gospel.

The barriers were removed, and the Waldenses, under the impulse of their newly acquired freedom and revived spiritual life, were prompt to undertake the great work for which God had certainly preserved and prepared them. If their " Barbes" had not feared, in the past centuries, to go through all Italy preaching the Gospel, despite the danger their life ran, their descendants were quite decided to continue the interrupted mission-" Woe is unto Me, if I preaoh not the Gospel !"

II.

The first mission to the Italians was' begun by the W aldEmsian Church in Turin, and after some years it had congregations in that city, in Genoa, Alexandria, and many other places in Piedmont.

When, in 1859 and 1860, all the Dukes of Tuscany, Parma, Modena, and the King of Naples were driven from their thrones, and their States annexed to the kingdom of Sardinia, the largest part of Italy was so opened to the Gospel, that the ancient Church of the Valleys sent its evangelists, teachers, and colporteurs everywhere, including the distant island of Sicily.

To prepare fit men for that great work of evangelization, the Theolog- . ieal Seminary of La Tour was removed from there to Florenae, as hetter adapted, that city being the Athens of Italy. In the same year,. 1860, the Synod appointed a special Committee of Evangelization, as the Table could not provide for the wants of the native churches in the valleys, and the new congregations spread throughout Italy, which were increasing every day.

Some years later the provinces of Lombardo-Venitia were liberated from Austrian power, and immediately the principal cities, as Venice, Mantua, Verona, were visited by one or more of our evangelists. At last Rome was opened, and our Church, availing itself of this liberty, sent the first pastor who has preached the Gospel to the Romans in modern times, after the fall of its walls. He was the actual president of our committee, the Rev. Dr. Matteo Prochet.

The mission has been gradually extended, and its progress will appear, looking at the following statement: Forty years ago the Waldenses had 15 native churches in the valleys and 18 ministers (15 pastors and 3 professors). Now the ministers are 81, and the settled churches more than 60.

I give here the statistics of the Waldensian missionary field : Settled congregations.. • • •. . . . . . . . . • . . • • •. . .• 44 Missionary stations…••.••….•..••……… 53 Ordained ministers……………………. . I41 ) . . Lay evangelists …•…•••……•…, …….. . 9 Teacher evangelists……………………. . 588 ( II Teachers or schoolmasters……………… . 8I I all 132 workers Colporteurs ……….•••••. , ………….. . Bible-readers and Bible-women………….. . 8J The regular attendants at the church amount to …..•. " …… . 6,536 The occasional hearers of the Gospel to ………………….. . 49,929 The number of communicants (members) ……. _…………. . 4,428 Members admitted last year ……•……… , .•…••…. , .••.. 586 Catechumens last year…..•••••••..•…….•………••• " •.• 618 The day-schools last year…………………………….. .. 67 The attendance of pupils last year………………• " ..•….. 2,560 The Sabbath schools last year. . . .. . . .. . . .. . … …… .. …. .. 57 Attendance of pupils last year………………………….. . 2,866 There are also 17 evening schools, with 582 young people or adults. The present expense of the mission is about $60,000 per annum, of which about $16,000 are contributed by the Waldensian churches, the offspring of the mission. For the remnant we seek the help of other churches. As our missionary congregations in Italy "four times exceed in number the native congregations in the valleys, our agents in the field of evangelization are 132, and they are doing a great work j some of them having many places to visit in a week, we need aid. We say to all our brethren in faith, in the words of Carey to Pierce and Fuller, " We will go down into the pit, if you will hold the rope !" The progress made by the evangelical movement is not completely indicated if we look only at the figures. As they stand they represent, no doubt, a gain; but it is quite impossible to show by them the general impression produced by the preaching on the many thousands of occasional hearers.

We have ascertained that a general improvement of the public opinion has been the happy result of our labors.

It was evident last year, when the prefects, senators, and many members of Italian Parliament assured their sympathy to our church, coming to La Tour to assist at the Second Centenary of the Glorious Return of our forefathers. They spoke cordially to the descendants of the martyrs, and we felt how imp?rtant is the change of the opinion and attitude of our countrymen toward us. The daily press also gave to us many precious tokens of this great and real improvement.

All this awakens rejoicing, but it is not yet the conversion of the multitudes, which we long for so much. Our evangelists have done their best to attract and retain the hearers, bq.t we know that all the country is under the spirit of indifference, unbelief, and the deepest superstitions. The more we approach Rome the greater the darkness and errors are. Your Catholicism in America is a great deal less intolerant and superstitious, because the influence of Protestantism forces the Papacy to adapt its practices to the milieu in which it lives and works.

When I read, in this REVIEW, an account of the Roman Catholic Lay Congress of 1889, held in Baltimore, I felt more than ever the necessity of evangelizing Italy. Here is the head of that universal army, here is the " man of sin who exalteth himself against all that is called God, . . . setting himself forth as God." England and the United States mnst keep their ground, but all evangelical Christians share the duty to unite their efforts to hasten that day when we shall hear the mighty voice saying, " Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great."

Now, in that hope, " we beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with us in your prayers to God for us."

A Methodist Episcopal bishop of this country boasts that in the last ten years the gifts of the churches for missions had increased steadily by the sum of $50,000 a year. For the coming year the missionary committee has appropriated the following sums: Foreign Missions, $566,352 ; Home Missions, $459, t348. This seems a small sum for so large a body. The United Societies of Methodism, under J ohn Wesley, now !ncludes about six and a third millions of ministers and members, and a domestic and personal affiliation of about thirty millions of adherents. The Methodist Episcopal branch alone has 2,252,621 ministers and members, 26,200 Sunday-schools, and 2,554,000 teachers and pupils.

EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS

EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS.

BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.

-M. Saillens, in a pleasant little tract entitled L'.Age d' 01' (" The Age of Gold"), occasioned by a discourse of the noted female anarchist, Louise Michel, whom a good nun has well described as une sainte egaree, " a saint that has lost her way," remarks, after speaking of the many points which anarchists and Christians have in common, that nevertheless they are exactly opposed as to two points. the cause and the cure of present ills. "The revolutionists say, Change societYI and men will be good. Christians say, Change man, and society will be good." "Anarchism," he remarks further, "is merely Jesuitism reversed. The same fanaticism, the same blindness, the same implicit obedience to secret chiefs, the same contempt of morality, of justice, of the rights of others."

-The report rendered to the Synod of the W aldensian Church, September 1st, 1890, by the Table, or Executive Commission, which is chosen annually to govern the Church ad interim, is interesting. in view of the recent celebration, so interesting to .the whole Protestant world, of the Glorious Return, when, two centuries ago, the expatriated Waldenses forced their way back to their native valleys, in which they have since maintained themselves. It was hoped that this great celebration might issue in a great spiritual reawakening. But patriotic celebrations, with all their benefits, do not always give much room to the" still, small voice" of the Divine Spirit. It is the general testimony of the parishes that no fruits of revival have been seen. In some the crust of religious indifference seems to be growing thicker and thicker. The catechumens, once confirmed, partake of the Holy Supper once or twice, and then remain absolutely indifferent to it. But in most of the parishes attendance is good, great interest is manifested in the services, even to tears, but there is a noted unwillingness to do. The pastor, elders, and deacons seem to be regarded as charged with the sole responsibility of all the administration of the means of salvation. To overcome this paralyzing misconception of a private Christian's duty seems to be the point toward which all the endeavors of the leading brethren are bent. And it is plain, notwithstanding the dead weight of old habit, aggravated by that of modern unbelief, good progress is making in the right direction. In many pariAhes a large number of the brethren are becoming active in prayer, in Bible study, visitation of the sick, and other offices of piety and charity. The old confusion between "the Vaudois people and the Vaudois Church" is giving way to a more spiritual discrimination. There, as. elsewhere in Europe, the national or quasinational crust may break away altogether; for" all are not Israel which are of Israel." But the living nucleus, the true inheritrix of the traditions and the· promises, will be set free for unencumbered energy in the works of conversion.

-In a very interesting essay by the Rev. Arthur H. Smith, of the North China Mission of the American Board, on "The Natural History of the Chinese Boy and of the Chinese Girl," the author quotes a description which, he says, sums up the whole system of Chinese education- "gnawing a wooden pear. " A very small proportion of boys and next to no girls enjoy this dismal privilege. "The great majority of pupils, when they leave school, cast aside all their little store of learning as a wornout pair of shoes." There seems to be the same difference between the Chinese and us as that which some French journal declares to exist between Catholic and Protestant countries. In the former countries, parents are as fond of their children as in the latter, but have but a glimmering conception that childhood has a world of its own, which must be divined, entered into, and provided for. In Protestant countries alone, says this journal, is there (fairy stories apart) a children's literature. The full significance of the Saviour's blessing on the little ones seems to have been reserved for the lands of the Reformation.

In China, Mr. Smith remarks, a youth learns two excellent lessons which do much to make amends for the dreariness of his biting on the " wooden pear"-if he has done so. He learns obedience and he learns industry. " But of intellectual independence he has not the faintest conception or eVlln a capacity of comprehension." An uneducated Chinese youth " knows that he knows nothing, that he never did, never shall, never can know anything, and also that it makes very little difference what he knows. He has a blind respect for learning, but no idea of gathering any crumbs thereof for himself. The long, broad, black, and hopeless shadow of Confucianism is over him. It means a high degree of intellectual cultivation for the few, who are necessarily narrow and often bigoted, and for the many it means a lifetime of intellectual stagnation. Measured by what it has totally failed to do, when it might and should have done it. we charge Confucianism with being intellectually one of the most elaborate, compendious, and far-reaching failures which has ever wrought out its ultimate results upon this distracted earth !"

As to daughters, the Chinese say, "A daughter with the virtues of the eighteen Lo-hans"-whatever they may be-" is not equal to a splayfooted son." Why ~ Because a daughter cannot offer the ancestral sacrifices, without which a family is given over to ignominy and, as is supposed, to every conceivable evil. The reason also why girls are as good as never educated is, that after marriage they are (not socially, -but legally) no longer the children of their parents. To educate them " is like putting a gold chain around the neck of some one else's puppy." If the puppy is whistled away, what becomes of the chain ~ Neither man nor woman being recognized by Confucianism as having any eternal and therefore individual value, the selfishness of mere Socialism has full sway.

" One of the weakest parts of the Chinese social fabric is the insecurity of the life and happiness of woman. But no structure is stronger than its weakest part, and Chinese society is no exception to this law. Every year thousands upon thousands of Chinese wives commit suicide, tens of thousands of other persons are thereby involved in serious trouble, hundreds of thousands of yet others are dragged in as co-partners in the difficulty, and millions of dollars are expended in extravagant funerals and ruinous lawsuits. And all this is the outcome of the Confucian theory that a wife has no rights which a husband is bound to respect."

-The Rev. George Ensor, in the Church Missionary Intelligencer for November, 1890, makes an important remark respecting heathen systemsnamely, that usually in them the moral and the religious elements are in inverse proportion to each other. Thus the highest morality· is perhaps found in Confucianism. Yet Confucianism is very nearly atheistic. On the other hand, an extraordinary depth of religious feeling appears in Hinduism; yet morally it is worse than worthless, it is foul and cruel. This may well remind us of what Dr. Dorner so justly says of our Lord, that in Him we cannot separate ethics from religion. There is no saying of His of which we can declare that it respects man without equally respecting God, or God without equally respecting man. . But, says Mr. Ensor, the much-lauded Islam, in its Paradise of lust, • displays a moral corruption of which the foulest Tantras of Hinduism, the most immoral votaries of Krishna, are simply incapable. They cannot even comprehend it. Our own Mormonism alone approaches it.

-The Rev. Henry Rice, writing in the Harvest Field for November, 1890, on " British Influence in India," remarks: "We may point with just satisfaction to the improved state of the country, to communication by land and water, to railways, electric telegraphs, etc. This is unde- niable. But all the while religion has been largely shuffled off or almost entirely left to missionaries. Little or nothing has been done as a com- munity to let our light shine before the heathen. We have feared that we might acknowledge Christ too openly, and that the natives of the country would imagine that we wished to enrol them forcibly among the number of His disciples. We have, perhaps, feared their numbers. and practised a cautious timidity, until it has come to pass that goodness has been left to itself, and greatness made the foundation and support of our authority. There has been an endeavor to rule by power, and make a display of what may be called great works, tacitly trusting that the Hindus would be awed by wonder, and render the obedience due to superior knowledge and energy. The most subtle and the most formidable forces of heat and electricity have appeared alike obedient to our will and subservient to our convenience. The effect has been very great upon a people who believe in sorcery, whose jugglers and snake-charmers perform feats which at first sight can hardly be accounted .for by anything short of Satanic agency. But we may. say without hesitation that the higher means of spreading the true religion in this country have been largely wanting. Living example in ordinary men has been the exception, not the rule. All has been too much confined to externals. The influence held by the British is an in- fluence derived from wonder at the visible greatness of their power and energy. It excites awe, perhaps, but it does not create the feeling of reverence which internal goodness of principle alone can call into being. Where there is no reverence there can be no love."

The Harvest Field remarks, speaking especially of female agency, and of India as " weirdly fascinating" to cultivated women, " In the divine enterprises to which India invites the V{est, America· is aiready doing an almost equal share with Britain. Could anything be more admirabJe? Divided there, and disposed sometimes to emphasize division, the two nations join here."

The same article speaks at length of the broad and fruitful efforts mak- ing by our countrywoman, Mrs. Brainerd·Ryder, M.D., to advance general and also technical education among the women of Bombay.. These efforts are not specifically religious, but they allow full discussion of religion, and are of course underlaid by Christian motives. The Society for Technical Education of Women has, as its president, the Hon. Justice K. T. Telang, C.LE. The Vice-Presidents are Khan Bahadur, M.C., Murzbun, a Parsi, and Pundita Ramabai j on the Advisory Board are the Bishop of Bom- bay, Bishop Thoburn, of our M. E. Church, and the Vicar-General of the Jesuits.

-The Rev. W. J. Chamberlain, of Mandanapelle, says: "We baptized here a young Brahmin of twenty-five years. He came to us a year ago, entered into full and earnest converse with us, and left with a promise to return in eight days. He did not appear, nor, after the most diligent inquiries, could we find him, He came to town a month ago, and walked directly to the mission compound, as he said, 'driven by God.' He was baptized on the following day, and soon after accompanied me on a tour into the region of his home. "

-The Rev. F. Hahn, of Gossner's Mission among the Kols, quoted in the Harvest Field, says: " How is it that Roman Catholic/! are permitted to break the marriage law with impunity, .•• while Protestant minillters are liable to punishment for doing so?" Protestant Christians should com· bine, not to persecute the Roman Catholics, but to insist that there shall be one manner of law for all Christians in India. Otherwise, without any intention of the Government, of which Mr. Hahn acquits it, it may be throwing the mighty weight of " Cresar in India" (as the empress is officially called) into the scale of the sacerdotal Cresar of the Tiber.

-A non-Christian graduate of a Christian college in India remarks, in a Christian magazine, quoted in the Missions-Blad for October, 1890, that one hostile European of high place can counteract the work of ten. missionaries. He refers to one who used to tell the people that if any applicant for an appointment was recommended by missionaries, he would reject him without any further inquiry. The writer, however, remarks that so desperate a hostility to missions as this on the part of Europeans is very rare. But," before the missionaries rises a strong and gigantic fortification, whose garrison are by no means despicable soldiers in intellectual wars. Behind they are assailed by a Bradlaugh and an Ingersoll. And to render the situation yet more perplexing, there sometimes come flank attacks from hostile local officials of their own nationality."

"The missionaries are not likely in the near future," continues this non-Christian adviser, "to advance the banners of victory very widely in any direction. But they may and ought to accustom the Hindus to look upon them as assailants worthy of their steel. And this is what educational missions are in a fair way to accomplish." '" A patriotic feeling,' many say, 'is awakening among the people of India, and their resistance is about to become more energetic.' This is the exact truth ; and let me say to the educational missionary, You have no occasion to be ashamed when you are declared to be largely responsible for this state of things. Hitherto the lion has been couching in serene disdain of you. Now he feels that, after all, you are not so much to ·be despised, and he is rousing himself for defence and for a counter attack."

" There was a time, " says this Christian]y educated but not Christian theist, "when the inner world was almost the exclusive object of human study, while men looked down upon the physical world with contempt. We are now veering to the opposite extreme. Weare so completely taken up with the visible and palpable, that we act as if everything invisible was chimerical." Tillthe tide changes, he thinks that conversions in India will be few.

" True it is," he remarks, "that often, when by a Christian education one devil has been driven out of the young Hindus, seven devils worse than he come in his stead. But he who believes that Christ is mighty to drive out every devil must believe that sooner or later his power and lordship will be acknowledged by all."

He says in conclusion, in reference to the contemptuous criticisms of the missionary work, " As the Chinese say, a tower is measured by its shadow, and greatness by its slanderers."

Mr. Herman Jensen, who comments on this article, remarks that we lllust. not exaggerate the present position of the Brahmins in India. A poor Brahmin will feel honored to stand side by side with a wealthy and educated Sudra.

He remarks also that missionaries formerly were too much in the way of recommending their converts, simply as such, to the Government, which has given a handle to those who wished to discredit their recommendations altogether.

"This writer also," says Mr. Jensen, " has learned that missionaries are too willing to exaggerate. Till the severity of absolute truth is exacted of all missionary reports, every missionary society will end its days with sorrow, if not with shame."

There are as yet many more "free-livers" than" free-thinkers" in India. The latter tendency is as yet a mere rootless result of the former. -It is known that the English Universities' Mission in Central Mrica ill very distinctly of the Anglo-Catholic type. But happily it is absolutely free from that arrogant and encroaching temper which sometimes renders the missionaries of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel hardly less uncomfortable neighbors than the most encroaching Roman Catholi~ orders. In particular, remarks the Church of Scotland Home and Foreign Record, the relations between the Universities' Mission and the Scottish Mission in Nyassaland have always been of the friendliest. Archdeacon Maples, of the former mission, writes of the latter: "The hospitality and friendliness of the Blantyre Mission to ourselves are so well known that I will not dilate on them here, but will content myself with remarking that if there is a place on the face of the globe where the Church in occupation of the field extends the entente cordiale to missionary visitors from another, that place is Blantyre. The mission buildings, with the beautifully laid out' square,' with its home-like looking lawn, its deodoras, and the noble church seen at the end through a vista of greenery, form a coup d'a!il which surpasses anything I have ever seen at any missionary station in Africa. " The Record quotes the following from Vaughan's standard work, "The Trident, the Crescent, and the Cross:" "Thousands with slender faith and scanty knowledge have embraced the name of Christ. Among these were many hundreds of Mohammedans. One of the Mohammedan converts, with a simple and ingenuous candor, said' he hoped God would be more favorable to him when he worshipped Jesus Christ than when ho worshipped Mohammed, for then they had nothing but trouble, but with the Christians they found pity, as also money and rice [largely bestowed also on those outside] which they did not obtain from the Zemindars' [Mohammedan landlords]_ He might have been the spokesman of the majority [of these , famine' or 'rico ' Christians] thus gathered within the Christian fold.

, We find pity and help' was really the voice of converted thousands. It was a voice which fell far short of the agonizing cry, , Men and brethren, what shall we do ~' (Acts ii. 37.) And yet it was a natural voice, and it was true. They began, no doubt, at a very low level; yet, commingled with the selfish aim was a certain vague impression that Chdstianity rested upon a basis of truth and justice. Many a pleasing story might be told of those who, star~ing on such a defective principle, have rapidly advanced in light and knowledge and faith, until at length they have become burning and shining lights. . . . But there is another picture, and one which charms the eye with its glowing and beauteous tints. Numbered among the Christians of India are multitudes of persons, the narrative of whose conversion would grace the fairest page in the history of the Church of Christ. • • , If deep repentance, earnest faith, and burning love, if complete self-sacrifice, if a fearless confession of Christ at any cost, be marks of genuine conversion, then has the Church of India multitudes within her pale distinguished by these marks. . . . Try them by whatever test we may, we find them approved as the regenerated children of the Most High. It has been our privilege to mix with many such, and we have uo hesita_ tion in saying that among them are Christians so advanced in the life of grace that we have, as it were, sat at their feet and learned the deep things of God."

Much is made by many of the fact that by far the most of the converts in India are from the lower classes. As to this, the Indian Witness, Calcutta (as quoted in the Record), says: "It is very true that four fifths of the converts are from the lower castes-many of them, indeed, from the lowest; but those who reject the idea of such people becoming the successors to the Brahmins have not probably given much attention to the rapidity with which many of them rise in the social scale. A youth of eighteen, perhaps the son of a sweeper, becomes a Christian, and begins to study. Three years later he is a student in a high school, and at twentyfive he is the most intelligent and cultured man in the village where he lives. His wife is so superior to all the other women in the village, and is able to help them all in so many ways, that the young couple are everywhere received with honor. Already their sweeper origin is nearly forgotten." How much more in two or three generations !

-The Rev. George Cockburn, M.A., writing in the Record from Ichang, China, says that the Mandarins, who are apt to have a smattering of Western culture, show a disheartening readiness to truckle to the JUost puerile superstitions of the people, and that since the young Kwang-su has come to the throne, the hands of the clock have gone backward. It is rumored, we may remark, that the young emperor seems sullenly resolved not to appear too much under the influence of his father, who has become a decided advocate of Vvestern progress.

-Whatever may be thought of the West African, or Negro proper, the East African Bantu (of which race the Caffres and Zulus are a branch) is, says the Record, "sharp and clever, and although a spirit of levity does seem to rule the African, it does not make him, as Major Wissmann contends, impervious to spiritual truth." Of two East African boys at school' in Edinburgh, one took the highest place in his class, " and both showed themselves not in the least degree inferior."

-Mr. Frederiek WellsWiIliams, a native of Macao, China, and the son of the author of " The Middle Kingdom," says of the Chinese civilization "that, with such a cast-iron system, any change must come from outside. • • • Almost inevitably the great tonic of new life and aims must be from Europe and America. Chinese statesmen recognize the radieal nature of the change to come, one of whom declares it a greater change for China to find herself face to face with the nations of the far West than anything that has occurred in her history. How to adapt herself to this imminent transformation is the problem for years to come. The next two or three generations will be best employed in observing and applying the institutions of other lands. As a cat watches a mouse, China watches Japan, whose rapid progress irritates the Celestial and shocks his pride. Japan may be to China the hyphen, the copula, between the old life and the new. But we shall see no more than the beginning, for Asiatic civilization moves slowly, by centuries j yet some day a great destiny wiIl be realized."

INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT

II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.

EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY BEV. J. T. GBACEY, D.D.

Korea.'s Political Relation with Ohina. be 80 gracious as to give me to take back to my master. For, if the Throne It is a matter of no small interest to sends envoys, we will not be able to ac· the missionary world to know the exact commodate them properly. Then measure of the independence of Korea would we be sinners evermore. '" e as a kingdom. A late occurrence throws beg your Celestial Graciousness, our a good deal of light upon the subject. most affectionate parents, to treat us Being strictly official, it shows China's like a red child (i.e., a new-born babe), claim to sovereignty over Chosen, and and not inflict any penalty upon us for Chosen's evident disposition to secure expressing this desire. If your Heavthe recognition of at least a little larger enly Majesty bestows the letters of conautonomy, possibly as testing the tem· dolence upon me to take back, so as to per of the Court at Peking as to Chosen's save the trouble of the envoys, my tendency to secure acknowledgment of Prince and my country will ever bathe her independence. in thankfulness."

The immeditate occasion of this reo To this, however, the Government of assertion by China of her Imperial con· China declined to accede; but seizing trol of the little peninSUla was as fol. the only argmuent in the petition based lows: The Queen Dowager of Korea on Korea's poverty, adapted the former died. It has been the custom hitherto custom merely to a more economical for the Government at Peking on such base, but reaffirming the sovereignty occasions to send an embassy of con. of China over Korea. The reply was: as dolence to Korea, as to a vassal. Korea follows: sought to reduce this to an ordinary let. ter of official sympathy as between "RESCBl:PT FBOM THE THBONE-MEfriendly and equal sovereigns. Accord. MOBIAL NOTED.-That Kingdom for ceningly, the Korean First Envoy at Peking turies past having been the Eastern was instructed to solicit a modification vassal and reaped Our Graciousness of ullage, and addressed to the " Board always, on occasions of any death of of Rites" at Peking the following com. that Kingdom's household, We have munication : always sent Envoys to convey Our Sym- pathies. Such Missions have hitherto II This small kingdom, a vassal to the gone overland, making many halts on Throne which has from time immemo. the way. But this time, not having the rial reaped the benefits of Imperial slightest doubt but what that Kingdom favor, even as late as 1882 and 188!;< is in poverty, We will depart from the notably during the two rebellions when old rule and make slight changes. the Throne raised us from the earth and Therefore the Mission shall proceed by saved our ancestors' ashes, we thank water [sea] with the Pei-Yang squadron again and again for having given us new to land at that Kingdom's port of life. But this small kingdom has Jeuchuan [Chemulpol. When the cersuffered grievously from these two reo emonial shall have been performed. the bellions, and the people being in pov. Mission shall return by the same route. erty d1j.ring the past six or seven years, By such a temporary change that Kingthe condition has been getting worse dom will incur no heavy expenses. and worse. This unfortunate year the When the Prince of that Kingdom premother of my Prince died, and the sents you both with presents, you are funeral expenses are such that we must not allowed to accept anything. That economize. Most humbly prostrating Prince, hearing this Heavenly Declaraourselves, we beg the Great Emperor to tion, will forever be grateful. But you give us the instructions and the letter will see that all rites are strictly obof condolence which the Throne would

2:13

served. Let this Decree of Mine be at not take in the Gospel. All atonce obeyed by the Superintendent of Pei-Yang (of the Northern Seas, Li-Hung tempts to bring them to a knowledge Chang, the Viceroy of Chihli). Let the Board of Rites at once instruct that of the true God have as yet failed ut- King to obey." terly… ' Poor brutes in human shape, We ha7e no room to recount the exact manner in which this edict was executed . . . they must perish off the face of on the one part, and accepted on the other. These were, of course, religious the earth like brute beasts." (" Serproceedings, and might appear as if the relation was similar to that of some mons on National Subjects," p. 234.) Europeansovereign recognizing the Pope as religious emperor in his dominions. The article we now present on this But there can be no mistaking the recognition of the political relatiQl1s involved people has been translated and conin Korea saying" This small Kingdom" is a "vassal to the Throne," and the densed for our columns at our request by authoritative utterance of China that " that Kingdom for centuries past Rev A. Hartmann, from the German having been the Eastern vassal, ..• let the Board of Rites instruct that King of Rev. H. G. Schneider, a missionary to obey." This indirectly and directly involves serious political questions. among these aborigines. Mr. Hart- Korea has existing treaties with European nations, and receives minis- mann was himself a missionary of the ters from the same, such as are accredited only to sovereign States. But if she Moravian Church among these Black recognizes and China asserts her vassalage, what then? Fellows of Australia from 1864 to 1873, , This is diplomatic correspondence incidental to religious rites, but Korea and is now a missionary to North Amermay not alone have the decision of her fate. Japan may have something to say ican IndiansatMoraviantown, Bothwell, when the issue is pushed into practical politics, and 80 may western powers; Ontario, Canada. It strikes us that nevertheless it must be said in the face of Korea's confessed vassalage to China. Mr. Kingsley would have found a bet- J. T. G. ter specimen to put in evidence of the The :Black Pellows of Australia. bottomless pit of original depravity, on FmsT PAPER-PBs-MORAVIAN MISSIONS. the other side of the court room. The PREPARED llY REV. A. HARTMANN. " Settler" and the Colonist might toss It is a no less brilliant and benevolent dice with the poor Papuan for front rank, author than the Rev. Charles Kingsley who, taking the position that man might in the lowest depth of submerged actually fall by original sin too low to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ and humanity. Read and judge. be recovered again, points his proposition by the illustration worn threadbare J. T.G. by saints, sinners and scientists, of the poor Papuan of Australia. He says: The continent of Australia was taken " The black people of Australia, exactly possession of by Captain Cook in the the same race as the African negro, can- name of the English Crown. It was taken, not bought, from the original pos- I sessors of the country. The first settlers were convicts. They, and alas! too many of the emigrants who followed, treated the aborigines as they thought fit, robbing them and abusing their wives, and killing them if resistance was offered. Colonial history gives no rec- ord of an organized war with the na- tives; the latter must have been few and weak, and the severities and cruelties practised upon them were therefore unwarrantable. Their thefts and attacks were in many cases incited by want, or by revenge for wrongs suffered by them. By the introduction of intoxicants, the low became the lowest of the low. A disgusting sickness, of which many of the blacks suffered and perished, as a consequence of vice, was also introduced among them. Of the cruelties inflicted on some of them in individual cases we would rather not speak. Just think of a cowboy glorying before his master that with his own hand he had killed six or seven blacks, and that for the mere sport the chase of human beings afforded him! Dismissal from service piled up the dead bodies and kindled was the only punishment for this mur. over them a large fire to destroy every derer. It is not too much to say that trace of their awful murder. Through the majority of European inhabitants a combination of peculiar circumstances looked with contempt on the blacks, the crime was discovered, and the murconsidering them little if any better derers condemned to suffer the extreme than dangerous animals, for whose ex- penalty of the law. During the trial tirpation any measures were justifiable. the whole population of the colony was in a great excitement. Many, and even So matters went on for fifty years. But men of influence, were full of sympathy in 1838 II society was formed for the pro. for the murderers. All possible means tection of the aborigines. In 1839 a law were employed to have the murderers was passed appointing land commission. acquitted. Large Bums of money were ers with full power to put a stop to the raised to employ the most skilful lawcruelties perpetrated on the natives by yers in their defence, and witnesses reo the settlers beyond the colonial boun. ceived terrible threatenings, and even daries. At the same time, the following the chief witness, one of the most honnoble proclamation was made by the orable men of the district, hardly ven- Governor: ., As human beings, who tured to return to his home. The govpartake of the same nature as ourselves; ernor himself, a brave man, occupying as the original possessors of this terri- the most difficult position in this catastory, from which we derive much of our trophe, nevertheless signed the deathwealth and prosperity; and as subjects warrant of these murderers. Although of the Queen, whose power extends over the blacks now enjoyed the protection every part of New Holland, the abodg. of the law, yet slow progress was made ines of this country have the same right in the improvement of their condition. as Europeans to the protection and as- Still, during the last thirty years the sistance of the law. His Excellency be. moral obligations toward the natives lieves it his duty to inform every inhab- have been fully acknowledged. Efforts itant of this colony that each new de. have been made by the government and spatch from the Secretary of State in by private individuals to better thei~ England speaks of the increasing stress condition by supplying them with food, laid by Her Majesty's Government, the clothing, schools, churches, and mission- Parliament, and the whole people, on aries. But alas! much that was well the proper and humane treatment of the meant came too late to save them as a natives of this land. His Excellency race. Too long these unhappy beings also most urgently and solemnly de- had been treated as animals; too long clares that it is their conviction that had there been no place on earth where nothing whatsoever is so essential to they were suffered, cared for, or loved. the honor and welfare (or interests) of Only at the throne of God, the Just and the colony as humane care and consid- the Merciful, was compassion shown eration of the aborigines. " for them; but the poor blacks did not know Him, and it was long before As one result of this Proclamation, those whites who did know it showed and the laws put in force with it, mur· them the way to Him. derers were punished. Seven convicts who, by the Government, had been ap. EFFORTS TO IMPIOVE THE NATIVES. pointed shepherds to some of the squatters, went out on horseback to hunt There is no rule without exception, blacks. They discovered a small tribe and in this case the rule was bad and of about thirty, men, women, and chil- the exception good. Among the many dren. They surrounded them, tied who looked down and trampled on the them together with a long rope, and natives of Australia there were found then butchered them in cold blood in some noble souls, whose hearts were full the dell th of the wilderness. They then

INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT

of love and sympathy for them. For in. poor parsonage at Paramatta, a few stance, since the beginning of this cen· miles from Sydney. Mr. Marsden tury there have been noble, humane gov· preached to the convicts and to all the ernors, who did everything in their colonists" Jesus Christ and Him cruci. power to ameliorate and improve their fied" with undaunted courage and un· condition. These efforts sometimes met tiring love. With the blacks, however, with resistance and ingratitude on the he pursued another plan. With the help part of those whom they sought to ben- of Governor Macquarie he established a efit. The blacks would stay for a week model farm, in which several families or two in the paradise prepared for of natives were placed under the guidthem, and then suddenly disappear and ance of a qualified overseer to be trained return to their wandering life. Too to farm work. much was expected of them; the most beautiful palace would have been a pris- Besides this, a boarding-school was on for them. Instead of being grad. commenced for native children, in which ually accustomed to order and a civilized they should be taught reading, writing, life, a degree of liberty being allowed arithmetic, and the elements of the them, they were expected to settle down Christian religion. The whole undertakat once. Many such efforts· were made ing was a failure, and after a few years' and proved failures. The hearts of the trial had to be given up. The children natives were difficult to reach, and the were not to be confined within walls, love of a wandering life was not to be nor were the minds of these ignorant eradicated in a hurry. Even the friends heathen to be prepared by the disci. and benefactors of the race were dis_ pline of civilization for Christianity. couraged, and came again and again to The idea was to teach them first to be the conclusion that for this race there men, then Christians. People forgot .was no hope of deliverance. As, on the that though a missionary is a civilizing one hand, too much was expected from agent, yet that civilization must be the them, so, on the other, too little was giv. fruit, not the root of Christianity. Mr. en them, causing again failure. Marsden in his old age acknowledged this mistake, and spoke thus concern. We are reminded here of the noble ing it : "The Bible," said he, "pro- Governor Macquarie and the chaplain claims free sovereign grace for poor sin- Rev. Samuel Marsden. Thelatter, born ners. No self.righteous person can enat Leeds in 1764, was the son of a poor ter heaven; he would rather hunger and artisan. He attended first the parish perish than accept this free gift. Civschool and then the grammar school at ilization is not necessary before Chris- Hull. His father, being unable to sup· tianity. Let both go hand in hand, if port him any longer, and needing his you will ; but you will find that civilizahelp at home, desired his return. But tion rather follows than precedes Chris· Joseph Milner, the author of a well. tianity. Speak to the heathen of the known Church History, desired that the living God and the Saviour who died talented boy might remain, and procured for them. That will come home to for him the assistance of a company of their hearts !" pious and wealthy men, who made it a point to support poor and talented the· Further efforts were made by pious ological students. After completing his and zealous Methodists. The first, studies preparatory to the ministry, who was sent exclusively for work Marsden, after repeated requests, at among the natives, was Walker, of whose length accepted the position as chaplain work, however, nothing is known. Tho to the convict colony at Sydney, Aus- missionaries Leigh, who commenced tralia, and started thither with his ex- work in 1815, and Cartwright, who folcellent wife in August, 1793. On March lowed in 1820, began at once to speak 2d, 1794, they arrived and entered the of the main point, but the natives did not then understand English, and their teachers did not learn Papuan, forgetting of the work to the pouring in of unprinthat the Word of God reaches the heart cipled colonists and the absence of of the heathen only when translated into such law protection as would have prehis native tongue, and that the first and vented desolating wars between the most important work of a missionary is native tribes and guarded the latter to make the language of the heathen against the outrages of the whites. tribe among whom he labors his own. Herein he touches indisputably the sore point in the condition of New Holland; In the year 1828 they relinquished and sad as his conclusion is, it in notheir work for the time, justifying their wise represents the natives as beyond step by the unsteadiness of the abo- improvement. rigines and the great expense of the mission caused by journeys and repeated Another recorded failure in the hisattempts at founding stations. tory of Australian missions is that of the Church Missionary Society of London, Meanwhile, Missionary Threlkeld, of England. Marsden, who died in 1838, the London Missionary Society (prop- had already prevailed upon this society erly intended for the mission in the to send out missionaries. Watson and South Sea Islands), came to New South Handt were appointed to Wellingtondale, Wales, and was desired by the governor north of Sydney,and were joined later on to remain and devote himself to the in the station they had formed by Gun. work among the natives. The society ther. But after eleven years of faithful approved of the plan, and Threlkeld re- and self-sacrificing labor they were ceived from the Government 10,000 obliged to leave, for the shepherds and acres of land at Lake Macquarie for a workingmen of the district (it was the settlement of natives. With firm faith, old story of liberated convicts) exercised unwearied perseverance, and holy love the most baneful influence on the na· he set to work. After laboring for six tives; and to this came drought and years without visible results, the Lon- grasshoppers, which drove the natives don Society, which had spent £3000 on from the district. The missionaries, the work, thought it right to use their therefore, devoteq their energies to work funds in more promising fields. Threl- among the colonists. keld, however, could not leave his Papuans. He carried on the work, The Methodists had again established partly from his own means and partly mission stations in different places in by the assistance of friends and the 1838 and 1840, and met with some de. government. He learned the native gree of success. In the saIDe year mis. language, prepared a grammar, trans- sionaries were sent out by the Lutheran lated parts of the Bible, as well as a Missionary Society at Dresden (now number of hymns. Leipzig), and a number also by Gossner, at the request of a Scottish Presbyterian Generally three or four tribes lived on minister in New South Wales. The the reserve, but their stay was never of a Lutherans, after a few years of fruitless long duration. The news of a corroboree labor, left the natives and became pas. (er dance) or oftener the information that tors to various congregations of Euroa hostile tribe was approaching was suffi- peans. A few years Jater the Gossner cient to scatter them,in spite of all Threl- missionaries followed their example. keld's efforts to keep them. All the ef- The natives had, indeed, begun to dis. forts,sacrifices,and pains of this excellent tinguish between these whites and those man remained fruttless, and as the con- whom they had known hilherto. They tributions of friends flowed more scan- put confidence in the missionaries and tily, and the support of the Government showed at times a desire to work, but was stopped, this champion of the Gos- soon tired of it, and rewarded the kind· pel found himself compelled to leave the ness and patience of the messengers of station. That was a bitter pill! Yet peace by continual thefts. At length still the noble man attributes the failure all the tribes of the district formed tive, is it to be expected that he will themselves into robber-bands, who at- make a distinction in favor of those few tacked and robbed the neighboring sta- who giT8 themselves out as his friends; tions in broad daylight wherever the that he will put full confidence in them, objects of their plunder were not pro- and accept their word, their advice, their tected by revolver and gun. But, in the message? Will he not rather take admean time, the missionaries had the joy vantage of their kindness and, by stealof seeing two of the natives converted. ing their goods, recompense himself for Still the results were, on the whole, so what has been taken from him? Sad sad and unsatisfactory that some of the to say, that in Australia it is not the obmissionaries left the place, with a view duracy of the aborigines but the hardto Illbor among the settlers. Those who heartedness of professing Christians remained directed their efforts to the which has been the greatest stumbling- Bame object, without losing sight of the block in the way of the Gospel. poor natives; and Missionary Gerler wrote, in 1855, "I llm convinced that The Glad Tidings in Morocco. the time is not far distant when the blacks will cry out, ' What must I do to BY JAMES EDWARD BUDGETT MEAKIN. be saved?'" Further efforts made by the English Church, under the direction (For some years editor of the Times of Moroc()/).) of the energetic Archdellcon Hale, of Adelaide, were put an end to by the It is only of late years that any sysdying out of the natives. Of later trials tematic attempt has been made to bring and successes experienced in connection the Gospel before the people of Morocwith different churches and societies we co, though they live, as it were, at the will not now speak, but notice them as very doors of Europe. A small body cotemporary with the missions of the of missionaries are laboring among the Renewed Brethren's Church (Mora- Moors. So far, however, only' a very vians), of which it is our intention to small number have sufficiently surspeak in the next paper. mounted the initial difficulty of the language-Arabic-to be able to do T,he enumeration of aU these failures much in the way of direct teaching or is very discouraging, yet it shows the controversy. But there are other ways difficulties attending the work of evan- in which the people may be reached, gelizing this spoiled and degrllded race. such as by medical treatment of the sick. Let us weigh these well, not forgetting that by the grace of God they may be The benighted condition of Morocco surmounted, and we have a strong proof is such that the aims and objects of misof 'the necessity and duty of carrying sionary laborers are not yet realized, and on mission work. The faith and love the Mohammedans cannot imagine that of Christendom and of its messengers anyone of their number could prove can llnd should overcome, in spite of all himself, weak enough in their faith to the opposition of the servants of sin seriously entertain any other. Once and Satan. Still, in considering what they become fully alive to the,facts of has been and may still be said regard- the case trouble and fierce opposition ing the work in Australia, we must take may be expected. into account not only the sad state of the natives, but also the bllneful influ- The initial difficulty in dealing with ence which has been exercised upon the Moors is their utter self-satisfiedthem by thousands of ungodly whites ness and indifference to outside influduring the last century. If contempt, ences. What was good for their fathers bad treatment, robbery. violence, and is good for them ; and they are brought murder are connected with the idea of up so sure of a heaven of material bliss, the white man in the mind of the na- even after a life of sin, provided that they comply with certain forms, that they see no reason even to listen to the emissaries of Christianity. But, thank God! there are many who have listened, with certain religious duties which are and some among them who have obeyed carefully defined in the' Book to be Read' and been baptized, but these are few (the Quran), we are sure of eternal bliss I"~ and weak, needing much instruction. We who have lived in Morocco can The next ob,stacle to the work is the testify with one accord that this empire utterly erroneous ideas possessed by the is too steeped in sin to allow us to lay Moors concerning Christianity and bare the truth. Crime and misery Christians. They believe, to begin abound, and justice is all but unknown. with, and often tell us so, that we wor- Possessed of a beautiful country, the ship a woman as equal with God-a Moors drag out an almost torpid existmost awful idea to such strict Unita- ence without enjoying one tithe of the rians as Muslims are. They say then blessings within their grasp. Such is that we worship bread and wine as Morocco to-day, and I do not hesitate God; that we have introduced the to give as the reason that it is a victim greater part of the history of Christ into to the spell of Islam. the Gospel, and that we have eradicated every prophecy about Mohammed ex- The difficulties to be met with are not cept John 14 : 26, which they declare small nor few. The fear of the" powrefers to that teacher. It is easy to see ers that be," and the feeling that the whence these ideas come, but still more acknowledged convert must become an Bad to note what they judge from the outcast, cut off from his dearest friends; specimens of nominal Christians with and subject to bitter persecution in whom they have had to deal, to be proportion to his boldness in his new equally tenets of our religion. They faith, is a very serious matter, and s have no doubt that every good Chris- man's change of heart must be real and tian gets drunk once a week or more thorough before he can be expected to often if he can, and that it is their in- make an open profession with such revariable rule to make up for only being_ sults. Even when he has the example allowed one wife by supplies from the before him of others who have stood streets. The wearing of a hat and the and suffered it is easier for him. Neveating of pork are looked upon as ertheless, thousands of Moors have equally essential to the Ohristian life, learned the difference between nominal and it ill generally considel."ed that dis- and real Christians, so much so, that honesty, venalism, and every abuse of while the name Nazarene is still applied power are matters of course with the fol- to all, the names MaseeaM and Kitab~ lowers of the Messiah. (Christian and Biblical) are now given by them to the missionaries and their "The difference between your way few sympathizers to distinguish them and my way," said an intelligent Moor from the others. Medical work among one day to a lady missionary, "is that them and the kindness shown to them yours is hemmea in on either side by re- in many ways are steadily taking effect; strictions which must make your life and although few have come forward miserable, and you have nothing to from among them, and after careful hope for, after all, for your heaven has teaching and examination have been no earthly joys. My way, on the other baptized, there is a pleasurable certainty hand, leaves me room to do much as that a far greater number have the truth I like in this world, and in the next the planted in their hearts, that they know pleasantest sins of this will be our law- the way of salvation, and that but for ful and continual pleasures. Think of fear of man they would acknowledge it. that! Then, too, our lord l'rlohammed, We must not think hardly of these weak the messenger of God-the prayers of ones. God be on him, and peace I-is so good and powerful that, however we may sin BISHOP HANNINGTON'S BONES.-It was against God now, so long as we comply a remarkable Providence that enabled the Church of England Missionary So- ed that he would get rid of the bones by ciety to recover the body of their mar- taking them to the white man. He tyr-Bishop Hannington, who was mur- passed the place twice, and I fancy it dered in Oentral Africa, under circum- was on the second journey that he took stances that would have seemed to the bones to Mr. Jackson. forever preclude the possibility of his receiving Christian burial at all, much "The above is in substance what less the return of the remains to Chris- Marko says. Some of the details may tian England. The story has been most be incorrect." vividly told, but now we have the de- tails of the way in which God's provi- -The American Board has rightfully dence kept ., all his bones." applied to Mr. Blaine for the protection of American property interests in con- It was with peculiar interest that we nection with the newest outrages of the read the communication made by Rev. Spanish authorities on the American R. H. Walker to the Church of England missions in the Caroline Islands. We Missionary Society, in explanation of the trust our Government will speak with manner of the recovery of Bishop Han- some vigor to that anachronism in modnington's body. A strange interest will ern civilization known as the Governhang around this story for a long time to ment of Spain. It is little worth while come. Little wonder that it has recalled allowing this representative of an effete the story of the Ark of the Lord turned civilization to be strutting with misused loose under divine supervision alone. authority in a remote corner of the Mr_ Walker wrote: .. When Bishop globe. At best, Spain is out of joint Hannington was murdered, the same with the times. She feeds on memories day his body was carried to another and mumbles beads; her battles are place, because the people feared that the bull-fights and her victories autos-daje, dead body of a white man might bring and she might as well be relegated to evil on them. But the people of the some museum of political antiquities. next place refused to have it ; and so it Has Mr. Blaine ever secured any indemwas carried from place to place, each nity for Mr. Doane, and will he now refusing to alJow it to remain in their call Spain into court for protection not country. A coast man, who we under- of missicnary, but of American interstand was one of Bishop Hannington's ests? porters, accompanied the corpse. At last it reached a place on the boundary -There is a tract entitled" Christian of Busoga, or in the country of the Women of North China to the Christian Bakeddi. Here they agreed to build a Women of England upon the Opium Inhouse for it, and on a framework or bed- iquity." In this these Chinese Christian stead, such as they make for smoking women declare to all Europe, and to all meat and fish on, the body was laid, and mankind, that" foreign opium in Chinais left to decay. An agreement was made a greater scourge than war or pestilence." with the coast man to live at this house These China Christians are taunted with and to take care of it, and in return the having adopted the l'eIigion of "the people would give him food. foreign devils, who are making China into a hell by their opium ;" and what " To this place Marko, the messenger is worse, the poor weak little Christian from Mwanga to Mr. Jackson of the Church in the Celestial Empire is well- Imperial British East Africa Company, nigh decimated by the use of the drug. came on his way with letters. He seems to have heard that the people -A collector of Bombay has among there had experienced bad harvests and his curiosities a Chinese god marked drought of late years, and that they at- "Heathen Idol," and next to it is a tributed this to the fact of their having gold piece marked " Christian Idol." the white man'~ bones; and he suggest-

EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS

III.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.

RUSSIA is exciting no little criticism special attention to the instruction of and animadversion by her course toward mISSIonaries. Miss Swain, M.D., was the Jews and the exiles' in Siberia. the first woman medical miSSionary to Lately the details have been published Asia. of a horrible outrage upon a Jewish lad named Rutenberg, at Bialystok, about The EpOCH OF ORGANIZATION seems to one hundred miles from Warsaw, by a have come. Certainly in Christian work Russian medical man, Dr. Gravonsky. the organizations are both multiplying The boy, with some schoolmates, had and extending their bounds. Some of plucked some apples off a tree and, being them have overleaped the limits of caught in the act, was carried into a stable States, denominatIOns and even conti- where he was brutally branded with nents. For instance, "The Young lunar caustic on the forehead, chin, and Men's Christian Association," "The both cheeks with the words" Jew" and Young Women's Christian Temperance "thief" in Russian, Polish, and Hebrew. Union," "The Society of Christian A photograph has been circulated show- Endeavor," now enrolling one hundred ing the horrible branding of this lad's thousand members, "The White Rib- countenance, and has awakened snch in- bon Army," "The Boys' Brigade," dignation that the authorities have " The King's Daughters," "The Shut· prohibited its sale or circulation. in Society," "Kitchen Gardens," "Guilds," "Christian Workers' Train- THE HONOR ROLL of Wesleyan Meth- ing Classes," "Bible Corresponding odist and Methodist Episcopal mission- Schools, .. "Parochial Associations," ~ aries is a very long and illustrious one. "Chautauqua Classes," "Working- Among Wesleyan Methodists the name men's Clubs," and others. of Thomas Coke stands pre-eminent. He had a hold upon both continents, being Our only apprehension is that these the first bishop of the Methodist Epis- forms of Christian effort and organiza- copal Church under Wesley's commis- tion may wean away from the churches sion. He died on the way to India. those whom they should attract to them, He poured his private fortune into the may fail to acknowledge the supervision cause of missions. The Rev. John of pastors and church officers, and es- Hunt will always have front rank for pecially may, in the pride of numbers, work among the Fiji people. The Rev. commit that fatal mistake of overlook- Elijah Hoole was fifty years in India. ing quality in quantity Samuel Leigh won undying fame in New Zealand, and John Thomas in the There are many Christian parents, Friendly Islands. says the Ohurch Missionary InteUigencer, who are leading people in the Christian From the Methodist Episcopal world, who claim reserved seats at Church, Melville Cox died in Africa. crowded missionary meetings, and join George Bowen, of Bombay, was known in congratulations over the increasing as " Good George Bowen." Among the number of candidates for missionary ser- living missionaries, William •Butler, vice, but who will not bear of their own founder of twenty missions of this sons and daughters offering for that ser- church in India and Mexico, Bishop vice. What a rare jewel is consistency! Thobum, of India, and Bishop William Taylor, of Africa, are perhaps the best Among missionary books we feel con· known generally. Dr. Maclay, who strained especially to recommend " Mis- spent forty years in China and Japan, sionary Enterprises in the South Sea now in his old age is professor in a the- Islands," by John Williams, an edition ological seminary in California, giving of which is published by the Presbyte. rian Board, 1334 Chestnut Street, Phil- dially to every reader who is interested adelphia. It was this remarkable bopk in missions. which led the Bishop of Ripon to ex- claim, when he laid it down, "This is We have received from the publish. the 29th chapter in the Book of the Acts ers, James Nesbit & Co., London, a copy of the Apostles." It is the story of a of a little work known as " Once Hindu triumphal progress. John Williams -Now Christian," edited by Dr. J. Mur- moved in every direction, 2000 miles ray MHchell, our esteemed correspond. from the shores of Tahiti, and within 22 ent. It is the autobiography of a very years, from 1817 to 1839, carried the admirable man, one of the ablest and Gospel to all the islands within that inost devoted Christians in India, Baba radius, and saw not only some of those Padmanji. It is intensely interesting, islands, but whole groups of them, turn- and gives us a remarkable insight into ing from idolatry to the living God. the difficulties of a native convert in India, and it shows how remarkably Perhaps the most compendious ency- useful a man may be who is brought clopredia of missions which has yet ap. out of East India society into a thorough peared is that entitled" Conquestsof the espousal of the Gospel. Mr. Padmanji Cross," by Edwin Hodder. It is pub. has been the author of about seventy. lished by subscription, Cassell & Co. five books and tracts published by the being the publishers. Only two vol- Book and Tract Society of Bombay, umes have as yet reached my table, but Christian Vernacular Education Society, those two volumes far surpass anything and others. If there be any profits from else in the line of comprehensive mis- the book they are to go to Mr. Padmanji sionary biography and history which I himself. We wish the book might be have seen. thoroughly circulated.

The Editor would again call attention In March, 1887, certain papers ap. to "Alden's Manifold Cyclopredia," peared in the Ohristian (London) on which has now reached volume No. 25. the subject of "Unemployed Native Though not a distinctly missionary Agencies in Heathen Lands." They book, we have found the articles in it were by Hudson Taylor, Reginald Rad. which pertain to missions to be exceed- cliffe, and James E. Mathieson, some of ingly helpful and excellent in every re- the most devoted students of missions spect, and we are coming to regard this to be found in the world. These cheap and handy cyc10predia as an brethren regard the raising up of a vast authority. host of native converts, who shall take up this 'Gospel mission for their fellow· Dr. S. A. Mutchmore, editor of the countrymen, as the only practical way Presbyterian, has already published a of reaching the nearly four hundred volume describing his travels in Eastern millions of native Chinese. They con· Europe and Asia Minor. The second tend that a few hundred European mis· volume has now been issued, "The 110. sionaries, not exceeding six hundred, gul, the Mongol, the Mikado and the do very little toward the evangelization Missionary." These letters have of this great empire, and they quote Dr. already appeared to a large extent in Nevius, who has been very successful the Presbyterian, and for raciness, read. in the employment of such unpaid ability, originality, and power to grasp, agents. Rev. Donald MacIver, of South. and present the most interesting mat· ern China, says that the rapid increase ters of foreign travel, we know of noth. of converts has been accomplished, 110t , ing published in modem times that sur· by Dr. Nevius's sermons, or those of , passes them. We commend them cor- his assistants, but by the simple wit· ness of the converts. Eight agencies are at work in China to accomplish its was presiding officer. It was a fit choice. Mr. Field's" Draft Outlines of evangelization. (1) Bible distribution; an International Code" is regarded as an (2) tract distribut,ion ; (3) chapel preach- authority. In it he favors arbitration 'ing; (4) translation and literary work; as to the dispntes between nations by a (5) schools; (6) itinerations; (7) med- reference to disinterested parties. If ical missions ; (8) work among women. we may judge from appearances, the Dr. Nevius says, "I am disposed to time of Universal Peace is not very think that the number of conversions near. All Europe seems rather prepardue to each of them would be found to ing for war. increase about in the order in which they are mentioned above; arid that An Anti-Slave·Trade Conference sat the number traceable to them all to- at Brussels from November 18th, 1889, gether would be but a small fraction of to July 2d, 1890. The beneficial results the whole, and that by far the greater seemed liable to be frustrated by the reproportion is to be referred to private fusalof the Netherlands for a time to social intercourse. That is (lertainly sign the stipulations. The Congo Free our experience in the South of China. State must have a revenue if it is to re- Probably seven eighths of our member- press the slave-trade, and this revenue ship have been brought in, not directly must come from a tariff on imports. All as the result of the preaching, either of the other powers and now also the the European missionary or of the ap- Netherlands have consented to this. pointed Chinese evangelist, but simply The Liverpool Chamber of Commerce at from private Christians telling to their first protested to the Government of friends and neighbors about the Baviour Great Britain against the signing of the they have found. This state of matters stipulations, but the Government nobly is, on the one hand, cause for thankful- replied that these duties were levied ness, for the evidence it gives of the only in the interest of human rights. reality of the religion of these Chinese Every year it is said that four hundred Christians ; and it also is full of hope thousand human beings are carried into as to the future of Christ's kingdom in abject slavery from the Congo region. China. If every individual member of 'he 30,000 Christians in China were a A Hebrew-Christian Conference was true missionary, then the Middle King- held in Chicago on November 24th and dom would soon be evangelized. 25th last. This gathering has excited a lively and extensive interest, as well it •• But it seems to me that this state of might. The Conference seems to have matters is full of important lessons for been called mainly through the efforts all interested in the progress of the Gos. of William E. Blackstone, Esq., whose pel in that land. We are to give most interest in the Jews is known everyattention to the method God's Spirit uses where. We have heard of no other conmost. We are not to give up our preach- ference in modern times where Chrising tours, nor our distribution of Scrip- tianA and Jews have met together for tures and tracts ; we are not to close the friendly discussion of points of hIour hospitals and schools; but we, as terest and matters of difference. The foreign missionaries,should give most audiences were very large, and some of attention to the work of training our the Jewish rabbi were present and took converts in the knowledge of Scripture, part. It is very noticeable that in the developing their gifts and graces, and present time the attention of all Chrissuperintending and guiding their efforts tendom seems to be drawn to God's anto bring to the truth their friends and cient people. Our attention has been kindred." called to the fact that a somewhat sim- ilar gathering was held two hundred and At the Universal Peace Congress, held in London, David Dudley Field forty yeBl'S ago in the Plain of Ageda, in upon the part of persons not accustomed Hungary. Some three hundred rabbis to such surroundings. We think that met in this Council in a large tent, and this}s the only charitable if not the the discussion lasted seven days. We only possible explanation, and we pre- anticipate only good results from a gath- fer to dismiss this horrible story with- ering of this character. In all our ap_ out further comment. proaches to the Jew, we have this great advantage, that he is familiar with the It seems now to be generally admitted prophesies of the Old Testament con- that the position taken by Dr. Lunn and cerning Christ, the Messiah, which have Rev. Hugh Price Hughes as to Wesleyan been so remarkably fulfilled in Chris- missions in India was a mistake. Dr. tian history. Lunn had been less than two years in India, and wrote impulsively and indis- We have purposely abstained hereto- creetly. As to Mr. Hughes, he did not fore from any reference to the startling know of the facts, except as obtained stories concerning Stanley's rear gnard. through Dr. Lunn ; but as it was in his pa- The terrible revelation with regard to per that Dr. Lunn's strictures were pub- the brutality of Barttelot and the cruelty lished, Mr. Hughes acted as his sDcond. of Jameson have caused to be applied A competent committee has examined to this history the appropriate title of the whole matter, and thrown consider "The African Chamber of Horrors." able discredit upon Dr. Lunn's testi- The scheme for poisoning the nephew mony. This is another example of the of Tippoo Tib, the statement that Ma- fact that foreign missionary work will jor Barttelot actually fastened his teeth bear even the severe and searching crit· into the :flesh of a woman, and even icisms to which :it ~has been lately exinto her face, his fatal kick upon the posed. boy Soudi, his fatal flogging of the lad John Henry, whose ears he threatened We regret to learn that M. Saillens, to cut off, and to whom he administered who has been one of Dr. McAll's printhree hundred lashes, his stabbing of cipal helpers in his French work, has the chief Ungunga, etc., might easily resigned connection with the McAll account for the shooting of such a missions, with which he has been conhuman fiend as he showed himself. nected for seventeen years. This will be a great loss to the mission, but the The story of Jameson's cruelty, buy- separation has been made in an entirely ing. a little girl with six cotton handker- friendly spirit on both sides, though it chiefs, causing her to be murdered, was caused by some little differences of cooked and eaten, that he might have a opllllOn. From personal acquaintance practical illustration of cannibalism, with M. Saillens we can testify that a and calmly taking six sketches with his more accomplished and perfect gentle- Kodak to represent the stages of the pro- man we have not met, even among the ceedings-all these things defy descrip- polite French people. Although he will tion and almost credence. It is our no longer be a director or agent of the judgment that all these were acts of per- mission, he will speak in the Salles from sons virtually insane __ that there is no time to time. possibility of otherwise accounting for such atrocious cruelty and barbarity on Dr. McAll writes, .. Our work gives the part of the representatives of a us much encouragement, both as to Christian nation; we cannot believe numbers and evident seriousness. We they were in their right mind; and it cannot enlarge; our resources do not is a well·known fact that climatical in- allow that, to our great regret. No an- :fluenge, together with prolonged expo- swer has yet been received from Dr. sure and privation. som etimes brings on Loba, of Kalamazoo,-Mich., who was ina peculiar type of insanity or monomania vited to join the, work, and who seems especially adapted to it from the fact congregation, but all this served as grathat he is a native of France." tuitous advertisement, and saved us all outlay on this head. One paper, La We perhaps owe it to Dr. McAll to Rappel, suggested that as soon as the say, with reference to an article which ship would be towed away from Paris, appeared in this REVIlIlw in July last, in we should hire a balloon, and so have which the Editor indulged in some our hearers part way to heaven to begin friendly strictures on the mission, that with." Dr. McAll remarks that he is" not prepared to express an absolute agree- The announcement has been made at ment with what is there said respecting the Wesleyan Mission House, in Lonthe overtaxing of the workers. With a don, that the Rev. Alexander McAulay few exceptions of voluntary painstaking, has suddenly died at Sumerset East, the requirements laid upon our mission- Cape Colony. He was an ex-President aries are not at all extreme. In the of the Wesleyan Conference, on an evancase of some of them, they undertake gelistic tour among the Wesleyan other and collateral engagements, good churches in South Africa. He was in in themselves, but not favorable to full his seventy-third year. More than activity in the mission, and liable, to- thirty years ago he began work in the gether with its duties, to bring on over- East End of London, where he spent fatigue. Mr. Greig is a tremendously fourteen years, beginning with a congre-· hard worker, but does his work with gation of eighteen persons; in ten years peculiar facility, and in a way quite vol- he built four large chapels, each seating untary." Dr. McAll confesses the over- 1000 persons, besides organizing other taxing of himself, especially since losing enterprises. He had also during the two of his most valued helpers, but past ten years visited the West Indies, hopes for relief when an assistant is where he exercised a most helpful reobtained. Dr. McAll says that David vival influence. Such a man cannot be Paton, .Esq., to whom we have already other than missed in the great mission referred, had given more than any other work of the world. contributor to the McAll work, probably nearly if not quite six thousand pounds, In the Ghristian (London) for Decemand that he left no money behind him, ber, Mrs. Grattan Guinness gives a long but gave it all away during his lifetime. and critical examination of General Booth's book, "In Darkest England." Dr. McAllfurther says, " The' Bateau She especially calls attention to many Missionaire '-' Le Bon Messager,' we existing agencies which in his book brought to Paris for about seven weeks, ending in July. Certainly it was a great a are entirely overlooked, and the hrissuccess-moored at the Pont de la Concorde. On Bome Sundays we had four tian adds that Mrs. Meredith, with her meetings on board, the people waiting Prison Mission to Women, aud Mr. anxiously to be admitted. It would George Hatton, with his coadjutor, Mr. hold 160 or 180 in the cabin. I think William Wheatley, long before led the that about eight hundred were there in way into this philanthropy, and that the one day. To the close we kep t up four Salvation Army is indebted for its methmeetings daily in all. I think the at- ods to the plans which they have been tendance was about twenty-five thou- following. The Ohristian mentions sand. Never did I have or see greater George Holland, of Georgeyard, whose attention and respect-very many were work is like the waters of Siloah, that intelligent,and many young Frenchmen. flow softly; then there comes to mind Almost all never heard the Gospel be- a multitude of names, each of which fore. The infidel and worldly news- awakens memories of orphans housed papers tried to write the affair down, and homed, or girls rescued, or, still beteven inserted pictures of the ship and ter, prevented ; of work of every conceivable kind for the glory of God and Mr. Silas Farmer, of Detroit, Mich., for the good of men. Miss Macpherson, gives the following reasons why we Archibald Brown, F. N. Charrington, should be specially interested in mis. Henry Hill, William Cuff, Dr. Stephen- sions to the Chinese. First, the an· son, Peter Thompson, Miss Steer, Miss tiquity of the nation and the interesting Child, Evans Hurndall, J. W. Atkinson, peculiarities of the people and the coun. Christian Community, Strangers' Rest, try. Secondly, the peculiar and friend- Seamen's Missions, Mrs. Birt in Liver- ly feeling toward America and Ameri. pool, William Quarrier in Scotland, and cans. Third, the debt which America innumerable others all through the owes to Chinamen for labor in this coun· land. Positively one's heart aches to try, notwithstanding the persecution to think of the noble army of God's ser- which they have been subjected. vants who serve Him and slle His face in Fourth, women especially should be in· the squalid parts of our great cities, who terested because of what the Chinese are, for the moment at least, forgotten women are, and because of what we obby lllany of the churches, and by indi- tain from China. Fifth, the unusually vidual donors accustomed to contribute favorable conditions for missionary to their funds. effort. Sixth, the unusually large field which China presents for missionary Notwithstanding these statements, it labor. seems to us that General Booth's scheme ought to have a full and fair trial. We Lord Wolseley believes that the believe that if it be not entirely success- Chinese are the coming nation, that the ful, it may at least lead the way to a great battle of Armageddon will take larger and more prominent work for the place between the Chinese and the Eng. poor not only of London, but of all our lish.speaking people; that a general is great cities. to arise among them who will train them in the science of arms and prepare them A young man's guild has been formed for a great assault upon the Russian in connection ~ith the Church of Scot- Empire. The Chinese are capable :of land, and the ninth annual convention wonderful endurance, have a stolid in. of delegates met in Hamilton, Scot. difference to death, and he prophesies land, from the 5th to the 7th of October that before them Russia will fall; that last. Delegates were present from all then they will overrun India, sweeping parts of the country, even from the Ork. the British into the sea, and at last Eng. neys. The membership of the Guild lish, Americans, etc., will rally for a desembraces about twenty thousand, with perate conflict. Lord Wolseley is an over five hundred branches, extending authority on military matters in Britain. from Montreal to Ceylon. This Guild Whether or not he is a prophet remains is marked with peculiar missionary zeal; to be seen. no less than eleven of the Church's mis. sionaries have gone through this Guild. The compression of ladies' feet in We have seldom read with greater in· China is merely a mark of gentility. terest the account of any similar meet- Various accounts are given of the origin ing. The Town Hall on October 7th of this custom. One is that an emperor was crowded to overflowing. Mr. Camp- was jealous of his wife, and to prevent bell, M.P., presided, and among the her from gadding abroad put her feet speakers were Professor Charteris, Dr. into iron stocks. Another is that a cer- Marshall Lang, Mr. Hoxier, M.P., Mr. tain empress, Tan-ke (B.C. 100), was Parker Smith, M.P., Mr. Somerville, born with club feet, and that she caused M.P., and Rev. Archibald Turnbull, the emperor to issue an edict adopting . B.D., Darjeeling. Five Guildsmen her foot as the model of beauty, and rehave, during the past year, gone into quiring the compressing of female inthe mission field. fants' feet so as to conform to the imperio untarily chosen as a permanent order of al standard; while a third account is that things implies either a very imperative the Emperor Leyuh (A.D. 961) was amus- call of duty or a great lack of prudence. ing himself one day in his palace, when The duty may and very often does exhe thought he might improve the ap- ist, and then the course adopted canpearance of the .feet of a favorite concu- not be too highly commended. But bine. He caused her feet to be so bent economics have a place in missionary as to raise the instep into an arch, to life as well as elsewhere, and· there is resemble the new moon. The figure certainly a very terrible waste of vital was much admired by the courtiers, energy in this mode of life. Men may who soon began to introduce it into endure it, as soldiers endure the hardtheir families. It is said that another ships of the camp or the march, but it emperor, two hundred years later, is cruelly hard for the ladies. One has placed a stamp of the lotus flower but to look at many of the ladies at the (water-lily) on the sole of the small shoe Conference to see that they were mere of his favorite concubine, so that at shadows of their former selves, their every step she took she left on the ground heroic spirits not being proof against the print of the flower; hence girls with the physical and mental trials of such a small feet are complimented at the pres· life. The statistics of the great society, ent day as "the golden lilies." The whose name is synonymous with the operation of bandaging and compress- highest consecration and self-abnegaing the feet is very painful; children tion, show a terrible sacrifice of precious cry very much under it. Mortification material. It is said that one half of of the feet has been known to result those who enter China under its ausfrom the cruel practice. Cnstom, how· pices return within two years, either to ever, imposes it as a necessary attrac- their homeland on earth or to the home tion in a woman. An old gentJeman at above, and that the average term of ser- Canton being asked the reason why he vice for the whole body is only three bandaged his daughter's feet, replied and a half years. The policy which that if she had large feet she could not leads to this alarming sacrifice must be make a good marriage. backed by the strongest arguments of necessity before it. can be fully justified." A " Heavenly Foot Society" has been formed by Chinese women at Amhoy. The Habitations of Ornelty. Rev. John Macgowen, missionary at Amhoy, now in England on a visit, in a Bishop Crowther, speaking of the speech delivered at Manchesterrecently Niger xegion, says; "About four days stated that the Society was the result of before our arrival at Ohambele, an old his persistent teaching that the Chinese rich woman died and was buried. The custom of binding the feet was in open proceedings of the burial were stated as – violation of the precepts of the Gospel. follows; When the grave was dug, two It is his belief that the example will be female slaves were taken, whose limbs extensively imitated, and that the final were smashed with clubs. Being unresult will be a death·blow to the bar- able to stir, they were let down into the barous practice. grave, yet alive, on the mat or bed on which the corpse of the mistress was laid, Rev. B. C. Henry says, with regard to and screened from sight for a time. Two the wearing of nati ve Chinese costumes other female slaves were laid hold on by the missionaries in China : " Chinese and dressed up with best clothes and dress too often means a Chinese house, coral beads. This being done, they pure and simple, and native furniture, were led and paraded about the town native utensils, native food. These, to show the public the servants of the when necessity requires, may be cheer- fich dead miatresl! whom they would fully eqdllred tor a time, but to be volattend in the world of spirits. This foreign missions, addressing requests to was done for two days, when the un- ministers in different parts of the fortunate victims were taken to the edge Church to write briefly on some aspect of the grave, and their limbs were also of foreign missions and the Church's re- smashed with clubs, and their bodies sponsibility. The first series in the laid on the corpse of their mistress, and symposium appeared on December 10th, covered up with earth while yet alive. discussing the supreme motive of mis- We can only imagine what would be the sions-the _prayer, " Thy Kingdom feelings of these unfortunate victims. Come" -the Missionary-the Mission- Some of the Bonny oonverts attempted ary obligations-the need of consecra- to rescue these last two females by a tion-the debt to missions, and the large offer of ransom to buy bullocks for necessity for a full presentation of the the occasion, but it was refused them. facts. The idea is a good one, -and Can there be any doubt as to the urgent might be well imitated in other quar- necessity of sending Christian teachers ters. We must not only strike while the among this poor ignorant people, who iron is hot, but make it hot by striking. are slaves to Satan, and yet glory in their shame? After these atrooious deeds It is no smaIl gratification to the ed_ were performed, volleys of trade oan- itor to have received from France a copy nons were fired for days in honor of the of "La Crise des Missions," which is dead. I counted ten of these cannons a translation into the French language in the street opposite the house of the of the " Crisis of Missions." The ed- dead, about four or six pounders eaoh." itor supposes himself to be desoended from the Huguenots, his original name From Bolobo, Congo Free State, having been Pierre, the Frenoh for an English Baptist missionary writes: Peter; after the expulsion of the Hugue- " Our neighbor's wife died; a man and nots and their arrival in England, it bewoman were killed, so that she might came very natural that the next generanot go alone into the spirit world. Her tion should be known as Pierre-son, or spouse was then wound up in oloth, and Pierson, Peterson being another form of wrapped round and round with piece the same name. Having his little book after piece until it made a big barrel translated into the Frenoh language at shaped bundle two yards long and one this orisis of foreign missions, he feels in diameter. Hearing that two more as though he were like a son, bringing victims were to be sacrificed on the day to his old mother a tribute of filial love. of the funeral, I determined at least to put in a protest, and, together with An aged clergyman met a man who Miss Silvey, arrived on the scene just was declaiming against foreign misas the executioner was carrying the sions. " Why," asked the objector, young woman to the grave, at the mouth "doesn't the Church look after the of which the young man who was to be heathen at home?" "Oh, we do, ' , her companion in misery was bound and said the olergyman, qllietly, handing the ready for the last act-that of being man himself a tract. placed in the grave in a sitting position and bnri~d alive, with the corpse sup- One of the singular revenges of hisported on their knees. It was, indeed, tory is noted in the fact that the first a sad sight to see a couple of well-built stone of fhe monument erected to the young people, with fine, intelligent memory of the missionary John Willfaces, weeping bitterly at the prospect iams, who was oruelly killed in the of a cruel death and making their mute South Sea Islands, was Jaid by the son appeals for help." of the man who slew him.

The Ohristian Intelligencer of New York has started a symposium on

THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS

IV.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.

[EDITOBIAL. ] The Land of the Aztecs.

-Between the southern limits of in either direction may be found all the California, New Mexico, Arizona and featnres of a continent.

Texas, on the one side, and the conti- Historically, this country is equally nent of South America on the other, interesting. Here is the colossal there stretches an irregular triangle of museum of American antiquities.

land which, from a breadth of eighteen Cortes' conquest of Mexico dates back hundred miles, gradually tapers down- neaxly four centuries; yet this era is com.

ward to a narrow isthmus less than fifty paratively modern. Far back beyond the miles from sea to sea. Spanish invasion, into the dim distance The upper and much the larger part of of prehistoric times, stretches Mexican this triangular country is Mexico, which civilization, the monum(mts of whose dips down into the great waters of the unique, antique grandeur even now are Gulf like the arched head and neck of a among the wonders of the world. For camel. Below it lies Central America, example, there is the Teoccali of Cho- in shape somewhat like a half square, luba, its four stories coinciding with the bisected at its diagonal and resting its cardinal points of the compass, its balle base line on the Pacific. more than fourteen hundred feet square, This country of Mexico is, from every its summit rising to a height of one point of view, one of the most interest- hundred and sixty.four feet. Though ing in the world. In physical features undoubtedly built as a temple or grand it is very l'emarkable, having the capac- altax, it was also, like the Pyramid of ities and possibilities of an occidental, Cheops, a sepulchre; and a square sep- tropical paxadise. The Tropic of Can- ulchral chamber has been found with- cer divides Mexico into two nearly in, having no egress, and supported by equal parts, one of which lies on the cypress wood. In it were idols of Temperate, the otheron the TorridZone. basalt, curious vases and two skeletons.

On the western coast is the long, narrow At Mitla, in Oaxaca, have been discov- gulf of California, seven hundred miles ered very unique ruins, palaces with in length, famous for its pearls, and quaint, arabesque ornaments; a vast once known as the Vermilion Sea, from hall. whose ceiling is borne up by six its reddish hue; on the eastern side the porphyry columns, the like of whicli are Gulf Stream has its mysterious fountain. not elsewhere to be found in this hem- The configuration of the country is isphere, and which bear the marks of peculiar. A vast plateau, with a series the primitive days of art.

of table-lands varying in elevation from Politically, the country of Mexico six thousand to eight thousand feet, wields a peculiar fascination over the dotted with volcanic cones, forms the student of political history. In a double great bulk of the interior; and this sense this is a land of earthquakes and plateau abruptly descends toward the volcanoes. Frequent and violent social Pacific, while it gently sbpes to the upheavals characterize its annals. From broad lowlands which border the Gulf. the conquest, about 1522, until now, it Such a country must present all varie- has enjoyed little respite from these po- ties of climate. A few hours' journey litical eruptions and revolutions. After enables the traveller to pass from torrid exactly three centuries of Splnish dom- heats to the frigid realms of ice and ination, in 1822, it became for a short snow. There are three distinct and time an independent State under an well-defined climatic zones, with cor- emperor; in 1824 it was constituted a responding varieties of fiora and fauna. Federal Republic, but afterward came Within a range of five hundred ·miles under military dictatorship. In 1862, by French intervention, it became sub- twenty thousand victims were slaugh- ject to the sovereignty of an Austrian tered upon it. The papal religion has prince, and then again became a Repub- been forced upon the people, but it has lic. There is no social stability; quiet scarcely lifted them above the level of is but the interval between eruptions these old rites and superstitions. To and explosions. keep them down and keep them under, it was necessary to leave them in that The population is of a mixed hetero- ignorance which is the mother of super- geneous character, composed of every- Btition and to cater to their vices. thing, but compacted into nothing; and Hence to-day seven eighths of the pop- this is one secret of social disquiet. ulation cannot read or write. Marriage The whites of Spanish descent, called has sunk into concubinage. The Bible creoles, constitute at once an oligarchy is almost an unknown book, and the and a landed aristocracy. There is a name of Jesus is inseparable from that much larger body of mixed Spanish and of Jesuit. With a drunken and disso- Indian blood who count themselves lute priesthood for teachers and exem- among the whites, but are not of pure plars, with the very churches and con- lineage. Indians form the bulk of the vents identified with extortion and population, and their abject poverty re- licentiousness, the drift of society has .duces them to practical sl.:.very. With been toward atheism on the one hand this mixed mass are further mingled a and the indifference of religious apathy few negroes, and everywhere may be on the other; while the more abject poor found the mestizos, with their varieties, and oppressed lower·clas~es, pulverized the zambos, mulattoes, terzerons, and beneath the millstone of social tyranny quadroons. Add to all these the numer- and slavery, are only waiting for oppor- ous foreigners, especially French and tunity to feed their resentment. The German, and you have the body politic, only power that can remould such a pop- which throughout, like the feet of Neb- uIation is the pure Gospel of Christ. uchadnezzar's image, is of elements that Notwithstanding the sway of a nominal refuse to assimilate and combine, out- Christianity, Mexico is as much a field for wardly mixed but not mingled. Protestant missions as China or Africa.

The Mexican religion is well symbol- This popuIation of over ten millions, ized by the Teoccali, to which we have with a score of cities having each over already referred. The elevated summit- 20,000 inhabitants, lies on our borders, platform once sacred to the Aztec our next-door neighbor. Contact there deities now bears aloft a chapel to the must be, and it must be more close and Virgin. Another race has succeeded it frequent, as modern enterprise is so rapand supplanted the Aztec; so another idly annihilating space and time, and religion, with its new deities, saints, and pushing railways and telegraphs through sacrifices has reared its very shrine on the heart of the land of the Aztecs. the temple platform of a more ancient Lacking a river system and good harbors, superstition. Yet down beneath the Mexican commerce naturally Hoats to corrupt Romanism of Mexico, we find our ports. Awaking to the superiority the old relics of an abandoned faith. of our civilization, Mexican society be- gins to court closer fellowship with our That ancient Aztec religion was a institutions. Now is the tum of tide strange mixture of countless deities and in the affairs of this neighboring nation. deified passions and cannibal cruel- Whether avarice and ambition shall ties. That huge round block of red conquer Mexico in the interests of trade porphyry in the museum of the City of and traffic, or the spirit of the Gospel Mexico, once the capstone of the great shall impel laborers to till these opening pyramidal temple, was once the bloodi- fields for Christ, is the pivotal issue of est stone of sacrifice known on earth. the hour. Its side bears graven records of horrible cruelties, and it is said that every year Forty.four years ago, in 1847, in con- still in the State of Guerrero, until Manection with an unjustifiable war, the thilde Rodriquez went with her Bibles United States troops invaded Mexico, and tracts and anointed tongue to the but they bore in their knapsacks that homes of the people. Eight years ago, blessed book of God, which thus by the Rev. J. Milton Greene went with Rev_ strange fate of war found its way into Procopio Diaz, and found a welcome the Aztec land. The furrows ploughed again in Guerrero. Within seven weeks by cannon were strange furrows in they held thirty-two services, estabwhich to sow the seed of the Kingdom. lished six churches and thirteen congre- Yet so it was. Then seven years later, gations, and baptized two hundred and Miss Melinda Rankin, in Brownsville, eighty converts. Texas, just across the border, a few miles from Matamoras, set up her sem- There were similar signs, elsewhere inary. The revolution of 1857-8 open- in Mexico, of a breaking down of the ing Mexico to Protestant missions, Mr_ barriers of ages. When Mr. Forcada Thompson, agent of the Bible Society, entered Zilacuaro twenty.four years ago, crossed the Rio Grande to Matamoras he found that for six years Bibles and in 1860 ; and that heroic woman, Miss tracts had been making ready the paths Rankin, followed in 1864, and in 1865 of the Lord. A Mexican had opened a personally raised in our country the bookstore and taken with him four hun- $15,000 to push on her pioneer work, dred Bibles and a large lot of tracts, and herself training and sending out native had sold or given away the entire stock_ colporteurs. In 1866 she began work The circulation of the blessed word of at Monterey, and six years later the God had proved a similar John the Presbyterian General Assembly formally Baptist in Tabasco, preparing the way took up Mexico as a mission field. In of the Lord. September of that year a pioneer band of seven, Rev. Messrs. Pitkin, Phillips, The true policy of missions in Mexico Thompson, with their wives, and Miss is to raise up an efficient native ministry Ellen P. Allen, took ship from New to whose charge the churches may be York and went straight to the Mexican entrusted. In the theological seminary capital. There they found a large body at San Luis Potosi, this training work of people prepared for organization into is carried on. The girls' boarding- Protestant communities, and in J an- school, in charge of Miss Snow for five nary, 1873, Rev. M. N. Hutchinson and years, passed into the hands of Miss wife took charge of the work. During Bartlett, when Miss Snow became Mrs. the same year Zacatecas became to the Hamilton. Twenty-five pupils were here northern what Mexico city was to the gathered. southern States, the evangelical and evangelizing centre, and from these The fact that even figures sometimes points evangelism radiated. lie is illustrated in the reports of the statistics of the Mexican field. The re- The methods of work were simple duction in the number of converts and and effective. Protestant worship, with church-members reported by the Pres- Scriptural ordinances and sacraments, byterians, for example, led some to de- Christian schools, Bible teaching, evan- preciate the work and even to affirm gelical hymnology and the education of that it was going backward. But at first a native ministry were the seven-fold all baptized persons were classed with secrets of success. Of course these de- communicants, and so reported; but voted men and women had to breast according to Presbyterian usage elseopposition and sometimes dare and bear where, the lists of baptized children persecution. In the outbreak in Aca- haye been separated from those of compulco in 1875, several persons lost their muning members, and the latter only lives, and the work for a while stood reported. The fact is that, instead of a large loss, there has been a total gain of ten per cent over and above all reductions and losses by death, and the work made Juarez Governor of Oajaca. Revois growing both in interest and promise. lution having broken out there, his position was very difficult, but he not It is very difficult to give any fairly only reduced chaos to order, but sent accurate photograph of the present con· out armed forces to effect pacification dition of missions in Mexico. Before elsewhere in the Republic. In 1857 he what is written can be put in type, the was made Constitutional Governor of whole condition may have undergone Oajaca ; then in November, 1857, Presisuch change as to demand a revision if dent Comonfort made him . Secretary not reconstruction of the report. At of State, and afterward he became Presithe time of the Jubilee Report of the dent of the Supreme Court of Justice. Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, In January, 1858, he became ell-officio they had a total force of eighty.nine Constitutional President of Mexico, by laborers, of whom fifty.six were native the withdrawal of Comonfort. To him preachers, teachers or helpers, twenty· Mexico owes a great debt. He secured one licentiates, and four women. There recognition from the United States. were ninety churches, with 4314 com- In 1860 he drove Miramon, his rival, municants, and a gain of one sixth dur- from Mexico ; then, entering the capital ing the year. Over six hundred pupils in 1861, he was formally elected Presiwere gathered in schools. This repre- dent for four years, and executed with sents but one denomination. great severity the decrees against the clergy, by the confiscation of church Some reference ought to be added as estates. He was governor when France to Benito Juarez, the Mexican Presi- invaded the country and put Maximilian dent, and the descendant of the Toltec into power. In 1865 this ill-fated prince race.· Educated by a wealthy family, he issued his fatal decree declaring the rebecame distinguished in the law, and public extinct, and sentencing to death afterward, as a politician of most liberal all J uarists taken in :arms. Though ideas, went from the position of justice the term of Juarez had expired, the bold of the peace to presiding judge. In Toltec issued a proclamation that he 1846, at the age of 39, he was made should hold office until the driving out deputy to the Constitutional Congress of invaders should make possible a new in Mexico City. He was prominent in election. The United States now inthe administration of the famous manos terposed, our own Civil War being at an muerias, whereby the clergy had to end, and in 1866 Napoleon withdrew furnish a loan to pay war expenses in his troops, and Maximilian was shot in the conflict with the United States. 1867. Juarez probably would have been Then for four years he was Governor unable to prevent his sad end, as it was of Oajaca. During the period of peace judged by court-martial a justreprisalfor he opened roads, built up schools, re- his guerilla mode of warfare on Mexico. formed finances, and left the public treasury enriched when he retired from After a ten yeo.rs' struggle, in which the government. After being banished Juarez had held up the standard of the under Santa Anna, in 1853, he spent republic against treason at home and time in Havana and New Orleans, and armed intervention from abroad, he WIlS in 1855 joined Alvarez, whom he ac- again elected President, and died still companied to Cuernavaca, where he rep- in office, June 18th, 1872. He was an resented his native State in the choice of honest reformer and a man of statesa temporary President for the Republic. manlike ability. He is believed to have Alvarez being selected, Juarez was made done more than any other man of his Minister of Justice. To him was due generation to deliver Mexioo from tIle the Ley Juarez, the law abolishing the despotism of a corrupt papal church privileges of the clergy and the army. and open the way for the Protestant re- General Comonfort, who became Al- ligion and repUblican freedom. varez's substitute in December, 1855,

GE:NERAL MISSIO:NARY I:NTELLIGE:NCE

V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.

The Scandinavia.n Mission in Liverpool, by Rev. James Johnston, Bolton, England.

No lack of encouragement is sup- Kjaldstrom, of Hull, and Pastor Snellplied by the pUblication of the nine- man, of London, who have conducted teenth annual report of the Scandi- services in the Finnish tongue. This navian Mission in Liverpool, to sailors, brief record of what is being accom- ~migrants, and others who chiefly hail plished yearly for thousands in the great from Northwestern Europe. Last year port of Liverpool, who would otherwise marked the fifth anniversary of the be spiritually destitute, constitutes the opening of Gustaf Adolf's Church in most eloquent appeal for assistance. the famous English shipping port. The organization has the cordial aid of sev- Organized Missionary Work and Statiseral prominent Li veTpool citizens. Its tics. Edited by Rev. D. L. Leonard, committee further includes the Swedish Bellevne, O. and Norwegian, Danish and Russian Consuls, and the most influential mem- -The China Inland Mission sent out bers of the resident Scandinavians. As no less than 59 missionaries in 1890, of in previous years, the work has been whom 32 were unmarried women. The continued among the mariners and number sent the year before was 55. American-bound emigrants without in- These toilers represent various societies, terruption. The services of the year such as the Swedish, the Norwegian, the 1889 number 331-averaging from six to German Alliance, and the Bible Chrisnine services weekly-and the attend- tian missions. ance in the aggregate to 31,000. Day by day the pastors and laymen have vis- -The number of missionary stations ited the ships, boarding-houses, Sailors' in Africa now exceeds 500. There are Home, emigrant houses, and hospitals, 400,000 converts, and the number is ininviting the wayfarers to the services, creasing at the rate of about 25,000 a comforting the sick, and distributing year. Within five years more than 200 religious books and tracts. During the natives have suffered martyrdom for year the British and Foreign Bible So- their faith. ciety presented the society with 2500 Gospels. The spacious reading-room -It is stated that not one in 10,000 in the basement of the church, which is of the Chinese have yet heard of the provided with admirable supplies of Saviour of mankind. The province of newspapers and religious literature, has Shen-si, which possesses 88 walled cities, become an appreciated quarter for rest, has 86 without 8. missionary. Another conversation, and general knowledge. province has 56 such cities, and 54 ut- When it is repprted that 549 Scandi- terly unreached by the true Light. Nine navian vessels dropped anchor last year other provinces of the empire are equalill the Mersey no greater proof of the ly destitute. need of the mission is required. For the maintenance of this remarkably suc- –The Free Church of Scotland had cessful undertaking the Hon. Treasurer, last year 181 branch stations; 51 or- Mr. C. Brodersen, 10 South Castle dained European missionaries; 14 or- Street, Liverpool, will gratefully ac- dained natives; 10 licentiates; 8 medknowledge the donations of friends ical missionaries ; 3 nati ve physicians; whether in Europe or America. Pastor 23 male and 35 female teachers; 15 lay O. Heden has been assisted in his min- evangelists and mast~rs of industrial istrations by Pastor J. A. Axelson and departments; 625 native helpers; 42 Mr. A. Andersen Hetland. Occasionally native churches; 6620 communicants; help has been volunteered by Pastor 26,826 pupils in schools of all grades.

-The Y. M. C. A. is spreading all over the world. There are now formed upward of 4000 associations, and of these 1000 are in papal lands, and nearly To which add Brazil Mission, 365 ; Cen- 300 in Mohammedan and heathen coun- tral Mexican Mission, 1650 ; China Mistries. There are 21 in India and Ceylon, sion, 348; Mexican Border Mission, 12 in Turkey, 6 in Syria, 12 in Africa, 5 1838 ; bishops, 8 ; travelling preachers, in China, 7 in Persia, and 200 in Japan. 4862 ; grand total, 1,177,150. There are going to be openings in every quarter for the young men who have a -Though the Salvation Army has fitness for secretaries and evangelists In Great Britain as its principal work-field, connection with these associations. and finds its chief. task in ministering to the poor and degraded of the great -Statistics of the Lutheran Church, cities, aggressive operations are also gathered by the Rev. J. N. Lenker, of pushed continually and with vigor in Leadville, Col., show in Europe a total heathen lands. Thus a few weeks since of 22,980 ministers, 29,644 churches, and a detachment of fifty young men and 43,133,696 baptized members; in North women sailed for India to reinforce the America, 4710 ministers, 7964 churches, members of the order already there. and 6,511,500 baptized members. In. These new recruits volunteered for this eluding the statistics of Oceanica, South particular service largely as an affec- America, Africa, and Asia with those tionate tribute to the memory of the already given, he makes the grand total late Mrs. Booth. As showing the in the world of 28,406 ministers, 38,381 financial strength of the Army, it is credchurches, and 50,061,280 baptized memo ited with owning property in various bers. countries to the amount of $3,250,000.

-Methodism in this country has over -The Methodist Episcopal Church, four and a half million members, led by North, with its 2,236,000 members, conover 30,000 preachers; Baptists nearly tributed last year for home, foreign, and four million followers, led by over 28,000 freedmen's missions, $1,799,000. But ministers; Presbyterianism, a million though this sum is large it yet repreand a half, led by a ministry of 11,500 ; sents an average of but eighty cents per besides a host of smaller denominations, member, while the Congregationalists, and a band of Sabbath·schools scholars with a membership of only 492,000, gave numbering over nine millions. In the to similar objects $1,877,000, or at the whole country there is a gain to the rate of $3.81. In all its foreign work Christian churches the past year of this great and active church reports a 1,089,853 members, 4867 ministers, and gratifying growth. The largest gains 8494 churches. were mads in North India, where in a single district last year 2677 were bap- -Statistics of the entire membership tized of whom 1020 were adults. The of the Methodist Episcopal Church, total increase in all the fields was 5553, South, are given as follows: Georgia, or nine per cent. The Methodist Epis- 132,606; Texas, 126,884; Tennessee, copal Epworth League, though but two 114,351 ; North Carolina, 111,630 ; Vir. years old, has 300,000 members. ginia, 108,341; Alabama, 88,702; Missouri, ~2, 933; Kentucky, 80,685 ; Mis- -Madagascar, with its 230,000 square SISSIppi, 72,203; Arkansas, 69,378; miles and population of 3,500,000, is South Carolina, 67,094; West Virginia, one of the wonder-lands for missionary 24,779 ; Louisiana, 23,269 ; Florida, 23,- success. The Church Missionary So- 044 ; l:[aryland, 10,866; Indian Terri- ciety has 12 representatives at work tory, 8130; California, 7491; Illinois, upon the island, and has gathered 6361; Kansas, 2803; Oregon, 1569; 10,000 adherents, and the Society of Colorado, 1138 ; Indiana, 1104 ; District Friends, with a force of 15, has gained of Columbia, 772; New Mexico, 542; 32,000. But the London Missionary Montana, 456; Washington, 342; Ne· Society, first in the fiel d, and called to braska, 300; Arizona, 225; Idaho, 80. bear the heat and burden of the day, can easily reckon up by far the largest are 6271, and the expenditures for the results. To her 30 English toilers are year were $lJ4,742.42. The Japan Mis- joined as auxiliaries 827 native ordained sion was opened in 1873. and has 1686 ministers and 3459 other nati ve helpers. church-members, an increase for the In the churches are found 40,000 mem- year of 211, and the cost was $27,503.50. bers, while 160,000 adherents listen to the Gospel. The local contributions Christian Church (Disciple).-Secamounted last year to $18,340. retary, Rev. A. McLean, Cincinnati, O.

Arabian Mission.-Treasurer, Prof. Report for the year closing October J. G. Lansing, New Brunswick, N. J. 18th, 1890.

Report for the year closing October This church has a membership of over 1st, 1890. seven hundred thousand, and sustains missions in India, China, Japan, and This Society was formed in August of Turkey, in addition to work in England 1889, and the field chosen for its first and Denmark. It has in heathen lands operations is likely to be Southern 32 stations and 33 missionaries from Arabia and the Aden region. Two America (of whom 16 are women) and missionaries are already there or on 25 native helpers, a total of 58. The their way thither, and making prepara- church-members number 1418, a gain tion for their work by studying the for the year of 158, a net gain of 135. language. Its receipts for the first year In day-schools 817 pupils are found, ani 'were $4738.47 with a bequest of $5000 2063 in Sunday-schools. The receipts in addition, and the expenditures were were $67,750.49,8 gain of $5820.34, but $3144.64. $12,000 came froll} a single bequest. An earnest call is issued for $100,000 in Evangelical Association. – Secre- 1891. tary, Rev. S. Heininger, Cleveland, O. Reformed Church in the United Report for the year olosing Sept., 1890_ States.-Secretary, Rev. Allen R. Bar- This society has a mission conference tholomew, Harrisburg, Pa. in Germany and another in Switzerland, but its work for the heathen is wholly Report for the year closing May 6th, confined to Japan, where 5 missionaries, 1890. with 10 native itinerant preachers and 3 local preachers, sustain 31 appoint- Until 1865 this church contributE1d ments. A theological seminary gives through the American Board in all training to 13 students. The number about twenty eight thousand dollars, of church-members is 378. of whom 115 and had its representatives in Asia were received last year. In 1888-89 Minor and among the American Indians. the receipts for the Japan missions were In 1878 a mission was opened in Japan, $9513.03. to which 7 missionaries have since been sent. The number of native preachers Methodist Church (Canada).-Sec- is 17. The churches are 12, with a retary, Rev. Alexander Sutherland, D.D., membership of 1656, and the contribu- Toronto. tions for nine months 'of 1889-90 were $2835.15. The number of converts was Report for the year closing June 1st, 218. A girls' school is sustained, and a 1890. theological school with 26 students. The cost of the mission for three years is This church has a membership of $59,209.64. 233,868, and has increased by 36,399 in four years. It sustains missi;;ns among North Africa Mission.-Secretary, the French, Indians, and Chinese in Edward H. Glenny, 21 Linton Road, Canada, Manitoba, and British Colum- Barking. bia. Its foreign work is confined to Japan. In aU fields the missionaries The figures are from the Monthly number 67, with 44 native assistants Record, December, 1890. and 46 teachers. The church-members This society was organized in 1881, is undenominationol, and has its work Income. sundry funds ..•……•.••• $10.172.35 among the Mohammedans, Jews, and Tuition and public funds. •…….• 40,066.75 Europeans in Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, U. S. Gov't, on account of tuition Tripoli, and Northern Arabia, with a 24.700.08 population of 14,000,000. It has 53 mis- and subsistence for Indians. _… . 8,900.00 sionaries in the field, of whom'31 are lo- Slater Fund, paid to Institutions.. . cated in Morocco and Algeria, 2 are physicians, 36 are women and 28 are Total …………………. $408,038.97 unmarried. In November 7 were sent Balance in hand September 30th, out, and 4 others have been accepted. 1889…….. …. ……………. 4.471.67 Canadian Church (Episcopal).- Secretary, Rev. Charles H. Mockbridge, Total….. ……. ……… $412,510.64 D.D., Toronto. DANI1IL H.um Fmm. INcoHlI: ACCOUNT. Report for the year closing July 31st, Income collected 1889-90……….. ~,686.76 1890. Balance in hand September 30th.

Hitherto this church had contributed 1889…………………… …. .. 16,688.56 through the Church of England, but last year sent out its first missionary, Total……… …. ……… $51,375.32 and to Japan. The total expenditures Amount expended in the South….. $47,482.27 were $14,785, of which these are the Balance in hand and appropriated… 3,893.05 principal items: Total. … ………………. $51.375.32 S. P. G………………………….. $1,880.59 REC1tIl'TS J'OR THlI: WORK OJ' THE YEAR. C. M. S…………………………. 1,410.44 S. P. C. K……………………….. 470.15 For current work • •. •. …..•..•.••• $408.038.97 Income from Daniel Hand Fund…. 34.686.76 Colonial and Con. Church Society. . •• . 470.15 Proportion of General Expenses.. . . . •• 245.00 Total …………………. $442,725.73 Appropriat~d Contributions. American Board.-Secretaries, No.1 S. P. G…………………………. $3,301.73 Somerset Street, Boston, Mass. C. M. S…… _…. ……….. ••• •••••• 275.71 Bishop of Madras ……………….. 305.00 Report for the year closing August Zenana Missions…. . .. .. . .• •••• ••• •• 1,289.53 31st. 1890. Parochial Missions to Jews………… 1,424.06 London Society, Jews …………….. 2,321.81 No. of missions………………… . 22 Rev. J. Cooper Robinson, Japen Fund. 1,227.06 Stations and out-ltatiOns •••••••.•••• 1,053 American Missionary. Association. -The main work of this society is in Ordained missionaries.••••••.•••.•.• 183 the Southern States among the freedmen and the" Mountain whites," with large Lay …………. .. 17 emphasis given to education. but missions are !Llso sustained among the Ind- Women (wives. 181) .. .. 333 ians and the Chinese in this country. Whole No. from America.••.•••….. 533 The Treasurer's Report (October 1st, 1889-September 30th, 1890) gives a grati- Native pastors………………… .. 174 fying exhibit. showing a credit balance of $2,089.24, an increase of receipts over Total native helpers…………….. . 2,417 last year of $31,820.09, a total of $408,- 038.97, and if the income be added from Total American and native •..•.•.••. 2.950 the Daniel Hand Fund, $34,086.76, the aggregate amounts to $442.725.73. the No. of churches……………….. .. 387 largest ever received by the Association. No. of church-members…….. _…. . 36,256 RECEIl'TS. Added during the year…………. .. 4,554 From churches. Sabbath schools. missionary societies and Individ- No. of adherents……………… .. 127,000 nals…………… ………… ••• 8186,470.61 No. of church-members from the be- Estates and legacies.:…. • •••••• 137.739.18 ginning……………… …….. .. 115,000 Average congregations….. ………. 62.200 Under theological training.. . .. . . . . .. 247 In 66 colleges and high schools.. . . . . . 4,600 In 56 girls' boarding schools. . •..• .•• 3,180 In 889 common schools…. .. .. .. .. .. 33,114 Whole number under Instruction…. 47.329 Native contributions….. …. ……. $117,494 Total receipt…………………….. $763,434.07 Protestant Episcopa.l. – Secretary. Rev. WilliamS. Langford, D.D., 22 Bible House, New York.

Report for the year closing December 31st, 1890. According to the Living Chu.rch Alma- Nonconformists in this total is thus nac for 1891, this church has 4163 stated: clergy, 299 candidates for orders, 2330 parishes and missions, and 508,292 com- Wesleyan Missiouary Society……….£124,883 municants. The number of baptisms Londou Missionary Society…. . . .• . . . . . 98,830 IMt year was 61,665, of which nearly Baptist Missionary Society. . . . . .. . •… . 63,470 47,000 were of infants. The contribu- English Presbyterian Foreign Missions. 14,492 tions for the year are $12,754,767. .. Friends" Foreign Mission Association. 13,156 Wesleyan Ladies' Auxiliary for Female In addition to work carried on in France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Education…….. …. ……… ……. 7,661 Greece, and Hayti, missions are BUS- United Methodist l!"'ree Churches' Fortained among the Indians and freedmen, and in West Africa, China, and eign Missions.. .. . …. …………… 6,283 Japan. These are the figures for the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists Foreign three fields last named : Missionary Society.. . …………… 7,195 Bishops….. .. ….•. …. …. •… 4 Eight smaller societies and value of Presbyters (of whom native, 14)…….. 32 needlework….. …. … …. ………. 33,682 Deacons (native).. .. •. … ..•. . .. . . . . . .. 18 Total. ……………………….£364,652 Candidates for holy orders……… •••• 22 Scottish and Irish Presbyterian soci. eties contributed £185,646, aud Roman Catechists, readers, etc. (native)……. 'J7 Catholio societies £9819. The amount for 1888 was £1,334,491, and for 1887 Stations……………. …. …. ……. 196 was £1,228,759.

Baptisms……………. …………. 585 United Presbyterian Church, Scot- land.-These figures set forth the growth Adult baptisms…………………… 331 witnessed by this society in thirty years, and in six important and decisive par- Confirmations……… …. …… ….. 265 ticulars. As will be noticed, the de- velopment of both causative forces and Communicants ……….. " …. .. .. … 2,242 of results has been steady, and the two have kept pace in a remarkable manner. Increa.e……………. …… ……… 305 The first column includes ordained na- tive pastors, Zenana missionaries and Scholars in day schools …..• …….. 2,434 European teachers, but excludes all native evangelists and teachers. Scholars in Sunday·schools…….. .. 8,247 Native contributions………….. : …. $5,527.79 The appropriations for work among the American Indians and freedmen is $85,007.50, and for foreign missions $162,504, or a total of $247,511.50.

British Contributions to Foreign ~! "'"Q)~ ..d~ 1>,' Missions.-Canon Scott Robertson has ~lS ~~ "[;Q ;.0) prepared with great care the following .~+::.£ ,>:IS -"il ~,g summary of the gifts of British Chris- ~~ j~ ~~ tians to foreign missions in 1889. Os .s :9~ Though somewhat smaller than in 1888, ~~ ~t. it is yet larger than for any previous -bS year. Of the grand total, £1,301,306, ~ ° – – " — – he estimates that £670.000 came from – § 8"t0d 0 members of the Church of England. The channels of contributions were: – — – -0 – 1859…. 30 1 85 4,552 £16,900 £2,090 Church of England Societies•…•….. £523,226 1869…. 63 7 48 5,740 29,100 8,020 Joint Societies of Churchmen and 1879 …. 81 12 68 9,187 32,300 6,500 1889 …. 117 l!3 96 14,899 40,500 10,470 Nonconformists ……………… .. 217,963 English and Welsh Nonconformist 1 Societies ……………………. . 364,652 Missionary Failure.-The cry about Scotch and Irish Presbyterian Socie- the failure of the modern mission sug- gests a close study of the following statis- ties ………………………….. . 185,646 tical table, compiled to show the growth Roman Catholic Societies. . …..•…• 9,819 at intervals of five years during the past thirty years, or from the beginning of Total contrihutions…….. . … £1,301,306 missionary work in the Methodist mis- sion of North India. The number of The share of 'English and Welsh communicants given is, with the ex- ception of 217 Europeans and Eurasians, native membership. ~~!~ln=~:~~:::':':::':::::.:':::::::.::::~:::::: 1858~ 186~ 1:~ 1::~11 '~I'~I ':; Number of Sunday..schoo!s ……………. , ……. 9 31 104 164 4-30 703 " "school scholars…… …………. 397 860 4,540 6,~ 17,366 26,585 " ~1 :~~~f~~~:::::::: ::::::::::::::::~:::. 4~ 1,Jll 3,~ 6,~,1 7,~7 t2j~ 16,~~ Christian boys in schooL……………. 4 130 257 296, 442 t,243 2,027 " girls in school. .. " …… .., 126 168 350 715 971 1,327 Baptisms during past year……………… …….. .. 115 289 5701 7B9 1,169 1,959 Christian community.. .. .. .. .. .. …. .. . . .. .. .. .. .. 11 .. . . 11,000 " men teachers and evangelists………….. …. women teachers and Bible readers. ,…. .. …• 320 300 The number of children in schools tive Christians live. Christian con. includes only 260 pupils other than verts reside in more than 600 towns and pure natives. Twenty missionaries direct work in 225 centres where na· villages, where they BUpport their own work.

AMERICAN MISSION IN EGYPT. A COMPARISoN SHOWING THE lIHSSlON'S GROWTH AND STATUS, DEC. 31, 1889. 1854-1889.

PERIODS: FmST, 5; OTHERS, 10 YEARS. 1859. 1869. 1879. 1889.

Number stations and churches. . ……………….. .. 3 8 48 112 ~. organized congregations, Christians. . …. . 2 11 29 1 5 12 pastors (native) ………………………. .. 1 6 7 licentiates" . .. ……………. …. . .. . 13 . 8 *14 theqloglcal students …………………… . 180 9B5 2,971 communicante, Dec. 81. ……………….. ' 48B 2,088 5,654 4 $566 $4,726 " of attendants, Sabbath A.M'……………… . 100 5 39 $6,495 Amonnt contributions for church purposes……….. . 118 1,575 9B Number Sabbath schools ……………………… '. 2 (1) 100 4,427 h school pupils…. .. . . . . . . . . .. . .. , .. . 20 $829 H 400 1,200 50 300 83 Amouut contributions Sabbath·school pupils…. , …. . 2,150 Number harem workers ……………………… . "i4 44 " women taught in harems. …. .. ………… .. 'iii 2,218 4,557 females hearing word in churches, harems, 633 1,537 1,156 schools, etc…. ………………….. . .. . 60 352 female ~om!ll~nicant8, ~ec: 31. . ………….. . 281 681 4 women s mISSIOnary SocIetIes …….. ……. . 12 61 159 members women's missionary societies. . . . .. . 10 29 $273 $596 $2.723 100 Amount contributions women's missionary societies .. 6,446 20,720 2,100 6,350 6,304 Number day and training schools……………….. .. 4 $2,051 $4,694 4,386 $3,213 $12,148 1,918 :: pURils, enrollmeutt ……………………. .. 100 51 199 boys ………………………….. .. 45 31 117 100 20 35 " H girls., ………………………… . 55 25 13 $13,872 Teachers {Males…. ………………………. .. 3 B 31,067 Females…………………………. .. .23 10,184 Amount paid by natives for school purposes………. . 3 883 $6,384 Book department: Total volumes sold …. …….. . 600 '(f)' $860 $27,358 250 Scriptures …………………………………….. . (?) 75 Total receipts…. .. .. .. .. .. .. …. .. .. .. . .. … .. …. .. (?) 50 Total paid by natives for all purposes……………. . (?) 68 Training college: Pupils…….. .. ……………. .. 25 NUl;'!-ber of gra?ustes… .. '.' …… _. ………. …. ..- ~11 III servIce of Chnst.. . ……… . teachers trained and workiug. ' ……….. ' .. . 64 2,981 pastors. preachere, etc., trained …….. , ….. . 1,315 college pupils in theological class. .. .. …. .. . $2,123 " sch~ols.-outgrowth.. . .. . .•• .. .. …. .. ….. .. . puplls III same………………………… . Total enrollment, college …………………….. .. Amount fees paid by pupils ………………….. ..

* In 1890, theological students, 19.

t Sects, 1889: Protestants, 1,822; Copts, 3,718 ; Mohammedans, 831 ; others, 433. ~ Seventeen in 1890. Monthly Bulletin. steamer. The annual drink bill of Japan is $86,000,000, an average of -Wo hive Bishop Walker's church $2.40 for every individual in the Emon wheels, and now the Free.Will Bap. pire. It is encouraging, however, to tists have built a floating ohuroh, whioh learn that a total abstinence society has was launched recently at St. Louis. It been organized in that country, and that iii intended to 0lrry the Gospel along many are uniting with it. the Mississippi from St. Paul to New OrleanEl. -The missionaries in Africa deem the work of one woman equal to that of -TJie Presbyterian Church has now twelve men, since the women can go in Alaska seven missions and fOllr anywhere, even among the fiercest ohurches, with seventy to eighty com· tribes, unmolested. The female mismunicants each. Besides the Presby- sionaries are held in high esteem; their terian. the Moravian, the Protestant motives are never questioned, and they Episcopal, the Methodist Episcopal, the are listened to with greatest respect. Roman Catholio, and the Anglioan ohurches have missions in Alaska. -From the recent report of the Jap- -The Church Missionary Society of anese Minister of Education it appears England proposes to send out one thousand new missionaries during the next that education is now offered to all the fi ve or six years. A much larger proportion than heretofore will be laymen. children in Japan, and that there are -It was recently reported from the nearly three millions of pupils in the Presbyterian Mission at Wei Hien. China, that there were 650 inquirers, pllblic schools of the Empire. There and that 150 had been baptized. This is most gratifying news. is a remarkable growth of intelligence -The spirit of intolerance seems to among the people. The standard of rule unmitigated in Russia. It is stated that the procurator of the Holy education is advancing, as is shown in Synod has advised the Czar to banish all foreign missionaries, and to suppress the fact that many new studies have foreign worship except in the Baltic provinces, where the Lutheran religion been introduced in the Imperial U~:liis barely tolerated. versity of Tokyo. ' -The working of the marriage laws of India is illustrated in a recent inci- -A congress of French Protestants dent. A marriage was arranged between was recently held in Paris, having in an edllcated young girl of twelve and a view new consecration and practical lawyer of twenty.three who was suffer· study. The meetings were very earnest. ing from white leprosy. The girl was The subjects considered were such as ,kept in ignorance of the disease of her the relation of the evangelist to the paspurchasing husband. and learned it only tors and churches, difficulties in the way when she met him at the marriage ser- of evangelization in Roman Catholic vice. She merely looked up with tearful countries, and the getting of converts eyes to her father, and then submitted into the church, especially where differto her lot with a resignation character- ent denominations are represented in istic of the Hindu maiden. the same place. A resolution was adopted asking the French Evangelical -American enterprise is now sending Alliance to study means for promoting :r;um to Japan, as well as to Africa. It a confederation of French Protestant is carried over the Union Pacific Rail- churches. way an4 forwarded to Yokohama by -Another mission is to be established in Alaska by the Reformed Episoopal Church. The government having prom- ised $1000 for buildings and $1000 toward expenses, Miss Benson, of Phil. adelphia, offered to contribute one half of the remaining expenses on condition that the Church would raise the remain- der. These propOSitions bave been 00cepted, and an appeal has been made tions on the confines and books prepared for funds. in Thibetan to equip the missionary as . Boon as the wall is broken down. A -The interesting fact is stated that prayer union has been formed among while the number of Christians in Japan the Moravians to pray for the opening is only about one in one thou~and, and of Thibet. in no province do Christians even' approach to a majority, yet there have -Dr. B. H. Badley, 'President of been eleven members of the House of Lucknow Christian College, writes to Representatives chosen from their num- the Independent of the North Indian ber. There are also three professed Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Christians in tho House of Peers. A Church. Its foundations were laid in Christian has been ohosen President of the dark days of the mutiny of 1857, by the new House of Representatives. A Dr. Butler. In August, 1858, the statisformer vice-president of the liberal tics were: Missionaries, 3 ; helpers, 7 ; party is an active Presbyterian elder. church members, 1; probationers, 4; After his ~lection he was advised to give orphans, 6; day scholars, 41 ; native up his office in the church, as it might congregations, 35. In 1889 the figures create prejudice against him, but he re- were: Missionaries, 30,; Zenana and plied that he regarded his office in a native, 72 ; helpers, 389 ; church-mem- Christian church as more important bers, 4989; probationers, 4793 ; than his seat in the Diet. It was then orphans, 617; day scholars, 17,241; suggested that he absent himself from Sunday-school scholars, 28,400 ; native the meetings, but he answered that he congregations, 13,529. The mission has rega.rded attendance at Christian wor- its own publication house, a theological ship as a greater privilege, as well as a seminary, a college, and 8 woman's colhigher duty than any other. This shows lege, and is in all respects splendidly sturdy Christianity in Japan. equipped for work.

-It is said that Hebrew is rapidly -In the year 1800 only one twentybecoming again a Iiving tongue in Pales- fifth of our population was in towns of tine. Jews driven by persecution from more than 8000 inhabitants. Now more other countries are gathering in the land than one fourth of our population is of Israel. They do not know each massed in cities. Thill fact is startling. other's language, but all of them under- It has its great lesson for the Church. stand something of Hebrew, and the Here is where the work of evangelizaconsequence ia that Hebrew is becoming tion must be pressed. While we are the medium of communication among sending missionaries to fOl,eign lands, them. Two weekly newspapers are now God is sending thousands of foreigners published in Jerusalem in Hebrew. It to us, that we may Christianize them would seem expedient that missionaries right at our own doors. The problem of to the Jews in Palestine should be able city evangelization is one of the great to speak in the Hebrew language. problems of Christian missions to-day.

-Thibet is one of the few countries -Dr. Arthur Mitchell, Secretary of where the preaching of the Gospel is the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Misprohibited. Very little is known of the sions, was greatly impressed in his repeople. The population is set down as cent visit, with the vast unoccupied 6,000,000. They have two forms of re- fields in Central China. He found cities ligion, one of which is a type of Buddh- of from 75,000 to 300,000 with not one ism. Various attempts have been missionary of any denomination. These made to carry the Gospel into the coun- fields are open, too. "There is as littry, but they have all been practically tle excuse," he says, " forIeaving a city unsuccessful. The Moravians have long of 100,000 on the New York Central Railwaited to enter the field, having sta- roe.d without 8 single ~reaqber of the GOIl_ pel, as for leaving cities of that size and Miss Frances E. Willard, "no steamer double that size utterly neglected with- could revolve its wheels fast enough to in twenty-four hours of Shanghai." convey me to the Dark Continent. I should go where my color was the cor- -The Rev. J. A. MacDonald, a Wes- rect thing, and leave these pale faces to leyan missionary in Bengal, says that in work out their own destiny." India idolatrous practices are coming into disrepute. He thinks that the -Along the West Africa coast thirtyreign of false gods is drawing to a close. five languages, or dialects, have been mastered, and portions of the Scripture -The Foreign Mission Board of the and various religious and educational Reformed Church has sent out an ear- books and tracts have been translated nest appeal for special contributions to and printed, reaching thus about eight meet the needs of the work. It makes million people. these suggestions: "One cent a day from every member of the Reformed -This is woman's age. Even in Church in this country, 90,878, would slow-moving China, women are coming give $331,707 a year for this blessed ser- to the front. The Amhoy MontMy Ohurch vice. Five cents a week (a single car- Magazine contains a prize essay by a fare) saved and given to it would yield young woman on " How Shall Christian $236,283. Women Lead their Heathen Sisters to Worship God." -An ignorant Hindu woman became a Christian. Her husband told Dr. -The Moravians, at the close of a Murray Mitchell that his wife was century of missionary work, show a realways singing. Dr. Mitchell asked the markable record. The total number of man to write down some of the words their members at home is but one-third she sang and bring them to him. He of those in the mission fields. One in did so, and the following is the transla- every sixty-five of their adult members tion: has gone to labor as a missionary.

" To my poor house there came a lofty strauger- -Reginald Radcliffe says that the Oh, it was Jesus, the darling of heaven. sooner we understand that the New I ran to bid Him welcome. Testament does not ask nor expect the evangelization of the world to be done " With gods of stone what have I now to do ? by ministers, any more than a general I clasp my Saviour's feet; expects the fighting to be done by him- My whole soul clings to Jesus. self and his officers, but in far greater part by the rank and file, the sooner " Since to my breast I clasped those blessed feet, will the day of missionary advance be- Rich, rich am I, 0 Jesus I gin. The apostles did not send to And Thou wilt never leave:' Jerusalem for foreign pastors, but out of the converts in each town found na- -Sometimes converts in heathen tive overseers which they placed over countries may teach us older Christians the flock. lessons in systematic beneficence. It is said that the Christians in Ceylon -The Young Men's Christian Assohave four methods of giving for the sup- ciations are spreading all over the port of the Gospel. First, the tithes of world. There are now above four thoutheir earnings. Second, the offering of sand associations. Of these there are, trees-the setting apart by each family in India and Ceylon, 21; in Turkey, of a cocoa· nut tree, the produce of which 12; in Syria, 6; in Africa, 12; in they sacredly devote to benevolent pur- China, 5 ; in Persia, 7 ; in Japan, 200. poses. Third, the offering of labor-de- There will be openings in all parts of voting a certain amount of time to work the world for young men who are fitted in the interest of the church. Fourth, to be secretaries and eyangelists in conthey reserve a handful of rice from neotion with these associations. every day's meal.

-" If I were black and young," says