The Missionary Review of the World — October 1895
TOlIB OF EZR_ OX THE TIGRIS
A GLIMPSE OF THE CHEEK AT Bl'SRAH. ARABIA. MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XVIn. No.lO.-.Oltl&riu.-OO~OBER.-VoL. YIn. No.lO.-Ne?JISerie8.
MIRAOLES OF MISSIONS.-No. XXIV.
* THE ROMANCE OF THE HovA BIBLE.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
As the heart makes the theology, so, it is to be feared, it often makes the history, or at least misreads it. Because amid the four millions of Madagascar nine tenths still ramain heathen, there is on the part of some no little proneness to depreciate the grand results of Protestant missions there, and to disparage the magnitude of the work begun in 1820.
We have thought well to reproduce, from the ·panorama of these seventy-five years, one scene which is at once full of romance and reality, pathetic and poetic, vivid in its contrasts and intense in its interest-the story of the Malagasy Bible. Christian missions have many such pictures, which need no retouching by humau hands to make them brilliant with historic lustre, and fascinating with romantic beauty; but this story of the Hova Scriptures wiJl bear to be Fut beside any similar narrative of this Illissionary century.
Seventy-five years ago two humble Welshmen landed on the coast of Madagascar-David Jones and David Griffiths. But one year apart in their arrival at Antananarivo, they were the pioneers of Protestant missions on this great island, which has been called the Britain of the Dark Continent.
They found the French missio~, which had preceded them by more than a century and a half, had scarce left even a permanent footprint to mark its twenty years of experiment. Madagascar was still virgin soil ; the people lacked all true knowledge of Christ, and had not even a written language. It waa still a pioneer work that was to be done ; and a score of years of teaching, discouragement, and hardship had failed even to lay the foundations for a church of Christ.
* See" Mada,galiCal'.of To-d&y." By Rev. W. E. ColllliDl. F. U. Revell" Co.
JlI&ACLIII 0.- 1II11l0lfS
The reason was obvious. Roman Catholics had made there, as in 1M) many other places, the fatal mistake of not gitJing to the J"OPle the Wortl of God. God has ordained that no mission work shall be lasting which does not magnify the Holy Scriptures as the corner-stone of Christian education. These two WcIslunen recognized the cause of the failure of Nacquart and Gondree, and they began, as soon as they learned the Malagasy tongue, and when, in fact, they were u yet novices in this strange language, to translate into it the Word of God. Distrusting their own imperfect acquaintance with the vernacular, they selected from their more promising ~cholars, some as usistante, and they are still honored in Madagascar as "The Twelve." So faithful was the work done, that by March, 1830, only ten years after D~vid Jones had reached the capital, the first edition of three thousand copies of the New Testament was com. pleted j and considerable portions of the Old Testament had likewise been translated.
The devil now came down, having great wrath, as though he knew that, with an open Bible, his time would be short. Already the Word of God we had begun to turn the little world of the HoVAS upside down; and need no greater proof of the mighty power and inlluence it had begun to wield among the people than the organized opposition it now encountered.
Soon after King Radama I. died, in 1828 clouds began to gather OD the horizon, and lurid lightnings played amid the darkness. There were threatenings of a coming storm, and seven years later the violence of a malicious and cruel persecution burst upon the infant church. Queetl Ranavalona I.-the Bloody Mary of Madagucar-issued her famous edict against the religion of the Christian's Bible, March 1st, 1835.
At that time a part of the Book of Job, and the whole of the Old Testament from Ezekiel to Malachi, remained yet to go through the press. Uncertain how soon, by expulsion or martyrdom, they might have to leave the young church to itself, the missionaries prayed for time and strength to complete the Malagasy Bible. It wu like attempting to gather up household goods and put them in a place of shelter when a volcano WIUI belching out lava and ashes overhead. Undismayed by danger, undaunted by difficulty, deserted by timid converts, and watched by a suspicious government, they toiled without resting and prayed without ceasing.
Unable to secure native aid, they had to do the work of printing aDd even of composing type; but by the end of June, four months after the edict of intolerance had pealed out its thunders, the first bound copies of the complete Bible were ready for the HOTa Church !
And now the next question wu bow to prevent this whole editiOD from destruction by the Satanic queen and her sernle miDions. Most of these new Bibles were secretly scattered among· the converts in whose piety and loyalty they could repose most confidence. But, for greater securi~1' and so that, if all these were discovered and consigned to the lIames, as many of them were, a precious remnant might I1U'vlVe, they bnriedsevellty
189r;.] KIRACLES OJ' KI88IONS. '728
copies in the earth-precious seed for a future harvest when the storm should have spent its fury.
They had done their work none too soon or too speedily i and now their expulsion was decreed, and for twenty-five years Protestant missionariel!l were exiles. The translators of the Bible were driven from Madagascar, but the Bible they had translated was not so easily driven away. In th. story of that martyr church two facts stand out like opposing mountain peaks on a landscape-like Gerizim, the mount of blessing, and Ebal, the mount of curse, at the gateway to the plains of Sychar-the intense hatred of the persecuting queen and her court toward the new Bible, and. the equally intense love and devotion of the Hova martyrs toward that hateci and proscribed book.
History furnishes few more pathetic tales of heroism, even where touched with the pencil of romantic fancy, than is found in the Inartyr church of Madagascar. The blessed Book had to be treasured in secret, and in secret read and studied. Discovery meant the sure destruction of the book, and the almost equally sure death of the possessor. Every copy of the Bible was therefore kept and read at risk of life. A quarter of a century is a long period of testing i but they stood th~ test. When some of the Bibles were found, as they were, and committed to the flames, they hid the rest in trunks of trees and in rock caves, and many of them committed large portions to memory, that at least one imperishable record might be preserved which no fire could destroy. And, when the missionaries once more found welcome at Madagascar, very few complete Bibles were. left i perhaps not more than a dozen or so survived i and with these was associated a most pathetic interest. They were thumbed and worn into shreds, or patched and so preserved, but treated as precious relics that no price could buy i and he was counted specially bappy who could produce even a few leaves of the sacred Word, however soiled or ragged through much use, or mildewed with the mould of the damp place where they had been secreted.
The revision of this early translation supplies in its way a story scarcely less romantic. On December 1st, 1873, eight foreigners and three natives began a work, not completed until thirteen years later, of retranslation. When the first Bible had been prepared, the knowledge of the language had been so imperfect that, as in all other similar cases, errors had inevitably crept in, and it became necessary to prepare another version, embodying all the results of later and, more accurate scholarship. On that new Revision Committee five denominations of Christians were represented, all working in loving harmony during all the years of the work, though only two Europeans and one native, who were members at the inception, remained on the committee until its completion.
The meetings were held on Wednesdays, and two sittings of three hours each were given to the task. So slowly and carefully was the work done that a day was sometimes spent on a dozen verses, though sometimes from sixty to eighty were covered. But what a beautiful sight in God's eyes it must have been, when, for nearly fourteen years, Anglicans and Lutherans, Presbyterians, Independents and Friends sat every week studi- ously seeking to make a new and complete Bible for the people, forgetting all minor differences in one absorbing aim and work! and, as Mr. Cousins beautifully says, even Mr. Richardson's Malagasy Dictionary lying com- paratively unused on the table, because at one end was a living lexicon of the native language in the person of three native helpers, * to whom, in fact, the final re,·ision was mainly entrusted.
When the labor of these long years reached completion, and the prayers of more than six hundred successive sessions had been answered, it was felt that a thanksgiving service should signalize the close of such a gigantic task. And the place chosen for such a praise service-there could be none so appropriate-was the stone memorial church at Ambonin' Ampamari- nana, the sanctuary reared on the verge of the precipice over which, thirty- eight years before, fourteen Malagasy martyrs had been fiung, because they loved that Bible and would not disown the Christ it had revealed !
But in what different circumstances that thanksgiving service was held!
When that earliest edition had been completed, a storm of pitiless perse- , cation was beating on the heads of native Christians, before which even the ,translators were driven away. Now it was eighteen years since the public burning of the idols, and at the thanksgiving meeting behold His Excellency, Rainilaiarwony, the Prime Minister, sent by a Christian queen, Ranavalona II., the first Christian sovereign of Madagascar, to represent her and convey to all who, had aided in this great work the thanks of the queen. With what emotions must they who remembered the horrors of the reign of the first Ranavalona have heard this noble premier, the queen's consort, as he told of the profound personal interest his royal wife had taken in the work of revision, and how in her jealousy for its perfec- tion she had herself often suggested to the revisers certain suitable words and phrases to convey tho sacred sense. And so in more than two thou- sand congregations and nearly as many schools, representing more than three hundred thousand Protestant Christians, this revised Bible is to be used. .
If facts have any force, surely no one who candidly surveys this pano- ramic scene can doubt that a Divine Artist has been at work. The hand of God has drawn these outlines, and there is a touch of celestial color- ing. The rainbow round about the throne reflects its sevenfold beauty in the history of the Hova Church; there is something which arches this whole seventy-nve years, in sight like unto an emerald. Shall we question the Divine sanction upon missions when seventy-five years among the Hovas work such chang.es and reveal such fruits ~ • P. 122.
THE GOSPEL IN RUSSIA
THE GOSPEL IN RUSSIA.
The writer, in conversation with a highly placed Russian official, in- quired what he thought was the greatest obstacle to the progress of true religion in the great empire of the Czar, and the remarkable answer was immediately given: "There are no obstacles j the people are ready, even the Church is ready. Let the movement but have life, and be in harmony with our Russian sympathies and character, and nothing can oppose or retard it. Before all else, we are a religious people. "
From his peculiar point of view there is much of truth in this dictum of the Russian official. The people are unquestionably prepared for a great religious revival, and in many ways the Orthodox Greek Church shows a liberality and a receptivity which is quite remarkable. Nevertheless, in spite of the official's opinion, there are obstacles to the spread of evangelical religion in Russia, so formidable and so numerous that one almost despairs of seeing them altogether removed in onr day. Let us look for a moment at the position of affairs. Of the one hundred million Russians inhabiting Russia in Europe and Siberia, about eighty millions are orthodox Greek Churchmen, and some twent.y millions are heretics of one school or another-Old Believers, Old Ritualists, Molokans, Stundists, etc. The policy of the Church and State toward dissent has been almost invariably one of severe repression, appalling sometimes in its severity. The result is that persecutor and persecuted view one another with an hostility difficult for people to judge who enjoy perfect religious freedom. Besides, the conduct of the" heretics" themselves has been often so indecorous, so fanatical and intolerant, and the excrescences which they have put forth have been frequently so offensive, that almost all the sympathy felt for them by the warm-hearted and more liberal of the orthodox has been chilled. In Russia, therefore, dissenter and Churchman are face to face, hating one another bitterly, the former excluded from every privilege, from every office in the State, hunted down by those two steady allies, priests and police, prohibited in most cases from worshipping in his own way, his children often taken from him and forcibly brought up in the orthodox faith. The position of the Russian dissenter is an intolerable one, and only the most steadfast belief in the infallibility of his doctrines, and the ever-present hope that his fidelity to principle will have its glorious reward hereafter, could compensate him for his !ifeof toil and trouble, for the ignominy and contempt poured upon him.
There can be no doubt that among the different dissenting bodies in Russia there are, on the whole, far greater evidences of energetic religious life than among the orthodox. The very multiplicity of sects among them, however harmful and disastrous it may be in many ways, is still proof that they are thinking, that religion is a reality to them, that it is a tremendous force playing a controlling part in their lives. Hardly a sect among them that is not eagerly missionary in spirit and practice. Generally it is this very propagandist zeal of theirs which gets them so often into trouble, for no orthodox Russian is allowed to leave the Greek Church without being liable to transportation to Siberia, and the same terrible punishment is likewise meted out to any sectarian who either attempts to or succeeds in perverting any member of the Orthodox Church. These drastic punishments, however, have never deterred enthusiastic propagandists anywhere, and the result in Russia agrees with universal experience, that danger lends attraction to the missionary's work, and that a martyr's crown is often a far greater inducement to work than the prospect of full money-bags and an easy old age.
I am often asked, apart from the Stundists and other Russian sects professing what is known as Protestant doctrine, is there any vital evangelical force at work among the numerous millions of the other heretical bodies f I believe there is. To too great an extent the leaders of the Old Believers, the most numerous of these sects, are taken up with the empty points of ritual which divide them from orthodoxy, their minds are too full of an antipathy almost absurd in its strength to anything modern or that deflects in any way from the methods of their fathers, but their very isolation, and the fact that they give their minds to the consideration of sacred subjects, are evangelical forces of the strongest character. Many of them will not take a New Testament or other religious book in their hands if it is written in modern Russ. They deem it profane to quote Scripture in auy language other than the ancient Slavonic, but this very conservatism of theirs has forced them to pay attention to the Scripturel, and to learn by heart whole chapteri of the Bible, which are handed down orally from father to son, from generation to generation. One of the most affecting services I ever attended was in the little hut of one of these sectaries. Before retiring for the night my host and his wife stood in the middle of the room and recited psalm after psalm, passage after passage, without an error so far as I could judge. Neither of them could read, and their parents and grandparents before them were equally illiterate. After careful study of these, the more ancient of the sectaries, I am led to believe that the vital principles of religion are slowly and steadily finding their way among them, and that there seems to me some slight softening of the asperities which used to mark their dealings with those who were not their co-religionists.
But in addition to the hostile attitude of sect toward sect and of orthodoxy toward heresy, there is another far more fatal obstacle to the uninterrupted course of evangelical truth in Russia. I refer to the influences which centre in the great lay procureur of the Holy Synod, M. Constantine Pobedanostseff. This able man, notwithstanding a temporary eclipse at the accession of the present Czar, is still the most powerful statesman in Russia. He is thoroughly sincere in his notion that the welfare of the empire depends upon the intimate connection of Church and State, and no
I•.] TO fiOfI'ZL IN BVIIIU
pains are too great and no labor is without reward which has for its object the welding together the closest interests of both. Dissent from the Church is, in his view, disloyalty to the empire. The dissenter who, enamored of Luther's doctrines, hangs up a picture of the great reformer in his room, is not far from hanging up a picture of the German Emperor, or from deposing the picture of the Czar. These are in reality M. Pobeda- nostllej!'s views more than once expressed. The passionate love which this statesman bears to his church is part of the fibre of his being. In a well-known passage he once declared to the leaders of the Evangelical Alliance, that it was the Russian Church which stood for two hundred years between Western Europe and the Mongolian invaders from the East, that if the East has left its impre88 too deeply on the Russian character, it is because Russia took upon herself what might have destroyed Europe, and that instead of the Western churches sneering at the supposed intoler- ance and immobility of their Russian aister, they should be filled with admiration at the constancy and fortitude which has enabled her to preserve inviolate her holiest traditions and her undying hopes. Both as Churchman and as politician, therefore, Pobedanostseff will tolerate no deftection from the atandards of the orthodox faith, aud if a handful of peaaants here and there in the interior maintain their right to liberty of conscience, or if the Lutheran pastors of the Baltic provinces interfere with the rights of the RWlSian clerC', or if the Roman Catholics of Poland attempt any undue aasertion of the rights of the Latin Church, they are one and all summarily crushed. We can have nothing but admiration for zeal properly directed and guided by discretion into right channels, but when a highly placed statesman, a man of great culture and knowledge of the world, thinks that he can advance the cause of true religion by petty restrictions, by vexatious harryings of peasants' cottages and kidnapping of their children, by prison and stick and banishment, by depriving hundreds of innocent men and women of their personal rights and privileges, by conduct, in a word, which approaches in its ferocity the methods of the Spanish zealots of the seventeenth century, we have nothing but reprobation for such a statesman, we have nothing but condemnation for his principals, and our most entire sympathies are wholly with the wretched victims who for the faith that is in them remain undaunted in face of the priests and police who hound them on to prison and exile. It was the foolish notion of many well-wishers of Russia that the persecutions which had disgraced the last years of Alexander Ill.'s reign would cease under the sway of Nicholas, but auch hopes have turned out to be groundless, and after a short spell of quiet the jails are again receiving the more prominent of the Stundists and Baptists, and almost every chain of prisoners which crosses the anows of the C~Ucasus from Russia contains one or more representatives of that patient and heroic body of Protestant peasants who have done far more for the real advance of RU8sia than all the states.. mell in Peteraburg.
72i PEACE WITH JAPAN' :RIOTS m SZOllUAN'
But despite persecution and many a dark cloud on the horizon, the outlook in Russia is anything but gloomy. Even if we abide by the somewhat uncertain test of numbers, there is every reason to believe th&t the Protestant or evangelical sects are increasing. If in one or two places the Orthodox Church can boast that it has eradicated dissent, there are innumerable districts all over Russia which now contain il!lolated bodies of Stundists where ten years ago there were none. Th8 very dispersal of these brethren must tend to their rapid increase. Filled with zeal for his cause, the banished man and his family at once start to make known to their neighbors the great truths which have done so muw for them.
Perhaps no factor in the situation is so important and far· reaching as the extraordinary circulation of the Scriptures, which is effected year after year in the mighty empire stretching from the Baltic to the Pacific. Between five and six hundred thousand copies of the Word of God are circulated every year in Russia, and he who would learn what is being actually done in bringing the Gospel to the people of Russia has only to study the deeply interesting reports of the agents of the British and Foreign Bible Society and t.he report of the Russian Society for Circulating the Scriptures. From all parts of the huge country the colporteurs of these societies meet with encouragement. It is not merely in the towns and cities that this work is being done. We read of hundreds of copies being distributed in a village, of the peasants on steamboats sitting all day long reading the Gospell!l, of employers buying copies for their workmen, and officers for their soldiers. The writer of this article has seen the colporteurs at their work, and more than once has noticed the tears start to the eyes of great rough fellows as they became possessed for the first time in their lives of a copy of the New Testament. This wonderful sowing will some day, and some day soon rather than late, bring in a rich harvest of Bible-illuminated souls.
Unquestionably the prospects are bright, and it is safe prophesying that the day is not far distant when the sweet faith and tender paRsions of the Russian nation will be used by the Master in the advancement of his kingdom to the uttermost ends of the world.
PEACE WITH JAPAN! RIOTS IN SZCHUA~ !
BY REV. WILLIAM M. UPCRAFT, SZCHUAN, CHINA.
Again the flame of persecution and destruction has broken forth in China. While lovers of peace specially, and th8 world generally, were rejoicing at the restoration of peace in the Orient, and all were hoping for the fruits of peace in enlarged opportunities for intercourse with the subdued Chinese, Christendom was startled by reports of widespread uprising and persistent attacks on all kinds of missioB :wark and workers, such as have not been known before since the right to travel and rellide in the interior of China was granted to Western nations. On May 29th, a date coincident with the annual fifth month festival, the trouble began at Chentu, the capital city of Szchuan province.
Owing to the recent extension of missionary enterprise in the western provinces, quite a large work was in course of development at Chentu, this being one of the most eligible as it is one of the most important points in this vast inland province. The China Inland Mission (pioneers in this as in many other places), the Methodist Episcopal, and Canadian Methodists, each had a company of workers and a working plant in operation, so that some seventeen adults (all young and nearly all new to the work) and eleven children, English and American, were at home in Chentu.
For some weeks before the actual riot ugly rumors had been spread throughout the city and neighborhood, retailing the old stories of child murder and mutilation, with local embellishments, but nothing serious was apprehended. Missionaries in China are accustomed to a maximum of misrepresentation.
Inflamed with wine toward the close of an exciting day, the crowd of riotous rowdies bore down upon the Canadian premises, forced the doors, took possession of the courts, and finally caused the little handful of helpless missionaries to lieek Hight by a rear gate, where escaping to the city wall, they hid in the darkness till midnight, and then escaped to the house of the Inland Mission. Repeated applications to the officials failed to bring relief, owing, as we now see, to the hostility pf mandarins high in office, who refused the help that might easily have averted the disaster.
Returning early the following morning, the rioters finished their work of destruction upon the Canadian Mission, and then began an attack on the Inland Mission, in which the refugees of the previous night had taken shelter. Flight again was forced upon them, and having no door at the back, the wall was scaled by means of a ladder, and shelter purchased in a neighbor's house, where men, women, and children were hustled behind the curtains of a friendly bed, and the little crowd forced to wait in suspense and discomfort, within earshot of the yelling mob outside.
Who can tell of the hours of suffering in that poor refuge, and the uncertain future pressing upon them all! Meanwhile, over at the Methodist Episcopal Mission a similar scene was being enacted. Calmed somewhat, after the excitement of the previous night, by official assurance that no harm could befall them, the missionaries had returned to their house and arranged themselves for their usual work, when the crowd swept down upon them intent on destruction. Before the outer gate gave wa.y they were able to get the children and a very few things over the back wan, into a loft placed at their disposal by a friendly neighbor. The dust of years was in accumulated wealth on floor and rafters, a hot slln beat npon the unceiled tiles, while the motherli stifled the cries of their babes lest such a sound should attract the rioting crowd in the next yard.
01lJUSTIAN MIllION. IN ABAJtIA
All that day they remained as spectators of the scene, while home and chapel and dispensary, their furniture, books, even trees and 1l0wers, were destroyed, so eager were the crowd to wipe out the traces of the foreigners' home and work.
For ingenuity and diabolical delight in finding reasons why this should be done, the Chentu mob holds the palm. Bones were dug up and displayed, recent corpses exhumed and paraded, chickens killed and their blood smeared around on the walls, as evidence to support the charges made against the missionaries.
At length, from various points the driven, hunted ones were gathered together at the magistrate's yamen and found all safe; no one missing, though many a narrow escape was related as experiences were compared and the day's full total made up.
Starting from this central point, the contagion spread till Kiating, Suifn, Yachow, Lnchow, and many other points were involved. At some only a partial wreck was made, at others again the ruin was complete. In happy contrast to the conduct of the officials at Chentu, the mandarins at some other places did their utmost to protect the foreigners, and in a few cases succeeded.
The full tale cannot now be told. God intervened for His people marvellously, and in all the widespread trouble no life was lost. The native Christians suffered much and suffered well. And China stands again disgraced and discounted in the eyes of Christendom. The causes are not far to seek for this and other similar outbreaks.
It is, in the nature of things, only too true that we reap as we sow. Like seed like harvest. Given a credulous people, an incompetent administration, an assiduous misrepresentation of all foreigners, a relentless slandering of mission work and doctrine, and the result is not difficult to foresee. Sow Hunan placards; reap Szchuan riots.
A diligent inquiry should be promptly instituted in this cass and safeguards devised against a repetition. The right of Westerners to residence thronghout the interior should be made unquestionable, and freedom guaranteed. There is a strong plea in present circumstances for prayer and intercession on behalf of China, her rulers and people, that she may see her hour of opportunity and acceptance.
THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF MODERN CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN ARABIA.
IIY GJ:NERAL F. T. HAIG.
It would be deeply interesting, did space permit, to trace the gradual unfoldings of the Divine Providence in the re-introduction of the Gospel into Arabia, thirteen hundred years after Christianity had been blotted out in that land by the sword of Mohammed and his successors, but the limits imposed upon this article forbid anything more than a glance at this part of the subject. For many centuries the Arabs had ceased to be a menace to Christianity and civilization. As the great missionaries of Islam they had spread their creed over nearly half the African Continent, and the ever-advancing wave of Mohammedanism had begun even to threaten the young Christian churches on the western coast. Still it was not until some time between 1880 and 1890 that Arabia itself, the cradle and home of the race, seriously engaged the attention of the Church of Christ. About that time, however, it became evident that the Spirit of God was moving upon the hearts of His people, and that the yearninga of His love were beginning to find expression in their prayers for the 1000t sons of Ishmael. "For some years," wrote an American minister in the far West, " I and my people have been praying for Arabia. " More than one appeal went forth, pleading for the Arabs. Interest was awakened. Old Dr. Lansing, of the American Mission in Egypt, who for over thirty years had labored there, waiting for the dawn of a brighter day for the Moslem world, when one of these appeals fell into his hands, was all on tire to start for Yemen. "I could scarcely keep him," said his wife, "from mounting his donkey and setting off at once." Keith-Falconer felt the same mighty impulse, left home and country, and settled oat Aden, which for two short years became his mission field, and then his grave. The mantle of the elder Lansing fell upon his son, and he with a few other kindred spirits rose up at the Divine call and started the Arabian Mission, which now occupies the three most important points on the eastern side of the peninsula. Another mission, afterward taken up by the Church Missionary Society, was commenced at Kerak:, on the mountains of Moab, by a Methodist preacher, Mr. Lethaby and his wife; and Bagdad, which had already been occupied by the same society, in connection with their PerSian Mission, now assumed new importance as a great Arab city. Finally the venerable Bishop French, who, after some thirty years of missionary labor in India, could not, though feeble and broken, cease from his loved employ, commenced work: at Muscat, where shortly after, in a little nook: at the foot of the cliffs, where the waves have washed up just sand enough to afford space for a few graves, he was laid to rest, consecrating the whole movement by his noble example of devotedness Ullto death for the salvation of his fellow· men.
Thus six of the most important strategic positions aroUlld the great peninsula are now held for Christ : those on the East Coast and at the head of the Gulf, commanding the whole hinterland of Central Arabia, by the (American) Arabian Mission i that at Aden by the Scotch Mission; and the two on the north by the Church Missionary Society. When we remember that this has been accomplished in little more than ten years since the attention of the Christian Church was first drawn to the subject, including all the preliminary organizations at, home aud inquiries abroad, before actual settlement on the spot could be effec'ted, there is cause for thankfulness and praise. At the same time it is necessary to point out that each of the three stations of the Arabian Mission is held at the present moment by only one man, whose death or disablement by sickness would instantly stop the work at that point. Immediate and strong reinforceme~ts are called for. Only one side of the great fortress is as yet, and that but partially, invested, and no advance into the citadel, the great populous centres of Nejd and Jebel Shommar, is possible without further help. Ten millions of Arabs need- something more than half a dozen men for their effectual evangelization. It is surprising, indeed, how much of vigorous forward movement and exploration has been done, chiefly by the Americans, in this short period. They have explored the beautiful mountainous country of Yemen in the southwest; several hundred miles of the coast of Hadramaut on the south, including the centres of Makallah and Sheher; and many hundred miles of the Euphrates and Tigris on the north, making the acquaintance there of new forms of Arab life, and of the interesting little community of the Sabeans, the descendants of the Hemero-baptists of the first centuries.
They have annexed Bahrein and Muscat to Busrah, their original settlement, and Rev. S. M. Zwemer has pushed his reconnaissances inland as far as Khateef and Hofhoof, on the way to Nejd and Central Arabia, finding more than one evidence of t.he truthfulness of Palgrave's picturesque descriptions of that country. Thousands of Bibles, Testaments, and portions of Scripture have been scattered by the Bible societies and missionaries around the various mission centres. Thus a good beginning of the great work has been made, most of the strategic points for mission work have been occupied, but nothing more; but enough at least has been done to show that if only the men now in the field be properly backed up by the churches at home, not many years will elapse before all Arabia, north, south, east, and west, shall have heard the joyful sound, and " Ishmael shall live."
Let us now look a little more closely into the conditions of this great problem, the evangelization of Arabia. Nothing need here be said about the geography, climate, etc., of the country. Ample information already exists upon this part of the subject, and may be easily found elsewhere by those who desire it. Of the present distribution of political power, however, some account must be given, and I take the following from a tract by Rev. S. M. Zwemer.
" Sinai is Egyptian, and also the 200 miles of coast south of the Gulf of Akaba. Hedjaz belongs to the Turk, and he also grasps (not holds) Yemen, Asir, El Hasa, and Irak. All the rest of Arabia yields neither love, obedience, nor tribute to the Sublime Porte. The oppressed tribes of Upper Yemen were recently crushed into submission, but do not despair of future revolution. El Rasa (on the East Coast) frets like an Arab steed under the yoke of taxation, and Mecca itself dictates at times to the
THE TOMB OF A MOSLElIl SAINT AT
2. A CONVERTED 1Il0SLElIl HELPER. 3. REV. S. M. ZWEMER IN ARAB DRESS. 4. NATIVE HOUSES AT BUSRAH.
CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN ARABIA. ~83
power behind the throne at Constantinople. The tribes near Aden, and the entire South Coast, including Oman with. Muscat, are in one way or another under subsidy or ' protection' by the English, who ruIe the Gulf, and have a voice at Busrah and Bagdad. Wide, wild Nejd bends to the iron sceptre of the greatest Arab of our day, Ibn Rasheed, the Ameer of Jebel Shommar. For the rest, nomads roam the free desert, acknowledging no Sultan save the sword ; they hold the parliament of war or peace in the black tents of Kedar. Thus, within the last fifty years have the schisms of Islam, the turmoil of Arab rebellion, and the diplomacy of English commerce, burst the barriers of the land of Ishmael for the Allconquering Son of Isaac ; the very cradle of Islam is aJmost unveiled for the heralds of the Cross." To ~hich I may add that Bahrein, the name given to two islands which lie just off the coast of EI Hasa, and are the centre of the pearl fishery, has in a remarkable manner been preserved from Turkish aggression, and is ruled by an Arab Sheikh under the control of the British Resident at Bushire. The islands have a large population, are the nearest point along the coast to Nejd and all Central Arabia, and are therefore of the utmost importance as a mission station for an advance in that direction. In all these political arrangements we clearly trace the overruling hand of God, curbing Turkish aggression, suppressing Wahabee fanaticism, and so preparing the way for His Gospel. There is not room to dwell here upon other influences which have told in the saIDe direction, such as the extension of commerce and intercourse with India, and the spectacle of the beneficent results of the British Government in that country, in Aden, and in Egypt.
But of yet greater interest is the question of the present religious condition of the Arab races. Does Islam retain its hold upon them as firmly as ever ~ How does their present mental attitude toward it, and toward the Christianity which it once supplanted, compare with that of the past ages and with that of the Arabs of North Africa ~ The question can only be lightly touched upon here. To treat of it at all satisfactorily would need a wider and fuller acquaintance than we yet possess, not only with the extent to which the outward forms of their religion are observed, but also with the inner thoughts and life of the people. Arabia is an immense country, about three fourths the size of India. Vast portions of it have as yet been unvisited except by a chance traveller passing hastily through, and having little real intercourse with the inhabitants. There may be lying, deep below the surface, phases of religious thought in parts of it with which we are wholly unacquainted. Has Christianity quite died out in the course of ages, or are there still faint memories and traditions of it which have influenced the religious ideas of the present day ? We know not. It is certain, however, that in another country which might be named such a survival of as remote a past has actually taken place, and may yet prove a powerful factor in the conversion of its inhabitants. In general terms, however, it may perhaps be said that the influences of
C. .I.TLUi MIIIBIOlf. Ilf AllA.:aIA
time have told less unfavorably, from the Christian point of view, upon the Arabs of Arabia than upon the scattered but probably equally numerous ponions of the race in North Africa. Romanism with its idolatry, on t.he one hand, and the scepticism and atheism which are the reaction from it, on the other, are the only forms of religious opinion, under the general name of Christianity, which the Arabs of North Africa have been acquainted with. The one they contemptuously reject, but. the other is secretly spreading among the more cultured classes, especially in Algeria and Tunis, where French education is rapidly extending, and the state of mind it produces is even more unfavorable to the reception of the truth than the most fanatical forms of Mohammedanism.
The isolation of Arabia has to a great extent preserved it from these forms of error, while there has been nothing within the borders of the peninsula itself to strengthen or resuscitate faith, or effectually to counteract the disintegrating forces of sectarian division, Persian speculative thought, and, more perhaps than either, the indifference to all religion. questions, which seems, according to some authorities, to· be a characteristic of the race, and which in the case of the; Bedouin is said to have led even Mohammed to despair of their conversion. In point of fact, Islam from the very first seems to have taken far less hold upon the Arabs than might be supposed. Immediately after the death of its founder a general revolt from his teachings took place, and for centuries the popular religion seems to have been little more than semi-paganism. Wahabeeism, which was an attempt to reinstate the religion of the prophet by his favorite weapon, the sword, has failed egregiously, and is now in the last stage of decay. The Arabs remain Mohammedans simply because they know of nothing better j fanatical in some parts, doubtful and bewildered in others, not because they have rejected the Gospel, but because they have never heard it. The Bedouin, constituting perhaps a fourth or fifth of the population, are for the most part Mohammedan only in name, observing the prescribed forms in the neighborhood of towns, but speedily casting them aside on regaining the desert. Yet there are men among them not without reverent thoughts of the Creator, derived from the contemplation of His works, thoughts which, according to Palmer, take sometimes the form of solemn but simple prayer. A missionary who some years ago spent more than two months with one of these tribes, living with the Sheikh, and accompanying them in their wanderings from pasturage to pasturage, found them willing though not particularly interested listeners, and singularly amenable to the Word of God as the one authority in matters of faith. The Sheikh, seeing that the missionary disliked travelling on the Sunday, inquired the reason, and willingly accepted the word of the Book as de. cisive upon the point, and indeed upon every other point, and from that time the tribe never marched upon the Sabbath. How sad it seems that 10 few of the race have as yet come under the sound of the Gospel !
In the cities and toWJll there is, of course, a more rigorous observance
CIIlUSTIAN MISSIONS IN ABABIA
of the outward forms of Mohammedanism, but there is also among the upper and middle classes, especially on the eastern coast, widespread doubt. A missionary writes: "There are very plain indications of an undercurrent of scepticism and free thought. Indeed, to anyone who knows the Mohammedans intimately, it is scarcely an undercurrent at all. I know men in the most learned Mohammedan society of B– who, judged by their dress and outward appearance, would be taken for bulwarks of the Mohammedan religion, and who yet have no more belief in it than Professor Huxley has in Christianity. One of these men astonished me by his expressions of downright loathing of the religion of which he is a professed teacher."
It would be foreign to the special object of this paper, and altogether beyond its scope, to give any detailed description of the doctrines and practices of Islam. It may suffice to say with regard to them all, that holiness of heart has absolutely no place in the religion of Mohammed, and that just as polygamy, unlimited concubinage, and divorce, being regarded as of Divine sanction, are not in the least degree revolting to the moral sense of its votaries, so there is no connection, either in fact or in popular estimation, between the most rigorous observance of the outward forms, which are of its very essence, and a holy life.
Arabs are not in the least deceived by what they know to be merely outward and ritual, and wholly without effect upon the heart j they draw, in fact, an unfavorable inference from much outward show of religion. In North Africa they have a saying, " Shun a man who has made a pilgrimage to Mecca once; live not in the same street with one who has performed it twice ; and reside not in the same country with one who has visited the Kaaba thrice. " I once myself formed one of a circle of some twenty gnests in the house of an Arab gentleman, who (excepting myself), when the evening adtham, or call to prayer, sounded forth from the mosque, joined the host in the most solemn and impressive recitation of the prayers, with the prescribed genuflexions and prostrations, but of whom he afterward privately declared that everyone was a thief, handing me at the same time the key of a room where he had had my baggage locked up, and warning me to be on my guard. The true Christian idea of prayer appears to be wholly wanting, though in times of great distress short ejaculatory prayer will be put up. The intercession of saints is much resorted to; prayer is offered at their tombs. At times the poor people, failing to receive an answer to such prayers, resort in their despair to necromancy.
In Arabia the women" pray." "At home," says Mr. S. M. Zwemer, "a larger proportion observe the times of prayer than do the men." (This is not the case in North Africa.) In the towns girls seldom, and boys never, "pray," until they are over twelve years of age. Women. are seldom or never allowed to attend the public prayers in the mosque.
Few of the Arabs can read, perhaps not above 10 per cent ot the dwellers in towns, and only some of these nnderstand what they read of the Koran. The Bedouin are wholly illiterate. Slaves are imported via Jeddah and the Persian Gulf, they are sold in Busrah privately, and doubtless in other towns, being brought from Mecca as merchandise by the returning pilgrims. Polygamy is· practically universal among the well-to-do classes, and divorce, almost unlimited, with its attendant horrors of cruelty and. suffering, takes its place among the poorer. Thus, with polygamy, slavery, and divorce (all sanctioned by their religion) the state of Arab society may be imagined. Happily space does not permit me to enlarge upon this terrible subject.
So, with fasts and prayers and pilgrimages, hoping in his good works, the mercy of God, and the intercession of the Prophet (such intercession being wholly unauthorized by the Koran), the poor Arab wends his way down through life, is laid to rest at last with his face toward Mecca, and passes into eternity with a lie in his right hand. One thing he never knew, that gracious message that was intended to be familiar as a household word to every member of the human race, that God loved him as God only can love, that Christ died for him, and that a free pardon and full salvation awaited his acceptance. He knew it not because he was never told, and he was never told because for ages the Church lost the blessed truth, and since it recovered it has neglected the one great duty, to proclaim it to every creature. Thank God those times of ignorance are nearly over. Through the tender mercy of our God the day-spring from on high has visited Arabia. And may we not hope that the churches which have taken the lead in this gr~at movement will spare no effort, neither men, nor life, nor money, to carry it on to the destined consummation.
Thus far we have traced the rise and progress up to the present time of the Arabian missions. A few brief remarks as to the future may not inappropriately conclude this paper.
1. It will be seen from what has been said that all the western and southern sides of Arabia are still without a missionary. The Free Church of Scotland Mission at Aden is doing an important work, and there is a wide field for extension before it. Not, however, being acquainted with its plans for the future, I do not venture to say anything on the subject here. Jeddah, however, the port of Mecca, might afford a base where, in spite of the intense jealousy and watchfulness of the Turk, a work might be begun. Asir and Yemen may not be accessible just at this moment, but they soon will be so.
2. As to the rest of Arabia, including the eastern, central, and southern provinces, in fact quite one half of the peninsula, I am indebted to the Rev. S. M. Zwemer for the following sketch, the result of four years' study of the subject on the spot, of a missionary scheme, such as the Church which sent him and his fellow-laborers out can hardly stop short of. I give this sketch only in very abbreviated form. Such a scheme would
—-~—— – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – —
ARCH OF CTESIPHOX NEAR BAGDAD.
ARAB PILGRIMS BOUND FOR lHECC_~.
OllRlSTLUT lUBSIONB IN ARABIA
include thre~ provinces, HasS3, Oman, and Nejd, with Busr.1h on the north, and a part at least of Hadramaut on the south. There would be twelve centres-viz., the seven coast towns already occupied, or visited, by the American Mission, four inland towns, Hail, Boreyda, HOfhoof, and Riad in Najd, and two or three inland towns of Oman, and Hadramaut (MakalIah is included in the coast centres). These would require twentyfour missionaries and twelve native helpers. The cost would be, in round numbers, $30,000 a year-viz., *25,000 in addition to the present outlay on the missionarie!!l and native helpers, new in the field. "With this demand supplied, all of Eastern, Central, and Southern Arabia would in ten years be p&rmeated with the Gospel message, by word and printed page. Leaving all other results with God, is that too much to pay for such a privilege! Can the Dutch Reformed Church do it ? Will she do it 1" To such an appeal there can be but one reply. That Church when it took up the mission originally commenced on an independent basis as the Arabian Mission, did so with full knowledge of the plans and purposes of its founders, which, as the very title of the mission shows, embraced nothing less thaD. !!Iuch a comprehensive scheme of evangelization as that above described. Surely then that church will feel it to be both a duty and a privilege to carry that scheme through to the end.
is As to the qualifications needed for the work, here a description by one of the missionaries now in the field: " 1. A strong and sound constitution. " 2. Ability to acquire the language. This is the one aud only quaIl- fication needfRl, mentally. Scholarship is good, but not at all necessary. Deep and abstruse arguers will not be wanted in Arabia for fifty years to come.
" 3. As to character-humility, patience, love-these three. A man with a hot temper could never stand three seasons in the Gulf. But after you have got these for foundation, pile 'on all the fire and zeal and enthusiasm you can get.
" Lastly, men foll of the Holy Ghost, sine qua non. " Christians of America, hearken to your brethren's call from the Gulf, come and take your stand by their side. The future of Arabia is largely in your hands. It will be very much what you make it. "Who among you is willing to consecrate this day his, service to the Lord ~ The Lord his God be with him, and let him go up."
SPECIMEN OF A MOHAMMEDAN PRAYER.-·O God, bestow blessing upon our lord Mohammed the beloved, and upon his father Abraham the friend, and upon his brother Moses the word, and upon the faithful Jesus the Spirit of God, and upon David and Solomon and Zechariah and John the Baptist and their people, as long as the thoughtful ones remember thee, and the thoughtless ones neglect to think of them.
THE JEWS IN PERSIA
THE JEWS IN PERSIA.-I.
BY REV. S. G. WILSON, TABRIZ, PERSIA.
The Jews in Persia can themselves Beni-Israel, which accords with the Bible account of the captivity of the Israelites in "the c:ties of the Medes," " by the river Gozan," which may be the Guzul-Uzun, the longest river of Media. Shahpoor II. transported Jews from Armenia to Persia.
The Jews now found in the limits of ancient Media are in the western part, having been driven there by Tamerlane. Starting at the northwest. ern border, we find them in Salmas, Oroomiah, Suldooz, Sonjbulak, Miandnab, Sakkus, Senna, Kermanshah, Ramadan, and other places. In Azerbijan there are twelve hundred and thirty houses of Jews. They are found also in Teheran, Kashan, Khorasan, and Ispahan.
These remnants have survived the persecutions of centuries. Tabriz has none except a few strangers. The cause is that old slander which is constantly renewed even in the present day and in Europe. It was reported by some renegade Jews that the Jews had killed a missing Mohammedan child and drunk his blood. The late Kala-Begi narrated how the police snatched a Jew, thns accused, from the hands of an infuriated mob, which followed him mto the courtyard yellmg for hIS blood. The Kala-Begi bastinadoed him to appease the mob, and afterward told the English consul, who remonstrated with him for beating an innocent man, that it was the only way to save him ahve from the mob. At that time the Jews fled from Tabriz.
A somewhat similar affair occurred in Oroomiah in Dr. Perkins's time. A Mohammedan infant was found dead before a Jew's door. The latter was accused of murder and arrested. The Mohammedans collected in an angry mob, and for several days surrounded the governor's palace, demanding that all the Jews should be put to death. To appease the mob, the Jew was delivered to them, beheaded, and burned.
In Meshed, the ancient Tus, the Jews have resided for centuries. It was one of their rabbis who made the first Persian version of any part of the Bible in the eighth or tenth century. They continued there near the sacred shrine of the Emaum Reza, until several decades ago a report was spread that the Jews had killed a dog in ridicule of the ceremonies of the Festival of Sacrifice. A mob rose, killed a Jew, tore down some of their dwellings, and finally gave the Jews the alternative of Islam or the sword. In fear of death they accepted an outward profession of Islam.
At Balfurush, in Mezanderan, in 1866, a massacre of Jews occurred. * The cause was, perhaps, a lack of rain. For this an efficacious remedy was supposed to be the disinterment and scattering broadcast of the dust * See Mormsey's "Through the Caucasus and Persia."
TJ[]I JBWI IN PBlUIIJ.•
of a Jew. For some unknown cause the Mussulmans rose one night, set fire to the Jewish quarter, and killed eighteen men and six women. Two of the men were besmeared with petroleum and burnt alive. The rest, to the number of four hundred and fifty, escaped to the woods. The British Minister made representations for redress. The Shah gave orders for the punishment of the culprits, and indemnifying the Jews j but the mollahs rose in their wrath that anyone should be punished for injuring a dog of a Jew. Popular fanaticism rose high in Teheran. An attack on the British Legation and on foreigners in general was even contemplated. The Shah was alarmed by the agitation, and to appease the mollahs dis· missed some French army officers from his service. Finally the Jews were partially indemnified for their losses.
In November, 1892, I was in Hamadan during a reign of terror for the Jews. 'Wishing to find a cause for the cholera, the Mohammedans turned their wrath upon the Jews, an ambitious mollah instigating the attack. Several Jews were seized and beaten. The mollah commanded that the Jews should wear a distinctive cloak, should have a badge of red on their coats, should not come out on rainy days, should dismount until a passing Mussulman went by j that Jewish women should wear black veils, and houses of Jews not be higher than those of their Mussulman neighbors. Some of the Jews took refuge with nobles, others fled to the telegraph office and appealed to the Shah and the English Legation. A crowd of Mussulmans shouting, "Ya Ali ! Ya Ali !" surrounded the refugees and threatened them, so that a dozen were frightened into accepting Islam. The Jews in Bagdad hearing of the disturbances, appealed to their friends in England. Lord Rosebery made inquiries concerning the affair. The Shah sent word that the mollah should come to Teheran. A month of confusion followed. Once the police seized the mollah. A frenl'ied crowd attacked the governor, looted his house, and killed a servant. It then turned toward the Jewish quarter, crying, "Kill the Jews!" The gate of their quarter was closed and the Jews escaped.
One young Jewish convert, who is a pupil in the school, was surrounded by some Mussulmans and pressed to become a Mussulman. He stood his ground as a Christian, and afterward gave before the governor the reasons for his faith.
After a while the mollah was taken to Teheran, and the Jews were again in peace.
These incidents do not show the continual state of the Jews, but they well indicate the continual attitude of the people toward them. Continual watchfulness is necessary on the part of the government, as there is no moment when fanaticism may not direct its attacks against the Jews. The Shah always tries to protect them from such attacks and oppressions.
Thus situated, it is no wonder that the Jews have a downcast mien and abject manner. They live apart from all, and not only hate, but no doubt despise their oppressors. They largely maintain their laws of food. I
'740 THE JEWS IN" PERSIA
invited a Salmas Jew to send bis boy to our Tabriz boarding-school. He replied that God had commanded the Jews not to eat the l-read of other races. Some Jewish doctors were invited to the wedding of our teacher in Zenjan. Separate dishes of natural products, as honey and fruits and bread prepared by one of their own race, were set before them. They gave thanks to God both before and after the meal. It is only lately and with difliculty that they have at last yielded their prejudice in Teheran and Hamadan, and pupils have begun to eat with their companions of other races. The Jews of Persia always kill their own animals, -and cut the meat into bits in extracting the sinews and veins from it. They are particular about the condition of the meat. If they find the liver diseased, they will eat none of the animal. Armenians, who are not so particular, sometimes buy such a butchered cow for one dollar.
Christians in Persia somewhat reciprocate the feeling of the Jews toward them. I took lodging in Sonjbulak in a Jew's house, much to the astonishment of the Armenians. They did not want me to drink milk furnished by Jews, saying it was unclean. Our evangelist for the .Jews in Sonjbulak told me that his innate feeling of aversion to Jewish food was so great that when he first plucked up courage to eat it, it stuck in his throat.
The Jews are limited in their occupations. Very few, if any, are farmers. Many sell dry goods in the bazaar or peddle them in the villages. Some are goldsmiths and jewellers, and dealers in antiques, real and false. A considerable number are physicians, sometimes celebrated, and the Mussulmans who refuse their food will take their medicines. In Hamad,n there are about one hundred Jewish doctors, and many more druggists. Many of them are liquor-sellers, and are themselves much addicted to drink.
On other points of morality they differ little from the rest of the population. They are polygamists, as the Mohammedans, and with the same results. They are very strict in keeping their Sabbath. They will not light a fire on that day, but will hire a Mussulman to do it for them. Some say that Sabbath-breaking is the sin for which they are suffering. They look for a national return to their own land, when they shall rule over the nations. Their schools are taught by their rabbis. Most of the men can read Hebrew, though they do not understand it perfectly. Their spoken language is an Aramaic akin to the Syriac. They speak also either Persian, Kurdish, or Turkish, according to the language spoken in the region in which they reside. They best understand the Persian Bible in the Hebrew character.
(To be C01IIJlud«l.)
HI88ION.A.BY JilFFOBT AND THE NESTOBIAN CHUBCH. '741
RELATION OF THE PROTESTANT MISSIONARY EFFORT TO THE NESTORIAN CHURCH.* BY REV. WILLIAM A. SHEDD, OROOMIAH, PERSIA.
It is generally known that the purpose of Protestant mIssIonaries among the Nestorians was at first to reform the old church, or rather to revIve spiritual life within that body. Various causes prevented the reali- zation of this effort in the manner and to the extent anticipated, and the missionaries have striven to establish an evangelical church, scriptural in constitution and spiritual in life. The change has been gradual, not sud- den, and the' relation of the old and the reformed Churchmen has never been that of bitter hostility, except in individual cases. The old Church is the mother Church, and the history and traditions of the past are rightly cherished by all. Within the last ten years a new force has come into the field, which is doing much to rear a wall of partition and to excommu- nicate and place reformed Christians under the ban. The old Church is persistently warned against the errors and schism of Protestant heresy by the members of the mission of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Just as far as possible, directly and indirectly, by precept and by example, in ser- mons, in teaching, through Nestorian ecclesiastics, the old Church is being , fortified against Protestant influences. This is simply a statement of fact based on daily increasing evidence.
'Vhat right Anglicans have to pose as the exponents of Nestorianism or Englishmen to represent the long descent of Assyrian Christianity is not easy to comprehend. They are unable to commune in the Nestorian Church, for she is, from the High Church point of view, the most venerable schismatic in Christendom, and yet forsooth t.hey offer themselves as her stanch defenders. Our right to preach the Gospel of repentance and life to those who call themselves Syrian Christians and our duty to do so are based on the great command, not only to baptize, but also to teach men to do.
I shall attempt briefly to discuss the question before us, viewing suc- cessively the old Church itself, the Reformed Church, and the Protestant missionaries from abroad.
1. The Old Ohurch. The theology of this ancient Church of the East iii, of course, Nicene, with the addition of the Nestorian definition of the relation between the human and Divine natures in the incarnate Son of God. Definite and logical development has not gone much farther, due partly to the character of the Syriac mind, impulsive in initiative and often vigorous in execution, but not constructive of either theological or ecclesiastical system. Another reason, perhaps the principal one, is that the vital conJiict of this church • A paper read at the Conference filf Mi~~ionarie8 to Persia, Hamadan, September, 1894. •
UroB'l' UD THE NESTOBUN CIIUlWR
has not been with heresy or variations of Christian doctrine, but with heathenism and Islam. On most theological questions, except the person of Christ, the Trinity, and the authority of apostolic and Old Testament Scriptures, a diversity of opinion is found in their literature. For example, transubstantiation is both affirmed and denied. There is, however, a practical tendency to replace simple faith in the crucified and risen Saviour with some sort of sacerdotal mediatorship. Still stronger is the tendency to trust to legal works instead of living faith. The fast is the greatest Christian institution, votal offerings and pilgrimages to shrines are most important auxiliaries. The priesthood of the clergy in succession to the Levitical priesthood is recognized, but the name commonly used to designate the clergy is not priest, but elder (qasha or qa8hi8ha), the New Testament presbyter. The sacrament holds a high place in popular regard, aod yet the fact that there is no confessional deprives the priest of inquisitorial power. Vows to famous saints are trusted means of curing disease and procuring blessings. Religion is largely divorced from morals, and has little power of moral restraint. The clergy are no better than the common people in general morality. are more given to idleness, and possibly more generally demoralized by begging in Russia. The higher clergy (there being at present the patriarch, one metropolitan, and eight diocesan bishops) are, with a few exceptions, shamelessly venal, and in some instances of notoriously evil life. Two favorable points may be emphasized.
The authority of Scripture has never been impugned, and is a holy tradition of universal acceptance; nor is there any objection raised to the Scriptures in the vernacular. The old dispute of Cyril and Nestorius has been fought over again by every educated Nestorian for fourteen centuries; and the appeal is always to Scripture as against conciliar authority. The possession of a pure and ancient version is an additional advantage.
The true catholicity of the Nestorians is the second point-that is, if catholicity consists in the recognition of other Christians as members in the viilible body of Christ. How far this has been true in the past is a subject for historical research, but certainly Protestant missionaries have been recognized as true ministers administering valid ordinances. The only exceptions, if any, are within the past few years, when the invalidity of non-episcopal ordination has been preached by the archbishop'S mission.
The dangers threatening this old church are mainly two : disintegration and perversion•..
The terrible storm of persecution which broke out under the Mongol emperors at the close of the thirteenth century was followed by the deluge of blood and fire when Tamerlane swept over these lands. Troublous days followed, and when peace was in a degree restored under various Turkish and Persian dynasties, the two Syrian churches, Nestorian and Jacobite, were shattered wrecks. The story since is one of continual loss. Oppression and fighting have held the Christian population in check. There has been a constant but small secession to Islam. Rome has beell the
MISSIONARY EFFORT AND THE NESTORIAN CHURCH
great gainer. As early as the thirteenth century the Nestorian patriarch, Mar x:-abha11aha, acknowledged by letter the primacy of the Pope j in 1445 the Nestorians in Cyprus became Roman Catholics, and in the beginning of the stJventeenth century a large part of the Christians of Saint Thomas, in India, were won over. During the sixteenth century the disorganiza- tion of the Nestorian Church led to various rival patriarchs, who were not slow to recognize papal authority in the hope of securing their own. About 1580 the present line of patriarchs, from its beginning dynastic, gained the authority over the Nestorians in Persia and Kurdistan. If we may trust Roman historians, patriarchs of this line during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have acknowledged the authority of the Pope and renounced Nestorianism. In the region of Mosul the proselyting to Rome has gone on so successfully that to-day nine out of ten of the Nestorian churches south of the Kurdish Mountains are in the hands of the Roman Catholics. This same work, begun in Persia over two hundred years ago, has not met the same success. The inaccessibility of Persia, and still more of Kurdistan, which have been ecclesiastically joined, is one reason, but not the chief one. French monks came to Oroomiah fifty years ago, but it was too late. They had now to meet not only Nestorians, but American Protestants, -the most watchful defenders against Rome. The struggle is not yet over, for Catholicism on the south is pressing to enter the mountain valleys of Kurdistan. Three years ago (1892) beyond question the Chaldean patriarch, subject to the Pope, had bargained for the submission of the Nestorian patriarch. The scheme was frustrated by an American missionary.
The condition of affairs in Turkish Kurdistan and Armenia is a most terrible disintegrating influence. Recent events have illustrated the misrule and anarchy more vividly than words, and leave little occasion for remark. Suffice it to say that extinction and ruin threaten most imminently.
A thir~ such influence emanates from Russia. The Greek Church has shown little concern for the Nestorian Church, but for half a century Russia has been open to Nestorian laborers and beggars from Persia. The former have supported their people very largely, the latter have demoralized them. Many thousands of roubles have been gathered from the superstitious Christians of Russia by beggars, working on their pious credulity in the name of shrines and churches with the aid of pretended relics. Long absence from home, often years at a time, and vicious habits contracted in a wandering life, have been the cause of an alarming increase of transgressions of the seventh commandment. The ill-gotten wealth, spent in extravagance and gluttony, has impoverished rather than enriched. The shameless blasphemy and sacrilege of these adventurers have gone far to destroy the simple faith of the people. Canting hypocrites in Russia at home are cynical scoffers. A chief source of revenue to the bishops in Oroomiah is the ordination of priests and deacons, that they. may beg more successfully, The old church alone cannot withstand this evil influence. In the conllict with Rome the higher ecclesiastics have again and again proved traitors j and the ignorant and superstitious people have been tho conserva- tive force. The archbishop's mission will do something to preserve the fabric of the Church, and most effectively in so far as it is a purifying power. Theirs is a helping hand held out to this tottering, falling sister church, and may God guide their efforts. They are ne~essarily and 'in loyalty to their principles under manifest limitations.
1. Moral reform is subordinated to ecclesiastical reform. 1£ the Church's life is its legitimacy, like a decrepit dynasty, thiil is right j but if the Church's charter is its life, it is wrong. The Anglican mission must either reform the bishops or effect moral reform under immoral bishops. A distinction is made between spiritual authority and spiritual character which is destructive of righteousness.
2. Emphasis is placed on conservatism. The life, the faithful endurance, the bold testimony, the zealous evangelizing, these are the glory of the old Nestorian nation-and these are lost. The old rituals are doubtless full of spiritual truth, but.the archbishop's mission prefer, in their zeal for the old forms, to hide the truth in an unknowll. tongue rather than print them in the vernacular.
3. The doctrinal reform cannot be more evanielical than the mission. This is a truism, but implies much. Loyalty to their conception of Christianity will compel a doctrinal reform. Nestorianism must be obliterated, and St. Cyril substituted for St. Nestorius. That old controversy is dead, and the name signifies little. More than this, the doctrinal reform means impressing on the old Church in fixed form the doctrines of sacramenta· rianism and sacerdotalism. Much can doubtless be found in Nestorian practice and teaching to support these errors, but they have been tindencies rather than dogmas. To impress this old Church with nineteenthcentury High Church Anglicanism is a perversion of her doctrines, a narrowing of her historic catholicity, and leads her to the schism of cutting herself off from other members of Christ's body. When a bishop of the old Church, a man of pure character, at his own request communed with Protestants, he was said by an Anglican priest to have taken part in " a blasphemous mockery." The past few years have been marked in Oroomiah by a revival of masses for the dead, a practice of late years fallen into discredit.
From such a source can we hope for reform, or must we expect the entrenchment of error'
II. The Reformed Ohurch. The first duty of the Reformed Church is to exemplify the Gospel of Christ. A strong, pure, loving Church of Christ will do morEl to hring about a reform in the old Church than any other rower. Let us emphasize the adjectives, strong in loyalty to truth and in its proclamation j pure in that life which is the characteristic of tho kingdom of heaven j loving in her conduct to aU, especially those who love the Master. The first duty is example.
The second duty is clear and unwavering protest. This, I take it, must be threefold and not entirely against the mother Church.
There is, first, the protest for morals, against the unrebuked evil in the old Church, against the bloody hands that receive the broken bread, the lips filled with revilings and foulness that are raised to His cup, the avarice that sells for gain the offices of God's Church, the unspeakable hypocrisy that uses holy things to coyer schemes of lying beggary.
There is the protest against false doctrine, against sacerdotalism and sacramentarianism binding God's free grace to men and rites, against Rome with her great high-priest on earth. This protest is not against the old Church as much as her self-appointed guardians.
There is,finally, the protest against formalism. Some years ago a Christian, to escape punishment for a kinsman's crime, became a Moslem. Authority was obtained for him to return to his own faith. "How can I~" he exclaimed, "I have eaten the great fast." Fasting is to multitudes the chief evidence and exercise of Christianity. It must also be a protest against unintelligible worship and ignorant ministers.
The Reformed Church must be a Protestant church. A third duty is that of nationalloyaIty. The true inheritor of the missionary spirit that inspired the fathers of this people is the Evangelical Church. Her sons have been the pioneers of missionary labor in this age, and from her sons in large measure must be expected the evangelization of Persia.' She is also the inheritor of the love and loyalty to God's Word shown by the Fathers. The best loyalty is devotion to the highest national ideal, and the past of this people is full of glorious aspirations. Herein lies a danger. Experience is showing us that breaking from old ties is too often the loosening of all ties, that the past is despised and not honored. There needs also to be a loyalty to the present duties and needs, a recognition of national unity and common sympathy. None have been more ready than our Protestant brethren to bear common burdens and to honor those who are in positions of honor. The patriarchal house in its civil functions has been frankly acknowledged and cheerfully honored by the Protestant Churchmen. III. The Missionaries from Abroad. The fundamental principle is that missionari8S are sent· to the whole people, not to the Evangelical Church alone j indeed, to all the peoples. While Christian equality seems best exemplified by our becoming members and ministers of the Evangelical Church, we must keep ourselves free from partisan animus. Neither our personal activities nor the missionary ;nstitutions must be confined to a section of the people. Our medical work is without any race or religious limitations whatever. Our educational work benefits many hundreds outside the Evangelical Church. Our literature is
DIVEBSITY OF OPJDU.TIONS IN TO MISSION FIELDS
by no means confined in its inll.uence to the Protestants. All this must be maintained, and if possible increased.
We need a fuller knowledge of the old Church and a deeper sympathy with its peculiar trials and dangers. Superstitions, old customs, and traditions are elements in the life of the people which we need to understand. Furthermorfl, we are losing in some measure an inll.uence of the highest importance in not making more use of the past as an incentive to present achievement. Martyrology, in spite ofits extravagances, has been a power in the Church everywhere. Such a martyr history as that of Mar Shimon bar Saha'ee, killed by the Sassanian king Shapor, is too precious to be forgotten. Scholarship is fostered· by the memories of former scholars, and this nation has many honorable names. We have no more right to doubt God's providence in the past than in the present, and the history of one's own nation is a book of God to him.
It may seem to be a strange Providence that has brought us children of the New World, even by our Old WorId ancestry only a few centuries removed from barbarism, to be the guides of this old apostol!c Church and ancient people. May God give us the wisdom to lead them aright, and to be warned and encouraged by the lessons of the past. May we and our generation be worthy of those who once before gave the Gospel to these lands, often sealing their testimony with their blood. Every one of the missionary stations in Persia was a bishop'S seat in the old Church of the East, Ispahan, Ramadan, Rhages (Teheran), Tabriz, Salmas, and Oroomiah j while Bagdad and Mosul were successively patriarchal cities. May the time soon come when everyone of the many other places where the banner of Christ was once raised may be made strongholds of truth and righteousness.
DIVERSITY OF OPERATIONS IN THE MISSION FIELD.
BY REV. D. L. LEONARD.
if mISSIonary zeal is to be according to knowledge, and so prove worthy and lasting, it must have length and breadth as well as depth, and facts are the fuel upon which this celestial flame must be fed. Let one, informed only concerning the doings of his own denomination, enlarge his field of vision sufficiently to include the entire evangelizing activities of Christendom, and an astonishing revelation will ensue. His little island is at once transformed into a continent, a universe crowded with strange phenomena. Row exceedingly complex the nndertaking, which before seemed so simple! What a heterogeneous mass of conditions to be taken in hand! All this we might well expect when we recall that multitudinous sects are engaged iu telling the glad tidings, and each with its marked idiosyncrasies of opinion, conviction, and ruling tastes i and remember also that heathen humanity is represented by peoples intellec-
DIVERiITY OJ' OnKATIOHI DIi TIlE KIIIilOH J'DU.DI. '14'1
tuallyas far apart as Eskimo, Hottentots, Pariahs, Brahmans, and lapsnese. A glance at this much-embracing realm may help to understand how mnch more is required for the world's redemption than the mere sending of a host of fervid souls to go up and down through pagan lands, by word of mouth declaring to the perishing millions the way of life opened by the sacrifice of the Son of God.
First, all to the matter of organization for the carrying on of missionary operations. It was Carey's idea that the task of proclaimwg Christ to the nations should be taken in hand, not by monarchs, or by ecclesiastical bodies as such, but rather by societies formed for this expreas purpose, and controlled by those who longed for the universal coming of the kingdom. The Moravians are unique at this point, since they make the furtherance of missions the reason for their existence as a church. Some denominations appoint mission boards and control their action. Curiously, the great English Establishment bears no direct part in Christianizing the nations, but all planning and performing are left to Churchmen who co-operate with the Church Missionary Society, the Propagation Society, the Universities' Mission, etc. In certain cases a close corporation hali entire control, while in others a single individual is supreme. And when it comes to details of management, the fashions are almost as numerous as the sects. For example, almost a treatise would be required to set forth the relations existing between the various woman's societies and the " parent" organizations.
It sometimes happens that a single fundamental principle will characterize an entire mission, like self-support. Carey's scheme was that, as soon as possible after arriving at the field appointed, he and his companions must needs in some way secure their own living. This is also the conviction of Bishop Taylor among others. The common conception, however, is that the herald of the Gospel can be engaged in far better business than "pending his time and strength in earning his daily bread. There are" faith missions" also, of various kinds and degrees, shading off from Hudson Taylor's China Inland Mission, which constitutes one of the chief evangelizing forces at work in that vast field, through the East London Institute, Bishop Taylor's, the Missionary Alliance, to certain. Swedish and other bodies, of which nothing commendatory can as yet be wisely said. Of all these the idea is not to solicit funds, to seek no certain income, and to make no pledges of salary. " Faith-healing," too, seems to be a natural concomitant. Industrial missions constitute another class. For these tracts of land are required, shops and machinery, the teaching of trades, etc. Commerce and merchandising are in order to supply funds. In tropical countries, and among sarage tribes, it would seem to be necessary to teach industry and impart mechanical skill. It was largely in this way that William Duncan, at Metlakahtla, has been able to work such wonders of transformation.
Unfortunately, even yet not everybody is able to see just how" mil-
DIVERSITY OJ/' OPERATIONS IN TB1!l MIlstON FIELDS
sionary money" can be expended for spelling-books and arithmetics without robbing God. The time is sho~t, the emergency is so great that we have no time to educate. Let us send forth great hosts of evangelists. Or if schools must needs be, who shall be admitted ~ Heathen children, or only those whose parents are Christian? And how much" secular" knowledge shall be bestowed? In aU this there is wide diversity in opinion and practice. Some societies have ·no place for the school-teacher, and others again lay spch emphasis upon education as almost to cast into the background matters lying much nearer to the realm of the heart and conscience. Happy indeed are they who keep the spiritual and the intellectual each in its place, and in proper balance j but alas for him whose soul does n.ot kindle as he ponders upon the sublime achievements wrought for the Gospel by such institutions as Lovedale, Robert College, and the Doshisha !
Then there are medical missions, or rather medical missionaries are in ever-increasing demand. But what I Shall we turn away from ministering to diseased souls, and stoop to caring for the bodily aches and pains of humanity? Even yet in societies not a few the physician is conspicuous by his absence. Others commission him, though without enthusiasm, and because such is the fashion, or because other missionaries may need his services j while yet others set great store by hospitals and dispensaries. Surely at this point it should be enough to justify and even to compel, that the Saviour of the world was the Great Physician as well as the Great Preacher. But, besides, the fact is thoroughly established that there is no more effectual method of reaching the indifferent and prejudiced soul than by relieving suffering and healing disease. Salvation is also meant to restore to wholeness the entire man.
At least until recently there has been diversity of opinion as to the length and breadth of woman's sphere as a missionary. By the fathers she was regarded mainly, if not wholly, as an adjunct, a helpmeet to the man. The Germans believe most heartily in missionaries' wives, but have slight occupation for unmarried women. Most American and British societies regard it an advantage for men to be married, though also according to women without husbands a large and honorable place. The Universities' Mission to East Africa, however, tolerates only the celibate of either sex. But probably, on the whole, at no point has missionary development been more marked during this generation than just here; and whether we regard the thoroughness and vigor of organization, the amount of interest excited and of money gathered, and the increase of laborers in the foreign field.
Neither is there any agreement as to what constitutes fitness for evangelizing work in foreign lands, what grade of intellect, what degree of education shall be required. Probably the standard is highest in the United States, though even here there is wide diversity of judgmel:t and practise. With some the noblest specimeils of cultured manhO<.)i and womanhood are eagerly sought, while for preachers a college and seminary course is required. With others much less care is taken in selecting, and almost anybody with a proper spiritual experience will pass muster. European societies commission a far larger proportion of persons possessed of only average natural abilities and education. Self·supporting missions and industrial missions readily make room for those whose skill is in the hand rather than in the brain. Besides, the world is wide, the unevangelized range all the way from savagery which approaches the bestial, to lofty attainments in intelligence and refinement. And hence, though in a sense there is room somewhere for every humblest disciple who longs to help hasten the day when the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God, it still remains that in every field learning and the qualities of generalship and statesmanship are imperatively demanded.
This further question is yet under debate. To what countries is the missionary called to go, or who are the proper subjects' for his pray~r and toil 1 Clearly, to all lands where Christ is not known, and to all classes both high and low. And the queer Moravians actually prefer tribes that are most degraded and wretched. As clearly, also, to Mohammedans and Jews. Yes, and most would add, Roman Catholics and all other corrupt churches; and hence Austria, Italy, the Spanish-American States are visited, arid a pure Gospel is taken to Copts, Armenians, and the like. Here probably most would draw the line, though several societies go further and sustain missions in Lutheran Germany, Scandinavia, etc. At the extreme in this direction are certain rilects whose" missionary" zeal is wholly expended upon Great Britain and the United States, and in proselyting to the utmost from their brethren of every name. Since some 800,000,000 of the human family are perishing in the darkness of utter paganism, this proceeding would seem to be a case of missions gone stark mad.
One of the burning questions in the foreign field, as well as at home, relates to what constitutes fitness for baptism. The conclusions are various. The Baptists, of course, administer the ordinance only to adults who give evidence of conversion, while others would include such and their children. The continental societies make much of catechizing in the doctrines and church rites, and count those Christians who pass an examination, while the Methodists with their system of probation are ready to count as brethren any who desire to flee from the wrath to come. Some who are soundly orthodox believe that mass-baptism, baptism by the wholesale, is in order in certain cases, as when whole communities cast away their idols and put themselves under Christian instruction. Ah, what wisdom is required to decide just how far to go in meeting such poor souls whose faces are turned toward the light !
Can it be that not all missionary bodies require their representatives to preach and practise total abstinence from all that intoxicates! In this country those who come short at this point are few and far between.
'750 emTIOIfXI Olf 'I'D ORltI8TUN b»….VOlt CON'YDTIOlf
Aeroo the sea. also a large number are just 8S scrupulous; but yet, accord. ing to credible rumor, there are societies still retaining the conviction that alcohol is nece888ry for the stomach's sake, and so despatch regularly invoices thereof as a portion of the supplies required for the furtherance of the Lord's work.
It is worth while to take note how societies differ as to size and strength. While a few have attained to mammoth proportions, the many possess but a limited treasury, a little group of laborers, and a handful of converts. The English Church Society is the greatest, with an income of ,1,500,000, and an army of men and women scattered all the world over. The American Baptists can count 115,000 communicants, , and the London Society almost 95,000, with 125,000 pupils in the schools.
And, finally, no society is equally successful in every field. If here great successes are won, then over there certain fields stony and barren are likely to be discovered. The American Board can point to the Sand. wich Islands, the English Wesleyans to Fiji, and the London Society to Madagascar. The Baptists have beheld wonders among the Telugus and Kar.ns, but not among the Burmans, while over against the frnitful Northwest Conference of India the Methodists must set Bulgaria with its years of sowing much and reaping next to none. In every case, such are the wisdom and goodness of God, with succe!l8es enough to inspire, are mingled failures sufficient to keep the saints humble and prayerful.
Thus in missions as elsewhere it is "many men of many minds." The tremendous problem is perplexing because so complex, composed of such a heterogeneous mass of facts. Countless experiments must be tried, that proving all things the good may be held fast. No single denomination is in possession of the wisdom required to couquer the whole world for Jesus. And when any disciples in His name undertake to cast out the devils of paganism, we are not at liberty to " forbid them because they follow not us," our ideas, our convictions, our methods of work. Paul W&8 made all things to all men, that by all means he might save some.
CRITICISMS ON THE CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR CONVENTION.
BY UT. JAMES M. GltAY, BOSTON.
Now that the Christian Endeavor Convention is over, it is very notable how much is Mid in commendation of it and how little criticism of any kind is heard. Concerning the latter, however, the question is being raised in some quarters as to whether so great a gathering pays. It is estimated that the Boston convention cost, in round numbers, .1,000,000 ; might not this sum have been expended to better purpose in the Lord's cause' Fifty or sixty thousand enthusiastic young people collected together at one time and in one place, bent on Christian culture and ser·
18915.] CBITICI8H8 Ol'f TBIl CBlUITUN ENDEATOR CONVENTION. '751
vice, is an impressive and valuable demonstration before the world, and there can be no question also but that it has its effect upon the young people themselves, and through them upon the work of the churches they represent. But did the average individual delegate obtain as much, either of instruction or inspiration, as he would bad he been able to hear better, or to get nearer the heart of things, or had his attention and interests been less divided by other powerful attractions incident to such an occasion? This is not a question for Christian Endeavorers only to consider, but appertains also, for example, to the Baptist Young People's Union, whose convention, more recently concluded in Baltimore, is open to something of the same criticism. Could these great conventions be divided into three or four parts, and held in as many different locations, and could their officers and principal speakers be conveyed from one place to another after the manner of the bishops who preside over the Methodist conferences, might not the expense be very much less and the benefit proportionally more?
Speaking of the great size of these conventions, another inquiry is being heard as to whether it has not a tendency to beget a trust in numbers, or rather a trust in men, instead of the power and grace of God. And if this be put aside, then there is the other thought, that so large a concourse makes great demands upon the commercial world for financial help and upon the political world for civic recognition, which give to the convention or the movement a semi-secular tone, if they do not necessitate a spirit of compromise on certain critical questions of public moment.
Moreover, the success of such mighty gatherings means the perfection of organization and machinery of a certain kind; and while every one admits the value and importance of both, yet there are true friends of the movement who deprecate the utterance of one of its representatives that "Christian Endeavor stands for organization." This cannot be true. Christian Endeavor should stand, and we believe it does stand, before everything else for spiritual life. But organization is not life. To quote the suggestive words of one of the critics we have in mind: "The organization, rules, and practices of the Christian Endeavor may have been the expression of an ardent and devoted life j but the mere adoption of these expressions wm never produce that life, and the too rigid adherence to them or the too great dependence upon them may be a hindrance rather than a help to the desired end." While this criticism bears rather upon the society itself than its convention, yet the latter is what it is only because of the nature of the society.
The convention which has just closed gave a powerful impulse to the subject of good citizenship as one of the principles of the Endeavor movement. Indeed, before the convention met, at the preliminary meetings of the great chorus, the speeches that were heard bore chiefly upon that topic, the addresses of welcome climaxed upon it, some of the Ressions of the convention were charged to the very full with the electricity of patriotism, and tho pilgrimages that followed it to points of historic interest gave a culmination to " Boston '95" that must make it memorable as the great " civic" convention. Every true Christian citizen must rejoice over this. Moreover, it seems the most likely thing imaginable that a real revival of religion such as Christian Endeavor is should result in purer primaries, in better legislators and legislation, and in the more thorough execution of righteous laws. But it is just here again that a danger signal is raised. Can young Christians have their attention turned and their energies en- gaged with such persistency and power toward the betterment of their earthly citizenship without in some degree detracting from their apprecia- tion of that which is from above 1 In other words, if more attention be paid to the cultivation and development of their own inner IIpiritual life, will not that be the better way of promoting good citizenship in both direc- tions 1 There is in this city an institution known as the Sunday Patriotic Meetings. It dates back to the time, in 1888, when there was a great uprising of the communi/;y against an attempt on the part of the papal hierarchy to dictate the policy of our public schools. These meetings were then begun on Sunday afternoons in one of the largest places of assembly, for the purpose of educating the people in the history and plans of the Church of Rome as a political machine. They have been continued ever since with immense audiences, and at times manifesting the most intense enthusiasm. But many who were interested in them at the first have come to see that they have taken the place of religion to a large ,proportion of their regular attendants; they are the only church they attend, the only worship they engage in, and practically the sum and substance of the gos- pel which they know. To be an intelligent and consistent opponent of the papacy is to have a clear title to a mansion in the skies. Those who have passed through a temperance revival have met with the same phase of ex- perience, and have found scores of otherwise very intelligent people who • believed that total abstinence was not only the chief good in the present time, but that merit which had the all-inclusive claim on the time to come. It is suspected and feared in some quarters that the enthusiasm for good citizenship in Christian Endeavor may work: somewhat in a similar direc- tion unlellS most carefully watched and guarded. Of course it is not alISumed that it is not carefully watched and guarded. The criticisms which the writer has heard and read, in other words, are not those of ene- ' mies of Christian Endeavor seeking in some way to weaken its hold upon the young people of our churches, but sincere and sympathetic friends, in some sense leaders in the movement, who speak of these things chiefly in the hope of awakening each individual society to exercise special care and supplicate special grace on account of them.
In my own judgment, God Himself, who has originated this movement and is directing it, has in this last convention provided a safety-valve of escape from many of these anticipated dangers. I find this in the engage- ment of Endeavorers in evangelistic effortS. The different conventions have seemed in their particular features to mark a progress or development in the principles and work of the movement as well as in its numbers. At first consecration and loyalty to Christ and the Church were insisted on, then special attention was called to the duty of foreign missions, then came good citizenship, which we have seen culminating in this convention in a mighty patriotic impulse ; but side by side with the consideration of this last subject in the present gathering, there has been an aggressive movement for souls which marks an advance upon the work of any convention hitherto. Not only were the noon meetings at Faneui! Hall and Bromfield Stre~t Church filled to overflowing with audiences who came to hear the great evangelists, but the young men and women of the convention themselves went everywhere preaching the Word. They visited the wharves and lumber-yards, the stores and engine-houses, the factories and lanndries, bringing the glad tidings to thousands of needy souls at the same time that they were training themselves and stimulating their appetites for more of such work in their own respective localities. Dr. Duff once said that the e~angelistic Church would be the evangelical Church. He might have added also that it would be the holy Church. Practical work for souls not' only makes for sound doctrine, but consistent living. Let the Endeavor conventions henceforth seek more and more for the evangelization of the cities in which they meet, and the reflex benefit upon every society represented will be the best that their truest friends can desire.
There was just one feature of this convention that the writer of these lines would deprecate, and that was the tendency to speak jocularly of older people, and to intimate that if it had not been for this uprising of the young people all our churches would have been dead and buried. There is such a"thing as pressing a truth like that too far. When the once noted theologian and revivalist, Dr. Lyman Beecher, was too aged to engage longer in regular employment, he removed to Brooklyn and attended the ministry of his more famous son, Henry Ward. One Sabbath morning, as the congregation was retiring, he heard them praising the sermon and the preacher in, the most exalted terms, and turning round when he reached the vestibule he shook his finger at them, and with a merry twinkle in his eye exclaimed, "Ah, if it hadn't been for me you'd never had him 1" It is certainly not only bad taste but bad judgment, as well as bad religion, for Christian Endeavor to make too many comparisons to its own advantage at the expense of the Church to which it is almost entirely indebted.
But critics may say what they please about the Boston convention, it was, nevertheless, a great demonstration. It was a great demonstration of the fact that yonng people are now coming to the front in religion, as they have long been coming to the front in other lines of thought and action. Such a convention makes it very much easier to present the subject of personal religion to a young man or woman of your acquaintance than if it had never occurred. It was a great demonstration of the life and power of the Gospel. These young people bore witness to something
THE LATEST BLOW TO THE AFRICAN SLAVE POWER
different from the Unitarian cultus of Boston. Theirs was an infallible Bible, a salvation of grace, a Divine Saviour. Theirs was a faith that awakened a lively and unselfish interest in the lost. Theirs was a faith that begat a life and walk of righteousness. A great army of youth entering a city within forty-eight hours of one another, and not a keg of beer or cask of wine added to any cellar, not an extra chair placed in any gambling-room, not an additional ticket sold at any low theatre, no brothel made richer by them, no low rough crowd following them, no uncouth manners or bad actions seen in them, no increase in the number of arrests on their account-a decrease rather of thirty-three per cent! Boston entertained the flower of the world for one week when it entertained the Endeavor convention. Evil was out of harmony with these young people, and yet they had a happy time. They sang continually in the houses, and on the streets, and in the cars, as well as in the hall and tents. Wherever they went the richest laughter fell. upon the ear. There was a peculiar urbanity about them, a winsomeness in their Christianity, as another expressed it, which has left a most delightful impression on the whole city. Yes, and this convention was a great demonstration of anotherfact, namely, the power of a Divine idea lodged by the Holy Ghost in the heart and brain of a consecrated Christian man.. This Christian Endeavor movement is of God. There can be no doubt of this when we consider its origin, its character, its development, and its results. No man, no hundred men can account for it. And yet God was pleased to use a man in bringing it into being. How this thought exalts our human personality! It is the truth that is to convert the world and conquer it for Jesus Christ, but truth incarnated, truth dwelling in men, borne witness to by men, lived out in the lives of men. As one thinks of what has been accomplished by this religious movement among the young people of our generation, and what its possibilities are, he may well ask, who would not be a man, sanctified and surrendered, for God to use ~ THE LATEST BLOW TO THE AFRICAN SLAVE POWER.
BY REV. JAMES JOHNSTON, DARWEN, LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND.
Another crushiug defeat has been delivered to the slave traders in Nyassaland. By the intrepidity of Acting Commissioner Sharpe, Kawinga, a notorious human hunter and terror to his peaceful neighbors, has been chivalrously resisted and defeated. So far back as 1859, when Livingstone explored the Nyassa regions, this same chief, then known as Kainka, belonging to the Yao race of slavers, was in the habit of harrying the Mauganja tribes, and of his ravages Livingstone wrote graphic and thrilling narratives. Kawinga has ever !lince been one of the most active slavers firmly intrenched on the southern and eastern shores of the lake. Part of the country of the Yaos lies in the northeastern corner of the British Cen- tral Africa protectorate and a greater portion within Portuguese territory, and over the entire district the slave trade has had a vigorous stronghold through unknown generations. Similarly Kawinga's own town, though covered by the British flag, has been a regular halting-place for slave cara- vans on their journeys from the slave fields of the interior to the Portu- guese settlements on the east coast. To rid himself of Kawinga and two or three minor chiefs holding effective positions, Commissioner Johnston, who has rendered valiant service against slave chiefs along the shores of Nyassa, was obliged to leave for India in order to recruit a few hundred Sikh soldiers for the accomplishment of his unavoidable militant object. Kawinga assumed that the commissioner's absence would afford a favorable opportunity for an assault on the protectorate. Happily this anticipation has been wholly frustrated.
The incessant energy of Commissioner Johnston in putting down slave operations around the lake, which has a length of 350 miles and a breadth averaging from 16 to 60 miles, roused Kawinga some time since to plan an attack on the Shire settlements to the south of his town. To effect this he determined last March to make war on Malemya (a chief under British protection), and, subsequently, to destroy the thriving Domasi mission station, for long years associated with the famous Blantyre missionary headquarters of the Church of Scotland. If success had attended Kawinga it meant an invasion of the whole of British Nyassa (looking southward) ; and, inasmuch as six chiefs rallied to his call and others were awaiting the results to share in the spoils, it is apparent that this perilous combination of slave raiding-chiefs would have swept away the promising civilizing colony from end to end. Unpleasant as it is to make use of the Angel of War as the forerunner of the Angel of Peace, the Acting Commissioner, Mr. Sharpe, bravely confronted his wily antagonist and proved a sufficient match. In the darkness of night Domasi, the branch of the Blantyre Mission lying to the southwest of Lake Shirwa, was assailed hy a tremendous force of native Yaos from different points, and, save for the gallantry of the Sikhs at hand and the traders acting under the directions of Messrs. Sharpe and Fletcher, Domasi and its surronndings would have been utterly lost. With considerable loss Kawinga was repulsed, and ultimately his pursuers, following up their advantage, took possession of his capital, the fugitive chief being obliged to find refuge across the Portuguese borders in the valley of the upper Lugenda River.
Had Domasi been captured by the Yaos, the Scotch missions and plantations on the Shire highlands, for the growth of which a quarter of a century of patient labor has been required, would have been levelled to the ground. If the defeat has not finally broken the back of the Yao slavers, it will enable the colonists to extend their activity northward unmolested and eventually abolish the old slave trade route around the south end of Nyassa. The passage of the slave traffic across the lake is impossible,
'156 THE LAW OF SPIRITUAL.HEREDITY
states Archdeacon Maples, of the Universities' Mission, now that the last. of the slave dhows is destroyed. On the arrival of Commissioner Johnston's reinforcements from India there will be no further dread of victorious slavers overunning Nyassaland. At an early day it may be expected that the country stretching to the distant north between Nyassa and Tanganyika will be equally cleared of Arabs, whose staple commodity is hnman flesh, and whose forays are stained by organized murder. By that achievement the slave trade in East Central Africa will have received a deadly blow. For its extirpation it would almost seem, as an authority has observed, that" of the slave trade it may be said, without extravagance, that there is nothing in African human nature which leads us to suppose that this abomination will eventually yield to any argument save force."
Meanwhile, the outlook over Nyassaland presents an encouraging prospect. Missionary and civilizing agencies exhibit a forward movement. Strangers unarmed are growingly trusted by the natives and welcomed as defensive allies. As a thoroughly interesting race of people, skilful in a variety of native trades and willing to adopt Western ideas and handicrafts, the Nyassa tribes are universally described. Nor is it anyexaggeration to say that for their moral, material, and spiritual salvation magnificent efforts have been made by men and women, mostly of Scotch ancestry, whose record makes an epic volume in the history of modern mlSSlOns. The standard of the cross has been unfurled on the sonth, north, east, and west, at many points of the silvery beach of Nyassa (the Lake of the Stars) by the ensigns of faith whose sanctified vocation it has been, as Whittier sings, to "Right the wronged and raise the weak."
THE LAW OF SPIRITUAL HEREDITY.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
Rev. J. Murray Mitchell, LL.D., tells how he once climbed to a mountain peak in the Western Ghats, in India, in search of the source of one of India's noblest rivers, the Godavari; and how at last the exploring party reached a spot where a few drops were trickling from the rocks, so few that for two or three seconds the whole stream was held in the hollow of the hand, and it needed but to scoop out a small channel to divert the stream in a new direction. From this small beginning the insignificant rill could be traced, descending the slope and gradually broadening. It flowed eastward toward the Bay of Bengal, widening, deepening, gathering volume and momentum, until it was the secret of fertility to tens of thousands of acres of otherwise barren desert.
That river is a parable of human life. "The king's heart is in the hands of the Lord, and He turneth it whithersoever He will." Is not that proverb a reference to the point in the stream of life, near the heart, out of which flow life's issues, and where character and destiny wait for a determining hand ~ And does not God put the mother at that point of power where the heart of the child-and every child is one of God's born kings-is in her hand to be turned whithersoever she will ~ Thackeray says, ' , We sow a thought, and we reap an act; we sow an act, and we reap a habit; we sow a habit, and we reap character; we sow a character, and we reap des1iny." What an awful responsibility when you or I have the opportunity to give direction to the thought, the aim, the desire, the motive from which conduct, habit, character, destiny spring!
No lesson of missions is more sublimely and pathetically grand than that which is taught us in the proof afforded by the lives of missionary heroes and heroines, of the power of a spiritual ancestl·y, of a faith first dwelling in a mother and a grandmother, and by a law of spiritual heredity descending to the son or daughter. It almost seems as if there were an inheritance, not of aptitudes only, but a legacy of character.
Ziegenbalg was trained to be Christ's pioneer in the East Indies, not first at Halle, under the saintly FrancH, but before that in the primary school of his own home, under the teachings of a mother who baptized her words with tears and hallowed them with prayers. In a humble hamlet near Dresden that consecrated mother was dying with a group of little ones about her, and being very poor she amazed them by saying, "A great treasure I have laid up for you-a very great treasure. Seek it, my children, in the Bible, and there you will find it. There is not a page which I have not wet with my tears. " One of those children was Bartholomew Ziegenbalg. And when after thirteen years of apostolic labor he passed away singing, "Jesus, my Confidence," it was his mother's treasure that had been his from childhood to the end.
In Sonnenberg, Germany, another holy woman Jay dying, and with her last breath confided to her weeping husband this whispered secret, "Our youngest son I have dedicated to God for such service as He shall appoint. Assure me that when he hears the Lord's call you will not discourage it." That lad was christened Friedrich Schwartz. Then, under Francke, at Halle, what his mother had begun in his heart received development, and Schwartz went home to announce to his father his conscious call from God to the career of a missionary in India. Then the father sought the dying chamber of that holy mother, and in that atmosphere, after three days of agony, gave up his boy to God. At twenty-three Schwartz sailed for India, where for forty-three years he did so grand a work that it may be well doubted whether any other man has so impressed that empire for good. Schwartz's name is to this day spoken with a sort of holy awe in India. This man, who lived in one room barely big enough for a bed and table, who was cook for himself and ate rice and other vegetables, and who spent less than seventy-five cents a day on his entire support, held a sceptre which swayed not only the common people, but princes and kings in their palaces.
The story of Zinzendorf, the Moravian bishop, is very familiar. His grandfather was a martyr in spirit, resigning his estates for the sake of Christ, and he was brought up by a grandmother and aunt who faithfully nursed his infant piety. At four years of age he covenanted with Jesus, "Be Thou mine, dear Saviour, and I will be Thine," and the simplehearted boy, yearning for communion with Jesus, used to write to Him little notes, un burdening his heart, and flinging them out the castle window to be found and read by Him. It was he who could say, "'One passion have I, and it is He, He alone j" it was he to whom any country was home and native land where Christ had need of him j he it was who would rather be hated for Jesus' sake than loved for his own. How little did the grandmother know that she was shaping the whole course of Moravian missions !
Alexander Duff, so famous in the history of missions in India, owed everything to his spiritual ancestry. Back to and through a former generation the subtle influences must be traced that ripened into the self-offering of this marvellous man, so that from the hour when he was led io care for his own soul he began to know a passion for the souls of others, and especially the heathen, that led him once for all irrevocably to devote himself to their salvation.
Samuel J. Mills is entitled, if any man is, to be called the father and founder of missions on this side of the oceltn. Though he died at sea, on to the African coast, and was never permitted enter fully upon the work for which he set himself apart, he had set in motion the springs of both home and foreign missionary effort and organization. A score of various forms of benevolence, wide as the United States, the continent, the world, owe to him their inspiration and encouragement, if not their origin. And yet that wonderful life whose lamp went out so early and yet wrought such marvels, was sealed with consecration to God and to missions before birth by a holy mother j and when Mills grew to boyhood and was yet unrenewed by the Spirit, and even blind to his own need of regeneration, it was his mother's prevailing prayer that on a definite morning caused him to be overwhelmed with a new sense of sin and guilt, and l~d him to a full surrender to a new master.
When the secrets are brought to light, what wonders will be revealed of parental influence, known only to God, shaping the character and lives of children !
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
n.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY BlIV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
The International Duel in the Far East. the fact that France and England con. stitute, either merchant or missionary, It is well to remember the severe their avant IXntreur. Either may afford strain put on some non-Christian na- occasion tor new foreign political comtions. So far as China is concerned, plications. The missionary may preshe stands chullenged to single-handed cipitate national disturbances as well combat against the combined nations of as the merchant. He is the picket of a Europe and America in their solidarity. new order of things. If we remember correctly, it was Hon. William B. Reed, as United States Pleni- Let us illustrate. The Republic of potentiary, who, now, nearly fifty years Liberia prohibits titles of property to ago, introduced into the treaty with any white man. She needs foreign China the" most favored nation" clause. capital and knows it ; but she knows, Perhaps the most penetrating diplomat too, that property investments by forof the world had little anticipation of eigners become, too frequently, the occathe ultimate result of that shrewd and sion of national strife. The Chinese apparently just demand. But what has know this as well as the black man of been the outcome? Every treaty-con- West Africa does. cession, however incidental or however ruinous to China's interests, made After having pigeon-holed for more amicably or at the cannon's mouth, to than a third of a century applications anyone of the European nations or to to allow titles to the Christians, and to that of the United States, is necessa- direct that the vendor who chooses to rily made to everyone of them. For lIell to them property be allowed to do so forty-five years all the Western powers unrestrained, the emperor has just now have been a unit as against China. 'fhe gazetted the governors that this must be duel is unequal. the order. At the same time, Christian missionaries are urging their govern- It is little wonder that the Chinese, ments to demand anew treatybywbich finding themsel ves in danger of being the foreign missionary or his society parcelled out, like Africa, into ,. spheres shall be granted the privilege of holding of influence" by Europeans, should titles, alleging as one reason, that if held grow increasingly restive In their pres- by the Ohinese Church the government ence. Millions in China have before may at any time confiscate their investthem the prospect of starvation during ments of foreign money. and their own the transition from the old industrial governments be powerless to demand and commercial conditions, to the new redress. It is just this that the Chinese ones which contact of foreigners is re- themselves know. We make now no sistlessly introducing. A million of argument, pro or con, but state the pro idle, pensioned ex-soldiers or their de- and con of this case as a mere illustrascendants organized about the gambling tion. Take as another illustration the den as a unit, are ever present to stir the following : The hcad and centre of the quiet people to riot that they may plun- anti-foreign agitation is the province of der. The ruling class, the literati, are Hunan. Thence issues indecent and always disposed to resist the presence strife.engendering literature against for· of foreigners' as liable to become the lIigners, missionaries in particular. A occasion of disturbance, and thus af- Hunan Inan, an officer in Szechuen, ford ground of fresh encroachment of boasted during the recent riots at Chenforeign powers. They are not blind to tU,that if a foreigner entered Hunan they killed him and wiped the streets with him. This riot occurred in Szechuen, but Kucheng, the turbulence having sub· the diplomatic pawn that it is proposed sided-Dr: Gregory, of the same mis- to move forward is,that the French army sion, also. We have no tidings whether march on Hunan and demand the open- the missionaries of the English Church ing of at least one port for foreigners in removed or not temporarily from Ku· that province. The" most favored na- cheng at the time of that disturbance.
tion clause" will of course apply. The But it appears that several of them were Chinese see all this, resistless as the tides. at a health·station at Whasang farther A thousand other similar complications up in the mountains. Miss Hartwell steadily result in foreign political, com- went up there also. It was at Whasang mercial and religious advance. Seen that the massacre took place; those mis- from their standpoint, it is humiliating sionaries of the American Board, the and irritating. We must bear all this in Methodist and the English churches who mind in judging of and dealing with were at Kucheng were undi~turbcd.
China. On the night of July 31st the mob rushed into the mission premises and The Massaore in Kuoheng, Ohina. murdered Rev. R. W. Stewart, his wife, and two children;' Miss Elsie It is scarcely worth while, except for Marshall, Miss Annie Gordon, Miss Bes- making the historical record in this peri- sie Newcombe, and Miss Flora Stewart, odical, to repeat the details, which the all of the Church of England Mission.
secular press has made widely known, Miss Hartwell was lodging in a native of the riots of March 28th and massacre house near by, and escaped with minor of Christian missionaries, which took injuries, after a severe struggle with one place at Kucheng, China, July 31st last. of the mob and a race for her life.
That of March 28th was conducted Mr. Stewart, who was slain with his by the vegetarians, who, whatever wife, had been some twenty years in the their original organization was designed country and was the head of his mission.
to effect, are now known as one of the In his last report of the Church of Eng- secret political organizations which are land zenana mission he referred to the a constant menace to the peace and pros· ladies who were since cruelly murdered perity of entire Central China from the as follows: seacoast to the borders of Tibet. .. Nangwa is the centre mission for the Previous to March 28th everything ladies in the far Northwest. It is four had been quiet for a long time, and no days' journey over high mountains from disturbance whatever was apprehended. Kucheng. I visited them ,at the be- On that day the rumor was current that ginning of the year, and found there the vegetarians would march into Ku- :Miss Johnson, Miss Newcombe, Miss cheng, kill the local magistrate, and Rodd, Miss Bryer, and Miss Fleming; burn the missionary property belonging they have also among them a Miss Sin· to the llethodist and other missions. clair, who has come from England in- The wildest confusion prevailed for dependently, and is making herself use- three days, when the United States ful in various ways. These ladies are consul at Foochow warned the Ameri· living as nearly like the native women can missionaries that they must retire as possible; no knives or forks are seen to Foochow, as no soldiers could be sent in the house. I am told that one knife to protect them. Dr. Gregory, Miss is kept for any unhappy guest who can· Rouse, and Miss Hartwell proceeded not manage chop.sticks, and though the to Foochow, which lay s:lUthwest of locality is far from healthy, and our Kucheng, the route being thirty miles C. M. S. missionaries have one after an· " through the mountains by chair, and other felt the effects of malaria, your sixty miles by the river Min, in boats. ladies have in a surprising degree main· Miss Hartwell subsequently returned to tained their strength. You know the kind of life they lead, visiting from vil- at a place called Sek'ci-Du, with Miss lage to village, sometimes at long dis- SaunderS, of the Australian Association, tances from home, putting up not at who is stationed in Kucheng while chapels or at Christians' houses, for, learning the language.
alas! there are none, but in the native " A letter has come to-day from Miss inns or the house of some hospitable Marshall telling of the great encourage- heathen woman. Their reward for this ment they find in Sek-ci-Du. This is devotion is being used of God. It is remarkable because, although we have truly invigorating to the soul to sit down been for years endeavoring to rouse an and listen as they tell of the good hand interest there, hitherto we llave entirely of their God upon them, and the spir- failed, and purposed retiring from the itual results they have seen. Oh, for station altogether. Thank God for the more of these" women that publish the ladies whom you send us; wherever tidings" I They have, too, a little hos- they go God gives His blessing, and the pital here, and this year they tried a secret lies in the quiet, unwavering trust small station class, though in doing so in a living Saviour by their side. Such they had to face difficulties that were trust He does not disappoint."
not met with in the old districts. The only American missionary who "The three other ladies who regard suffered personal harm in the murder- Kucheng as their headquarters are Miss ous Whasung attack was Miss Mabel Gordon, Miss Marshall, and Miss Stew- C. Hartwell, of the Methodist Episco- art. .Miss Stewart is still working for pal Mission, who was in a native house her examinations; when she has got near by the mission premises where the through them her sphere of labor will English missionaries were quartered.
be in the country, in the western sec- Miss Hartwell makes the following tion of the -district. Miss Gordon's sta- statement: tion, where she spends the greater part "August 1st, at 7.30 A.M., I heard of the year, is Dong-Gio, the chief cen· shouts. They were the yells of servants tre of the Ping-Nang district. This who rushed in shouting to me to get great district, or, as we should say in up, for the Vegetarians were coming, England, county, has no other lady tearing down the houses on the hill be- worker, and I need not say that, how- longing to the English mission.
ever hard she may try, she can do little " A few minutes later a teacher came more than touch what is waiting to be to my door and told me to run. I put done. At that one station of Dong-Dio on my clothes and rushed to the door.
80 or 90 women usually attend the Sun- I was met by a man with a trident day service. We have to thank the spear, who yelled, 'Here is a foreign Rev. H. R. McCartney, of Melbourne, woman.'
for this valuable missionary. Miss " He pointed the spear at my chest.
Elsie Marshall's work is also in the coun- I twisted it to one side and it just try; she only returns now and then to grazed my ear and head. He threw me Kucheng as headquarters. Her sec_ to the ground and beat me with the tion lies north of Kucheng, and covers wooden end of the spear. A servant more than 300 square miles. She has came and wrenched the spear away, several centres in this region, where she then told me to run. I jumped down stops for a few weeks or two months at the embankment and ran along the road.
a time, collecting the women together A servant came and pulled me along and visiting from house to house. Our until I got up on the side of the hill. I plan is for your missionaries to travel then lay down there to get more breath.
in pairs, accompanied by a Bible wom- After resting twice I reached a seclud- an and Christian servant, and to put up ed spot and lay there. All this time at chapels where a married catechist is the yells went on and two houses were stationed. Just now Miss Marshall is burning to the ground. " After a while the yells stopped. I but I only saw one, the man who rat· supposed tbe Vegetarians had gone tacked me, who shouted, C Here is a away. A servant went to see how foreign woman.' He had a trident matters were. He returned in half an spear. Some had swords. There was hour, telling me to come home, that five at least one gun, for I heard it fired off. ladies of the English Mission had been The natives say there were more." killed. and some had been wounded, but that my house-a rented native Government Defence of Missionaries. house-had not been troubled at all. A great deal of nonsense has ap· " I went home to find Miss Codring· peared in the secular press of this coun· ton much cut about the head and beaten try since the riots in Chentu and Ku· all over; Mildred Stewart, twelve years cheng as to the duty of the United old, with knee cut and bleeding very States Government to demand redress hard; Herbert Stewart, six years old. for injury done to person and property cut on the head and almost dead ; baby to missionaries. Even such rubbish has Stewart, with one eye black and swol· found place in influential newspapers. len; the second Stewart girl; Kathleen, as that, affording protection to missiona· eleven years old, with the second boy, ries and missionary property is propa- Evan, three years old, were beaten and gating religion by the sword. pierced with a spear, but not seriously injured. The boy vomited all day, So far as missionaries are concerned, but we thought it was from fright. they go to these foreign fields fully aware that they are liable to be harmed .. Mr. Phillips, of the English Mis· by such outbreaks. Weare not aware sion, who lived in s native house some that the missionaries from America ever distance away, escaped all injury, only asked government aid or protection in arriving in time to see the bodies of the the prosecution of their calling. If they dead and hear the Vegetarians say, ' We obtain it it is on the basis that they are have killed all the foreigners.' American citizens. It might be possi· ble that they would advance their influ· U At first we heard that some foreign. ence more by not demanding redress at ers had escaped and were in hiding, but all. Native Christian Chinese have over Mr. Stewart did not come and we feared and over refused indemnity proffered the worst. Mr. Phillips went to the by the authorities for injuries to person ruins and found eight bodies-five not and property. They gained greatly in burned and three burned so as not to influence as religionists among the peo; be recognizable. Dr. Gregory arrived pIe thereby. There may be occasions at dark and dressed the wounds of the when missionaries might choose to do patients. Coffins were made and the likewise. The missionaries in Uganda bodies put in them. The bones of the gained great triumphs while absolutely burned were put in boxes. unprotected to any degree by the Brit· ish Government. The Gospel can win .. When I was thrown down my its way without patronage of any po· teacher's wife called on some Whasung litical powers. But no state can afford men around to save me. There were to see its subjects unprotected. This, four men there to only one Vegetarian, regardless of their calling, whether mis· but they would not help me. She came sionary, merchant, or bicyclist reporter. and tried to pull me away as he was The British Government in one instance beating me. The Vegetarian kicked spent millions to defend a single one of her. its subjects-and he a Jew! The per- son and property of the citizen of any U When the Vegetarian who beat me country must be held to be absolutely started down the hill to come to our inviolate in every other country, Thus house three others were with him; but these ran off after some Chinamen, so I escaped with only one persecutor.
" There were about fifty Vegetarians, missionaries as citizens or subjects must it appear vast and well worth remark be protected by their governments,' not for size. But this knowledge isolated, for missionary interests, but for the pres· counts for nothing. Look at the" Dark tige of the government. Whatever the Continent ;" our land would go more missionary may choose to do or not to than three times therein; then recall, for do in the ca8e, when wronged or harmed, our one minister to 800 persons, Africa the government has no alternative. It has one for every 600,000. Or note must protect an American citizIJn, Brazil, larger than us, yet with as little though he be a Jew, Moslem, or Budo chance for enlightenment as Africa. In dhist propagandist, or whatever else, in the land east of the Mississippi (India'S any part of the globe. A government area) put one·sixth of the world, or that does not do that, or attempt to do let the swarming millions of China over· it, is not worth owning. flow our fnll area, somewhat. You are utterly powerless to grasp even the out· Maps and Money. side edge of these facts unless you have BY v. F. PENROSE. a map of the world.
But if you have been constantly in The Christian Church is nowevery· contact thus with maps, your present where using maps. Hence we read rate of giving fails to satisfy. How that the " estimated increase of wealth could it ? "There remaineth yet very among evangelical Christians in the. much land to be possessed," and your United States was four times greater utmost efforts cannot make up for the than all the contributions for foreign anti·mission and partly.mission multi· work by all American Christians duro tudes. What railroad would proceed ing the entire century," for we are giv· to work without maps? What army ing at the rate of twenty·five cents a could be active unprovided with map~ ?
year apiece. The latest historical books are having What does the use of maps mean? their maps so printed that a blank space Accurate knowledge. The children who equal to the page is on the bound·side never have a meeting without maps of of each map in order that it may be al· the world and of the country studied, ways before the reader.
comparing every land in area with our It is not, however, enough to have own, and then imagining the quarter of maps; you must use them. "Oh, yes, the world's population, the Chinese, we have maps. They are put away in our somewhat lesser area, while reo somewhere. I forget where and what membering we have 65,000,000 people, they are; but we have maps ;" and the are gaining the intelligent interest based search the minister then made for me on business and scientific information revealed a map of Paul's missionary that will make their future gifts, put to journeys, which scarcely answered my shame those of grown people who are needs in telling of India after the above yearly giving without ever seeing and methods. The same incident occurred realizing the vast areas utterly un· in more than one locality.
touched by any Christian influence. A .. Weare so impressed by your map map of the world cannot be done with· of the world," a missionary speaker was out. You do not know China or Mex: told, "that we are going to buy one.
ico unless you compare it with other How much did yours cost ?"
lands and see its neighbors and find " A dollar and a half. It is paper their political influence. which I mounted on cloth, is eight feet Take Pennsylvania; it looks large six by four feet six, and came from the when compared with the New England American Board. I add our own sta· States. Bring California or Washing. tions as I need them. Your members ton forward and it is tiny. A large can -examine it, and ten·cent donations railway map of the United States makes will soon secure it," and they got it. When new members join your so- meeting while the influence of each naciety, if you have no map of the world, tion is being described. while you are studying China, how can they be expected to take a money inter· Have you ever tried to have an exest in your Osaka scholarship-for few hibition of all the maps of your local· can locate our mission stations without ity? Such a one has recently proved maps. Therefore first make or buy a wonderfully suggestive. Each society map of the world, and then secure the had individual map-methods. maps of the lands to be studied. It is not difficult to draw an outline of the Start an audience from where they live continents on a large sheet of paper or across their continent-on the map-reo on cloth. ferring, in passing, to the missionary' from Japan who returned- home after Clay or putty maps moulded on a ten years' absence and could scarcely large board covered with oil cloth, In· credit the increase of luxury in every terest greatly. Putty, not cracking place, and ye1; everywhere, as excuse for readily and softening in linseed oil, Is not giving, heard: "Debt, debt, debt." better than clay, though both can be Then crossing the Pacific, show the rela· used over and over again. Candles In tive size of the United States and China, Christmas-tree holders mark the mission and turn to a large map of China, speak. stations, and are lit one by one as bits of ing of the swarming population, illusinformation are given of the medical trating by the popUlation chart of China. work at this one, the press·work at that. A hundred squares, each representing The grains or names of animals can be 4,000,000, form a square, ten each wuy, affixed. Tiny flags may indicate where and all are needed for China. InRide, our missionary heroes have lived, or the tbe United States have their 65,000,000 mission stations. (A bit of ribbon and a in one corner; underneath, Great Brit· big pin make a flag.) The "black ain, France, Germany, and the Russian map," a map of the world with tbe Empire half fill the square, and China continents painted solidly black on some has one missionary for 300,000. They cheap material, or else on your ordinary give for their "spirit offerings" an· map covered with black paper or cloth nually $400,000,000. We gave in 1890, cut to fit, has the various denomina- $11,000,000 for home and foreign mistions' work represented by little circles sions; $1,200,000 we spent for drink in of white fastened by means of a pin, as that year; $24,000,000 we spend for work is described in Africa and Asia, cutjlower8 each year. till, at th<l last, a fringe of white repre· sents the Gospel in all lands. After such a map-illustrated talk, a most interested auditor said he felt com· Represent Africa alone in this way, pelled to arrange his household exor any country, marking all the socie- penses that he might ha ve more to give, ties at work. While the different col- so overwhelming was it to ored circles are being placed for the missions, you might have some defini· U Contrast tions read by various persons-diction- The petty Done, the Undone vast;" ary definitions of darkness, light, uncivilized, evangelized, mi88ionary, Ohristian· and others have proved the 8ame by ity, ending with Jesus as defined in their gifts when facts were once thus Matt. 1: 21. presented.
Again, have a mere outline of Africa Three leaflet·charts may be enlarged on brown paper, and cut the areas to assist this map force. They may be owned by England, France, Spain, etc., had for thirty cents per hundred of in red, blue, yellow, and other papers. W. B. Jacobs, 148 Madison Street, Chi· Have these fastened on at a public cago: "A Mute Appeal," "Trifling with a Great Trust," and "A Com· parative View;" the first two may be also had enlarged for sixty cents aim of miSl!ionary work. They either each. lay too much streSl! on the work of testi- fying, or they depend wholly on the Grown persons need not rebel at such Holy Spirit regardleSl! of human methmethods. Money comes spasmodically, ods. from impulse of the moment, unless the mind can recur again and again to the Such is the gist of the criticism. reasons for giving. The two· tenths area Now, while we do not belong to the of the whole world that alone have class of men who imagine that miSl!ionknowledge of Christ is a fact not to be ary methods are above criticism, we canforgotten when once seen demonstrated not but take issue with Professor Kozaki on a map of the world, and is empha- in what he says regarding present methsized each time the map is seen afler- ods of work, and also in what he outward. lines as the" true scientific method." It is somewhat startling to read that to- At oncll we feel we must give morc. day, after a hundred years of mission- Ask for birthday offerings of dollars, ary work, neither the churches at home dimes, or pennies. Give out nickels or nor their representatives abroad have dollars for investment. Find out every any idea of the true aim of missionary way in which you may increase your work. If that be true, no wonder that gifts; nay, lessen your indebtedness to our methods are bad and our converts the One whose light makes our life. few. The wonder is that such aimless men should have any methods or any To this, a constant use of maps, im- converts at all; and, wonder of wonpels me. ders I how have they been able to ac- complish what even Professor Kozaki From Another Standpoint.* speaks of as a work not inferior to what was done in apostolic times? It seems BY REV. W. WYND, BAPTIST MISSION. to us that, although the churches are not all that they ought to be, the ones OSAKA, JAPAN. which support missions are pretty clear about the aim of missionary work. As In your June issue of the MISSIONARY for the missionaries, God knows how REVIEW we were favored with a discus- hr short we feel ourselves to be of these sion of the missionary problem by Pro- grand ideals that we read of in the fessor Kozaki, of the Doshishi College, .. Acts of the Apostles," but even of Kioto. Looking at the problem from the worst of us, it cannot be truly said the point of view of a Japanese Chris- that we have no .. definite idea of the tian, the learned professor sees the prea- true aim of missionary work." In that ent methods of missionary work to be at least we k7W1J) our Lord's will; how wholly at variance with scientific prin- we are doing it is another question. ciples. More especially is his criticism Some, he says, are laying too much levelled at present methods of conduct- stress on the work of testifying, thinking work in civilized c(luntries. ing when they have done this their work is done, whether men are converted or Neither the missionaries who are sent not. to the field nor the churches that send If a missionary gives his time and them have any definite idea of the true strength and whatever talent God has given him to the work of testifying, is *[We do not hold ourselves responsible for the he not following in the footsteps of the great apostle of the Gentiles, who went views of contributor., and much prefer that r~ from city to city doing nothing else 1 joinders to any article that appears should take Without minimizing in the least the imthe form of independent presentation of oppo- portance of educational work; without site opinions, common now, as a symposium. But as this paper is written in a good spirit we make an exception. In securing Mr. Kozaki's paper we intended it to inangurate a series by pastors native to several fields. We expect to furnish such an article from a Mexican minister in an early issue, and invite others of these brethren to send US contribntions from time to time.-J. T. G.] detracting from the value of work done verts that the missionary searches for, by noble-hearted, courageous, consecra- and it is converts that together both ted native workers, the fact remains that Church and missionary rejoice over.
to·day in non·Christian civilized lands Again, he says II we depend too much the foreign missionary of the right on the Holy Spirit regardless of human stamp,by the power of his testimony can methods." Those who believe the words do at least as great a work as he could do of Christ have a right to depend on the in any other sphere; a work that but for Holy Spirit; but certainly they have no his presence would probably not be right to depend on Him unless they done, even if the independent native themselves are using means and meth- churches had plenty of funds at their ods to accomplish the work with which dispolilal. they have been entrusted. The mis- I would remind the reader that in sionary who does so, to say the least of Japan, during the last three or four it, betrays a sad lack of sanctified com- years, the gain in almost the whole of mon sense.
the independent churches has been very In Japan each mission has its yearly slight; in some cases, indeed, they have or quarterly meeting for discussing, gone backward, and the churches Which formulating, and improving methods of have gained have been for the most part work, for devising new meaDS of reach- churches with which the missionary has ing the unbelievers. I know not of a had more or less to do. From the days society, a mission, or a missionary that when the disciples went everywhere tes- expects to see men becoming Christians tifying that Jesus was the Christ, the without human means beiDg used to Saviour of men, the blessing of the Lord make them so, and am consequently has followed the work of testifying; wholly at a loss to know where Profes- and statistics to.day will show that that sor Kozaki found the type of men of blessing hath not been withheld from whom he writes. The advocate of foreign missionaries testifying in non- " scientific methods of Christian work"
Christian civilized lands. To say that ought to have been the last man to de- too much stress is laid by, the foreign part from a scientific method of criti- missionary on the work of testifying is cism.
to betray a superficial knowledge of the After a careful perusal of the article subject in question, and to tell the in question, the following I take to be churches at home-these churches that the substance of the new II scientific hunger to hear of conversions, that scan method" outlined by the professor in every missionary periodical to find out his article : how many conversions are taking place 1. Send only a few first·rate foreign -to tell these that both they and their missionaries, and let their work be edu- representatives in foreign lands regard cational.
their work done when they have testi- 2. Instead of sending missionaries to fied, whether men are converted or not, testify to the unbelievers, send funds to is to betray utter ignorance of these the independent churches and do the great principles that are working in the work through them.
home churches and impelling them on He is convinced that the great need to missionary efforts. of non-Christian civilized lands is na- If the Church regards her work done tive workers; and in order to provide when she has testified, why has she these he would have the home churches again and again kept her missionaries send out only a few select teachers.
ten, fifteen, and twenty years working With the help of these, and a staff of in fields where not one has turned from eq ually gifted native teachers, first-class idols to serve the living God '1 Even a institutions of learning could be estab- superficial observer might see that it is lished. from which a sufficient number converts the Church longs for, it is con- of cultured workers might reasonably be expected. With these at work the native churches, doing the work through first step would be taken toward put- them.
ting missionary work on a scientific That is not an original idea. For the basis. We also believe that what is last year or two it has been the pet cry, greatly needed in these lands is more not of the Church in Japan. but of a native workers of the right stamp; but few leaders more or less imbued with however important a part schools may an anti-foreign spirit. That such a have in furnishing such men, with all spirit should manifest itself at times is our applications of modern science to most natural, human nature being what our school system we have not yet it is. In the churches at home there reached the point where we can take in are always those who are ready to hug men, by disposition, sentiment, and some personal grievance against their training, estranged from God, and turn pastor until they are firmly convinced out spiritually-minded men, full of the that he is the round man in the square Holy Ghost, of faith, wisdom, and hole, and so in all good conscie!lCe they power, for only such men are titted to clamor for his removal.
be entrusted with the future wellbeing of If so at home, the foreign missionary the Church. To get such men, the in civilized lands must always expect present system, in spite of its draw- some ready to clamor for his removal; backs, seems to be preferable. The but in spite of these things, until the missionary who sees the young Chris- native self-governing, self·supporting tians in their home and at their places churches are ready to take the whole of business, who listens to their first responsibility of raising up other self- feeble testimony, who witnesses them governing, self-supporting, self·propa· conquering pride and making a Chris- gating churches, are the home churches tian confession before unbelieving justified in withdrawing their repre- friends-in short, the missionary, even sentatives? We think not. When the if he be a " mediocre man," who watches gardener sees the plant push out its the development of the spiritual life of tendrils, the tendrils taking root, grow- the young Christians, is better fitted to ing, multiplying, and surpassing the make a wise selection of workers than parent plant in strength and beauty, he the professor who hears the student knows .that there is no danger of that demonstrate a problem, prove the exist- species dying out. It will,even under ad- ence of God, or conjugate a Greek verb. verse circumstances, propagate its kind.
Itmight be mentioned, in passing, that It were foolish of the missionary to Captain L. L. James, who is mentioned leave a great nation in darkness as soon as an example of a foreign educator as he sees a few independent churches j doing a great work, is a man who, what- but when he sees the children and grand- ever he may have been in the past, now children of these churches shooting out, makes a specialty of ridiculing every- taking root, springing up, and surpass- thing that Christians hold sacred, while ing the parents in faith, hope, and char- some of those men whom he was the ity, he may depart with gladness, for a means of raising up are not the kind of church has been founded which, even men the Christians at home would care under adverse circumstances, will prop- to entrust with the care of the Japanese agate its kind. As for the home church. Others, it is true, of the men churches ministering to the independent whom he taught are men of ability and native churches, that is to reverse the piety and worthy of all honor i but that order that we read of in the good old is in spite of the fact that in their early Book containing the first missionary days they were under the influence of records.
Captain L. L. James. Professor Kozaki reminds us that the Again, he would have the home church at Philippi did so to the church churches send fewer missionaries, and at Jerusalem; but that is no plea for send the money saved to independent the churches at home to do so to their independent offspring abroad. We can un- missionary station to the Sassoon mas- derstand how the church at Philippi sacre, writes that one of the Turkish would be strengthened by the effort it soldiers, troubled in mind by the mem- made to pay back in temporal gifts what ory of those awful scenes, told his wife it had received from the mother Church to ask the wives of the' Giaours ' (in- in spiritual gifts; but we fail to see how, fidels, unbelievers), who is 'Hissoos in civilized non-Christian lands, the Nazaretsee ' (Jesus of Nazareth). For churches which have attained their ma- all the women whom they had to slaugh- jority will be strengthened for their ter died calling upon Him. They could work by continuing to draw money have life by just saying, 'Mohammed from the parent who has still to support is the prophet of God.' The Turks call many children under age. On the con- Jesus'Isa,' and so the ignorant soldier trary, we see every reason for believing did not understand the Armenian form that such a course would be the means for Jesus of Nazareth. This incident of stunting the growth and dwarfing must touch any Christian heart."
the life of these churches, not because the brethren in the independent churches The Turki8h &ldier to hi8 Wife after the are unworthy to be entrusted with the Ma8SaCre8 at Bas8oon.
funds-far from it-but because such a "Who is this' Jesus of Nazareth '?"
course would be a violation of the law The Mussulman soldier caught his breath of growth and development. In these And knit his brow, like a man oppressed lands there is no lack of money. Let Whom the soft divan hath brought no rest. the leaders of the independent churches not turn to the foreign churches or the He had come from a field of God accursed: foreign missionary and demand that He had fought where devils did their worst! The fearful fray he would faiu forget- In his soul its echoes were ringing yet.
more responsibility be put on them. .. Who is this ' Jesus of Nazareth '? Let them rather open their eyes to the The women all called His name, in death: great fact that the responsibility is al- And the very children, caught to impale- ready on their shoulders, placed there Nay1 not for a woman's ear that tale 1 not by any society or any missionary, .. Your blood would freeze at its very fount; but by the Lord Jehovah. When the Yet the fire up into your brain would mount, leaders realize that fact and the mem- Till you shrieked at night, when the wind awoke, bers realize that they are but stewards And, shuddering, cowered till the morning broke. of the Lord, that their time and talents and means are to be given without stint "Nay, ask no question! I know not why for the spread of the Gospel, then the The women and harmless babes must die. 'Twas my chief's to order-mine to obey. Be it on his head at the Judgment Day I missionary problem will be one step "Yes-there was one alternative: nearer solution. • CalIon our Prophet, and you live I'
But every victim, with dying breath, Called upon' Jesus of Nazareth !'
"Who is this Jeaus of Nazareth 7" .. Who is this ' Jesus of Nazareth'?
Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, one of the ablest Does He bear the sword that conquers Death? of the able corps of the corresponding Must I meet Him there, when Azrael calls editors of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF My naked soul to the Judgment halls? THE WORLD, sends an interesting explanatory note of the incident in the .. Go-ask the Giaours-and tell me true, Who is this 'Jesus of Nazareth'? Who? I have fought for Allah 1 But if He be massacre of Armenians at l:lassoun, Allah's vicegerent-woe is me I"
Turkey, which inspired Mrs. Hamlin, J ""US of Nazareth 1 Lord of Life, wh:> was many years with her husband Conqueror of all this world's mad strife 1 in Constantinople, to write the follow- VeJlgeance for blood that cries to Thee 1 ing lines, which appeared in The .Ad- Bow the False Prophet on bended knee, 'Dance, under the caption quoted above. Dr. Hamlin says: Till the Cross shall quench the Crescent's ray From St. Sophia to the Gates of Day; "Mrs. Knapp, of Bitlis, the nearest And murderous Moslem, with contrite breath, Shall call upon Jesus of Nazareth !
FIELD OF :MONTHLY SURVEY
I1I.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
BY D. L. PlEBSON.
Turkey,* Persia,t Arabia,t North Africa and Egypt,§ Russia, I Oriental Ohristianity-r Mohammedani3Dl. ** '
THE TURKISH EMPIRE. impulse or resentment. Missions in Turkey have always been carried on The feeling against the .. unspeakable amid tremendous difficulties. Islam has Turk" has by no means subsided either here undisputed sway in the governin America or in England. There is but ment, so that while, according to the letslight difference of opinion in the gen- ter of the law, freedom of religion is pro· eral condemnation of the action, or non- claimed, the law is interpreted by the action, of the Porte in regard to the Ar- Moslem to mean simply that any man menian massacres. It seems certain, at may become a Mohammedan. The any rate, that the government is not Turk has no sympathy or mercy for an grieved at the sufferings of the Chris- " infidel," whether he be so by birth or tians. It is rumored that the Turkish au- conversion. The Moslem races of Turthorities are trying to induce grain mer- key consist of Ottoman Turks (the chants to hold back food products in rulers, chiefiy in Asia Minor and Conorder to increase the sufferings of the stantinople), Arabs (in Mesopotamia, Armenians. What the final outcome Arabia, and Syria), Kurds (mostly outwill be is not yet determined, but in laws in eastern Asia Minor), Circassians, any case it seems that it will be as the Turcomans, and various smaller tribes. result of calm deliberation and not of The Christian races are the Armenians * "History of the Ottoman Turks," E. S. (in Asia Minor and northern Syria), the Greeks (Greece and Asia Minor), the Creasy; "My Life and Times," Cyrus Hamlin, Bulgarians, Jacobites, and Chaldeans D.D.; "Forty Years with the Tnrkish Em- (tn Mesopotamia), and the Maronites in pire." E. D. Prime, D.D.; "Antoblography of Syria. W. G. Schoulller, D.D.;" "The Armenian Crisis in Turkey," F. D. Greene; also pp. 32 (Janu- The chief missionary organizations at ary), 133 (February), 339 (May), 604 (Angust), 768 work are the American Board, laboring (present i~sue). in the Balkan peninsula and Asia Minor; the Presbyterian Board in Syria t See "Persia and the Persians," S. G. W. and Mesopotamia; the Reformed Pres- Benjamin; .. Henry Martyn," George Smith, byterians, in Syria; the Methodists in LL.D.; "Woman and her Saviour in Persia," Bulgaria ; the Church of England. 'the Dr. Thomas Laurie; "Dr. Grant and the Monn- Friends, Disciples, and Free and Estaio Nestorians;" "Persia, the Land of the tablished Churches of Scotland, and Imams," Rev. James Bassett; also pp. 3 (Janu- various other independent educational ary), 738, 741 (present issue). organizations in Syria. Turkey in Asia has an area of about 500,000 square :I: See "Memorials of Hon. Ion Keith Fal· miles and a population of 16,000,000. coner," Sinker i h Arabia Desena," Doughty; The total number ordained missionaries also pp. 1 (January), 414 (June), 730 (present is- is 75; lay, 15; medical, 18; and wom- en, 140. With these labor 270 native sue). pastors and 640 other workers. Prot- § See "Daybreak in North Africa," Mrs. estant communicants number about F. S. Haig; "Pioneeringin Morocco," Dr. Rob- 01040,00n0o. miBneaslidCeshrtihsetisaensthewrheoaraere5'0s0c0a~- ert Kerr; "Morocco as It Is," Stephen Bon· sal, Jr.; "Open Door for the Gospel in Egypt," tered throughout the empire, and among Mrs. F. 'f. Haig. whom the most promising missionary work has been carried on. The earnest II "The Highway of Sorrow" (Stundlsts), and united prayers of Christendom are Stretton; also p. 725 (present issue).
~ See "Missions to the Oriental Churches," Rufus Anderson, D.D.; "The Armenians," Rev. M. C. Gabrielian, M.D.; "Romance of Mis· sions," Miss West; also pp. 523 (July), 741 (present issue).
** See "Mahomet and Islam," Sir William Muir;" "Islam and its Founder." J. H. Stobart; "The Mohammedan Missionary Problem,"
H. H. Jessup, D.D. neeued for these downtrodden strug- kinds-the people living in the cities, gling races. the wandering tribes, and the inhab- itants of villages and country districts_ The government censoi-Bhip of the The latter are engaged in agriculture, pres8 is one of the features marking the and some of the best wheat in the world opposition to all religious and elevating is raised in Persia. Cotton, sugar, rice, influence. As is stated in the official re· and tobacco are also raised in the southports of the United States Government ern provinces. The wandering tribes (1893), the quotation of words of live in tents, and move about with their Scripture has been subjected to the will flocks and herds as the seasons change. of the censors. Appeal from the deci- They spend the spring and the summer sion of the censors is practically unavail· on the mountain slopes, and the winter ing. The censors insist that the phrase on the plains. The two principal races " kingdom of Christ" may not be used are the Turks and the Persians, the latter by Christians. The censors refused to of whom belong to the Mongol race. Bepermit the publication of the index to sides these, there are Arabs, Kurds, and Bible lessons for 1893 unless certain Gypsies, and other smaller tribes. words were erased-e.g., "Gospel lib· erty," omit liberty>" "sorrow turned to Most of the people belong to the joy" must be suppressed; "encourag- Shiah, or heterodox system of the Moing the people" must be erased; hammedan religion, although there "wicked devices frustrates" (Ps. 33) are a few adherents to the Sunni, or must be stricken out; also" sorrow in orthodox system. There are also the palace" (Esther 4), "saved by Parsees, Jews, Armenians, and Nesgrace" (Rom. 4), "hope in distress" torians. (Ps. 38), " fear not" (Josh. 1), " rejoicing in persccution" (Rom. 8), " a benevo- The Persians were first called Elamlent object" (Rom. 15). iteB. Their descent is traced to Shem, through his son Elam. The first relig- The references indicate the passages ion of the Persians, as well as of their on which the Bible lessons were found- neighbors, the Medes, was that of Zoroed, and the erasures are in themselves a aster, which knew but one God, though commentary on the Turkish Govern- fire, the sun, moon, and stars were, by ment, indicating, as they do, the ideas its followers, worshipped as his symwhich the authorities consider might bols. The Jews and the Persians were foster rebellion, etc., in the minds of brought into contact through Daniel the people. and the other captives in Babylon, and when Babylon was overthrowll and the PERSIA. ]Iedes established the Medo-Persian Empire, Cyrus, King of Persia, was in- The" Land of the Lion and the Sun" strumental in the restoration of God's has an area of 628,000 square miles and people and the preservation of the true a population of about 9,000,000. Mis- faith. sionary work is carried on chiefly by the American Presbyterians and by the It is conjectured that Thomas and Church of England Society, mainly Bartholomew carried the Gospel to this among the Nestorians, Armenians, and land. Old documents tcll of the mis- Chaldeans. The missionary force con- sion of Thaddeus to Edessa, in Mesosists of 23 ordained men, 8 physicians, potamia. There are documents, too, 20 women, and 84 native preachers; recording the acts of martyrs at Edessa these have gathered about 2500 commu- in 115 A.D. The Christians were numernicants. ous at that time, and the conversion of [ As elsewhere in Mohammedan coun- the king is proved by coins as early as tries, Islam is the great obstacle to the A.D. 165. spread of the Gospel in Persia. The Jews and the followers of Zoro- The population of Persia is of three aster opposed Christianity, and terrible persecutions began in Persia, and lasted released, as well as in direct evangeliza- for a century after they had ceased in tion, the physician is a power of GOd.
the Roman Empire. In the sixth and The missionary physician does a great seventh centuries there was much mis- work in promoting true medical science.
sionary activity in the Persian Church. The old medical practice is very defi- The missionaries even went into China. cient. At its best it is unscientific, but, Later, the ~lohammedans overthrew the mixed with superstition, it is still worse_ whole system of the Zoroastrian relig- The conjurer and the astrologer are the ion, and now its only followers arc companions of the physician. The about 5000 souls in Yezd, and 100,000 Vendidad of ancient Persia says: "If Parsees in Bombay. several healers offer themselves-name- Christians were subject to heavy ex- ly, one Who heals with a knife, one who actions by the Moslems, but were recog- heals with herbs, and one who heals nized as the" people of the Book," and with the holy Word-it is the latter who the Nestorians had special privileges will best drive away sickness from the and held offices of trust. Missionary body of the faithful." The astrologer work was still carried on and gained consults the stars as to the favorable influence in Tartary and China, beyond time for calling the doctor, and which the Moslem rule. When the Moguls one shall be called, and whether the conquered Chinese Tartary and Persia, medicine he has given shall be taken.
in 1202 A. D.. Christianity was tolerated A noble living in a distant city consult- for awhile, but finally the Nestorian ed the astrologers as to what physician Church fell before persecution, and not he should consult. The lot ,indicated a vestige of the Christians was left east Dr. Holmes, so, leaving the able help of the Kurdish Mountains. The Nes- at hand, he took a five days' journey on torians left, however, a monument in horseback to Tabriz. At a case of China in the shape of the Nestorian childbirth a Mollah led a sheep into the Tablet described in our February issue. room and around the couch of the wom- Persia has been gradually reduced by an, and then took it out and offered it Russian aggression and Mohammedan as a sacrifice for the life of the woman.
misrule to a desert. The American Sometimes the priest will write a pray- Presbyterian Board conducts successful er, and the patient will swallow the missions at Oroomiah and Tabriz in the paper or dissolve the writing in water west; at Teheran, Hamadan and Resht and drink the solution. For craziness in the east; the Church Mission is at priests are called, as their holy robes, J ulfa, the Armenian suburb of Ispahan. especially the blue and green of the There Dr. Bruce has amended Henry Sayids, are supposed to frighten the Martyn's Persian translation of the devils. Sometimes they exorcise by New Testament. It has a medical mis- beating in a barbarous manner. Others sion at Bagdad. In 1747 two Moravians are taken to a shrine and shut up in a made the first and unsuccessful attempt dark cave for several days to be cured to reach the Parsees or Kerman, and of lunacy. Others make the long pil- the Greek Church of Russia drove out grimage to Kerbela, hoping to be healed the Scottish and Basel missionaries who, by being tied in the portico of the from Shooshab in the Caucasus, sought shrine.
to influence Persia. European science is being introduced, Medical missions are very influential partly through European physicians, in Persia. In relieving suffering, mak- through the Shah's College, and natives ing the heart tender and friendly to re- who have received a foreign education.
ceive the truth, removing prejudices, The medical department of Oroomiah CUltivating the friendship of the authori- College, in charge of Dr. Cochran, is ties, so that doors of opportunity are doing a good work educating Christian opened, and the persecuted or:oppressed physicians. The hospital gives full opportunity for practical work. Instruc- them /lore at present mainly occupied in tion is from the best English text-books, learning the languages. As the bulk and is thorough.* of the population are in villages, many workers are needed to evangelize this country. The Scotch Presbyterians North Amollo and Egypt, have a mission in South Morocco. Algeria is the most advanced in civ- North Africa consists of Morocco ilization of all the countries of North Algeria, Tunis, Tripoli, Egypt, and Africa, having been held by the French the Sahara. Almost all its native in- since 1830. After great expenditure of habitants are Mohammedans whose life and money, it is now thoroughly creed has nothing in its teaching that subject to their rule. Its extent is can save the soul. It carefully denies ~bout three times that of England, and the fundamental doctrines of Christ's Its popUlation about 4,000,000, princidivinity, death, and resurrection. No pally ltIoslems, but with some tens of effort has, until recently, been made to thousands of French, Spaniards, Italevangelize this part of the Moslem ians, Jews, etc. The country has a world. It was considered impossible good climate, and much beautiful scento gain an entrance, much less a hear· cry; there are many good roads, and ing, among these followers of the False more than fifteen hundred miles of rail- Prophet. God has lessened and is still way. The North Africa Mission has lessening the political power of Mo- seven stations and twenty-two brethren hammedanism in Africa. Its vices and sisters working there. The bulk were too glaring for civilization to en- of the people live in villages scattered dure. Slavery and piracy in Algeria over the country, and only a very few led to its subjugation by the French, ha ve, as yet, been reached by the Goswho also are paramount in Tunis. pel. Tripoli is still under the Turkish Government. Egypt enjoys :the protection Tunis is under French protection, of England, and Morocco is as yet an and practically under French rule. It independent ~,[oslem empire. Islam's' is hardly so extensive as England, but spiritual deceptions and social degra- has a population of about 2,000,000, dations cannot be r€moved by force of nearly all of whom are Mohammedans. arms. Only the reception of the truths There are, however, a few thousands of of the Gospel can remedy these evils. Italians, Maltese, French, and Jews, etc., on the coast. Thirteen workers 'Morocco has an area of about 260,000 of this mission are stationed in the capsquare miles, and a popUlation estimated ital, some of them at present engaged at from 5,000,000 to 8,000,000. It is in study; the remainder of the Regengoverned by a Sultan, whose name is cy, with its cities and villages, remains Abdul Aziz, a youth of about 'sixteen unevangelized. Who will go to them ? A medical mission is now carried on in years of age. The North Africa Mission (British) began work in Morocco Tunis. in a small way in 1884; at the close Tripoli is a province of the Turkish of 1892'it had substantial mission premiscs, with hospital in Tangier, and sta- Empire, several times larger than Engtions in Tetuan, Fez, and Casa Blanca. land. It has a population of about It has twenty·six missionaries in the 1,350,000, who, with the exception ot a few thousands, are followers of the False Prophet. The Moslems here are country, laboring among Moslems, more intelligent and better educated Jews, and Europeans; but several of than farther west, but much opposed to the Gospel. Two brethren began, * For much of this review of Persia we are in 1889,. to labor for Christ among them, and others have since been sent, A indebted to an article by Rev. S. G. Wilson. medical mission has been conducted as midwifery diploma. Ability to ac- quire Arabic should be manifest. here with cheering results. 3. Stewards or associations of Chris- Egypt is still tributary to Turkey, tian contributors are earnestly sought but under the protection and super· of the Lord.
vision of the British Government. The' (a) To support individual miBBiona- ries. The inclusive expense of ft single miBBion commenced work in Lower brother may be reckoned at $500 (£100) Egypt in April, 1892, and has, includ· yearly, and a single sister at $350 or ing wives, six missionaries there. The $400 (£70 or £80); married missionaries population of this portion of the coun· at the same proportion, according to the extent of their families. try is estimated at nearly 4,500,000, the (b) To support forms of work such as bulk of the people being Mohamme· medical mi.ssions, schools, or provide dans. There are 40 towns with from for itinerating and rent of miBBion 7000 to 40,000 inhabitants each, and houses. 500 towns with from 2000 to 7000 each, (c) To secure and, if po~sible, find without any Gospel agency whatever. working expenses of a house·boat. As The vast Sahara, with its few scat· the Delta is a network of canals an easy tered millions of Berber and Arab Mo· and inexpensive method of evangeliza· hammedans, remains still without a soli· tion is at our hand, if only we had a tary missionary. We pray God that small craft at our disposal– one to ac· soon some brethren full of faith and of commodate three or four missionaries the Holy Ghost may be sent to preach could be procured for $1000 (£200). Christ amid the inhabitants of its palmy Perhaps some would like to pay the oases.-North Africa. hire of a boat for a few journeys dur· Northern Arabia is peopled by the ing the winter season. Bedouin descendants of Ishmael; they 4. Remembrance8 at the Throne of are not bigoted Moslems, like the SyrI· Gl·ace.-To be daily importunate on ans, but willing to be enlightened. behalf of the Egyptians and the mis· One brother went to labor among them sionaries who labor among them. in 1886; he has now retired, and an· Besides the North Africa Mission, other brother and his wife, who were which supports three men and four thinking of taking up the work, have women missionaries in Egypt, there are: through ill·health been obliged to come 1. The United Presbyterian Church home. of America, with headquarters in Cairo.
The Lord has greatly blessed their work among the members of the ancient The spiritual claims of Egypt are Coptic Church. They have raised up a strongly presented by Mr. W. Rum· native Protestant Church in Egypt with mers, who thus voices the needs of this native pastors. 2. The British and Foreign Bible S0ancient land of the Pharaohs : 1. Men are needed as evangelists ciety, with principal depot in Alexan· whose first qualification is to be soul· dria ; and the American Bible Society winners. They should not be without in affiliation with the American Pres- some intellectual and theological train. byterian Mission. ing. If possible, a rudimentary knowl· S. The Church Missionary Society edge of the healing art would be of carries on work in old Cairo. They great assistance. Fair linguistic abil· have a medical miBBion, small hospital, and school work. ity is absolutely necessary. Qualified Physicians. – Medical mis· 4. Church of Scotland Mission to sions are practically a forgotten agency Jews, with four well·conducted schools. in Egypt. What little has been done 5. An undenominational Dutch mishas proved successful. Government sion has been working for eighteen hospitals have free dispensaries, but years in Calioub, a town near Cairo. are as a drop in the bucket among those A native church is formed, and schools needing medical aid. There are dozens are efficiently conducted. of centres in the Delta alone where 6. Sailors' and Soldiers' Institute in medical missionaries would find large affiliation with Miss Robinson's work. Besides individual effort among Engand unoccupied spheres. 2. Women who have a passion for lish and other Europeans. souls, even if they live in the midst of Still the dense Mohammedan popula- filth and disease. Much patience and tion in the Delta remains unreached by ,love for Christ are needed to win the the news of the world's Saviour. They Moslem women to Christ. Ladies hav· mU8t be evangelized, for " They shall ing some medical knowledge should know that I am the Lord God" (Ezek. take an elementary qualificati.on such 29: 16).
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
The March of Events. aonf dAsmuecrhicaannaatnidonBarsitiCshhinmaissshioonualdrie~s A massacre of missionaries began at held to strict account, entirely apart Whasang, near Kucheng, China, on from any religious question involved, August 1st. A mob fired the mission for the sacrifice of valuable lives, not to premises, killing ten people-one man say buildings. No money indemnity is and his wife, with seven other women, adequate in a case like the present. It and one child. Several other Christians is too loose and easy a method for rewere more or less seriously hurt. All pairing au irreparable wrong, and sets the killed were British citizens. The a premium on such merciless crimes. attacking party are said to belong to a Nothing less thau the arrest and severe Chinese sect, the "Vegetarians," and punishment of such assassins can satthe outrage was unprovoked and mali· isfy the common conscience and act as cious. The Chinese Government was a preventive. China should be made to compelled to take steps to discover understand that about the person of and punish the guilty parties, but the every citizen of America or Britain all governmental action was slow and un- the power and prestige of these two satisfactory. great nations wrap their guarantiel!, and that whoever unlawfully touches them, These murders are the more unac- when innocent of violating law, will be countable as being in the Fo·Kien prov- treated as an enemy of humanity. We ince, where a friendly feeling has gen- see nothing un-Christian in extreme reerally existed between the natives and sorts when nothing less suffices to inforeigners. Kucheng is on the Min sure immunity from such acts of vio- River, some ninety miles above the lence. treaty port of Foochow. The river is not navigable at this point, and hence The Armenian atrocities, as disclosgunboats cannot be used to protect the ures and exposures now warrant us in foreign residency. For months past saying, exceed for wanton outrage and the officials, or literati, have been at cruelty and nameless horrors anything work breeding discontent and riot, and on record. No wonder Britain's" Grand this is the result. All Americans at Old Man" finds one more burning fire work there were sent to Foochow for shut up in his bones which must have safety in June last. The mandarins are vent. Indignant protests from civilsaid to be charging ou foreigners the ized nations seem unheeded, and peace failure of China in the present war with may be purchased for Armenia at a Japan, as having stood by indifferent heavy cost. Mr. Gladstone sums up and beheld China whipped. the crimes committed against these people by four fearful words: "plun- The indignation aroused by these der, murder, rape, and torture;" he wholesale murders, and outrages on charges the Sublime Porte with the reproperty, is intense, and severe measures sponsibility, which, he claims, must be are threatened. We have no conscious brought home to the Turkish governspirit of retaliation or desire to magnify ment. China's faults unduly, but avenging is not revenging. There is a protection The treaty of 1856, he said, gave the which Government owes its citizens, Powers the right to march into Armenia and which Britain is usualJy jealous to and take the government of the country afford. We have long felt that, while out of the hands of Turkey, and under any nation may lawfully exclude for- thetrcatyof 1878 the Sultan was bound eigners or compel their withdrawal from to carry out reforms. He makes three proits territory, all needful guards should posals. First, that the demands of the be put about the person and property Powers should be moderate; second, that out .. fear of contradictIon." Of these no promises of the Turkish authorities should be accepted; and third, that the gatherings we have 5rowing conviction Powers should not fear the word •• coercion." .. We have reached a critical that, whatever good may be the outcome position," said he, .. and the honor of the Powers is pledged to the institution one way, the ultimate result is confuof reform iu Armenia." A resolution was then adopted by the meeting which sion-a Babel of ideas as to religious Mr. Gladstone addressed that the government would have the support of the obligation and the way of salvation. If entire nation in any measures it might adopt to secure in Armenia reforms guar- all religious faiths are entitled to recog· anteeing to the inhabitants -safety of life, honor, religion, and property; and nition, not as ethical systems having in that no reforms can be effected which are not placed under the continuous them a modicum of virtue and value, control of the great Powers of Europe. The speech made a profound impres- but as entitled to comparison as having sion. Mr. Gladstone said he was glad to see that as much indignation exists in in them essentials of salvation, the America as anywhere over the atrocities. unique position and claims of Christian· It is becoming a question whether those who act as the Turks do should ity must at once and forever be aban· not by other nations be treated as burglars, highway robbers, and murderers doned; Christian missions become im· generally are served. There is a broad question of political economy that is pertinent as a declaration of one only awakening Blore and more attentionviz., whether the race is not to be con- Name whereby we must be saved, and sidered as a whole, in its solidarity; and whether an "international police" is sink to the level of a friendly confer· not a demand of the age. It is felt, and not without reason, that there are some ence in which we may have as much to crijlles which are against humanity as such, and should so be punished. It is learn as to teach. hard to see why a city, State, or nation should exterminate a band of villains We quote from Ohristian Work, a who infest the highways, lurk in hiding places to assault the innocent, and paper so liberal that some orthodox peouse weapons of torture and assassination, and yet the community of nations ple think it lax. Yet hear its earnest stand by in helpless inactivity and see a whole district swept.by atrocious mur- and faithful testimony: derers I .. To whatever extent the Toronto The Pan·American Congress at To- Congress would place an equal value ronto, which was held in July, provid· and authority upon each religion, to ed a platform from which the various that extent it is misleading, dangerous, .. religions" of the world might plead and false to the facts. And it is signifithrough their respective advocates. cant of the character-'of the discussions Bishop Ireland, of the Roman Catholic held at Toronto that none of the relig- Church, Rabbi Gottheil, the Jew, with ions was put on the defensive; conserepresentati ves of nearly every Christian quently their reverse side was not seen. denomination, as well as of Mohamme· Take, for example, Mohammedanism. danism, Buddhism, Confucianism, etc., Mohammed certainly did perform the had the" right of presentment" with· noble service of overthrowing idolatry in Arabia, and he proclaimed the one- ness of God: so far we are with him. But the failure of Mohammedanism is to be found in its wholly inadequate conception of God, which rests on the mere fact of his unity and sovereignty-. The sacrifice for sin, the fact that 1D love only is there power to save from sin and turn earth into heaven-the abo sence of all this is the fatal weakness of Mohammedanism: this weakness was not brought out at that Toronto Con- gress. Then, take Confucianism: the cause of its failure-snd it has failed- is that Confucius based religion on man and wholly ignored God. Confucianism makes no full provision for dependence, fellowship, progress; certainly there can be no sense of dependence where the worship of God is restricted to the offering of sacrifices on State occasions by the emperor, thus relegating God to the background; there can be no fel· lowship with a God who is afar off! It is _little wonder that Confucianism failed. And Buddhism ; how could it be expected to succeed, excellent as is embarrassed by a gift made by Robsome of its ethical precepts are, when ert Arthington, of Leeds, England, some it is agnostic, if not positively atheistic? yeats ago, for the opening of a miBBion -for Gautama considered there was no south of Khartoum, on the Nile, which such spirit. Really, Buddhism, with has grown by regular increase and the its act force, is only an older form of addition of other donations till it amounts the deification of force and is nineteenth to $52,400. The money cannot be used century materialism dressed in the garb to carry out the design of the donors on ilf twenty·two centuries ago. account of the Arabian occupation of the Soudan and tbe exclusion of all for· " The one tremendous fact not to be eigners, and yet much of the money ignored is that whatever be the ultimate given could not be restored to the unfate of the deluded heathen in their known donors. The society has there- fore brought a friendly suit to secure a ignorance of sin and of the fact that love decision that the use of the fund in the only can save the sinner, Christianity region specified is impossible; and jualone supplies this: the religion of dicial instruction as to what use shall be Christ alone satisfies the wants of the made of it. This leads us to say, again, weary, sin-burdened soul. bringing him that it is well for donors not to condiinto reconciliation with God. Theolo- tion their gifts too restrictedly. gies are misleading. and confessions and standards and creeds are imperfect and Many questions of vital importance often foolish: but these are not relig- to missions require carefully to be ex· ion; but the implanting of the Christ amined and adjusted. The Independent life in the soul is. Any' congress' spirit of the Japanese makes them imor • parliament' which ignores this su- preme fact, and thinks to bring all religions down to a common level along the line, not of thorough discussion even, but of presenting the best photograph of each, makes a jest of the eternal verities and sows a crop the harvest of which will be fruitful of tares."
From a Chicago journal we quote: patient of foreign control even in the missions established by missionaries "Without assuming to decide the from abroad and in the schools they question, the Living Ohurch ventures originated or helped to develop, and a an opinion as to the cause of the gen- deputation has bee!. appointed by the eral falling off of mlBBionary offerings. A. B. C. F. M., consisting of Hon. It is an opinion which two years ago W. P. Ellison, Boston; Rev. J. L. Barwas a prophecy, when the extraordi- ton, D.D., foreign secretary; Rev. J. nary spectacle was presented in Chicago G. Johnson, D.D., Chicago; Rev. A. H. of the apostles of all the false religions Bradford, D.D.. Montclair, to visit of the world being invited to give an Japan. Some changes may be made in ea;-parte representation of faith and life the deputation, which started in Septemunder the religious systems which they ber. represented-or, rather, misrepresented. The Babel of Christian sects was mar· August 26th a company of missionshalled by Drs. Barrows and Bonney, aries of the Protestant Episcopal body who did what they couId to make a left Vancouver for China. Bishop good showing for the Christian religion Samuel 1. J. Schereschewsk; goes to (without any church), while they afded superintend the publication of his Bible in working up a hospitable enthusiasm translation into the Wen-Ii, his wife for the savants and picked men of all and daughter accompanying, also Rev. heathenism. Returning home, these D. T. Huntington and Miss Steva L. represented Christianity to be a failure Dodson, with Dr. W. L. Ludlow, mediin the countries they had visited; and cal missionary. in one case, we believe, missionaries were sent to America to convert our benighted people. Some part of the present falling off of enthusiasm for missions may be fairly attributed to this • exploiting' of heathen systems (without rebuttal) at the central point of the world's interest in 1893."
The African Inland Mission sent forth, The American Missionary Association August 17th, Rev. P. Cameron Scott as pioneer, who llaS spent already seven first at Shanghai, and then at Tung- years in Africa, with his sister, Miss chow for over thirty. He was of a Margaret C. Scott, a medical mission· genial spirit, full of humor, a fine stu- ary, Miss Bertha M. Reckling, Lister R. dent, especially gi ven to historical study, Severn, and Rev. Willis Hotchkiss and [.nd a cultivated man of scholarly tastes.
Rev. Fred W. Kreiger. Walter MeL. He was a native of Buffalo, N. Y.
Wilson joins the party in Scotland. The Such deaths leave a great void.
mission is interdenominational, and em· phasizes basal truths, such as the divino The death of an American citizen of ity, atonement, and second coming of Siam, Marian A. Cheek, is announced.
Christ, person and work of the Spirit, He went there twenty·two years ago as the verbal inspiration of the Word of a medical missionary of the Presbyte- God, salvation by faith, the eternity of rian Board, at the age of twenty, and future punishment, and the evangeliza· had become one of the most influential tion of the world as the duty and mis- men in the country, the intimate coun· sion of the Church. They go in the sellor of the king. Ten years ago he strength of these truths to confront severed his connection with the Board, deadly climate and relentless Moslem engaged in trade, and accumulated a hatred in the Soudan. May God go large fortune, and at the time of his with them! death was pressing a claim against the United States for several hundred thou· The well-known Charles N. Critten- sand dollars alleged to be due on ac· ton, of New York, founder of the Flor- count of the negligence of American ence Mission, attempts a t(Jur of the officials in Siam. Some years ago he United States to found similar missions -obtained a concession from the king to for outcast women. He left New York farm out a teak forest. While he was August 19th in a special car, Good floating thousands of logs to market in New8, and a trip of eighteen months is be- the form of a raft, they were confiscated fore him and his party. Portland, Ore., by representatives of an English com- California, the Southern States, and pany. Cheek floated the stars and Atlantic coast are the boundaries of the stripes on his rafts and called on the trip. Services of song and exhortation American officials for assistance. They from the car platform wherever there is failed to come to the rescue, and Cheek a wait of a quarter of an hour, and more accordingly sued this government for extended services where longer stops damages. The officials at Washington are arranged for, with meetings in halls contend that he had no right to fly the or churches wherever a night can be American flag in the situation he was spent in a city, are among the plans. then in.
Up to this time nineteen missions have heen established through the efforts of At St. John's l'lission, Grand Cape this New York merchant, whosedaugh- Mount, Liberia, Mrs. M. R. Brierley, ter's death gave such impulse to his life. one of the oldest missionaries on the What strange ways God has of leading African field, died July 6th. She was His people who are ready to be led. We about sixty-five years old, and went to know of no one man whose life is more the Dark Continent with her husband telllng on the reclamation of fallen in 1865 as missionary of the Church of womanhood. May great blessing fol- England. After her husband's death, low this new method of extending these in 1882, she was transferred to the mis· rescue missions. sions of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States and placed at the Rev. Charles R. Mills, D.D., died sud- head of St. George's Hall, one of the denly in Tung·chow, China, June 22, largest schools in Liberia, and was at having been in China about forty years, the head of it when she died. The death of J. L. Phillips, M.D., of practice in general use of assigning It young, inexperienced girl to each China- Oalcutta, already noticed in this RE- man for the purpose of teaching him VIEW, has awakened widespread sorrow our language and bringing him to a and left a great gap which will not be knowledge of the truth. I stated that easily filled. He will be most lovingly in all my experience among the China- men of this city I had never known a remembered in connection with the De- single one that·1 regarded as hopefully cannial Oonference of December, 1882. converted in this way, nor was I at all He was a man of deep spirituality and hopeful of ever seeing one thus brought great spiritual power, and had marvel- to Ohrist. I was simply criticising a lous tact in harmonizing discordant ele- method, and not considering the ques- tion as' to the possibility of the conver- ments. He was a peacemaker. If he sion of a Chinaman to Christianity. It had a new method to introduce he had is too late to discuss this latter question, singular felicity of manner, which made since many have been hopefully con- verted both in China and California. I • it seem unlike an innovation. He kept am not now, nor have I ever been en- a weekly prayer-meeting in his family gaged in missionary work among the on Friday evenings. and this is one of Ohinese.My interest in these people the influences which moulded his fam- has simply been a philanthropic one, the work being forced on me as an offi- ily for Ohrist and His service at a tender cer of the Prison Society, in which I age. His whole influence was in favor have been called to defend them against of a consecrated life. The memorial the cruel and' unjust persecutions to service was an impressive and mem- which they have been from time to time subjected at the hands of our own peo- orable occasion, in the college chapel ple. In this way I have come to be at Keuka Park, N. Y. According to recognized as their friend and advocate previous announcement the people as- in this region, and not because of any sembled, and all seemed intent on special missionary work among them. I have the hope and confidence that paying homage to the model modern God's elect will be safely gathered into Ohristian hero in the world's great the kingdom out of every nation and mission work. tribe under heaven; but I do not be- lieve that the coddling methods used to get these Ohinamen into the Sabbath- The newspaper8 have been making school will ever result in any success.
no little capital of a reported remark of " Respectfully, .. E. R. DONEHOO." Rev. Dr. Donehoo, of Pittsburgh, to the effect that, after long and large ex· perience of mission work among the Yukichi Fukuzawa, the" Grand Old Ohinese in this country, "he has never Man of Japan," though about twenty yet found, and never expected to find, years younger than the members of a thoroughly converted Chinese." ,This that famous triumvirate, Gladstone, statement has been made the more of in Bismarck, and Li Hung Ohang, has view of Dr. Donehoo's advocacy of more than any other man brought Japan Christian missions, etc. And now Dr. to her position among civilized nations.
Donehoo rises to explain; and, as a Thirty-five years ago he visited this country, and on his return home intro- specimen of the facility with which duced the Webster Dictionary to his countrymen, a book that is considered some people misunderstand and mis- the foundation of Japan's intellectual power; he also introduced English into quote, it may be well to append his own all the schools. In days when Japan was divided into two parties-one for explanation. He writes to the New and the other against foreigners-he ad- vocated the opening of his country to York Obser'l!er: the New World; and his book in be- half of Western civilization, which he .. Entirely too much has been made wrote from his studies and travels in out of a very .innocent statement of America, had a considerable effect in mine, not intended for publication, in restoting to the throne the dynasty of regard to the outcome of missionary work in this city. When questioned as to my opinion of the method"here em- ployed to reach Ohinamen with the Gos- pel, I unhesitatingly condemned the which the present emperor is a member. familiar friend by his carefully pre- The Jiji Shimpo (the Times Newspaper) is his organ ; and although he does not pared monthly notes of the progress of actively manage it, his sons are the editors, and its influence is widespread, the kingdom. We have seen no other doubtless because it is independent in every sense_ Perhaps his greatest bene· book that covers the same ground. And faction was the founding of a school known as the Kewgijiuku University, this was one reason for the work so carewhich is second only to the Imperial Uni.versity at Tokio in point of num- fully and admirably done. The book bers and rank of scholarship. Mr. ]j'ukuzawa comes from the common begins by laying down principles, the people, and is known as the "great commoner," and what shows above all basis of all missions, in Christ's own the character of the man is that he has never allowed himself to be carried conception and command. Then are away by his success, and has modestly refused to accept decorations, honors, briefly traced early attempts at evanor even the peerage from the Mikado.- Exchange. gelization, the influence of medireval " Missions at Home and Abroad" is missions on European history, etc. ; the title of Dr. E. M. Wherry's com- then the modern revival or renaissance pilation of papers and addresses at the of missionary life from Carey on to World's Congress of Missions in Chicago our day. He describes what he aptly in 1893, of which the editor was corre- calls the phenomenon of missionary ex- sponding secretary. It is published by pansion, traces the work done in India, the American Tract Society, New York. Africa, Persia, Korea, Turkey, China, In this book are thirty or more essays South Seas, Japan, North and South or addresses from representative men and women on home and foreign mis- America, etc., and then gives a final outsions, the questions that concern Jews and Mohammedans, Turks and Indians look on the unpossessed domain. For and lepers, etc., and city missions as well. Some of the papers are profound- this book we invoke God's blessing. It ly philosophical, others as profoundly practical. While there are flentiments is a new and valuable contribution to here contained which we could not agree with, the body of this testimony the study of the greatest practical probis of peculiar value. We would call special attention to Bishop Nicholson'S lem ever put before the Church. paper on" The Jew and his Land ;" Dr. Dennis's, on "The Inaccessible R. H. Woodward Company, 220 and Fields;" Wellesley C. Bailey's on "The Work Among Lepers;" George 222 North Charles Street, Baltimore, E. Post's on "Medical Missions;" 'Ehomas Kane's on "Consecration of Md., have published" Forty Years in Property;" and Joseph Cook's on " Victories and Hopes of Missions." China," by Rev. R. H. Graves, D.D.
One of our editorial staff, Rev. D. L. The retail price is $1.50. The work is sold by subscription, but where there Leonard, recently published .. A Hun- are no agents the book may be obtained by writing direct to the publishers. A dred Years of Missions, " through part of the proceeds from the sale of this book are to be given to missions, Funk & Wagnalls. This is the story and iu order to interest ministers in for- eign missions, the publishers furnish of the march of events since Carey's this volume to any minister whose year· ly income is less than $500 upon receipt humble beginning in 1792. The author of 40 cents in stamps.
was himself a very useful superinten- Dr. Graves has been in China for more than one generation, and has been dent of missions in the home field of a personal witness of the stupendous changes which he chronicles, and which Utah and surrounding territory, and in have nearly all of them occurred since the Tientsin treaty of 1861, when he had theso pages he has for years been a already been in China five years. In this valuable book an unusually ob- servant man has traced the conservative and reconstructive forces which have been contending for the mastery. He shows that ruin is before the Celestial Empire which can be arrested only by the acceptance of the lessons taught in history as to the secrets of a true and progressive national life, and especially the necessity of a religious faith that has in it the elements of individual and SHANGHAI, May 21, 1895.
national regeneration. The illustrations DEAR FRIENDS: I feel it laid on my in Dr. Graves's book are superb. heart to communicate with you by let- ter, as I have done before when delayed in China, and to thank you very warm- Mrs. M. G. Watt writes from Guelph, ly for your continued help in our ser- vice here. I shall not be able to meet Canada, that much more is being done any of you personally for some time, for the lepers of India and other lands and I have been unable to keep in touch than is usually known, and that a large with you as I could have wished through amount of .. leper literature" is free, Ohina'8 Million8. I am, therefore. ask- ing Mr. Sloan to forward to you a copy distributed only on one condition-that of a little sketch of the mission which I it be passed round after reading. Her daughter prepares pamphlets on the mrwas able to prepare when confined to room by sickness. You are partners subject of European lepers, etc., and wIth us in this branch of God's work in China, and will, I am sure. rejoice wit h thus th'lY were enabled to send $1500, us in what He has wrought tor the in· $600 of which came from Guelph, to terior of this needy land.
the treasurer in the old country. Six It is over a year now since we again auxiliaries are already at work iii. Can- reached Shanghai, expecting, after a short stay, to return to England. We ada, that in Guelph being the pioneer had not been here long, how('ver, ere and holding monthly meetings in all the we felt unmistakably called to visit a churches in turn. number of our inland stations. While away in the interior the sad war be- tween Japan and China broke out, and F. A. Jefferd, missionary in Funchal, it became clear that my duty was to re- Madeira, asks prayers of our readers for main here until thc rest.oration of peace.
the mission work he is conducting in A second journey enabled me to visit other stations, und was safely accomconnection with W. G. Smart, his plished before the end of the year.
brother-in-law. In 1884 the Protestant In January I was laid aside, and a General Mission was founded, with the protracted tIme of weakness ensued, object of evangelizing the island, with from the effects of which I have not yet its population of 140.000. They have fully recovered. I was able, however, since been permitted to form the first to visit Yang-chau and Gau-king be- Baptist church and two sub·stations in fore the scattering of the students; and other parts of Madeira. The objects my heart was greatly rejoiced a); each kept in view are the work among sail- place. Never have parties of brighter, ors stopping at the port. the teach- more capable, and more consecrated ing in day schools. and preaching among workers gone out from these homes the residents of the island, and the circulation of the Word of God and Chris- than this year. tian literature. After these brief visits, when consid- The mission among sailors was found- ering the question of reaching home in ed in 1876 by the late George Smart, time for Keswick, we were led to see and the Sailors' Rest in 1882 by W. G. clearly that Mr. Stevenson should re- Smart. turn and we remain in CIJina. I trust that he may have the opportunity of During 1894 vessels carrying a total crew of 31,225 men and 29.191 passen- meeting many of you. gers entered the port. It will be seen The restoration of peace will have rewhat ample opportunity is afforded for most needed service among seafaring joiced you, and is the answer to many men. Only 5 per cent of the inhabit- prayers. We must thank God for the ants of Madeira can read or write. preservation of His servants during the time of war, and continue to pray that These brethren. Smart and Jefferd, rebellion may not be permitted to folwill gladly respond to any inquiries. low, and that the troops may be safely and welcome any gifts to aid in their blessed and self-denying work. The disbanded and dispersed. address is 29 Rua do Conselheiro, Fun- A new call is given us to hasten the chal, Madeira. evangelization of China; let us remem- ber the power we possess in united prayer. Five years ago there were 1296 China missionaries. The Shanghai Mis- The following letter, addressed to all sionary Conference of 430 missionaries prayed and appealed for new ordained friends and donors to the China Inland and unordained workers-1OOO men in Mission, will be read with interest: fl… " years. What has been the response? No less than 1153 new missionaries have filled missionaries may be <lent out, and come out since that time-481 of them that all of us here may be filled to overhaving been men. Not just as we asked, flowing with the living water, and bebut as God saw best. And doubtless lieve me, there would have been a still fuller re- Yours gratefully in Christ, sponse but for the war. Now we have J. HUDSON TAYLOR. peace, and we must look for large and immediate reinforcements.
We in the C. I. M. have been con- Ohina's Orisis. scious that God was preparing us for this. Needed facilities have been sup- An .. Appeal for Missionaries for plied without which large reinforce- China, " addressed to all Protestant ments would have embarrassed us. The need of enlarged premises in China and churches of Christian lands, has been England was spoken of at our annual issued by Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, and meetings in 1887, and it was mentioned that a site had been obtained in Shang- we gladly reprint it : hai, and that one was in view in Lon- In May, 1890, the General Conference don. In the record of the annual meet- of Missionaries, assembled in Shanghai, ings of the following year Mr. Broom- and representing the 1296 Protestant hall reported that the latter also was missionaries then in China, issued an obtained, and gave the reasons why the urgent appeal for 1000 men within five mission needed and should have" much years; and appointed a permanent com- more accommodation" for the home mittee to observe and report the results work. Both these needs hal'o been of the appeal, consisting of Rev. J.
met, and we have to thank God for suit- Hudson Taylor, of Shanghai; Rev.
able premises, not only in London and William Ashmore, D.D., of Swatow; Shanghai, but also in several important Rev. H. Corbett, D.D., of Chefoo ; Rev.
centres in China. God has also given C. W. Mateer, D.D., LL.D., of Tung- us valued workers who are carrying on chow; Rev. C. F. Reid, D.D., 01 Shang- the business work of the mission in hai.
them. My beloved brother-in-law, Mr. At the same time the lady missiona- BroomhalI, has retired from the work, ries of the Conference put forth an ap- and we shall often miss him; he has peal for additional lady 'Vorkers.
not done so, however, before our hon- The five years have now elapsed, and orable secretary, Mr. Sloan, with our the Rev. C. F. Reid, D.D., has carefully competent staff of helpers, was thorough- collected and tabulated the returns.
ly able to carry it on. Miss William- From these it appears that 45 societies son, who as an honorary missionary had have sent new workers to China since superintended the Shanghai home for May, 1890. Some unconnected mis- some years, is at my request rendering sionaries have also come out. Includ- the same kind of service in London. ing these, the following numbers are And I need not further refer to the help reached: Male missionaries, 481 ; wives of Mr. Marcus Wood in England, of of missionaries, 167 ; single ladies, 505.
Mr. Graham Brown in Scotland, or to Total in fi ve years, 1153.
Miss Soltau's honorary services in the These numbers do not exactly corrc- ladies' training home, etc. Here in spond with the appeal-only 481 of China. during Ml·. Stevenson's absence, them being men. God knew the needa Mr. William Cooper, who has been of China, and sent those He saw would helping him for some time as assistant be most helpful. The answer, there- deputy director. is conducting the fore, is a gracious response, and shows work; and we have now the help of What may be done by united prayer and Mr. C. '1'. l!'iske here, who for so many effort; and thus adds to our responsi- years acted as financial secretary in bility to use these means stilI more large- London. Never before were we so well ly for the advancement of the Redeem- prepared for definite advance, and our er's kingdom in China. An important hope and prayer is that now that the crisis in China's history has been war is over we may have given to us reached. The war just terminated does many" willing skilful" helpers-men not leave her where she was. It will and women-for every department of inevitably lead to a still wider opening missionary service. of the empire and to many new develop- Continue to pray for us, dear friends, ments. If the Church of Christ does not and to help us as God may lead you. enter into the opening doors, others Thank God for the hundreds of souls will, and they may become closed against being reaped each year, and ask that her. We would reiterate some of the soon the aunual increase may be very earnest words of appeal, written five llluch larger. Pray that only Spirit- years ago, which have to-day, on the eve. of great changes and of great op- help. • •• That the holy and loving portunities, still more urgent weight and Spirit of God may incline your hearts should lead to more vigorous effort. to respond to His call is our earnest The Conference said in 1890 : prayer." " Realizing as neTer before the magnitude of China and the utter inade- To the above extracts we will only quacy of our present numbers for the speedy carrying into execution of our add the last paragraph of the appeal of Lord's command, 'Go ye into all the the Conference for 1000 men: world and preach the Gospel to every .. We make this appeal in behalf of creature,' therefore " Resolved, That we, the 430 members 300,000,000 of unevangelized heathen j of the Missionary Conference, now in we make it with all the earnestness of session in Shanghai, earnestly and unanimously appeal to you to send out our whole hearts as men overwhelmed speedily as many hundreds as can possibly be secured of well-qualified or- with the magnitUde and responsibility dained men…• of the work before us j we make it with "We appeal to young men to give unwavering faith in the power of a risen themselves to this work, .•. to indi- Saviour to call men into His vineyard vidual congregations to greatly increase their contributions for the support of and to open the hearts of those who are one or more of these men ; to Christian men of wealth to prayerfully consider His stewards to send out and support the duty and privilege of giving themselves personally to this work, or of them, and we shall not cease to cry supporting their representatives. mightily to Him that He will do this "This Conference • • . would also present a direct appeal to the home thing, and that our eyes may see it." churches for lay missionaries. . . . ,It would point to the many millions of Time is passing. If 1000 men were our fellow·men who have never heard the Gospel of the grace of God j and to needed five years ago, they are much some millions more who, though tbey have possessed themselves of some por- more needed now. Of the 1296 mis· tions of His word, still fail to compre_ hend its meaning for want of some one sionaries in China, only 589 were men j and of them not a few have entered into to guide them. . • . .. We appeal, then, to our lay breth- their rest or have returned home from ren .•. to solemnly ask themselves various causes. In view of the new whether, for the greater glory of God, they are not called to meet this pressing facilities and enlarged claims of China, need and to devote themselves, their the next five years should see a larger service and their wealth to this missionary enterprise in China." reinforcement than that called for in To the above earnest words we add 1890. Will not the Church arise and the following extracts condensed from the" Appeal of 204 Lady Members of take immediate and adequate action to the Missionary Conference" : meet the pressing needs of this vast land? " We . . . come to you, our sisters in Christ, with an urgent appeal on be- On behalf of the Pel'manent Commithalf of the • • . women and children of J. HUDSON TAYLOR. China. . • • tee, "Beloved sisters, if you could see SHANGHAI, May, 1895. tbeir sordid misery-, their hopeless, loveless lives, their Ignorance and sinful- (Additional copies of this appeal may ness as we see them, mere human pity would move you tJ do something for be had at the Presbyterian Mission their uplifting. But there is a stronger motive that should impel you to stretch Press, at $1 per 100.) out a helping hand, and that we plead -the constraining love of Christ. We Rev. J. Hudson Taylor well says: who are in the midst of this darkness " We need persons who will consecrate that can be felt send our voices across their lives to foreign mission service at the ocean to you, our sisters. and be- home. It is for some to consecrate their seech you, by the grace of Christ our lives, their thoughts, their prayers to just this service. I believe that some Saviour, that you come at once to our of the best missionary work that is done to-day is done by invalids who never leave their bedrooms, or by old people, or by those who are very poor and have not much to give; but they give the Lord what is most precious-a true yearning heart, a constant remem- brance, a constant prayer."
W. Burns Thomson, M.D., F.R.S.C.E., FiR.S.E., was in some sense one of the fathers of modern medical missions. He accounted it his highest earthly honor to write "medical missiouary" after his name, for it identified his whole career They arrived in Yokohama without any with the Lord and His apostles. This place to live, but soon rented a Bud- godly man was God's elect servant to dhist temple for a house, and all the cOlhmunicate to the Church the medical idols were taken away and stored. Mrs.
missionary impulse after the way had Hepburn was the first American woman been prepared by Asahel Grant, Parker, who ever landed in Japan, and was con· Hobson, Lockhart, in various quarters sidered a great curiosity. She is pres of the globe, and when the Edinburgh ent with her husband here. Dr. Hep- Medical Missionary Society had been burn opened the first dispensary in that organized, and men like Dr. Coldstream country; and performed the first surgical and Dr. Handyslde had been the elo- operation. He worked for six years quent advocates of such forms of mis- before the first convert was made, who sbn work by both their tongues and was baptized in Dr. Hepburn's dispen- pens. sary. He assisted in the first transla- Dr. Thomson we have long regarded tion of the Bible into Japanese, a work as the finest specimen of a medical mis- which was completed in siX; years.
sionary we have ever met. His large Now there are 40,000 converts, and pos- brain and well-furnished mind was the sibly :t.oO,OOO under Christian instruc- handmaid of one of the tenderest and tion.
most sympathetic natures trained in Seven of the great missionary family suffering's school. And his passion for of Scudders were present. This famhis Lord and for the souls He died to ily counts five hundred and thirty years' save brought him into such identity service on the mission field. Dr. and with Christ that he was ever filling up, Mrs. Blodget have been in continuous like Paul, that which is behind of the service since 1853, and Dr. William Ashsufferings of His Master in his own flesh more since 1850. These men do not for His body's sake. With holy insight " die at the top." They are out on the into God's truth, rare singleness of aim, picket line of all the thinking and childlike simplicity of character, de- movement of the age. voutly prayerful l$bits, and a peculiar charm of personality, Dr. Thomson The Sunday morning service will be stands before those who knew him as ever memorable. The Fellowship and one of the most unique men of modern Consecration Meeting at nine o'dock history. furnished a fitting prelude to the ser- mon at 10.30 by Rev. W. E. Witter, These reminiscences of his life, edited M.D. The serVlCe for young people, a by Dr. J_ L. Maxwell, published by stereopticon composite lecture, the presi- Hodder & Stoughton, Paternoster Row, dent's reception on the lawn, and the London, E. C., will be thankfully read farewell meeting for those returning to by thousands. their fields before another annual meet- ing were all interesting. Forty-four of We cannot find space for the bio· those present expect to be once more in graphical sketches of the veterans. We the midst of the fray abroad within a give only one. Dr. Hepburn graduated few coming months. at Princeton, and in 1840 was appointed to missionary work, and he and his The officers elected for the ensuing young wife sailed in a whaling ship year are: President, J. T. Gracey, when there were only two steamers in D.D., Rochester, N. Y.; Vice-Presithe world. They went to Singapore, dents, Cyrus Hamlin, D.D., S. L. Baldand soon were transferred to Amoy, win, D.D., Rt. Rev. C. C. Penick, China, when they were associated with D.D., F. A. Cassidy, William Ashmore, many of the early missionaries. Owing D.D., Henry H. Jessup, D.D., Jacob to failing health they returned home, Chamberlain, D.D.; Secretary, Rev. and in 1859 were appointed to Japan. W. H. Belden, Clifton Springs, N. Y. ; Associate Secretary, Mrs. Dr. C. C. Thayer; Treasurer and Librarian, Rev. C. C. Thayer, M.D. ; Executive Com- mittee, Rev. J. A. Davis, Chairman, Nyack, N. Y. ; Rev. C. W. Cushing, D.D., Rev. J. L. Ammerman, D.D., Rev. L. R. Luther, Mrs. W. H. Belden, Mrs. Wellington J. White, Mrs. J. T.
Gracey.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
lIDITED BY BEV. D. L. LEONARD.
Extracts and Translations from Foreign manam vres both on land and sea; has Periodicals. utilized ironclads for sea fights; has availed herself of the most modern type BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, of death-dealing weapons; and has seized on the most approved forms of MASS. high explosives. She has struck terror into the hearts of the Chinese, and has MISCELLANEOUS. pUed up dead Chinamen all over the neighborhood of Japan. What more -" Dr. Glover, in his valedictory ad· evidence is needed? Our brethren of dress, at the Baptist Union, to missiona- Korea are indeed civilized."-Catholie ries returning to the field, gave utter- Home JOU1'nal. ance to some weighty thoughts which are more and more coming to the front. -The brethren of the Rhenish Mis- He said: •If you could reproduce in sionary Society are, on the whole, India and China a churcb exactly on cheered by a steady progress of their our pattern it would be to your dispar- work: 50, 60, or 70 baptisms in a month agement and not to your praise. There seems to be a very usual report for It. are bits of the Gospel which only the missionary. heathen can see, and which, in this atmosphere of smoke, we cannot behold. _co Her Majesty's Acting Consul- Find those out, brethren. Let forms of General at Seoul, in Korea, Mr. C. T. church life be native to the place. You, Gardner, has published a pamphlet exin all your judgments, must be inde- pressing his views on the question of pendent of us, and you must teach your • How to lessen the recurrence of anticonverts to be independent of you. Christian and anti-foreign riots in You must decrease that Christ the Mas- China. ' Among the causes of dislike ter may increase, and that you may which actuate some of the Chinese serve Him. Your work, so great, use- against Christianity he instances jeal. ful, successful, has opened t~e way for ousy at the superiority in intelligence work still greater, more useful, and and morality of the Christians. He more successful. Go on, not with the says: • The Christian education of the idea of mere continuance, but walking children of converts undoubtedly proby the cloud and fire, and then become duces greater intelligence and a higher to others a pillar of cloud and fire which moral tone than the Chinese non-Chris· will lead them.' "-Bombay Guardian. tian education; the consequence is that Christian Chinese are obtaining a suc- -" That world which assumes to it- cess in life far greater than non-Chrisself the appellation of civilized awakens tians of the same class. There is hardly to a realization of the fact that the a ·high official in the empire who bas genius of civilization has retraced a not one or two ChrIstians in his employ course back to the farthest East, and as confidential servants. These Christhat the Zeitgei8t has possessed even the tiaus are equally successful in obta.ining heathen of those lands. Japan has at clerical and other employ in Governone bound stepped into the ranks of ment and commercial offices, such as the civilized powers. England has by the Imperial Maritime Customs, Mining treaty explicitly recognized it as such. and Public Works, the China Mer- What else could be done? Japan has, chants' Steam Navigation Company, as It were, passed a public examination etc. "~Chureh Missionary InteZZigeneer. and demonstrated its fitness for admission into the company of civilized pow- -The Tibetan, published at Toronto ers. She has displayed her skill in war
EXTBACTB AND TRANSLA.TIONS
by the Tibetan Missionary Union, baa in consisted for the most part of serfs and the December number a full notice of slaves; few of the noble or wealthy be- "The New Acts of the Apostles," longed to them, as Paul attests. Chris- which it pronounces "pre·eminent tianity always found a firmer hoid in a among the books iBBued from the re- people in proportion as it took hold of ligious press during 1894,." "The vol- the poorer classes. The successes of ume is 80 replete and complete with all Boniface in Germany would not have that concerns the extension of God's been possible without the previous toil- kingdom on earth that we feel con- some activity of the Irish evangelists strained to recommend it to the careful addressed to the insignificant and weak, study of all who have the interests of and of such men as St. Severinus, who, that kingdom at heart. A handsomely from 4M on, was, amid the hostile colored map showing the extent of pre- storms of the Volkerwandm·ung, a help- vailing religions of the world and the ing, comforting messenger of Heaven progress of evangelization forms a valu- to the sorely harassed dwellers in the able supplement to the book, being the ancient Noricum along the Danube, and most complete thing of the kind ever at the foot of the Alps, and in no mean published. " measure alleviated their distress. He -The Harvelt Field (English Wes- was one of those figures that remain unleyan) has changed its place of publica- forgotten in the memory 01 a people betion to Mysore. Wherever published, cause they knew how to grave imperit is one of the wisest and most valu- ishably into the fugiti ve current of time able of missionary publications, and one the characters of self·denying love. So of the freest from partisanship. also to.day is Ohristian Frederick Schwartz (t1798) unforgotten in South -" Some weeks ago we alluded to India, who for fifteen whole months in the increasing number of well-lo-do· Tanjore fed daily before his dwelling Ohristian men and women who enter more than 11)00 persons (heathen, Mos- the mission field at their own expense. lems, Ohrlstians), and, among other We referred also to the increasing prac- deeds, delivered, by his intercession, tice of missionaries being supported by the city of Ouddalore from destruction. {ndivldual friends. Our editor has re- ..• We may well say : The measure of cently been the guest in London of Mr. the active benevolence which a mission Benjamin Broomhall, the General Secre- exercises is the measure of Its success. tary of the Ohina Inland Mission. In If missions ceased to account benevoregard to the two subjects above men- lence as the soul of their work, assuredtioned, Mr. Broomhall says that there ly their results would become a soundare 82 missionaries of the Ohina Inland ing brass and a tinkling cymbal. This Mission laboring at their own expense; fundamental tone and attitude of mis- 87 are supported entirely by friends, sions is under all circumstances a social and 16 are partly so supported. One factor of the first rank. In the measure friend supports five missionaries; three in which the individual missionary suppornwo each; and 39 support one shares in this temper, his activity will each. In two cases two friends support be lure in some way to result in an abiLl- one missionary between them. "-BtIfn,. ing blessing. The application of this 11(1,1/ (}u(1,rdi(1,1I.. principle to definite individual rda- -" Everywhere it appeal'll in hi.tory tions demands great wisdom. "-HERB that building from below upward hu I!IToSCH, in Der Mi88icn, Freund.
greater 8UCcess than the revel'll!. The way to the hearts of the great goes -" The year 11191) finds Nicaragua in through the hearts of the wretched. So undisturbed possession of what has for was it even at the time of the apostles. so many years been the territory of the The congregatioDi founded by them HOIklto Indians. A free nation, the
GENERAL HISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE. [Octobel'
majority of whom are Protestants, has from God the gifts needed for the crisis : now, contrary to its strongly expressed wise fearlessness and faithful endur- desire, been incorporated with its Ro· anee. Amid the waves of excit6ment man Catholic neighbor. This has hap· and anxiety, amid frequent disquieting pened in spite of the Treaty of Managua, rumors, amid arrests and acts of vio- which guarantees independence and lence, amid lawlessness and public inse- autonomy to the }Ioskito Indians sub- curity, amid the flight and emigration ject. to a limited and defined 80verelgnty of those around them, tbey have stood on the part of Nicatagua. The explana- like rocks, a comfort, a help, and a tion of the strange riddle Is the attl· strengthening of the faith of many.
tude of the United States In view of They have lived as they have prayed, American interests in the projected endeavoring, as far as consistent with Nicaraguan Canal. So it comes that the the Word of God, and teaching their most decisive word that has been spoken people to • submit themselves to every as to this incorporation of the reserve Is ordinance of man (yes, of their new Ro· Prellident Cleveland's message to Con- man Catholic rulers) for the Lord's sake, gress, January 3d, 1895. He accepts and to seek the peace of the place where the Nicaragnan representation of the they dwell.' Without cessation they circumstances which led to their, occu- have discharged all their regular offices pation, and supports the action of that as pastors and teachers as far as e'ver the rcpublic. The Moekito side of the ques- circumstances allowed. And when duty tion has never been heard. "-Periodical demanded. they have stood out boldly Accounts (Moravian). against the pride and unreasonableness – " Bound up as our mission has been of the conquerors, defenceless as they for nearly half a century with the best were, save for the might of the Spirit, welfare of this little seml.independent of truth, and of a good conscience."- country, we cannot but regard the Ibid. Nicaraguan occupation as a sore blow for Moskito. It will be many a day be· -The excellent Australian missionfore Bluefields and Magdala recover It. aryof the Brethren, Dr. James Ward, has been called home.
Several of their best citizens have gone, -We observe that De Vrije Kerk, of never to return, and their slowly revlv· Holland, describes the Parsees as fire· ing trade has to contend wIth the in· worshippers, and says that the cbief creased customs duties demanded by object of tbeir worship is the sun.
the new rulers. As ,to the cost of the They, however. emphatically deny the mission, whose maintenance in full effi· designation, declaring that they wor- clency is now doubly necessary, it:is ship God alone. They reverence all the plain that it will be very much higher elements as being the work of the good in the future than it has been in the God, and especially fire, but deny that past. "-Ibid. they identify it with God.
-" Not one of our missionaries has -The FJrije Kerk from time to time been touched ; not one has fled from his publishes valuable reprints on various post, though advised to do so by white missionary Bubjects, under the title of as well as colored neighbors; not one Zendingsrubriek. Among them have of them has sat for a single hour within been some excellent papers on medireval prison walls, though the intruding missionaries, drawn out with true Dutch • Spaniards' have shown them much thoroughness . distrust, and though varied calumnies have threatened to issue In violent meas- -The Abogado Ori8tiarw Ilu8trado ures of that kind. The brethren in very justly holds up to those Mexican Bluefields have had to bear the brunt of Catholics who will not give charity to this situation, and they have received anyone that cannot show a confessor·'s certificate the example of the present
ENGLISH NOTES
Pope, who is paying the expenses of a of the Bible.' "-RlJ1Jue au ltli,l1onI young Protestant art student in Roml', Oontemporainea.
saying th!lt his Protestantism has noth· -:-The Jesuit missions of Paraguay, ing to do with his profession. whIch fell ultimately into such unhappy -" As the hardest struggle of Paul's abuses of cupidity and tyranny that missionary life was with those who, Spain and Rome were obllged to pro- pretending that the heathen were not scribe them, have been succeeded J>y ripe for the Gospel, insisted on first missions of that simple, cheerful, bibll- making them Jews, so the missionaries cal kind which are not likely to need of our day are bound manfully to with· any proscription.
stand those who, under a similar pre· tence that the heathen need a special preparation, insist on making extraneous English Note8.
additions to the proper missionary com· BY JAMES DOUGLAS. mission."-Dr. F. M. ZAHN, in Allge· meine Mi8sions·Zeitach1-ij't. London Mi.Bionary Society-The I88a· -" The following official report, ad· mutti DiBtriet.-The Rev. W. R. Le dressed by the Chief Surveyor to the Quesne, who was recently entrusted President of the RepUblic of Paraguay, with the charge of this district, gives testifies to the results obtained by the an account of a visit lately paid to its South American Missionary Society three stations, Baduria, Goburdanga, among the Chaco Indians: and Bongong. At Bongong he found the society's agent cowed by a sense of " , Knowing the interest which your educational inferiority and unable to Excellency cherishes in the prosperity take the bold stand called for. At Go· of the Chaco Indians, I have the honor burdanga the outlook was equally de· to inform you that I have to-day reo pressing. Here some three or four yearl turned from an excursion into the inte· ago a convert of great promise had been rior, made for the delimitation of a ter· won, and after his baptism at Calcutta, ritory in which the S. A. M. S. desires had returned to his home. But since to establish a station. In traversing the then he has disappeared, whether as the country I have been struck with the se· result of foul play or not has never come curity which we can now enjoy in the to light. The ZemindarB are hostile to bosom of this tribe, thanks to the labors the missionary aim from mercenary and of the agents of the aforementioned oppressive reasons. What is needed to society. Six years ago, when I last withstand them is such a witness for traversed this country, I dared only Christ as adds to his faith courage. The venture into it accompanied by fifteen state of things in Badurla has not yet picked men armed to the teeth. We properJy entered the reaping stage. never dared to stray to any distance The good work has been carried on in from our camp; at night sentinels kept this place for many years, and there guard and we remained with our arms have been in the course of the years within reach. several baptisms, but the converts won have removed elsewhere, and there is as " , This time I made my survey with yet in Baduria no church at all. Thil Indian help and without fire-arms. At is trying to the workers, but out·door night we slept in full security, no mat· preaching and house·to-house visitation ter where we chanced to be ; instead of are maintained, as well as two schooll, avoiding the villages, as formerly, we one for boys and the other for girls. sought to encamp near them. . .. A missionary lady, a young unmarried Englishwoman, can traverse without Ohinese Oovenantera.-The Rev. J.
danger countrios absolutely unexplored, Sadler, of Amoy, has just made the dis- healing the sick and teaching the trutba covery that at Lohin there is a little
'788 GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
company of men who, for seven or eight funds not available for the society's years, have entered into a covenant with general work, have amounted to £272,- all diligence to stir up each other to 000, thus exceeding by more than £20,- right conduct. They are known among 000 those of any former year. Cause the Christians as Covenanters. One of for praise Godward is due for the mani- these writes: "The most lamentable fest evidences of the working of His thing is that vested interests of the fam- Spirit all over the world which is great- ily hinder one in obeying Christianity· ly in excess of former years. The total and getting itf:l instruction. What is in number of adult converts this year is my heart cannot be written by the pen ; 4200. including 1500 in India, 1400 in but the doctrine does not despise those Africa, 650 in China. Among these are less instructed. The great thing is a many individual cases of deep interest, holy life. This is the essential. Now, including a notable band of prominent though I meet that which fetters me, men in the Punjab, of whom Dr. Clark stm my heart keeps on hoping. Please writes: .. Such splendid fellows, with pray for me, so that what we say to one gentle yet strong faces; it is an inspira- another may not be without effect. In tion to see them." We felt special in- this way my grief may be assuaged." terest in the sentence, "Among the B4ptist Mi88iona'1'1f Societll.-The Rev. Ainu there are now more than 400 H. Ross Phillips, who has just returned Christians." The remotest outpost of to the Congo, writes in B most cheerful this society is occupied by Edmund strain of the hearty welcome received Peck, the intrepid Bailor missionary, and the missionary prospects. .. The who bas been conveyed in a whaler, people," he says, .. came a long way on with a young companion, to Cumberthe road to meet us, and Saturdayeven- land Sound, in the polar regions, where ing they crowded the station and ex- the Eskimo have put up for them a litpressed very heartily how glad they tle tabernacle twenty feet long. made were to see us. For several days I had of whalebone and sealskins.
people coming in to sec me from other We,leyan Mis8iona'1'1f Societll.-We towns, bringing messages of welcome glean the following particulars from from those whom I had visited when the abstract and general summary of out in itineration in former years. . . . the operations of this society during the The decided increase in membership, past year: Circuits, 328 ; chapels, 2104 ; the ever.deepening interest in the Gos- missionaries and their assistants, 349 ; pel in the outlying towns, and the ear- other paid agents, as catechists, daynest appreciation of the New Testament school teachers, and interpreters, 2587 ; in their own language, to say nothing full and accredited church·members, of the wider-spread efforts of the native 40.994; scholars, 80,791. More than Church-all these convince me that half the missionaries are natives of the there is every reason to thank God and countries in which they are working, take courage." and no part of the work is more steadily G!&urch Mis8iona;ry Society.-From held in view than that which is directed the general review of the year we cull toward raising an Indian ministry in the following particulars: Within Benn India, a Chinese ministry in CWna, and years the total number of missionaries an African ministry in Africa. Evan- bas almost doubled. In 1888 the num- gelization, as the primary and central ber reported was 888; to-day It is 684 duty of the missionary, is kept ever -in both cases exclusive of wives. prominent, and the number of those en- Financially. too, the result has been in gaged in it increases year by year. The accordance with the forward movement work among the children comprehends of faith. During the past year the total a total of over 65,000 in Asia and Af- receipts, excluding gifts to special rica.. Ital!/.-In an address recently given Kottedankada, four years ago heathen, on the subject of Wesleyan missions In and now transformed into a Christian Italy, the Rev. Hugh Price Hughes re- community. At the present time the lated the following circumstance of agents of this society are preaching the which he was an eye-witness: "I went Gospel in 54 different languages in vari- to our church in Rome and haw Capel- ous parts of the globe.
lini addressing a hundred young sol- Ohina Inland Mi88i0n.-As instances dIers. fifty of whom were received into of Chinese brotherly love, the Rev. the fellowship of our church that night. James Meadows relates the two follow- Later in the evening, one of them, who ing incidents: .. At Hsinghien, while was going to America, gave an account we were there holding services for canof his history. He said he had come to didates for baptism, news came that "ne them nominally Catholic, but really of our very poor brethren in the counagnostic, but that Capellini had brought try had just been burned out of house him into that hall, and bit by bit the and home. One of our earnest preachlight had dawned on his mind. Now ers broke into prayer for him and his he was rejoicing in Christ, and he was wife and family, but was so affected going to be a minister for Christ." that he could not proceed, and straight- Pre&byterian Ohurch oj Englarul.- way $16 were subscribed, $11 of which Speaking on the subject of Formosa, the poor men and women assembled Mr. Campbell, missionary from that contributed 1 The Christian affection uland, described the work there as in a existing among these country people is hopeful and encouraging state. " The often thus manifested in most practical Church," he said, .. was well advised ways. A widow could not get her fields by Dr. Douglas thirty years ago, when reaped, as all her deceased husband'.
she turned her eyes to that rich country, friends were opposed to her being a wherein mission work was commenced Christian. The brethren in a neighbor- by Dr. Maxwell.•. _ One thing that ing village heard of this, and meeting was beyond all cavil and criticism was together, deputed certain of their num- that whereas thirty years ago the island ber at once to reap the harvest for her, was a spot of unbroken heathen dark- while the remainder kept watch I"
ness, there was now a large native church." Mr. Campbell further said THE KINGDOM. that at a recent conference held with a view to form a presbytery on that island, -" Which is tbe 'foreign nation' in two intelligent young men were chosen the thought of God 1" pertinently asked to be ordaIned as native pastors. a foreign miBBionary in a great audience recently. And it is more than likely Societyj01' the Propagation oj the Gos- that not one in that multitude was able pel.-This society, which .will in the to make reply. course of a few years close its second century of labor and prayer, has many – A recent writer notes that the visit signs of increase. Special attention is of a very disagreeable and unappreciacalled to the venture into Kashmir; to tive Afghan prince recently cost Engthe expansion of the Church in Assam land the sum of $250,000. This amount and the Transvaal; to the independence would pay for 250 men, good, faithful of the Malagasy in building their own and agreeable, who would return the churches and restoring those destroyed visit each by a year's missionary work. by a hurricane without thought of aid – Ob8e1"/!e1'.
from the mission; to the increasing -The Westminster Gazette says that hunger of the people in the Telegu the popularity of Spurgeon's sermons is country for the privileges of the the most amazing literary success of the Church; and, further, to the village of century. The number of sermoDll published is 2396, and the total number of come was £2,477,132, a decrease of volumes sold is nearly 100,000,000. nearly a quarter of a million compared They are kept in sheet form in a large with that of 1892. Of the decrease, cellar in Paternoster Square, in long £31,000 is in English contributions, lines of cupboards, so that a supply of £18,000 in Scotch; the decrease in any particular discourse can be got at American over £200,000, The contri- once. Four fifths of the supply have butions from England amonnted to £1,- been sold in the United Kingdom; the 159,888; from Scotland to £197,856 i remainder have gone to this country from America to £614,594.
and to Australia. -" When the history of the Protes- tant churches, at the end of the nine- -Not long ago two Americans, trav- teenth century, shall be written, two elling in Alaska, approached the Kus- facts will have to be related, contradickokwim district. They heard the na- tory in appearance, and yet equally true. tives everywhere talking about the The first .is the sterility of religious " Kilbuckamuks," and expected to thought, the strange disintegration of meet with some tribe hitherto unknown beliefs. Criticism has so analyzed, disto georraphers. Presently they reached sected, and discussed the objects to a Moravian station where they found the which it has been applied that the facts missionaries, Mr. and Mrs. Kilbuck, and which were formerly the most certain, It trsnspired that the new" tribe" con· the facts on which our most sacred slsted of those who had surrendered hopes repose, have become, as it were, themselves to the infiuence of the Gos- volatilized in our hands, and even the truest believers ask t.hemselves in hours no.- pel, the name of their teachers being at- of anguish: .. Am I really sure of that tached to them by the surrounding tlvel.
-India, like Ohlna, Is to have its own which I believe 1" This is one fact, medical missionary journal. Each of and it is a sad one. But there is an- the following countries have medical other which is very consoling: it is the missionary magazines: Scotland, 1; development in our Protestant churches England, 2; America, S. Two others of a multitude of works which are the in England are largely devoted to thIs product of faith, works of mercy, of agency, and several missionary journals help, of reformation, of evangelization, devote space specially to medical mis- and among all these enterprises the most sions. admirable certainly is the work of mis- -In May, 1890, the General Confer- sions. It is certain that never since the ence of missionaries in Shanghai, repre- first days of Christianity has the Gospel senting 1296 Protestant missionarIes accomplished more rapid and more asthen in China, issued an urgent appeal tonishing conquests than in our own for 1000 more men for China within five epoch. Missions march with giant years. At the same time the women-of steps, so that we can already foresee the conference appealed for more wom- the moment when the good news shall en workers. Rev. C. F. Reid, of Shang- have been carried to the very ends of hai, for a committee appointed to report the earth, and when, in accordance with the results of the call, states that in the the word of our Lord, the times shall five years there have been sent out 481 be ripe for the end. "-.M. Jean Meyer.
male missionaries, 167 wives of mis- WOMAN'S WORK. sionaries, and 505 single women, mak- ing a total of 1153. -The Intelligencer has this to say -Dean Vahl has issued his mission- with reference to the Church Mission- ary statistics for 1898, relating to no ary Society: "In Jnne, 1887, there fewer than 381 societies engaged in mis- were-22 women on the roll. Since that sions to the heathen. The entire in- date, more thaD 200 names have been entered; and after deducting a few home and abroad such a noble reinforce,.
deaths and retirements, 192 remain, ment of women filled with His Spirit, which does not incJude those lately ac- it is our part, surely, to render Him un- cepted togo out this autumn. We have faltering praise."
41 in West and East Africa; 39 in -The last report (1895) of the Lon. Egypt, Palestine, and Persia; 35 in don School of Medicine for Women ex- India; 11 in Ceylon; 32 in China; 30 hibits in detail the high standing and in Japan; 4 in the North Pacific." work of its IItudents. A steadily in· But in addition, at the stations of the creaSing number of the graduates are same society no less than 214 other being appointed to responsible official women are at wOlk, sent out by socie- pOllitions in Great Britain and the coloties in close affiliation. nies-iluch as medical officer to the gen- -As a result of such remarkable eral post-office; examiner for the govfeminine consecration and activity, to ernment life assurance fund; queen's quote again from the same magazine: lecturer on physiology to the National •• It has been said C. M. S. is becoming Association of Nurses; lecturer to the a women's society. If this referred to Technical Instruction Board, London our home circles, the word ' becoming' County Council; assistant medical offiwould be inadequate, for there is noth- cer, St. Stephen's Hospital, Delhi; resiing new in the fact that women take a dent physician, Kama Hospital, Bomlivelier interest in all Christian work at bay; lady principal female department, home and abroad, including C. M. S., Ceylon Medical College; and resident than men do. From the earliest days physician, Lady Aitchison's Hospital of the society, or at all events since for Women, Lahore. Last, but not least, 1813, when local associations began to we may mention by name the acting be formed, the larger part of the work house surgeon at the Kama Hospital, of spreading information and raising Bombay, Rukhmabaf. This high-caste funds-other than the actual preaching young Indian woman, after successand speaking-has been done by wom- fully resisting, through the English en. But the remark no doubt refers to courts, an attempt to coerce her into the increase of women missionaries; fulfilling 8 marriage contract made for and we have even been asked' why we her during infancy, came to England neglect the. men'! Neglect the men! to study medicine; she passed satisfacwhy, we are always appealing for them. torily all her examinations and took the Thank God, their numbers .have in- triple qualifications of the Scotch colcreased more rapidly than ever before leges and the M.D. degree of Brussels. during these very eight years that have -New York Evening Post.
seen the accession of so many women to -A paper, by a German zenana mis· our ranks; and the idea that men are sionary, in the Allgemeine Hi88ions-Zeit.
hindered from coming forward because schrift, gives a vivid glimpse into the women come forward is opposed to life of women and girls in the Moham· plain facts, besides being an unreason- medan harems of North India. This able notion in itself. It might as well woman was in the habit of visiting the be said that the Church of England is houae of a 1tlohammedan saint. One of becoming a female Church, because the his daughters was a bright: lively girl, large majority of workers in most par- to whom the visits of the missionary ishes are women, and that the' dearth gave the greatest pleasure. She over- of curates' is due to the increase of whelmed the .. Doctor Miss Sahib" with lady district visitors and lady Sunday- questions about the beautiful world school teachers I Seriously, when it which she had never seen. Her great has pleased God of late years to add to desire was to visit the missionary's our armies of Christian workers both at house, and as, in spite of her father's salntship. her notions of right and etoriea and basement, and containing 24 wrong were very elementary, she sue· rooms, was secured. The outlay, In.
ceeded at last, by feigning a aerlou! ill· cluding rent. taxes, and repairs, for the ness, in moving her lather to send her use of this property will be about $120 to the mission hospital. She was filled per month. The house is now being ,.ail with delight at the pleasant tlower gar. rearranged to make it suitable for the den of the hospital, a Bight ,he ne'lJeT' work.
8een before. But her fraud was discove~ It is expected that during the com· ed, and the poor girl had to go back to Ing fall and winter 21i students will be her cage. And even such 111 Moham· in residence. The co-operative board· medanism. Ing rate has been fixed at $4 per week, YOUNG PEOPLE. ea"h student to help with the work. The home Is at 112 Loomis Street, near -One of the most remarkable phases Jackson Boulevard, and is conveniently of the development of the Y. M. C. A. located for students attending the medimovement has been the increase in the cal schools.
number and value of the association -The BrooklynTimea evidently be- buildings. In 1890 there were reported lieves heartily in "practical politics,"
205, valued at $8,352,910. In the Year but has no stomach at all for such prac- Book of 1895 there are reported 805, tical religion as the Endeavorersof that valued at $16,091,780•. The increase in city display in their activity in helping five years is thus 100 buildings, or to enforce the law closing saloons on nearly one every two weeks; the total Sunday. This perturbed sheet would valuation being, In round numbers, have thoae youthful saints " go back to doubled. This remarkable growth in- primitive Christianity," and let good dicates two things chielly-that; the as· citizenShip alone I sociation movement has permanency – Yes, it is even so. "That in fourand that it meets with favor on the part teen years a single society, formed withof business men.- Young Men', Era. out any Idea of the future before it, but -An ~nalysis of .the attendance at the bent on a local work, should increase to recent World's Student Conference, at more than 10,000, and spread world- Northfield, shows these facts: Number wide, embracing a membership of 2,500,- of institutions represented: State, 10 ; 000, and generate a high enthusiasm and deuominational, 24; medical, 10; pre· consecration in Christian work, is a phe· paratory schools, 23; scientific, 8; nomenon not to be passed by with in- agricultural, 2; training, 8; theologi- difference or a sneer."
cal, 4.; unclassified, 39. Total, 118. -This table tells what the Presbyte~ Number of students in attendance, 459 ; rian Endeavorers have been doing for other delegates, 41 ; speakers and work- foreign missions : ers, 37. Total, 536. Amount subscribed to intercollegiate work, $2400. The de- Year Ending Societies. Amount. nominations represented were as fol- $5,265 April 30, 1891…. .. ….. . 864 14,228 April 30, 1892.. ………. 864 lows: Presbyterians, 120; Congrega- April 80, 1898….. . . . …. 1,269 24,808 tionalists, 89; Methodists, 76; Bap- April 30, 1894………… 1,856 29,244 tists, 78; Friends, 17; Reformed, 13; April 80, 1895………. ,. ~,487 38,161 Lutherans, 13; Episcopalians, 12; Total tor Aye year………….. '" ..S106,706 Christians, '1; no denomination speci- Increase of societies in four years, fied, 56. Total, 485. 2078 i average increase per year, 518, or -Chicago contains a home for young about Ii new societies for each day. men and women who have volunteered They are now supporting 45 missionafor the foreign field as medical misslona· ries.
ries. Last May a large tlat of three -The wide reach of the Endeavor
movement is Hown ia the fact that The first year the income reached but there is in Los Angeles a Chinese society 8187.62, with which only GO were sent of 15 boys and girls who aupport a na- into the country for two weeks. Since tive helper in China; one in Atlanta, then it has grown to near $80,000, with Ga., supports a free dispensary and a over 15,000 beneficiaries. In all about Bible training class and cultivates dOlV· $328,000 have been donated to this fund, ers for distribution among the sick and and almost 270,000 have been afforded aged. The society on board the Ohalrle8- an outing, one half for a aingle day and ton is planning for a seamen's mission half for a fortnight. with a reading-room and temporary home at NaillSaki, Japan. -The Christian Alliance, at its recent meeting lit Old Orchard, Me., raised -The societies in Cleveland have $72,000 for foreign missions. One memundertaken to set up about a score of ber gave land in California worth .10,- fountains or drinking-placeS in conven- 000, which rllpresented the savings of ient localities, and for the comfort of years, and a like spirit was shown by both man and beast, not omitting the others. Within a year this society has dogs even. lost 10 of its missionaries by death. The number now in the field or at home UNITED STATES. on furlough is 240, while 40 more are under appointment and about to take -General Carl Schurz is bearing a their departure. hand in home missionary effort in New York City by preaching righteousness -Rev. A. McLean, Secretary of the and sound sense to his brother Germans Christian (Disciple) Mission Board, hIlS in the current Parkhurst-Roosevelt sailed on a world tour to last a year, and campaign. He tells his fellow-Tcutons to include a visit to all the fields of that that they cannot afford to act as though society. they were the slaves of beer or the servants of the brewers in the controversy -During the last four yeara there over the enforcement of the excise laws. have been erected in the city of Chicago Also that they can .. get along better 41 new Methodist mission churches, without the opening of saloons on Sun- valued at nearly $500,000. Of these, days than without clean streets, a 81 have become self supporting. This plentiful supply of good water, good work has been accomplished through schools, public security, effective Bani- the efforts of the City Missioaary and tary arrangements, and the like, all the Church Extension Society. days of the week," IlS would be the case if Tammany government were re- -The Presbyterians can tell of " our stored. Quoth he: .. We should not twentieth church among the Sioux. " overlook the relative importance of this and other public interests, and espe- -To all appearance the American cially we should not make interests of Indian, like Dickens's little Jo, is fated more general importance dependent on evermore to be moving on. Even New this one thing." Metl&kahtla, which William Duncan, after being thrust out of .British Colum- -A recent I~pe~nt has an article bia, founded on Annette Island, Aluka, on the summer charities in New York has been invaded by a wild rush of City which traces them back to their miners, and his much·affiicted flock may beginning in 1878, when George F. be compelled again to abandon their Williams, of the Time8, was deeply homes. moved by hearing five ragged urchins in the City Hall Park say: II Let's play EUROPE. that we're in the country." The Tribune Fresh Air Fund dates from 1887. Great BritaiD.-At one of the recent meet.ings of the London Hissionary So- ciety, Dr. Wardlaw Thompson, the sec-
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLI!'IENCE
retary, announced that since its com· work is done. Nine missionary socie- mencement the society has received ties share in this, and are represented £5,500,000 ($27,500,000) in contributions by 18 physicians, of whom 5 are natives.
lit home, and that nearly another mill- -Rev_ S. M. Zwemer, of Busrah, has ion had been contributed in the field by an article in the IntelZigencer entitled Christian friends, and especially by na- " There Is Much RulJbish," with refertive ChrIstians. In commenting upon ence to the Koran, to divers lives of this fact, he exclaimed," Why, we the prophet, and to Mohammedanism could buy six ironclads with that in general as a religion. And the text money, and in five years they would be of the article fully justifies the title_ obsolete. The first vote for the present French expedition to :lHadagascar was -Rev. R. M. Cole, secretary of the more than £2,000,000. They will spend Bitlis mission station of the American on that expedition more than all the Lon- Board, tells of their regret on the death don Missionary Society has spent for the of Rev. G. C. Knapp, who died of apoconversion and transformation of mul- plexy March 12th, after prolonged prostitudes during the century. Expendi- tration. He entered this mission fleJd tUfe on missions is the most economical in 1855 and continued in charge till channel for spending money, and yields 1890, when he was succeeded by his son, the largest return." As the ample re- George Perkins Knapp. He met with turn for such cost, 95,000 Malagasy are great opposition in his early days in the now members of the churches, with . field from the Gregorian Church. He nearly 500,000 under Christian instruc- lived to so win their esteem that they tion, While about 100,000 have cntered tendered burial for his body in their own church, which was, however, deinto the life of the redeemed above. clined. Mr. Cole says: <. The Lord -The medical auxiliary of the Church gives us this cheer of late, that the old Missionary Society gives this as a sum· Church people, who in early times permary of work accomplished: 29 fully secuted Protestants, even latterly lookqualified medical missionaries; 4846 in- ing askance, as if our only business in patients in the mission hospitals last the land might be to transmute Aryear, and 373,355 out-patients. The menians into noxious Protestants, now auxiliary proposes this year to relieve turn toward us as genuine Christians, the society's general funds entirely of having deep sympathy for abused huthe medical expenses of the missions, manity, so that our congregations and other than the personal allowances of schools are much increased of late. the missionaries and the cost of new Partly from this and partly from high buildIngs; to defray, that is, no less esteem of our aged associate a throng than £4000. of some two thousand crowded our -When recently Mr Wigram, so church and yard at the funeral, three long secretary of the Church Mission- leading priests, with their select singers ary Society, sent in his resignation, he and all the paraphernalia of a burial of enclosed in the letter a gift of £1000, their highest grade, taking prominent with which to start the fund for the part in the services at their own re- new Calcutta Divinity School, as "a quest. "
thank-offering for mercies and privi- India.-A live American Brahman leges enjoyed during upward of four- has been discovered, believed to be the teen years as honorable clerical secre- first of the gemt8 (may his tribe not intary." creaae) presiding at a shrine in the ASIA.. depths of the Himalayas. It is enough to know his name, which is Charles Islam.-In Palestine are to be found William De Rousette. He leads a her- no less than 14 stations where medIcal mit's life and one approaching to the asceticism of the average fakir. He and all, both young and old, some with becomes known to fame through an in- one eye, and some with the remains of terview lately published in the Phila- two, and some with terrific squints, and delphia Ti'TMII. baring their heads, proceeded to form a circle, with their hostess in the centre. -A calculation appears in the Indian Then all, with one accord, continued to Ohurch Quarterlv which figures it out shriek piteously for the space of two that, at the present rate of progress, at hours, while they beat their thighs and the end of four hundred years it will temples alternately with both hands. be found that Christianity has made ad- This is the customary mode of public vances in India equal to those made in mourning, though usually practised Europe during the first four centuries. only on the death of a husband or a son. A woman, to show her excessive -Rev. F. L. Neeld, in charge of the grief, will frequently go on day after Bareilly Methodist Theological Semi- day for a month, inflicting blows on her nary, India, reports that that institu- temples in the manner described till tion now has: Seniors, 22; middle blood flows and severe inflammation is class, 23; juniors, 30-total, 75. He excited in the eyes, accompanied by inemphasizes the necessity of training a tolerable headache. And now follows native ministry on the field. ulceration of the cornea, followed, after months of suffering, by cicatrices and -F. J. Martin gives this well-nigh opacities, and frequently as not by cata· incredible story of the lengths to which ract and all but total blindness. And Hindu women carry their" grief." He all this for the sake of, not genuine lays of the sex: II As a rule, one eye is grief, but for the sake of making an imgone, or both are red, bleared and tear· pression of mourning on the neighbors. ful; the eyelashes have turned inward And though aU the neighbors know it and have scratched the cornea till it is is sheer hypocrisy, yet each and all will, opaque and nearly sightless and past in her turn, do the same thing, iDlbginhealing; or a cataract has formed in ing she is imposing on the rest." one or both the eyes. On inquiring the cause of all this, the usual reply is that China.-Miss Ford, of the Canadian she has lost a son, and has cried till she Methodist Mission, gives this bit of obhas literally cried her eyes out. It is servation and experience: "One has to always a son, sometimes a husband: learn to have the Easter joy in the but a daughter-I never heard of a heart, and not depend on outward cirwoman crying seriously for the loss of cumstances out here, where • on every a daughter. In the present case, how- high hill and under every green tree' ever, the patient I was called to see, are shrines, pagodas and images. For both eyes had been sacrificed for neither a few days past we have been noticing son nor husband, but, by way of vari· an image very different from any seen ety, for a buffalo. Gurmukh Singh in- before, and wondered what it was. formed me that he had lost a valuable This morning Mr. Cady asked the wife buftalo for which he had paid the ex- of the boat-owner, who explained that travagant sum of seven times twenty there are a great many devils around rupees, and that his wife had been in- the section of country we are just passconsolable ever since. The women of ing through; so these images are more the neighborhood would come in to re- numerous than in other parts; and at mind her of her loss, exaggerate it as regular intervals a rooster is sacrificed far as possible, and finally their advice to them, after which process the idol was that she should cry about it as long has knowledge of the devils, and proand loud as possible. In fact, in the tects against them. These devils are discharge of this duty they were pre- mimy of them spirits of people who pared to assist her. So the dames of Mrs. Gurmukh's acquaintance came, one h&ve committed suicide, and are waiting Chinese idolatry and superstition. In around to torment those who troubled consequence of this the mission W81 al- them while they were on this earth." most given uP. but just when things -A story is told by Rev. Hr. Adams, looked darkest a ray of light shone of the American Baptist Mission in Cen· which has steadily increased. In 1861 tral Chlna,ot a Mr. Tsen, formerly a 3 men came out from idolatry and dewealthy merchant, but who, ruined by clared themselves followers of Christ. oplum·smoking, became a low fortune· and to-day in that one province there teller. He came afterward under the are no lesa than SO,OOO converts to Chrilinfluence of the Gospel and burned his tianity, 12.000 of whom are connected magical books and BOught· to reform. with the mission of the Church Mis- The sufferings he endured while seek- sionary Society. This society has at ing to break off the habit were intense, present 10 ordained Chinese clergymen, but Wf'J.·e borne patiently. Thetempta- 170 churches. 120 catechists or lay readtion to seek relief by returning to the ers, 110 Christian schoolmasters who use of the drug was such as few could have charge of as many schools. and a have resisted, but he would not yield large number of trained Bible women though he died. And die he did, stead- carrying on effective work among the fastly refusing to yield again t<' the women of the province.
seductions of the drug which had blight- Korea.-A private letter from Rev. ed his life. T. H. Yun, dated Seoul, says: ., The -Rev. Mr. Ament writes: "As to government is now more firmly settled China, people may talk of great internal than some months ago. The Japanese reform and a general renovation of the influence Is strong ;it makes for prog- government, but there Is no evidence of ress. and therefore for good. On my any change at present. Personally I first returning to Korea. I was appoint- expect no reforms except under compul- ed private secretary of the prime minis- sion. No sledge-hammer blows from ter. A few weeks ago I was promoted without will break the hold of this em- to the position of vice-minister of edu- pire on the past; but the little plant cation. I thank the Church and the truth, working from within, will do this friends in the South. who made it possi· some day. If there is any growth in ble for me to get such a position, and I China I am afraid it will be more in the shall try to make my fidelity and con- line of military enlargement and a de- 'scientiousness show that a Christian is sire to get even with Japan. The war not one who forgets his own country.
has utterly failed to arouse the nation; as he is often charged out here with in fact, the nation as a nation knows doing. I am the only outspoken Chris- nothing about the war. and no lesson tian in the Korean Government."
can be taught the officials before the -Mrs. Underwood writes in Wompeople are instructed. The growth an's Work for Woman of A II Baby's must be from the lower strata upward. Visit to the King," as follows: I II as it has been in all lands. Hence I went to the palace yesterday. taking look for a patient continuance in the little Horace with me. who had a fine usual lines of work, being assured that time of it. The palace ladies caught our first duty Is to sow the gospel broad- him up in their arms and fairly ran with cast and let the truth do its own perfect him into the presence chamber. The work." king and queen and prince hugged and -Rev. Llewellyn Lloyd, of the kissed him. exclaiming how beautiful Church M.issionary Society, says that he was and how pretty his hands. The for nearly eleven years missionaries king had him lifted into a chair and labored in Foochow Ilnd its neighbor- . ~hen got down on the floor on his knees hood without one single convert from in front of him and talked to him, pet· ting and caressing him. The queen than ever before for the conquest of took him in her arms in a motherly this kingdom for Christ. grasp, smoothing his hair and saying anxiously, 'His head is too hot.' They " The war and attendant alarms have ordered about four quarts of Korean in no way interfered with the wondercandy, as many nuts and about a hun- ful prosperity God has granted the work dred oranges, and had them sent home in Korea. In faith, hope, and charity, for him. The queen also gave him an· n eincerity, steadfastness, and patience, other of tIle pretty little embroidered the Korean Christians are a constant bags full of beech nuts, which means source of joy and gratitude to God, to 'long life and happiness.' When we the missionaries. The Korean Chris. came away the palace ladies whirled tlana are distinguished by simplicity of him off, and about tifty of them got faith in God, and patience, endurance around him. petting and caressing him. of aspersion, both by the heathen na· I could not get near the child. The king tive and the unsympathetic foreign. himself put on his hat and coat and er. We need reinforcements. The mis· buttoned it up for him, kneeling on the sionarles spend many an anxious hour floor in front of him." because they are not forthroming ; the native Church goes half shepherded be· -The Korean boy at tirst sight can cause of the lack ; the highest authori· easily be mistaken for a school-girl Gut ties in the land ~y, 'Send us more of doors without her hat. His hair is teachers (missionaries).' " parted in the middle and hangs in a heavy braid down his back. When he , AFRICA. is married, his hair is twisted in a topknot on the crown of his head and adds -There is considerable perturbation much to his dignity. You may see a among the French authorities in AI· boy with his hair querIed on top of hi!! geria, owing to the work of the North head making mud pies by the road- Africa Mission, which Is chiefly carried side, and feel sure that here, at least, is on by English young ladies. The gen· an exception to the custom, but on in· eral council of the department of COI1quiry you learn that he is a married stantlne has addressed a note on the man. He enjoys his sport none the less subject of the supreme authority, in for the dignity of his topknot. which it states that the safety of Algeria is menaced by the work of the English -Rev. George Heber ~Tones writes Methodists (sic). .. The English danger from Chemulpo, Korea, June 10th, becomes from day to day more serious 1895: "Just one year ago to·day the in Algeria, as its agents become more tirst Japanese troops landed in Chemul· numerous. The Methodists and the solpo, to begin their astonishing campaign diers of the Salvation Army work under against China. What changes a year the guise of benevolence and charity, has witnessed I China is tOOay a beg- and thus attract the natives. They dis· gar among the nations, with few tribute money, clothes, medicines, Ara· friends, and a sad prospect of internal bic books (among others, translations of dissension, rebellion, and anarohy, and the Bible), and in appearance they only the certain prospect of being stripped occupy themselves with proselytism; of some of her territories by foreign but in reality a vast net of espionage is powers. Korea has reaped great benefit being drawn around us, and a propafrom all the changes of the year, and ganda of disaffection among our native especially the infant Church of Christ, subjects Is being carried on." The which has rode safely and steadily the council, therefore, petitions the Mlnl8try waves. We have reached a position of the Interior to put an end to these where we can Btrike mightier blows manmuvres.-.Re1JU8 deB Miuio1l8 (Jon. temporainu. -The New York Sun, in an editorial speaks specially of one of them who ia on climatic conditions and health in Ar- now the leading man among the Zulu rica, gives the following data: "In preachers, saying, " When r first came British India the annual death-rate to Umzumbe this man was a naked, among Europeans in the early part of scrofulous, hard boy, with a dirty sheep- this century was 84 to the 1000; but in skin thrown over his shoulders. We 1890 it was reduced to 16 to the 1000. cured him of his scrofula; then the So in the Dutch East Indies, the Euro- Lord cured him of his sin·sick heart, pean death-rate has been reduced from and to·day he stands up among our 170·to the 1000 in 1828 to 16-much leM churches as Dr. Storrs stands among than the native death-rate, which in 1892 your churches-a lsader of men."
was 23 to the 1000. In the basin of the -Sir Gilbert Carter, Royal Governor C.:>ngo the death·rate among white men of the British colony of Lagos, has rein 1893 was 70 to the 1000, but this em- cently given some interesting figures braced many mere adventurers and respecting the extent of the gin and rurn campaigners deprived of the comforts traffic on the west coast of Africa for and conveniences of life. In Leopold- tbe year 1893. The colony of Lagos, ville and Boma, white settlements, where with a population of 85,000 souls, imgood homes are available and fair sani- ported $450,000 worth of ardent spirits tary conditions, the death-rate is but 32 -more than $5 worth to each inhabto the 1000." itant I The Gold Coast, a British col- -In June, 1869, the missionary Ram· ony with a popUlation of 1,500,000, im- seyer, of the Basle Missionary Society, ported gin and rum to the value of was dragged as a prisoner into Abetifi, about $500,000. Sierra Leone, another then a city of Ashantee, with his wife British colony, with a population of and child. They spent three days in a 180,000, imported liquors to the value miserable hut, with their feet in chains. of $100,000.
Human sacrifices were then common in -At the recent annual meeting in Abetifi, which was under the tyrannical Londonof the Native Races and Liquor rule of the Ashantee chieftains. To- Traffic United Committee, Sir George day, in the same streets, under the same Goldie, Governor of the Royal Niger shady trees, instead of the bloody exe- Company, stated that in the Niger reo cutioner going his rounds, a Christian gion 1,100,000 gallons of spirits were congregation gathers together every imported in 1892,1,'700,000 in 1893, and Sunday, followed by a troop of Sunday about 2,000,000 in 1894. He said: scholars. Christian hymns, such as .. There is ample evidence of this extra " Who will be Christ's soldier 1" ring liquor finding its way to the Mohamjoyfully through the streets of Abetifi. medans of the interior, whose nominal The people come out of their houses, religion is no barrier against drunkenthe chieftain is invited ; he comes with ness. " Furthermore, this royal govhis suite and listens to the joyful tid· ernor said that after sixteen years of ings of salvation. And it is not in experience in administration :n Africa, vain; many have become the disciples he was prepared to affirm " that if steps of Jesus. Many even dare to tell their were not taken to prohibit the liquor fellow·countrymen in the streets what trade, a state of things would be brought joy and peace they have found in Him. about that would lead to the total aban- Who would have dreamed of this donment of the country." twenty-five years ago ?-.t1Ugemeine Mis- 8ions-Zeitaehrift· -Dr. J. E. Hine gives a ghast- I.Y account of a witch.burning near -Mr. Bridgman, of Umzumbe, in Unangu. The" boys" came and re- writing of the five Zulu preachers who ported. that a witch was being burned have been raised up under his care, alive at a place two miles from the sta· tion. He was incredulous, but went to young fellows from Borneo, Sumatra, see. "When I got a little nearer," he Java, Celebes, and New Guinea are says, "a sudden whiff as of burning eagerly studying the Scriptures in the flesh made me suspicious that the story Malay language, under the tutorship of might ,be true, and a little farther on I a German scholar and hisnativecoadju. saw it was. The body (of a woman I tors. Looking into the faces of those was told) .was lying on a heap of ashes, two men from Dutch New Guinea, of face downward, with the charred re- those converted Bataks from Sumatra, mains of the skull and hands projecting how his heart was moved by the from the end, and fastened to a small thought that the Gospel had brought tree, the feet apparently having been together here in this Christian semfastened to another tree behind. All inary the descendants of cannibals, the flesh on face and arms had been de- east and west, and of savages of all this stroyed, but the body was still burning, Asiatic archipelago I The Bataks on frizzling and spitting in the flames-a the west coast of Sumatra have furhorrible sight, such as I never thought nished 100 missionaries already for the to see in my life." army of our King.
-J. E. Burdett Meakin has told in ISLANDS OF THE SEA. the London Ohri8tian a most remark- able story of the rise and spread of tllC -The seamy side of the work of the kingdom in a portion of Java. Fifty Gospel in Madagascar is seen in the years ago the son of a Russian colonist persistence with which the converts and a Javanese woman was converted still cling to slavery. In particular the by a dream that he was called to evan- English Friends are urgent in seasollj gelize the nations, and forthwith set and out of season to end this" relic of about the task and continued, though barbarism," but hitherto with slight sharp persecution befell. Later the effect. The Malagasy conscience is dull Dutch Reformed Church came to his at this point, and strong feeling is aid, and now a Christian settlement of stirred by exhortations to let the op· 2500 is found with 1000 besides in out- pressed go free. stations, 725 children in school, a kin- dergarten, hospital, etc.
-The Methodists have been at work in Singapore for ten years, and are able -Dr. Schreiber writes thus of the to report substantial progress. Rev. W. success with which the Rhenish So- F. Oldham has a school, with an average ciety is meeting in one portion of the attendance of over 500. In 1880 only Sumatra field: "When we began our 10 natives were connected with the mis· work six years ago in the almost entire· sion, and these were Tamils from South ly Mohammedan district of Padang India; but by the end of the next year Bolak, a Dutch official of high position, 31 adult Chinese were members of the who was friendly to our work, assured church, and now the number has in- us that it was a most foolish step, that creased to more than 200, with the addi-' we could not accomplish anything in tion of 80 Tamils and 30 Malays and the Padang Bolak, we were too late Malay-speaking Chinese. there, since Islam had already occupied the whole region. This was the uni· -The late J. L. Phillips, M.D., versalopinion at that time about work wrote to the Sunday-&lwo~ Timea of a among the Mohammedans in Sumatra.
visit to a seminary for the Dutch and But we did not allow ourselves to be German missions of Malaysia, at Depok, discouraged : the work already done by south of Batavia. Here 40 bright a capable native missionary, Marcus, gave us good ground for hope, and a – -New Guinea has a missionary col- zealous and experienced missionary, lege well started with buildings, stu- Irle, took possession of the field with a dents, etc. W. G. Lawes writes of it : cheerful courage. And what has been .. In aU the work that has been done we the result? Missionary Irle, who works have had the ready help of a number of with a nati ve preacher and /) teachers at natives from the surrounding villages. one central and 4 out·stations, an- Every piece of timber used in our buildnounces in his last report that he has ings has been carried up from the coast baptized 350 persons, and haa no less (two miles) on men's IIhoulders. We than 500 preparing for baptism, among cannot always get help wben we want them a large number of Important chiefs. it ; but the people have been TOry good Earnest requests for teachers are con- and willing. Of course we have had to stantly coming from new districts; even pay them for their services, but the rate formerly fanatical Mohammedans have of wages is not high, and as waist-cloths turned to tbe Gospel; and from several and shirts are most in demand, we thus villages the Mohammedan mollahs have help the people in their efforts to get already retired in confusion because the ell!ternals of civilization. I ought, they see that they have nothing more perhaps, to explain more fully our purto hope; and the impression is becom- pose in establishing the college. The ing general that, over a great part of name may appear mi6leading, and yet the country, Islam is breaking up." it.ls the best for the object we have in view-viz., to train and fit young men -The friendly attitude of many gov- to be _teachers of Christ to their counernment officials toward missionary trymen. Before we receive a candidate, work is a feature of the time. Tho work we must have evidence that he is a sinin New Guinea, whore tho London Mis- cere Christian, and then he must be able sionary Society has no less than 114 na- to read in his o~ language. That is tive teachers and 57 students, has re- all. The minds of the most advanced ceived marked commendation from Sir are only just opening, and the time has William Macgregor, the governor of not yet come when any, except a very the British portion of the island, who select few, will acquire ,knowledge eays, .. Several years' work of the Lon- from books." don Missionary Society has greatly changed the habits of the Lese tribe. A -At the missionary devotional meetbrief glance at the work done by the ing of the Jamaica English Baptist London Missionary Society from Maiva Mil!lBionary Society, attended by memto Carama was considered to reflect the bers of the Baptist, Congregational, greatest credit on Rev. James Chalmers. Moravian. and Presbyterian denomina- Under the firm discipline practised at tions, an addre88 of much spiritual pow- Dobu in the schools and services estab- er was delivered by Rev. D. J. East, lished there very extraordinary progress who has had fifty-seven years of minis- terial service. His reminiscences of has been made. Rev. Mr. Abel is en- misaion work in the West Indies, where he has labored for forty years, were of couragin« some of the young men in his district to form Industrial settle- a atfrring character. He emphasized menta tor the cultf"ation of cotton and such-like commodities. an attempt that the fact that the Baptist churches in duerv" enry enooura,emant the 10"- Jamaica lon, ago became self-llupporternmlnt can give to it." It is only ing, and are now contrlbutin, 8. larie twenty years since the missionaries sum every year tor home and fonilgn landed among these cannibals. and took missionary work. MOlt ot the conpossession of thofr island ill the llama ot JUUI.-TM OlvrUtian. tributora give over a dollar each, thouih they receive lC&uty wage&.
The Missionary Review of the World — June 1895
ARCHITECTURE OF THE
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XVIII. No. 6.-Old series.-JUNE.-VOL. VIII. No. 6.-New Serie8.
THE INDIANS OF AMERICA: THEIR CURIOUS CUSTOMS, WEIRD WAYS, AND STRANGE SUPERSTITIONS. 'I< BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
Fact often outruns fiction in novelty and romantic interest. The ab- original tribes of this Western Hemisphere bear study. No people on earth are so reticent and reserved. Beneath an exterior imperturbably placid, features that never betray changing emotions and are almost frigidly rigid, they hide even from acute observers their inner secrets; and their whole personal and social life is a veiled chamber of mystery, behind whose curtain very few outsiders ever penetrate to the arcana.
A book has recently appeared which will be to most readers a revelation, not only of marvellous" wonders of the world" to be found within the Continent of North America, but of unsuspected mysteries of Indian life and character. Its author has spent years in Isleta, New Mexico, Arizona, and other parts of the Southwest, living among this compara- .tively unknown people, studying with rare penetration and patience their curious and occult history and habits. He has not contented himself with any superficial glance or hasty impressions, but seems to have persevered in cultivating such friendly and intimate relations, and in gathering such trustworthy information as might serve to supplement his own kElen observation, and enable him to reveal to the general reader, more fully than we have ever before seen, the real life of these" native" Americans. From his fascinating book we cull a few facts which especially bear upon Indian notions of religion, etc.
The somewhat amazing disclosures of Mr. Lummis have to do particularly with the Pueblo cities of Moqui, well into the edge of the Arizona Desert, and remote from civilization and Spanish influence, like the inaccessible mesas on which they are built.
of • 80me Strlnge Corners oC Our Country. By Charles F. Lummis. New York: Century Com- pany, 18112. T~e a~thor cauti,?ns the writer this article and hill readers, to "discriminate care- ;tully between the ClaSHes :of Iudian.mentioned In • Strange Comera.' 'rhe Puebl08, of course, are Christiana, ·end very .arne8ton~s,though superstitious,"
THE INDUNS OF AMERICA
Pueblo marriages show unique customs. To the groom is given a blue ear of corn, and to the bride, a white ear, because woman's heart is supposed to be the whiter. They prove their mutual devotion by eating every kernel. Then they run a sacred race, and the issue gives to the winner a certain ascendancy or prestige. If neither outstrips the other, the match is annulled as of bad omen. Pueblo etiquette forbids familiarity between the unmarried youths and maidens, under penalty of a whipping. Casual glances and greetings must take the place of walks and talks together. Marriages must have parental consent; and, in fact, the parents do the " courting" in behalf of the suitor.
Three hundred and fifty years ago the Pueblos had a strict separation of the sexes and community houses. Women, girls, and children lived in tlte dwellings, while men and boys slept in the estufa (or sacred room), to which the women brought their food. There was no common family life until the Spanish missionaries introduced it. There is still existing a peculiar fabric of society. The woman has rule in her own home, and to her belong the children, whose descent is reckoned from her, and who take her name and not the father's. The husband and wife must be of different divisions of society. The basis of social life in the twenty-six Pueblo town-republics is the clan, or cluster of families; and there are from six to sixteen such clans· in each of the towns.
The Pueblos have their children baptized in a Christian church, and give them a Spanish name. Some of the more conservative have also an Indian christening, which is performed by some friend of the family, taking the babe to a dance, selecting a name, and putting his lips to those of the child to confirm it; or the intimate woman friend of the mother takes the child at dawn on the third day of its life, and names it after the first object on which after sunrise her eye faIlIl. Hence the poetic and romantic Indian names. Mr. Lummis has a little girl thus named by an Indian friend, " The Rainbow of the Sun," and for a month this "adopted child" received from her Indian friends gifts of eggs, chocolate, calico, pottery, or silver.
After the birth of a child among the Pueblos, the father for eight days must see that the sacred birth:ftre in the fogon, or adobe fireplace, goes not out day or night, and as it can be kindled only in the sacred way, so only can it be rekindled if it does go out. He must smuggle a live coal, it may be in his own bare hand, under his blanket from the cacique's own hearth; otherwise the fire of the' child's life goes out also within the year. The Pueblo fathers, grandfathers, and even greatgrandfathers, and even the chiefs themselves, are not above carrying the babies on their backs and dancing to quiet them when there is need. Pueblo parents are gentle yet not over-indulgent, and the children show obedience to parents and respect to old age.
The death customs are equally unique.· Food is made ready for the four days' journey of the disembodied soul, and a " good start" provided for the unseen world. Some of his horses and cattle are killed for his use there; his weapons of war and chase, etc., are" killed" by burning or breaking, and so he is made ready to carryon his occupations beyond. Hence near every Pueblo town is the "killing place," apart from the graveyard, where the ground is covered with the various remnants of all manner of articles useful or ornamental.
The funeral pyre is not unknown among the tribes of the Colorado desert, and with the body the property of the dead is consumed, with treasures contributed by the mourners. No Navajo will ever again enter a house which death has invaded; hence come hosts of abandoned huts. Nor would he ever, after marriage, look at his. mother-in-law; even an accidental glimpse must be atoned for by fasting and prayer_ To most aboriginal tribes the feather is sacred, and is not only used in decoration, but in all religious rites. A white or bright-hued plume is of good omen, the gay parrot feather being specially valuable; and as to peacock plumes, they are beyond price. Without eagle feathers sicknesli could not be cured, or even witches exorcised, and the Indian religion would have no "prayer-book." Dark feathers are correspondingly of evil omen, particularly those of the raven, owl, woodpecker, and buzzard. To have these in possession is proof of evil designs or of witchcraft, and provokes summary punishment. The Pueblo" prayer stick" is chiefly of feathers, and corresponds to the Thibetan and Burmese" prayer wheel." Over three thousand of these prayer sticks have been counted in a day's ramble, stuck up in the ground as invocations, whittled sticks with downy feathers bound to the top in a tuft.
The Pueblo medicine men not only doctor the sick, but" doctor the year," prescribe for the seasons, and feel the pulse of the corn-fields. Wahr (the Tiguan word for medicine) includes almost all influences affecting humanity. To the Indian all influences, good or bad, are medicines and are spirits, good or evil. The medicine men must, therefore, be endowed with supernatural powers adequate to cope with the hostile spirits and coax the good. The witch is virtually a medicine man, only the power is used harmfully.
The two important doctorings of the year are in the spring and autumn -one to insure, and the other to acknowledge, a prosperous harvest. The spring medicine making is about mid-March. Every detail is not only sacred, but secret. The chief captain of war and his seven sub-captains lead the way, and each branch of medicine men sends a delegate to a common meeting. Chosen messengers-usually the war captain and his next of rank-present the sacred cornmeal to the two heads of all medicine, the offering being prepared by certain women of the family of the senior ambassador, out of the best ears in store, and with much care and prayer after sundown, this meal, wrapped in corn husk and tied with a string of the same material, is carried to the house of the great medicine man, the" Father of Here." After a sacred smoke and prayer to the Trues on all sides, the sacred parsel is handed to the august" doctor of the year," always using only the right hand. Next morning both the heads meet before sunrise at an appointed rendezvous, and as the sun appears, holding the meal in the left hand, and with the right taking pinches, breathing on ,it and then tossing it toward the sun, they meanwhile pray to the Sun Father for rain, grass, crops, and general prosperity.
On their return to the village they summon their medicine orders. Four days of fasting and preparation are" outside days," when the medi- cine men may move ·about keeping faRt; but the four" inside days" whi~h succeed are spent within the medicine house in ri~id fasting, as elsewhere described un,der the " praying smoke." Noone must enter the room or evcn call at the door but themselves, save the ",ife of the head of all, who sweeps it, brings water to fill the tirwja (jar), and tobacco for cigar- · ettes. ·Day and night they sit and smoke, the veterans reciting traditions , .of the order, that the younger may learn them by heart.
On the morning of the last day four pairs of marshals go on their mission in different directions. Once outside the village they cast off their blankets and run swiftly, carrying the" prayer sticK," a small bit of ·wool with certain magical feathers bound to it in a peculiar fashion; ·these prayer sticks to be planted in some sequestered spots at the four cardinal points outside the village; and after praying over them they run wildly over the country, blowing away witches and tossing up all evil spirits with long feathers, to be borne away on the wings of the wind.
Medicine-making must be done only i.n the dark blue breech-clout and with faces painted after a certain fashion; and the two forerunners are indicated by lightning marks on the legs.
The" dance" begins in the room of the fasters, and when the door is opened the people outside stand with bare feet, motionless. Every detail , o{ the performance is relfgiously regulated, and the seats are in the order of · rank~ . In front of each medicine man is the" mother," the ear of .white : com with its feather tuft and turquoise ornaments; and in front of the ; father of all is the cajete (earthen bowl) of sacred water, the mirror of all the world and its events.
The sacred cigarette or weer is used to wreathe the magic mirror in , smoke, when the shaman (medicine man) would foretell the year, or watch ·.the witches in their tricks, or see what is going on in the world, and to blind •-the eyes' of game during the sacred hunt. It is the fee for the services of · the shaman when there is sickness, and is used to cover the trail.of the departed soul, that the witches and evil spirits may not trace its path. •.:The weer is never to be lit at a common fire or with a match, but only "from the sacred fire in the estufa-a coal from the hearth of the cacique '- (chief-religious official), a flint and steel, or the unique old fire-drill, a dry round stick fitting closely in a cavity, and turned very fast, always from right to left.
The iacred song is sung, a rude ode to 'the "mother" of the crops,
PUEBLO INDIANS. AlII INDIAN BABY
THE INDIANS OF AMERICA
then the pinches of sacred meal are blown toward the father of all medicine and the mother-corn,and the eagle feathers are crossed and snapped. The wonderful sleight-of-hand follows, which perpetuates the awe in which the shamans are held.
When the medicine-making is done the sacred "going.out·for-theyear" follow!!, with equally rigid and religious rites. The father of all wears on his left hand and arm a gauntlet of skin of a bear's foreleg with the claws on, and on each foot a similar skin from the bear's hind leg, and in the glove he sticks the eagle plumes. Then the song is twice sung and the sacred mirror is looked into, and three shamans run to the Rio Grande to bring back auspices of plenty, or omens of drought and famine.
The sacred water-giving is the distribution from the cajete of a mouthful to each person, with prayers to the Trues, the recipient blowing the water on his hands or rubbing it on his body in token of strength to be given him, etc. The" mother-shaking" is done by the father of all, who mysteriously rains down on the heads of the audience a shower of seeds from the tufted ears, each kernel being eagerly picked up as a token of a large crop.
After the final benediction abundance of food breaks the long fast. The ceremonial paint is washed off, the ordinary clothing resumed, and the year is now safely begun at least. So curious and complex are the religious customs attached to some of our Indian tribes.
The cigarp.tte, and not the calumet, is the true ,. pipe of peace" among the Indians of the Southwest, and figures conspicuously in religion, wat', and the chase, and more than Arabian salt in its power as a bond of hospitality. The sacred cigarette is, however, a different thing from the familiar object that goes by that name in the East. It is a pinch of granulated tobacco wrapped in a bit of sweet corn husk or a special sort of brown paper.
The sacred smoke is everywhere found among the Pueblos. It hallows birth and death and every experience between. It secures f~om drought and all malign spirits, and makes. every rite and even prayer itself more holy. Its use is rigidly restricted. An Indian woman is not to think of smoking; a slit in the tip of the tongue may be the penalty. Nor dares the Pueblo lad smoke before he is twenty-five, unless he earns the privilege by prowess, or is a member of the medicine men's order, and even then not in the presence of seniors or superiors.
The cigarette is at once a bond of friendship and a flag of truce. The first act of a Pueblo in meeting a heathen Indian is to toss him the tobacco and corn husk for a cigarette, never handing it. To pick up the offering is accepting a peace covenant, and the bitterest enmity must be put aside.
The smoking anteceded the discovery of tobacco, and was then confined to certain aromatic herbs. Ceremonial cigarettes (the weer) are still made as before corn husks were used, by removing the pith from .a reed and filling the hollow with certain sacred weeds or tobacco. The Indian, on lighting the cigarette, sends each of the first six puffs in a contrary direction, but in such a sly way as to elude a stranger's opservation. This is a religious ceremony which reminds one of the Jewish "wave offering," waved toward the points of the compass to declare in pantomime that "the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof. " Thus the smoker propitiates the Trues and exorcises the witches.
In the spring of the year the medicine men shut themselves up for from four to eight days, smoking weer, to assure rain, and during all this time they neither leave their seats nor eat. They are compelling, by clouds of smoke, rain clouds to yield their moisture.
Scalping is not merely a savage custom of cruelty, but a sacred rite. Among the Tigua tribe the scalp is known as the "sacred hair," or " bark of the oak." In the secret niche in the wall of the estufa the sacred "barks" are treasured and taken out when the season for the " dance of the sacred bark" comes.
The scalp has been snatched from the victim not only as a trophy, but because its possession was believed to imply a transfer of the skill and valor of its previous possessor. It is removed hy a rough, circular sweep of the knife, and a tearing of the skin from the skull. The trophy must be carefully" cured" by the taker himself, for even an accidental touch on the part of another conveys away its magical virtues, at least in part.
A Pueblo party coming back with scalps could not come into town or be met by their flmilies. They must camp outside at a distance and send forward one half of the war party to report to the cacique. After a fortnight the warriors leave the confinement of the estufa, and go to meet and relieve the other half of the party guarding the scalps, while they come to fast in the estufa ; after another fortnight the two parties meet half-way and enter the pueblo, singing war songs and bearing the scalps to the cacique and the estufa. Then another period of fasting and purifying extends from eight to twelve days, every detail being scrupulously regulated.
The estufa is a round, low structure, with a diameter of from forty to fifty feet, with closed sides entered by trap-doors from the roof. Within it has bare walls, the round room having no ornament but antlers or rude representations of sacred animals. Even the mode of entry i~ prescribed. Mounting the ladder, one must approach the trap-door from the west side, back down the inside ladder, and turn to the right at the bottom and make.a circuit of the room a foot from the wall, and then take his seat in the semi-circle around the sacred fire. To turn to the left would be fatal, for the ghost of the scalped victim would chase him with a lasso and touch him with the death to~ch! So when they make their exit from the estufa they approach the inside ladder from the left, on the roof turn to the right, m~ke another circuit, and come down the outer ladder backward. The seat of the cacique is at the west side of the fireplace, and the semi-circles which front the fire are all arranged in rigid order. . All turn backs to the fire until the cacique speaks, and then they rise and face it through the session. The sacred fire must be lit only by the Hoo-mah- Kom, and only in the sacred way.
The Tua-ju-ar, or mad dance, near the estuja, commemorates the victory after all these punctilious preparations. Strangers must not even look on.
The dancers, with men and women alternating, form in two lines facing each other, the men in war-paint, with bows and arrows held in a pre- scribed fashion, and the women gayly dressed, but with nothing in hand.
The chant to which they move is a metrical account of the fight and its issue, droned to the thump of the drum.
At a given time the" bending woman, " or official keeper of the scalps, brings them from their sacred niche, and walks solemnly up and down between the lines of dancers with her buckskin bag, bowed down beneath the burden of her awful responsibility. The dance lasts four days, con- cluding with the Khur-Shu-ar, or round dance, with its ehorus of yells and doleful wails. Sunrise ends the ceremony. All then return to the estuja, where the scalps are again deposited in their hiding place and the slab that closes the niche is sealed with mud. Then the chief gives the signal and the company disperses.
All Pueblos count themselves Christians, and it is a long time since they have taken a scalp ; and it is said they never were wont to scalp any but heathen savages, and even in their case they took scalps from no women.
(To be continued.) FETICHISM IN AFRICA.
BY REV. JOSIAH TYLER, D.D., ST. JOHNSBURY, VT.
Fetich is from a Portuguese wordjeiti20, meaning a charm or talisman. Portuguese settlers in Western Africa, observing that the natives tied to their heads and necks a variety of articles to which their imaginations ascribed magical power, regarding them with superstitious awe, named them jetichists, or fetich worshippers. Long before this occurred in Africa, fetichism, or a form of worship closely allied to it, prevailed in other lands. Indeed, we may call it the oldest and most widely spread religion of the world, having co-existed with every pagan belief of which we have any knowledge.
An investigati<l'n of this subject, though sad, is not devoid of interest, for it helps solve a problem deemed by some insolvable-to wit, "Has a tribe of men ever existed wholly destitute of the idea of a supreme being f" Does it not illustrate in a striking manner a "feeling after
FETICIDSM IN AFRICA
God," which is characteristic of unevangelized millions ~ Herbert Spencer thinks that" if we will lay aside the idea of God and man in which we have been educated, and study the aboriginal ideas of them, we shall see some probability in the hypothesis that they have a conception of a ' supreme being."
Fetiches are supposed to exist in both animate and inanimate forms. If the former, worshippers may punish them, provided they do not favor their wishes. If the latter, they may destroy them. This superstition has dominated for centuries the Ainos of Japan, the wild woodmen of Korea, and the inhabitants of the island of Formosa. It prevails now in China, despite the doctrines of Confucius.
It is often sllid that Buddhism is the religion of China, but if we investigate carefully the subject, we must see that it is the worship of ancestors. Chinese fetiches are tablets, or slips of wood, on which are inscribed the name, rank, age, dates of birth and death of departed relatives.
In all this we observe that there is " a kind of incorporation of the spirit in the tablet as its visible home." That is the" refined idolatry" of the " celestials. " It has an amazing power over them ; hence, when a Chinese is asked to abandon ancestral worship his religious instinct is wounded and scandalized. Buddhism he will abandon much more readily.
In India fetichism is widely spread, notwithstanding the teachings of the Veda. The late Dr. Edward Lawrence, having carefully examined the faiths of that country, remarked, " Under the veil of Hindu similarity there exist all the varieties of fetich worship."
Although we class fetichism among the world's idolatries, it is not confined to the .worship of images made of wood and stone. The same superstitious element underlies and overshadows it, but instead of gorgeous temples and pagodas, noted deities, well-fed priests and costly offerings, it pins its faith to inferior objects, some of which are fearfully disgusting, and to a priesthood extremely revolting.
The prevailing form among Africans is spirit worship, their fetiches being serpents or other reptiles, the bark of trees, teeth of elephants and panthers, various kinds of medicines, etc. We have a survival of it in the legends and songs of negroes who came to America in slave ships, and the frightfnl stories told about the pine log-fires in the cabins of Alabama and other SORthern States. A form in which it prevails is called" voodooism." The voodoo or " conjure doctor" is supposed to be able to cast an evil eye upon a person, causing mysterious pains and diseases. By certain incantations, evil spells can be removed. The hind foot of a graveyard rabbit is supposed to be especially efficacious, and if carried in the pocket iii a perfect protection. If a person has reason to suppose he is face to face with a " conjurer," who is trying to cast an evil spell upon him, he instantly produces his rabbit's foot (if he is so happy as to possess one), and the conjurer is powerless. Voodooism is closely allied to witch- 1895.] FETICHISM: IN AFRICA. 409 craft of old New England days. Before we the sons and daughters of the Puritans, ridicule fetichism, let us bear in mind that some of our ancestors may have been tinged with it or something nearly allied to it. Among the personal recollections of the poet Whittier, we read: "III the days of witchcraft I had an ancestor who helped to k~l1 a witch. She and another woman got a lock of the witch's hair and put it in a hot oven and closed the oven door. Presently the most dreadful moans came from the oven and repeated knocks and thumps against the door, but the good dames stoutly resisted the attack with poker and tongs, keeping the oven , tightly closed. Finally the sound ceased, and in due time news came that the witch had died."
A close examination of African worship shows that objects used as fetiches are vehicles or abodes of the spirits, which they profess to wor- ship. They call them" representatives" .or "messengers" of the spirits. Ask a Zulu man why he supplicates the aid of and sacrifices to a serpent, and he replies: "I do not worship the serpent, but the spirit of my dead grandfather, who comes to me in the guise of a serpent." His faith receives confirmation from the dictum of his priest or "spirit doctor," who tells him that his grandfather is angry and must be appeased, which can be done only by the slaughter of a large fat ox. Thereupon the ox is killed, some of the blood sprinkled on the man (without shedding of blood is no remission), and a part of the beef placed one side for the spirit's use, which soon after' goes down the throats of the natives, the priest having appropriated to himself the lion's share.
Among the Matabele people crocodiles are the representatives of the spirits, hence those reptiles are never killed, any more than the Zulus kill certain serpents.
Fetichism is emphatically a religion of fear. Its poor victims are all their lifetime subject to bondage through fear of death as a result of insufficient propitiation. Evil spirits they think are more numerous than the good, and are constantly plotting mischief against them. Remove from the African his faith in and blind subjection to the unprincipled 'and cruel" priest" or " spirit doctor," and you remove the keystone of the arch of his religion.
An account of the cruelties flowing from adherence to African super- stition would fill a bulky volume. Among the worst are infanticide, kill. ing one of a pair of twins, lest, if it is allowed to live, some calamity may befall the father j sending into the enemy's country before a battle, to steal a child, and sacrificing it to the shades of the departed to make the raid successful (the custom of various tribes) j dividing the body of an enemy after victory with the conquered, and performing over it certain ceremonies, after which the combatants may visit each other in peace (as among the Barwe clan) j cutting off the finger.s of a chief's son and pre- lierving them as charms in a war drum, that the royal kraal may escape fire (as in the Mauritsi country) j flaying a child and placing its body in the
41() e.rune
path, that the warriors may step over it on their way to battle (as among the Baganda). . Temples of fetichism in Africa are not common. Paul Du Chaillll speaks of "devil houses" in Central Africa, into one of which he looked, but saw no idol. Among the Ashantees and Baganda are what are called the abodes of spirits, but no care is taken to make them attractive. Mis- sionary Walker describes a" spirit doctor" among the Pongwe, in West- ern Africa, as marching through a village clad most fantastically and carrying a mirror in which the natives may see the faces of witches, 'who are bound and led out to slaughter. A booth is made for the priest, in which he seats himself, growls like a wild animal or hisses like a serpent.
Among the Ashantees every family is said to have its domestic fetich, to which yams and other fruits are offered. When they drink, they spill a little of the liquor on the ground as an offering to the fetich, and when the master of the house leaves his seat, a servant hastily removes it, lest an evil spirit slip into the master's place.
The Dahomeyans attach great faith to a serpent which they keep in a temple served by priestesses and supported at the expense of their king. At Aniambia, chief town of a tribe in West Africa who call themselves " Gommi," Du ChaiIIu visited two fetich houses; they were said to be the abodes of powerful spirits, one evil, the other beneficent. In one of these houses he saw only a large chest, on the top of which lay some white and red chalk and some red parrot feathers. The chalk, he was told, " is used to mark the bodies of the devout on certain occasions when vows are made. " In Guinea, around a sacred tree called the " tree of the fetichl " festival ceremonies are performed, singing, dancing, beating of drums, etc. A priest is in attendance, who offers up sacrifices. The people of Benin use as fetichcs elephants' tusks, claws of animals, bones and human skulls, and offer up to them boiled yams mixed with palm oil. Du Chaillu counted in West Africa numerous skeletons of slaves who were killed and buried with their kings that their majesties might not go into the other world unattended. Among the Pongwe there is a saying: "The largest tree in the country must not fall alone." This is of fearful import, implying that the servants of the king, on the occasion of their burial, must be strangled and buried with him in the same grave. This was customary among Kaffir tribes till white men went among them.
Since writing the foregoing, a volume has come to me cailed " Demon Possessions and Allied Themes," by the lamented Dr. Nevius, of China. The reader of this volume, if acquainted with the developments of African fetichism, will see a remarkable correspondence between cases adduced in China and India, and those with which he is familiar, all going to show that demonism now exists in Africa as in Old and New Testament times. Indeed, throughout the Dark Continent, as in India and China, the great mass of the people are life-long victims of a mental disease called" demonphobia." But enough on this gloomy and repulsive theme. How strong an argument it presents for Christian missions! And how earnestly we should pray that Divine light may shine in those dark places of the earth, . now filled with the habitations of cruelty !
THE FORERUNNER OF MOFFAT AND LIVINGSTONE BY REV. JAMES I. GOOD, D.D.
An almost forgotten missionary is Theodosius Vanderkemp, yet he laid the foundations for missions in South Africa. 'Vhat a wonderful apostolic succession there was there: Schmidt, the Moravian, then Vanderkemp, then Moffat, then Livingstone-all modern apostles. Vanderkemp was a modern Thomas It Kempis (both names are derived from Kampen, in Holland)-that is, he was just as pious, yet differed from hi~ in being far more practical. His fruits were not a book, "The Imitation of Christ," but living books, souls dedicated to Christ and living in imitation of Him.
Vanderkemp was born. in Rotterdam in 1747. He was finely educated as a physician at the university, and then became a soldier under the Prince of Orange, although he returned to the practice of medicine ; but in religion he was a rationalist until forty-four years of age. Then came the call of God that changed this modern Saul of Tarsus into a Paul the mISSIOnary. While sailing on the river near Dort a water-spout upset his boat. He saw his wife and daughter drown before his eyes, and he himself was saved by a special providence, for the storm drove a vessel from her moorings, floated it to him just as he was sinking to death, and its sailors dragged him from the water. This strange providence led to his conversion; his conversion led to his becoming a missionary. He offered himself to the London Missionary Society, although he was over fifty years of age. They were very glad to get so finely educated a man and polished a scholar in their employ, and appointed him. He was ordained November 3d, 1797, and the next year sailed to South Africa. Before he left Holland he left the missionary influence behind, for his efforts led to the formation of the Netherlands Missionary Society. Without waiting until he ,reached the heathen he began missionary work among the convicts on board his vessel, and a number were converted. When he arrived at Cape Town he was sent as a missionary to the Caffres, a brave race, but as yet dangerous to the whit@S; yet he boldly went alone out into the wilderness to their'chief Geika, and lived among them for sixteen months, although in cOllfiMnt danger of his life from them or from whites, who looked on him with suspicion, because they felt he would break up their evil trade with the natives. More than once was his life attempted, but the Lord preserved him. Thus, on one occasion a Boer farmer poisoned the mind of the chief against him, saying that Vanderkemp would poison him by giving him brandy. The chief came to his hut and waited for him to try to poison
THE FORERUNNER OF MOFFAT AND LIVINGSTONE. [Jun~
him. After waiting a long while he finally asked Vanderkemp for brandy, but the missionary replied he had none. Then the chief made known the secret as he said, "They have deceived me. You do not wish to kill me." Vanderkemp was, however, finally compelled to leave the Caffres, as it became too unsafe for him to remain there any longer. His work seemed to have produced no results j and yet thirty years after a woman was admitted to the Church who received the Gospel from his lips. Nor were his labors lost. The London Missionary Society said he had done more in sixteen months than many missionaries had done in a lifetime, for with his wonderful linguistic skill he had prepared a Caffre dictionary for his successors in missionary work among them. His fame remained among them, for up to a few years ago all Cafi'res who became Christians were called by the name of Ma Yankana, which meant" the men of Vanderkemp."
But Providence shut one door to open another. Like Paul, who turned from the Jews to the Gentiles, he turned from the Cafi'res, one of the best of the South African races, to the Hottentots, the lowest race among them, the" dogs" and" black' cattle" of the Boers, the nearest approach of humanity to the ape. Schmidt, the devoted Moravian missionary, had begun his work among them in 1738, but had been compelled to give it up six years later. A half century later Vanderkemp comes to take· up the work again. He collected a colony of these poor people, numbering about 200, at Graff Reinet. Finding, however, that they would be safer if separated from the whites, he led a colony of them to near Algoa Bay, where the government gave him land. The governor on one occasion visited the colony, and was so impressed with the good it was doing that he ordered them to occupy the vacant Fort Frederick. This he did with 300 Hottentots. When the colony passed into the hands of the Dutch their governors gave them a station which they called Bethelsdorf, which they founded June, 1803. Here his work began to produce wonderful results. The desert land blossomed as the rose. Twenty-two were baptized during the first year. In 1807 they added an out-station at Steurmann's Krall. By 1810 Bethelsdorf had a population of 1000. Vanderkemp became deeply interested for the welfare of these poor Hottentots. With Dr. Phillip he became their champion in South Africa against the oppressions of the whites. He went twice to Cape Town to testify in court for them. Within three years he spent $3000 to redeem slaves. He even went so far as to marry an ignorant Hottentot woman, hoping thereby to be able to identify himself more fully with them, and thus to gain their confidence and bring them up 'to a higher standard of life. He was a thoroughly consecrated man, sacrificing everything to win souls to his Master. A beautiful story is told of him, that when he was on his travels and the oxen were unyoked and the men were preparing his supper, he would go and seat himself among the bushes at some distance j and when anyone passed by they would hear him say as he read his Bible, " Lord, I do not understand this point, this word. Enlighten me." Soon after he would be heard saying, " I see it a little better. I thank Thee, Lord." Then he would begin to write, and his pen would fly over the paper, though darkness began to fall. He was 80 devoted to the cause as to become eccentric. He held that the missionary should live as the natives did; that to lift them up you must go down to their level. This idea has been proven false. The missionary should bring them up to his standard, not lower himself to theirs; but even this eccentricity only revealed the more his entire devotion to the Lord. Only the few missionaries who sold themselves as slaves in order to ga~n access to the heathen have given up more than Vanderkemp did, who sacrificed everythiug but freedom. He was frugal and economical in his habits. He insisted that the London Missionary Society ought to allow only $150 a year to a missionary. He gave up wearing a hat, and on one occasion when he visited Cape Town he had to buy one, but instead of putting it on his head he held it in his hands behind his back, and some street boys, taking advantage of his absent-mindedness, amused themselves by filling .it with gravel. His last act was, at the advanced age of sixty-four, to set out for Madagascar to begin a new mission under the London Society, but Providence called him to a better land than that island. As God called him to Himself his last words were, "It is all good."
One soweth and another reapeth. The ignorant Hottentots under the influences he set at work have developed into noble men and women. From a colony of heathen, Bethelsdorf has become a large congregation of 6000 souls, and raised up more than a hundred preachers. Instead of Hottentot hovels there are· neat 'houses, a church, a school, a printingpress, and all sorts of mechanics. The Hottentots, from being the lowest of humanity, have been developed into the equals of any. No less an authority than Dr. Moffat pays this tribute to him: "He came from the university to teach the alphabet to the poor, naked Hottentot and Caffre, from the society of nobles to associate with beings of the lowest grade of humanity, from stately mansions to the filthy hovel of the greasy African, from the army to instruct the fierce savage in the tactics of a heavenly warfare under the banner of the Prince of Peace, from the study of medicine to become a guide to the balm of Gilead and the physician there, and finally from a life of earthly honor and ease to be exposed to perils of waters, of robbers, of his own countrymen, of the heathen in the city in the wilderness." He was a faint type and an eloquent copy of .his Master,who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor. And when the thousands of those black Hottentots, washed white in the blood of the Lamb, shall come to take their place around God's throne, they will be, as the Caffres said, " Vanderkemp's men," trophies of the man who, like his Master, gave up all that he might win some to Christ. U They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever."
ARABIA AND THE ARABIAN MISSION
ARABIA AND THE ARABIAN MISSION.* Arabia has the shape of a man's boot, even to the hole in the top, for it has no northern boundary. It is somewhat stub-toed, though the toes are nearly 400 miles long. That part of the United States which lies east of the Mississippi River might be laid down inside the boundaries of Arabia, and still one third of Arabian soil would be uncovered. Following the course taken by mi&sionaries, and sailing down the Red Sea, we find on the western coast of the peninsula an almost unbroken range of precipitous mountains, barren as the sides of a volcano, and seldom more than 2000 feet in height, yet, owing to their rugged, character, and the refraction caused by the heated atmosphere, appearing much higher than they really are. Aden, in Southwestern Arabia, is a city of 30,000 inhabitants nestled in the crater of an extinct volcano, the black mountainsides being utterly without, vegetation. Near this city is the Keith-Falconer Mission (Scotch). Sailing onward along the southern coast for 1400 miles the view is about the same as before. The eastern coast is less dreary. The mountains of Oman are sprinkled with forests, and the' country is fertile and fairly well cultivated.
Muscat, on the eastern coast, is first sighted. The splendid harbor is protected by dark mountain walls, utterly bare and scorched with the sun, and apparently rising right up out of the sea. The first sight of the city IS Imposing. A Portuguese cathedral, a palace, and a few large buildings, with towers and minarets, are all that are seen of this city of 40,000 inhabitants, with its narrow, crowded streets, its filthy bazaars, tumbledown houses, and palm-leaf huts. The surrounding mountains, like a' concave mirror, focus the sun's rays upon the city, and the heat is intense. The shade temperature in March sometimes rises to 120°, and in summer it may be necessary for the missionary to live in a palm-leaf hut on the beach.
The Bahrein Islands, half way up the Persian Gulf, is a station occupied' by Rev. S. M. Zwemer. The islands are quite fiat, but with a range of hills about 800 feet high. Dr. Wyckoff reported the temperature in April as rising to 117° in the shade. The 50,000 inhabitants of these islands are devoted chiefly to pearl-fisheries. Bahrein supplies the finest pearls in the world.
Busrah, the headquarters of the mission, is at the head of the Persian Gulf, and about 70 miles up the river Shat-el-Arab. This city is a great emporium of Indian commerce, being the terminus of the highway of commerce between India and Europe. The trade is carried west and north by caravans. The surrounding country is fiat. Palm-trees are the highest objects in sight. Busrah is a cosmopolitan city of 60,000 inhabitants, and is in the midst of many large outlying towns. The heat here • An acconnt of the Arabian mission of the Reformed (Dutch) Church and condensed from The MiBsi&n FieJtl for December, 1894. The accompanying map and illustration are kindly loaned'by the same magazine.
is intense and constant; the nearest escape from it is found in the moun- tains of India.
Another voyage will take us to the heart of Arabia. This time it is over an ocean of sand, and embarked on the ship of the desert–the camel. The pitching and rolling, and the corkscrew motion of the ship, are all understood by the camel, and the great waves of sund, piled in huge hills by the winds, and seen through the trembling heat, present the appeara.nce of a storm-tossed sea of fire. Few travellers have the courage to pass through the dangers and horrors of such a desert; but once in the land of Nejd, what a sight is prepared for the eyes! Great and beautiful oases rise up out of the ocean of sand, like islands from the .sea. It is a land of wonderful natural scenery, rich in products of the soil, a land of gardens and flowers and streams, and waving with the finest date-palms in the world; this, too, is the land of the Nejdee horse, the pride of the Arab race and the envy of other nations.
The People.-The population of Arabia is about 11,000,000, chiefly Arabs, but with a good sprinkling of Turks and Jews. The Arabs are descended from Ishmael, son of Abraham, and are therefore coeval with the Jews. They are in many respects a noble people, naturally religious, but not righteous. Physically they have few equals among the unevangelized peop"'les of the world. Trained to temperance and hardihood by their religion, and from time immemorial brought up to generosity and hospitality, they are easily loved for their own sakes. About 2,000,000 of them are Bedouins, sheltered only by tents, dwelling chiefly in the desert, and moving from place to place as they can find pasture for their camels, horses, and flocks. Living by warfare and plunder, they yet will seldom take the life of their victims. Claiming ownership of all their desert habitations, they believe they have a right to strip all strangers of their possessions, unless by passport such· persons are entitled to their protection and hospitality.
Religion.-Arabia is the home of the Mohammedan religion. While there are nearly 200,000,000 Mohammedans scattered over the world, they all turn their faces in prayer toward Mecca, and hope to make at least one pilgrimage thither. This shows what a strategic point Arabia is for missionary work. The fall of Mohammedanism in Arabia means the fall of Mohammedanism in the world. Once convert a Mohammedan, and he is likely to prove a good missionary of Christ, as he has been of Mol1ammed. He is naturally religious, naturally generous, and naturally a wanderer-three great missionary qualifications.
Owing to opposition and prejudice there are few opportunities for street or public preaching, but Bibles are gladly purchased and medical assistance is eagerly sought. The work of the Arabian Mission is therefore pushed along those lines.
Bible Work of the Arabian Mission. – The Bible itself is a missionary in Arabia. Its Oriental character makes it acceptable. Books are greatly valued by the Arabs, and the Old Testament, with its stories of Abraham, Ishmael, and Job, is particularly pleasing. The New Testament is acknowledged as God's Book, as having come down from heaven, and the inevitable result of an honest study of the Gospels by the Mohammedan is at least a logical conviction that the prophet has fearfully misled his followers.. Nothing can be ·more encouraging, therefore, than the fact of continually increasing Bible sales. An example of the Bible's work is given in the following words from Bahrein: "A Moslem who came to us one moonlight evening, said, 'The old man' (i.e., myself) 'feels the sting of death is sin, and then I bought this book, and now I believe that Jesus is the Son of God.' "
The sale of books during the year ending June 30th, 1894, was as follows: tur_e._s_'I~ligiOU~ ___S_T_A_TI_ON_S_'___I__sc_n_.p__ Educational. ~otal._ –=alne~ Bu.rah …………… '" 1,139 306 786 2,231 $313.70 Bahrein …………….. 494 1,185 123.87 339 302 Muscat* …………… .. 521 36.74 300 60 71 —– —————1—– Total… ……. ………. 2,023 705 1,159 3,887 $474.31 * For seven and a half months only.
Rev. Mr. Cantine says: "In our book work the sale of Scriptures is'
the primary object. The religious books have a value of their own, while the educational are kept mainly because we consider them to be a help to the sale of the others. Religious and educational books are nearly all Arabic; as are three quarters of the Scriptures, the remaining one quarter being mostly Turkish, Persian, and Hebrew. As to our Scriptures, they are all 801d, and not given away. These sales have nearly doubled in the past twelve months, being for the previous year 1055, and for the year just closed 2023. Of the total sales of Scriptures seven eighths are to Moslems, at Busrah, while at Bahrein and Muscat they· are almost exclusively so. Three qnarters were sold outside of the book-shops by our colporteurs. All the larger towns on the entire coast, from Muscat to Busrah, and up the Tigris and Euphrates, together with Hassa in the interior, have received in some measure the Word of God. It is our aim to cover as much of this territory as our funds will allow, at least twice a year, and also to seize any opportunity that offers for touring inland."
Medical Work.-In proportion to the need of medical assistance is its power for good. There is great suffering in Arabia, and no native skill to relieve it. The so-called medical treatment by the natives is cruel in the extreme. Burning holes in the body to let the disease out, branding sick children with red-hot bars, chopping off wounded limbs and sealing them with boiling tar, are only an illustration of their methods. They go blind in the fierce glare of a tropical sun, when simple eye-water would save their sight. The medical missionary, therefore, is as a messenger from God. People will travel great distances to meet him, and he is thronged with patients. Relieved or cured, they return. with a Gospel
HOUSE AT BUSRAH
18~5.] AlUlIIA AND THE ARABIAN lIUSSION
message and a portion of Scripture-thus, in a small sense, becoming mis- sionaries themselves and preparing in the desert a highway for our God, where as yet no Christian missionary can go.
Perhaps no testimony of the influence of the Arabian mission can be stronger than the fact that before Dr. Wyckoff had spent two weeks of his first visit to Bahrein Island, and a part of that time on a sick-bed, he had treated about three h.undred patients, " some of them requiring very particular operations." He said: "One can hardly believe the tremendous impression these three young men (Revs. S. M. and P. J. Zwemer and James Cantine) have made in so short a time. It seems as though the whole of Arabia had come under their influence. "
Scarcely any Protestant missionary effort was made for Arabia until within eight years past. In 1882 a colportage station of the Church Missionary Society was established at Bagdad, and in 1887 a medical and Bible mission was organized near Aden, by the Hon. Keith-Falconer, of the Free Church of Scotland. But little aggressive missionary touring, however, had been done, and the interior of the country had not been entered or even attempted. 'Under these circumstances, and this need, the Arabian Mission was fully organized in August, 1889. Although it was deemed best to organize the work on an undenominational basis, its missionary staff and a large majority of the number of its supporters, the Arabian Mission has from the first been the child of the Reformed (Dutch) Church. The actual parentage became apparent and confessed when, by the concurrent action of tile General Synod and the mission, the latter, in June, 1894, was formally placed under the care of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Church. The first missionaries were Rev. James Cantine (sailed in 1889) and Rev. Samuel M. Zwemer (1890). In 1892 they were reinforced by Rev. Peter J. Zwemer, and in 1893 by J. Talmage Wyckoff, M.D., who, however, after less than a year of faithful and efficient service, has been compelled to return home.
The headquarters of the mission are at Bus1'ah, "a city more commlmding than any other in Arabia from which to carry a missionary work into the interior and up along the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates and along the coast." The work here is in charge of Rev. James Cantine, with three native helpers. At the Bahrein Islands is a station in charge of Rev. S. M. Zwemer, with two colporteurs. These islands form an independent state under British protection, and thus afford unusual opportunities for evangelistic work. Muscat is in charge of Rev. Peter Zwemer, with a native colporteur. It is the chief city of Oman, and, in common with Bahrein, has the great advantage of being under the protectorate of Great Britain. The Scriptures may be freely read in public, and open discussion and preaching are allowed.
Each of these stations has been a centre for evangelistic tours, more or less lengthy and successful according to the freedom allowed, or restric-. tions imposed by the government. From Busrah Mr. Cantine and his
THE OPENING OF EFFECTUAL DOORS
colporteurs have made tours down the Shat-el-Arab and up both the Tigris and Euphrates, Mr. Cantine going as far as Bagdad. Many points were profitably visited, and at least three towns to the north of Busrah were fonnd-one on the Tigris and two on the Hai'-':'which could be immediately and profitably occupied were funds for this work at hand. From Bahrein, Rev. S. M. Zwemer has recently made two tours, one in October, 1893, and the other in July, 1894. This last tour was toward the interior from Aden to Sanaa, but was suddenly interrupted at a point twelve miles north of Sanaa, and by the connivance of the Turkish officials the missionary was subjected to "so much delay, robbery, and extortion," that he was finally compelled to relinquish his purpose and return to Hodeydeh, and thence home. Since this the movements on the mainland of all the missionaries have been more restricted. Tours have, however, been made with some freedom among the towns of the Bahrein islands.
The villages in the neigHborhood of Muscat have been frequently visited, a recent tour along the coast by Rev. P. J. Zwemer proving, first, the possibility of reaching at least the coast of Oman with the Gospel j and, second, that in Oman naught opposes the Gospel but Islam itself.
Finally, of the results of this mission and its work for the past five years it can be said, in the words of one of the missionaries: "An entrance has been made into the very heart of Islam. In faith, Arabia has been pre-empted by the Church, Itnd though fanaticism scorns and ignorance misjudges, the seed is being sown, and the questions of the kingship and sonship of Christ are being discussed by the Moslem pilgrim on his way to Mecca."
Is)t not ours then to do what we can to lead the multitudes of Arabia to acknowledge" that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, that believing they may have life throngh His name" ~ • THE OPENING OF EFFECTUAL DOORS.
BY REV. T. D. WITHERSPOON, D.D., LL.D., LOUISVILLE, KY.
The miracle of all history is the evangelization of the old Roman world in the first century of the Christian era, and almost within the limits of a single generation. The little company of disciples in the upper chamber after our Lord's ascension had no doubt as to the terms of His great commISSIOn. The Church, in its very organization, was a missionary church. It recognized from the beginning the whole world as constituting its parish. Every member was understood to be, by 1;he terms of his enrolment, an evangelist. Every place wl,.ere two or three could be gathered together in Christ's name was to constitute a sanctuary of worship. No rest was to be expected, no halt contemplated until the Gospel had been preached to every creature and all nations discipled into the observance of Christ's commands.
With incredible swiftness, by land and by sea, the messengers !'Iped. Over obstacles seemingly insuperable, through hardships apparently insuf. ferable, they pressed on, until, before the century had closed, the Gospel had been preached and the Church established in every province of the Roman Empire. Had the work gone forward with the same celerity for a century or two more, the Gospel would have been preached to every creature, the Saviour's commission would have been fulfilled, and the way opened for His coming in all the glory of His millennial reign.
But just here emerges a question that calls for profoundest thought. Why did the work not go forward with the same enthusiasm and success ¥ What causes intervened to lay an arrest upon this first great missionary movement~ Why did the beginning of the nineteenth century find !'IO little more of the world evangelized than in Ute middle of the !'Iecond ~ This question is one of the highest practical importance, because of its relations to the spirit and work of nineteenth-century evangelism. Now that the Church has received,as it were, a new Pentecostal baptism, and has set forth again upon the great mission of conquering the world for Christ, the question becomes a grave one whether the present movement shall expend itself as that of the first century did, and whether there must intervene another long period of inaction followed by a third effusion of power from on high, before the Gospel can be preached to every creature.
The reasons usually given for the arrest of the great work of evangelization begun in the first century have always seemed to the writer unl!latisfactory. Church historians are fond of telling us that the Christians began to dispute among themselves over differences of doctrine and of polity, and that, in the wrangles of the various theological schools and parties, the heathen were forgotten, the Spirit was grieved, and so the great work came ignominiously to a close. Was it not rather true that the suspension of the aggressive work of the Church, from whatever cause it may have arisen, rendered inoperative those motives to Christian unity which come from the consciousness of co-operation in a great common work, and that the energies formerly expended in missionary effort, in this time of comparative inactivity, busied themselves, for want of better employment, with wranglings over points of doctrine and discipline ~ Was not the inaction the occasion of the divisions and strifes, rather than the result ~ Do we not find in our day that when the hands and hearts of the people are full of aggressive work for the Master there is little either of time or occasion for church quarrels ¥ May we not then seek the causes of the arrest of the great evangelistic movement of the first century in something less discreditable to the zeal and consecration of the infant Church ~ May it not be that this tide of evangelization, as it swept onward, encountered barriers such as in the earlier. stages had not opposed its course ¥ May not the Church of the • !lecond century have found itself under conditions and limitations different from those of the .first century 1 With the great and effectual doors opened to missions in our day, may we not be in danger of misjudging the early Church and measuring the responsibilities of that age by those of our own ~ It may be well, therefore, to indicate some barriers to mission work in the second century, some seemingly impregnable walls, through which God in His providence has opened for us great and effectual doors.
I. And first there was the barrier raised by the poverty in material resources of the early Church. During the first century the work of evangelization lay largely in those provinces which were in direct com- munication with Rome. For commercial and military purposes there were Roman roads on land and Roman ships on sea that could be brought into the service of the missionaries. At various points along the route of travel were Jewish synagogues in which they could preach without charge, and Jewish communities where hospitality and opportunity of remunera- tive labor awaited the toil-worn travellers. But little money, therefore, in the earlier stages of the work was necessary. But when the effort was made to press the work into the byways and hedges, when, among aliens and strangers, everything must be purchased, and often at exorbitant rates, larger supplies of money were needed, and these the mother churches at home were unable to supply. Indeed, such was the poverty of these churches in this early day, stripped and peeled by persecution, that instead of the missionaries, as in our day, relying upon the churches at home for the means to carry forward the work, one of the first and most sacred duties imposed upon the new converts was that of sending back money to the" poor saints in Jerusalem." The poverty of the early Church, there- fore, constituted the first barrier to work in the remoter and more inacces- sible fields which must be occupied before" the end" shall be. What a " great door and effectual" God has opened for the Church of our day, I need not stop to argue. Look at the wealth of Christendom to-d~ !
Look at its wanton waste! If only one tenth of all that Christian nations spend in tobacco and rum could be poured into the treasury of missions, with the blessing of God" the end" would soon be here. If we fail of our great responsibility of preaching the Gospel to every creaturE!, we cannot measure our failure by that of the early Church. The men of that day will rise in judgment against us to condemn us, for if they had pos- sessed the boundless resources of the Church of to-day, the results would doubtless have been far different from what they were. .
II. A second wall of opposition to the progress of the Gospel in the second century arose from the barbarousness of the tongues that confronted the missionaries as soon as they passed beyond the limits of the territory that had come under the influence of Roman civilization. So long as the work of the missionaries lay where either of the three languages inscribed upon the cross-the Hebrew, the Greek, or the Latin-was understood, or even where languages cognate to these were spoken, the work of evangelization was not difficult. As long as the miraculous gift of tongues continued, there was of course no difficulty, but with the close of the apostolic age all miraculous gifts seem to have ceased. Weare scarcely in position now, with the results about us of the great work of comparative philology and comparative grammar, to understand the difficulty of mastering these barbarous tongues in that early day. To men of those times the true Chinese wall was not the one of massive brickwork that stretched over hill and vale, but the one of a language so foreign in all its elements and characteristics to auything they had known before. Truly, for us to-day a great door and effectual has been opened. The missionary goes forth now with the results in his hand of a literary work that could have been possible in no century preceding our own. The most barbarous tongues of earth have been mastered. With incredible patience and skill their elementary forms have been distinguished and analyzed. Their rude sounds have been represented in a system of vocalization by written characters. The principles of construction have been systematized in grammar and manuals. Spelling-books, primers, readers, etc., have been prepared. The Bible and other needed books have been translated into these tongues. By means of the printed page a missionary may begin to preach as soon as he disembarks from the vessel in a foreign port. By means of the printed page he may multiply indefinitely his' labors, as he scatters far and wide leaves from the tree of life for the healing of the nations. So far has this work of Bible translation been carried that to-day nine tenths of the human race may read the Word of God in " that tongue wherein they were born." What a great and effectual door this is ! Surely if with such facilities as these we come short of the evangelization of the world in our day, we cannot in excuse plead as a precedent the failure of the early Church.
III. One more of these barriers was found in the insecurity of life and property in those remoter regions where the power of the Roman Government was not felt. It might be supposed that to men with the spirit of the first witness-bearers for Christ, who "loved not their lives to the death," and who often inordinately craved martyrdom, the insecurity of life would present no obstacle. But while a man might have a high and holy ambition to offer, if need. be, hi~ life upon the altar of devotion to Christ, he would at the same time desire that some work should be done, some testimony borne, some result accomplished before he passed away from the world. The man who before a Roman tribunal witnessed as a Christian, and was condemned to death as a Christian, had made a testimony for Christ; and even the cry of " Christianos ad leones," that rang upon the air as with his fellow-confessors he was led into the arena, was sweet to his ears, because it published the name of Christ, and identified him as a Ohristian witb the Crucified One; but that was a very different thing from being murdered by savages who knew nothing of him or his
THE .. MOUNTAIN WHITES" OF. AMERICA
religion, and who felled him with a club, or assassinated him with a spear before he had even once spoken in their ears in their own tongue the name of Jesus. The age in which we live is one in which commerce has carried the name and fame of the great Christian nations of this day, where even the name of Rome was never heard. Far out amid the jungles of equatorial Africa and in the remoter isles of the sea, through commercial relations, and the softening influences of systems of barter and trade, the way has been opened for the missionary, so that with comparative safety he may go with the message of salvation. And although in many of the most interesting fields he bears the spirit of the true martyr, for he knows not when he may meet a martyr's death, his situation is immeasurably beyond that of the early missionary, because he knows that if he should be cut down, through the words he has already spoken and the printed pages he has already distributed, seed have been sown which shall only germinate the more surely if watered with his blood. The missionary, therefore, who goes abroad to-day, whatever field he may choose, has reasonable ground to hope that his life will be spared long enough at least to lay foundations upon which others may build after he is gone, and in this respect the door is open for the evangelization of the world as it has never been before.
If there were time, attention might be called to doors of facility and convenience in the accomplishment of the work-facilities for reaching the remoter fields by means of railways and steamship lines, facilities for communication with home by postal service and by telegraph, facilities for comfort in the field by the erection of mission houses, the presence of medical missionaries, the receipt of supplies from home, etc.
Enough has been said to show the marvellous adjustments of Providence .for throwing open " great doors and effectual," for putting it within the power of the men of this generation to win the whole world for Christ. Will the Church of God enter these open doors ~ Shall the evangelization of the world be effected in our day? These are questions that demand immediate consideration. On the answer to them hinge responsibilities such as never rested upon the Church of God in any previous epoch of its history. Never before did the command come more imperatively, " Arise, shine j for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. "
THE "MOUNTAIN WHITES" OF AMERICA. * Professor Austin Phelps remarks that "five hundred years in the salvation of the world may depend upon the next twenty-five years of United States history." So vast is our land that Montana alone could accommodate the entire population of this country, and give each man, woman, • Outliue of an address by Mrs. S. M. Davis, reported by the Editor-in-chief. and child one and a half acres, or take in the world's population, and yet have but fifteen souls to the acre; yet California contains 12,000 square miles more than Montana; Texas, 107,000 more than California; and Alaska is twice as large as Texas. 'Within one year as many strangers flocked to our shores as there are people in Idaho, Arizona, Montana, Nevada, Wyoming, and Washington.
In the South there are 5,000,000 whites who can neither read nor write. They are in three classes-" bankers," "crackers," and " mountain whites," often called "Scotch-Irish heathen." There are perhaps 4,000,000 of these in North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, etc. They arc of Scotch.Irish ancestry, utterly illiterate, and their condition, intellectually and morally, it is difficult adequately to describe. Crimes committed by them put to blush the enormities committed in the worst districts of our great cities.
As to the history of these people: about 1740 there was a large influx of Scotch-Irish blood into our land. These people were driven here by persecution at home; but they would have no complicity with slavery, and hence the slavocracy would have nothing to do with them, and consequently they were crowded into the mountains, which became their fastnesses. They had no teachers nor preachers, and sank into dense degradation. Hundreds and perhaps thousands of them fought their way through obstacles, making a path through the mountain wilds, and settled in and about Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania, where their descendants may now be found. Who knows whether these people be not a reserv~ force that God will bring out of these mountains, saved by Christ, for the coming crisis of conflict, a stalwart band to stand with us in defence of Protestantism !
The visitor among them seems transported backward to the Elizabethan era. The quaint and curious in the language of the mountaineer is the.survival of good old Elizabethan English ; his roads are a fit setting for the polite Sir Walter Raleigh ; his code of honor a f,uvi val of the old feudal, lordly ideas of her reign. Tobacco, as in Elizabth's day, is almost deified; the looseness of morals finds fitting parallel [,t her court, while the position of the woman and girl is identical with the woman of Queen Elizabeth's era.
They who were thus stranded in the mountains had a fearful combat for life. With no adequate means of support at command they were embarrassed by extreme poverty. They had no schools; for of conrse there were no public schools in those districts, and the public school is a slowly growing institution in the South to-day. The monntains are almost destitute of schools. Occasionally there is a so-called schoolhouse of logs, with the primitive floor of native earth, and the "teacher.~' with bare feet and calico gown, and the universal" snuff stiok" in her mouth, knows little more than those she teaches; and as to morals, it were better for~ her pupils if there were no teacher.
A Newcastle pastor, who in one of the cabins of these mountain whites took refuge from a storm, met a young woman-a teacher—-"and having occasion to speak of the" United States," was asked by her, " Whare be the United States 1" He asked her if she did not teach geography, and she replied, " What is the use of that sort of larnin' 1"
Yet of this same stock came heroes in the time of our civil war. Large bodies of volunteers were recruited from these mountain whites, from the first and second districts of East Tennessee, more than from any' other twp Congressional districts of equal population. And however they have forgotten their Bibles in these hundred and fifty years of degradation, they seem not to have forgotten Rome and the papacy. A young woman went there to teach them, and sought to make them learn the Creed, but when she came to this, " I believe in the Holy Catholic Church," they sent her home j no explanation that the word catholic meant" universal" would be received as an apology.
Their ignorance is deplorable. "Who be that man; that Mister Jesus, you be a-talkin' to and talkin' about 1 Is He a-comin' here f' was the question asked by one of them of a religious worker. , Woman's condition is fearfully degraded. She has perhaps a sunbon- net of calico and two calico dresses, one to be worn while the other is done up j a pair of shoes to be worn in meetin' and on state oC<lasions j a shawl for winter wear. In the field it is woman who ploughs and hoes and plants and gathers harvest, as well as cooks at home j and sometimes YOll may see her not only splitting wood for the fire and carrying water, but hitched tQ the plough and driven like cattle, while her husband or son loafs, smokes, and indulges himself, caring no more for her than for a dog or a slave. Elsewhere you find a chivalrous preference and defer- ence exercised toward woman, but none here.
They marry at from twelve to sixteen, have a dozen children and some- times twenty, and are old, worn-out hags at thirty, and consumption commonly carries them off, few of them living beyond forty or fifty_ There is on their faces a hopeless look that cannot be described. It is the hopelessness of despair, more and worse than apathy or lack of intelli- gence j it is the index of a heart in which is no life or hope. Perhaps that woman you meet has never been off that mountain or known an uplift- ing thought. They are like the log-cabins they dwell in-dark, rayless j there is not an attempt at a window in them, not a place to admit a ray of sunshine lest it let in also the cold wind and the rain. When the door is shut you are in the blackness of midnight, and here you find from six to twenty human beings huddled promiscuously together. What delicacy or decency can be nurtured in such a home ~ Such women have no "to-morrow." The vitality is all gone out of the blood j and-what most hurts the heart of a true woman-after all this life of burden-bearing there is no hope beyond-no knowledge of a Saviour.
There is, of course, the comical side even to this degraded life. You meet with children, dirty, forlorn, and half naked, but they have wonder- ful names. In one cabin were two children, "Jim Dandy" and" Stick Candy;" in another" Ruly Trooly, " " Wolfer Ham," "Aristocracy"
and ., Ayer's Sarsaparilla," "Carrie Lee, Bessie See-who but she?"
" Mary Bell, arise and tell the glories of Immanuel," etc.
Dr. W. J. Erdman tells a story from personal knowledge. He says an evangelist in the mountains asked an old woman if there were any "Presbyterians" around there. Her answer was, "Ask myoId man.
He be a powerful mighty man in huntin', and kills all sorts of varmints.
You might go and see them skins a.hanging up yonder, p'raps you'd find some of them Presbyterian critters among 'em." .
They have their own code of honor. Their family feuds last for generations; they feed fat the ancient grudge, until one or the other of the contending families is utterly exterminated. You enter a cabin, and the gun hung on the door is for ordinary hunting; but the bur- nished pistol is kept for murder, it is reserved for killing men.. They have a chivalry of their own. One man who had killed twenty-five others in family feud warfare would yet fight to the death to shield a woman who comes there to teach them, from injury or insult.
The hopeful sign in these people is a longing for betterment. In their very songs is a pathos as if pleading for help. In their degradation, which defies description, they yearn for schools, for some uplifting influence. In a cabin a traveller met a boy of ten, who caught a glimpse of a newspaper in his pocket, and who showed so strong a desire to learn that the traveller taught him the first three letters of the news- paper heading. As the boy went by himself and repeated over and over the name of the letters, who, thought the traveller as he resumed his journey, will ever teach that boy the fourth letter?
At Asheville, N. C., is a school for these classes, and five hundred girls were turned away in one year for simple lack of room. Yet in that same school might have been heard from these very girls from the mountains, one of the finest reviews of the life of Christ, from the manger to within six months of His passion, every question correctly answered; and yet some of these girls'had not been six months out of their cabins.
They are also singularly responsive to the Gospel. They are sin-hard- ened, indeed, but not Gospel-hardened. An evangelist in a. village in these mountains found one who seemed to know something about Christ; but every person in the settlement attended the meetings and manifested interest in the Gospel, and many professed to find salvation. An old man, familiarly known as "Old Man Kline," was very angry at a young fellow for carrying off his daughter. Determined to kill him, he hid near the place of a "gathering" which the young man would be sure to attend. While lying in, waiting two little girls from a day-school under the care of our Board went by singing the couplet, " Jesus died for all mankind, Jesus died for me. "
The old man had perhaps never heard of all mankind, but accustomed to the sobriquet " Old Man Kline," mistook the words, and thought the children were singing, "Jesus died for Old .J.Van Kline," etc., and as an arrow of conviction the truth reached his soul, and instead of the double murder (for had he killed the young man, in turn the young man's relatives would have probably killed him) this man found a saviour in the Jesus who l.ad truly died for" Old Man Kline/' Are these people not ripe for the Gospel when so small a bit of truth will accomplish so much?
These mountain whites will be met not on the open mountain roads, but in secluded places. The moonshiners, or illicit-whiskey distillers, especially, hide. in the more retired nooks and valleys. One party travelled eight miles along the Blue Ridge and saw not a cabin, yet found 3000 people assembled to hear the annual sermon from an old man, who could not read a word, yet who was so godly in life and character that he was an epistle read and known of them all. .
These people have customs quaint and curious, elsewhere obsolete. Their moral looseness is dreadful; but what can be expected where sometimes three generations live, eat, and sleep in one small, windowless cabin. .A bed of boards nailed against the log wall of the hut is almost the only furniture. Everybody uses tobacco, even the babies. Through considerable sections there is practically no law: everyone does what is right in his own eyes. There were seventy cases of murder, only one out of them all being brought to justice. Might makes right, and this is the only law known. In one case of a jury, when a peacemaker had interposed between contending parties and been shot, the juryman delivered his opinion thus, "If he hadn't wanted to be killed, he had orter kept himself out of the fight."
These mountain people are our kiusfolk, of the blood that gave us our Revolutionary heroes, that constituted more than half of vVashington's Cabinet. Even in their destitution among the mountains they sacrificed heroically and fought right manfully to save our Union. They are of Presbyterian ancestry, and yet to-day they are without the Gospel or a knowledge of the Christ. Their very preachers and teachers are so illiterate that in many cases they cannot read a word. One man with the Bible in his hand said to his people: "Now, see yere, between these two lids somewhar you'll find these words, 'Every tub must stand on its own bottom,'" and from those words as text preached his sermon. Is it strange a young fellow-Tom Baker-speaking out in meeting, said to one of these preachers: "See here, the Bible says you uns are to feed my sheep, and you hain't doing it. You fellows are just tolIin' of me around through the woods, and you make a powerful heap of noise rattling your corn in the measure, and just a-shellin' now and again a few grains, and you never give us a decent bite, and we uns be mighty nigh a-sfarvin' " ~ Think of it, 0 Christian child of God, kinsfolk in our own land starving for the Bread of Life!
CONDITION OF RELIGIOUS LIFE IN FltANCE. –
CONDITION OF RELIGIOUS LIFE IN FRANCE."* BY PROFESSOR JEAN C. BRACQ.
Mr. Spuller, the Minister of Education, spoke recently in the French Parliament of " the new spirit" animating the present government. One may with more propriety speak of the new religious spirit manifested everywhere in France. Among Catholics it has taken the form of greater earnestness and of renewed efforts to recall the churchless to the ·churches. Ecclesiastical ministrations are of a more evangelical character, and there is a fairer uuderstanding of the stupendous dangers which threaten Catholicism. Protestants have to a greater degree been affected in the same direction. Their activities have become less literary and theological, and more practical. They have a truer sense of the purpose of the Gospel. As a consequence their own life has become more real, their works better organized, and their preaching more ehristological. While this improvement has taken place within, a great change in their environment, very favorable to their growth, has taken place without. Much of the former hostility and prejudice against them has disappeared. The great organs of the press no longer hesitate, in their own way, to do them justice. Among the Free Thinkers there are many who are still most violent in their antireligion. The intensity of their opposition indicates their consciousness of the importance of religion, and their rites, such as the" civic baptism," which they have inaugurated, show the recognition of something which is religious. The scientists who, only a few years ago, were attempting to substitute science for religion have modified their. attitude. There has been among cultivated Free Thinkers a visible recoil from materialism. Compare, for instance, the scientists and the novelists of to-day with those of twenty years ago, and the difference is amazing. Characters, the embodiment of religious perplexities and struggles, are frequent in novels and upon the stage. The publication of "Jesus Christ" by Pere Didon, and of the" Vie de S. Franc;ois d' Assise," by Paul Sabatier, both representing the evangelical spirit, have excited an enthusiasm in the secular press without parallel in France since the publication of " La Vie de Jesus," by Renan in 1863. The same ncw spirit is manifested in the mystical and religious language wtlich has come to be used even by the materialists themselves. 80 generally has the new spirit spread that on March 25th two hundred lodges and groups of Free Masons held a great meeting in the Salle de l'Harmonie to protest against the invasion of the new religious spirit. A thorough study of the facts bearing upon this interesting sub. ject would reveal the prevalence of this new spirit among the men trained during the early days of the republic. The older men have been affected * We find thiB admirable estimate among the recent iSBnes of the McAll Association. It is too good to lie withheld.-En. only in so far as they were influenced by the new men. The experience of freedom in life, in education and in religion has produced results the opposite of those anticipated by alarmists and pessimists. Religion has regained its dignity and popular favor in the measure in which it has lost its dangerous State protectionism. Negation has come to be adequately gauged. Educated young men have shrunk from VoItaireanism as heartless and shallow. Emile Faguet, a young popular critic, said: "Voltaire has no soul. " These words became the formula of the popular judgment of young" men upon France's most brilliant sceptic. Anatole France exe1aims with sadness, as he is a militant follower of the author of the " Henriade" : "Our young men have ceased to be Voltaireans." Religion is no longer the butt of jokes and witticisms of hostile writers. Almost all the young popular writers have become friendly to the ideals of Christianity, some have expressed beliefs that are the faith arising from honest doubts, the stronger and the purer on that account. Paul Desjardins, Edonard Rod, Melchior de VogUe, Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, Wagner and Paul Bourget, to mention only the best known of young French writers, represent a religious attitude that has never been known in Freuch history. Believers and unbelievers alike are compelled to recognize that ours are times of peculiar religious inquiry. The religious question is at present forced upon all. "Since the time when religion departed from the temples, it has been running the streets," says Charles Morice. "Life has no meauing except for those who believe and love," says Jules Lemaitre. Edouard Rod concludes his beautiful novel "The Meaning of Life" by putting upon the lips of, one of his charact€rs who is grappling with the wrecks of scepticism..and sin the following words: "And in the double effort to revive in my mind lost formulre, and to shake from my thought the yoke of negation, I began to murmur-with my lips, alas! with my lips only, ' Our Father which art in heaven.'" This alas expresses the longing for the presence of the faith which makes this prayer of the lips the deepest prayer of the heart. This new attitude of a large number of Frenchmen is not pre-eminently the outcome of soul searching or of the consciousness of sin. It is the result of investigations and studies showing the ethical and social value of Christianity. " In all lhings, " says Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, the celebrated economist, " we are brought back to 1he same conclusions, that there is nothing truly efficacious, nothing solid and lasting for onr democratic societies outside of the Gospel, outside of the Christian spirit and outside of Christia.n fraternity." The young men of the institutions of learning share the same convictions to a large extent. Professor Lavisse, the most distinguished professor of history in France, said : "Our young men have the nostalgy of the Divine." 'The common schools have replaced the former insipid teaching of the Roman Catholic catechism by moral instruction. This instruction contains a part devoted to the duties of man to God. Even a most sllperficial survey of the principles 1aught wpuld reveal that, though deficient i~ some respects, they are identical with tha1 part of
THE PRESENT ASPECT OF MISSION WORK IN lIADAGASCAR
Christianity which refers to conduct. These morals are, after all, Christian morals. Such teaching is admirably favorable to Christian work; if nothing more, it is, at least, a powerful ally. The young men of France not only offer a most promising field on account of their religious attitude, but also because the work has been prepared by the common schools and the spirit of the times. Moreover, we must remember that the young men whom we reach now will be the leaders of France twenty years hence. If one wishes to understand the character of the public men of the Third Republic. one has only to study the moral and religious characteristics of the students of the Second Empire. Ten years ago Dr. Wyckham, of Leipsic, prophesied that when the students then in the schools should come to manhood the character of Frenchmen would be greatly modified. Facts have more than justified his utterances. The McAll Mission should be able to take advantage of the present opportunities by adding to its work, and in harmony with it, specific organizations for young people. Such work is demanded (1) by the above considerations; (2) by the Sunday-schools whose oldest scholars are often lost by the lack of such provisions; (3) by the necessity of drawing the youthful converts from dangerous amusements and from bad company; (4) by the need of trained young workers; (5) by the successful experiments which have been made in some of the salles where the juvenile work under Mr. Greig has given great encouragement. The only hindrance to such imperative work is the lack of funds. Will not generous Christians take this work in hand, and furnish the means to carry it on as one of the most important departments of the McAll Mission ~ Shall we not make great efforts to form for Christ the generation which will soon be the manhood of France 1 Such a departure would not only bring large and immediate returns of its own, but it, would greatly help the larger work and intensify the power of the Mission Populaire.
THE PRESENT ASPECT OF MISSION WORK IN MADAGASCAR.
BY JAMES SIBREE, MISSIONARY OF THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY AND SENIOR TUTOR OF ITS COLLEGE, ANTANANARIVO, MADAGASCAR.
In attempting to give a very brief sketch of mission work in Madagascar as it appears to-day, I shall, for the present at least, leave out of view the .difficulties and hindrances which seem imminent in the near future, arising from'the political action of foreign powers, and shall endeavor to show the position of mission work in this country at the beginning of 1895.
It may perhaps be well first to remind the readers of this REVIEW that Protestant missions in Madagascar date from the year 1818, at the close of which year the first missionaries of the London Missionary Society landed at Tamatave, the chief port of the east coast. Interrupted for some months by the death of most of that pioneer party, the mission was recommenced in the year 1820, in the capital city, Antananarivo, in the interior highland, and was carried on with much success until the year 1835, when the persecuting queen, Ranavalona I., began severe measures against Christianity, and all the missionaries were compelled to leave the island. But during that period of fifteen years of steady labor, the native language was reduced to a written form, the whole Bible was translated into the Malagasy tongue, a school system was established in the central province of Jmerina, many thousands of children were instructed, and two small churches were formed. About 200 Malagasy were believed to have become sincere Christians, while several thousands of young people had received instruction in the elementary facts and truths of Christianity. That was the period of planting in Madagascar.
The second period in the history of Malagasy Christianity was that of persecution, and continued for twenty-six years (1835-61), during which period persistent efforts were made to root out the hated foreign religion. But the number of the" praying people" steadily increased, and although about 200 of them were put to death in various ways, the Christians multiplied about tenfold during that terrible time of trial.
In 1862 the mission of the London Missionary Society was re-established, and then began the third period in the religious history of the country, emphatically that of progress. From that date until the present time Christianity has steadily grown in influence, so that now about 1400 congregations and. more than 280,000 people are more or less under the influence of its missionaries. These churches and adherents are found to some extent in all parts of the island, but are chiefly massed in the central provinces of Imerina and Betsileo.
A great outward impetus was given to the spread of Christianity in the early part of 1869 by the baptism of the late queen, Ranav:Uona JL, and her Prime Minister, and the subsequent destruction of the idols of the central provinces, and still more by the personal influence of the sovereign in favor of the Christian religion.
In the year 1864 missions were commenced on the eastern coast, both by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (Anglican) and the Church Missionary Society (Evangelical). The latter of these was eventually withdrawn (in 1874) j and in the year 1872 the former society commenced work in the capital, and subsequently appointed a bishop to superintend its mission, its chief field, however, being still on the eastern coast.
Two years later (1866) the evangelical section of the Lutheran Church of Norway also commenced a mission in Madagascar, which was gradually increased, so that they have at the present time no fewer than 60 missionaries, including ladies in the country. (Eight or nine of these are now supported by the United Lutheran Church of America.) The Lutheran mission work is concentrated in the district of Valrinankaratra, from 60 to 80 miles southwest of the capital, and also in the southern central province of BetsiIeo; and they have also a. number of stations on the southeastern and a few on the southwestern coast.
The last Protestant society to undertake work in Madagascar was that of the Friends (the Friends' Foreign Mission Association). This was commenced in the year 1867, and differs from the others in having formed no new church organization, but in working in close connection and harmony with the London Missionary Society. The Friends' Foreign Mission Association have a press and excellent high schools in the capital, and take charge, as regards teaching and guidance, of a city church with its large district of 140 congregations, which stretches away for many miles to the southwest of Antananarivo. To the Friends' Mission is also mainly due the support of the large medical mission of the two societies, with its spacious hospital, medical, and nursing staff, numerous students, and dispensaries. Besides several missionaries stationed in the capital itself, the Friends have three different centres of work in their own district, with resident missionaries; but all the churches under their supervision observe the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, and are closely united with those under the care of the London Missionary Society.
It will be seen from what has been already stated, as well as from the tables appended hereto, that the London Missionary Society, to whom the planting of Christianity in Madagascar is due, has by far the largest number of adherents of any Protestant (or other) mission in the country (or indeed of any field in any other part of the world) ; and it has naturally had, and still has, the greatest influence upon the religious and social life of the Malagasy. But this large following has brought its difficulties and disadvantages; and the progress made has been greatly hindered by the large number of congregations under the nominal charge of one missionary, and the impossibility, with the present staff, of exercising sufficient influence, in the way of leadiug and guiding large masses of still ignorant people.
For many years past the London Missionary Society has maintained a staff of from 35 to 40 missionaries, including ladies, but not including missionaries' wives. Of these 20 are stationed in and around Antananarivo, 10 in the Betsileo province, and the others in the Antsika.naka district and on the eastern coast. And when it is remembered that most of these missionaries have, on an average, from 50 to 60 congregations to look after, and that many of these churches are scattered over a large extent of country, some at distances of three days' journey from the station, and in a country where no wheeled vehicles are available, it will be seen how difficult it is to give these numerous congregations the help and guidance they so much need.
To supply as far as possible the lack of European teaching, a college for training native evangeliilts has been carried on for more than twentyfive years; and from this institution nearly 300 men* have been sent out, * Exclusive of about 100 secular students in addition. after receiving from three to four years' training, including, in 'later years, a little medical instruction. These men ha"'e been stationed in various parts of the central provinces, and also in the more heathen districts, as assistant missionaries, each having a small sub-district with from 6 to 8 congregations under his charge. Numbers of these men have done good and faithful service j many of them, after several years' work, haye been taken by the native government and appointed to various positions as governors and other official posts, and about 120 are still at work. From 40 to 50 students are usually under instruction ; and the college building is a large and substantial structure" and one of the most prominent in the capital.
High schools, both for boys and girls, have also been at work for many years, and in the former of these, lads receive three years' training as teachers, in order to supply the needs of the country schools, which num- ber many hundreds. .
Since the re-establishment of the London Missionary Society mission in 1862 a press has been constantly at work, and from this, as well as from that of the Friends, a considerable amount of literature in the native language has been issued, including monthly periodicals, school-books, science handbooks, theological and biblical works, medical books, and others of a more general character. These would amount to nearly 60,000 pages, or, say, 400 books, averaging 150 pages each, a fairly good com- * mencement of a native ltierature. The average issue of various publica- tions-large and small-from the presses of the two societies is about 120,000 copies annually.
But it will probably be asked, What are the spiritual and moral results of the work of so many missionaries laboring for so many years past 1 These are more difficult to gauge aright, and it is not easy to give a satis- factory answer to such a question. So much, however, may be fairly said: The idolatry of the central provinces, as regards any open practice of it, has been swept away, although it is quite true that at times of epidemic disease or any other calamity, there is a tendency on the part of the more ignorant people to practise heathen customs more or less secretly, although all such are prohibited by the native laws. There is a vast advance in education and enlightenment, and probably not less than 150,000 people are able to read and have acquired some familiarity with the main facts and truths of Christianity. Several editions of the whole Bible, besides large numbers of the New Testament, have been put into circulation, as well as a considerable amount of literature in the Malagasy language. Many hundreds of congregations have been formed and meet regularly for wor- ship, and while in all of these a considerable proportion are merely hearers, in almost every case probably there are a few earnest and sincere Christian people, and in the longer established churches these form a much larger * These figures inclnde books from the other mi.sion presses. proportion of the whole 'number, of attendants. We have large numbers of earnest young Christians in our congregations, and these have shown much zeal and interest in the carrying on of Sunday-school work and in the management of societies of Christian Endeavor, many of which have been formed during the last three or four years, since a revival movement passed over our city churches. As already pointed out, some 300 young men have received regular and special training as Christian teachers and leaders; and, in a less systematic way, many hundreds of others have been taught more or less fully, so as to fit them for preaching and teaching the truths of the Gospel. A missionary spirit is being gradually aroused in the Malagasy churches, and from both the central provinces a number of men have been sent to the outlying heathen tribes as native missionaries. Every year more and more money is being raised for religious and benevolent objects, and considerable sums have been expended in erecting substantial (sometimes handsome) church building9; and funds are not wanting to carryon orphanages, auxiliary Bible, tract, and temperance societies, as well as associations for supplying preachers to destitute and ignorant congregations. A number of young men have also received systematic training as doctors and have obtained diplomas, and a number of young women have been taught scientific nursing of the sick. It has always been the aim of our missionaries to develop the self-help of the Malagasy Christians, and to train them to carryon their own church organization and work. For many years past the churches, both of the Imerina and Betsileo provinces, have been banded together in two strong and influential unions for the discussion of church matters, discipline, teaching, etc., and these larger unions, as well as the smaller organizations -a kind of presbytery-have gradually trained the Malagasy Christians to think and act for themselves in all matters connected with their religious life and activity.
Such are some of the many cheering features of our work, on account of which we have to thank God and take courage; but the other side of the picture must also be mentioned very briefly.
The chief blots which characterize ~falagasy society, and show the imperfect hold which Christianity yet has upon the people, may be described under three heads : First, there are the abuses which, markedly in later years, have grown' up in the administration of government, from the oppression of the lower classes by those of higher rank and especially by government officials; This is largely due to the system of janompoana or unpaid service in lieu of direct taxation. This inevitably leads to an immense amount of injus. tice, and nothing but a greatly higher tone of morality, and especially of moral courage on the part of the people generally, will effectually put down this crying evil.
Second, there is the system of slavery; and this, although of a family ,and patriarchal character, and not often showing, to Europeans at least, its most repulsive aspects, is essentially evil and brings much evil to families and to the children of the slave-owners. Almost every family of free people, except the very poorest, possesses its slave or slaves, who, however, are usually treated kindly, as there is little color prejudice. It may be questioned whether fanompoana is not a greater evil than slavery itself–indeed it is slavery under another name.
Lastly, there is the low state of morality, especially as regards marriage, divorce, and the relations generally of the sexes. This is an evil heritage from long ages of heathenism and ign'orance, and while great advances have been made on the former state of things, very much remains to be done to raise the moral tone of native society even in our own congregations.
Much more might be said, but probably the particulars here given are sufficient to show what are the discouraging as well as the cheering prospects of mission work in Madagascar at the present time j and I cannot but remark, in conclusion, that the prospect in the immediate future for our people and our work is now very dark and threatening. A foreign invasion seems imminent in two or three months' time, and how it may affect our work God only knows. When we remember how much injustice has been done by similar influence on our missions in various parts of the Pacific, we cannot but feel much sadness and apprehension for the future; but still of this we may be sure: God will not forsake His people here or allow His work to be destroyed. If the little band of Christians in Madagascar in the time of persecution were enabled by Divine help to hold their own for twenty-six years, and to constantly increase in number against the whole power of their sovereign and the dislike of the mass of their fellow-countrymen, we may be sure that now, with its immensely extended influence and much larger following, Christianity will prove that it has built up in Madagascar a church which shall never be overthrown, and has lighted a lamp that shall never be put out.
PROTESTANTISM AND UmIANIS.f IN MADAGASCAR.
BY REV. GEORGE COUSINS, SECRETARY OF THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
To understand the present position of affairs in "the Great African Island," as Madagascar is sometimes called, it is necessary to revert to a somewhat remote chapter of history. As far back as 1642 France made her first attempt to colonize the island. In that year the Societe .de l'Orient was formed for that express purpose, under the direct patronage of Cardinal de Richelieu, and in spite of COBstant disaster the work of colonization was persisted in for thirty years. It was then for many years abandoned, but by an order in council dated June 4th, 1686, France asserted her claim to Madagascar as a part of her dominions. This claim was formally repeated from time to time, and in the eighteenth century fresh attempts at colonization were made and persisted in for upward of fifty years. War with Great Britain and the rise of the Hov& power greatly m0dified the situation, but the island of St. Marie on the east coast and of NosiM on the northwest remained permanently in French posses- sion. Not only so, but failure to maintain their position on the mainland notwithstanding, France still regarded Madagascar as her own. Prior, however, to the signing of the Franco-Malagasy Treaty, in December, 1885, her claims had never been recognized by the Hova power, but the cession, under that treaty, of Diego Suarez Bay as a French naval station, and the clause recognizing the government of the Republic as the repre- sentative of Madagascar in all her foreign relations, did undoubtedly confer upon France special and peculIar rights.
Throughout this long connection with Madagascar, France has had valuable allies in the persons of Romanist missionaries j and to the honor of the Catholic Church be it said that, long before the Protestants of Great Britain turned their attention to the island, Dominicans, Lazarists, and other religious orders of the Romish Church had toiled and' suffered and died in self-denying efforts to Christianize some of the coast tribes. They accomplished but little, it is true, and after twenty years abandoned their difficult task, leaving few traces behind them, but a few pages of a cate- chism. Their converts lapsed into heathenism, so that when, in 1818, the London Missionary Society commenced 'operations in the island not a vestige of anything Christian was to be found, nor did any Roman Catho- lic missionaries follow them or attempt to interfere with their work. The solid foundations of native Christian churches were laid by British Prot- estants acting as a strong united band, nnchecked by the rivalry or oppo- sition of others. Then came the break-up of the mission and dark days of persecution, during which for a quarter of a century foreigners in gen- eral, and missionaries in particular, were kept ont of the island. A few succeeded in effecting an entrance, one or two permanently to settle, others as passing visitors only. Conspicuous among the former was a Fre~ch IlIan named Laborde, a man of considerable natural ability, who gradually acquired immense influence over the queen and her officers j while among the visitors were one or two Jesuit priests.
In 1861 Ranavalona I., the persecuting queen, died, and her son came to the throne with the title Radama II. His accession secured liberty of worship to the native Christians and brought foreigners back to Madagas- car. To missionaries he at once granted full permission to prosecute their labors witholit let or hindrance. A few dependants of M. Laborde ex- cepted, the entire native Christian community was at that time Prote!'!tant, and when the London Missionary Society resumed operations, its agents were welcomed by the Malagasy Christians as their recognized spiritual guides. But they were no longer the sole occupants of the field. Con- , current with their own arrival came a large staff of Roman Catholic mis- sionaries-Jesuit Fathers, teaching Brothers of the Order of St. Joseph and Sisters of Mercy-and from that day onward Protestant and Romaniat teachers have worked side by side. Even during the· Franco-Malagasy War, when the European staff (which was almost exclusively French, by nationality, and wholly so in political sympathy) was for the time expelled, native Catholic congregations still assembled for worship, and their liberty to do so was in no way interfered with by the Hova Government.
Meanwhile other Protestant missions had been established in the island -viz., that of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, of the Church Missionary Society, which, however, was soon withdrawn, * of the Norwegian Missionary Society (Lutheran), and of the Friends' Foreign Mission Association. Further a remarkable tribal movement in favor of Christianity had carried the Hovas forward on a new pathway, and a& the result of their religious awakening some hundreds of native churches had been erected, congregations for them had been gathered, schools had been established, and throughout the central province, and in one or two outlying provinces, a large proportion of the people had become nominally Christian. Though this was mainly a Protestant movement, the Romanists succeeded in securing a fairly large share of its harvest, especially in districts remote from the capital. Roughly speaking, at the end of 1883, after twenty- one years of continuous missionary labors, there were about 300,000 Malagasy connected with Protestant missions, and from 8000 to 10,000 under the care of the Jesuits. The fignres are only approximately correct.
The Franco-Malagasy Treaty materially affected the political situation; nor can it be denied that many feared that it would have a like influence upon the religious situation. When leaving Antananarivo, on the outbreak of hostilities, the priests boldly aRserted that they would soon return as conquerors, and that, backed by the power of France, they would in future be able to carry everything before them. ~luch of this could of course be set down as idle vaporing; besides which our knowledge of the unique position, which, thanks to the years of persecution, the Bible holds in the est.imation of the Malagasy people was in itself enough to rob the languagp. of much of its force. Still there did seem to be ground for grave concern, and the outlook was for the moment overcast.
More than eight years have gone by since the treaty was signed, and thus far none of the fears entertained have been realized. Protestant missionaries continue their work on the same lines as before; in several districts they have greatly extended their operations; in all they have striven to consolidate and mature their organizations, and the proportion of the population that willingly follows j,heir lead remains what it was before the treaty came into operation.
Two things have directly contributed to this result. The chIef reason * Rarely, if ever, has there been a brighter example of the" Comity of Missions" than this with· drawal, which was due to an unwillingness to intrude upou ground occupied by the London Missionary Society on the one hand, and an equal unwillingness on the other hand to countenance any_ thing like a schism among representatives of two Church of England- Societies.
iS95· THE DEVELOPMENTAL STATUS OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO. 43'7
is th03 failure on the. part of France to make good her political claims. From the first there has been a double reading of the treaty. Great Britain, for a time wisely neutral, in 1890 accepted the French reading, an4 formally signified it by means of the Salisbury-Waddington Convention. But even this cynical and short-sighted act of a British statesman has not yet sufficed to give the French anything approaching an effective control of the Hova Government j indeed it is difficult to see how the Republic can secure such domination of Madagascar as her heart seems set upon, unless she is prepared to make large sacrifices of money and men to achieve her purpose.
The other thing directly contributing to the maintenance of the status quo ante as regards religious liberty, and the strength of Protestantism in the island, is the fact that the French officials do not seem in any way to have threatened it. ·Whether lack of power alone does not account for this, may by some be doubted j but there is another explanation, and one worthier of the French. There is reaRon for thinking that their experience in the Pacific has taught the French Colonial Office the folly of attempts to coerce native Christians brought up under the instruction of Protestant missionaries. They no longer seek to force Polynesians to become Catholics, and one would fain believe that the lesson learned in the Society and Loyalty Islands is serving to check the natural tendency of the French official abroad to pose as the patron and supporter of Romanism.
Quietly, patiently, faithfully our Protestant brethren and sisters are building up the native Christian communities in an intelligent, sincere, and consistent love of the Scriptures and of the simple church life which the Scriptures have given to them, and in doing so they, the workers, and we, their sympathizing friends, may confidently rely upon the promise, "My word shall not return unto Me void."-The Mi38ions of the World.
THE DEVELOPMENTAL STATUS OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO.
BY GEORGE R. STETSON, WASHINGTON, D. C.
The great majority of the American negroes are of the so-called Bantu and Nigri~ic stocks, the lowest and the least developed of the great African races. Their anthropologic relation is above the Australian and below the Tauranian, the Hindl and the Caucasian. It is this nearness to a barbarous ancestry which determines so emphatically their religious, moral, mental, and physical character. This proximity is especially indicated in the negro of unmixed blood, by his vigorous constitution, his acuteness of vision, * his quickness of hearing, his keenness of taste, the delicacy of ,. An examination of 420 white and 420 colored minor school children of Washington, by Dr. Belt, gave these results: Normal acuteness of vision-white, 'i'{ per cent; colored, 90 per cent. Myopicwhite, 16 per cent; coillred, 6 per cent. Astigm[ltlc of all degrees-white, 25 per cent; colored, 10 per cent. Diseased eyes-white, 10 per cent; colored, 4 per cent. Choroidal atrophy-white, 5 per cent·, colored, 1 per cent. (Vide Ophthalmic Record.) his sense of smell, his insensibility to pain and ordinary remedial agents, and to danger-characteristics common to all primitive and unde'Cloped races. The faculty of memory is remarkably developed, and in children is superior to that of the white child of the same age. Sir Spencer f't. John speaks of the Haytian negroes as "having most extraordinary mem- ories j" and the fact that native Africans have memories of remarkable tenacity is conceded by all anthropologists.
The negro's environment in this country, especially in the "black belt," tends to strengthen this faculty, as well as that of observation, and because of this heredity and the more perfect development of these facul- ties, the negro child learns much more rapidly by the ear, or by rate, and 'by keen observation than the white. These faculties are, however, not accompanied by a corresponding development of the understanding, which is in great part due to bad instruction and ignorance of the vocabulary of our language.
The imitative faculty in the negro is remarkable and is very largely developed. To conform exactly to the habits, customs and dress of the all whites in phases of society-to imitate their religious, moral, social and humanitarian organizations to the extent of their means, and fre- quently beyond their ability to appreciate or comprehend-is the great aim and solicitude of the negro man, woman and child. The grotesque incongruities resulting from the attempted adaptation of all the social machinery of an advanced civilization emphasize his inferior development. This faculty, which if properly directed and governed would prove invaluable in a well-adjusted educational system, is now a great moral danger, as well as a hindrance to his symmetrical development. Leading men of his race consider the" incubus or imitation a fatal drawback," as " imitators see only results and never learn processes." His superior memory and remarkable imitative faculties are naturally but unfortunately coupled with weak assimilative and imperfectly developed logical powers; and his great advantage in memory and observation is lost in his logical deficiency. In his present status he lacks a high power of continuous logical thought, of sound reasoning, and of persistent, careful application in mental and physical labor.
The negro child, in pursuing at puberty, studies requiring the exercise of reason, has a limited capacity in applying the knowledge it so readily memorizes. Of this difficulty in mental application and digestion, a Northerll. teacher says: "The time required to fix an idea in the negro's mind is far in excess of that spent on the white child of equal age ;" "their mental horizon is narrow." Mr. Greenwood, some time Superintendent of Schools in Kansas City, Mo., has reached a similar conclusion. It will be remembered that Kansas was an objective point in the so-called "negro exodus" from South Carolina several years since, which fact gives Mr. Greenwood's experience especial value, as it relates more nearly to the pure negro. In his experience, he says, " The negro or colored child is apt in imitation. . .. All studies requiring memory are easy for them j but those requiring considerable skill in the use of the reason are the most difficult, and are those in which the least progress is made."
This deficiency in the reasoning ahd logical powers is first observed at the age of puberty, or when before that age he is put to tasks requiring their exercise. This observation of the negro's mental deficiency at puberty is not new, although independently noted. It was remarked many years ago by Filippo Manetta, an Italian author, who, during a long resi- dence on our Southern plantations, observed that the negro children were sharp, intelligent, and full of vivacity, but on approaching the adult period a gradual change set in j the intellect became cloudy, animation gave place to a sort of lethargy, briskness yielding to indolence. "We must," he continues, "necessarily suppose that the development of the negro and white races proceeds in different lines."
Practical observers substantially agree in this opinion, and it is confirmed by my own experience and observation, that while under the limitations of social conditions and ignorance already stated, the young negro child is quite as quick and intelligent as the child of a more highly developed race, and excels them in the technique of memory and in observation, yet on reaching the adult age his progress is suddenly checked. A distinguished educator writes : "I note no broadening of the mental faculties at the age of puberty, such as you commonly see in a bright lad, or even the average lad, of white blood." "Reason in man is not an innate endowment, primitive and enduring, but a tardy acquisition and fragile composition," remarks Mr. Taine. Dr. Blyden, who by his education, observation, and experience is, perhaps, better qualified to judge of his own race than anyone else, declares it to be necessary" to develop in the negro the thinking faculty-to strengthen his brain-to develop and strengthen his reason, and at the same time to govern his imagination by common sense." These observations upon the negro's mental development are generally applicable only to those of unmixed blood.
Of course, no hard and fast line of demarcation or differentiation in mental development can be laid down between those of pure and impure blood. We have many instances of the possession of rare intellectual gifts by negroes j but the exceptions tend to prove the rule, for it is generally ·conceded that in whatever proportion his blood may be mixedgriffe-quarteron or quinteron-his development is superior to that of the pure negro, and his physique and peculiar miasma and disease-resisting power correspondingly impaired. I understand, of course, that these views are directly opposed to those of Blumerbach and Gregoire, as well as to those of more modern theorists, such as Dwight, Garrison. Phillips, and others, but they are not only the result of personal experience and observation, but have the valuable concurrence of the educated negro himself, which is an important point gained.
The negro in America has by no means outgrown the feebleness of the moral sense, which is an inheritance from his ancestry, and which is common to all primitive and partially developed races. He is still too much in bond to the superstitions which enslaved his ancestors, and cannot fully comprehend the. moral and spiritual basis of a highly developed,unemotional, non-imaginative, a!ld impersonal religious faith, and because of his weak initiative, a power which is one of the first conditions of intellectual progress, he fails in the capacity to organize, construct or maintain a high civilization or thrifty economic conditions. His crude physiologic development carries with it a natural deficiency in technic skill, and, as I have elsewhere said, he retains many ancestral peculiarities belonging to a climate in which there was no impulse, and an environment in which every ambition and desire was limited and controlled by his imperative physical needs. In his industrial progress he is hindered by his ignorance of advanced and scientific methods in agriculture, by his imprudence, his thriftlessness, his simplicity, his wastefulness, and improvidence.
The comparative failure of our attempt to properly educate the negro is in great part due to the obstinacy with which a majority has blindly "T maintained the theory of his equality in mental endowment with the race with which he is in contact. e have spent and are spending enormous sums annually in elaborate systems of education ~or the negro without giving the least consideration to the differences in climatic origin, to the consequent variation and differentiation in mental character and development, or to the great chasm of heredity which separates the two races and which can never be bridged. I repeat that a system of education to be of service to the negro must honestly recognize this difference in development along the whole line. It is a common and very unreasonable error to suppose that those who philosophically recognize this separation of the races are inimical to the negro; on the contrary, they are his best friends, for while they recognize his deficiencies they do not in the least impeach, or prejudge, or in any way qualify the possibilities which under favorable conditions the future has in store for him. They demand, and in this demand are in accord with the most cultivated of his own race, that the educational system employed shall be adapted to the idiosyncrasies of his mental, moral, and physical needs.
It is a mild criticism to make, that the education hitherto given him has resulted in imparting false ideas of life and labor. His industrial training has been that of the treadmill; he has, because of his deficiency in mental and physical dexterity and technic skill, been an ignorant hewer of wood and drawer of water. He requires to be led out of this chronic condition by an intelligent, industrial training, which will impart a dexterity of hand, implant a love of and respect for labor, develop his mental and moral character, and train him in atteution, industry, and perseverance. "What the negro needs at once," that great apostle to the negroes, General Armstrong, emphatically declared, "is elementary and industrial education and moral development. "-Public Opinion.
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTlImNT
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
The Beginnings of a. Young Mission in than if Christ had never come 1 But the Province of Honan, Ohin&. when they sl1id to the Church of their choice, " Will you not scud us to pro- BY REV. J. FRAZER SMITH, M.D., HAM- claim the Gospel among the millions in the dark regions beyond 1" the Church ILTON, CANADA. too often answered through its Foreign Mission Committee, " We would gladly :Much has been said during the past do so, but all our available funds are few years about the large number of required to support the men who are stndents who have intimated their will- now in the field." As the interest in ingness to engage in foreign mission foreign missions thus increased, some work. Having this fact In mind, it of the studeuts in Queen's College, was thought by the writer that a short Canada, felt that they could not any acconnt of a well-equipped mission, longer stand idly by waiting for the composed entirely of young men fresh movillg of the waters, but that necesfrom college, planted in a new and very sity was laid upon them to. make an difficult field, and almost entirely cut effort to send out at least one man from off from intercourse with other mission- among themselves to proclaim the glad aries from whose experience they might tidings to the heathen. have hoped to derive advantage, might not only prove of interest to the general Consequently, on' January 30th, 1886, reader, bnt also might stimulate student after careful thought and prolonged volunteers to try a similar experiment. discussion, the following resolution was elsewhere. adopted by the University Missionary Association; "That as soon as a mem- The inception of this mission was ber of this association, in connection unique in many respects, snd because with the Presbyterian Church in Canit was, in one feature at least, a new ada, offers himself as a missionary to departure in missionary finance, a re- the foreign field, this association undercital of the facts may prove all the take to support him, and that such more suggestive at the present time, support take priority to all aids to home when so many mission boards are call- mission work." Afterward, however, ing loudly for more money to enable the association, recognizing the importhem to carryon theil' usual work. tance of home mission work, especially in the Northwest, decided to continue In the eady "eighties" an awaken- their endeavors in that department of ing missionary zeal among the students the Lord's work, with the result that of our theological halls was one of the since engaging in foreign work the asmost significant signs of the times. sociation has nearly doubled its con- Numbers of students, as they looked for- tributions to the home field. ward to the life for which they were preparing themselves, began, for the In the following October the students first time perhaps, to ask in earnest it and alumni of Knox College, Toronto, it was right for them to spend their entered into a similar scheme, and very lives competing with half a dozen min- soon they had raised a sum of money isters of their own and other Christian which was strength to them and a denominations for the privilege of healthy stimulus to Queen's. preaching to a handful of people, who already enjoyed all the advantages of a In Knox College Mr. Jonathan Go- Christian community, when two-thirds forth had all through his college course of the population of the entire globe, in looked forward to a missionary career ; this nineteenth century of Gospel light, while J. Frazer Smith, of Queen's Colhad not one single ray more of this light lege, had for years earnestly desired to ties. Some of the lessons learned on go out as a medical missionary to China, this trip, however, were most helpful and with this end in view had combined in many ways, and if the young mis- a full medical course with his theologi- sionaries afterward avoided some of cal work. It was natural, therefore, the more common mistakes of all new that Mr. Goforth should have been ap- missionaries, it was due to the fact that pointed the first foreign missionary of they profited by the good advice given his college association, and that Mr. by their experienced companions on Smith should have had the same honor that occasion. conferred upon hilll by Queen's Uni- versity Missionary Association. In due The kind friends at Lin Ch'ing and time these two gentlemen were pre- P'ang Chuang, 100 and 150 miles re- sented to the Foreign Mission Commit- spectively from the borders of Honan, tee, with Ihe request that, if possible, extended a cordial invitation to the they sho.uld be sent to labor together in memberH of the new mission to move China, the field of their choice. Con- inland and reside at their stations until sequently, the Presbyterian Church in they would succeed in gaining a foot- Canada, which for many years had hold for themselves in Honan. This conducted a most successful mission kind invitation was gladly accepted, in the northern part of the island of and some of the members moved inland Formosa, resolved, at its General As- as soon as possible. sembly in June, 18t!7, to commence a new mission on the mainland of China. In December, 1889, three additional The province of Honan was chosen be- gentlemen with their wives and two cause it was considered one of the most single ladies arrived inland to reinforce needy provinces in the whole empire at the young mission. There they were, that time. Although Honan was con- fifteen souls all told, upward of 100 fessedly one of the most difficult fields miles distant from their chosen field of in the whole of China, neither the For- labor, and as yet not a single place to . eign Mission Committee nor the young call their own. missionaries were at all discouraged, but went bravely forward, trusting in Of the above missionaries two of the the promise, "Lo, I am with you al- married gentlemen, as already stated, way." It was not until March,1888, were supported by the students and that the first party belonging to this alumni of their respective colleges, and mission landed in Chefoo, but by De- had been landed in the field, one of cember of the same year two gentle- them with a complete medical and sur- men and their wives, two single I!;entle- gical outfit, without any additional ex- men, and one single lady were all in pense to the Foreign Mission Commit- China, and hard at work studying the tee. Two other married men and one language. single gentleman were supported by separate congregations, while the two In October, 1888, two of the gentle- remaining married gentlemen were each men, in company with two members of supported by one individual member the American Board, residing at P'ang from two different congregations. The Chuang, a station about 225 miles in- understanding was that these individ- land from Tientsin, made a tour of in- uals and congregations should continue spection through part of northern Ho- their usual contributions to the general nan. The young missionaries returned missionary fund of the Church. At from Ihis tour with many of their pre- the present writing the salaries of the conceived ideas, as to the country, the missionaries concerned, with one ex- people, missionaries, and mission work ception, which was limited to three in general, to say the least, rather upset, years, are still being paid from the from coming in contact with the reali- same sources, and the general funds of the Church have not suffered in the least thereby. The first tour for work was made in were posted up in conspicuous places, October, 1889, when Dr. McClure and charging the foreigners with all sorts Mr. Goforth, accompanied by two na· of wickedness, and for the first time the tive Christians from the stations where missionaries began to fully realize that they resided, visited four or five large they were destined to have a hand-to· cities in North Honan, and spent from hand fight with the devil for possession three to five days in each place, dis. in Honan. The opposition drove us to pensing medicine and trying to preach seek for all our help and strength from the Gospel as opportunity afforded. our great Captain, at whose command On this tour the missionaries were well we had gone forth. We continued to received wherever they went, and one move about from place to place, and at mandarin, more friendly than the rest, ti~es we were very hopeful that prop· invited the foreigners to dine with him. erty would soon be secured. We were When these brethren returned and reo offered suitable property on several oc· ported their phenomenal reception, the casions, but often, when all arrange- hopes for the success of the mission ments seemed about completed, the ran high, and we need not be surprised whole affair would suddenly collapse, if the young missionaries looked for· and a whisper would go around, " The ward to a speedy and peaceful settle· gentry have intimidated tho man, and ment in that hostile province. Our he dare not rent or sell his property to missionary friends with a longer ex· the foreigner." After many disap· perience were not so sanguine, and pointments, in. October, 1890, our pray- when we enthusiastically voiced our ers were answered, and we secured our expectations, they merely cautioned us first property in Ch'uWang, a market not to put too much confidence in Chi· town, about 10 miles from the border nese mandarins, even though they gave in Honan. Two of the brethren moved banquets. in and took possession and commenced Early in 1890 we adopted the Gospel work, and all were happy. Our joy method anq went touring, two and two, was destined to be of short duration, a doctor and a minister, each foreigner for about a month afterward, during a supported by a Christian native of some fair, an angry mob rushed in and loot- experience in his particular line. On ed the entire compound, but fortu- reaching a town of considerable size we nately the missionaries were not in- endeavored to rent two rooms in an jured. Redress was sought from the inn, in some central place; one room local officials, but to no avail, and as 8 for dispensing medicine, and the other last resort an appeal was made to the for the purpose of preaching and sell· British Consul at Tientsin. Through ing tracts and portions of ~cripture. the intervention of the noted Viceroy We remained, if possible, in each place Li Hung Chang, contrary to all expec· from ten to fifteen days, and after hav- tations and to the previous history of ing made an appointment for a future such cases, the whole affair was favor- visit, moved on to the next town. Each ably settled inside of four months.
doctor treated on an average upward From that time to the present, work has of 80 patients per day, and the writer, been carried on at Ch'u Wang with on his first tour, during thirty days of the ordinary difficulties and interrup- such work, performed 105 surgical tions incident to pioneer work in the operations. interior of China.
The so-called gentry or literati were In May, 1891, property was secured at first rather surprised, then they be- at Hsin·ChIln, another market town, gan to look, "with scornful eye ask- some 60 miles farther inland than Ch 'u ance," and very soon they began to Wang. In October we were forced to threaten in order to frighten us away. commence repairs on the houses to reno At one end of the field vile placards der them fit for foreigners to live in. No sooner were the necessary repairs his son were studying the Word of GOO on the houses hegun than the people with delight, and were daily praying, on the street commenced active hostili- not"only- for themselves and the mis- ties against us. Day by day we were sionaries, but also for their poor, be- reviled and our workmen threatened, nighted countrymen around them.
while groups of men assembled to bom- Why this great change? In March, bard our gates. As time went on they 1890, old Chou was led to the inn by became bolder, and soon personal vio· his son totally blind. The old man had lence was attempted. On two or three been a heavy burden to his family for occasions a mob of several hundred six or seven years, and he came to the men assembled around the mission foreign doctor anxious to be cured.
compound and threatened to break in The writer operated on both eyes for the gates, tear down our houses, and cataract with excellent success, and drive us out or kill us. At such times, from that time forth both he and his in vain was the help of man, but our son took a deep and abiding interest in trust was in .Tehovah, God, and He it the Gospel. It was a great joy to the was who mercifully protected His ser· physician to thus restore sight in his vants during all these trying months, first operation of the kind in Honan, and we were brought to realize, as but this joy was as nothing in compari- never before, the full meaning of the son to his joy when, on June 26th, words of the Psalmist when he says: 1892, the privilege was accorded him " God is our refuge and strength, a very of baptizing these two men, our first present help in trouble." converts in Honan. At present we Notwithstanding the continued and have some fifteen baptized adults, with bitter opposition of our enemies, we upward of thirty candidates on proba- endeavored to carryon our work in the tion.
dispensary and street chapel, and the All candidates for baptism, after pass- daily attendance was far above our ex- ing a satisfactory examination before pectations. two of the members of the mission, are During our first year of residence in put on probation for at least one year Hsin Ch~n at least 10,000 people visited before being baptized. This is to pre- the street chapel, and listened to the vent unworthy candidates, of whom, preaching for a shorter or longer period alas! there are very"many.
of time, but, probably, not one dozen For six years now the Gospel has of that vast throng took any interest in been proclaimed far and wide, and we what was said, or inquired with any thank God that here and there we find desire to know the Gospel for its own a few who are willing to listen with sake, or because they felt the need of some degree of interest, and who in- living a purer and better life. Ninety- quire with some appearance of real nine per cent of all who came were ut· earnestness. Last spring, before the terly indifferent. There are people writer left Hsin CMn, day after day who speak of the Chinese as waiting, from 50 to 100 people visited our chapel ready and willing to receive the Gos· and dispensary, and from three to five pel, but if 5 per cent of those who hear persons each day listened to the preach- had any desire to listen in order to know ing of the Gospel with more than ordi- the Gospel, our work would be com- nary interest, and were willing to be paratively easy. Through all these instructed-as many in two days as we trying days God had given His ser- had the whole first year at that place.
vants one little bright spot in that dark In JUly last a valuable property was land as a token of His love, and to purchased in Chang-te-fu, about 30 keep them from becoming discouraged. miles west of Ch'u Wang, and the most In the little village of Ho-tao, about 17 important city in that part of the dis· miles from Hsin CMn, old Chou and " trict. The work in North Honan, however, is scarcely yet begun, and we in China there are over twelve hundred must not expect too much, nor should missionaries, and the annual expenses any person be discouraged even if the of these missions would amount to results are not as good as might be more than one million dollars. Yet in expected. The difficulties to be encoun- the last Whole year the whole number tered are stupendous, and when we take of Christians who have joined ch~rches into consideration the character of the in all missions in China, I believe, does people with whom we have to do, their not exceed two thousand. You would pride and prejudice, their ignorance say one human soul is worth the whole and indifferec.ce, their idolatries and world, and cannot be valued in gold superstitions, their apathy in regard to and silver; and you would say also the everything in the way of improvement indirect influence exerted by mission- or reform, and, above all, their utter aries over the country at large cannot lack of honesty and truthfulness from be measured in pounds or ounces. All the highest to the lowest, we may well this I concede; but I question, as a thank God for what has already been Japanese Christian, whether you are accomplished, and, with renewed en- making the best use of men and means ergy and ~eal, press on in the great -that is, whether there is no room for work. improving missionary methods.
It seems to us that there is no definite The Missionary Problem: from the idea amon~ both missionaries and their Standpoint of a. Japanese Ohristian. home churches concerning the true aim of missionary work. Some seem to lay BY PROFESSOR H. KOZAKI, DOSHISHA great stress on the testifying work of COLLEGE, TOKYO, JAPAN. missionaries, and if they preach and Most of the missionary societies of testify the Gospel of Christ to all crea- Europe and America arose in· the end tures, whether they are converted or of the last century or the beginning of not, then they think their work is the present one. They have achieved done Then, again, others seem to de· the conversion of many tribes and peo· pend solely on the intervention of the pIes. The history of the conversion of Divine hand for the conversion of the the Hawaiian Islands, Madagascar, and people, thinking as though all other some islands in the Pacific Ocean, is as works are not Divine, regardless of hu· wonderful as the Acts of the Apostles. man means or methods. God forbid But when we come to see missionary that I should in any way disparage work in civilized or more or less civil· the work of the Holy Spirit in mission ized countries, such as India, China, work, but to believe that the conver· and Turkey, it seems that they are sion of the world will be done by the making very little progress compared Divine intervention, without human with the number of men engaged and means or methods, seems to us to be the amount of means expended. That dishonoring God and man. Hitherto Christian missions in these countries the most of missionaries seem to have are making some progress, I do not gone to the fields without any settled question. But when we compare the idea of missionary methon or plan, sim- number of men engaged and the amount ply trusting on the Divine power and of means expended with the small reo support. This may do in the conversion suIt of their work, we often wonder at of savages and barbarous peoples, but the patience and faith of missionaries, In dealing with civilized or more or and at the disinterested magnanimity less civilized nations this will not do.
and large heart of Christians; and we I believe in the missionary work of civil· cannot help questioning whether there ized nations there must be some defi- is not room for improving the methods nitely undel'stood method of the work.
of Christian missions. For instance, You have been lately paying great attention to the scientific study of so- 3. Because foreigners as such make cial problems, and found out that an. more mistakes in dealing with the peo- indiscriminate charity or philanthropy ple than the natives themselves.
without any plan or method would do 4. To these causes I must add one harm rather than good. The problem which is little understood by Christian of Christian missions needs similar solu- people in all countries. Every nation tion with that of social evils. I believe has what we may call national spirit or there is at present urgent need of sci- patriotism, which raises more or less entific study of missionary problems. suspicion on the part of the natives We are in the most fortunate time to th!!t the missionaries come to make do such work. The experiences of mis- conquest over the faith of the people.
sionaries in the last hundred years- Thus we often find good and patriotic their failures and successes-are all men among the opponents of mission- most profitably to be studied. aries, which we think is the most un- I have great interest in this problem, fortunate thing in any country.
and hence have been paying some atten- If the foregoing remarks are true, tion to it. The truth yet partially under- the first object of missionary work stood in this latter part of the century by must be to raise up able native wQ1'kers missionaries as well as by churches is, and help tltem do tlte work by tltemael'lJe8, that no civilized nation can be converted and thus educational work in its full solely by foreigner8 __ or, in other words, meaning will become a chief work of that the conversion of a nation mU8t be mIssIOnaries. The missionary may done by ita own agency. I need not enter preach, but he will never be as efficient into details to illustrate this principle, as some of the native preachers. He but I will simply note some of the potent may write books, but he will not be facts in our own country. You see, able to write such able books as some while in India membership in Christian of the native authors do. But he can churches in the last ten years has gain- raise up able native workers much ed only 30 per cent, in Japan it has more efficient than he is. He can give gained more than 300 per cent-that is, good counsel to the native workers, tripled in ten years. In different de- and thus help them in various' ways.
nominations of Japan some of them I can name some missionaries, or rather have gained in membership tenfold in some foreign educators in my own the last ten years, while others have country who did great work in such a gained only two or threefold in the capacity. Among many such workers same period; and here we see clearly two men may be mentioned-namely, the denominations in which mission- Dr. Brown, of the Reformed Board, aries have prominent part are making and Captain L. L. James, who was not smaller gains, while those in which the connected with any missionary board, native Christians take responsible posi- but a zealous worker in Christ. Most tions are making greater gains. of the intluential workers in the Pres- The reason for this state of things is byterian body, which is called the not hard to find. " Church of Christ in Japan," are pu· 1. Because foreigners as such cannot pils of Dr. Brown, and similarly most understand the character of the people, of the intluential workers in what is and thus cannot sympathize with their called the "Kumiai churches," cor- thought and feeling, the difficulty of responding to the Congregational learning the language being not the churches, are pupils of Captain James.
least impediment. To do such work we need the best 2. Because they can hardly get such men as missionaries, first-rate men in confidence from the native people as every way. There is no more false the native people have among them- notion than that any mediocre man with selves, and thus cannot command re- ordinary education can make a good spect of the people. missionary. Such men may do good work in' their own country, but I can- heretofore, and so the evangelization not believe they can do much good in of the world will be very much has- the missionary fields, especially in civ- tened. ilized countries. Of course there are not many such first-rate men to be The evangelization of the world is found in any country, but we do not a great work-nay, the greatest work ask you to send us many such men. the Christian churches have ever come to undertake in the history of man- Now the most of Christian men are kind. It 'is not easy work ; it cannot disposed to believe that if they can send be done in any unsystematic and dis- many missionaries into all parts of the orderly way. It is the problem which world, the evangelization of the world demands to be solved by devout and will be easily effected. We hear a wise men in true, scientific method. great deal of such plan as sending a The evangelization of the world is also missionary to every fifty thousand peo- the great obligation of the Christian ple in the whole world, so as to inun- churches. It is Paul who said that date the whole world with an army of "I am debtor both to Greeks and to mIssIOnaries. I do not believe in such barbarians, both to the wise and to the an easy method of evangelization. It foolish." The Christian Church is now is my firm conviction that the number debtor to the whole unevangelized of missionaries does not count much in world. May the Christians in all lands the missionary work. I believe a Paul feel the same obligation as the Apostle or a Luther is worth tens or even hun- of the Gentiles felt, and execute their dreds of ordinary missionaries. duty as the Christians in the apostolic time did. And the greatest cOIisolation If the work is once started in any we have in this work is the rememmagnitucfe among the native Chris- brance of the promise of our Lord, in tians, it is the wisest policy for mission- gi ving His final commandment to His aries to devolve as much responsibility apostles and others, "Lo, I am with as possible on the native Christians, you always, even unto the end of the and help them in such a spirit as Lafay- world. " ette helped Washington in his War of Independence. It is not only wise for The General Mi8sion~ Oonference at missionaries to help native Christians with counsel and good words, but Toluca, Mexico. I think you can safely help them with some material means in such a BY REV. JOHN W. BUTLER, D,D., CITY spirit as the Christians of Philippi help· OF MEXICO. ed those of Jerusalem, because the native churches have not only to support I send a few notes about the Toluca themselves, but also do aggressive Conference. work in various ways, and thus need very much your helping hand_ Where Toluca is the capital of the State of there are already many independent Mexico, and a pretty city of some 30,000 churches, it is better for you to help people. The governor of the State is them indirectly, doing the work through a pronounced liberal, and in many ways them, rather than to help them directly shows his sympathy with our Protesby sending many missionaries to them, tant cause. He sent words of salutaand thus the work will be done more tion and welcome to the conferenc4i. speedily and more efficiently. We had 141 workers representing the I believe if the Christian churches 12 different missions. The prime adopt such a policy in the future as I mover was the Rev. W. D. Powell, have imperfectly indicated above, they D.D., for fourteen years a Baptist miscan accomplish. even with present sionary in this country. He resided means, ten times greater work than first along the frontier, hut came to Toluca about three years ago. He has acquired considerable influence with er," and stirred all hearts with his tell- the natives in general and with the au- ing stories and practical exhortation. thorities in particular, many of whom are his personal friends, and it was fit- While these two sessions were being ting that he should deliver the address held in the hotel attended by foreign of welcome to the workers in the open- missionaries, similar sessions were held ing session, which was presided over in the Presbyterian chapel, which was by the Rev. T. F. Wallace, a veteran attended entirely by natives. That of over thirty years' standing. He night the natives and foreigners all worked under the Presbyterian Board united together, and the Rev. M. Gassa- for some years in Colombia, and came way presided. The Rev. II. P. Ham- here about fifteen years ago. His son, ilton, agent of the American Bible So- a most promising young man, has reo ciety, read a paper on the Word and cently entered the field. the Spirit, prepared by the Rev. H. B. Pratt, who recently translated the en. After Dr. Powell's welcome address tire Bible into Spanish. This was fol- came the responses from the Rev. I. W. lowcd by another paper by the Rev. Boyce, of Saltillo, and Rev. I. N. Steel- W. H. Sloan, of the Baptist Mission, man. of Orizaba. Then followed a real on the Effects of the Holy Spirit. treat in a half-hour talk by Mr. D. L. Moody, and Mr. Sankey singing" Hllve Thursday morning session was pra. You Sought fer the Sheep 1" in a man· sided over by H. P. Webb, Esq., audi- ner that moved all hearts. It is really tor of the Mexican National Construc- a wonderful thing to see the largest tion Company, a lay worker who is and best hotel in this old Roman Catho· very highly esteemed in this city, and lic town, and to which no Protestant a favorite with the missionaries. He minister had ever' come until about was assisted by our Quaker friend twenty years ago, almost entirely given Purdy, referred to above, and a very over to such a gathering as this; the earnest paper on the Indwelling of the billiard-tables cleaned out, and the Holy Spirit was read by Mr. E. G. large room full of evangelical workers, Taber, associate of Mr. Purdy. And all earnestly seeking a fresh baptism of he was followed by Rev. A. B. Rudd, the Holy Ghost for the great work be· on the Fruits c;>f the Spirit. Then came fore them. an uplifting address by Mr. D. L. Moody. The second session was presided over by the Rev. W. D. King, a presidiug In the afternoon Rev. T. F. Wallace elder of the Methodist Episcopal presided, and one of the best papers of Churoo, South. An excellent paper the entire conference was read by Rev. was read by the Rev. John Howland, H. P. McCormick, on Spirituality the of the Congregational Mission, on the Supreme Need in our Work. Mr. Dispensation of the Holy Spirit. This McCormick is comparatively a young was followed by a paper on the Person- man connected with the Baptist Mis- ality of the Holy Spirit by the writer, sion, and living in Morelia. He is an which produced a very animated dis- enthusiastic and successful worker. A cussion. The first to take part in this very profitable discussion followed the discussion was our esteemed friend, Mr. reading of this paper, during' which the . Samuel A. Pllldy, of Indiana, the old· workers were drawn voery closely to- est Quaker missionary in this country. gether. He fairly electrified the audience by his warm approval of the paper, and At night a large meeting was held in the assertion that his society now fully the theatre. On Friday the morning accepted the doctrine of the Personality session was presided over by the Rev. of the Holy Spirit. Mr. Moody fol· W. C. Evans, of the Methodist Episco- lowed with his" Ten Points on Pray- pal Church, and a paper was read by Rev. J. G. Woods, of the .Presbyterian Mission, on the Spirit's Work as Shown in the Acts of the Apostles, which was Our Mail-Bag. followed by another one of Mr. Moody's characteristic addresses. BIBLE DISTRIBUTION IN NAGOYA.- The missionaries and native Christian The afternoon session was presided workers in the city of Nagoya have over by the Rev. W. T. Green, of the long felt the importance of placing the Baptist Mission. Rev. F. P. Lawyer, Word of God in the hands of the 200" 000 people in this great city of the inot the Cumberland Presbyterian terior, but the undertaking is so great, Church, read a very thoughtful and and the number of workers, and, in devout paper on How May we Have fact, of the whole body of Christians, so More Power with God and }Ian? This few, that until recently the work has not been undertaken on any large scale. brought out a very earnest discussion, It has just been determined, however, and while heartily joining in the'sing- to begin the work at once. Fifty thouing of some of our old familiar hymns, sand copies ot the Gospels are being printed for this express purpose, the there came down upon the assembly cover bearing a. list of all missionaries one of the richest baptisms of the Holy and their residences in the city, of all Ghost it has ever been our privilege to preaching-places and the pastors of the experience. During the singing of a respective churches, a copy to be offered, with brief comment, at each house in second hymn, without any indication the whole city. The Christians have from anyone in the room, people began raised 250 yen with which to begin the to shake hands and speak words of work; pastors, missionaries, and mem- personal encouragement to each other. bers .of churches have met to arrange for systematic work, and have resolved The Baptists, the Congregationalists, to carry the work through to the end, Methodists, Presbyterians, Quakers, though it may take several months to and others aU seemed to be free and complete it. The following were happy as it in attendance upon an old- chosen as an Executive Committee to have charge of the work-viz.: David fashioned camp· meeting. It was the S. Spencer, H. J. Hamilton, A. R. Morunanimous opinion that that meeting gan, W. C. Buchanan, 1. Hayashi, H.
alone was worth travelling a long dis- Yamaka. C. Maruyama, and K. HOBO· tance to attend. In the evening a large kawa. Under their direction the whole city will be systematically mapped out, company gathered in the National The- and workers Indicated for the different atre. Many public men from the city sections.
were in attendance, and a great many Without a doubt this work will draw people also came out of curiosity, but out strong opposition from the Bud- dhists, and the Christians will likely be were treated to one of Mr. Moody's subject to increased insult from the op- plain spiritual sermons on the Way of ponents. These workers need the pray- Salvation. Of course Mr. Moody was ers of all Christians for the success of at the disadvantage of speaking to the this adva::lCe movement in this Budaudience through an interpreter, and dhist centre. yet he seemed to hold the people with- REV. D. S. SPENCER.
out any trouble. Then followed an earnest address by a converted French THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS-SYSTEM- priest, and a most excellent though ATIC GIVING. – Mrs. Esther Tuttle brief address by the Rev. P. F. V!llder- Prichard has been eminently active for rama, of the Methodist Church, and several years as one of the missionary thus eBded this most delightful and workers in the Society of Friends. She successful Holy Spirit COIiference, at- founded and for Ileveral years success· tended by so many workers from all fully edited the paper of the Woman's over the country. Men were there Missionary Society, Friend8' Mi.8ionarV from the Rio Grande on the north, and Advocate. For a few years past she from Puebla and Vera Cruz on the has concentrated her energies on the south, and I believe that they have all development of systematic giving, as returned to their work 'With new life Superintendent of the Department of and inspiration, Proportionate and Systematic Giving of the World's and National Christian AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE KOREAN Temperance Union, as weIl as for the GOVERNMENT AND THE PAl CHAI COL- Woman's Foreign Missionary Union of LEGE.
Friends. Mrs. Prichard sends the fol- 1. The Korean Government will send lowing note : to this college 200 students who are to observe strictly all the rules and regu- " As 1 read the notice of the work of lations of the institution. the Canada Methodist Women's For- 2. The students are to receive instruc- ~ign Missionary Society in the April tion in the English language, geognumber of the REVIEW, I was led to raphy, arithmetic, the sciences, and in compare statistics with the late annual such other studies as may be deterreport of the Woman's Foreign Mis- mined on by the teachers III charge of sionary Union of Friends, and am con- the school.
strained to send you our figures. I 3. The reception, dismissal, and disthink our receipts are exceptionally cipline of the students are entirely engood for the membership. We have trusted to the foreign teachers. 202 auxiliaries and 3562 members, and 4. Beginning with the first day of the support 41 missionaries, the receipts second moon, the Finance Department for last year being in round numbers will transmit $200 to the Board of Edu- $35,982, These receipts include over cation, whence 'it is to be seHt to the $9000 of legacies, but deducting these college for books, stationery, etc., for there is an increase of over $3000 above the pupils. Should the full number of that of the previous year. If we have students (200) fail to attend from the a dollar of indebtedness I am not aware beginning, the sum of $50 is to be paid of it. and we have no salaried officer at once. When the number reaches 50, except the editor of the Advocate. One then an additional $10 is to be added for hundred and fifteen Bible readings, every 10 students, up to the full quota. sermons, and addresses on proportion- Japanese silver or paper money may be ate and systematic giving are reported sent at the option of the government. for 1894, and the returns, which are by 5. On the last day of every month a no means complete, give us 1449 pro- correct and complete list of the stuportionate givers. The latter depart- dents in attendance for that month is to ment gaius new strength, and is doing be seut to the Foreign Department, and much for us. The Oregon superinten- from thence to the Board of Education. dent addressed a large audience re- 6. Students, unless dismissed for incently on the subject, and in conclu- abilit,Y to pursue the course of study or sion, to her surprise, 104 were won to for VIolating the rules and regulations, these methods. The general movement must remain in the college for a period for the advancement of this cause of three years. among woman's boards has had a year 7. Foreign teachers, whether three or of marked progress. We now have four are req uired to teach the 200 stufourteen organizations of Christian dents. are not ~o receive remuneration. women all told committed to the pro- One Korean tutor is to be employed for motion of the reform, among whom every 50 students. The selection of twel ve are missionary societies. One tutors is to be made by the foreign of the latest to come over is the Des teachers. The tutor is to receive from Moines branch of the Methodist Society, the Korean Government a salary of $20 and as nearly as I can judge no society a month for the first year, and an addihas thus far entered upon this w0rk tional $5 a month for each succeeding year. Should the tutor fail to attend under more favorable conditions. diligently to the work, he shall be dis- " KOKOMO, IND." charged by the government.
8. Five copies of this agreement are THE KOREAN MOVEMENT.-Mention to be made: one copy each to be placed was made last month of the interview with the Board of Education, the For- eign Department, the Finance Departof Bishop Ninde with the King of ment, the United States Legation, and Korea, and reference to the proposal of with the authorities of the school. Done in the 504th of the Dynasty, the government to place Korean youth first moon, twenty-sixth day, by under instruction of the Methodist mis- HYEN CHAI, sion. The following document binding 8em·etary Foreign IJepartrrumt, the Korean Government to this course who, having received authority from is not only significant, but will be his- the Foreign Department, entered into toric, and we therefore print the entire this agreement.
text: On behalf of the Pai Chai College.
SEOUL, February 16, 1895.
1895.J FIELD OF MONTHLY BURV:EY' 41)1
III.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
BY D. L. PIERSON.
Afrioa,* Madagasoar,t the Freedmen,:l: NOTES ON AFRICA. Roman Catholics in Africa are se- verely criticised by Rev. Henry Row· The Dark Continent presents a much ley, of the Society for the Propagation more diversified character in races and of the Gospel. After speaking of the nations and languages than is generally ignorant and immoral priests among supposed. Among the 160,000,000 to the Portuguese, he goes on to ascribe 210,000,000 inhabitants scattered over the utter relapse of native Christians an area of 11,556,600 miles, Dr. R. N. into heathenism to the following fea- Cust enumerates six distinct groups of tures of what seemed three hundred languages: The Hamitic of the north; years ago to be successful missions: the Semitic, spoken in North Africa reckless and wholesale baptism; unholy and Egypt; the Nuba Fulah of the accommodation of Christian tr.uth to Eastern Soudan, the negro of Western heathen superstitions and customs; negand North Central Africa, and compris- lect of education of the young; pre· ing 195 languages and 49 dialects; the tended miracles to strengthen waning Bantu, spoken south of the equator in influence; cruel punishment for break· 168 languages and 55 dialects; and the ing church rules; and the countenanclowest in the scale, that of the Hotten- ing of slave trade. Papal missions hav· tots in the south-a total of 438 lan- ing failed in Africa, the duty rests the guages and 153 dialects,of which only 66 more heavily upon Protestants to carry have the Bible translated even in part. them the pure Gospel. The Abyssinian and Coptic Christians are dead spirit· There is not only great variety in the ually, and have departed from their character of the country and in the original faith, if indeed they ever really languages spoken, but in religions also. understood the truth as it is in Jesus. They are approximately as follows: Mohammedans .,. .. ………… .. 77,000,000 The missionary work in Egypt is chiefly Pagans………………………. . 95,000,000 among the Copts; Abyssini!l- presents Christians ……………………. .. 7,600,000 little opportunity for evangelical work.
Abyssinian Christians………… . 5,000,000 It is the hermit nation of Africa. ProtestantS. .. .. .. .. . . .. .. . … . .. . 1,100,000 Islam is one of the most serious ob. Roman Catholic ……………… . Coptic, etc.. …. … ………. .. 900,000 stacles to missionary enterprise in Afri- Hindus ……………………… .. 600,000 ca. This religion permits and encour- 250,000 ages sensualism, thereby permitting * North Africa is considered in our October Africans to remain pagans while nomi- issue. On CentrlLl and South Africa see also pp. nally Mohammeda,ns; in addition to 19 and 47 (January); 327,355,359 and 381 (May), this the converts are gained by force and 407 and 411 (present issue). Literature: where persuasion fails. At Cairo, ~'Africa," KeithJohnston; '~AfricaRediviva," Egypt, is a college where more than R. N. Cust, LL.D.; .. Missionary Landscapes 10,000 are in training to convert Africa of the Dark Continent," Rev. James Johnston; "The New World of Central Africa," Mrs. H. G. to the religion of the False Prophet. Guiness ; "Garaganze," F. S. Arnot; " St9ry of . The pagans are mostly fetich-wor- Uganda," Sarah G. Stock; .. Forty Years shippers and sunk in deepest degradaamong the Zulus," Rev. Josiah Tyler, D.D.
t See also pp. 429 and 484 (present issue) and tion, though occasionally tribes more ., Story of Madagascar," Rev. J. W. Mears; .. Madagascar and France, " George A. ShlLw. English and Dutch, aud are largely confined to :): See also pp. 327 (May), and 422 and 438 (pres- South Africa. The remaining 400,000 have been rescued from paganism by the 'bearers of glad ent issue). tidings from Germany, Britain, and America.
S More than one half the Protestant Christians, Or about 700,000, are European colonists, chiefly Somewhat over 1oo,()()() art) comlIluniclluts, civilized are· found in the interior. France, England, Germany, Belgium, Woman is, as a rule, lightly esteemed Portugal, Italy, Turkey, and Spain, all and readily exchanged for beads or have large possessions or protectorates cattle. Cannibalism is by no means a in Africa; time will reveal whether or thing uncommon. Dr. S. L. Hinde, a not it is to the interest or detriment of member of the Congo Medical Service, their subjects. says of some parts he has visited: "At N'Gandu, the headquarters of Congo Not less than 60 missionary societies Lutete, we found that chief had gath. are uuited in the herculean task of conered together about 10,000 cannibal quering Afrios for Christ. Of these brigands, mostly of the Batatela race. 24 are British, 16 American, 10 Ger- Through the whole of the Batatela man, and 7 are Scandinavian, etc. country and from the Lurimbi north· About one third of the number have ward, for some four days' march, one entered recently, consequently their sees neither gray hairs, nor halt, nor harvest does not yet appear. But in blind. Even parents are eaten by their spite of the seemingly large number of children on the first sign of approach- societies employing about 1200 mising decrepitude. N'Gandu, I may tell sionaries at nearly 1000 stations, many you, Is approached by a very handsome parts of the continent are as yet entirely pavement of human skulls, the top unreached. The Soudan, stretching being the only part showing above across Africa just north of the equator, ground. I counted more than a thou- is one of the most needy and neglected sand skulls in the pavement of one gate dark spots on the Dark Continent. alone. Almost every tree forming the Two societies in England and two in boma, or fortification, was crowned America have lately becn organized to with a human skull." evangelize this country. The Soudan may be roughly divided into three parts Captain Maloney, lately returned -the Western, watered by the Niger; from the Niger, says: Eastern, watered by the Nile; and Cen- , "The Brass natives on their return tral Soudan, comprising five Mohamtook with them about 100 prisoners, medan States lying around Lake Tchad. bound down in their canoes. All of These five States have a population of these, it is believed, were tortured and about 60,000,000, without one ChriBtian killed, and in some cases eaten. A miB8ioitary, though some are preparing scene of a shocking kind was witnessed to enter the field. A pioneer party unat Brass, when the natives, headed by der the Central Soudan Mission (St. King Koka, who had led the attack, Martin's House, 1 Gresham Street, returned to their town. It is related on London) is entering the State of Sokoto the authority of French missionaries via Lagos and the Yoruba and Niffe that the religious festival of 'Ju Ju' country. At present for five months was held. ,Some of the participators in you may walk across this great counthis ghastly rite suspended around their try, and not meet one worker Cor Christ, bodies the limbs of the slain, and danced not a native Christian, nor one who has until exhaustion rendered them incapa- heard of the way of salvation. These ble of further exertion. " people are living and passing away in darkness. One could not describe the If we wait for evolution to lift these spiritual condition of the people more poor people up, we shall wait forever. accurately than in the language of the In a generation the Gospel has changed first chapter of the Epistle to the Rosavages quite as fierce into gentle. mans. The darkness, the sin, the supious Christians. Some Moffat or perstition they live in is in every way Mackay is wanted in these dark places. as dark as that of the heathen of St. Paul's day. The great difficulty in The natiGns of Europe have parti- reaching them is that they have, as I), tioned Africa between them; only a tew trilJes maintain their independence. rule, no sense of sin, becausc they by the Christians of England and think forgiveness is se> easily obtained America. Uganda is now a British by some ceremonial act. protectorate. The native king, Mwan- The Central Soudan Mission is now ga, wavers between Christianity and faithfully trying to reach these people; paganism. The power of sinful habits others luive worked there; Wilmot asserts itself again and again, and for a Brooke, Robinson, Ed ward White, and time he seemed to have abandoned the others have laid down their lives at strng/!;le as hopeless. When he learn- Lokoja and other places on the Niger, ed, however, that if he persisted in the one of the gates of the Soudan; they degrading sins to which he has for were hoping to get into it, but God many years been addicted, the mis- called them ere they succeeded. There sionary would discontinue his visits for are two American brethren seeking also instruction, because there was a danger to get into the country across the Niger. of such visits being regarded as a coun- The Central Soudan Mission has two tenancing at the king's sins, he was training homes, one at Tripoli and one deeply affected, and he invited one of at Gabes, w!th the object of enabling the Christian teachers to dwell in his men to get well acquainted with the house, to be near him and help him language, and to some extent with the and guard him from doing evil. This characteristics of the Mohammedan re- was in lIlay. At the end of July ligion, the obstacles they have to meet, 1IIwanga declared himself a Roman and the prejudices that exist against Catholic. A few days afterward, how· them, so that after eighteen months or ever. he visl.ted the missionary and told two years a man will be well equipped him he had decided not to join the to enter the country. Roman Catholics. The king's insta- Lake Tchad is a fresh-water lake bility necessarily affects somewhat the about 200 miles IOl'.g and 100 wide; attitude of his subjects toward Chris- here are found elephants. lions, hippo- tianity.
potami, crocodiles, deer. fowl, and all Connected with the Uganda Mission kinds of vegetable products. The five of the Church Missionary Society are kingdoms around the lake are ruled by the Sesse Islands in Lake Victoria.
Mohammedan Sultans. Polyg~my and On fourteen of these twenty·seven isl- slavery prevail everywhtre. The clio ands there are churches: one each 9n mate is dry and invigorating-there is ten, two on three, three on one, making little fever. Emin Pasha lived here for nineteen churches in all. The popula- twelve years. The temperature varies tion of these islands is estimated at from 6;j° in winter to 1000 in summer. about 75,000, of whom over 5000 are The great ad vantages of this field returned as .. readers." There are lire: the character of its people, who twenty·one native teachers working on are not savages. hut are fairly civilized these islands. The reports from vari- and courteous; the climate gave rise to ous out-districts of Uganda are most the proverb, "When a man goes up encouraging.
the Einue he lives forever;" the means G. L. Pilkington gives some interest, of transportation via the Niger steamers ing Uganda proverbs, illustrative of the are also advantageous. Against these mental characteristics of these people helps must be put Moslem fanaticism and showing their intellectual kinship an,1 law which decrees death to con- to English brethren. Among others verts from Islam. The Soudan pioneers are the following: claim our men, our mOney, aud our .. Bakusera" iakwazika. (He who prayers. says) .. 'rhey are swindliug you." doeRn't lend you (anything). Cf. Uganda has been a field of especial .. Words are easy as the wind;" interest ever since the thrilling story of "Faithful friends are hard to find ;" Mackay'S heroic labors there was read " Fine words butter no parsnips," Namakabil'11e affl, enjala. The man ism, and witchcraft is fully believed in who has two homeR dies 'of hunger. and is accompanied by much cruelty. The cook at each of the two homes ex- The people believe in an aIter life and pects the master to dine at the other, in a supreme God, the sender of raln, and so he ,. falls between two stools." but know nothing of Him as a God of love. The Baptist Missionary Society, Obutamera kirevu njuba 1/a kikome. the American Baptist Union, the Swe- Beardlessness Is a cloudy day. As on a dish Society, the Congo Balolo Mission, cloudy day you can't tell what time it is (in Africa), so you can't tell the age the American Presbyterians (South), of a man who has no beard. Many Bishop Taylor (American Methodist Africans seem unable to grow beards. Episcopal), and the International Mis- Ekifanan1/i ki'sa ensekere. Resem- sionary Alliance are aU working in blancc is the death of the louse. The this field. Roman Catholics ha ve six lonse you kill is probably not the one stations here. The field is great, but that bit you; for one louse is not dis- the laborers are few. tinguishable from another. This proverb is an indication of the abundance in South Africa covers an area greater Uganda of this pest, only surpassed by than that of British India, 1,250,000 ficas, and lately, alas, by jiggers! square miles. Gold and diamonds have " Naflra ku kinene," ensanafu ku gel'e thus far attracted more men than has a saja. "I'll die for a big thing" (as desire to give the degraded Hottentots says), the biting ant on the big toe. The ensanafu is the fierce, dark-brown and warlike Zulus the Gospel. Conant with huge mandibles, that travels siderable progress has been made, howin vast numbers, and is dreaded by man ever, since Bartholomew Diaz first and beast. "In for a penny, in for a doubled and named the Cape of Good pound." "You may as well be hung Hope, in 1486. The Dutch East India for a sheep as a lamb." Company was established on Table Bay in 1652 ; in 1688, 300 refugee Huguenot Bugubugu si muliro. Splutter, splut· families arrived, bringing Protestant ter isn't fire. Cf. the Irish saying, " Take it 'asy, and if ye can't take it Christianity. The estimated popula- 'asy, take it as 'asyas ye can ;" and, tion is now 4,250,000, mainly composed .. I:!till waters run deep." of aborigines (Hottentots and Bushmen) and Bantus (Kaffirs, Zulus, Matabele, The Oongo Jilree State (under Belgian Bechuanas, etc.), who are fetich-wor- rule) is another field that is of immense shippers; Dutch descendants of Hugue- nots and emigrants, Who are mainly importance and interest. A million but nominal Christians; East Indian and a half square miles is made accessi- and other emigrants, unchristian and difficult to reach, being mainly Mosble by the Congo and its tributaries. lems. Khama and other notable con- verts are examples of What the African .. White man," said a Congo native to native may become. Drink is as usual a missionary, "my heart is hungry for the greatest curse of the country, and something; r don't know what." He stands opposed to the church and school, which seek to lift the degraded savages. was converted, and afterward said: Pray for the colonial churches, that .. Yes, it was hungry for salvation." they may be endued with missionary " Africa's heart" is truly hungering, or zeal; for the schools and colleges, that they may be filled with student volunrather famishing. Its area is 1,508,000 teers; above all. for the outpouring of the Spirit on missionaries themselves. square miles (thirty times larger than and the deepening of the spiritual life of native converts. With these petitions England). The people number over granted, the Word of God will have free course and be glorified in spite of all 40,000,000,* of various tribes, but all obstacles and opposition.
of the great Bantu race, Tattooing is practised largely as a tribal mark; can- nibalism is practised to some extent; liquor is working sad havoc among these people, and the drinking habit is bound to lead them into every depth of abomination. Slave exportation is abol- ished, but domestic slavery is practisE'd to a fearful extent. Polygamy, of course, abounds. The religion,is fetich- * Stanley's estimate. The Freedmen. 30,000 pupils taught by colored teach- ers. They have 1,500,000 children in The total c'olored population in the the common schools, and 24,000 teach- United States, as given in 1890, was 7,- ers. More than 2,500,000 of the race 470.040. The four years' increase would can read and write. There are 21,000 about bring them up to about 8,000,000. schools for negroes in the South, with These negroes, if distributed exactly in 1,357,000 pupils. The number of col- numbers corresponding to the density leges for them is 25; law schools, 5 ; of the population of the States, would mediCftI schools, 5; normal schools, 52, more than cover Maine, New Hamp- and theological seminaries, 25. There shire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode are in our midst 7~0 colored physi- Island, Nebraska, North Dakota, South cians and 250 lawyers; 250 newspapers Dakota, Indian Territory, Oklahoma, and 3 ma~azines are owned. edited, and New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, published by negroes. These people Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Wyoming, also own half Ii million acres of land in Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Cali- the Southern States.
fornia. The proportion of colored peo- These are encouraging facts, and they ple in the South varies from one tenth cannot fail to deepen the interest of the to two thirds (South Carolina) of the friends of good government everywhere whole population. . in the educational work which is achiev- We arll accustomed to think of them ing such large results. With fair play as having doubled in number, and there- and justice on the part of the whites, fore doubled in power. But the 4,000,- nothiug will contribute so much to the 000 that were set free were poor ilIiter· solution of the negro problem along ate slaves; the 8,000,000 have all either right lines as the diffusion of intelligence been free twenty-nine years or are free and Christianity among the masses of, born. With this increase of numbers the blacks and the demonstration of has come also increase of knowledge, their capacity for the duties and re- increase in intelligence, apprehension of sponsibilities of citizenship.
surroundings, of wrongs, of rights, of The late Frederick Douglass's re- limitations, of pOssibilities; increase marks about his race give his view of also of material wealth to no inconsid- the negro problem: erable degree; increase also of moral " It is sometimes said that the comli· power and force twice as strong as they tion of the colored man to-day is worse were. The power is not only growing, than it was in the time of slavery. 'fo but is massed together. The very limita- me thi'! is an extravagance. We now tions of this power prevents for the pres- have the organic law of the land on our ent its scattering, and compels it to act side. We have thousands of teachers, in bulk. 80 great a mass of human and hundreds of thousands of pupils at· beings anywhere is a menace to the tending schools; we can now count our peace of the country, where they are friends by the million. In many of the not restrained by the fear of God and States we have the elective franchise; the controlling influences of the religion in some of them we have colored office· holders. It is no small advantage that of Jesus Christ.
Great possibilities for good and for evil we are citizens of this repub:ic by spe- lie in this large element of negro blood cial amendment of the Constitution.
in our midst. But progresii has already The very resistance that we now meet been made toward turning this stream on Southern railroads, steamiloats, and into the desired channels. Where- hotels is evidence of our progress. It as twenty-eight years ago not one in is not the negro in his degradation that 10,000 of the blacks in the South could is objected to, but the negro, educated, read. now there are 25,000 colored per- cultivated, and refined. The negro who sons who are either professOls or teach- fails to protect himself, who makes no ers in colleges and schools. Three col- provision for himself orbis family, and lege presidents were born slaves. At is content to live the life of a vagabond, the close of the Civil War the negroes meets no resistance. He is just where had not a single church among their he is desired by his enemies. Perhaps whole people. In the past twenty-five you say that this proves that education years they have built 19,753 churches, will do nothing for the negro; but the with a seating capacity of 5,818,459, at answer is that' the hair of the dog will a cost of $20,323,887. Their parish cure the bite' eventually. All people registers now show 2,316,785 communi· suddenly springing from a lowly condi- cants in their own churches, all of tion have to pass through a period of whom are of their own race. They probation. At first they are denounced snpport 7 colleges, 17 academies, and as 'upstarts;' but the 'upstarts' of 50 high schools, in which there are one generation are the elite?f the next. "
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
AN ApOLOGY.-The first article in the war as a trophy of their success.
the May issue, on Siam and the Laos Now the best steamers of the Japanese country, was from the pen of Rev. Government are put at the service of Chalmers Martin, of Princeton, N. J. the Red Cross Society. and as much By some unaccountable omission his care is taken of the Chinese sick and name failed to appear in connection wounded as of the Japanese. What with the article. He and our readers has caused the change but the power have our humble apology. of the Gospel of Christ I A new treaty with foreign powers is The March of Events. in process of negotiation, which if rati- fied, will bring most important results A!ter a long and hard struggle, all to China and Japan, and indeed to the the island forts in the harbor of Wei- world.
Hal·Wei surrendered to the Japanese.
Five of the largest of the remaining The Report of the Third Oonference warships of the Chinese northern naval of the officers and representatives of squadron were sunk by the Japanese the various foreign mission boards, fleet, by means of torpedoes. Of the etc., in the United States and Canada thirteen battleships forming the Chi· has reached us. It is a very attractive, nese Navy at the beginning of the war, interesting, and suggestive pamphlet, five were lost at the battIe of the Yalu of nearly 70 pages. This conference was and five at Wei-Hai-Wei. The Japa- held in New York City, in the Church ese, in spite of the intense cold and Mission House (Episcopal), Fourth Aveviolent storms that drove most of their nue, corner of Twenty-second Street, ships to shelter; stuck magnificently to February 14th, and was attended by their work. From Manchuria came over fifty representatives. who appeared the sad news of the death of the Japan- in behalf of twenty different denominaese General Noqzu, chief in command tions and societies. What an exhibithere, after the retirement, on account tion of mutual confidence, co-operation, of sickness. of Field Marshal Count amity, and charity was such a confer- Yamagata. ence! and what hope it encourages for According to the London Times cor- the future!
respondent in Shanghai, "Li Hung The subjects discussed indicate the Chang's son-in-law telegraphs that the range of discussion and the practical treaty of peace was signed In Shimo- character of the council: The Japan- China War, and its strategic relations noseki, April 16th, and the terms are: , to missions; industrial missions and "First. The independence of Korea. their development in foreign lands; "&cond. Japan's retention of the self-support in mission churches; the conquered places temporarily or per- proposed national church in India, and the proper attitude to be assumed towmanently. ard it : motive in foreign missions, and ! " Third. Japan's retention of the ter- the true point of emphasis.
ritory east of the Liao River. These are vital topics, and they were "Fourth. Permanent cession of For- discussed in a manner that became liv- ing issues. No note of inharmonious mosa. utterance or feeling marred the meet- "Fifth. Indemnity of $150,000,000. ing and the whole proceedings are "Sixth. An offensive and defensive wo;thy of a wide reading and study.
alliance betweeu China and Japan." Dr. Smith's discussion of the war be- Three centuries ago, when the Japan- tween Japan and China is especially pertinent just now. He caUed attenese had won a victory in Korea. they tion to the new conditions which en- sent home the ears of 3600 victims of tered into this modern Oriental conflict, and showed why Japan had so easily made peace with the enemy, and }'fr. Zwemer has returned to Muscat to re- won the supremacy. China clings to sume his work. the past, and is anchored to custom and tradition. Japan is aggressive and pro- The Oongo State, gressive and takes on every modern The proposal to the Belgian Cham- .equipment. China is humiliated but bers for the formal annexat~'on of the Oongo Free State accords with the drift not conquered; is too vast for con· of events for some years. Under the General Act of the Berlin Conrerence quest, but will be compelled by this of 1884-85, the territories of the State are the personal possession of the king series of defeats to abandon her con- of the Belgians, who was one of the servative and defensive policy. Dr. first to interest himself in geographical discovery and commercial development Smith affirms the need of missions in in Africa, having, during Mr. Stanley's progress up the Congo in 1876, founded both fields to be undiminished; he the International African Association.
prophesies China's forsaking of her exclusion and seclusion, and a great enlargement of missionar; opportunity in this last stronghold 0 Oriental suo perstition, and, as to Japan, the aboli- tion 'of existing restrictions upon for- eigners, and the opening of the whole empire to the Gospel.
Other matters embraced in this report, which space forbids us here and now to review, we may advert to in subseq uent issues.
The formation of the International News has just reached us from Per- C<>ngo Association, some three years sia, that the German missionaries from later, and the opening up the Congo Delitzsch's Institution Judaicum have valley by Stanley, suggested the foundbeen ordered to leave the country, on ing a great African State, free to the the ground that they contemplate work trade of all nations. and operating as a among Moslems. They arrived only a civilizing force in the Dark Continent. few months ago. It indicates an atti- The Berlin Conference of 1884 was held tude of the government toward such for the adjudication of all African work. The order was based on state- questions, and the Congo State was ments in their publications at home. formally recognized, and a few months later its sovereignty was vested in King The sad intelligence reaches us by Leopold. Since then the king haa cable that Dr.' Cochran, of Persia, is largely borne the cost of administration dead-a great loss to missions. out of his private fortune, having ex- War a.nd the Gospel in Arabia. pended not less than $8,000,000,; but the annual revenue being less by $200,- There appeared in the daily papers 000 than the expenses, he is no longer in the latter part of February, a Lon- able to meet the deficit. A proposal don telegram of the 25th, that the city is, therefore, to be made to the Belgian of Muscat, in Arabia, had been captured ParIhment to annex the territories, and. by Bedouin rebels, the Sultan having it is believed, it will be accepted. tied from the palace, but eventually reo gained part of the town. Muscat is the station occupied by the' Rev. P . •T. Russia attempts It gigantic rndertak- Zwemer, of the Arabian Mission of the ing to unite het·. European domi~ions Reformed Church. Letters previously with her Pacific Coast. The great received from him had foreshadowed Siberian railway is now approaching the outbreak of Sl1ch hostilities. Later completion, over oue fifth of the entire tidings from him have, therefore, been distance having been laid with rails.
anxiously awaited. A letter, recei"ved Large quantities or plant and material on April 4th, gives information of his are being sent forward both from Eu- personal safety, and still later intelli· rope and from the Pacifie port of Vladi- gence reaches us that the Sultan has vostock. The vessels which leave Odessa, during the spring and autumn, their mission. Their staff consists of are laden with railway materials, and carry engineers and other skilled work- Mr. Hodberg, a Swede, an Armenian men to aid in the construction of the great railroad. Some writers in the caUed Aveteriantz, two Swedish ladies, Russian press prophesy that the last rail will be laid before the summer of 1896. and two native assistants. This mis- They say: ""When the line is opened, the golden Orient will pour her treasures sion is likely to have an important bearinto the lap of Russia. Japan, China, and the isles beyond India will send ing on mission work in Western China. their ships freighted with spices and tea and rich merchandise into the Its headquarters will be Kashgar, a crowded havens of Siberia. The Thames and Mersey, Amsterdam and most important meeting-place of vari- Hamburg, will sink into third-rate importanee; even San Francisco will be ous nations, where in the bazars may sacrificed when Russia has obtained the practical monopoly of Eastern trade." be seen Turkish Sarts, Kirghiz, Mon- HAWAII HAS BEEN MAKING HISTORY gols, Chinese, "Thibetans, Jews, and RAPIDLY.-Ex-Queen LiIiuokalani was Hindus. The Chinese in authority are " arrested and guns and bombs found in her house. 'l'his news was swiftly fol- tolerant, and the Sarts or Turkish lowed by the announcement that she had formally resigned all claims to the townspeople kindly and well-intention- Hawaiian throne, and tbat her abdication had been followed by her taking ed, among whom European or Amerithe oath of allegiance to the repu blic. The reasons for this extraordinary ac- can missionaries must exercise large intion are very clear. The searching of her house not only revealed a large fluence. God bless the new pioneers! quantity of warlike material, but by the seizure of numerous documents it As to Korean affairs. the Christian was discovered that the ex.Queen was Intetligencer says, referriug to a prethe inspiring cause of the recent un- vious account of leaders called back to successful revolt, that she had ordered Korea: "Our Church has a special the arms, and had already made ap- interest in them through their conpointments of Cabinet officers. nection with representative pastors. Now the Rev. Dr. J. B. Thompson The Swedi8h Mission A8sociation has writes us that an unsuccessful attempt struck a field of work hitherto untouch- was made to kill Pak Yong Hio, on his ed. Beyond the Thian Shan llioun- return to Korea from Japan. He and tains, separating Russian from Chinese his associate, Soh Kwang Pom (for. territory, lies Chinese Turkistan, merly members of the Liberal Cabinet stretching from Kashgar to the table- of Korea), have both been formally parlands of Thibet. For the most part doned, and their rank restored by the this is" a desert, but has such oases as king, and they have again been made Kashgar, Yarkand, Khotan. The in- members of the Cabinet. Pak Yong habitants are mostly of Turkish origin, Ilio is Minister of Home Affairs, and Mussulmans, and speaking a Turkish Soh Kwang Pom, Minister of Justice. dialect. Here the Swedes have planted Both these men learned the principles of Christianity from Dr. Thompson, and Soh Kwang Porn was for years un- der the training of our Dr. Corwin. The opportunities for usefulness before these men can hardly be estimated. The present counsellor to the Korean Cabinet is a Japanese Christian. It is the Lord's (loings, and it is marvellous in OUf eyes."
'Ihe Thibetan Pioneer Mission.
Mr. Polhill Turner, at Gnatong, found Mr. Jensen very ill with typhoid- fever, from which two days later he died. Pon(so was also ill with the same fever; Miss .Taylor herself was weH, though tired with nursing.
Mr. Polhill-Turner will undertake the sole trainin~ and leadership of tbe men. while Miss Taylor continues alone with Pontso at Gnatong watching for any opening into Thibet that may occur. The band will henceforth be known ary without delay, provided the funds simply as .. The Thihetan Mission," and secured do not trench upun the ordinary consists of Mr. Polhill-Turner as leader, sources of the B.lUrd's income. Mr. and Mrs. Evan i1a~kenzie and two children, Messrs. William Soutter, J. " 3. The Board reserves to itself the Johannsen, T. Sorrensen, E. Amundsen, H. M. Stumbles, James Moyes, and right of making exceptions to the gen- James Neave, twelve in all. eral line of policy above indicated in cases where very special reasons may ,Mr. Polhill-Turner has made a good warrant a departure from it." impression; he finds the men have been making good use of their time in study This action affects 13 young men and of the language, and in taking oppor- 10 young women, 2 of whom are phytunities of speaking to meetings of sicians, and will necessitate leadng va- Thibetans when possible. He feels Kalimpong more suitable for present cant some posts where physicians and purposes than Darjeeling or Gnatong. missionaries are urgently needed. The They have a house placed at their disposal, where they can all live together, recording secretary states that. even with Mrs. Mackenzie as housekeeper. with this retrenchment, the work on There seems some likelihood of the the foreign field will be limited and door into Thibet opening in the course hampered more than at any time for of the year. many years. . Amid its troubles Madagascar is ask- The Presbyterian Board is $250,000 ing the British and Foreign Bible So- behind; the Baptists, $125,000; the Methodist Episcopal, $440,000; and ciety for more Bibles. Ten thousand the Congregationalists are also largely copies of the Gospel of St. Luke have in arrears.
been sent to the Northern Committee in What is involved in a foreign mission- .
Madagascar, and five thousand more to aTY society's being encumbered with a serious deficiency at the close of the the Southern Committee. The society year's accounts? "A debt will mean reduced appropriations, the shutting has just now under consideration a re- up of schools and chapels, the forcing queat for a reference Bible in Malagasy. of the missionaries to bear burdens which are alrer.dy breaking their hearts, and the leaving ot fields unoccupied which will cry to heaven against us."
,Retrenohment in Foreign Missions. The week beginning April 7th, 1895, was observed as a special season of The Presbyterian Board of Foreign prayer for foreign missions. to be ob- served in the closet, in the family, and Missions has felt constrained to take a in the usual public and social religious services of the Presbyterian churches backward step. On April 4th it was and missionary societies, and that it was affectionately urged upon the peodetermined : ple to mingle self-denial with prayers, and to present the fruits of this special " 1. In view of the serious financial self-denial as an offering to the Lord on embarrassment of the Board, because Sabbath, April 14th, 1895. of the heavy deficit with which the fiscal year opened and the entire inad- The Ohristian Workers' Oonvention equacy of receipts during the year, met at the Baptist Temple in Philadelami in view of the Board's recent action phia, Pa., on March 21st. There was a fixing the limit of the total appropria- large gathering of those engaged in vations for the fi~cal year beginning May rious sorts of Christian labor from all 1st, 1895, at $900.000 as against $1,1115,- parts of the country. The addresses 000 for the present year, involving an were uplifting, and the conferences on almost disastrous curtailment of the the topics introduced most profitable. work, Dr. 'f. M. Pierce welcomed the Con- vention to the" City of Homes and of " ReMlved, To notify all missionaries Churches." lIe stated that while under appointment that the Board does not see its way clear at present to send them to the field.
"2. Should special funds be secured by or in behalf of any missionary under appointment sufficient to meet the expenses of outfit, travel, and the pro rata salary to May 1st, 1896, the Board will gladly consent to send such a mission- Brooklyn has 382 churches, Chicago Wilbur Chapman, Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler. D.D., Ht. Rev. Arthur C. A. 500, and New York 534, Philadelphia ~Eall. Bishop of Vermont, Mr. Robert· E. Speer, Mr. Frank Anderson, of Oxhas 634. The arrangement and opera· ford University, Professor W. W.
tions of the various organizations con- White, President Patton, of Princeton, Professor James McCoDaughy, Mr. W. nected with the Temple Church were H. Sallmon, and Rev. H. P. Beach are explained by Rev. Dr. George A. Peltz, to make addresses or conduct classes. the associate pastor. Different phases From Saturday, July 20th, to Tues- of church work, the sufficiency of the day, July 30th, will be held the Young Gospel to meet the needs of the people, Women's College Conference, and from Saturday, August 3d, to Thursday, Authe pre-eminent need of personal ser- gust 15th, the General Conference of vice and kindre'd SUbjects were spokeJ;l Christian Workers. upon by Rev. Dr. W. II. Hubbard, Jllr. D. L. Moody will be present,and Rev. Dr. A. G. Lawson, and others. personally conduct many serVICes, preaching from time to time. On the evening of the day of meeting a Between the conferences in July, Prosermon was preached by Rev. Dr. T. fessor W. W. White, of the Bible In- De Witt Talmage. stitute of Chicago, will give Bible read- The Christian League of Philadel- ings or lectures. After the General Conference. Dr. R. A. Torrey, of Chi· phia, recently formed, announces its cago and Rev. H. W. Webb·Peploe, purposes as follows; of London, will conduct similar ser· 1. To organize and carry forward vices. with vigor and enlarged power, in the The Northfield Echoes, which last year city of Philadelphia, the great work committed in common to all Christians, reported these conferences, and was in co-operating therein with other soci- such demand that sufficient copies could eties wherever practicable. not be had, will be issued again, under 2. To confer and act in concert Witll the editorial care of Delavan L. Pierson, the civil authorities of the city, in all matters which may promote the moral as before. and physical welfare of ~he peop~e, especially in the suppressIOn of vice Rev. Dr. W. B. Boggs writes, in reand immorality, in public and in pri· vate. ply to certain strictures upon his for- mer communication, as follows; 3. To provide increased facilities, and secure Christian workers for carrying " I notice in the April MISSIONARY on the work of the League in those parts of the city where the need is the REVIEW OF THE WORLD, page 297, greatest and the laborers are few. Lord R–'s criticism of my article on 4. To provide proper homes, especially in the country, for children sur- the Outlook in India, in the January rounded in the city by the most depraving influences. REVIEW.
5. To devise ways and means where- " I have again carefully read what I by to assist in the preservation and ob- wrote in the article complained of, and servance of the Sabbath or the LOI'd's Day;. to discourage the liquor traffic I cannot see in it anything false or misand mitigate its evils; to prevent the publication of impure literature and leading. I wish Lord R– bad pointthe exhibition of demoralizing pic· tures ; and generally 10 promote sl~ch ed out definitely and particularly the measures as will make aud keep Phlla· statements which are considered false delphia a Christian city in name and in fact. and slanderous. A general contradic- At Northfield, Mass.. there is to be a tion is point1ess~ .
series of con ventions Ihis summer, of "Let us go over the statements In which a partial programme is pnblished. my article and see if they are not true.
From Satnrdav. June 29th. to Tue~ " 1. There i8 a contlict between the day, July 9th. will be held the World's Student Conference, where Hcv. J. a(lvocates of purity and righteousness and those of the opposite party. That cannot be successfully denied. "2. Mr. Dyer and a number of mis- sionaries wel'e imprisoned. That also is lIDdeniable, " 3. I think I have correctly stated the real cause of t('ir imprisonment.
Ost.ensibly it was for defamation. iu re- spect of the business of an opium con- tractor, but anyone conversant with alfair~ in India can see the real cause behind that, "4. As to the connivance of the po· . difficult to find such an a&,ent as the lice at the abominations in that horri· latter.
ble street in Bombay, and the brutal .. The great financial depression still treatment of the midnight missionaries tells upon our funds here, but the Lord there, and the protection of their assail- is,blessing the work, and the missionary ants, I have no reason to doubt the spirit is spreading.
veracity of the repeated reports which .. P.S.-Our Corean }1ission has SUB- have been published. Of course the tained another serious loss in the death enemi€s of the Bombay Guardian and of Mr. Sim Sye Bang, the teacher of of the Banner of Asia and of the mis· our ladies, and the first convert of our sionaries will say that the reports are mission. He spoke 'four languages, false ; but there is abundant reason to was clever and really earncstly Chris- believe them true. tian, and died suddenly. His consistent "5. That the government in India life has made a deep· impression on manufactures and sells opium, and dis· some of his kinsmen and fellow-coun- tills and sells intoxicating liquors, on an trymen. I am not quite sure whether enormous scale, is simply afact. Mr. Adamson's name is Alexander or " 6. In the evidence taken by the reo Andrew, but it is A. Adamson. Our cent Opium Commission in India, it is mission to the Queensland aborigines a well· known fact that the great. ma- at Mapoon, Batavia River, has also jority of non-ojJicial witnesses testified lost its admirable head, Rev. Mr. Ward, against opium, and the great majority Moravian missionary, who died after of ojJicial witnesses testified in favor of twelve days' illness (fever), and about it. It was, indeed, humiliating to see two years of splendid service."
most of those witnesses who are in the government employ giving the evidence which they knew the government According to a census of Great Brit· wished them to gi ve. ~ ain, lately published, the population of .. I think the above six points include her African colonies and dependencies all the statements in that section of my is 4,035,669, while that of her protecarticle which refers to these matters. .. Possibly I used one expression torates, or spheres of influence, is 25,- which is a little too sweepiug-viz., 504,374, making a total of 29,540.043. • Those whose living comes from the government are, almost to a man, apol- In Central Africa, 4,000,000 square ogists for and defenders of these abomi· miles of territory are at present unoc- nations.' But I have seen so much in cupied by civilized people. India, these twenty years, and hllve talked with so many officials of various Of the 202 medical missionaries in grades, and have so long marked the tone of the press which is supposed to the foreign missionary field, 101 have ret:lect official opinion, that the state- been trained in Edinburgh, and in the ment seems to me substantially correct. I have seen but few officials in India Medical Department of the famous uniwho would not try to defend one or versity. It is not the unskilled, or the other or all of the evils referred to. medical adventurers, who are going on .. So, in view of all the facts, I do not missions to the heathen world. Gifts think that I misstated the case in the article referred to." and acquirements which would com- mand fine positions and large pecuniary returns at home are freely consecrated Rev. Andrew Hardie writes from to the service of Christ in the healing Richmond, Victoria, February 15th: of the bodies and the guidance of the .. I notice on page 69, of January souls of men, and this as freely by number, re Corea, • the Australian young women as by young men.
Presbyterian Church with one man and The best explorers are missionaries, eleven 'l/JOmen.' I think I have seen the as Dr. Livingstone demonstrated in himself. Lately two Scotch missionmistake before, though I do not know aries, Dr. Laws and Dr. Elmslie, went out into the wilderness from their stahow it has arisen. We have only one tion on Lake Nyassa, and found II country almost depopulated by the man-a married missionary-Rev. Alexander Adamson, and three lady mis· sionaries as yet. With Mrs. Adamson there may be said to be four women.
We hope soon to send out another lady, and if possible a medical doctor (male) beside. It has, however, been very slave raiders, and so bereft of all sub· New Books. stance, that 'the lions attacked them at night, driven by hunger. They saw A new book of extraordinary impor- one caravan of slaves, bearing ivory tance to the theologian, physician, psy- tusks, and all bound together in one chologist, and all persons interested in group by ropes; man's inhumanity mythology, folklore, witchcraft, and everywhere visible; sin dominant, and .spiritualism has been issued, its lament- the misery which follows it. ed author being the late John L. Nev- ius, D.D., for forty years a missionary to the Chinese. "Demon Possession Efate. and Allied Themes" is an inductive study of phenomena of our own times.
From a private letter received from The introduction is by Rev. F. F. Ellin· Rev. J. W. McKenzie we learn that he wood, D.D. It was edited by Henry had been laid aside by a severe attack W. Rankin, Esq., of East Northfield, of bronchitis and influenza, but at the Mass., who also added some chapters, time of writing was able to resume work. The majority of the natives with extensive bibliographical notes had also been ill with influenza. He and various indexes.
was rejoicing in the prospect of seeing "This book," say the publishers, his children back from the colonies for "is based upon no speculative premises, some weeks at Christmas. The mis· but upon a large collection of thorsionaries had shown their esteem for the late Mrs. McKenzie by erecting a oughly sifted and authenticated facts, beautiful marble monument to her showing tha. d~mon possession is a memory. As to his work he says: common experience of our own day; " The good work is making fair prog- that the modern instances can be clearly ress at our station. It was a happy day distinguished from cases of insanity, for her when I admitted some natives epilepsy, and other forms of disease; from Mele to tbe church. Several that they present twellty.four points of more are attending the candidates' class." As to the other missiouaries, he. exact correspondence with the New mentions that Mr. Watt was not feeling Testament cases; that the demoniac very strong, that he had just returned and the spiritual medium, so·called.
from a visit to his nephew, Mr. Leg. differ only as voluntary and involun· gett, missionary on Malekula. While he was there Mr. Leggett formed a tary victims of possession. " church and four members sat down at the Lord's table for the first time. This It is issued b! Fleming H. Revell Company, of ChICago, New York, and Toronto, at $1.50 a copy. We have been greatly interested in its perusal.
island is, except Santo, the largest Lorenz & Co., music publishers of in the New Hebrides. Mr. Gray, Dayton, 0., send to the REVIEW editor who has been laboring for twel ve years in the field. is about leaving for a copy of "Missionary Songs" and the sake of his family. In regard to " Missionary Treasury." No doubt our the volcanic eruption on Ambrim, he readers will be glad to know of these pUblications. "Missionary Songs," so writes: " The missionaries on Epi and Malekula were somewhat alarmed about a fortnight ago by a succession far as we know. is the only collection of violent earthquakes, and now it of the kind that has ever been issued, turns out that the volcano on Ambrim has burst out in four places, and that and the price is but 20 cents per copy, several natives have lost their lives by or $2 per dozen. The" Missionary it. In one place there is said to be a Treasury" is 15 cents per copy, or $1.50 stream of lava 12 miles long. This is per dozen, and is meant to aid those said to be in the vicinity of Dr. Lamb's station, and will be very discouraging who are preparing for missionary con· to him. When on the island, his premo certs, etc. All such literature we weI· ises were laid waste on two occasions. come as helpful to the great cause of first by hurricane and then by fire. At missions, and from such examination present he is away in Scotland. This as we have been able to give we judge is the second time that that volcano has broken out during the last five or six these cheap books :well adapted to their years. " purpose.
EDITORIAL
The Congregational Year Book for cial Programme of the Evangelical 1893 has been subjected to interesting Church" and" What is Christian Soanalysis, by W. H. Rice, of Chicago, cialism?" Some of his utterances have Ill., showing what was given and who been considered even by the Reichstag. were the givers. The followin&, is one of his utterances: "I am convlllced that if Jesus w;ere A summary of the contributions of among us now He would deal less with the Congregational churches of the the blind than with the unemployed, United States to foreign missions in for the misery of the workless is greater than the misery of the blind_" This 1893 is presented with the following re- German pastor feels that the Church suIts: Total number of churches, 5213 ; has not in the past discharged its full total membership, 561,631 ; number of obligation to the poorer classes, but churches contributing to foreign mis- that it is waking up to its responsibili- ties and taking hold of its duty in a sions, 2783; active membership, 406,- genuine and commendable way. He 518; total contributions, $410,070. urges ministers to make a profound study of industrial questions. He says Of the amount ($410,070) contributed that dislrust of progress is want of faith bl the Congregational churches of the in God. He is not detftructive, but United States in 1893 for foreign mis· seeks the solution of the terribly presssions, nine States gave a total of $338,- ing social problems by bringing to bear upon men in a vital way the great doc- 861, or 82t per cent of the whole contri· trines of the Christian revelation. He bution, distributed as follows: says: "We must be in Christ before we can work with Christ… Mem- Per We gladly print a brief communica- bers Gave cent. tion, revealing the means whereby was Connecticut …. with 50.459 .. $65,333.00 or 15!u forged the living link between the Illinois……. ….. 20,692.. 34,271.00" 8% Iowa ………… " 21,720.. 11,285.00 ,. 2~ Montclair Methodist Episcopal Church Maine …. , " … " 13,658.. 11,9~1.00" 29 and the world field: 10 Massachusetts .. " 102,644.• 139,208.00" 34 "The missionary revival had its in- New Hampshire." 14,097.. 10,926.00" 2% ception in the conviction of the pastor, Rev. J. A. Owen, inwrought by the New york…….. 31,437.. 37,862.00" 9l Spirit, that the Christ-life of the Church, as well as of the individual be- Ohio………… " 25,488.. 12,852.00" 3 liever, is 10 be found in the willing Vermont. .. • …." 15,083. • 15,113.00" 3!1i death of the self-life. The relation of the believer to the Son of Man, in re- The active membership of these spect of loyalty, submission, joyful serchurches was 304,827, making an aver- vice, and patient waiting for the' bless- ed hope' of His appearing. was preachage for each member of $1.11. These ed for two years before it bore this fruit. nine States constituted 75 per cent of the contribnting membership. The re- " To the church-members the story reads like a new chapter of the Acts, maining membership, amounting to an inevitable outcome of the' preach- ing of the kingdom of God, and the 102,231 in number, contributed $71,209, teaching of those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confior 17-1 per cent of the whole, an average dence,' for the factors which combined of 71 cents per member. to do His good pleasure were chosen. empowered, sustained, and made fruit- The total contributions to all causes, ful by the same risen Jesus. This exclusive of legacies ($947,311). amount- church had been accustomed to the. methods which prevail with other ed in 1893 to the large sum of $9,408,- churches, and had similar relations to the boards and the apportionments, 017. Of this and those relations were considered sat- isfactory and praiseworthy. The an- Avera~e nual mIssionary sermon was endured with good grace, and brought in about per active $1000 per annum. lllcmber.
Home expenses re- ceived…………. $7,065,338.00. . …. $17.23 Home benevolences received ……….. 1,992,609.00……. 4.90 Forei~ missions re· celved………. '" 410,070.00…… . 1.00 These figures, if not mathematically correct, are very nearly exact. Cer- tainly, in the Congregational denomi· nation there is little opportunity for fault-finding because so much money is sent abroad.
Friedrich Naumann, pastor at Frankfort-on-the-Main, has during the last three years come into much promi- nence and power. lIis two books have awakened much thought-" The So- 464 EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT. [JuDe " But with the inspiration of a wider "Just at this time the Missionary horizon, a clearer view of God's pur- Committee of the Montclair Church poses in and through believers, they decided to emphasize the appeal of had begun to feel that. instead of an their miRsionary circular, and the pas- annual tide of sentiment, missions were tor preached upon the subject, Feb- intended to be a necessity of church ruary 19th, 1893. The Drew Quartette life; not a mere addendum, but a test from the Seminary were present, heard of loyalty to the risen Lord; and that the explanation and vindication of the the assurance, • Lo, I am with you al- proposed new departure, and one of way,' was coupled with the only com- them reported the matter to Mr. Schill- mand He ever gave touching active ing, knowing his anxiety to enter the duty, • Go ye into all the world.' fQreign field. The outcome was an .. The first crystal of the new method agreement that Mr. Schilling should be formed around a suggestion of the pas- at the missionary service on the follow- tor, that the Committee on l1issions ing Sunday as the church's candidate, propose to the church the' living link and adopted as their missionary in case idea ___ and after careful consideration the church responded financially to the the committee acted upon the sugges- appeal of t)le circular. This arrangetion, and at their request the pastor ment was carried out. Rev. J. H. sent to every member of the church a Pyke, of North China, at home on leave circular letter, setting forth the ' great of absence, preached and Mr. Schilling command' in its relation to the Great told the simple story of his Divine call.
Commander; the abundant capability The offerings of the people aggregated of the millions of Christians to fulfil $2300, more than $1200 over the mis- the commission within the next twenty sionary offering of any previous year I years; the unprecedentedly great op- And this was the gift of tlUJ wlwle portunity of the present age, and he church, not of a few, the two largest then outlined the plan substantially as offerings being $2(;0 each. The mem- follows: bership at this time numbered 340.
" lie counselled the church to adopt " But the increased offering was the as special representatives in the world smallest result of that day's new de- field two missionaries already in the parture. More vital than that was the work, one in the home and the other in new conception of the great commission the foreign field, becoming responsible which took hold of the people. Giving for their financial support as part of money to missions became only one the church's working force; to corre- form of • going into all the world.'
spond regularly with them, and thus .. Mr. Schilling married Miss Eliza- know the work and learn at first hand beth Bull, of New York City, and a its opportunities and needs while mak- short sojourn in Montclair enabled the ing mention in prayers of these living church to become persollBlly acquainted representatives. with their representatives, and on July "The plan being approved by the 1st, 1893, they took their departure for Missionary Committee, the pastor for- Rangoon, Burmah.
mally presented it to the church for "Letters have been passing to and adoption or rcjection. The Lord's fro ever since. Photographs of their hand now became plainly manifest. surroundings, their associates, and their Four years before a young German, a converts have come, bringing even commercial agent in Bombay, India, closer than words could bring the liv- had been converted under the preach- ing realities in the experience of those ing of Rev. J. E. Robinson of that sta- who ' go into all the world,' and im- tion. His house, manufacturers of pressing more deeply the blessedness of specialties in Bohemian glass, seIi't him a vital relation to the evangelization of a consignment of glass idols which he the world.
refused to sell, and a prompt dismissal "Nobody was surprised when the followed. At the suggestion of Bishop total missionary offering of the second Thoburn, Mr. Gerhardt Schilling turned year of the' living.link ' method was toward the mission field. He worked found to aggregate the sum of $4363, his own passage to New York, there to an increase of about $2000 over the fit himself for the service by a course offering of the year before.
of theological training. ' Four years at " This stor! of a missionary revival Drew Seminary brought around the is made public in hope that the results time for beginning his life work, when accomplished by this new method in it was found that the Missionary Board one church may lead to the adoption was without means to send an addition- of similar methods in all other chnrches.
al missionary into the field. It looked that the wealth of spiritual blessing as if Mr. Schilling must walt a whole which followed may be speedily claim- year before he could return to, India. ed by other believing brotherhoods."
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY BEV. D. L. LEONAllD.
Extraots and Transla.tions from Foreign of intruding. However, a Boer named . Periodioals. Greiling lately urged the Berlin mis- sionary During to baptize two of his BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, children, in a protracted absence of the MASS. Reformed pastors, which finally Mr. During consented to. Not long after, The March number of THE MISSION- however, Greiling's neighbors" who had stood sponsors for his children, ARY REVIEW contained in this depart- came to Mr. During, insisting that he should strike their names out of his ment some severe criticisms upon Herr baptismal register, 'that they might not be disgraced by standing in the Marensky, of Berlin, one of our highly same book with a lot of negroes. ' Greiling complains that since the bap· esteemed editorial correspondents, from tism his neighbors call him' The Caf- fre, , and will not shake hands with him. the pen of Rev. C. C. Starbuck, and And yet these people call themselves Christians, and pride themselves on based upon statements found in Mis- their doctrinal soundness. Evidently Matt. 25: 31–46 is not found in their sionsblatt, the missionary periodical of Bibles. What multitudes of Christians there are of us who have occasion to the Moravian Church, relating to his dread the Saviour's simple rule of final juagment I We can stand almost any alleged views of missionary policy. test better than that." -From Berliner Missions- Berichte. Mr. S. properly waxed indignant that – This society has suffered a great a word should be said in favor of the los8 in the death of its venerable and able director, Dr. W ANGEMANN. conception held by divers European -A Miss Rosa Dietrich, of Erfurt civilians in higli station concerning (famous in Luther's life), dying in June, 1894, has left the Berlin Society missions, to the effect that they may be a legacy of 300 marks, the interest of whicll: is to continue the payment of her employed to almost any extent for the yeart;j contribution.
furtherance of schemes of state. But such perversion and profanation Herr M. also holds iJl abomination, as he vigor- ously protests in a communication re- cently sent to this office. Nor would he reproduce Germany in auy foreign territory. And, further, while his con· viction is that the German churches are under obligations peculiarly solemn and urgent to evangelize the heathen found under the rule of the empire, and pos- sess peculiar advantages for the per- formance of this task; if they are un- able or neglectful, he would welcome missionaries of any country or denomi- nation. D. L. L.
AFRICA. -A young missionary of the Berlin Society had, after the country fashion, -" The Dutch Boers of South Africa slaughtered an ox and invited a great begin to show some faint signs of a thiong of Caffres to his wedding-feast. change of mind for the better toward " After it the Christians march home the colored population, but they are singing, heartily thanking us for the still very deeply involved in unchris- delightful feast, which we have made tian prejudices. It is known that they ready for them. I also rejoice. My belonged to the Reformed Church, into feast-ox also delivers his sermon; he 'whose exclusive rights of pastoral care diseourses of the untroubled joy of the our Lutheran Mission is very careful Christians. Heathen feasts mostly end in wailing and woe. The Christian en- nor yet the pastor, nor even the sum joys himself before, during, and after of acquired theological knowledge, use- the feast-that is, if it is really cele- ful as this is; it is the spiritual energy brated in the Lord. The heathen also and the personal consecration to God, openly declare so many men they had then the call of the Church, which never before seen eating together. And alone make the ministers of Jesus what astonished them most, all, they Christ."
said, had been so joyous and like mind- Professor Kruger, lamenting the ed. One heathen does not trust ao- death of Bishop Charles A. Smythies, other, not even him who has bidden says: "His episcopate was marked by him to the feast. Therefore when they an apostolic zeal whose ardor, pru- slaughter, the flesh Is divided and dence, and perseverance were never re- shared out, and everyone cooks and mitted." A Catholic missionary says eats at home. Th()re with us now all of him: "An angelic character I"
the flesh was cooked at once and con· -King Lewanika, of the Barotsis, sumed in brotherly fellowship. One with whom the heroic Coillard is labortrusts the other. Even the heathen ing, shows as yet no sign of spiritual forget with Mynheer their fear of the awakening, but has become at last atfood of strangers, and eat and trust tached to the missionary, and, in a cer- Mynheer and his Christians. Whoever tain sense, to ,his message. He never, has eyes to see, may see that God's if well, fails at a Sunday service, and Word is something that has a working has lately given forth a formal ordiof its own; whoever has ears to hear, nance, de par le roi, the terms of which, may hear what a cooked ox has to to our uninstructed ears, appear to depreach." nounce capital punishment against any _" In 1898 a Hamburg firm had the parents who shall neglect to send their audacity to export, in chains, hundreds children to the mission school. We of slaves from Dahomey to the Congo, presume the sense of the edict is nO.t under the name 1)f 'free laborers.' "- quite so sanguinary as the sound. At Allgemeine Mission8-Zeitschrijt. the recent dedication of the new church -which in Barotsi eyes is a miracle of -The Germans seem now ambitious architecture-the king made a little to equal the bygone wickedness of na- speech, in which he said: "Where are tions that led in commerce before them. the white Illen that before this have ever taken the pains to construct build· -Professor Kruger, in the Journal ings like this, not for their own exclude8 Missions, comments approvingly on sive use, but for us? Do you not see, the synodical action of the Universities' then, that there is something in the Mission, in determining that the native breasts of these men, the missionaries? converts should understand it to be What do they make by fatiguing themtheir duty to support the native c1ergy, selves so for us? Tell me! And you, and that to this end the latter should Barotsis, who despise their instructions be decisively discouraged from affect- and refuse to send your children to ing the more complicated and costly their scho~l, are you then so wise and European ways of living. Profes;or intelligent? Perish our customs and Kruger remarks: "There seem to be our superstitions! They hold us envery few who foresee the difficulties chained in darkness and conduct us to and future complications which we cre- ruin. I see it, I !" ate, and which are sure to paralyze the Let us pray that Lewanika, now a life of the native churches, when we friend of the missionaries, may soon be undertake to cut out the native pastors .a friend of their Master. on the pattern of the European clergy.
It is not the frock. that makes the monk, -The brethren of the Rhenish Mis-
EXTRACTS .AND TR.ANSLA'l'IONS
sionary Society in Namaland (South- seems to have gone by. Let us pray western Africa) have at last the great for theae brethren, who have been 80 comfort of reporting that the rebel long prophesying in the valley of dry chief, Hendrik Witbooi (we believe a bones, and at last see bone coming to half-breed) has definitely made his bone, and the reanimated frames be- peace with the German Government, ginning to stand up on their feet, the which has acknowledged the surrender first-fruits, we hope, of an exceeding in fiattering terms, expressing the con- great army.
fidence in view of his well-known stead- fastness of character, that as he has al- – " The use of alcoholic drinks among ways been an honorable foe, so he will the converts of the American Baptist henceforth be an honorable friend. and Missionary Union at its station of Ban· a helper for the good of the people. za-Manteke, has been made the subject It is reported that the government, of severe prohibitive measures, applywhich has already restored to him his ing alike to imported brandy and the ancestral seat, and confirmed him in the palm wine manufactured in the country chieftainship of his own tribe, has also itself. Total abstinence is found to assigned him a salary sufficient to se- offer the only efficacious barrier against cure him against the straitnesses which excess, and its compulsory observance first tempted him from being a church has materially increased the infiuence elder, to become a plunderer of the of the Church. The mission stations, neighboring tribes, He seems to be a 10 in number, extend chain-wise along man of remarkable intelligence and en· the Congo's course, from Matadi, situergy of character, and to have retained, ated at the mouth of tM river, to Bo- amid all his aberrations, deep traces of lengi, lying beyond Equatortown. The Christian instincts. Besides his dis- converts at the Lukunga station give tresses, he seems to have been led astray cheering evidence of their sincerity in' by the hope of securing a sovereignty the readiness with which they contribover the whole Nama people. Now ute toward the pecuniary expen~es of that he is restored to the ways of peace, the work. A seminary here supplies a we join with the Rhenish brethren in home to many a native Congo pastor in hoping and praying that he may be re- embryo, while printing, carpentering.
stored to the ways of God. and the cultivation of the sugar cane have been introduced.
-After the ycars of weariness and "With such facts before us one is discouragement, neglect and hardness somewhat struck by the renewed ad- of heart, which have weighed down mission of a Roman Catholic missionary the hearts of M. Coillard and his breth- on the French Congo, that the conver- ren of the French Zambesi Mission. the sion of adult and aged natives is a harvest seems to have burst out into practical impossibility. Children alone sudden fulness. Sixty conversions at repay the toiler. "-Church Mi88ionary , Sefula, 37 at Kazungula, a number lnteUigencer .
also at Tealuyi and at Shesheke, and everywhere the awakening advancing. INDIA.
Litia. the king's son, who was for awhile a zealous Christian, but then -" A Brahmin gentleman, Mr. V.
relapsed into heathen ways (never into Nayan Aiyar, has compiled a report on formal heathenism), shows great inter- the recent census of Travancore, the est in the work, and has taken the first value of which the Maharajah of Tra- step toward return by dismissing his vancore has recognized by presenting second wife. Many others will doubt- him with an honorarium of Rs. 2000.
the. less fall away, at least for a time, but The following remarkable testimony to the season of deadness and indifference the work of missionaries among de-
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTBLLIGll)NCE
pressed classes is quoted from this reo English Noteso port: 'By the unceasing efforts and self-denying earnestness of the learned BY JAMES DOUGLAS.
body of the Christian missionaries in Ohurch Mi88ionary Society.-A prom. the country, the large community of inent feature this month is the general native Christians are rapidly advancing report of the Persia and Baghdad Mis- in their moral, intellectual, and mate- sion for the year 1894, together with rial condition. . :. Those who have extracts from the pri vate letters of directly come under their influence, Bishop Stuart, of Persia. The general such as n3tive Christians, have nearly account is strongly confirmatory of doubled the number of their literates what the Master has said concerning since 1875. But for them these humble the mode of the kingdom of God's ad- orders of Hindu society will forever re- vance. No startling note is sounded- main unraised. ·Their material condi- the Divine kingdom has not come tion, I dare say, will have improved " with observation"-but signs of prog- with the increased wages, improved ress are widespread wHhout. bulking labor market, better laws, and more large in the public eye. From the generous treatment from an enlightened biShOp's letters in particular many facts government like ours: but to the Chris- can be gleaned which, as seen in their tian missionaries belongs the credit of setting, have quite an idyllic character, having gone to their humble dwellings, and show the simplicity and fervor of and awakened them to a sense of a bet- Gospel principle in a pastoral light. ter earthly existence. This action of Man y of the inquirers are in reality dis- the missionar'ies was not a mere im- ciples who keep up Bible·reading and provement upon ancient history, a kind prayer among themselves; and to of polishing and refining of an existing whom, as the bishop observes, Christ's model, but an entirely original idea, teaching as to the world's hate of His concelved and carried out with com- people comes feelingly home. Those . mendable zeal, and oftentimes in the who at heart or avowedly are the teeth of opposition and persecutiou. I friends of Jesus and His missionaries, do not refer to the emancip[ltion of the are, for the most part, from the two slave, or the amelioration of the labor- heterodox sects, the Bilbis and Behais. er's condition, for those always existed No true-hearted Christian can read this more or Iffis in our past humane gov- report without gratitude to God for the ernments. But the heroism of raising gracious results which have accrued the low from the slough of degradation from the sowing of the Gospel seed in and debasement was an element of civ- these lands. The best part of service, ilization unknown to ancient India. statistically speaking, is in this case un- The Brahmin community 01 Southern derground; but undoubtedly the Lord India are not doing to the lowcr classes Jesus is calling ont a people for Himwhat the casteless Britisher is doing to self in Persia and Baghdad, and that them. The credit of this philanthropy manifestly to an extent which far exof going to the houses of the low, the ceeds the baptismal roll. distressed, and the dirty, and putting the shoulder to the wheel of depraved The Mission in Mombasa.–The Rev.
humanity, belongs to the Englishman. W. E. Taylor's annual letter concern- I do not think the Brahmins, or even ing"the progress of the work in the isl- the high-caste non-Brahmins can claim and of Mombasa, East Africa, speaks this credit. It is a glory resorved to of growth of aggressive effort and of this century of human progress, the the wane of the scoffing element by epoch of the bappy commingling of the which it was largely met. While there civilization of the West with that of the is more now of the private" tolerance"
East.' "-Ohurch Mi88ionary Gleaner. of the Word, but few as yet, through
ENGLISH NOTES
grace, have given it any real" accept· and while thousands of heathens have ance. " An interesting account is gi ven been won, the great attractive force has of the Lanue people, whom l-Ir. Taylor been the organized churches themselves.
visited, and who, while of a more po- To-day Christianity is the great out- lite and intellectual cast than are the standing force in the island, and no- people of Mombasa, are more deeply where is the fact more patent than in degraded in sins. Among them Mr. and around the capital, Antananarivo.
Taylor inaugurated market services, " Anyone standing," says Mr. W. E.
which have since been continued by Cousins, "on the higher parts of the the Germans conducting the German .city may count well-built village chap- mission there, but who, prior to Mr. els by the dozen. Indeed, almost every Taylor's visit, had conducted opera- village around Antananarivo has its tions on the "private reception" sys- Protestant place of worship." Then, tem at their own houses. These breth- schools of all kinds ha ve come to the ren expressed themselves as consider- front -medical, normal, colleges, etc.- ably cheered by the visit thus paid to and are important factors in the moral them, and especially at the new way of and spiritual elevation of the people.
"reaching the masses" in which they In view of the baleful shadow that now had received their first object·lesson. lies athwart this island, let all who can pray remember Madagascar.
London Missionary Society.-A spe· Presbyterian Ohu1'ch of England.- cial number oC The Ohronicle was is- The Swatow missionaries are rejoicing sued in April, devoted mainly to Mada- in a very considerable increase during gascar. A melancholy interest at- 1894 in the membership of the churches taches to this great island in view of under their care. The gain, as shown the French expedition which bodes in 120 adult baptisms, is the largest ingravest disaster alike to the indepen- crease of any year in the mission's hisdence of the Hovas and the future of tory. A further encouraging fact is Protestant missions. In the latter, the that of 25 lads in attendance at the London Missionary Society has a large grammar school of the mission, nearly stake. It is not too much to say that 20 are applicants for baptism. "the moral and spiritual progress of an intensely interesting people, the pros· Formosa.-The Formosan member- perity of hnndreds of native churches, ship stands at fully 1400, whose con- the religious education of many thou- tributions for all Christian objects sands of Malagasy children, the rever- amounted during the year to $2140. A ent observance of the Lord's day, the cheering growth of interest in the truth freedom enjoyed under the Hova Gov- is reported in the northern part of the ernment by Protestant as well as Catho- Formosan field. In the city of Chiang- lic missionaries, and a very extensive hoa a genuine spiritual work is going and varied Christian work, are all im· on under the guidance of an earnest perilled by this crisis in the island's young preacher, Lan Bo-khun. Here history." Hitherto Madagascar has Mr. Campbell recently examined no been one of the most fruitful fields of fewer than 28 catechumens, of whom foreign missionary labor, and one can- he was able to receive 14 into the mem- not contemplate, save with deepest sor- bership of the church. In this district row and indignation, the almost certain there are now 10 c~ngregations, with overthrow of a liberty-loving race and an aggregate membership of 345. A the disruption of existing Christian or- book that promises to be of great ser- ganization and work. vice has been prepared by Mr. Ede, Since 1862 the work of the London Presbyterian missionary teacher in Missionary Society has been essentially Formosa. It is a "three-character the care and guidance of converts j classic," or Christian commentary on
GENERAL :MISSIONARY INTEJ,LIGENCE
the tirst reading book generally put -Bishop Goodsell writes: "I am into the hands of young Chinese read· among those who expect to win this ers, combining the Chinese text with world for Christ. I have no sympathy sound and meaning of each character, with those who look merely to the herand also a translation of each· clause alding of Christ everywhere, and then into the Formosan vernacular, followed expect His second coming to set up His by a commentary which is especially kingdom by an act of power in the full in the historical parts. The work new heavens and the new earth. This is unique, and in addition to its service is not the parousia I look Jor. I bein schools it will be found a useful lieve that the winning of hearts to Him manual for any missionary beginning in a life of love and sacrifice, the penethe study of the Chinese character. tration of international and commercial relations by His Spirit, the assimilation Wesleyan Missionary Society.-An ac- of all natural forces to the sustentation count is to hand of the Mysore District and development of His kIngdom, will Synod, which was held early in Jan- bring His millennial reign. Even the uary and continued for nearly twelve dark forces of greed and war are undays. For the tirst time in the history consciously driving his chariot wheels." of this mission. Seringapatam, with a population of over 12.000, is to tind a -" The first thing the Protestant place in the list of stations. Judged missionary does among the heathen is by the inadequate test of numbers, the to establish a home," says Rev.. E. A. report for the year leaves, as is con- Lawrence in his" Modern Missions in fessed, much to be desired. There has the East." "He approaches them not been a net gain of 58, which brings up as a priest, not simply as a man, but as the membership of the district to 1477. These form the inner circle of the the head of a family, presenting Chrischurch, but what may be regarded as tianity quite as much in its social as in the wider circle of professed Christian i1 s individual characteristics. The adhesion numbers 4072. Christian home is to be the transform- ing element in the new community. Badulla, Oeylon.-An encouraging Into the midst of pagan masses. where report of work done in this circuit is society is coagulated rather than reorsupplied by the Rev. E. A. Prince. ganized, where homes are degraded by During 1894 there is about a 20 per parental tyranny, marital multiplicity cent increase in membership. The re- and female bondage, he brings the sults of past efforts are seen in what is leaven of a redeemed family which is believed to be the genuine conversion to be the nucleus of a redeemed society. of some of the native village Singhalese. Fruit has been found, too, in connec- -Dr. Griffith John has declined the tion with the English-speaking popula- invitation of the London Missionary tion. On the other hand, Buddhist op- Society to come home this year, alposition has never been so strong as it though it is the society's centenary; is at present. "Our work," says Mr. he has .thus also declined, for a second Prince, "is delayed at present, but we time, the honor of being made chairare certain, of ultimate triumph." man of the Congregational Union of England and Wales. He feels that his THE KINGDOM. duties in China have the tirst claim. This example of steadfastness will be a -" Let this mind be in you, which gospel in itself to the Chinese, and a was also in Christ Jesus." If all Cllris- stimulating force among missionaries. tians had in them the mind of Christ they would cease to think of missionary -Here, too, is a case of heroism. work as an abnormal service. Rev. J. E. Abbot.t, when written to by the American Board about the need of retrenchment by the closing of schools and the dismission of teachers and bring upon Japan any such tidal-wave preachers, replied: "I do not propose of nominal Christianity.
to trouble the treasurer to draw more -" Forget that he is an Indian and than I am allowed, or to complain or remember that he is a man." This is ask you or others for exceptional help. the theory on which Captain Pratt, I accept the situation cheerfully antI, Superintendent of the Carlisle Induswith trust in God, shall go on as if trial School, deals with the 750 Indian there was no such thing as a word of youths under his care. And the sugreduction. Every teacher and preach- gestion is just as pertinent if we insert er will go on with their work as bereto- instead African, Eskimo, Chinese, Mafore, until a louder voice than I now lay, etc. hear tells me that the Lord wants less effort put forth to bring men to the -On the face of the whole earth, knowledge of His power to save." when Christ and Paul were here, there was not one single humane institution -According to the Intelligence?', there devoted to the purposes of our modern has been growth in good sense and hospitals. Such institutions are dis- Christian charity within a generation or tinctively the outgrowth of the lesson two, and the late Rev. J. Y. N. Tal- of the good Samaritan. There is truth mage, missionary in Amoy, was in au- and beauty in these words of a patient vance of his time, for it says: "To in a Chicago hospital: • I never again him more than to any other it is due, expect to experience the feeling of conthat the Reformed [Dutch] Church, tent with which I fell asleep the first which at first and for years refused to night there, whispering to myself: yield to the representations and pleas of • This is my Father's house, and I can its missionaries, now stands prominent rest now.' "-Hm'ald and Presbyter. if not foremost among the advocates and asserters of that true, scriptural, -Though not always infallible in the divinely inspired, and divinely bleilsed realm of fact, probably Joseph Cook is policy of missions which seeks, by not far out of the way when he affirms union of effort and co-operation on the that nine tenths of the contributions to part of missions of like faith and order, missions come from one tenth of the at once to diminish the number of members of our churches.
competing denominations on mission -A rector inquires: "Can I have ground, sink out of sight the non-essen- our Lenten offerings go to any partials (often distinctions without a differ- ticular work I may designate 1" To ence) which separate them in Europe this we replied: The voluntary prinand America, and hasten the establish- ciple in missions is sacred, and any ment of churches native to the soil, one may designate where his contrigrowing to strength anti independence bution shall be applied; but if the trom their own root. principle of designation were thor- -Editor Dana is no doubt a wise oughly carried out there would be man after the fiesh, but according to no use of a society or board of misthe Gospel standard he goes far astray sions, and there could be no appropriawhen, in the New York Sun, he ad- tions.-Spirit of Missions.
vises the missionaries to convert the -When the first missionary society Mikado, and "that 50,000,000 of his was started in Tahiti, a rule was made people will follow him out of the pagan that a subscriber was one who gave camp into the Christian camp." We every year a bamboo full of cocoanut of course should pray and hope for the oil, or 3 balls of arrowroot, or a hog, or conversion of the Mikado as well as of 4 baskets of cotton. At Griquatown, any of his subjects; but it would be a South Africa. the first contributions more than doubtful blessing if it should were .30 pounds of elephants' teeth, 1 ox, 9 young bulls, 23 sheep, 4 heifers, woman in the country, where there and 5 goats. were few white people-and heroically -If proof were needed that THE served Christ as a minister, teacher, MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE 'WORLD magistrate. nurse, and undertaker.
is read and highly esteem.ed, the same -Every way worthy to stand with would be found abundantly in the fact that of Mrs. Mary R. SchaufHer. lately that it is so extensively quoted. For deceased, is the name of Miss Jane S.
example, the April Ohunh at Home Williamson, also recently called from and Abroad reproduces (with due ac- labor to reward, at the age of more knowledgment) not less than 12 items. than ninety-two years. Minnesota was the scene of her missionary service, WOlIAN'S WORK. which began in 1843. She was in ac- tive work teaching the Indians at Lac -This is the queer way t1J.ey do in qui Parle and Kaposia (now West St.
Egypt: "A woman outside who knew Paul) and Yellow Medicine for nineteen ihe doctor called him to come and see a years, until the massacre of 1862. At sick child. We went into a dark room Kaposia the mission house was more with no window,and only a tiny door; than once assaulted by drunken Indians as soon as I got accustomed to the dark- with clubs and knives. From Yellow ness, I asked where the child was. Medicine the missionaries fied for their 'In the oven,' was the reply. Hurned lives at lhe time of the massacre.
to the'large mud oven and stretched " Aunt Jane" with her brother and his out my hand to feel for her. To my wife wcre tbe last white people to flee, horror I found the oven was' hot, and going alone hours after the rest had the woman calmly told me that they fled.
had been baking in it that day, and that there was fire underneath I We . -Dr. Mary Pierson Eddy, of Sidon, exclaimed, but they said, as if it were in the Star in the Ea8t, gives this acthe most natural thing in the world for count of herself: "A year ago, after people to live in hot ovens, that there receiving the first license to practise were two children in there, and that medicine and surgery ever accorded that was where they lived, and would to a woman in the Turkish Empire, I not come out as it was so warm in- returned to Syria from Constantinople side !"-The Gleaner. to begin a new departure in missionary -And this statement from the same medical work. My aim being to reach source well sets forth a phase of life in the Orient. A missionary writes from the women of non-Christian sects the land of tbe Nile: "I often ask the mainly, I decided upon itinerating half women if they ever pray. Most of the year among the villages in the them laugh at the idea, and say, ' We mountains, the other half among the pray I We do not know how to pray; cities along the coast. 'fhe number of only the men pray. Do you pray?' our patients is limited only by my When I say, 'Yes,' they say, 'Truly, strength. Monday, Wednesday, and truly, how wonderful! Teach us to Friday I receive pay patients. Satur· days and Wednesday, anyone who prlLY.' " brings a sealed paper testifying to her poverty is treated free. My clinics -Through the efforts of the Rev. average 40 daily, about 200 new pa- Sheldon Jackson, the first of the 9 Pres- tients every week. The sad part of my byterian missions in Alaska was estab- work is that I cannot give more time to lished at Fort Wrangel in 1877. Mrs. each place I visit, for each has features A. R. McFarland, upon five days' no- of special need or peculiar interest.
tice, accepted this post, where she was The other saddening spectacle is the .
willing to remain alone-the only white many who have to be sent away. They sit for hours on ihe stairs awaiting their colored population of 265,000, 80,000 turn; some return three and four suc· are Roman Catholic.
cessive days before they can get in. -The United States supports in Others come from distant villages, and return without seeing me. Alaska 14 day schools, and there are 15 mission schools, while the Greek Church of Russia maintains 6 additional AMERICA. schools. The great drawback to the higher advancement of Alaska is the United States.-The. Chu1'ch Mis- hold which the liquor traffic is gaining. sionary Intelligencer, a most competent Efforts to suppress it have met with English authority, says: "America is little success, and liquors are imported, providing for us almost all the books landed, and sold without stint in every that treat of the principles, objects, and white settlement. In many cases this history of missions on anything like a evil counterbalances the results of mis- reasonable scale. Weare far behind sionary work.
our brethren in the United States in -A missionary at Point Barrow rethe systematic study of the subject. ceives mail !JUt once a year, and it Our American cousins give us hand- sometimes occurs that the ice pack prebooks of missions, not necessarily ele- vents the revenue cutter from getting mentary, but in the best sense educa- so far north, so that letters are nearly tional. Such are the works of Dr. two years old when they reach their Pierson, Dr. Gordon, and Dr. Dennis." destination.
-Of $50 lately contributed in Provi- -The Presbyterian native church at dence, R. I., for the relief of the suffer- Sitka is now ten years old, having been ers in Eastern Turkey, $20 were the organized in September, 1884, with 49 gift of Chinese who have been associ- members, and now numbers 483. Mr. ated with some of the Armenians in Austin reports having baptized 951 perthe same Sunday.school. Certain Uhris- sons. Services are held in a commoditian Chinese in San Francisco gave last ous and attractive edifice, built by the year for the support of the Gospel boys of mission training school, among themselves and elsewhere at the under the direction of the carpenter. rate of $8.62 each. And at the Santee Agency a number of Indians gave $5 -Of the 300 native residents of Fort and $10, and many gave smaller sums Wrangel over 80 are members of the to assist in paying the debt of the Presbyterian Church. Since Dr.
American Missionary Association. Thwing took charge of this station two -The annual report of the mission years ago, 46 new members have been work of the Roman Catholic Church added, just doubling the membership. among the negroes and Indians shows About 20 neat new cottages have been that the collections for this work dnr- erected, and a substantial plank walk ing 1894 amounted to $57,840. The constructed by the natives along the total number of Catholic negroes was water front for a half mile. Improve- 156,683; the number of pupils in ments in the way of paint and new roofs schools was 8610; the number of bap- have also been made on 9ther homes.
tisms during the year 4394, of which -Mr. Albert J. Nathan, a Christian 3760 were of children. The negro Jew, who some time since left this Catholic popUlation is strongest in country for Morocco, as the representa- Baltimore and in New Orleans. In tive of the Friends' Society, to preach Baltimore out of a colored population the Gospel to his own brethren in that of 218,000, 36,650 are Roman Catholic. land, has nt!lw reached his field. Says They have 5 churches ministered to by The Friends' Missionary Advocate.- 14 priests. In New Orleans out of a "Ilis large endowments, natural and spiritual, give promise of a future of churches with 4462 communicants and great usefulness. The momentum of 1221 pupils in schools, a theological spiritual power that moves through seminary and a mission press. The . him it! resistless." City of Mexico alone has 7 Presbyterian churches, all in charge of native -A Carleton College Asiatic Club preacheli. was recently formed at Marsovan, Tur- key. It is intended to keep the repre- -The Episcopal work in this repub- sentatives of the college who are en- lic, under the direction of the Cuerpo gaged in missionary and educational Ecclesiastico, 90nsists of 30 congrega- work in sympathy and communication tions, served by native 'workert! as fol- with one another. The membership lows: presbyters, 5; deacons, 2: stu- embraces not only alumni, of whom dents for holy orders, 3; readers, 11; there are 9 or 10 in Asia, but anyone teachers: male, 4: female, 6. The who has been connected with Carleton communicants number about 1350; the for one year or more, and has been for members about 2500, and adherents a year or more in the field. The total about 4000. There are 10 mission number will be 15 or 16, residing in schools, with about 375 pupils, nearly Turkey, Persia, China, and Japan. A equally divided between the sexes, and club letter will be kept in perpetual in addition the Mary Josephine Hooker circulation.-Advance. Memorial Orphanage and Church School, employing 1 American and 2 -Oberlin is pal' excellence the mis- native teachers, and lIas 38 boarding sionary institution.. Not including and 11 day scholars. those at work among the freedmen in the South since the rebellion, among Greenland.-It is a common impres- the Indians and in the foreign field sion that the Christians of Greenland nearly 250 of its students have done are mainly under Moravian care. But yeoman's service. About 50 children the Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift gives of missionaries are usually to be found the whole popUlation (except on the in attendance in the various schools of thinly peopled east coast) as now Chris- the village, and it is common for a half- tianized. Of these 8175 are under the score of missionary families at a time care of the Lutheran Church of Den- to be making this their headquarters mark. There are 3 Danish and 4 native during their furlough. pastors, working at 12 stations. There is at Godthaab a semiuaryfor the train- Mezico.-A. Catholic gentleman who ing of native teachers and preachers; is quite intelligent said to one of our the latter, mostly half-breeds, complete missionaries: .. The Catholic Church their education in Copenhagen. The made a very poor showing in its three Moravians at their 6 stations have the hundred years' dealing with the Mexi- care of only 1591 Christian Greencans. You look for education and you landers. In Labrador there are 1329 do not find it, you look for intelligence Eskimo, all under their' care. and you do not find it, you look for industry and you do not find it, you look. EUROPE. for morality and you do not find it. This Church has had the sole chance to Great Britain.-During the twentymake the Mexican people, and they eight years that have elapsed since Dr~ have failed. If they lplve done noth- Barnardo began his work he has resing in three hundred years, what would cued, trained, and placed out in life they do in three thousand 1"- 0 hUTch some 27,000 children; he has educated at Home and Abroad. and partly fed and clothed in free day and night schools children not actually -There are now under the care of destitute to the numl>er of 63,000; he the Presbyterian Church in Mexico 93 has provided outfit, passage money, and one, if the following statement in the effectual supervision for 7200 emigrants New York Sun is correct: "Peter's to the colonies; he has established 4 pence in France used to be 3,000,000 free lodging·houses, and given home· francs a year. In 1893 the sum con- less women and children 200,000 free tributed was 1,800,000, and last year it quarters and 560,000 free rations; he was less than 1,000,000."
has established four industrial brigades, -From Constantinople comes the and aided to an independent livelihood good news that after waiting in vain 6200 of the boys who have passed through them. He has spent on build· for about tbree years and a half for ings £200,000, and in addition to this has freehold land and buildings in permission to publish a new edition of Canada to the value of £22,000. the Albanian Psalms, during which time repeated but fruitless efforts were made through Her Majesty's Embassy -A work quite similar to that done to obtain the necessary sanction, a fur- by Dr. Barnardo is carried on in Man· . ther petition was presented a few weeks chester, and dates from 1870. when a since, which has resulted in permission door was opened in a poor street near being granted by the Turkish Govern- a leading thoroughfare for the immedi· ment not only to publish the Psalms, ate and free reception of homeless and but the whole Bible in the Albanian destitute boys. Says the London language.-The Ohristian.
ahristian: "That single house, with its 30 hammocks, was soon filled, and ASIA..
has been the precursor of a work which Palestine.-Behold, how good and for thoroughness, completeness, and pleasant, etc. Says the Free 0 hurch manifest tokens of God's blessing, has Monthly: " The cradle of Christianity had few equals in the annals of Chris· promises to be the nursery of Christian tian and philanthropic enterprise." co-operation, so far as Scotland and Since that date a great institution has Presbyterianism are concerned. Dr. come into being with no less than 18 Carslaw of Schweir has charge of varied departments, to supply all sorts of needs for all sorts of people, and schools which are supported by an unamong them a prison-gate mission, where last year 10,724 discharged pris· denominational Scottish committee. oners received a free breakfast, and Dr. Vartan, of Nazareth, and Dr. Macwhile appeasing their hunger listened kinnon, of Damascus, representatives to the glad tidings. of the Edinburgh Medical Mission, are in closest alliance with our missionaries. -The Primitive Methodists have re- Dr. Webster, at Haifa, from the Cancently commissioned 5 missionaries for ada Presbyterian Church, is so identi· Africa, 2 of them men with wives, di- fied with our agents that the two misviding them between Fernando Po and sions present themselves to the commuthe trans-Zambesi Mission. nity as one. Dr. Torrance is called the" Charles Russell missionary," be- The Continent.-The distribution of cause his salary is provided by a memprinted sermons in Berlin has reached ber of the Australian Presbyterian 130,000 copies a week. Some of them Church, in memory of a beloved Bon. go to Russia, Egypt, America, and The Rev. John Soutar represents at many other countries. Ou the last Tiberlas the United Presbyterian Sunday in the church year 450,000 Church, by whom his salary is paid. copies were distributed. At its last meeting our committee ac- cepted an offer of service from the Rev.
-Peter's pence is falling off, and the J. E. H. Thomson, a probationer of the revenues of the Vatican are shrinking United Presbyterian Church. His wife in prop'brtion, The process is a rapid is to be the honorary agent of the Glasgow Ladies' Society. Their sphere is windows, two chairs, and about 20 girls, Safed, and they are to live at their own from six to twenty years old, sitting on charges, with the exception of travel· the floor. Each rose and said, first to ling expenses and house rent. The Mrs. Ewing, then to me, Salaam. share of the sister church in our Galilee They then all began in a perfect jabber Mission will thus be increased." to ask about me. 'Is she Miss or Mrs. ? '
-A lady missionary of the Church 'Has she children r' 'What Is she Missionary Society in Palestine writes to The Gleaner to correct the opinions here for?' When told that I came to of those who regard Palestine as an un- help they all said, ' Good, good.' They fruitful field. She states that the peo· were dressed in calico of the loudest pIe themselves bear witness to the im- colors, and wore only waists and drawprovement, telling how different it was ers. The streets are full of women in twenty-five or thirty years ago, when the same costume. Everyone had on no one could read or write, and hardly anklets, several bracelets on the left a Bible was to be feund anywhere; arm, big toe rings, 5 or 6 rings in the whereas now a large proportion of the nose, and in the left ear 10 or 12 rings men can read, and in the towns many all around the rim and so heavy that women also; and anyone, if he wants the ear lopped over. Mrs. Ewing said : it, can get a Bible for a small sum. 'You must come with me Friday. The people where she lives used to They have their bath, wash their hair, shoot at each other from their houses; put on clean clothes and wear all their now one feels as safe as in England. jewelry Fridays.' I thought if what they had on was not all I should like -Rev. Selah Merrill most emphati- to behold the Friday parade. They use cally denies that there has been any boards for slates, write with a pointed considerable increase of Jews in Pales- stick dipped in ink, and clean the tine during' recent years. Jerusalem boards with mud." has but 27,000 ina population of 47,- 000, and the whole land but 42,000. -It will be welcome news to many He affirms that the reports of a rapid that the Pashtu Bible-the gin of Enginflux of the seed of Abraham originate lish Christianity to Afghanistan-is apin the minds of good people in America, proaching completion. The New Tes- Great Britain, and Germany, who judge tament was issued in 1889. that from prophecy thus it ought to be. -The Rajah of Sirmur is eager to India.-In British India there are have a Christian mission established at something like 500,000 of blind people. Nahan. He has promised the same lib- How are they to get the Word of God ? erty to carryon work and to preach as Well, Mr. Knowles, a missionary, has is enjoyed in British territory. He has invented an alphabet for them, in which offered land and timber for building, 87 of,the languages spoken in this penin- and is willing to remit the duty on sula may be printed. It is proposed to limestone. He will give 400 rupees a found an institute at Bangalore, where year toward repairs, and 2000 rupees the blind will be taught to read.- toward the building of a church. He Re'lJU(! des Mi8sions Oontemporaines. is particularly anxious to have a lady physician stationed at Nahan, because -Mary C. Bandy, of Lodiana, in so many little children, and women Woman's Workfor Woman gives a racy also, have died, whose lives he believes account of her first visit to a school in might have been saved had there been that city, which is in part as follows: a qualified physician to attend them.- " After winding through narrow, badsmelling streets we went into a mud ahurd. at Home ana Aln·oaa. hut. Room 15 by 18, ceiling low, two -An interesting movement has been started by the students of Girton and Newnham colleges, England." It is proposed to form a missionary settle- opinion: "There are at present In ment in Bombay, in which women China about 55,000 communicants, from the universities may live together which shows a remarkable increase and unite in educational, medical, and since 1889. There can be no doubt as evangelistic work. to the marked increase of these five years. If the next five be as prosper- -The Baptist Telugu Mission, noted ous, our China communicants will, at for its sudden and wonderful growth, the close of 1900, number not tar short has found it imperative to provide for of 90,000. We are on the eve of great 'the training of the native Christians. changes, and great changes for the bet· While new converts continue to be ter also." made, the chief attention of the missionaries is now turned toward the es- -It is said that there are 120 Budtablishment of educational institutions. dhist temples in Canton. They are A college has been founded at Ongole, mostly dingy in appearance, the chose,n and now it is decided to establish a abodes of bats and of spiders, whose medical training institute and hospital webs are black with the smoke of the for wcmen at Nellore, and a technical ever·rlslDg incense. In the courtyards institute at Ongole. outside congregate fortun£-tellers. huck- sters, and beggars in sackcloth full of -So various is the nationality in sores. Even gambling.booths are not Singapore that the city has been called forbidden in the temple precincts. a bundle of samples. The Methodists have a school which contains Chinese, -A Chinese official of a certain dis· Japanese, Siamese, Malay, Tamil, Eu- trict in the city of Canton had been ex· rasian, English, these seven divisions amining and reading Christian litera' of the human family. ture, with the result that he was favor· ably impressed with the truth. Being China.-Says Rev. A. H. Smith: desirous of benefiting his people mate· "The entire freedom of the Chinese rially, he asked t~e missionary in charge classical works from anything which of the mission work in his district to could debase the mind of the readers is devise a scheme to aid the people to de· a most important chRracteristic which velop their agricultural resources. has often been pointed out, and which When the plan had been properly de· is in the greatest possible contrast to vised he invited a number of the gen· the literatures of India, Greece, and try, a Berlin Chinese profess:>r and the Rome. 'No people,' says Mr. Mea- missionary to a dinner, at which the dows, 'whether of ancient or modern whole scheme was discussed. After tio;1es, has possessed a sacred literature some deliberation three of his friends so completely exempt as the Chinese offered 1000 taels or $1400 apiece, while from licentious descriptions and from the mandarin himself pledged 3000 every olIensive expression. There is taels, or $4000. to the work. When not a single sentence in the whole of the the officer said something about the sacred books and their annotations that benefits of Christianity, they replied may not be read aloud in any family that they wished this scheme to have circle in England. Again, in every no connection with it. To this the offi· other non·Christian country, idolatry cer responded by saying: " You may has been associated with human sRcri' devise the best of schemes, but it will fices and with the deification of vice. fail unless you adopt Christianity."- accompanied by licentious rites and The independent. orgies. Not a sign of all this exists in China." -Charles Denby, Jr., secretary of the United States Legation at Pekin, -Dr. Griffith John, one of the great· says of that city: .. It is without water· est of living missionaries, expresses this works, gas, or electricity, and yet every· body likes to live there, this being espe- Dr. Dale, one of the leading Congrecially true of the Chinamen. Pekin gational ministers of England, whose has but an imperfect sewage system, death has recently been announced, reand the sanitary conditions are very lated, in one of his sermons, an incibad, yet there 'is little disease there. dent as to a Japanese gentleman of edu- Pekin is at the same time one of the cation, a man of force and thought, dirtiest and healthiest cities in the who sat in his house one night and world. In striking contrast to Tokio, talked with him of many things, chiefly Japan, where there are water-works, of the hopes and joys which had come gas, electricity, and modern improve- to them both through the faith of ments, with good sanitation, yet which Christ. Dr. Dale asked his visitor how has frequent cholera epidemics, and is he came to leave the religion of his famfar from being healthful. " ily and his country and become a Christian. He replied: "The Bible -Half a century ago, as one of the came into my hands through a friend, results of the opium war, a small tract a Japanese friend, and by chance I of land just north of the native city of read, first, the chapter in the Epistle to Shanghai was set apart for the resi- the Corinthians in which the excellendence of foreigners. It was not antici- cies of charity are set forth. I was pated that this tract would be occupied fascinated; there was a morality taught in any part by the natives, but 200,000 therein with which I was unacquaintof them have settled within it, and vol- ed. I turned back the leaves, seeking untarily submitted themselves to the other parts as novel and striking, and jurisdiction of the "foreign devils." read the Gospel of John, and then I Here some 5000 Europeans enjoy the was subdued. The words and the ch~r highest fruits of Western civilization acter of Jesus compelled II surrender of under a government founded on a writ- my heart, and won my faith. " – tell constitution. It would be difficult to find a city of the size anywhere in AFRICA. Europe or America possessing in so high a degree as Shanghai the manifold -Mr. E. H. Glenny, secretary of tte elements of civilization.-1vI. B. DUN- North Africa Mission, properly finds NELL, in Overland Monthly. occasion for thanksgiving in the fact that, whereas fourteen years ago not a -The Christian press is a tremendous missionary to the Moslems could be power in the Celestial Empire. Thus found between Alexandria and Gibralfrom the Methodist publishing house at tar, there are now 120, of whom some Foochow were issued 26,600,000 pages 70 belong to his society. This same orlast year; from a similar Presbyterian ganization has 7 medical missions and establishment in Shanghai, 82,000 hospitals in which about 30,000 were coyies of the Scriptures and 36,700,000 treated last year. pages of other books, tracts, etc.; and the Central China Religious Tract So- -Rev. Jean Paul Cook, writing to ciety issued about 1,000,000 copies of the London Christian from the French publications. mission house, II Mathen par EI' Kseur, Kabylia, says: "Eight years ago the Japan.-A Japanese foreign mission French Methodist Conference decided board has been organized, with the aim to start a mission in Kabylia, and sent of working first in Korea. The presi- out Mr. Thomas Hocart, a young and dent and one of the treasurers are of the zealous pastor. After staying two Church of Christ, the vice-president is of years with his wife at Bougie, to learn the Methodist Church, and the secre- the language and get" knowledge of tary and a treasurer are of the Kumi the country, he came to take up his ai chnrches. abode in this place. It was thought best to begin with the young, and sev- • eral Sunday and Thursday schools have new Training and Industrial Institu- been established. In this way are gath- tion which the Livingstonia 'MIssion ered together, in 5 different villages, intend starting in British Central Afri- about 120 boys and 30 girls, who are ca. The place chosen is in the neigh- taught to sing hymns and to repeat borhood of 'Mount Wallen, not far verses from the Scriptures. He has from the Deep Bay Station, Lake some knowledge of medicine, and in Nyassa, and it is possible that the Brit- one month treated 654 patients; in one ish South Afdca Company will assist day 107. the Livingstonia Mission by a grant of land. One of the chief objects of this -Rev. A. W. Marling, going out to Industrial Institution will be the train- the Gaboon Mission, has this to say of ing of natives in large numbers to dif- one feature of his journey: "What at- ferent trades, such as carpentry, black- tracted our attention more than any- smithing. printing, and bUilding. thing else among the passengers ~as a band of 24 French Roman Catholic Madagascar.-When in the Norwe- missionaries, of whom 7 fathers and 1 gian Mission recently all salaries had to brother landed at Dakar (Cape Verd), be lowered and work to be cut down, to join the mission in the French prov- the missionary was disheartened, and ince of Senegal; 4 fathers and 3 nuns said so before his helpers. But a na- disembarked at Cape Coast Castle, to tive pastor reminded him of the state of go thence to the Niger, far np which is things on his arrival twenty.seven years their mission. One father is to land at before-no helpers at all, the natives Libreville, to join the mission of the indifferent, hardships and difficulties at Holy Spirit and the Holy Heart of every step. Now the mission has 250 Mary; 3 fathers are to land at Loango, helpers and some 10,000 converts. near the southern limit of the Congo " Let us thank God," said the grateful Fran9ais on the coast, where they will native pastor, "for His mercies, and be appointed to their stations by the if our salaries have to be reduced, we Bishop of Loango; and finally, 3 fa- hope that the work will still go for- thers and 2 brothers are to land also at ward, for this work is laid upon us ; Loango, but to go thence overland to we have chosen it out of full hearts. Brazzaville on Stanley Pool. where they May the Word of God have full course, will receive appointments to their sev- and the Church of Madagascar soon be eral stations from the Bishop of Uban- able to support itself." gi." -The London Missionary Society's -" Rhodesia" is a new name in ChronicZe for April gives an account of geography. It describes a great Afri- the "Christian interests in the island of can territory which will bear witness to Madagascar," and states 'hat there are the work of Mr. Cecil Rhodes. The 2000 Protestant churches, with more capital of the country is Buluwayo, in than 300,000 adherents. More than which so lately Lobengula ruled. The 1300 of these churches are connected city has already undergone a transfor- with the London Missionary Society, mation. One hundred brick houses and have 280,000 adherents and 60,000 have taken the place of the Matabele church-memhers; 803 congregations huts, and nearly 2000 white people are are in the central province of Imerina, settled in the neighborhood. Dr. Jame- where Christian work was begun in Bon; who took so prominent a part in 1820. the war, gives a glowing account of the agricultural and mineral capacities of THE ISLANDS OF THE SEA.. the region.-Jilree Olturch Monthly. -" What a difference between now. -Dr. Laws has fixed on the locality and thirteen years ago " says the mis- suitable for the establishment of the sionary of the Rhenish Missionary Society from the Toba district in Sumatra. communion. They were all very at- Then everything was unsafe: no one tentive and reverent; and a solemn still- dared to go half an hour's distance ness fell upon all as they took in their from his village; war, robbocy, piracy, hands the symbols of their Saviour'S and slavery reigned everywhere. Now dying love. I don't think many of us there is a free, active Christian life will forget the scene-the little table in everywhere, and churches full of atten- the centre with the bread and wine, the tive hearers. We have 8 head stations missionaries at one side, and round the and 30 off stations, more than 30 evangel- other side of the square the dark faces ists, and many active elders and Sun- of our people and teachers, while, all day-school teachers. And the faith of round, seated on the earth or on fallen our young Christians is seen in their logs, were the rest of the people. It was deeds. They have renounced idolatrous quite interesting to think of the differ- customs; they visit the sick, and pray ent nationalities who sat down togeth- with them; they go to their enemies er-Australian, Scotch, Eromangan, and make conciliation with them. This Ngunese, Emai, Efatese, and Maleku- has often made a powerful impression Ian from Anlua, Pangkumu, Urupio, on the heathen, because they saw that and a man from one of the Banks the Christians could do what was im- group." possible to heathen-they could forgi ve injuries. Many heathen have been so -For half a century after white men overcome by this conduct of the Chris- had made acquaintance with the fierce tians that they came to us and said : and murderous disposition of the Sa- "The Lord Jesus has conquered 1"- moans, the island of Samoa was left to Herr Pilgram. itself. Traders shunned it. Yet within twenty.eight years of the landing of -In the New Hebrides" pigs are the the missionaries the islanders were im- great commercial commodity, and a porting goods from England, Austra- wife is valued by her husband accord- lia, ~nd America valued at £35,000 per ing to the number of pigs he gives in annum-not a bad market for so small exchange for her. One morning, while a community. busily engaged at his desk, :Ur. Armaud was called out to an adjoining room, -Speaking of Methodism in Fiji, the where his wife sat sewing, to see a man Recorder says: "Now you may pass who had urgent business with him, who from isle to isle, certain everywhere to was uneasy and impatient to make find the same cordial reception by known his errand. He was a man of kindly men and women. Every village great influence among his people. Tak- on the 80 inhabited isles has built for ing Mr. Armaud one side that his wife itself a tidy church, and a good house might not hear, he said in an undertone, for its teacher or native minister, for 'Missy, I thought I should like to have whom the village also provides food a white wife, and have come to see how and clothing. Can you realize that many pigs you take for Mrs. Armaud.' " there are 900 Met.hodist churches in Fiji, at everyone of which the frequent -In the Australian Weekly Rev. services are crowded by devout congre- T. W. Leggatt tells of the first com- gations; that the schools are well at- munion on Malekula, one of the New tended, and that the first sound that Hebrides: .. We found a shady spot on greets your ear at dawn and .the last at the beach in quite a natural temple, night is that of hymn-singing and most overshadowed by three' birinber ' trees. fervent worship, rising from each I spoke from the words, 'I am the dwelling at the hour of prayer?" bread of life,' and dispensed the ele- . ments. Mr. Gillan gave the address -A Micronesian convert employed . before, and Mr. Paton that after the on the missionary ship Robert w: Logan has left $700 to the American Board.
The Missionary Review of the World — April 1893
BRA.HlIU.NIBM PAST AND PRESENT
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XVI. No. 4.-0ld &riel. – – – APRIL. – – – VOL. VI. No. 4.-New &riu.
BRAHMANISM PAST AND PRESENT.-I.
BY REV. PROFESSOR T. M. LINDSAY, GLASGOW, SCOTLAND.
Mr. John Lockwood Kipling, in his fascinating book on " Beast and Man in India," uses some excusably strong language about the general misconception of Indian life and character created by the conventional pictures of scholars who work from a dead and done-with literature. "Nothing," he says, "could be more scholarly, amiable, sentimental, or mistaken." And he adds that the administrator, the schoolmaster, and the missionary have' equal grounds of complaint.
The subject of this paper almost insensibly tempts one to follow the example of these arm-chair expounders of the Hindu's faith. I have no wiRh to fall under Mr. Kipling's ban, and therefore begin by saying that it is scarcely too much to assert that there is no such thing in the India of to-day as Brahmanism in the true sense of that word; or at least, that it is the religion of a trifling number out of the millions of India. And yet the system potent in by.gone ages, buried in "a done-with literature," has sunk so deep into Hinduism, that the present religious condition of India would be greatly misapprehended if Brahmanism and its undying influence were not understood.
Let me state it more directly. I have seen ordinary middle-class Hindus worship-and by worship I mean kneel and pray with many genuflexions, or make offering of a few grains of rice or jowar or pulse, or burn incense in a cocoanut shell-the following variety of objects: (1) Trees of various kinds, especially the pepal-tree and the Tulsi plant in many places over India; (2) stones, either single uncouth blocks, or smaller ones of curious shapes, also in many different parts of India; (3) a jutting bit of rock, spared by the capricious discharge of blasting powder on the Ghat from Ellora to Roza; (4) a pillar erected to a distinguished officer at Mahabaleshwar; (5) a curiously shaped hummock on a hill near Secunderabad; (6) a fossil, an ammonite, the stone worn smooth by the lips of the worshippers; (7) snakes, monkeys, goats, and cows; (8) a plough; (9) bullocks by the owner of the team; (10) a heap of stones set up on- the Wai Ghat, at a place where a sudden rush of waters had driven a pony carriage and its occupants over the precipice j (11) rivers j (12) the palanquin of the Marathi poet Tukaram in a field near 8aswad j (13) the tomb of an old Anglo·Indian who had hanged himself in his garden on the banks of the Muta·Mula near Poona j (14) de- parted heroes, such as Khandoba at Jejuri and Pal j (15) a newly erected mile-stone near Ahmednuggar j (16) a telegraph-post on the Jalna road j (17) a walking-stick, which had a handle somewhat like a snake's head, in a stand with several others for sale at a shop-door in Mahaba- leshwar; (18) a locomotive engine j and (19) a fat boy who was waiting for the train at a Bombay station, and who placidly ate candy while his worshippers, who believed him to be an incarnation of God, knelt around him. And I venture to say that if to these be added some hundreds of deities, whose names never appear in books which profess to describe the Hindu religion, these commonplace divinities are worshipped in every-day religious life by tens of thousands, while the deities of Hindu pantheon are worshipped by hundreds only.
But there is another side. When exploring the jungle paths among the steep Ghats at Mahabaleshwar, I found myself one day, after some difficult descent, on a great ledge where a small village stood in a jungle clearing. On the slope of the cliff there was a great bJack bowlder, some fifteen feet high, embedded in the clay. The bowlder had a curious cleft in it. At its base there was an altar or shelf of dressed stone, with bells, lamps, cocoanut shells, and other utensils of worship. In front, a paved court, which was surrounded with a wall of stone and lime. While we were in this enclosure the villagers, headed hy an old patriarch with rich dark-brown skin and gray hair, came about us. The old man had a roll of dirty white cloth on his head, and a still dirtier wisp of cloth about his waist, a brown cotton plaid hung on one shoulder. The people, we were told, were low-caste 8hangars, who buried their dead and ate flesh when they could get it. We had a talk together. The bowlder was the village -goddess j the villagers prayed to it : they prayed for rain, for a good harvest, for recovery in sickness, that small pox and cholera might keep away from them, and occaRionally that a tiger might visit the neighborhood j a tiger was a clean-feeding animal j when it killed a buck it only ate part of the animal, and the villagers got the rest, so they prayed for a visit from a tiger. "But do you really mean to say that the great black stone can hear your prayers and answer them?" "8aheb," said the old man, drawing himself up, "there is but one 8pirit of God, as there is but one spirit of man-one spirit of man, and it is in you, 8aheb, and in the least of your servants, in me, 8aheb j so there is but one Spirit of God, 8aheb, and He is in our goddess here, and in Khandoba at Jejuri and in Vitoba at Pandharpur." Further questioning showed that this subtle pantheism, thus suddenly evoked from a man utterly uneducated and in social standing outside the pale of Hinduism, was a mere habit of mind, the thought of a people rather than the intelligent expression of individual belief. But it was there j and the question is, How came it there ~ My own reading, combined with personal observation, makes me think that the curious polytheism I have described is'" not so much the offspring of Brahmanism as its child by adoption;" that its ideas are not necessarily Hindn, still less Brahmanic; that though Brahmans can always explain these ideas by their aU-pervading symbolism this symbolism is but an afterthought entirely independent of the mood of the worship- pers; that, in short, this polytheism would exist if there had been no such thing as Brahmanism. The subtle pantheism, however, pervading it all, which can always be evoked among all classes of Hindu worshippers, is quite another thing. I do not mean to say that Brahmanism is the vital !'ource of this pantheism, which may, after all, be a strange subtle side of all Oriental thought; but on any supposition we have in the old historical Brahmanism, dead and buried for centuries as a popular creed, the ideal of what is dimly apprehended but really held by all Hindus in the present day.
Let it be understood, then, that in what follows I am describing what is ancient, what is no part of modern Hinduism, save in the vague sense above mentioned. If the editor permits, I may be able in a future article to describe its power over the present every-day religious life of the.
Hindus, and how it has created, by its action upon the living germinating polytheism, the Hindu pantheon described in most books upon Hindu religion.
Brahmanism, strictly so called, is a stage in the evolution of the latest form of Hinduism, standing midway between the old Vedic religion of the early Aryan invaders and the complex religion of modern India. It had peculiar historical, social, and religious surroundings. It belonged to that period of the Aryan invasion when the conquerors had mastered the "Middle Land," when they had leisure and resources to divide into classes, when they had a great slave population under them. It hardened into a compact system of social organization, religious rites, and theoso- phist speculation in its conflict with Buddhism-a conflict from which the aristocratic pantheism of the Brahman at length emerged victorious over the democratic atheism of Buddha.
In the" Land of the Sacred Singers," the Punjab, the old Vedic deities, personifications of the powers of nature, had held sway, and Indra, the rain bringer, was the chief deity. "I will sing of the victories of Indra.., of the victories woo by the God of the Spear; on the mountains he smote the demon of drought; he poured out the waters, and let the rivers flow from the mountains; like calves to cows, so do the rivers hasten to the sea." In these old days caste was unknown; the housefather was the family priest, and the chief led the devotions of the clan. .
When we see the same people in the "Middle Land," the country watered by the Jumna and the Ganges, with its great cities-Delhi, Oude, and Benares-and its amazing fertility of soil, the lapse of centuries has brought great changes. The fertilizing rivers made them almost inde pendent of rain, they had no call to pray for heat, the forces of nature were slowly uniform in their action, and the fecundity of· the earth made them meditate on the productive power of nature. They thought and sang, as did Tukharam centuries later in the Deccan, " For the new-born nursling who the milk prepareth ? Mother, child-each shareth His great mercy. In the fierce hot season when the leaflet springeth, Who the moisture bringeth Which it drinketh ?"
Religion had enwrapt itself in a stately ritual, and demanded men who were minutely acquainted with the old Vedic hymns to lead the devotions. The land had been thoroughly conquered, and it was no longer necessary for every housefather to be both husbandman and warrior; he could sit under his own tamarind-tree, none daring to make him afraid. The warriors became a class distinct from the cultivator, the king's followers at home his fighters on the frontiers. The dark-skinned aborigiu"es had become a great slave .population, held in the strictest bondage, which forbade them even sharing in the religion of their masters. A people of clans ready to become a ciVIlized society, but not yet a nationality.
This is the environment out of which Brahmanism slowly grew. It is almost impossible to trace the stages of growth. Early Indian literature is not historical. The criticism of documents based on internal evidence alone is extremely unproductive. The supreme canon of the higher criticism, that a document which really dates from a given period must show itself instinct with the life of that period, cannot be applied when we have no history to tell us what that life was. The Brahmans became the custodians of the old literature, and have changed and interpolated the text to suit their pretensions; but when we come to test the extent of these interpolations, and to arrange documents in chronological order to show the gradual growth of new institutions, then we fail utterly and are very much left to conjecture. Setting aside conjectures about how it slowly evolved into existence, Brahmanism fully formed has four sides or phases, which may be called social, ritualist, philosophical, and mythological.
The social side is the Oaste system. Brahmanism taught that the human race existed in four great divisions-the Brahman, the Kshatriya, the Vaisya, and the Sudra. The Brahman came from the mouth of Brahma, and was priest and teacher. The Kshatriya eame from the arm of God, to rule and defend the people. The Vaisya, who came from the thigh, was the trader and the husbandman. The Sudra, who came from the foot, was to serve the other three. These distinctions were to be perpetually maintained by the higher caste rigidly boycotting the lower in all intercourse, in food, and intermarriage. The Brahmanic writings further aIlsert that this fourfold caste system is not a mere classification of the human race; it represents four kinds of men. The lower animals are made in classes-elephants, tigers, bullocks, and dogs; and the creation of men followed the same order. A Brahman is a distinct kind of man from a Kshatriya, just as an elephant is distinct from a tiger. In this view of it, caste is an institution to preserve purity of class or clan by pneserving purity of blood, which can best be done by preventing intermarriage, and may be further guarded by proscribing intercourse in food and drink. Evidence, however, remains in the Brahmanic writings themselves to overthrow this idea of a rigid, fourfold classIfication of men. The earliest separation was into a free' and a serf or slave class. The oldest caste regulations were evidently designed to keep the Sudras, or conquered peoples, slaves. They were to be kept outside the Aryan community, and were denied the right of worshipping the Aryan gods. The three higher castes, on the other hand, had a certain brotherhood. They were the " twice born," they all wore the sacred thread, and they all took part in the same religious worship. The eternal supremacy of the Brahman caste disappears before traces of long rivalry between them and the Kshatriyas for pre-eminence, and for the right to perform the great public sacrifice. The contest between the two sages, Viswamatra, of the royal warrior rank, and Vasishtha, a Brahman, the story of which runs through the whole Veda, typifies the struggle, and in the end the warrior establishes his title to perform the public sacrifice. Nor was the separation of castes rigidly maintained. After the Brahmans had established their priestly supremacy, due pro.bably to their unique family knowledge of the old Vedic hymns, Kshatriyas thrust themselves up into the priestly caste, and Vaisyas became warriors, while Sudras were admitted into the number of the twice born. This fourfold caste system no longer exists in modern India, where society is broken up into thousands of castes, who neither intermarry nor eat together; and it is doubtful whether it ever did exist save for a limited time and in the" Middle" land. It is rather a programme of how the Brahmans thought society ought to be constituted than a picture of Hindu social life at any period.
The ritualist side of Brahmanism is contained in the Brahmanas. The old Vedic hymns had been collected in the Rig-Veda, and two priestly selections were made from it–the Sama Veda or hymn-book for the higher order of priests, who sung selections from it during the performance of sacrifice, and the Yajur Veda, the liturgy of the lower priests. These hymns are known asMantras, and the debasement of thought is stereotyped in the fact that the word means" charm" in modern Sanscrit. The Brahmanas are a directory or rnbric for the proper use of the Vedic hymns. They show us that, according to Brahmanism, the due presentatio. of sacrifices is the kernel of aD religious observances. The meaning of sacrifice is gradually evolved. It is at first simply thank-offering from man to the gods; thcn nourishment required by the gods them- selves; then a means of wresting boons from the gods; and lastly an instrument to attain superhuman power and exaltation to heaven. Even the gods have won their immortality by sacrifice. Sometimes, but rarely, we find the idea of atonement for sin; but this is foreign to the whole circle of Brahmanic thought, which rejects the idea of trusting to anything but self-righteousness for salvation. Hence Brahmanism taught that every man must rest his hopes on a perpetual succession of oblations consumed by fire, culminating in the last offering of hiriH,elf in fire on his funeral pyre.
Pltilosophical Brahmanism is commonly, but not altogether correctly, represented as the recoil from this elaborate ritualism and sacerdotalism. It is contained in the Upanishads, which are supposed to reveal the hidden spiritual doctrine of the Vedas. It is not philosophy in the Western sense of the word, for it is not a search after truth; nor is it theology, in the Christian meaning, for it does not express the soul's desire to be released from the burden of sin. But having said this, the European expounder has a more serious difficulty to face. He can use no Western theological or philosophical term which is not thoroughly misleading. If we say that the essence of Brahmanical speculation is to show how the spirit of man can be liberated from the bondage of the necessity of transmigration or repeated existence, and reunited with the Supreme Spirit, as a river is reunited with the ocean, we insensibly attach to the word " spirit" a meaning which belongs to none of its Sanscrit equivalents. In Western thought the terms "spirit," "soul," "self" all imply the Western idea of personality, which even on the attenuated Aristotelian definition-a person is what can be the subject, but never the predicate of a preposition-signifies a central spiritual point which can never be dissolved away. Without this thought of spiritual personality the ideas of existence will invariably take the form of confined or bounded and unconfined or boundless existence, and however such ideas are etherealized, they are descriptions of matter and not of spirit. Brahmanical thinking has no such thought of a central spiritual personality. In its philosophy personality is always an external integument, which. prevents the confined essence from diffusing itself in the unconfined or all-pervading essence; or, to speak more subtly, it is what exists when the external integument confines the essence. Hence Brahmanism is always an etherealized materialism.
The Brahmanical philosophy recognizes the Spirit of God and the spirit of man, which have existed and must exist throughout all eternity. The two are not distinct; the living spirit of man is the " Spirit of God limited and personalized by the power of Illusion (Maya); and the life of every living spirit is nothing but an infinitesimal arc of the one endless circle of infinite existence." This human spirit is joined to a mind and clothed with a body, and so can perceive, think, and will. The body consists of more than one integument. First, there is the subtle body, which, enclosing a portion of the universal spirit, makes it a living individual person; this subtle body is swathed in a grosser body, which may be earthly, intermediate, or Divine. It is Divine when it encases a god; intermediate when it clothes the subtle body after death and before another gross body is inhabited; or gross, which is the outer cuticle during earthly existence. The body is, of course, part of the external world to which the Brahman gives the name Illusion, and the torment of personal life is the being forced through a succession of bodily existences which are all illusory, but from which he cannot escape. Bliss comes when the human spirit, freed at last from confinement in material integuments, melts into the diffused essence which is God. The existence of the material universe is the puzzle of Brahmanical philosophy, which their four schools of thought try each in their own way to explain. The explanations are beyond the limits of this paper, but speaking very generally, they practically come to a substitution of the dualism of a male and female energy, from whom all things created come, for the one pervading essence-the monism or pantheism becomes a dualism.
Mvthological Brahmanism is the popular theology or exoteric doctrine for the common people based on the philosophy or esoteric doctrine reserved for the sages. In it the thought of Maya or Illusion, which is the despair of the philosophy, becomes a useful instrument in expounding Brahmanic symbolism to the people. This theology starts with the idea of one sole self-existent Supreme Essence, the only real Existence, submitting for His mere good pleasure to the entanglement of an illusory creative force, and in and through this contact bringing forth endless manifestations of Himself in infinite varieties of operation. All things seen and unseen-stones, plants, trees, animals, man, demons, gods-are emanations from the one Eternal Entity, like dTops from the ocean or sparks from a fire. Everything is a portion of Deity, partitioned off, in separate existence, by Illusion. These emanations are arranged on a graduated scale, whether gods, men, or things. The highest earthly emanation is man, and the human emanation nearest the real Supreme Existence is the Brahman. None of these emanations can alter their existence while in their present gross body, be that a Divine, human, or other body; but on the dissolution of the body they may rise to higher or sink to lower grades of being.
On this basis the Brahman theologians raised their pantheon. The only real Supreme, Existence they called Brahm or Brahma. When Brahma was first overspread with Maya or Illusory Creative Force, the male god Brahma emerged, the first-born of all creation and the evolver of all else. Creation implies preservation and dissolutiou, for it is an endless chain of birth becoming and death. Hence, with Brahma, coequal with him, like him, but one stage removed from reabsorption into real existence, are Vishnu the preserver, and Siva the destroyer and reproducer (for death
INDIA 01' TO-DAY
is the sacrament of new life). They alone of all emanations cannot suffer transmigration; when their integuments of subtle and gross (but Divine) bodies dissolve they will pass back again into the real Supreme Existence. They are equal, their functions interchangeable, and they are represented in the figure of the Tri·murti, three majestic heads springing out of one body, or in the triangle. Of these three Vishnu is the most nearly connected with humanity, and to rescue men he has undergone various incarnations which are also gods in the pantheon and objects of worship. The best known incarnations are the heroes of the poems Mahabarata and Ramayana, Krishna and Rama. The three gods have their consorts or female energies-Sarasvati, Lakshmi, .and Parvati-and their offspring also belong to the Brahmanic pantheon. Beneath these, in grade after grade of emanation, are lower gods and demons (to the number of three hundred and thirty millions), men, animals, plants, stones, all liable to run into each other and incapable of strict separation in thought.
Though every man is really God, he is under the power for the time being of the separative or illusory creative force, and no individual soul can recover identity with God save by liberation from the power of illusion. This liberation may be made easier by union with a higher being, it is ensured by union with Brahma, Vishnu, or Siva. Hence the motive to worship those gods, although, like men, they are under the power of illusion. Again, one means of obtaining liberation is by paying homage to the Supreme Existence, and this may be done by turning the thoughts inward; for this Supreme Existence is in every human spirit, and meditation is the highest act of worship ; or it may be done by worshipping according to proper ritual these emanations of the Supreme Being which are the gods ; or even by paying homage to His manifestations in persons and inanimate objects. Thus exoteric Brahmanism is a net spread to catch every form of worship from the rudest fetichism up to the most sublime mystical contemplation.
Such is Brahmanism in social life, ritual, metaphysic, and popular theology. It has done much to mould Hindu religion, it has undying influence upon Hinduism, but it would be a gross mistake to suppose that it represents the living germinating polytheism of the India of to-day. Its present power and its present weakness must be the subject of another paper.
INDIA OF TO-DAY.
EY THE REV. JAMES JOHNSTON, BOLTON, ENGLAND.
The march of empire over the "Eye of Asia," the name by which India is occasionally designated, presents features of deepening interest, and prophetic of more remarkable changes. Advances in her moral and material condition and in civil and religious development plainly indicate that India is assuredly taking a right place among the progressive nations east and west. The pacific revolutions of the last generation or so in her social and national life have amazing significance. Those degrading heathen customs, the self-immolation of widows on the funeral piles of their ,husbands, the dedication of favorite daughters at idolatrous temple services, the trampling to death of imbeciles, the drowning of aged persons, the universal practice of female infanticide, and the cruelties of childmarriage and widowhood, have been wholly or partially swept away, and, at the present day, fresh campaigns initiated against the abominations which still linger on the horizon of India's humanity. A grand new page is opening in the history of India, and Christianity, in its widespreading embrace, is throwing far out the net of the kingdom of God for the ingathering of India's millions.
In point of population the Indian census offers an array of figures not easily grasped. The British possessions contain 221,172,950 souls, and the feudatory States 66,050,480, making a grand total, for these two divisions, with the territories of Upper Burma, North Lushai, and Kashmir, now included for the first time, of 288,000,000 of human beings. Natives in British provinces occupy an area of 962,070 square miles, and those of the feudatory States 595,310 square milesl The pressure of population on the land during the last decade has risen from 227 to 249 per square mile in British territories, and from 107 to 123 in the native States, or if the whole of India, inclusive of the new tracts, is tabulated, the British divisions give 230 persons and the feudatory States 111, or an average of 184 to every square mile of greater India. Pressure of population on the soil has its highest provincial density in Oudh, returned at 522 persons to the square mile; in Bengal, 471 ; in the Northwest Provinces, 411 ; in the Madras native States, embracing the crowded shores of Travancore and Cochin, 385; in Baroda, 294 ; in the Madras Presidency, 252 ; in Bombay, 207 ; and Ajmir, 207 ; the last two being the remaining provinces or States which have an aggregate density of 200 to the square mile. Upper Burma, with an area of 83,500 square miles, has a population of 35 to the square mile, and Kashmir 31. Comparing these figures with countries having dense city populations, a condition of existence uncommon in India, there are 498 people to the square mile in England and Wales, 21 in the United States of America, and 5 in the habitable parts of Canada. The returns of the current census denote an' influx of people from congested Indian centres to regions of virgin soil, an increase more noticeable in the feudatory than the British States. Just in proportion as the feudatory States are safeguarded by laws does the Indian peasant feel himself tempted to migrate into new pastures. The first advance across a British feudatory frontier is effected by marriage relations, by daughters being given as wives to villagers on the other side of the borderline. In many cases the rural emigration has not passed this initial stage, which shows a marked percentage of females over males. Save in certain localities an extensive migratory movement from British to feudatory States is unreported.
From the aggregate returns of population there is not, it appears, a uniform increase of both sexes. In the British provinces the females have increased faster than males, except in Assam, Bombay, Sind, and Bengal. This increase, again, is more significant in the feudatory States, with the exception of Hyderabad, the Madras native States, and Mysore. The British Indian rate of increase per cent is 9. 63 fo~ males and 9.80 for females, and in the feudatory States 14.81 for males and 16.29 for females. With regard to populations in country districts and towns, India differs widely from Europe. England, for example, denotes a steady increase in population at large centres, whereas in India, with an aggregate population of 288,000,000, the towns have not more than 9t per cent of the population within their radius. In provinces which have the most populous towns, as, for instance, Bengal, where a population of 74,500,000 exceeds that of all the feudatory States of India put together, or the United States of America, the immense rural populations swamp the urban centres. This growth of population in rural areas has been gradually rising, showing an aggregate increase of 9.40 per cent. Throughout India the average proportion of women to men is given at 958 of the former to 1000 of the latter in 1891, while in the towns it does not exceed, as a whole, 886 females. Some of the city populations of India are making rapid strides. Bombay has 821,760 people, and Calcutta, with its two adjoining suburbs, a population of 741,140, or, counting the dwellers in the environs, where the growth is specially noticeable, Calcutta has a return of 978,370. The population of Madras is 452,520 j of Hyderabad, 415,000 j of Lucknow, 273,080, and of Benares, 2]9,470. In 22 other cities there are populations of 100,000 or upward, and in 48 towns the populations average from 50,000 to 100,000 inhabitants_ The natives of India, occupying a country equal in size to the Continent of Europe, excluding Russia, speak 106 different languages, as distinguished from dialects, and of these 18 are used by more than a million persons. Racial differences are further accentuated by social and religious prejudices and conflicting material interests. Every type of humanity has its representatives on the arena of India. Ghonds, Pathans, Rohillas, Belochees, and numerous fierce tribes, half clad, bloodthirsty, head.hunters, wielding stone weapons and indulging in degrading superstitions, dwelling in caves, on the hills, and in forest deeps, are the survivors of prehistoric times, in contrast to whom stand the Parsee and Brahmin, the embodiments of polished manners, scholarship, philosophy, commerce, and Western ideas. Beyond its own vast possessions British rule exercises no little supervision over 117 native States, the theatres of loose tribal communities, warlike chiefs, and princely rulers.
Very curious facts are furnished bearing on the religions of the myriads of people in India. The difficulty to register these is increased, because of the indistinct lines which separate IIindooism, Sikhism, and kindred systems. 'Vhen the lower superstitions, such as ghost-worship, tree and animal worship, or demon-worship, are taken into account, the perplexities are intensified. Amid these peculiarities it is evident, from recent enumerations, that Hindooism is absorbing steadily the hill and forest tribes, accustomed to practice strange, primitive rites. If these animistic tribes, together with the 3050 Brahmos and 39,950 Aryas, be added to Hindooism, the combined groups of Hindooism, semi-Hindooism, and reformed IIindooism number 751 per cent of the total; Mussulmans, 19.96 per cent; Buddhists, 2.48; Christians, 0.80; Sikhs, 0.66; Jains, 0.49; Parsees, 0.03 ; and of miscellaneous beliefs 0.02 per cent. In July last Mr. Naoroji, a member of the Parsee community, was elected a Member of the British House of Commons, an event warmly greeted in India, by which it is hoped the "dumb millions" in that Jand may have a greater voice in regard to their nation's interest and policy. Putting the religious census in another form, Hindooism claims 207,500,000-the term, it may be remarked, signifying "any religion which is not Mohammedan;" Islam, 57,000,000; Buddhism, 7,000,000, and Christianity, 2,225,000. The Jews count 17,180, and the Parsees in all 89,887 persons. Of theists, agnostics, and atheists 289 are enumerated. Taking the" animistic group" alone, they represent 3.23 per cent of the whole population, which allows them to stand next to the Mussulmans in numerical strength. Hindoos and Mussulmans have increased 10.74 and 10.70 respectively, in proportion to the growth of population; Buddhism has increased 24i per cent at a pace with the growth of the general population in Lower Burma; while the Christians have multiplied at the rate of 22.16, including large conversions from the forest tribes, particularly in the Chutia Nagpur territories. Gratifying results of the triumphs of Christianity come from the Punjab, the Northwest Provinces, the Karen districts in Lower Burma, Madras, and the west coast seaboard, where the native Christian population is growing at an astonishing rate. These fruitful issues give weight to a remark by Dr. Martyn Clark, that India's fields are not only white for harvest, but the sheaves are waiting, and equally so to the sanguine views of Dr. Pentecost regarding the spiritual regeneration of India.
Of " Young India," considering the population as a whole to the age of fifteen, the Indian return shows that 93.90 per cent of the boys and 82.47 of the girls are unmarried ; and of the married under fifteen years of age, 5.90 boys and 17.02 girls. In every 10,000 of the population there are left as " widowed" 20 boys and 51 girls under the age of fifteen years, and of this" widowed" category 20 per ccnt of the boys and 33 pcr ccnt of the girls are under five years old. The state of education presents terrible backward features in the adult sections of the population, where, again, there is disparity between the two scxes respecting capacity to read and write. From returns affecting 262,000,000 of people, itl is tabulated that 89.1 per cent of the males and 99.4 per cent of the females are unable to read or write. In the male section, consisting of 133,500,000, only one in 9 can pass this double test, and in the female division, comprising 128,500,000, barely one in 173 women! Of the total population in India having a knowledge of reading and writing in English the census makes a return of 360,000 natives. For the training of the young, public and private institutions number 138,054, and pupils, 3,682,707. Allowing, therefore, that 18,000,000-a liberal estimate-of India's people have the advantage of an elementary education, it leaves the enormous number of 270,000,000 of Hindoos buried in calamitous ignorance. Out of the few millions able to read and write a very small proportion have any acquaintance of English.
These shadows, so painful to contemplate, are not entirely uurelieved. Of India is it true that " . • • Long lost in night, Upon the horizon gleams the light Of breathing dawn."
In bright battle the social, medical, religious, and philanthropic auxiliaries are engaged for India's deliverance from myriad woes. During many years that unwearied worker on behalf of the suffering and neglected of India, Miss Florence Nightingale, has made the causes and possible remedies of the unhealthiness of small Indian towns and hamlets a special study. Mainly directed to Bombay, her labors llave had considerable success in combating the frightful condition of sanitary matters. Miss Nightingale is immediately occupied, as the debates on the Bombay Village Sanitation Bill indicates, in providing on a wide scale a good village organization for village sanitation, a measure which had the support of the recent International Congress of Hygiene. By her earnest and effective advocacy of a question vitally affecting the lives of millions of the rural population of India, the gentle heroine of the Crimean War has won the thanks of multitudes of the lowly poor. Next to this admirable work ought to be named" The Association for Supplying Female Medical Aid to the Women of India," founded and organized seven years ago by the Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, who has exhibited, in furtherance of her humane enterprise, rare capacity, generous benevolence, and unswerving purpose. Established on broad lines of an unsectarian and national character, it relieves alike the women and children of the poorest class and zenana ladies of wealth and station. The three principal objects of the fund consist of medical tuition, medical assistance, and the supply of trained female nurses. According to the 1890 returns, 411,000 had medical treatment, compared with 280,000 in the previous year. Its proportional increase of in-patients was greater for the same period, which were returned at 8159. Thirty hospitals and 20 dispensaries are affiliated with or governed by the association, and 13 lady doctors and 27 assistant surgeons are working under the auspices of the fund, 9 of the ladies having gone out from England. A strong staff in future days will be obtained from the 238 native pupils drawn from the Parsees, Brahma- Somaj (Veda Hindoos), and Eurasians, who are now studying at the various medical colleges and schools. The cultured and estimable young Hindoo ladies, Rukhmabai and Cornelia Sorabji, have studied at the London School of Medicine for Women, preparatory to undertaking the medical calling in their native land. The approbation of the fund, expressed some two years ago by the Maharajah of Patiala, that it "will earn the gratitude of untold generations of natives of India," cannot fail to have universal echo. In the person of Lady Lansdowne the good cause of her beloved predecessor has fallen on worthy shoulders. To its income native princes, mostly of the feudatory States, and the humble people, in proportion to their scanty means, creditably give support.
Medical education is adv~,ncing steadily in other quarters. To illustrate this from the Nizanis dominions, the last report gives 85 students in the medical school, 3 of its outgoing students being females. Dr. Laurie, the Director of the Medical Service of Hyderabad, states that there are 8 hospitals in Hyderabad and the suburbs, and 59 in the districts, with as many dispensaries. Activity is seen in the city hospitals, which had over 110,000 patients last year. Medical branches of zenana missions belonging to American and British societies are multiplying in stations and workers rapidly. This wing of operation appeals strongly to the native mind and prepares the way for the music of a deeper healing. What force lies in the observation of that chivalrous Christian lady, Mrs. Bishop: " There are so many zenanas which would be closed against the zenana missionary, but where the medical missionary gains admission under the best possible circumstances." Some idea of this gracious type of ministry may be gleaned from the medical station at Batala attached to the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society, which reported for 1891 over 18,000 patients' attendances, 31 in patients, and 617 medical visits to homes. In the zenana labors of the Free Church of Scotland at Madras, Miss Macphail and Dr. Janet Hunter made a return for the same date showing 20,547 attendances by 7823 patients at the two dispensaries, 460 visits to the missionaries' homes, while 1183 visits were paid to the patients in their own homes. Since the report was compiled news of thedeath of Miss Hunter from cholera has caused profound sorrow in Scottish and Indian circles. A young lady of the highest medical attainments and of the sweetest Christian disposition, Miss Hunter's memory will be revered by thousands of Hindoo women. Like fruitfulness attends the manifold branches of zenana spiritual missions. Mrs. Lazarus, an eminently qualified judge, whose opinion has wide corroboration, remarks that the difficulty six years ago of getting admission into a Hindoo home is vanishing, and the difficulty to-day is to find women enough willing to take up the cross of honor and enter the additional open doors. In these dark chambers the light is breaking, the presage of the salvation of the daughters of India and the dominion of missions. Educational claims are not overlooked, special attention of late being devoted to the great cry from the higher classes for English education. Unless this is speedily grappled with and supplied on a Christian basis, " the education of the ruling classes will fall more and more into the hands of anti-Christian agencies." Every year happily, so far as England is concerned, the number of university men with good degrees who join the missionary bodies is increasing, a fact which has a hopeful outlook, inasmuch as " the policy of the Indian Government is to retire from the field when voluntary institutions, either native or missionary, can be found to take the place of Government institutions," making it clear that the future English education in India lies in the hands of the natives and the missionary organizations, the latter hitherto having held the front place. In the propagation of religious knowledge a~ong the Hindoos the Christian Literature Society merits hearty acknowledgment. Consequent upon the advance of education and religious teaching on the one hand, and the spread of anti-Christian works on the other, the Society's resources were heavily taxed to meet the situation. In its admirable enterprise the Society had the support of the Indian services and of gentlemen most conversant with the wants of India. Founded over thirty years ago by Lord Lawrence, aided by a committee of men of strong religious sentiment, the Society had subsequently enjoyed the fullest sympathy of British and American societies. Its indefatigable secretary, the Rev. James Johnston, F.S_S., has few superiors in a knowledge of India and its people. Several branches of the leading Bible societies and the department of Sunday-school institutions are growingly potent allies in forwarding India's redemption.
Changes of grand import are springing up in IIindostan, many of which furnished indications of an approaching unity in Hindoo nationalities not previously seen, and~ by the awakening and wonderful openings among the low-caste and non-caste populations and their future elevation, the Christian Church was summoned to a task of imposing magnitude. Nor could the Mohammedans of the empire be forgotten. To this influential class in Calcutta alone, 250,000 in number, the Rev. Jani AlIi was the solitary torch-bearer of the true faith. In a reference to the great Mohaminedan population at the English Methodist Conference in Bradford, the Rev. William Arthur said that" it was a tremendous force in the world, and in India, if the power of the English should ever be broken, the Hindoos and the Mohammedans would be brought into conflict with each other, and the latter would win." This weighty deliverance will have the earnest consideration of the workers on India's shores.
If the masses of the people are nominally Hindoos still, the once impregnable front is tottering. Hindooism, described by one of its chief supporters" a religion which has failed to satisfy the cravings of the soul of the educated natives of India," has been shaken to the foundations by the Christian religion_ Prophetic vision was not required to see that in
THE HELIGION OF THE JAPANESE AINU
the numbers of seekers after light, the candidates for baptism, the remarkable expansion of the native Christian churches, and the increasing respect for the message of Christianity, the races of India were drawing nearer to the kingdom of God. Says Sir Charles Elliott, Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal: "The growth of Christianity in India has been a solid fact, and sufficiently rapid to give all needful encouragement to the supporters of missions." By the broad pathways which the Gospel was cleaving through the Indian Empire it was becoming the refuge and delight of countless thirsty souls. Granted that the struggle of Christendom during the century gone has been in the main an affair of outposts, the battalions of Christian chivalry were throwing themselves quickly on the field for the possession of a mighty prize. Signs of this decisive issue were visible, which the forthcoming Decennial General Conference of Indian missionaries of all the Protestant churches would voice in resonant tones. In such a noble crusade for the accomplishing of God's purposes among men Ward Beecher eloquently declared: "Of all the triumphs of the Church, of all her signal victories, I believe that which will stand higher than all others, in the future, will be the work which she has attempted to do for the scattered community. I believe that the work which has been done by the Christian religion for the outcast and outlying populations of the globe will stand in the last day higher and more sovereign than any or every other part of the work of the Christian religion on earth." The emancipation of India's millions calls to the Church of God in many climes to inaugurate a forward missionary policy which shall carry the flag of the King over the plains of a continent possessing a land boundary of 6000 miles and a seaboard of nearly 9000 miles, by which the flanks of the peerleRs Himalaya ranges shall ultimately become the frontiers of a worldconquering faith.
THE RELIGION OF THE JAPANESE AINU.
BY REV. F. F. ELLINWOOD, D.D.
Miss Bird, authoress of "Unbeaten Tracks in Japan," has given currency to the idea that the hairy aborigines of the great island of Yesso have no conceptions or observances which are worthy the name of a religion. Miss Bird made only a hasty visit of a few weeks before writing her book, which was certainly interesting in many respects; but Rev. John Bachelor, for fourteen years a missionary of the Church Missionary Society to the Ainu, has had better opportunities, and he has found a very interesting religious system among these people. This difference of authorities is an old story again repeated. Where hurried travellers or adventurers have declared that this or that obseure race were destitute of all ideas of God, and anthropologists have quoted their superficial statements with all the conclusiveness of scientific facts, the prolonged residence of a more careful investigator has led to very different conclusions.
Miss Bird says: "It is nonsense to write of the religious ideas of a people who have none, and of beliefs among a people who are merely adult children. The traveller who formulates an Ainu creed must evolve it from his own inne7' consciousness. I have taken infinite trouble to learn from themselves what their religious notions are, and Shinondi tells me that they have told him all they know, and the whole sum of it is a few vague fears and hopes, and a suspicion that there are things outside themselves more powerful than themselves, whose good influences may be obtained or whose evil influences may be averted by libations of sake. "
Mr. Bachelor, who uses the word Ainu as a plural without the s, says, on the other hand: "Every one will agree that it would be ' nonsense to write of the religious ideas of a people who have none, and of beliefs among a people who are merely adult children;' but Miss Bird is clearly in the wrong when she implies that the Ainu are without religion, though they may be 'merely adult children.' As a matter of fact, these people are exceedingly religious; and, however true it may be that a mere' traveller who formulates an Ainu creed must evolve it from his inner consciousness,' yet, as one who has spent more years with them than Miss Bird did weeks, I shall venture, in a later chapter, to give an Ainu creed. This creed will be evolved from their daily life and words, and from their highly prized, carefully transmitted traditions."
It is not claimed that the Ainu possess what is generally known as a book religion, or any formulated system of beliefs, but in fragmentary form their religious conceptions are interwoven with their daily life, and they are transmitted in unwritten folk-lore from generation to generation. There is no esoteric system of beliefs monopolized by a priestly class, for there seems to be no priesthood, but the Ainu are reserved in the presence of strangers who seek to learn their faith, and it is only the missionary who has won their confidence, and who, in close and continued contact, has studied their inmost thoughts and habits, that can judge intelligently of their religious faith. According to Mr. Bachelor the Ainu religion fltarts with the monotheistic conception of one supreme creator and upholder of all things. He is not, however, the administrator; on the contrary, having created a great number of inferior deities, and having assigned them to the administration of different departments of the on-going world, he leaves each of these plenipotentiaries in full charge of his particular sphere, where he is practically supreme. It would be a discourtesy for an Ainu to worship one 'deity in the rightful place of another. When fishing or in peril upon the sea, he may call only upon the god of the sea for help or success. The god of agriculture must be appealed to for abundant crops, and the mountain gods for success in hunting. The Ainu do not ordinarily call upon the Supreme Being for help or in any way practically worship .Him, for they understand that He has farmed out His dominions to subordinates whose authority He respects. Practically, therefore, the religion of the Ainu is the polytheistic worship of many gods, who owe their origin to one supreme creator. This rationale of their system is interesting as bearing upon the question whether the growth of religion has advanced from scattered germs of fetichism to an organized system, with monotheism as a final result; or whether the early conceptions of different races have started with the notion of crootorship, leading on to a multiplicity of subordinate gods, as each condition and exigency of life was supposed to require, or as new objects were discovered to have an imaginary efficacy. With the Ainu the latter process seems to have obtained. Their explanations of their system are perfectly logical so far as they go. They trace the distribution of authority among their subordinate deities precisely as they would that of their subordinate chiefs, from its supreme source in their head chief. In answer to the question why they do not offer their prayers directly to the Supreme God, who created and upholds all things, they are represented as saying: "As God has appointed these intermediaries as channels through which we are to approach Hita, we certa~nly ought to do as He directs us, and not as we wish in this matter. ' , But although God always acts through subordinates with respect to human affairs, and never communicates directly with men, so far as experience goes, yet He is not supposed to be idle or indifferent. He superintends all departments of administration and sees that His servants discharge their fuulltions faithfully. If anything is done amiss, it is only a fault in the administration.
The Ainu account for the evils of the world by a theory of dualism and of conflict between good and evil, and they believe that there are not only remiss and unfaithful servants in heaven, but that downright fiends are found among the angels of light. The struggle between good and evil has always existed and steadily increased, and it will never end. Over against each subordinate god, in whatever department, there is an evil one whose business it is to thwart him.
While all things originated in the Supreme God, His subordinates have had a part in the details of creation, and have not always done their work in the most approved manner. The following legend affords an illustration: "It is said that the island of Yesso was made by two gods, a male and a female, who were the deputies of the Creator. The female god had the west C08st allotted to her as her portion of the work, and the male god had the south and eastern portions assigned to him. They vied with each other in their tasks. As the goddess was proceeding with her work she happened to meet with the sister of ' Aioina Kamui '(the first ancestor of the Ainu), and instead of attending to her duties she stopped in her work to have a chat with her, as is the general custom of women. While they were talking the male god worked away and nearly finished his portion of the labor. Upon seeing this the female god became very much frightened, and, in or~er not to be behind time, did her work hurriedly and in a slovenly manner. Hence it is that the west coast of Yesso is so rugged and dangerous. ' , Whatever else the Ainu may be, they are not pessimists; they accept their hard lot and will allow no grumbling. For the ways of Providence they are always ready with a vindication, even though it be a seeming nuisance that is to be accounted for. For example, an old man who had been annoyed at night by a rat which had tried to gnaw off some of his superabundant hair for a nest, reproved the good missionary for speaking too harshly of rats. He gave his reason thus: "After the Creator had finished making the world He came down from heaven to see how all things looked. As He was viewing His works the evil one appeared and derided Him, saying, 'Doubtless you think you have done a very good action and have made all things for the best j but look at this bramble bush and thistle: what can be the use of such things as these l' God was angry at these remarks, so he put his hand behind his back and secretly created a rat. As soon as the rat was created it sprang into the mouth of. the devil and gnawed off his tongue, and it has never grown again. Let us bear with rats a little," sai~ the old man, "for they did one good thing in biting out the tongue of the evil one."
The very shiftlessness of these people is at least devout. An old man was once working for Mr. Bachelor iu his garden. It was in the early spring and the proper season for digging up the ground preparatory to planting seeds. When directed to improve the ground by digging in some manure, in order 1'0 secure a good crop, he said, with surprise: " What! will you, a clergyman,a teacher of religion, so dishonor and insult the gods 1 Will not the gods give due increase without your attempting to force their hand or endeavoring to drive nature 1" The old fellow was not joking. He was thoroughly in earnest. Evidently he had never heard that Adam was set to dress and cultivate even Paradise, or that he is the true benefactor of his race who makes two spires of grass grow where only one grew before.
From incidents like these it is evident that the Ainu cherish a belief in the care of a Divine providence, and accept their hard lot with a cheerful spirit. If their land begins to show exhaustion they simply remove to another plot. It is the gods who cause the earth to yield her increase j man must learn to labor and to wait.
Under these circumstances it seems remarkable that the Ainu do not go farther and evince a sustained and consistent life. One would suppose that their sense of dependence would lead to regular and systematic prayer and worship j but there is very little of this. They pray only in emergencies or for selfish ends. They pray when setting out on a dangerous bear-hunt, or when they wish good luck in fishing. All prayer is a business transaction, never the breathing of a devout soul. It is simply calling upon the proper divine deputy for his official or departmental aid. Sometimes an Ainu returns thanks before eating, but this depends somewhat upon the quality or quantity of what he has to eat.
Another charge, still more serious, we have against him, and that is that he never allows his wife to share in his devotions, and, of course, there can be no such thing as a family religion in which, as in so many nations, the patriarch is the priest of the household.
"The women," says Mr. Bachelor, " do not worship the gods even separately; and they can take no active part in the religious feasts, excepting to provide the food. The reason they never pray is not a belief tM.t they have no souls to pray for or no life in the future world. The very curious reason commonly given is very likely the true explanation- viz., that the men are afraid of the prayers of the women, in general, and of their wives in particular.
"This idea may appear at first sight stupid and irrational, but in reality it is consistent and in full accord with the principles of the Ainu religion. Moreover, it is a logical and intelligible reason.
" The Ainu believes in various gods who hear and answer prayer; he is aware that his wife is not treated as kindly as she ought to be, he knows that his own laziness must be compensated by extra labors on her part, and he recognizes the fact that his inveterate drunkenness is the ruin of his family. Hence his fear of the prayers of women, and of his wife iu particular."
The reasoning here is quite unique. Everywhere heathenism oppresses and degrades woman, and different types of heathenism have their special theories or pretexts upon which they justify the outrage. The grounds here given by the Ainu are entirely original, and they are about the meanest and most cowardly of any yet known. Conscious of abusing their wives here in this world, they contrive to cut them off from all communication with the unseen world, lest the mills of the gods which grind slowly but surely should work out just retribution for their evil deeds.
The religion of the Ainu has traces of that widespread sun-worship which was known in Egypt, Babylon, India, Persia, Mexico, Peru, and many other nations. The Shintoo faith of Japan is of the same general character, the sun-goddess having been regarded as the ancestor of the Mikados; but the Ainu treat this goddess as only one of the deputies, though she is pre-eminent among them. She has a variety of functions, and is a sort of general care-taker and friend, like the Vishnu of the Hindus and the Apollo of the Greeks.
The Ainu havc no priesthood, no altars for sacrifices or offerings, no temples, no stated days for worship. The nearest approach to altars and temples are the inao, mere pieces of wood whittled into shavings, which are left still attached at one end. These are set up as tufted stakes near the house or the fishing-place, or wherever they wish the favor of the respective gods to be shown. They are merely tokens or reminders i they are scarcely fetiches. According to Mr. Bachelor, if an Ainu were to formulate hi& creed of religious beliefs and superstitions, it would be something like this. At any rate, almost every Ainu would assent to the following items as a concise summary of his belief: 1. I believe in one Supreme God, the Creator of all worlds and places, made by " God the maker of places and worlds and possessor of heaven."
2. I believe in the existence of a multitude of lesser deities, all subject to this one Creator. They receive their life and power from Him, and they govern the world under Him.
3. I believe there are also many evil gods, who are ever ready to inflict punishment for wicked deeds.
4. I believe in Aioina Kamui as our ancestor, a man become divine, and who has now the superintendence of, the Ainu race; in a goddess of the sun; in a goddess of fire; in goddesses of rivers; in gods of mountains and forests ; in the gods of animals; in the gods of the sea and of the skies and all things contained therein.
5. I believe in demons, of whom the devil is chief, and also that there are demons who preside over accidents and all evil influences.
6. I believe that the souls both of human beings and animals are immortal ; that separated husbands and wives will be rejoined hereafter; that all people will be judged, and the good rewarded and the evil punished.
7. I believe that the souls of departed animals act as guardians to human beings.
8. I believe in ghosts; that the departed spirits of old women have a mighty power for harm, and that they appear as very demons in nature.
9. I believe that there are three heavens, called respectively" the high vaulty skies," the "star-bearing skies," and "the foggy heavens." I also believe that there are six worlds below us.
The religion of the Ainu differs from most other systems of the East in these particulars : 1. It is free from pantheism. 2. It holds to a real creation instead of any form of evolution. 3. There is no trace of asceticism. 4. There is no jugglery, hypocrisy, or priestly imposture. 5. There is no organic form of religion in the tribe or even In the family, and there are no records. 6. The system is greatly lacking in moral earnestness. The idea of future rewards is vague, and heaven has little attraction. A gospel of light and hope ought to be readily received.
The progress of Christianity in Japan is alarming the Buddhists, and among some of the plans formed in opposition is that of an organization whose members. promise they will have no relations of any kind with Qp,ristiaus, · .
SOMETHING ABOUT THE PWOS
SOMETHING ABOUT THE PWOS.
BY REV. L. W. CRONKHITE, BASSEIN, BURMA.
And particularly about the Bassein Pwos. They used to be written Pghos, but neither that nor Pwos is quite right, for no letters in our alphabet w~Il just fit the native term. Thl.'y differ in Malect from all other Karen tribes, and to some extent also from each other, as locality varies. They are found mostly in Burma, though they are said to extend also into the country on the Siamese border. A gentleman connected with t.he English Forest Department in Burma-Burma is, of course, under the sway of Queen Victoria-told me several years ago that he had followed them for seven hundred miles down the interior of Tenasserim, the long and narrow extension of Bnrma down toward Malacca. However this may be, it is well ascertained that'there is a large mass of Pwo Karens lying in the interior, to the east and sontheast of Moulmein, and it is painful to be obliged to add that no work for Christ has as yet been done among them. Father Brayton, our veteran worker among the Pwos for the last fifty-five years, saw something of them many years ago. The old man has long been calling for a family from America to go and take up life among them, and I cannot write this without a prayer that the eye of their future missionary may rest upon it.
Like other Karen tribes, the Pwos have been wonderfully prepared for the Gospel by their singular traditions handed down from their forefathers. These said in substance, " In olden times we had the Word of God, but lost it in time of famine. Presently our younger brother, a white man, will come in a ship from the West, and will bring it again. " Often the writer has heard the native Christian preachers appeal to this tradition as pointing to the American missionaries. Their traditions of the creation, Eden, and the fall are mysteriously parallel with the Christian Scriptures. The comparatively small numerical resnlts which have been attained among th~s people are chiefly due to the smallness of the mission force which has been employed among them. In a lesser degree it is due also to the fact that they, most of all the Karen tribes, have been attracted by the Buddhism of the Burmese, and not a few Pwo villages have their Buddhist monasteries, and support Burmans as their priests. The people as a whole are, like other Karens, demon worshippers, or rather demon fearers. Practically one might sum it up thus : There is somewhere a God, but He is good and will not hnrt us, and therefore we need pay Him no attention j but the streams and the trees and the fields and the hills are full of malig· nant spirits from whom our sorrows come, and them we must propitiate. It is a great day when the head of a heathen household hands over to a Christian preacher the common old junk bottle which he has used in his propitiatory feasts. and which he holds eminently sacred. We have a hymn and an address and a prayer in view of the magnitude of the occaSlOn.
God seems to have put the work for the Pwos, as for most other Karen tribes, chiefly into the hands of the American Baptists. We have now two central Pwo stations, the one covering the Rangoon-Maubin field, and the other the Bassein district. The first, in charge of Rev. Walter Bushell, has seventeen churches with seven hundred and fifty members, and the Bassein field twenty-nine churches with a membership of about fifteen hundred. Besides these there are several hundreds of Pwos connected with the Karen missions at IIenthada, Moulmein, and Tavoy j so that there are probably in all some twenty-eight hundred Pwo brethren and sisters in Christ. Of course these represent three or four times that number of adherents. The work in the Bassein district was begun in 1854 by Brother II. L. Van Meter, who labored ardently until his death in 1871. His faithful wife followed a year later. Re,'. S. T. Goodell and later Rev. J. T. Elwell were, with their wives, in charge of the field, and continued the laying of broad foundations of self-help among the disciples gathered. Both these brethren have gone to their rest. The present writer and wife succeeded to the work in 1884. Misses Higby, Tschirch, and Black are also connected with this mission. The people for whom this Bassein branch labors number perhaps fifty thousand. The entire Bible has been translated into the Pwo language under the superintendence of "Father" Brayton, now past eighty. The first meeting among the Pwos that the writer was ever privileged to attend-in January, 1884was the praise meeting of all Christian Pwodom, held at the neat village of Thayagone, to celebrate the completion of this work. I remember old pastor Mee Coo, the leading spirit of the Bassein association, pleading at that meeting that every Pwo Christian possess himself of a copy. He argued that, as neither husband nor wife wishes to wait for the cigar which the other may happen to be smoking, much less should the couple reckon a single Bible sufficient for their united use. He is a quaint old man with little education, but built large, and all the time thinking.
Alas ! for that word heathen. Of course we cannot get on without it, and it is true enough in some of the senses in which we use it j but when it comes to mean on all occasions an untutored savage, sitting on the seashore or in the darkness, with a gun in one hand, a spear in the other, a sword in his belt and his whole being calling out for blood, it isn't true j and yet that really is not so far from the picture that that word heathen calls up in the mind of Christ's average disciple at home. The deepest conviction, except one, that my missionary life has wrought into me is that all men are brothers, not simply in the judgment of charity, but as per the facts of the case. People have been surprised when I have said to them that I have worked among the Pwos for months at a -time without the thought ever crossing my mind that they are of a different race from myself. Once in a while it flashes over me, Why, these people are Rarens! Now this is not because I carry a tomahawk and thirst for blood, but because I really cannot see much difference between a Pwo Christian in a jungle in Burma and a Christian at home. They dress differently, of course, and their habits of thought differ in some marked particulars, but for the most part they live in the same spiritual latitudes.
I have in mind two of the former pupils of our school, Myat San and his gentle wife, Nahn Yeng. The former spent four years as a missionary among the Karens of Northern Siam, in the vicinity of Lakon. To reach the scene of this new work required a journey of a month on foot across the mountains, and by boat along the streams. Myat San, after his four years of work, returned to Bassein on furlough, and nearly three years ago was married to Nahn Yeng, to whom he had been for several years engaged. How well I remember this girl, her patient, never-varying sweetness and earnestness of character, her searching of the Scriptures, her constant watch-care over her younger brother and sister in school with her, her natural refinement, and the sweet face which mirrored her heart within! After the wedding in our large school building, the young couple set their faces toward Siam j but not until rumors of war and the gathering of dacoits or banditti along their route had reached them. Her husband wished Nahn Yeng to remain behind rather than risk the dangers of the journey, but she insisted on sharing them with him. They left us in March, 1890. For nearly two years no tidings came from them, except that she had been very ill with fever the early part of the way. Presently came inquiries from the little flock in Siam as to why their missionaries had not returned to them. At length it transpired that they, together with three of the converts from Siam who accompanied them, had been cruelly massacred by the Shan men whom they employed as guides. Four men received, I believe, five dollars each for their bloody work, having been hired by one who had some grudge against the Christians. The Church's martyr-roll was lengthened, and the two whom the mission had spent years in training for their work were in an hour transferred to higher service. The tender flock in their Siam home was left, and is still left, without human care. Our Society is, I understand, waiting for an American family to go to this Karen work in Northern Siam.
Perhaps seven years ago there came to us two young men, strangers, and evidently much stirred. They hastened to tell us that they had been sent from a remote village in a densely heathen district. Some time before, one of the villagers, while away from home, had come upon a copy of the Burmese tract, " Who is Man's Lord 1" written by the elder Haswell. He had brought it home with him, it had been read in the village, much interest had been stirred, and these two had been sent the long distance to Bassein, where, it was understood, a Christian missionary could be found. They were to seek further instruction, and to make inquiries about schools which,. it was said, the Christian missionaries conduct for the Pwo race. I can never forget their intense earnestness. The next tenn, Aung Poo, the younger of these two messengers, entered our Bassein school. He has remained under training ever since, and I have never seen any pupil of any nationality, American or otherwise, show more Christian pertinacity in the pursuit of knowledge. He must have been nineteen when he began. All this is to prepare himself for a life of proclaiming the gospel to his heathen nation, and he is now an honored student in the Karen Theological Seminary. When traveIling with him a few months ago, I was struck by the singular tact, as well as the eager intensity, which characterized his preaching among the heathen whom we visited. Tt is interesting to add that a church was organized in his village not long after his conversion, and that the other messenger who accompanied him on that first visit to the city has ever since been a leader in all good works.
It is pleasant to explain, by instances like these, why it is that the Christian Pwos so win both our esteem and our tender love. When one thinks back over the numbers who have borne estrangement from kindred for Christ's sake, he scarcely knows of which to speak. There rise in mind an old couple who, much of the time for thirty-five years past, have lived alone among scoffing heathen neighbors, and .who all this time have borne brave Christian testimony. It was my privilege three years ago to· witness the baptism of six of the family of one of our brethren who for thirty years had stood alone for Christ. A long seed-sowing, but he had his reward. Not all who are threatened with estrangement from friends are so fortunate nor so shrewd as was one of this man's relatives. His wife with outrageous clamor had averred that the day of his baptism would coincide with the day of their separation. Our quiet friend one day suddenly disappeared. No one could say where. As the days passed his wife began to find the house lonely. She began to make inquiries. Then she began to be anxious. Presently she began to be broken.hearted. She averred that if only her husband would come back, .he might be baptized or anything else, and welcome; and thereupon, after two weeks of voluntary exile, our friend reappeared as suddenly as he had disappeared.
The love of money is s~arcely a root of evil among the Pwos, though wasteful use of it sometimes is. They are very generous among themselves, and carry the same spirit very largely into their church relations. None of the churches receive outside aid, nor do their village schools. American funds are drafted upon for the salaries of the American missionaries among them, for rather less than half the cost of the work done by native evangelists among the heathen villages, and for a part of the expenses of the central schools, including plant. The Bassein plant is now worth about twenty thousand dollars. The entire membership of the twenty-nine churches give on an average a tenth of their incomes for Christian work. Noticing last year that the boys in the Bassein school were not using their new foot-ball ground, though the game is one to which ~ey are devoted, I inquired the reason. After some hesitation the fact waa elicited that they could not afford a new ball. Nevertheles!'l these same boys were giving into my hands every month more than the price of one. One Sunday last dry season, a young man who had just entered the school as teacher, having been for some years a pupil there, brought an offering amounting to twenty-five rupees, or about nine dollars. Some months before he had decided with himself that if ever he came to have a salary of his own, the first-fruits-that is, the pay of the first monthshould all go to the Master's treasury. This nine dollars was the first month's salary. For years he has given heavily of his scanty means. During the past seven years the pupils and teachers of the town school have contributed twenty-two hundred rupees through their" school subscription," in addition to about eight hundred rupees through other channels. At present three rupees about equal one dollar. These contributions have sufficed for eleven hundred feet of good fencing, two or three hundred books for the reading-room, a large glass case, for the incipient museum, cost of painting the new school-room, a covered walk, and for many other things. The missionaries in charge of the school have joined in these contributions, but to no such degree as to make it other than a genuine Karen enterprise. It should be remembered that the children's parents live in houses averaging from twelve to twenty dollars each in value, and I may add that I once, at a loss to myself, purchased a native house for forty cents. Families average probably a little over a hundred dollars each annual income. There have been many touching instances of selfdenial practised by these children and by their Pwo teachers in making these offerings."
But, after all, in the end how truly such giving has its reward! "There is that giveth and yet increaseth." Three foot-balls have been given to the boys since the incident of last year. and I now cry, Hold, enough '! To Son Tay, who gave the first-fruits, God returned within' a few months several times his donation; and the disciples at large rejoice, not only in the increase of their churches and jungle schools, but also in the marvellous way in which God has led them in providing increased facilities for the work of their central school in Bassein. This has one hundred and forty pupils. Five substantial buildings have been added-a chapel and schoolhouse combined, a home for the American ladies who teach in the school, a large dormitory for the girls, one for the boys, and recently a dining-haIl-besides land, grading, fencing, furniture, and apparatus. While speaking of this development of the school, one should not omit to say that every year a large proportion of the older boys and girls, instead: of going home, spend the first two months of the vacation in preaching and teaching in remote heathen or newly Christian villages. Most of our churches come into being by such means. These pupils, when the hot season has so far advanced that not even a native can work, return to their homes for three or four weeks of vacation before the rainy s~ason brings the new term of the town school.
'l'BE Elm OF T11E MOR:lO'N bIJ:LUS10N. rApn'
In connection with this school I can only mention further its flourishing Christian Endeavor Society, its very useful anti-betel-and-tobacco society, and the stirring kindergarten department in charge of Miss Black. The Karens are fine singers when trained, and render difficult selections in English with great sweetness and power. All are taught musical notation. The school having used for several years the Gospel ltymns Nos. 1-4, a supply of Nos. 5 and 6 has just been sent them, largely through the kindness of Mr. Sankey.
Finally, the heathen Pwos have shown for the past few years a marked willingness, not to say eagerness, to listen to the Gospel and to possess schools. To such an extent is this true that the writer has not at all been able to respond to the numerous calls from heathen villages for evangelistic visits; and it is not strange that under such circumstances it well-nigh breaks one's heart to be compelled to leave the field in impaired health. When shall we have money enough and men enough to provide each field with at least two reasonably congenial male missionaries, in addition to the ladies to whom chiefly is committed our indispensable school work 1 THE END OF THE MORMON DELUSIONo BY REV. D. L. LEONARD, OBERLIN, O.
Not, indeed, of the notorious Mormon creed and practice as a whole, but only of its worst, at least most obnoxious feature, polygamy j and besides, the mortal sickness of theocratic rule, another feature utterly un-American, and without which the amazing scheme of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young could never have attained to such frightful proportions or maintained itself so long. No doubt Mormonism as a " church" will live on and on, clinging to not a few mongrel ideas and customs, but no longer above the law of the land. by all possible means fighting Congress and the courts, hoping. by hook or by crook, in the end to win. From henceforth the Latter-day organization, relegated to an " innocuous desuetude," will take its place with various other odd and outlandish sects, very likely the least Christian and most absurd of them all, but to be opposed only with weapons intellectual and moral.
The course of events which justifies this optimistic statement extends backward at least ten years, and found its culmination in the recent amnesty proclamation issued by President Harrison for the relief of all offenders against the Edmunds law. That executive document may properly be regarded as the formal conclusion of the cause celebre of the U n~ted States V8. the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Therefore, as a matter of history, and in what may happily be regarded as an obituary notice, or brief funeral discourse, it cannot but be profitable to take note of some of the most' prominent steps attending the growth, and also the
TIlE END Olr TIlE MORMON DELUSION
decline, of what is without doubt the most astounding religious phenomenon to be found during this century within the bounds of Christendom.
Our backward glance will cover a period curiously close to exactly fifty years-1843-93. For though the vile beginnings may be traced to Kirtland, 0., and to 1831, yet the formal "authorization" of "celestial marriage" dates from the famous" revelation" given to the" saints" in Nauvoo in 1843. And the origin of Mormon polygamy is to be attributed to a threefold cause: first, to a religious fanaticism which knew no rational bounds; next, to an absurd conception, or exegesis, of the Scriptures wherehy what was permitted to the Hebrew saints was made the obligation, at least the privilege, of the saints of our times j and, finally, the accompaniment in the "prophet" and divers of his most influential followers of morals which recognized no law but selfish, carnal desire. By these prominent" elders" polygamy was practised in secret and increas. ingly for years, and then at length, to regulate the perilous innovation, and to prevent scandal and rebellion among the faithful, the" revelation" was duly coined and promulgated, in a quiet way, to all such as could be trusted, bnt to all the world besides for years was denied on all occasions and with language as forcible as could well be framed. Such utterly shameless paltering in a double sense has never been indulged outsid/l the Mormon " church."
Next, by a calamitous happening, soon after ensued the exodus from Illinois to Utah, and more than twenty years of isolation and independenee, freedom from interference and from observation even, with the Rocky Mountains and a thousand miles of the "Great American Desert" between them and any legal control. Hence all manner of vagaries and insane projects found unparalleled opportunity to live, thrive, and unfold themselves. Fixed thus in his secure nest, with the number of his helpless followers wondrously increased by an influx of converts from Great Britain, in 1852 Brigham Young felt strong enough to defy all opposition, and so proclaimed polygamy, defended it from reason and Scripture, and sent out a cloud of elders into all lands to advocate this "restored" boon, this institution so indispensable to humanity's weal. Meantime at home means most unscrupulous and inhuman were employed to compel assent and obedience, and for several years (1854-58) the so-called" reformation" ran its frenzied and infernal course, with" blood-atonement" teaching. and practice as one of the prominent features, and the Mountain Meadows massacre as one of the horrible results.
It was in these same days of stark madness that the hierarch Brigham presumed to play the rebel against Federal authority, and so an army was sent to bring him to terms. Though the immediate result was a miserable fiasco, yet from this time forward Congress undertook to frame measures to end the iniquity and shame. Thus in 1862 soldiers were sent to occupy Fort Douglas, in the immediate vicinity of Salt Lake, and have remained there to this day. It was in the same year also that the first bill against polygamy was passed. This being found insufficient to accomplish the end in view, in 1874 the Poland bill was put upon the statute-book; but the theocracy enthroned and supreme in Utah were able to nullify this law also. But finally, in 1882, the Edmunds law was enaeted, which, with various decisions of the Supreme Court to establish and define it, as well as certain amendments since made, with such eminent judges as Zane and such prosecuting attorneys as Dickson "to enforce it, has accomplished tIle herculean task. The entire polygamous fraternity was disfranchised, by the hundred the many-wived were clapped into prison, with heavy fines imposed, while a larger number fled and lived for years in concealment to avoid such evils. All which was a surprise at first, but presently sore diBappointment deepened into dismay.
As for the leaders, for a long period they were stout-hearted, full of bluster and defiance, while they called loudly on the brethren to stand firm for "conscience" and "religion," promising that in due season victory and peace would come to " Zion," while their enemies would be brought to confusion. At length, however, even the most deluded and determined began to see that no hope remained of being able successfully to resist the will of the nation. Brought to bay, though not in the least to repentance, in October of 1890 " president" Woodruff, the head of the church, uttered a piercing cry for quarter in the shape of a manifesto, or " revelation, " alleged to have been received from the skies, suspending indefinitely the practice and teaching of polygamy on account of the evil times on which the church had fallen. But much more, and decisively, in December of 1891 the officials of the Mormon church united in a petition for amnesty for past offences, coupled with solemn pledges that never more will they withstand the law. After waiting a full year the boon thus humbly sought has wisely been conferred. Thus, exit polygamy as a public question, a national menace, and source of continual disturbance . and disgust.
Thus far I have spoken only of what the law has done working through the President, Congress and the courts, as though it was by such weapons alone that the great battle had been fought and the victory had been won j bu~ at least two other forces have been at work, and most efficiently, throughout the entire period of struggle, without which the consummation over which we rejoice could scarcely have been secured, at least its advent would have been indefinitely postponed. The first is quite material in character. My reference is to the discovery in 1863 of rich mines of silver in Utah, and by the soldiers from California, who the year before had been sent to Salt Lake to keep the "saints" within bounds. This for the first time introduced into the territory a large population ready to " bid defiance to Brigham and his practices, and able to keep the nation well informed of what was said and done in the Great Basin. With these " Gentiles" the newspaper also made its advent, and when the story ot the downfall of polygamy is written, most honorable mention will be made
AT A MISSIONARY'S GRAVE
of the prominent part played by the Salt Lake Tribune. Then finally the telegraph and the Union Pacific Railroad in 1869 entered the longsecluded realm of the polygamous theocracy, and so the nation was brought into closest contact with the enormity, and the mortal struggle was joined. The scream of the first locomotive was the death-knell of the" twin relic" of barbarism.
Happily to these two mighty foes of Mormon error and iniquity was joined a third, equal to either in efficiency, and which not only hastened the day of jubilee, but made the fruits of victory vastly more substantia1. Though late in beginning, at length the Christian churches of the land bestirred themselves, and in 1865 the first emissary of as pure gospel entered the valley through Emigration Canon, and in the person of Rev. Norman McLeod, sent by the Congregational Home Missionary Society. Two years later the Episcopalians followed, and the Methodists and Presbyterians two y~f1rs later still, when the railroad was completed. From that day to this ministers and teachers by the score and hundred have plied their vocation in the presence of the " saints," diffusing intelligence, proclaiming the truth as it is in Jesus, and setting an a~tractive example of godliness.
How encouraging is this outcome to all lovers of righteousness, and, how favored is this generation above most, which has been permitted to behold the end of both slavery ,and polygamy!
AT A MISSIONARY'S GRAVE.
BY A. J. GORDON, D.D.
Passing through the historic town of Northampton, Mass., one January day of the present year, I stopped over a train in order to visit a grave. True to the end of the chapter is the saying of John: "Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. " The highest saints are often hidden from the eyes of those among whom they dwell while living, and their sepulchres are soon forgotten when dead. Before entering the gate of the old cemetery I inquired of several passers-by if they could direct me to the grave of Brainerd. "I never heard of him," was the reply, though those of whom I asked the question were by their own confession old residents of the place. I succeeded, however, through the kindness of a Christian gentleman of the town, in finding the grave; and brushing away the snow with which the tablet was covered, I read the inscription: " Sacred to the memory of REV. DAVID BRAINERD, the faithful and laborious missionary to the Stockbridge, ])elaware, and Susquehanna Indians of America, who died in this town, October 10th, 1747. Aged 30."
DOE)s it savor of saint-worship or superstition to be thus exploring old graveyards, wading through snow-drifts, and deciphering ancient headstones in a cold day in midwinter 1 Perhaps so, on the face of it j but let us justify our conduct. What if the writer confesses that he has never received such spiritual impulse from any human being 'as from him whose body has lain now for nearly a century and a half under that Northampton slab 1 For many years an old and worn volume of his life and journals has lain upon my study table, and no season has passed without a renewed pondering of its precious contents. "If you would make men think well of you, make them think well of themselves," is the maxim of Lord Chesterfield, which he regarded as embodying the highest worldly wisdom. On the contrary, the preacher and witness for Christ who makes us think meanly of ourselves is the one who does us most good, and ultimately wins our hearts. This is exactly the effect which the reading of Brainerd's memoirs has on one. Humiliation succeeds humiliation as we read on. How little have I prayed how low has been my standard of consecration " is the irresistible exclamation j and when we shut the book we are not praising Brainerd, but condemning ourselves and resolving that by the grace of God we will follow Christ more closely in the future. An early biographer states the case exactly, we believe, when he says of this remarkable man: "One must be either a very good or a very bad man who can read his life witboQt blushing for himself. If ardent piety and enlarged benevolence, if supreme love to God and the inextinguishable desire of promoting His glory in the salvation of souls, if persevering resolution in the midst of the most pressing discouragements, if cheerful self-denial and unremitting labor, if humility and zeal for godliness united with conspicuous talents render a man worthy of remembrance, the name of Brainerd will not soon be forgotten."
But our interest in Brainerd's grave lies especially in this: that, standing there, we stand at one of the founta~n sources of modern missions. We doubt if any single life has given such powerful and such permanent impulse to the great movement for the world's evangelization which we are now witnessing as that of this young man, who died at less than thirty years of age.
Within a few rods of his last resting-place stands the old elm which marks the residence of Jonathan Edwards, that theologian and Christian philosopher whom Robert Hall pronounces" the greatest among mortals." This may be an extravagant estimate, but it is the opinion of one of the greatest men of another of the greatest. Edwards in turn gives this estimate of Brainerd: "I never knew his equal, of his age and standing, for clear and accurate notions of the nature and essence of true religion and its distinctions from its various false appearances." We know something of the influence of Edwards in inaugurating the era of modern missions, but perhaps we have thought too little of the influences by which he himself was moved.
Let us recall the fact that in 1747 he issued his famQus appeal, entitled "An humble attempt to promote explicit agreement and vuible union 01 God'~ people in extraordinary prayer lor a revival 01 religion and the ad- vancement 01 Christ's kingdom on earth, pursuant to Scripture promises and prophecies concerning the last time. " This appeal was the echo of one issued a year before from Scotland. It had such a powerful effect upon one Englishman at least that a recent writer names it as one of the chief factors in "the making of Carey." But what especially moved Edwards in the writing of it g Our reply is more than a conjecture. During this year (1747) Brainerd was dying of consumption at the house of Mr. Ed- wards, in Northampton. In his sickness he was pouring out those incom- parable yearnings for the effusion of the Spirit and the advancement of God's kingdom in the earth, which we now read from his own.diary and from Edwards's report of them. We give one example from many. "He said to me one morning, as I came into his room," writes Edwards, " , My thoughts have been employed on the dear old theme, the prosperity of God's Church on earth. As I waked out of sleep I was led to cry for the pouring out of God's Spirit and the advancement of Christ's kingdom, for which the dear Redeemer did and suffered so much.' . . . He expressed much hope that a glorious advancement of Christ's kingdom was near at hand, . . . and on his deathbed a full persuasion that he should in heaven see the prosperity of the Church on earth and should rejoice with Christ therein." Turn now to Edwards's appeal and note its phraseology and spirit, and ask how much these yearnings of Brainerd had to do with it. Did he speak only from conjecture when recording his opinion that " however, Mr. Brainerd, during the last four months of his life, was ordi. narily in an extremely weak and low state, often scarcely able to speak j yet he was made the instrument 01 much more good in that space 01 time than he would have been if he had been well and in lull strength 01 body. " The greatest teachers are they who are the most docile scholars. Weare strongly convinced that Brainerd's deathbed was Edwards's missionary college, and that the latter meant all he said when he expressed his gratitude to the Providence which ordered that the devoted young missionary should pass away at his house, thus enabling him" to see his dying behavior, to hear his dying speeches, to receive his dying counsels, and to have the benefit of his dying prayers." It is enough that we ask the reader to note that it was during the months from July to October, 1747, that Brainerd was dying at the Northampton mansion, giving utterance continually to those earnest heart-breathings for the spread of the Gospel throughout the world j that during this same year Edwards issued from that mansion the appeal which has been named the "trumpet-call of modern missions j" and four years later, in spite of the urgent invitations to high positions which his acknowledged genius had won for him, the great divine chose the calling of his departed friend, and went, in 1751, as a missionary to the Stockbridge Indians.
If we thus infer how strongly, through Edwards, Brainerd wrought for the making of Carey, we know that he influenced him directly and strongly in his life in India. Weare familiar with the story of Charles Simeon, of Cambridge, hanging the portrait of Henry Martyn just over his study table, that those earnest eyes, looking down upon him, might perpetually admonish him to faithfulness in Christ's service, as if he were saying, " Be in earnest; don't trifle, don't trifle." In the same way did Carey hang up before him a mental portrait of the devoted young missionary to the American Indians, that he might feel its constant inspiration. For in the spiritual covenant which he drew up for the guidance of himself and his brother missionaries at Serampore occurs the clause: "Let us often look at Brainerd, in the woods of America, pouring out his very soul before God for the perishing heathen, without whose salvation nothing could make him happy."
Are we mistaken, then, in our impression that in standing at Brainerd's grave we are at one of the most potent sources of modern missions 1 Let us follow still further this stream of missionary influence. In Cambridge University, Henry Martyn one day heard Rev. Charles Simeon talking glowingly of the work of William Carey in India, and of " the untold benefits resulting from the services of a single missionary." This conversation put a thought into the heart of the young prizeman which did not find immediate development or expression. A little later he read the memoir of David Brainerd. "He was much struck with Brainerd's biography," says the writer of his life, "and, filled with holy emulation, he resolved to follow the noble example of a man who had jeoparded his life unto death on the high places of the heathen field." Thus did the impact of Brainerd's consecration move and determine another whom the Church reckons among her most eminent missionaries. Indeed, the character and career of Henry Martyn more nearly resembled that of Brainerd than any with whom we are acquainted. As we follow him to India and read the entry in his journal: "In my conversation with Marshman, the Baptist missionary, our hearts sometimes expanded with delight and joy at the prospect of seeing all the nations of the East won to the doctrine of the cross ;" and as we read another entry, " I lay in tears, interceding for the unfortunate natives of this country, thinking within myself that the most despicable sudra of India was of as much value in the sight of God as the King of Great Britain;" and again, "I found my heaven begin on earth ; no work so sweet as that of praying and living wholly to the service of God," we say, " Surely the mantle of Brainerd has fallen on Martyn." As strikingly alike as were these two missionaries in their ardent consecration, so were they in the circumstances of their early, death. Yet once more is the powerful influence of Brainerd traced in the making of a missionary. In the journal of Robert Murray McCheyne, we find this entry: " June 27th1 1832 : "Life of David Brainerd, Most wonderful man! What conflicts, what depressions, desertions, strength, advancement, within thy torn bosom! I cannot express what I think when I think of thee. To-night more set on missionary enterprise than ever."
McCheyne did not live to become a laborer on the foreign field, yet indirectly he was one of the most influential of missionaries. To him it was given to see clearly the relation of the conversion of Israel to the final ingathering of the Gentiles. "To seek the lost sheep of the house of Israel is an object very near to my heart," he writes. "I feel convinced that if we pray that the world may be converted in God's way, we shall seek the good of the Jews." How active and influential he was in in- augurating missions to the Hebrews need not here be told. Only let us not forget to what large proportions the humble beginnings of his day have grOWN, so that now there are not less than fifty missionary societies en- gaged in making known to Israel the claims of Jesus Christ as their true Messiah. Brainerd, Martyn, McCheyne-what a trio! They all died under thirty-two years of age, and yet how effectually they wrought! It was one power which moved them all; and yet we have seen how, by a kind of spiritual laying on of hands, the first was honored of God to com- municate apostolic grace to the others.
But we have wandered far away from the Northampton grave. Let us return to it for a little: I' When you see my grave, then remember what . I said to you while I was alive." So the young missionary said to the members of the Edwards household not long before he died. There could not be anything of ostentation in such a request, for Brainerd was one of the humblest of men, and the privilege of reading his instructive journals we owe to Edwards' refusal to regard the dying request of his friend that they should be destroyed.
~et us heed the injunction, and recall a few things which he said in his last days. " He dwelt much on the great importance of the work of min- isters," says Edwards, "and expressed his longings that they might be filled with the Spirit of God. Among many other expressions he said thus: 'When ministers feel these special gracious influences of the Spirit on their hearts, it wonderfully assists them to come at the consciences of men, and, as it were, to handle them with hands j whereas without them, whatever reason and oratory we make use of, we do but make use of stumps instead of hands.' "
Alas! is there not too much of this clumsy haudling of consciences in our day ~ The clumsiness of culture without the spirit, the illiteracy of that literacy which can read all books but that of the human heart-how much we see of this on every hand! By the Holy Spirit alone can we " come at men's consciences." As the Holy of Holies was lighted only by the glory of the Lord, so with man's inner court, which is called the spirit. It is only the Spirit of God that can illuminate the spirit of man. " The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him j neither can he know them." So have we read a hundred times, and yet how slow are we to believe the words! The pre- sumption of scholarship is visible on every. hand in these days. Men use " the scientific method" in the handling of the Word of God and the logical method in handling the hearts of men, with, alas ! too little recog· nition of the Spirit in many cases. And what is the result ~ As Uzziah, the king, presumed to enter into the sanctuary to offer incense unto the Lord, and as a judgment from the Almighty became leprous in the fore- head, so with those who make their learning the great qualification for ministering in divine things. They became rationalistic whose first care should be to become spiritual. And what is rationalism but leprosy. in the forehead, the brain disease which is begotten by unsanctified learning! The great missionary spoke from his own marvellous experience when he recommended the power of the Holy Ghost as the great qualification for reaching the hearts of men. With everything against him, the besotted and brutalized character of the congregation, on the one hand, and his own ignorance, in some instances of their dialect, on the other. he yet witnessed marvels of gospel triumph, so that once, having as his mouthpiece only a drunken Indian who acted as interpreter, he saw a veritable Pentecost fall on his savage congregation. Yes, noble missionary, here is the secret which all ambassadors for Christ at home and abroad have need to relearn of thee.
Another lesson closely connected we do well to heed. Mr. Edwards says: "The reader has seen how much Mr. Brainerd recommends the duty of secret fasting, and how frequently he exercised himself in it ; nor can it well have escaped observation how much he was owned and blessed in it, and of what benefit it evidently was to his soul. Among the many days he spent in secret prayer and fasting, of which he' gives an account in his diary, there is scarcely an instance of one which was not either at~nded or SOOT/. followed with apparent succe8S, and a remarkable ble3sing in special influences and consolations of God's Spirit, arid very often before the day was ended. "
This example and the accompanying comment are worthy of careful study. Only let the reader recur to the story of Brainerd's fast-days and prayer-days as they stand written in his own journals. No human experience which we have ever read brings us so near Gethsemane. Sometimes his intensity of supplication is such that his garments are wet through with his sweat; sometimes his self-abasement is so deep that he cannot lift up his head before God; and sometimes, again, he rises to such heights of spiritual victory that he seems able to grasp the whole world in his arms and lift it up before God.
When we think of the obscurity and humility of Brainerd's work, wrought as it was among a decaying race, and in the depths of forest through which he journeyed without companion or coadjutor, and then mark the vast influence of his life upon the great missionary movement of our times, we can reach but one conclusion-viz., that the greatest instrument which God has put intu thf) hauds of men is prayer. 'rhis agency truly mastered constitutes the missionary irresistible in the power and per- suasion of his work among the heathen, and enables him to open a fountain of influence which shall bless distant generations after he is dead. There is a beautiful paragraph of Fenelon's about" the community of spiritual goods," as he names it, the having in common of the inner experiences of grace which characterizes the brotherhood of Christ, so that, however divided, the Church has divine proprietorship in all the saints of all the ageR. The aptness of this observation deeply impressed us while standing at the Northampton tomb. This young missionary, toiling in prayer, in the solitary wilderness, was, though he knew it not, laying up a rich store on which those of other generations should feed. Read the memoirs of Payson, and learn how he was impressed and enriched by this devoted life. To McCheyne, Brainerd's journals seem to have been a kind of spiritual directory. "I yearn to climb near to God, to love and long and plead and wrestle and stretch after Him." So wrote the Scotch saint in one of his letters; but a marginal note reminds us that he is repeating a prayer of Brainerd's. Setting out on his mission to Palestine, McCheyne writes again: "I do hope we shall go forth in the Spirit, and though straitened in language, may we not be blessed as Brainerd was through an interpreter 1" Thus the inspiration lived on. Martyn was moved, as we have seen, by both Brainerd and Carey ; and in his early missionary days we find him holding sweet fellowship with the Serampore brethren, and entering with them into that spiritual covenant which brought Brainerd's picture before them at every reading. Puritan, churchman, and Baptist, they have all things in common; neither does any count aught of spiritual goods which he has his own. Not only possessions but p~ssessors are the general inheritance of the Church. " They are all ours; they who spake another speech, the dead who can never die. Chrysostom and Henry Martyn, buried at Tocat, are brothers with us in the same resurrection with the saintly Crocker as he lies in the hot sands of the African coast, and Judson, sleeping till the sea shall give up her dead. Stoddard, with his astronomy ending in the star of Bethlehem as he teaches it among the Nestorian Hills; John Williams, yielding his back to the smiters at Erromanga ; Morrison, giving the Bible to China; the faithful Moravians in the north-who shall separate us from these 1" * A community of spiritual goods truly, but more than that, "The goodly fellowship of the prophets and the noble army of martyrs" are all one and have all as one.
UNIVERSAL BELIEF IN GOD.-Fred Stanley Arnot found everywhere in Africa, he tells us, first the conception of a Supreme Power, and second. ly a future beyond death, so that we have these instincts everywhere to appeal to in our missionary work.
.. Dr. S. L. Caldwell's sermon, .. The Missionary Resources of the Kinl:dom of Christ."
THIRD DECENNIAL CONFERENCE-INDIA
* THIRD DECENNIAL CONFERENCE-INDIA.
BY REV. HOMER O. STUNTZ, NAINEE TAL, INDIA.
Allahabad had the honor of entertaining the first Decennial Conference in India in 1872 ; Calcutta played the host in 1882, and Bombay takes this rdle in 1892-93.
THURSDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 29TH, at 10 A.M., the third session was opened in the Wilson College, Chowpatty, Bombay, Rev. D. Mackichan, D.D., in the chair. The sight was impressive. The large hall was packed in every part. Between six and seven hundred missionaries, representing more than thirty societies, were present. Hero were men and women from the borders of Thibet, from the wilds of British Bhutan, from the jungles of Santhalia, Berars, Southern, Central. and Northern India. Men and women whose names are household words were being pointed out when I entered the hall.
The programme embraced twenty main subjects with all their ramifications. I can only speak briefly of a few of those which seem likely to be of the most general interest.
Work Among the Depressed ClasselJ and the Masses was the subject for the first day. It is widely known that the last five years has witnessed mighty strides in missionary work among these down· trodden ones. Op' position' to this work has been keen, and not always courteous. The discussion of this theme was not only evangelical, but, strangely enough to some of us, it did not bring out "so much as one discordant note. Some had come braced for a struggle to maintain their positions as workers among the submerged sixth of the empire, but their occupation was gone.
The discussion fell under three heads: (1) Nature of Instruction Given (a) before Baptism, (6) after Baptism j (2) Moral and Spiritual Results Produced j (3) Best Methods of Work for the Future.
There was a wide divergence of opinion and practice on the first point. Rev. A. Campbell, Free Church Mission, Manbhum, Bengal, said his work among the Kols had taught him to deal with each case on its merits. Hard and fast rules laying down certain memoriter lessons as conditions precedent to baptism in every case were a yoke that no missionary among these classes is able to bear. Instruction given must vary with the intelligence of tjle candidate. He required candidates for baptism to give intelligent responses to questions about their faith in a personal God, and in the Lord Jesus Christ as a present and eternal Saviour from sin; to promise renunciation of all heathen and idolatrous customs, and to pledge themselves to abstain from all intoxicants-the latter statement being loudly applauded. He had known one good old man who tried ih vain to memorize the Lord's Prayer and some portions of a simple catechism who .* The programme in Inll has appeared in the Jannary number, p. 55, and remarko on some of the papers in March, p. 205. yet had great power in Qxhortation, whose life was one long act of devotion, and whose prayers in the congregation led the people into the very presence of God. "It is not the man who has the most knowledge who is the best Christian." Other speakers agreed substantially with Mr. Campbell, Rev. D. Sutherland, of the Scotch Church, Sikkim, being inclined to be more strict as to the amount and character of instruction given before baptism -generally the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, and the Shorter Catechism, with baptism delayed usually six months.
Instruction after baptism was of many kinds. Broadly it might be said· to be such as would be suitable for and profitable to readers and non-readers respectively. With the former post· baptism instruction was tolerably easy of impartation. The regular divine services, the Word of God in their own tongue, tracts and periodicals, afforded opportunity for this work. With non-readers the task was great. Mr. Campbell and others alluded to the difficulty of getting the dwellers in remote villages together for meetings. In the day they are out earning their livelihood; at night they fear to venture from their huts in the jungle, for fear of wild beasts and serpents. For these, house·to-house catechising secured the only way of post.baptismal instruction.
As the last point, "How best to work for the future," Mr. Campbell said he knew nothing better than the advice of Paul to Timothy: "Preach the Word ; be instant in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine." It was shown by several speakers that word is being passed along the lines of these depressed classes that in Christ alone is there hope for them in this world, and in all that may come after this world. The movement is not confined to anyone mission nor to anyone part of the country.
The loyalty of these converts from despised classes was shown in some thrilling incidents. Mr. Sutherland told of a Gurkha who was baptized in British Bhutan at dead of night, and who, after the keen edge of his clansmen's anger had been blunted, began to preach Christ in the bazars and streets. His tribesmen came upon him one day while so engaged and said: ' , You must not speak any more in this name. If you begin it again we will kill you." The brave man answered: " Very well~ kill me j but remember that if you kill me God will raise up ten men in my place to do this work. "
Rev. A. Campbell declared it was not, as some had asserted, a low motive that led these sweepers and other pariahs to desire Christian education for their children. "Should we not rejoice that these, who have been so long down-trodden and despised, should begin to feel the stirrings of manhood and desire to assert their right to take a position along with other men ~"
On tlle whole, the discussion revealed a remarkable unanimity of sentiment regardiug the great advance among the lower classes, and the feeling was that we should unfeignedly rejoice that God is taking the poor Indian beggar and outcast from the dunghill and setting him among the princes of the kingdom of God.
Work Among Lepers was the subject of one of the sectional meetings in the afternoon. The speeches by Rev. G. M. Bullock and W. J. Richards dealt with the asylums under the care of the speakers. Great things have been done in the asylum at Almorah. Opened by a Christian civilian in 1849, it was made over to the Rev. J. H. Budden and his wife soon after, and has remained under the care of the London Mission at that point ever since. It has now 136 patients. Twenty-one of these received Christian baptism at one service recently j 500 have accepted Christ while within its walls during the fifty years of its history. One convert, Musuwah, Mr. Bullock described as the grand old man among lepers. He was III the asylum for thirty years, and totally blind for twenty years. His work for his brother and sister lepers was Christlike and tireless. His songs, his prayers, his faithful, loving rebukes all worked for the salvation and edification of those who were with him in the loathsome bonds of leprosy. After excruciating agonies, borne with" a triumphant patience,". he passed last year to the pure and painless life at God's right hand. Inmates live in small cottages containing four each. These are built in rows of six, and each row is under the care of a man or woman overseer from among the patients, called a pathan. These puthanB form the panchayat, or Committee of Control. Separate Bible classes are held for men and women. Attendance upon these and upon all other religious services is wholly voluntary. But when the poor leper hears of the hope in Christ, the dark cloud of his despair lifts. He hears that there is hope for him, and the message is so sweet that compulsion is not needed to secure his attendance at the services. Separation of apparently healthy children from leprous parents has often proved effectual in preventing the appearance of leprosy in the children. Authority to compel separation is lacking, and parental love is not always unselfish.
Rev. W. R. Winstone, Wesleyan, Upper Burmah, told of starting an asylum in Mandalay in 1890. All classes of the public were ready to help. Money came from Buddhists as well as from Christians. God has blessed the beginning. Sixty inmates have come in in the year and a half of its existence. No help had been received from outside of Burmah except one subscription from the Prince of Wales. One civil officer gave five hundred rupees ($170). There have been a few conversiqns. One old woman with feet and arms both rotted away, and with her eyeballs eaten out by the awful disease, crawled moaning to the door soon after the asylum was opened. She was admitted, and washed j her wounds were mollified with healing oils, and she was told of Jesus and taught to pray. A few days after, being in unspeakable agony, she cried: " Oh, Isa Masih, take me, a poor, dying leper j wash out my siu, and take me to live with . thee. " These were her last words. Who shall doubt that her cry was heard ~ Mr. Winstone placed a high estimate on the evidential value of leper work. It is "fruit meet" for followers of Him" who went about doing good," and will do more to commend our purely spiritual work than we can estimate. .
It was the unanimous opinion of all present that government should be asked to segregate lepers by law. At least all who appeared as public beggars should be rigidly secluded in asyhlms.
SECOND DAy.-The Native Ohurch in India-Its Organization and Self-Support, was the subject discussed.
Thoughtful papers by Mr. Kali Charan Banerji, B.A., B.L., Calcutta, and Rev. Jacob Chamberlain, D.D., Madanapalle, Madras, were in our hands. Mr. Banerji is a convert of Dr. Duff, and was a member of the Free Church of Scotland. He has now set for himself the task of uniting all the churches in India under one" canopy," which has been called" the Christo Soma,j." The drift of his contention and proposal may be gathered from the following short quotations from his most suggestive paper: " That the missionaries of India, the majority of whom represent for- eign missions, should, in confe"ence assembled, embody in their pro- gramme the conception of ' the native Church,' is an indication of mo- mentous significance. It signifies on their part a readiness to recognize the ideal that the native Church in India should be one, not divided j native, not foreign. Nay, it conveys the promise that henceforth they shall not impose by rule upon the converts they are privileged to gather the accidents of denominational Christianity, at once divisive and exotic, with which theY themselves happen to be identified. . . ." Mr. Banerji calls essentials" substantive" Christianity, and thc accidents of organiza- tion and creed" adjective" Christianity. This will explain the next quota- tion: "The ground being thus cleared for Indian Christians to lay a foundation of adjective Christianity for themselves, they should, in view of unity and native development, start with as simple a basis as possible, admitting of initial union and of concerted progress toward a more com- plex goal. There must be no cutting or clipping when substantive Chris- tianity is in the question. Not one iota of it should be sacrificed at the altar of adjective unity. But as regards matters of procedure, the bond of union should be so formulated as to allow freedom on points, the ac- centuation of which might lead to dismemberment. Such a plan of opera- tions is called for at the present stage to enable Indian Christians to op- pose a united front against the array of unbelief against them, as also to secure the needful co-operation of leaders of Indian Christian thought to work out a suitable system of adjective Christianity for natives of India. . . . Subscription to what is known as the Apostles' Creed and the appointment of committees to regulate the maintenance of Christian .ordinances and of missionary effort might be sufficient for the purpos~ of a starting point j and such a basis, we believe, would lay an effectual foundation for the native Church in India, if only the foreign churches in' the field were prepared to exercise the forbearance of faith. "
Dr. J. L. Phillips, Secretary of the India Sunday-school Union, said he would offer the testimony of one of the oldest, wisest, and most spiritual native pastors in India as his own testimony. This old man had said to him recently: "We are not ready for union. We are not ready to trust one another, and we have not properly trained our children. Only the Holy Ghost can lead in suc)l a far-reaching matter, and we must work on in love, ready to follow His leading when God's time comes for union." So he would say with the Revelator, " He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear- what the Spirit saith unto the churches."
~ev. J. Shilliday, Irish Presbyterian, Guzerat, said he was reminded of a proverb, "Catch your hare before making your soup." He would emphasize the gathering rather than the organization of the Church. First get the Church. Life always compels an organization for itself.
Self-support was also thoroughly threshed out so far as it could be on paper and platform. All recognized the vital need of securing an allarollnd self-support at the earliest possible hour. Mr. Kali Charan Banerji deprecated making self-support a mere matter of rupees. He would have it include the supply of an indigenous pastorate and the erection and care of churches, together with aggressive missionary work.
Rev. F. Hahn, Gossner's mission, spoke at length in favor of a minute scheme for even taxiug assistants and communicants, as well as foreign missionaries, so as to swell funds raised in India. In these latter suggestions he met with no sympathy. He urged receiving contributions in kind. Let the people bring their vessels of rice and wheat, and drive their kids and cattle to God's house, and let the proceeds be put into the Lord's treasury. Insistence upon support in money only hindered self-support among the poor villagers. In his mission it was no uncommon thing to sec a farmer lead his bullock to the church and fasten him to the doorhandle as a token that he was an offering of substance unto the Lord. He also pleaded earnestly for keeping the expenses of the mission machinery at the lowest possible figure. " Weare working for a condition of things which poor people can perpetuate." Pastors should be trained men, and trained men cost money. An inferior order of pastors was being started among them.
Bishop Thoburn said our efforts toward self-support had begun at the wrong end.We have been thinking of and planning for the cities. We must plan for the jungle villages. In December of 1903 there willbe a million Christians in India. What shall be done then? A trained pastorate will be utterly out of the question. We err in making the percentage of giving demanded from our Christians too high, because salaries of pastors are too high. V{e ask native Christians to give two annas in the rupee-one eighth. Have we thought what that percentage would mean . for ourselves? He had proposed one pice a family per week (two cents a month). Let the circuit system be worked, and a few hundred families in contiguous villages could support their own ministry. We must plan for the villages. The strong men and the resources are there, poor as the out- look seems.
THIRD DAY.- Work Among· the Educated Classes of India occupied the forenoon session.
Mr. Modak called attention to the rapidly increasing number of educated Indian youth, whose education had .driven them from their old anchorages, but had left them wholly adrift on " the sunless sea of doubt. " Many were atheists. They must be evangelized. Many are convinced, but wait for relatives. He had an uncle who was supposed ready for baptism, but who had gone to bring his wife, and had not returned.
Rev. H. U. Weitbrecht, Ph.D., of the Punjab, pleaded for more intimate social touch with these educated classes. He said we must treat them as men and brothers. We must get close to them if we would win them for Christ. Love could not be simulated. None are more keen to the mere simulation of love and sympathy than the educated Indian. He differed from the position of Mr. Slater in the paper before the conference. He believed we needed dogma. Mr. Slater pleads for" less dogma and more life ;" he knew no dogma worth the name which was not built on facts, and these were the corner· stones of all trnth. Dr. J. C. R. Ewing, of Lahore, said that the greatest hindrance to work among these young men which he had found in the Punjab and Northwest India is the society known as the Arya Somaj. Its members were in open and constant antagonism to the Gospel. His greatest difficulty was to get to see what they thought about things. When he could see what their thought was, then he could plan his campaign to win them. We who would work among educated Indians must interest ourselves in those things which interest them-social, mental, and political. Young Hindu students founded a regular prayer-meeting at his college, and when the founder died the missionary was called in to offer prayer. He saw encouragement in this. A native Christian, now in government employ, had told him that )lis conversion was due, under God, to letter after letter written him by a busy missionary who once travelled seventy miles in the hottest time of the year to see him about his soul's salvation. Rev. Maurice Phillips, L. M. S., Madras, said that the painful part of this whole question is that the only organized opposition which Christianity has yet had to meet has been from the efforts of Hindu graduates of our universities. They remain as bigoted and as bitter against the Gospel as the most ignorant village gura. The Hindu Tract Society had for its president a graduate of the Madras Uni. versity. His creed was almost violently idolatrous. lIe was convinced that this conference should make a call to all the home churches for especial efforts to save this large and growing class of the Indian community. (This statement was enthusiastically applauded.) Rev. H. Haigh, Wesleyan Mission, Mysore, called for sympathy for thc,.;c youug fellows ill their mental difficulties. Thcse were great. Ve should put ourselves iu their places. Their education had made it impos- sible for them to be honest in a profession of orthodox Hinduism. They hear of educated unbelievers in the Yest, and, from their own position, conclude that just as education in India produces a mental revolt against local orthodoxy, so education in England produces a similar revolt against English orthodoxy. 'Ve must sympathize with them, and be patient and hopeful. He saw many signs of hope. A highly educated Brahman said in his hearing not long ago: "The best thing for us all would be to go to sleep to-night and wake up Christians."
Rev. R. A. Hume, M.A., Ahmednagar, said we must approach the whole man as the Y. lf. C. A. are doing. We must keep Christ to the front. Our work will succeed among this, as among other classes, when it is done in the Spirit of Christ and for the glory of God.
On Sunday the various pulpits of the city were filled by visitors, but at three P.M. we all met at Wilson College Hall and heard a magnificent resume of the first century of modern missions. The speaker was the veteran Baptist missionary, Rev. G. Kerry, of Calcutta; the text, He thanked God and took courage, Acts 28 : 15. Space forbids even a brief account. Following the sermon was the united holy communion. I shall leave the reader to imagine the scene, which proved in a marked way how rapidly our Lord's thrice-repeated prayer for the oneness of His people is being answered.
FOURTH DAY.-The subject was explosive. Many braced themselves for warfare-mild perhaps, but nevertheless for war. Education as a Missionary Agency is a theme which might easily provoke a sharp discussion. Critics have not been wanting who have most severely arraigned the whole policy of education on both a priori and posteri01'i grounds. Happily only one interruption marred the perfect harmony and Christlike spirit of th!) session, and that was at once suppressed by the cool firmness of the chairman, Dr. Hooper.
Dr. J. C. R. Ewing was the first speaker. He still believed educational mission work legitimate and as important as any. No one department could claim all success. Bazar preaching is often barren j so aiso are zenana work, medical work, literary ·work. But shall they therefore be given up 1 Never! As the first requisite for success in higher educational work the school or college must be permeated by a Christian spirit. Next, the Bible must be carefully and enthusiastically taught. " It is the Gospel of the Old and New Testaments, and not our thoughts about them, which we must give our pupils." The school-room is the educational missionary's preaching-place. Intimate personal relationR must be kept up between the professor and his pupils. The comparative barrenness of this work in recent years is due largely to the organization of so many half-way houses as the various somajes of India. Fair and candid criticism is welcomed. We who are in the work are the first to acknowledge how much we fall short of our ideals. More and more should all engaged in this work seek the enduement of power from 011 high.
Rev. L. B. Wolf, M.A., Guntur, reviewed the papers which were in our hands, concluding (1) that the New Testament had no prohibitive will against higher education as a missionary agency; (2) that such work fills a gap between the ignorance and superstition of Hinduism in general and the dangers incident to a morally colorless education such as might be had at purely government schools; (3) that it is necessary, if wc would leaven the thought of educated young India with the Gospel; (4) that educational missionaries preach the Gospel of Jesus .Christ, full and free, and if results are slow iu appearing they should not be charged with the blame.
Bishop Thol urn prefaced his remarks by saying that he wished there might be a hundred more colleges like the one whose abundant hospitality this conference is sharing. Many rush to the extreme of criticism by making the mistake of supposing that because something is best, other things are not good. We need to remember that all our lives converge upon one point. He had not found an ideal Christian college even in America. Asking us to remember what he had said at first, he hoped the time would soon come when, following providential in.dications, we could have Christian colleges i.n India in two senses : Christian pupils and Christian teacher,. Make the atmosphere as thoroughly Christian as possible, frame the work with a view to Christiav- pupils, and let it be understood that Hindus and Mohammedans are welcome if they will come on these terms. He agreed with Dr. Ewing in believing that that which makes an institntbn of real missionary value is the Christian atmosphere pervading the class-rooms. He had learned since coming to the conference that many supposed the mission he represented to be opposed to educational work. Two colleges in Lucknow and all the system of primary, secondary, and high schools feeding these colleges ought to be sufficient reply to such a baseless claim. He believed a great, overshadowing Christian university for India to be the goal toward which we should pray and labor. Then from bottom to top it could be wholly Christian.
Kali Charan Banerji and Dr. Mackichan opposed the idea of a Christian university, on the ground that it would separate the native Christian from their non-Christian brethren, and thus a powerful factor would be dropped out of the problem of winning these for Christ.
In the afternoon an interesting Sabbath discussion took place, in which the suggestion of the Rev. F. W. -Warne, B.D., of Calcntta, that a Sab· bath union should be formed, was heartily endorsed.
FIFTH DAy.-The Social Oondition of the Lowe?· Glasses was discussed in the forenoon. The question affects South India chiefly, and has arisen from the discovery of the semi-enslaved condition of the pariahs there. It was agreed that the surest way to elevate them is to evangelize them. Something, howe'er, might be done by way of seeking governmental interference on their behalf. Missionary Comity occupied one of the sectional meetings in the afternoon.
Rev. A. Clifford, C. M. S., bishop-elect of the see of Lucknow, advocated the old district system pure and simple. He would have all extension take the form of occupation of new territory. If we did otherwise we were not working according to the mind of the Spirit.
Bishop Thoburn closed the debate. He said that India has tried the district system for a hundred years, and it has utterly failed. District lines are not observed even by those who advocate them, as every missionary of experience knows. Besides, no good purpose would be served if they were observed. No real work of God hinders any other work of God. Is it possible that we cannot work together? He was surprised that the members of the conference dared to hope for a condition of things on the mission field which was impossihle of attainment in the life and work of churches in' England and America. At every stage of his missionary life of thirty-three years he had been met by this charge: "You are interfering." He began a Sunday-school in Naini Tal years ago, but had to shut it up because it interfered. If this policy which is being advocated so strenuously had been strictly adhered to they would not have seen him at this conference. In all probability he would have been still shut up in the little mountain province of Gurwhal, safe in his district! When he entered Cawnpore he was told he was interfering. Souls were there to whom no one was even pretending to minister; but when he- went to them, in response to a clear, providential opening through which God had given many souls, opposition was at once aroused. Just now he had in his· pocket earnest entreaty from 15,000 people in a district to come and preacli the Gospel to them, but he could not go to them without an infraction of the rule advocated. And why should he go? Because the mission claiming to occupy that field not only does not, but cannot work for the people who send this request. Oannot, because they have not been led, as our mission has been led, to the poor and lowly, and have learned how to approach them. Will not, if the history of the mission and the declared pnrpose of the staff can furnish an answer. What shall be done? Here are people ready to accept the Lord Jesus Christ. They seek instruction with a view to being discipled unto Christ by baptism, but instruction may not be given, nor, indeed, any advance made, because the territorial liJ;l.e of another mission which does nothing for those people is in the way. He was ready to go beyond others in the matter of taking workers from other missions. He was prepared to say he would not take them at all. His speech was well received, and made a deep impression.
The third decennial conference is over. The chief value will come in the line of deepened fraternity and charity, and more definite expectations that the kingdom of God is really coming. Such a force of godly workers, bending every energy to this work and seeking guidance and power from the Spirit of the living God, must bring to pass the salvation of many souls.
INTERNATIONAL D~PARTMENT
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND OONDUCTED BY BEV. 1. T. GBAOEY, D.D.
Mexioo, in the Toils of the Papal Power, even from Jesuit historians. Thirst Struggling for Liberty.* for gold led Cortez to commit the most inhuman and atrocious cruelties; but BY BEV. CHARLES W. OUSHING, D.D., they were endorsed by the Archbishop of Mexico. With the lands divided into ROCHESTER, N. Y. large estates and given to the Spaniards, miserable huts built for the natives, The picture of the seventeen states wages fixed by the landlords, regula- south of the United States in the year tions preventing workmen going from 1851 was a very dark one. Among the one estate to another without approval 48,000,000 in Central and South America of the landlord, Romish churches which -a population exceeding that of the they were compelled to attend, and the United States and Canada combined- Inquisition to enforce all, their condithere was not one evangelical mission. tion was as deplorable as could be imary speaking their language. Nearly agined. every ruler was bound to make Romish interests supreme at any cost. Neither The Church amassed enormous the Bible nor light from any other wealth. In 1850 the Minister of Public source was tolerated. Santa Anna was Works said it was not less than $180,- the chosen tool of the papacy in Mexi- 000,000 ; others said it was $300,000,000. co, and Spain supported the terrible The priests were the recognized banktyranny of Rome. In our prosperity ers. Thirty.two hundred and twenty. we had well. nigh forgotten this down- three ecclesiastics spent$24,OOO,000 antrodden people. Webster said: "Our nually. Twelve bishops had $539,000, greatest danger is, that we have a sis- while the Archbishop of Mexico had a ter republic on our southern border, salary of $130,000. Wilson says he almost in mortal agony, and no one owned nearly one half the property of among us seems willing to lend it a the city of Mexico, holding mortgages helping hand.'" upon the houses of multitudes, who were thereby subject to his will. The Pope had assumed to give to Spain absolute authority of all in this The sums lavished upon churches and new world-souls, bodies, property and the paraphernalia of priests is almost service of all, for all time ; reminding incredible. The figure of the" Virgin one of the scene when the devil pro- of Remedies" has three petticoats decoposed to give to Christ all the kingdoms rated with diamonds, pearls, and emerof this world. when he had no rightful alds, at a cost of $3,000,000. The claim to a square foot of it. largest of fifty convents in the city cov- ered four large blocks. After it was The conquest of Mexico by Cortez, confiscated the author purchased 185 the destruction of the historical records, feet of it in depth for the mission of and the conversion of the people to the Methodist Episcopal Church; and ROll1anism (Christianity). rather than this was not more than one-fiftieth of die, is an awful chapter of history. the whole building The extravagant statements of Cortez in regard to his own victories, as well as Rome controlled all the forces of soto the number of human sacrifices of. ciety: If rulers were hostile, they were fered in Aztec worship so fully endorsed bought or deposed. Hence there were by Prescott, are shown to be unreliable, 50 governors in 41 years.
• H Mexico in Transition; from the Power of The degenerate character of this reo Political Romanism to Civil and Religiou. ligion, the shocking immorality of the Liberty." By William Butler, D.D. New greater part of the masses and of the York: Hunt & Eaton. $2,00. doctrines of purgatory, together with the doomed men, be said: "Your masthe bald idolatry of the worship of the ter, Spain's minion, for one life might Virgin Mary, could have no other effect have saved YOl1 all. So deadly was bis than to degrade any people who should hate, that he would sacrifice three hunbelieve and practise them. dred of his friends rather than forego tbis one sweet morsel of vengeance! ' Fortunately there was an occeasional Even I, who am no viceroy, have three priest, as there is to-day, who had inde- hundred lives for my father's; but pendence and courage enough to resist there is a nobler revenge than this. Go! this tide and openly declare for the You are all free! Go find your vile mastruth. Foremost among these was Hi- ter, and henceforth serve him if you dalgo, the first Governor of Mexico can!" With streaming eyes they rushed by" the national will," and the ., Patri- to their deliverer, gave themselves to arch of Mexican independence." He his cause, and remained faithful to the had been teaching his parishioners the end. use of some industries; but the viceroy ordered the industries destroyed, and In 1820, under fresh kindling of there was much talk of turning Hidalgo hope, renewed efforts for independence over to the Inquisition; but undaunted, were made in which the infamous Iturhe organized his forces and declared the bide figured, being crowned emperor as independence of Mexico, as ,. captain- Augustine I. His treachery being disgeneral of the forces." He was finally covered, he was banished ; but returnbetrayed, captured, degraded from the ing fourteen months later, he was exepriesthood, bound with chains and fet- cuted. This was the end of the empire, ters, and handed over to the civil au- and a republic, without religious freethorities for execution. Fortunately dom, was established in 1824, with for the cause another brave, honest General Victoria as President, which priest, Morelos, had joined the patriotic continued until 1829. host–and two braver men than these never .lived-who at once became the Following this came the struggle leader. He organized a CongreRs to which rescued Texas and California give the movement a natioual character. from the dominion of papacy. In Mexi- Taken prisoner November 15th, 1814, co, in 1847·, during the war, Bibles were he said: " My hfe is nothing if tbe freely introduced. and many of the peo. Congress be saved." Degraded by the pIe met together to read them ; but as bishop, and handed over to the civil soon as the army was gone, the priests power, it was determined that he wherever possible seized these Bibles should be shot in the back as a traitor. and burned them with indignities. Evi- Following him, the two Bravos, father dence is not wanting to show that Rome and son, were among the most sacrific- was oppoRed to the United States, and ing patriots. When the father was taken that she was planning for the overthrow prisoner and condemned to be sbot, the of our Government. viceroy offered him his life if he would persuade his brother and son to join the Her intolerance has been shown in royalists. The offer was scorned. At every country where she has held the this moment the son had three hundred power. An illustration is found in Spanish prisoners, many of them men Ecuador, where the treaty was negoof influence, whom he offered to ex- tiated with Antonelli, the Pope's Secrechange for his father ; but the viceroy tary of State. The first declaration refused. So great was the grief of young was: "The Roman Catholic and apos- Bravo that he ordered all these prison- tolic religion is the religion of the Reers to be shot. At sunrise, when his public of Ecuador. The existence of army were confronting the prisoners any other workship, or the existence of ready to obey the order, riding before any society condemned by the Church will not be permitted by the repUblic. The education of the young in all public and private schools shall be entirely eluding religious liberty. The Congress conformed to the doctrines of the Ro. devoted a full year to framing a consti.
man Catholic religion." Hence says tution on the basis of the "law of Lord Palmerston : ,. In countries where Juarez." Of this Mr. Seward said, he Roman Catholics are in the minority, "considered it the best instrument of they instantly demand not only tolera- the kind in the world." But backed by tion but equality; but in countries the influence of the Pope, it was fought where they predominate, they allow by the clerical party, who undertook to neither toleration nor equality." terrorize the people by threatening to Early in the reign of Pius IX. he de- shoot, without investigation, all who ceived the people of Rome by making supported this constitution.
them believe that he was ready to give Less than three years after Louis them a liberal constitution. Leading Napoleon was placed in power in France men in America rejoiced-as they do to- he overthrew the republic and an- day-in the new spirit which had taken nounced himself as Emperor of France.
possession of the Pope; but alas! when This was quickly endorsed by the Pope, the people demanded the fulfilment of' and, says Victor Hugo, "by the clergy, his promise, he assumed to believe that from the highest to the lowest."
his life was in danger and fled to Gaeta Louis Napoleon now turned to the in the disguise of a lackey, The Ro- establishment of a monarchy in Mexico, mans proceeded at once t0 organize a with the avowed purpose of dividing constitutional assembly. closed the In- republican influence in America. In quisition, provided means for education, Rome and at Miramar efforts were made and then invited the Pope to return as to hasten the departure of Maximilian the head of the Church. reserving the for Mexico. He had already accepted right to control in civil affairs. This the crown. Warnings made him hesi- was spurned by the Pope, and he called tate, but reassured- he hastened his upon the Catholic powers to rescue him preparations. As Napoleon's army ad- by force of arms. Louis Napoleon re- vanced the Mexican President was sponded with 40,000 men, who, with forced to retire from the city of Mex- Austria, crushed for the time these lib- ico.
erty-loving Romans. Restored to au- All things being ready, Maximilian thority, the Pope was more malignant went to Rome for the papal benedic- than ever. One hundred and eighty.six tion. Receiving full assurance of the persons were shot in Bologna alone, but perpetuity of his dynasty and the in the widst of the cruelty there stands "blessing of heaven upon his enter- out one ruler, Charles Albert, king of prise," the Pope intimated that when Sardinia, who, aided by the immortal he had succeeded in Mexico he might Cavour, kept his little province from then exert his influence upon" the being stained by the blood of the per- other disorderly republics of the new secutors, world." The Senior Director of the In 1853 Santa Anna was again made Press of the Cabinet of Maximilian de- President for one year. Without delay clared that" the object of Napoleon in he overthrew the republic, announced the intervention was to checkmate the himself as permanent dictator, recalled United States." The ostensible pur- the Jesuits, and proceeded to establish pose was to elevate the races by bring- a monarchy. The excitement which ing them under monarchical and papal followed caused his overthrow, trial for rule. Strange that Rome dare boast of treason, confiscation of property, and her love for education and power to ele- sentence to – be hanged. President vate the people, while the history of Juarez commuted his sentence to ban- Italy and Spain is open before the ishment for eight years. Then followed world!
the attempt to establIsh a free State, in- Maximilian soon found it impossible to carry out the schemes of the Pope, directed that the three chief offenders should be tried legally by court.martial. and in consequence was abandoned by Maximilian declared court-martial in. competent to try him. The trial lasted him. Finding himself deceived by the two full days, and all that the most able lawyers could do was done. The fact representatives of the hierarchy of that the legation of Spain, France, Prus. sia, Belgium, Italy, Austria, and Eng- Rome, he did not hesitate to tell them land had protested against the bloody rule of the men he had kept in power, so. He had been trying to draw to his and that in spite of this he had ar- ranged to perpetuate this reign of tersupport some of the Mexican republi- ror, told powerfully against him. When condemned, the Emperor of Austria, cans, even proposing an interview with Queen of England, and Emperor of FranQe besought the United States Gov- President Juarez, with the hope of se- ernmentjo use any legitimate means in its power to prevent the execution of curing concessions which would result Prince Maximilian. Accordingly,Mr. Seward very delicately sent this expresin Juarez's co.operation with him, The sion to Mr. Romero, but without avail. After Maximilian was sentenced to be dignified and patriotic reply of the shot he again attempted to escape through intrigue. The officer who had President dispelled all hope in this him in charge received through Prin· cess Salm Salm, a devout Roman Catho· direction. Driven to extremities, Maxi. lic, the offer of two drafts of $100,000 each, drawn by Maximilian on the immilian lost his magnanimity, and be. perial family in Vienna; on condition that he was allowed to escape. The came vindictive in the extreme, an· officer was only to close his eyes and turn his back for ten minutes, and all nouncing that sympathizers with the would be accomplished. The plot being disclosed, the princess was compelled republican cause would be regarded as to leave for San Luis Potosi.
brigands, to whom no mercy would be Maximilian was shot on the morning of June 19th, 1867 ; but the war did not shown. stop. Marquez, Maximilian's command- er-in-chief, prolonged the siege of Mex- Meanwhile Napoleon had grown weary ico for seventy days. Finally, through the representative. of our Government, of his thankless undertaking, and in urged by other foreign ministers, it was arranged wiih General Diaz of the 1866 determined to withdraw his troops republican army that the foreign legion, mostly Austrians, should be spared on and the grant for their support. Alarmed condition that they cease hostilities, shut themselves in the national palace at this desperate state, Carlota deter- and remain there; whereupon the white flag was raised over the Halls of Montemined to cross the ocean alone for the zuma. When the army took possession of the city it was found that the inpurpose of securing help ; but Napoleon famous Marquez had during the night escaped with his booty; but it wal!l was deaf to her appeals, Austria's power had been broken by Prussia, and 'her forlorn hope was aid from the Pope; but alas! her appeals even for sympa· thy from him were fruitless. All this so affected the despairing Carlota that she lost her reason.
And now, despairing of further aid from Napoleon, and apprehensive of fur.
ther disaster, Maximilian resolved se· cretly to leave the country; but Mar- shal Bazaine refused to allow him to embark unless he should formally abdi- cate. The Church party, alarmed lest their plan should fail entirely, rallied with men and money for Maximilian, so that for a time success seemed as- sured. '
Napoleon, compelled by our Govern.
ment, evacuated Mexico March 11th, 1867: Maximilian, fearing that his own generals were to abandon him to save their own lives, offered to surrender on condition that his life be spared; but anything less than unconditional sur- render was refused. President Juarez understood that political Romanism in Italy to enter Rome. Victor Emmanuel, Mexico was dead. though urged by the people to do it, re- fused to 88sume control of the govern- July 15th, 1871, the 'Wife of President ment, until by vote of 50,000 people de- Juarez returned from the long exile in claring for him as their ruler, against 49 the United States, sent home by the only for the Pope, he took possession of United States revenue cutter Wilderness. the city. It was not strange that the President Juarez arrived from the north poor old Pope should declare that he the llame day. Great was the rejoicing was abandoned by his own children ; but at the capital when, with the political the mayor of the city declared at a pubpower of Romanism crushed, the people lic banquet that" the people of Rome met their loved and trusted President, to rejoice togelJier and celebrate the triumph to would rather see their city perish in if constitutional republicanism and religi<nts ashes than again be subjected papal domination… liberty. This noble man was worthy of all honor which could be conferred upon Nevertheless the Pope appealed to him. The laconic message of Victor the governments of Europe to unite to Hugo adtiressed to him on June 20th, restore to him his throne. Be declared 1867. told the story: ., America has two to Emperor William that any baptism, heroes, Lincoln and thee-Lincoln, by Protestant as well as Romanist, gave whom slavery has died; and thee, by him claims and control over all who whom liberty has lived. Mexico has had received the rite, to compel conbeen ~ved by a principle. by a man. formity to the rest of Rome's require- Thou art that man !" ments.
In 1867 the body of Maximilian wss Equally swift retribution followed asked for by his brother, Emperor of Emperor Napoleon. His surrender to Austria. The request was promptly Emperor William at Sedan is most piticomplied with, and the remains were ful. Approaching the majestic old em- peror, he said: " Unable to die at the sent to Vera Cruz at the expense ot the head of my army, I tender to your maj- esty my sword." Says Mr. Gladstone: Mexican Government, with an escort of " History records no more striking ex- 100 dragoons and a number of officers. ample of swift retribution of chimerical ambition. " The two lawyers who defended Maximilian declare that President Juarez, Of Maximilian and tbe beautiful Carwith his cabinet, gave them every facil- lotta nothing more need be said. Of the ity which they could desire, and that his Jesuits it is enough to say that they, trial was as fair as could possibly be with all their compeers, monaRteries, asked. nunneries, and Sisters of Charity, were expelled from the Republic of Mexico, With much interest the author traces never, it is hoped, to be allowed to rethe indicationll of Divine retribution on turn. the leaders in this plot to overthrow constitutional liberty. First in im· Of the vast resources of Mexico, of portance is the overthrow of the tem. which Baron Humboldt says: "This poral power of the Pope, following so vast empire, under careful cultivation, quickly after the declaration of his in. would alone produce all that commerce fallibility. "The very day after the collects together from the rest of the proclamation of this dogma Napoleon globe," there is no room to speak. The III. unchained the furies of war, which one thing for which most to be thankful in a brief time swept away the Empire is the legitimate outgrowth of this triof France, and with it the temporal umph of constitutional liberty: the es· power of the infallible Pope." "In tablishment of evangelical missions. just 47 d~ys two of the greatest The fruit of this is seen in lifting the armies Europe ever saw" met in con· people to a higher plane than would be flict, and the overthrow of Napoleon at Sedan opened the way for the Liberals of possible without religious liberty. The .An Important Movement Among Native opposition to this on the part of the Romish priests was bitter and often at Obristian Ohinese.
the risk of the lives of those who per. DV. ABTllUB H. SlIUTll, SJIANTUNO. ClIlNA..
sisted in the work. About three years ago the announoe· In 1872, appointed by Bishop Simp. ment was made that a number of native son, the author of this book established Christians belonging to several denomi- in Mexico a mission for the Methodist nations in Canton had organized an as· Episcopal Church. A portion of the sociation, the object of which was to monastery of San Francisco, elsewhere lend good books to those who could referred to, was purchased for head. read them, but who would not be likely quartftS of the mission. At Puebla, to buy them.
the ecclesiastical capital of Mexico, a From a letter written by Dr. Chal· portion of the old Inquisition was se. mers, of Hong Kong, to the Ohina Mail, cured. When this building fell into the we now learn something both of the hands of the republicans search was modus operandi of this society, and of made for friends who had been missing. what it has already done and intends to Some were found alive; but it was do. It appears that the constituents of found that the thick division wallK were the organization are the Chinese them- in some places hollow. On making selves, both in China and out of it, for· openings, twelve individuals were found, eigners having no connection ,with the some of them women, manacled and in society. The centre of administration their daily clothing, Who had been is in Canton, where bi-monthly and an· walled in here While alive, sacrificed for nual meetings are held, attended by sub· freedom or for Christ; one other victim scribers or their deputies, and matters was found While preparing the building are there discussed and voted on as they for the mission. Under the floors were would be in similar gatherings in Exe· found tiers of skeletons closely packed ter Hall. The object of the society is together and thinly covered with earth declared in its printed regulations, to and cement near these martyrs' cells. be the circulation of good literature; These appalling revelations show us the object is not to form churches, nor the spirit of the Romish Church wher· to meddle in any way with term8 and ever she has had dominion. Ever since dogmas, nor to preach, lest trouble the introduction of Protestant missions should ensue, but to circulate its litera· no les8 than fifty. eight have been strick. ture in every city, market town, and en down by the fury of these deluded hamlet in the province.
fanatics. After two or three years the book·lend· In this fearful struggle for liberty we ing is to be followed by a general offer- have seen some of the noblest heroes of ing of prizes for the best essays by non- any age ; but in the midst of it is that Christians on Christianity and kindred saddest picture of misguided ambition, SUbjects. The various missions inter- Maximilian, over whose mournf)!l ested will ultimately be invited to come though seemingly just fate we can but in and take a share in the wide field drop a tear. thus opened, in order to form and build Would that the men of our nation up churches.
might look into this mirror of history "There are eighteen very practical and learn that wisdom which cannot be rules laid down for the conduct of book.
gained too soon. lenders. They are to be plain, honest, peace-loving men, chosen from the Can.
ton churches, who are willing to serve Our ohurches should be centripetal in this capacity for a consideration of for life and light and centrifugal for $6 a month. They take with them, be- service. side the books, a small supply of sta. tionery for sale, by way of introduction may serve as a basis for a few words of to schoolmasters in the villages. Books comment. It is a lIignificant circumare of course to be lent only to school· stance that this movement was originatmasters and such other respectable resi· ed and developed by the Chinese themdents as can read; and they are lent on selves, and is under their own manage· trial with the prices marked, a register ment. being kept of the place, the pePson borrowing, the date, and the book lent, Everyone who is interested in the and an intimation given that the lender welfare of China desires that the read. will return, say a month after, to in- ing men of the empire, of whom there quire and effect a sale or an exchange, are unknown millions, should be as may be desired. The lenders are to brought in contact with the best avoid disputes with the natives, are not literature of the West. As to the par. to resent rudeness, but to take it as a ticular kind of literature which is thing to be expected, and even if harm .. best," there are considerable differ. is done to the books, they are to be con· ences of opinion. Some are convinced tent with the smallest compensation or that ,. the Bible, without note or com· apology. The only literary qualification ment," is the great want; others desire necessary in a lender is ability to keep the Bible-or parts of it-but with notes his register and make his report, which and comments; others again prefer is to be transmitted every two months tracts as a beginning ; and still other~ through the nearest mission station." wish to see China enlightened by works on practical science, popularized and According to Dr. Chalmers, whose illustrated. Much has been already opinion ought to have great weight, if done toward carrying out ench of these the report and the regulations now pub- views. The Bihle societies have a large lished were translated into English as staff of nntive workers, and the annual good as is the Chinese, they would as· sales of tracts run high into the mill. tonish Englil:!h readers, whether friends ions. Scientific book-depots have been of missions or not, by their complete- established, the receipts of which have ness of detail, by their eloquence of ap- surpassed all expectations. But it is peal, and perhaps most of all by their still as true as ever, that· China, as a thoroughly business-like character… It whole, remains unaffected by western is no exaggeration to say, that for ear- literature. nestness of purpose and breadth of view, these tracts resemble far more Yet if there is to be any substantial chapters of General Booth, edited by improvement in the attitude of the in- Mr. Stead, than any utterance of na- tellect of.the empire toward western tives of Canton," and the impression thought, the first impulse must unquesupon the mind of the reader is said to tionably come from this western literabe .a. feeling that" the conquering of ture put into attractive forms. Such the province is no mere dream." The literature the educated men of China books to be lent are carefully selected will not buy. Many of them would not by the managing committee, and noth- take it as a gift. But there is reason to ing is asked from foreign sources except hope that by judicious management the books, for the purchase of which a some of them might be induced to exfund amouming to $1379 has been amine it, if offered as a loan. The Chiraised. About $400 has been sub- nese respect for letters is innate. The scribed for expenses of book-lenders, presumption is always in favor of readfour of whom are actually at work, and ing a book, until prejudice begins to good reports have been already received act. By the system of lending books, of progress made. the evils both of the promiscuous giv- , This much space has been devoted to ing of books-now generally abandoned a lIumm.ar~ of these relorts, that the~ -and of mere sale as of any other com- modity, would be decidedly ameliorated, and added dignity would be imported The Sixth National SOIlial Oonferenoe in to the circulation of western literature India, in China. Twenty.five years ago India was with- At present it is well.nigh impossible to get at the higher classes at all. But out the check and guidance of a public if a book.lending system were in opera· tion in each of the fifteen hundred sentiment. Under the example and countries of the empire, it is a moral impossibility that within a single gen· fostering care of Great Britain that coneration the results should not be greater than they seem likely otherwise to be dition •has been materially changed. for a century to come. There are many enlightened Chinese who would be glad One result and at the I18me time one to order special works, such 8B those on medicine, mathematics, etc., who do cause of this is found in the assembly not know where or to whom to apply, the commercial facilities of China being of prominent natiTe gentlemen, from much limited by lack of newspapers, and of a postal system. The book·lend· which Europeans are excluded, which sr would be the natural agent for such sales, and it is probable that the busi. meets annually for the purpose of ness thus developed would surprise the most sanguine. There is also reason to formulating the views of the native expect that the demand for mechanical and scientific appliances will prove to people on public questions, political, be a large one, when the long closed door to the Chinese intellect shall once have social, or religious. From the proceedbeen opened, and perhaps even money· wise the scheme would in some of its ings of that which met at Allahabad, bebranches prove a profitable investment. In any case good literature is a seed for fore us, we select some of the resoluwhich the Chinese mind is a seed·bed, such perhaps as W8B never elsewhere tions adopted December 31st, 1892. known in the history of mankind. They show a growing power and mark From whatever point of view it is considered, the Canton book.lending the spirit of progress among them. Tho plan seems to be a great idea. Like many other great ideas, it is simple, but far. second resolution comes just in time to reaching. It ought to commend itself alike to consuls, merchants, and mis. open the way for the attendance of sionaries. and to be put at once into operation wherever it is possible to caste-men at the World's Fair. make a beginning. It is perhaps the best available way of sowing light broad. 1. That in the opinion of this Confercast in China. And we cannot be far astray in the conviction that a few years ence, it is necessary to curtail marriage of book.lending in those provinces most hostile to foreigners-could such work and ceremonial expenses, and the Con· be carried ont-would do more toward preventing a repetition of last year's ference recommends each community riots than could be effected by volumes of diplomatic dispatches, or by all the to lay down fixed scales of such ex- ~I}re't~ q~ t¥e ll,se o~ ~or«!e~ penses and provide measures for the enforcement of their rules.
2. That in the opinion of the Confer- ence distant sea-voyage or residence in foreign countries should not by itself involve lOBS of caste.
ph~3siTzehatthteh e Conference would em- necessity of promoting female education in every possible way, and making an organized effort in each district and province for the purpose.
4. That in the opinion of the Co~fer.
ence it is essential that the marrlage- able' age of boys and girls should be railled and that all castes should fix minin::a varying from eighteen to twenty-one for boys and twelve to four- teen for girls, according to their circ~m.
stances, the final irrevocable mamage Tite (saptapadi or phera) be postponed till the bride becomes fourteen years old. 5. That every endeavor should be made to promote reunio~ among ~l1b.
divisions of castes, and mtermarnage among those sections whieh can freely dine together. 6. That the Conference reaffirms its second resolution passed last year re- garding the discouragement of polyg- amy.
!l T~at the disfi~ureI1le~~ of (lldd-
lB93.1
widows, before they attain the age of verts and inquirers already gained, that eighteen and even after that age, with· often no strength is left for entering out the consent of the widow recorded thousands of unentered but open doors. in wrIting before a Panch and a magis. Can our sisters in Protelltant Christen. trate, be discouraged by forming caste dom permit this to continue? organizations to arrange for social penalties to be in1licted on those who aid India has fifty million Mohammedans in disfiguring child·widows without -a larger number than are found in the their consent. Turkish Empire, and far more free to embrace Christianity. Who will come 9. That in the opinion of the Confer· to work for them? ence, it is desirable to discourage the cllstom, wherever it exists, of turning Scores of missionaries should be set marriage into a monetary transaction, apart to promote the production of and exacting a pecuniary consideration Ohristian literature in the languages of in respect of it. the people.
10. That this Conference earnestly Sunday.schools into which hundreds of urges upon all interested in social reo thousands of India's children can read· form the absolute necessity of organiz- ily be brought and moulded for Christ ing social reform committees in all dis· furnish one of India'lI greatest oppor. tricts, or at least one such committee in tunities for yet more workers. each province, on the principle of self· sacrifice and employing at least one full Industrial schools are urgently needed time-worker for the purpose of educat- to help in developing a robust oharacter ing public opinion on the subject of so· cial reform. in Christian youth, and to open new avenues to honest work for them. These 11. That this Conference reaffirms oall for capable Christian workers of resolutions 4 and 5 of the last Confer· special qualifications. ence regarding the remarriage of child· widows, and the abolition of imprison. The population of India is largely ment in execution of decrees for resti. rural. In hundreds and thousands of tution of conjugal rights. villalZes there is a distinct mass move· ment toward Christianity. There are An Appeal to the Ohnroh at Home, millions who would speedily become Christians if messengers of Christ could The Third Decennial Missionary Con. reach them, take them by the hand, and ference of India, assembled in Bombay, not only baptize, but also lead them overwhelmed by the vastness of the into all Christian living. Most of these work, contrasted with .the utterly in. people belong to the depressed classes. adequate supply of workers, earnestly They nre none the less heirs to our appeals to the Church of Christ in Eu. common salvation; and whatever ad· rope, America, Australasia, and Asia. mixture .of less spiritual motives may exist, God Himself is stirring their We re.echo to you the cry of the un· hearts and turning their thoughts tow· satisfied heart of India. .With it we ard the things which belong to Ris pass on the Master's word for the per. kingdom. ishing multitude, " Give YE them to eat." An opportunity and a responsibility In the name of Christ, and of the un. never known before confront us. evangelized masses, for whom He died, we appeal to you to send more laborers The work among the educated and Eng· at once. May every church hear the lish.speaking classes has reached a crisis. voice of Christ saying: .. Separate Me The faithful labors of godly men in the Barnabas and Saul for the work where. class·room need to be followed up by unto I have called them." In every men of consecrated culture free to de. church may there be a Barnabas and vote their whole time to aggressive work Saul ready to obey the Spirit's prompt. among India's thinking men. Who will ings! come and help to bring young India to the feet of Christ? Face to face with two hundrl'd and eighty-four millions in this land, for Medical missionaries of both sexes are whom in this generation you as well as urgently required. We hold up before we are responsible. we ask, Will you medical students and young doctors the splendid opportunity of reaching the not speedily double the numb"r of souls of men through their bodies, laborers?
The women of India must be evangel. Will you not also lend your choicest ized by women. Ten times the present pastors to labor for a term of years number of such workers could not over· among the millions who can be reaohed take the task. Missionary ladies now through the English tongue? working are so taxed by the carQ of con. Is this too great a demand to make upon the resources of those saved by Omnipotent love?
.At th,e beginning of another century
tN'TEtuiATtONAL DEPAR'l'MEN't
of missions in India, let us all " expect munificence of Dr. Henry Foster, found- great things from God, attempt great er of the celebrated Sanitarium. All things for God." missionaries are urged to attend, as For the reflex blessing to yourselves, as well as for India's sake, we beseech there is no meeting similar to this, nor you" hear what the Spirit saith unto as helpful to them. It is a great counthe churches" The manifestation of cil of missionaries, in which missiona. Christ is greatest to tho~e who keep His ries only take part, though it is open to commandments, and this is His com- the public, and everybody is invited. mandment: "Go YE INTO ALL THE WORLD AND PREAOH THE GOSPEL TO EVERY CREA· The list of those who signify their in- TURE." tention to be present is already large.
A. MANWARING, The World's Oongress of Missions.
J. L. PHILLIPS, The World's Congress of Missions ,Secretaries of Bombay Decennial Auxiliary of the World's Columbian Ex- position of 1893 is confidently expected Conference. to contribute much to the progress of January 4, 1893. Christianity throughout the world. Every known Christian missionary so- New Guinea Mission. ciety is being invited to send repre- sentatives-one from the administrative The Anglican Church Mission in New department of the society and one or Guinea has secured a ketch-rigged boat more missionaries or converts from the of fifteen tons for service in the waters society's fields of labor. of that island. The vessel has a length over all of 52 feet, and on water.line of It is expected that the entire proceed- ~O feet; beam, 12 feet, and depth of ings, including stenographic reports of the addresses and discussions, will be hold, 6t feet. She is constructed of the published by the Congress Auxiliary.
finest seasoned timber, keel, stem, and The Congress of Missions, as well as stern-post beingof the best selected hard- the other congresses, will be held in the wood, planking and decks of kauri, and Memorial Art Palace on the lake shore, copper-fastened throughout. The cabin Chicago. The time allotted to the Con. has accommodation for six passengers, gress of Missions is eight daYB-Sep. fitted up with varnished kauri and dark. tember 28th to October 5th, inclusive. brown upholstery. The crew's quarters Three seRsions will be held each day. are roomy and well appointed. This The Woman's Congress of Missions will vessel has been built in Sydney, and has be in session simultaneously in the same been named the Albert Maclaren, after building during Monday, Tuesday, and the pioneer missionary of the Anglican Wednesday, October 2d-4th, with two Church in New Guinea, who fell at his sessions each day. Other missionary post from fever in 1891. services, as many as may be desired, may be held in the same building dur- ROBERT STEEL. ing any of these eight days. The com· SYDNEY, January 23, 1893. mittees Rre not supplied with funds to provide free entertainment for this large The Interna.tional Missiona.ry Union. body of missionary representatives.
Some erroneous statements as to the A prominent feature of the congress date of the Tenth Annual Meeting of will be the World's Missionary Sunday, the International Missionary Union hav- on which, it is hoped, all the churches ing had wide circulation in the press, and missions will hold special services, we re-announce that this Union meets in support of this proposition-the unievery year at Clifton Springs, N. Y., on versal, immediate evangelization of every the evening of the second Wednesday nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. of June. Hence, this year the dates are June 14th-21st. All persons who It is also earnestly requested that in are or have been foreign missionaries the midweek prayer-meeting, during the will be entertained ~tuitously by the conference, all Christians may unite in a world's concert of prayer and suppli- cation to God for the overthrow of the great obstacles to the progress of evan. gelization, especially the rum and opium traffic, and for a gracious outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the work and the workers in every part of the world.
DEPARTMEN'f OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR
III.-DEPARTMENT OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR.
CONDUCTED BY PROFESSOR AMOS R. WELLS.
In the following graphic way Dr. other low bow from every one in the Clark describes a Christian Endeavor room says silently, ' I thank you.' 4£ter meeting in Japan: "Inside the church the address another song, a prayer, and are some benches and a little cabinet benediction, and then what? A grab.
organ. Thin paper screens keep out bing of hats, and canes, and overooats, the chill air to some extent, and a and a' break' for the door? Ah, no ; wooden box, with a little bed of live the Japanese have not learned thus to coals, in the middle of a large bed of close their worship. All drop into their sand, is kindly placed near us, so that seats again ; for a full minute they sit we can toast our numbed fingers over with covered eyes and bowed heads, and it. Sometimes a hand.warmer would be then slowly and reverently pass out of given us. This is a little tin box filled church or break up into little groups.
with ignited charcoal and covered with This is another method worth taking up cloth, and can easily be clasped in one by the roots and transplanting into every hand. On one side of the church is a church and Christian Endeavor society board on which are hung from hooks in America. After twice bowing low to sixty or seventy or more pieces of wood all the friends that come to greet us, we with Japanese characters upon them. say, 'Sayonara' (good.by), one of our These, we find, are the names of the three Japanese words, get into our lit· church.members ; and when one dies or tle carriages, and are trundled off as we moves away, his name.card is taken came, through crowded streets, past down. Ts not that a method worth open stores and houses and peddlers transplanting into our Endeavor socie· and beggars and children and babies, ties? That visible roll.call would be a saying to ourselves, 'After all, young constant reminder of obligation and people are the same, and Christian En.
duty. Soon the meeting begins. The deavor is the same, and faith in Christ same old tunes, the same sentiment, the is the same, and genuine spiritual prayer same aspirations, the same prayer, meetings are the same, all the world breathed in song, even though the over.' "
words are Japanese. The growth of the Christian Endeavor Then comes a series of prayers, earn· movement has been notably accom· est, devotional. strong in utterance. Our panied and promoted by the growth of hearts are lifted up to God, even by this Christian Endeavor literature. Nearly foreign tongue. Then follow Scripture all of the State unions now conduct verses, testimonies, and more songs; papers in the interest of the work, near· and then one who has the gift of the ly all of the large city unions, and many 'interpretation of tongues' stands up a local society. The progress of the with us, and tells the audience what we work in Australia is wonderfully aided in English are attempting to say con· by that vigorous little sheet, The Golden cerning the work of God among his Link. Only recently, a German paper, young people in far.off America, and Der Miiarbeiter, has been established in Australia, and England. Japanese au· this country, solely for the aid of socie· diences are models of politeness. No ties of Christian Endeavor that speak one yawns, snaps his watch, shumes his the Gflrman tongue. The Ohinese llltls· feet, or goes out, even though the speak. irated Nl'/IJ)s has established a Christian er is talking in an unknown tongue. Endeavor department. Canada has her Every eye is upon the speaker. When Christian Endeavor papers; and the he begins to speak, he is greeted by a latest addition to the goodly fellowship polite obeisance from every one in the is the Christian 1!Jndeavaur, the u in whose audience; and when hI! concludes, an.' name would be enough to indicate that it is published in London. The already Here is a. revival experience reported rapid increase of the societies in Eng. from a United Bre~hren church in Cleve· land will be' made still more rapid by land, O. : "One young lady under <lon· the work of this new ally. viction could not make up her mind to accept Christ until a Christian Endeav· The missionary conference of the or pledge was shown her. The wording Christian Endeavor societies of the Re· presented the essentials of faith and formed Church has already held two ses· service so plainly and fully that she sions, in January and February of this there gave her heart to the Lord." year. The first meeting brought to· gether representatives of about fifty so· A union of the Christian Endeavor so· cieties. Rev. A. DeWitt Mason was cieties of all Australasia is contemplated. elected chairman. Missionary addresses Of course such a nnion must be formed were enthusiastically received. At the sooner or later. A union has already second meeting the societies represent. been formed in Tasmania. ed pledged amounts aggregating $1500 for the support of a "Christian En. Christian Endeavor societies have in· deavor missionary" to India, and the creased in number in Louisiana suffi. building of a second ,. Christian En. ciently to warrant the formation of a deavor church. .. A general missionary State union. That, with the recently conference of the Christian Endeavor formed State union of South Carolina, societies of the Reformed Church is leaves Mississippi, Nevada, and Wyom· soon to be held. ing the only States whose Christian En. deavor societies are not thus organized. Presbyterian Endeavorers are being There are also three unorganized terri· roused to missionary enthusiasm by tories-Arizona, Alaska, and the Indian similar methods. In January, at the Territory. New York headquarters of the Presby. terian boards, a Christian Endeavor mis- Christian Endeavor Day was 01:ftlerved sionary conference was held, with Rev. this year more widely and enthusiasti· H. T. McEwen in the chair. Brilliant cally than ever before. The most fa· missionary addresses were eagerly listen- mous and eloquent speakers addressed ed to, and a plan was matured for bring· immense audiences in the cities, and in ing missionary work and its needs very all the quiet country towns gatherings clearly befoTe the Presbyterian Endeav· were held that were filled with the same orers of New York. The Presbyterian splendid enthusiasm. Dr. Clark's sug· boards have recently added several gestion of a week of self·denial for misworkers whose principal efforts are to sions was very generally adopted. be among the young people. Mr. Rob. These ardent young people entered upon ert E. Speer, of the foreign board, is ex· their task with a te~der conscientious. ceedingly popular in Christian Endea.v. ness and a warm love for their Saviour, or gatherings. Mr. Grant, of that that produced noble results. It is too board, Mr. Penfield, recently added' to early to give exact statistics, but enongh the force of the home board, and Miss is known from isolated reports to assure Elizabeth M. Wishard, secretary of the us that the missionary contributions of Indiana State Christian Endeavor Union the day were more generons than ever since its organization, but recently add. before. The novel missionary exercise ed to the force of the Woman's Execu· furnished by the United Society of tive Committee of the home board-all Christian Endeavor was very widely these will devote their main energies to used, and everywhere the observance of rousing the missionary enthusiasm of the week and the day took on, as it was the young. When, before the Christian intended to, a most decided missionary Endeavor movement, would such a thing aspect. Truly the Church of the next be even thought of, and what a promis. decade will be a missionary church. ing sign it is ! There exist already in Japan twenty ChristiaD Endeavor societies, most ot them formed since Dr. Clark's visit, The Lutheran Christian Endeavor So- while more are in process of formation. ciety of Mount Carmel, Ill., has under- Most of these Japanese Christian En- taken to build a prayer·house in an deavor societies conform to the custom India mission field.
of the country, and are for one sex only. Last fall the Clarendon Street, Bos- Wherever the public sentiment will ton, Baptist Society of Christian En- permi!; it, however, the boys and girls deavor assumed the support of a young are brought together in Christian En· man, one of their own number, who deavor meetings, and this serves still went out as a missionary to Africa.
further to break down thtl artificial dis- This requires the raising of at least tinction between the sexes, that stands $600 every year. At a recent meeting in the way of the best ohurch work. of deep spiritual interest held by this The Wesleyan Christian Endeavor so- society, the last hundred dollars for the cieties of Victoria, Australia, at the re- year was subscribed.
quest of the Wesleyan Foreign Mission· In one of her letters, Mrs. Clark gives ary Society, have entered zealously upon this pleasant account of some Christian the subscription of funds for a large Endeavor children in China, in one of whaleboat, to be used in a branch of the mission schools : "There were about the Fiji mission. One society heads II hundred boys and young men there, the list with £10. The boat is to be most of them members of a Christian called The liJndeavcyur. Endeavor society. They read the Scrip- The Baptist Endeavorers of Victoria, ture lesson, each one in turn reading a Australia, have entered upon a quadru- verse, and then the hymn was given ple crusade, whose four goals are (1) out, and a little twelve-year-old Chinese an Endeavor society in every Baptist boy went to the organ and played the church in Victoria; (2) increased mis- tune very correctly, and the boys sang sionary activity among Baptist societies; a gospel hymn as well as any Endeavor- (3) a union Baptist missionary commit- ers in America would sing it. There tee, made up of the chairmen of mis- was one dear little Chinese baby at this sionary committees of the local Baptist meeting, and he also took some part, societies; and (4) a week of evangelistic aside from singing, in the meeting.
services, to be held every yellr by every For some reason-perhaps because he Baptist society. This is a large and was a Christian Endeavor baby-he came glorious programme. in his mother's arms, instead of on her A Junior Endeavorer, belonging to back. He crept down the aisle to the the society in the Centennial Methodist platform, and stood up, patting his lit- Church of London, Canada, is certainly tle hands on the floor, and applauding in earnest about missions. She hates to the speakers in baby Chinese, as well as make beds, but nevertheless she has any little American baby would do it.
asked permission, and rises half an hour If that baby goes to Christian Endeavor earlier every morning to make her little meetings before he is a year old, what brother's bed. For this labor she re- do you suppose he will do when he is a ceives one cent a week, which she man? Boys and girls at home, will you proudly deposits in the missionary col- pray for your little brothers and sisters lection. Good! in China? Will you talk about them to Two Christian Endeavor societies your fathers and mothers at home, and have just been organized in the Ran- invite them to come to your missionary goon College Baptist Church of Ran- meetings and bring their pocketbooks goon, Burma, one using the Burmese with them? Will you give some of your language, the other the Karan. Seven money to China? We cannot do every- associate members from these societies thing, but let us not be satisfied till we have lately joined the Church. have done all we can."
ltDlTORlAL l'>Ei>ARTMEN'1'
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
The editor finds that some readers only add that, had he been himself a have taken exception to the paragraph Baptist, these same words might have in the editorial notes of January as to been written. Since coming to London the Free Church Congress in Manches- to undertake the occupancy of the pulter in November last. The charge has pit that dear Spurgeon so long filled, I been made that for the editor of an have been met by not a faw who call unsectarian missionary review to make themselves "Baptists," who not only such an " unjust and un-Christian" at- disbelieve in the intelligence and scriptack on "members of the Baptist de- tural candor of "predobaptists," or nomination," etc., is the very" essence "sprinklers," as they call them, but of sectarian bigotry ]" have written to me calling in question the saved stale of any professed believer Surely such readers must overlook who has never been, as they say, " baptwo facts: tized"-i.e., immersed.-A_ T. P.
1. That the editor especially refers to Persecution of the Russia.n Stundists. "those Baptists who either cannot or will not see," etc. This surely is no at- We have before us a letter from a tack on Baptists as a body, but only on friend in Russia confirming the reports certain people who call themselves Bap- of the persecutions of the Russian tists, who hold these views or manifest Stundists. It seems almost impossible this spirit_ of belief that such brutal deeds should be permissible in this enlightened nine- 2. The simple fact is that at this con· teenth century. There have been, from gress certain persons of this characte1" some quarters, denials of the severity were present and thrust their views and offioial charaoter of these persecuupon the body, maintaining that there tions, but it lieems that the truth has is but one mode of scriptural baptism, been mollified rather than exaggerated. and that there can be no true fellowship We give a few extracts from the letter: with so-called believers who neglect a plain duty, etc. These parties did all "I have made inquiries into many of they could to break up the congress, the alleged atrooities against these poor and their conduct was a matter of criti- wretohes, and, I am sorry to say, things cism even by the more liberal-minded are worse than I had antioipated. Womof the Baptists. The paragraph in en violated and horrihly beaten, chilquestion was not designed as a reproach dren terrorized, houses wrecked, beasts to Baptists as such, as the editor thought killed, impossible fines inflicted, imany intelligent reader would see. prisonment-this is what is being borne by these Stundists, and borne often with Moreover, is it likely that with such a serenity and patience beyond the a man as Dr. Gordon on the editorial understanding of westerners. I have a staff and a very intimate friend, any long record, and a horrible record it is, such attack on Baptists, as such, would of these cruelties. It seems as though it be made by the editor-in-chief? Is it were the Independent or Stundist wing likely that, at the very time when of the Russian Protestants which most preaching to the largest Baptist church suffers. The Baptists are more or less in the kingdom, and treated with such organized, and somehow they Beem to unparalleled generosity by English Bap- be gradually gaining a footing in the tists; the occupant of the pulpit of the toleration, if not in favor, of the gov- Metropolitan Tabernacle is dispused to ernment. Perhaps the reason may be speak or write disparagingly of his Bap- that the Stundists draw more converts tist brethren? direct from the orthodox Greek Church, Regretting exceedingly that his words were so misunderstood, the Editor will
ll:bl'l'ORIAL DEPARTMENT
while the Baptists almost invariably are time into eternity: '" Que c'est bea¥ ; recruited from the Stundists." mais que c'est donc beau, tout II fait exceptionnel! Ce n'est pas difficile, et The directors of the East India Com- moi qui croyait qui ce serait si difficile I pany, early in the century, placed on Je passe! . . . Je passe ..• " et Bon record the following : "The sending of ames 'envolait vers Dieu.' " Christian mi8sionaries into our Eastern possessions is the maddest, most expen- Madame Reck's farewell to the little sive, most unwarranted project that was church was that of a true mother in ever proposed by a lunatic enthnsiast." Israel. ,. My children, " she said, " you Severe as was this arraignment at the know how much I love you. I left time, it was not repndiated by the judg- France to teach you the name of Christ, ment of the bulk of the English people. the only name by which you can be But there were a few men of faith and saved…. Cling to Jesus. Abide prayer and entbusiasm who thought close to Him. Dwell in peace; and otherwise, and were willing to invest may God bless you." their means in sending the Gospel messengers to the perishing of India. The veteran Coillard's sorrow and Eighty fi ve years afterward, Sir Rivers success in the Barotsi Valley is a plain- Thompson,Lieutenant-Governor of Ben- tive story. "Heathen Africa," writes gPol, said: "In my judgment, Christian M. Coillard, "can find no parallel to missionaries have done more real and their state. . . . The whole land is 8 lasting good to the people of India than Sodom; and the benighted people, all other agencies combined." This whose conscience is dead, glory in their convincing testimony is from a witness shame.' , After seven years' toil, and who has had every opportunity of form. just at the time of Madame Coillard's ing an honest and intelligent opinion, death, the first convert is ~ained and and whose word oarries immense weight. four other young men are lirought in, one of them being Litia, the king's eld- British Notes. est son. "What a spectaole," writes the long_tried missionary, "was that of llY REV. JAMES DOUGLAS. 8 Bar-olsi toeeping-and weeping for his sins! This was the last meeting at An artiole of exoeptional pathos and which m~v wife was present on earth. power, from the pen of Luoy E. Guin- Could I have desired a more beautiful eS8, appears in the Regions Beyond, set. sunset to close her career ?' , ting forth the soope and work of the Societe des Missions evangeliques de The Societe des Missions evangeliques Paris. Out of a population in Basuto- de Paris, which was founded in Novem. laud of over 218,000, 11,000 souls have ber, 1822, attains its seventieth birthbeen gathered into the Church, so that day, and its sixtieth anniversary of its the proportion of adult Christians to Missionary Training Institute. heathen is about 5 per oent. There are 24 European workers. Three espe- The Presbyterian missions have unitcially heavy losses by death have be- ed to form the Church of Christ in fallen them this year: Dr. Eugene Cas. Japan, with 13,000 members, adopting olis. Madame Reck, and M. Louis Du· as their doctrinal standard the Apos. voisin. The last words of the latter-a tles' Creed and two or three appended noble soul of large benevolence and doctrinal paragraphs. A few years bsck true humility-afford a radiant glimpse it looked as if Japan was to be gained beyond the veil. He had feared death, for ChriBt by a rush. Matters wear a but, writes M. Boegner, "when the different aspect now. The tension upon gate of heaven opened for him, he was faith is great. But He knows the meas. heard. to murmur in the passage from ure of strain to apply or to permit. Happily the strain which proves too muoh for Pliable, (,lnly spurs Christian on the more in the way by necessitating acknowledged that it was. ., Then am a firmer grasp of Christ and the Gospel. I not right in reading and teaching it ?" " But how about Mohammed?" " That The Rev. J. E. Hanauer, a convert is for you to say. My faith is in Christ from Judaism, supplies in the January and His Word. He is my Saviour." Jewish Missionary lntelligencer a thought- Mirza Abraham was then kiclfed and ful paper on "the Jewish Quarter in beaten, together with the Christian Jerusalem." His comments on the brother at whose house he had been spirit of inquiry there spreading are arrested. But he was undaunted. To couched in a serious 1.one. He cannot the Serperast, who had himself kicked regard the critical tendency as rightly him terribly, he said: "You may shoot rooted. There are two main directions me from the cannon's mouth, but you of this tendency answering to the two cannot take away my faith in Christ." schools of Jews in Jerusalem-the old Eventually, after being put. in prison, school and the new. The first study and witnessing there a good confession, the New Testament" to find occasion he was sent on to Tabriz, to await the for cavilling;" the second do this in royal sentence. The case is crucial, as order to find, if possible, a modus vivendi a direct issue is joined. Will the Shah -" some way in which Jews mayas- put a man to death for leaving the Koran similate with Christians and yet remain and following the Gospel? One thing Jews, .and, as such, unpersecuted.' , we know: His sheep shall never perish. We gather, then, from this witness, that the old school of Jews study the Word An interesting letter has recently apfrom unbelief, and the new school from peared in the Ohristian (December 29th, a double heart. Nevertheless, let us 1892) from the pen of F. S. Arnot, on pray that the honest heart may be the subject of African industrial miswrought in them by the Spirit in the sions. He differs toto erelo from Bishop Word. Taylor's project of evangelizing Africa through the children. His contention A South Sea Island teacher has for is, speaking from large experience, that some time been at work in Tupuselei, children are more difficult to obtain in New Guinea. Mr. Pearse, of the Lon- Africa than in England. Such as can don Missionary Society, referring to be obtained must be bought, and to this, says: "If you were to ask me favor this is to encourage kidnapping; which is the best station in New Guinea for the Africans will not sell their for missionary work, I should say own children, though they will sell Tupuselei. There are not mOl'e than readily enough the children they can 350 people in the village, and certainly manage to steal. The conclusion, therethey are in every respect Christianized. ,. fore, at which Mr. Arnot arrives is, that He also tells of considerable gains in his such preliminary and education work own mission work at Kerepuno. as Bishop Taylor recommends is a mere waste of time at first; that the first In Persia a bold stand for Christ has thing is to aim at the conversion of the been taken by Mirza Abraham, a Mo- people; and that such direct ministry hammedan who was baptized about three is not" love's labor lost," for, as this years ago. He had been at work preach- devoted missionary says, "I have seen ing Christ, and when demanded by the the truth of God illuminate darkest Serperast, ,. Why should you, a Mos- hearts and minds." lem, be teaching the Christian doctrines ?" Mirza Abraham. taking out Upon the Mildmay Mission to the bis Testament, asked in reply.•f Is not Jews, chiefly in East London, the blessthis InjU a holy book ?" The Serperast ing of God has, during the past year, rested in a pre.eminent manner. An confessed Christ in " similar way some unprecedented awakening and turning months sinoe. to God among the Jews coming in con· tact with this mission has taken place. In the Chureh of Scotland Mission Rec. Between thirty and forty have, during ord the conversion is recorded of Pro. 1892, given clear testimony of a heart sonno Coomar Vidyii.rutuii., a Sansorit faith in Jesus Christ. Recently, at the scholar of eminence. The Rev. G. C. close of an address, Mr. Baron asked all Laha, minister of St. Andrew's Bengali the Jews present who in their hearts be· Church, Calcutta, in reporting it, says, lieved in the Lord JeRus. though still un· .. When a profound Sanscrit scholar baptized, to stand up, when over thirty like him declares openly in hill ripe age, immediately rose to their feet. Thanks after mastering all the ancient and sa· be to God that it is given us to see in cred books of the Hindus, that there is these latter days, in growing numbers, no salvation out of Christ, we may rest that there is still in connection with assured the advocates of Hinduism will Israel" an election according to grace… not find it an easy task to defend it, and will have ere long to give up the The opening article in the Church. Mis· attempt altogether." sionary Intelligencer (January, 1893), by T. A. Gurney, would be worth quoting .. Oompromise as an &pedient in Re· in extenso. It is fervid and spiritually ligion" is the topic of an address to incisive to a rare degree. The theme is Hindu gentlemen, delivered by James "The Epiphany of the Fulnessof Ghrist." Munro, C.B., at Krishnagar. It is a The following must serve as a sample: searching exposure of Hinduism as a " A church which realizes its own insuffi- religion of compromise. The appeal ciency apart from Christ is the church to toward the close is most timely. We make known the sufficiency of Christ to trust that with some at least it proved others. The church which rested" on its telling, Now that the Christian doo. social position, its temporal endow- trine of a Mediator has been propound. ments, its national authority, its ancient ed in Brahmo circles, the danger is lest history, its orthodoxy of faith, would be the spirit of compromise enter and the a church sufficient without Christ, and result be ruined. A sentence or two of no • wine' would be forthcoming then. this admirable appeal we subjoin: ., Do But the true mission of tho Church is not follow the ensnaring policy of com· to draw out Christ's fulness with empty promise-do not forget that as God is pitchers, and carry it to those who need one, the one God of all creation, so the it, the supply being proportioned to the Mediator also can only be one-one for destination and measure of our faith, all men-one for east and west-one but otherwise being inexhaustible and for you and for me. Do not, instead of infinite." the perfect Man, put Keshub Chunder Sen, as it is proposed to do, nor place The work in connection with the anyone in that office but the only per- North Africa Mission is being prose. fect Man who has ever trod this earth cuted in the face of every discourage. -the Man Christ Jesus,who lived and ment. The workers among the KabyleR, died for us all, who is the only Media. at Djema Sahridj, are, however, cheered. tor because He is not only perfect man, They have had considerable trial, but but the Divine Son of God. Why take rejoice that the young converts are the shadow of the idea of mediation growing in grace, and the people seem from the west, and leave the substance? increasingly interested.' Why put your burden of sin on the shoulder of an imperfect human being, MiS's Trotter reports the baptism of a when you have the Son of man and Son Mohammedan woman who!!e husband of God waiting to carry it for you ?"
THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
V.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
India.* a.nd Oeylon-Brahmanism.t THE MISSIONARY STATISTICS OF INDIA, arrangement of the returns, but others are much required; and if the mi5siona- BURMAH, AND CEYLON. ries, at one of their great conferences. BY REV. EDWARD STORROW, BRIGHTON, would come to a general agreement on ENG. such questions as the following, their The fifth issue of these valuable tables relative returns would be much clearer has recently been published. and of more value: .. Are missionaries'
The series was commenced in 1851 by wives to be counted as missionaries ?" the late Dr. Mullens, solely on his own authority, but based on returns collect· .. Who are included under' Native ored from every part of India, and with dained agents' ?" "Are the' native lay the warm encouragement of the Calcutta Missionary Conference. preachers' solely engaged in mission This was followed in 1861 by a similar labor, or are some of them engaged in but more complete body of tables, and business and occasional preachers a book of great value t embodying an only?" ., Should not accessions by immense amount of accurate informa. conversion from non-Christian religions tion, supplementary and elucidatory of the statistical tables. The Church of be distinguished from growth by natu- God owes much to Dr. Mullens, for so ral increase?" "What marks the dillmuch of accurate and encouraging in- tinction between a station and an outformation on the whole subject of Indian missions as it possesses. His amaz- station ?" ing energy, accuracy, and insight alone produced these first reports; they were There are 47 distinct societies in used and quoted in newspapers, maga- India with 6 isolated missions; but zines, reports, and speeches as no other some of the former include small groups missionary documents have ever been, and it is to his example mainly we owe of auxiliaries, the Australian Baptist the subsequent decennial reports, col· lected and published under the auspices Mission including 5 such. The number of the Calcutta Missionary Conference, probably the largest association of mis- pf women's societies cannot be satisfacsionaries found anywhere, and belong- torily named, because, while some are ing to seven of the most important mis- distinct societies, others, apparently as sionary societies. important, are branches or auxiliaries The tables just issued are for 1890, and report, therefore, the results of nine of great general societies. years' advance instead of ten, so as to The number of missionaries is more bring them into line with the great decennial statistical reports of the govern- clearly defined ; and if to them be addment. ed the male and female foreign and Some changes have been made in the Eurasian teachers in mission schools, and, therefore, largely engaged in Chris- tian work, it will be seen what progress there has been of late made in foreign agency in India apart from Burmah and Ceylon.
1881. 1800.
Ordained Foreign and Eurasian Missionaries. .. ….. . .. .. .. . .. 586 857 Foreign and Eurasian Lay Preachers…. …………… 72 118 Foreign and Eurasian Teachers. 98 75 Lady Missionaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479 711 * See also pp. 26, 47 (January), 205 (March), .. TotaL………………….. 1,235 1,761 and 248, 276, 292 (present Issne).
+t See p. 241 of this issue. If the Eurasians are omitted, the latter "A Brief Review of Ten Years' Missionary Labor in India. between 1852 and 1861," by Joseph figures will closely approximate to the ~u.lletl8" C,C, " . . ~overnmeIl,t ceIl,sU!I returns for 1890, which report the foreigu agents, mall! since 7 societies have mIssIons there, and female, as 1686. This only gives but 2 of them give no returns. one foreign agent to each 165,000 of the popUlation-a proportion far below what So far as appears from page 26 of the India requires. report, the number of foreign and Eura. sian missionaries is 37, the lady work. The following figures will show the ers 4, and the native pastors 115; but progress in various directions that has these numbers are difficult to reconcile been made sinoe the returns for 1881 : with the returns on page 48. There is a serious difference between the number 1881. 1890. of native Christians in 1881 and 1890, Native Ordained Agents…. 461 797 the returns being 35,708 for the former Native Preachers not Or- year, and only 22,442 for the latter- 3,491 the difference much more likely arising dalned…….. .•••. .••.•.. 2,488 4,863 from imperfect returns than actual de. Congregations. . . . . . . . . •. ., 3,650 559,661 fections. The educational returns call Native Christians ……..•• 417,372 182,722 for little notice; the pupils in 428 Communicants. .. . . . • . . . . .• 113,325 schools for boys numbering 29,027, and 1800. in 111 schools for girls, 9510. The Sun. Male Education. day.sohools number as inany as 384, 81 with 16,557 soholars. 1881. 1,584 Theological and Training 1. Returning to the Indian report, it 460 is disappointing to find that the ac· Schools …………….. . 56 53,564 oelerated rate of inorease in the native 4,770 Christian oommunity. notioeable in the Pupils………………… . 1,235 122,193 returns of 1861, 1871, and 1881, has not been sustained. It would be interest· Anglo-Yernacular Schools •. 385 ing to have explanations of this from missionaries in various parts of India, Scholars………………. . 45,249 since the rate of inorease in the gteat provinoes varies greatly, and, from the Vernacular Schools……..• 3,020 oharaoter of the different raoes, may be expeoted to vary. But the question is Scholars ……………… . 84,760 not inopportune, and could be justified -has preaohing to the heathen, with Female Education. 1,507 an earnest aim for their conversion, as Sch,lols………………… 1,120 62,414 large a share of the efforts of missionary Pupils…. …………….. 40,897 40,513 and native evangelists as it should Zenanas Open……… ….. 7,522 32,659 have? Pupils …………….. '" 9,132 2. The progress within the Christian In Burmah 7 sooieties have representa. community oompares favorably with its tives ; the oldest and most influential extension from without, excepting in being the American Baptist Missionary one feature-the number of student!! Union. The entire number of foreign being trained either as teachers, pasand Eurasian missionaries was 52, and tor~, or evangelists, is smaller than agof lady workers 46-no less, however, gressive Christian effort or the care of than 16 of the latter being absent on the churches require, or the qualifica. furlough. The native pastors numbered tions of the converts could supply. We 146. The only item on which a com· have heard with pain and surprise of parison with the past can be instituted aggressive work diminishing, even al. is in the number of native Christians, most ceasing, through the pastoral reo who in 1881 were 75,260, and in 1890, quirements of the Christian communi- 89,182; no fewer than 33,037 of them ties being so great that they demand albeing communicants, and of these 30,- mos~ 1,111 the resources alike of miEsioJ),a,- 646 belonged to Baptist Union churches.
Education by missionaries is not as prominent a feature as in India, nor is it so much needed.
The Anglo-vernacular schools are reported as 31, with 1490 pupils; the vernacular schools were 484, with 10,119 scholars ; and the girls' day schools as 8 only, with 3554-if correct, a si,Ilgular disproportion between schools and scholars.
The Ceylon statistics ale imperfect, ries and assistants, and additional con- There is some defect in the figures reverts would bring responsibilities that lating to zenanas, as the explanatory • could not be met without additional notes appended to the report admit. aid, for the baptism of each man brings " They are incomplete and inadequate, usuRlly six or seven of a family, most but reliable so far as they go." The of them very weak and ignorant, on the returns, for instance, give the number missionaries' hands-at least for social of houses open as 40,513-a remarkable protection and moral and religious in- increase-and the pupils as only 32,659 ; struction. This is a state of affairs that but as most houses contain more than should not be allowed to continue, either one female, and many contain several, by the societies at home or the mis- we presume the latter number indicates sionaries abroad. An adequate staff of only those who properly are scholars, missionaries should be maintained in taking no account of the varying numevery important station, and they should ber of women who from time to time check the demands of native Christians assemble in zenanas to hear the lady on their time and resources, for the lat- missionary, with her native helper, ter are not always wise or unselfish, and speak, read, or sing, or instruct others. their most efficient way to meet all true Certain it is that in houses thus visited requirements is to train for Christian thousands of women hear of Christ and service as many of their converts as Christianity who otherwise could not have the reqnisite willingness, con- and would not. joined with grace and good sense; and the natural gifts for high Christian ser- 4. A brief report is given of medical vice are as abundant in India as any- missionary appliances, from which it' where. appears that the foreign and Eurasian medical missionaries in India proper 3. It is a good feature that education were 96 ; the native Christian assistants, is so advancing. Thanks to the govern- 168, and the hospitals, etc., 162. No ment and the missionaries, the Hindus returns of the kind have hitherto been are rapidly becoming an educated peo- given; but though there has been a pIe; and the education given by the considerable increase in such agency of latter has advantages of a special kind. late years, the returns just given require It is most thoroughly Christian. It explanation. Some of the 96 are by no powerfully influences native and gov- means exclusively medical missionaries. ernment schools. It is the most power- Many of the native assistants are not ful of all weapons with which to smite practitioners, and the" etc." after hos- Hindnism. It is the most paying of-all pitals covers very subordinate establishforms of missionary effort, since the ments. school fees go far toward meeting school expenses. It supplies us with a large 5. Sunday-schools have grown much proportion of our' best preachers and in number and popularity. In 1881 teachers, and it prepares the way for there were only 1867 schools, having many reforms. The remarkable change 61,688 scholars; in 1890 there were 3503, of sentiment passing over the more in- with 135,565 scholars. fluential classes of society on most social and domestic questions is mainly 6. A comparison of these results with owing to its influence; and of these, the census returns of the government, femRle education is the most important. so far as yet ascertained, are interesting The increase of girls' schools, of houses and corroborative of the general acopen to instruction, and of openings for curacy of the missionary reports. The lady missionaries is distinctly trace- government census for India gives the able to the education given for some Protestant foreign agents, male and time in Anglo-vernacular schools for female, as 1686; the native Christian boys more than to any other source. agents, 4288 ; and the total Christian population, including Europeans, Syr- ians, Roman Catholics, and Protestants 6S 2,159,781 ; and of these, 559,661 ar; and pernicious domestic and social cus· Protestant native Christians-goodly toms relating to the status and influ.
numbers, doubtless, in themselves, but ence of women are rapidly changing.
small in comparison with 279,684,203 of Christianity and Hinduism are now in the splendid empire; the larger number deadly conflict, but the issue cannot be only 0.77 of the whole, and the latter uncertaiu.
0.20.
But there are some features of Chris- tian progress of which none of these fig. -Miss Margaret W. Leitch is author· ures take account. They cannot be tabu- ity for the statement, which may well lated, but they are of immense impor. make the saints of Christian lands to tance-probably, indeed, as significant blush, that there· are in North Ceylon of success as the tables are-and they 2700 native Christians, gathered into 22 deserve a much higher place in the esti. native churches, the majority of which mation of professing Christians than are entirely self.supporting. The native they receive. Christians not only support their own 1. BeRides the avowed and baptized pastors and a number of resident work- adherents to Protestant missions, there ers as evangelists and Bible.readArs, are Dlultitudes who have an intelligent and give to the support of the Bible So- knowledge of the great truths of Chris· ciety, Tract Society, and to educational tianity and more or less believe in institutions, but they also support 13 them. There is also an inner cirole native missiQ71aries, whom they send out containing a large body of secret disci· of the peninsula to labor in the" regions pIes. Every missionary of experience beyond," As a rule they are accustomed knows of imch or has heard of them. to give one tenth of their entire income to Their number of course cannot be ascer· the service of God. Those who reoeive a tained, but it ~as been estimated by salary give one tenth of that amount.
those whose opinions are entitled to Those who are farmers give one tenth deference as probably equal to that of of the produce of their fields or gardens, the avowed believers. and the firstling of the flock and of the 2. Again, anywhere, but especially in herd. The women daily set aside one India, more than individual conversions handful of rice in aid of their foreign are to be taken into account. We are mission work, diminishing the amount engaged there in the most stupendous of food which the family was accustomed enterprise the Church of God has ever to use day by day by this quantity.
undertaken, not excepting the conver. And an English Church missionary sion of the Roman Empire. It is being tells a similar story of giving which done. But much that is done is not costs: .. You know about the Bhalaj been. Probably more bas been accom· church being seated by a widow there plished that is not seen or tabulated in memory of her husband. Another than is. It i~ certain that the whole member of the Bhalaj congregation has system of popular beliefs, superstitions, offered to erect a pulpit (a table and and customs springing out of them are desk have hitherto been used). Last changing and giving place to opinions, Monday I visited a member of the Na.
sentiments, and usages more or less riad congregation, who is ailing, and be- Christian. Polytheism is giving place fore I left he handed me 50 rupees to .to monotheism. Transmigration theo. be used in connection with the Nariad ries of the soul are losing their strange church. A member of our church in power. Caste is weakening. Brahmani_ Anand here sold a piece of land 8 week cal inftuence is waning. Christian con. or two ago, and brought me 25. rupees- ceptions of morals and of a future life a tenth of the price-to be used for the are spreading; Rnd all the rAstrictive good of the church." D. L. L.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
VI.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY REV. D. L. LEONARD.
Extraots a.nd Transla.tions from Foreign tinctively Lutheran, it was welcomed Periodioals. by the Church, which was then glad of its aid against rationalism. As this foe BY lIlilV. C. C. STAllBUCK, £NDOVXR, lIUSS.
receded, the ecclesiastical and doctrinal THE CONTINENT. senso grew stronger, and in 1845 the -The Rev. William Boyd, in the Lund Society was formed on a strict U. P. Record, describing the Vaudois Lutheran basis. In 1854 it came into valleys, givos a new impression of them. connection with the rigorously Lutheran He says: "The valleys are extremely Leipsic Society. In 1856 the Fosterlands- beautiful. The vegetation is rich. sliftung was formed for both home and Shrubs and flowers, confined to the foreign missions, and one that is both.
conservatory with us, grow luxuriantly the Lapp Mission. This represented in the open air, and all around on the a more free church tendency; but since terraced hills are vineyards, in which I the formation by the Waldenstromians saw red and white grapes hanging in of the Swedish Missionary League, in luscious clusters." The Scottish Pres. 1881, it has assumed a position nearer byterians, instead of aggravating the that of Lund. In 1874 the Church of divisions of Italian Protestantism, by Sweden herself organized a missionary setting up churches of their own, more board, whose six members are chosen wisely help the Waldensian Church. In by the Quinquennial Convocation, the the same magazine he also says of the archbishop also being ex.officio presi.
Free Church of France: "Thill chul'ch dent, and a permanent secretary having -fonndedin 1848, when the Eglise Re- the immediate direction. Lund and formee, from which she seceded, rejeot. the Swedish Society have fused them- cd by a large majority her ancient Con. selves in this. The Fosterlands.stiflung fession of Faith-has not advanoed in remains distinct, though friendly and number or in influence as was at first co-operative. The Tamil Mission is expected. But the principles for which still in connection with Leipsic, and the she contended have advanced. and that Swedish Society retains its distinctness in a very remarkable degree. I don't in the Lapp Mission..
think the Synod of the Eglise Reformee, -Missionary Charles E. Faithfull, of if it were to meet now, wonld repeat the the Seamen's Rest, 38 Quai du Port, vote which led to the disruption, more Marseilles, France, publishes from time than forty years ago. The wave of to time attractive reports in fac.simile, rationalism has subsided. A very large the last including three months' work. majority of the French clergy are now We make some extracts: "January 2d. decidedly evangelical, and the same can Was our annual jete. Abt,ut 60 sailors be said of the members of that church, present, representing several nationaliwho number about half a million peo· ties. One of the French pastors presid. pIe, While it is admitted that the happy ed. and other friends gave valuable as· ohange is in no BmaH meMure due to sistance, making the soiree pleasant and the influence of their lesB imponapt instructive. After music, recitations, sister." and refreshments, brief gospel addresses –The earliest Swedish missionary so- followed in French and English. By ciety was formed at Gothenburg in the kindness of the director of the 1829. The Swedish Missionary Society McAll Mission, Ml". Lenoir, it was held (absorbing the former) was formed in in his fine hall next door. It pleases Stockholm iu 1835. Though not dis. God to try our faith in the mattel" of
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIO;NB
means; several times lately a few pence his family with the necessaries of life, was our only visible fortune, but on every he went to the Bishop of Wilna, who occasion help came in trme to meet all showed him great kindness. .. The reclaims. • Jehovah jireh! '-With mul- sult has been the establishment of a titudes the world over we mourn the de- concurrent Lutheran and Greek miBBion parture of dear Mr. Spurgeon, in whom to the Jews in Wilna. I lose a personal friend and subscriber. -Februa.,ry. Profiting by the visit of Dr. -The Rev. L. G. Hasse, of the Mora- Loba and Mr. Reveillaud, of the MeAl! vians, who within a few years ha'Ye rs- Mission, a special service was held; sub- acquired legal reoognition in Bohemia ject, 'The Greatest Voyage in the World.' and Moravia, where they now have five Both friends spoke powerfully, and with congregations, writes: ,. This whole evident appreoiation, on the sailors' part. locality teems with reminiscences and A noteworthy fact the local papers traditions of the Ancient Brethren's kindly announced the meeting free of Church. Almost every name is familcharge.-Again this month it has been iar. Here among the hills of Reicheour privilege to help on their way either nau, the Unity of the Brethren was ingoing or returning missionaries labor- stituted ; some one has cut the figures ing in India or China.-March 20th. Mr. 1457 into an old fir tree which stands C. Cook interested the sailors by pris- on the hillside at Lhota. Here the first on experiences. 31st. Visited the Aus- synod assembled; here, at Brandeis, tralian liner; a Christian sailor is on was the last hiding-place of Comenius. board; he takes with him a parcel of This neighborhood is the cradle and the books, besides some New Testaments. grave of our ancient Unity of the Breth- The reading-rooms continue to be well ren." frequented; 5195 visits have been paid during the past four months, of which – " Old Catholic Congress at Lucerne.- 3911 were French, 592 English, 505 The second international congress of Scandinavian, 113 Germans, 12 Dutch the Old Catholics, which took place at or Belgians, 5 Greeks or Italians, 12 Lucerne in September, was an event ol Spaniards or Portuguese, 45 Russians, mOfe than ordinary interest. Not only 1 Swiss. The hospital has been visited wefe the Eastern churches, which stm regularly. Please pray for the sick claim to be Catholic, represented by in. ones, who for the most .part are doubly fluential dignitaries, but the invitation worthy of pity, as, in addition to their was extended to the Protestant churched physical sufferings, they are frequently of the West. The Reformed communtreated far from wisely or well. I know ions of Germany and Switzerland were of one who has teen there for more specially asked to send representatives, than three months with a broken leg, and the gathering at Lucerne also inand for five week!! he had not a drop of cluded bishops of the Church of Engwater wherewith to wash his face and land and notable English Nonconformhands. The French, as a rule, fea1.' water ists. The Russian Church sent a promiin sickness. . .. . nent ecclesiastic, who was spoken to • very plainly by some of the English "As to the gold and sil ver, I have visitors on the subject of the Stun.Ust only to thank the Lord and His servants perpecutions. He listened to their refor the comparatively liberal supplies, monstrances quite courteously, but always more at this time of year, owing seemed unable to understand the Brit. to the customary visits to the Riviera ish ideas of religious toleration."-Misand Switzerland." sionary Record (United Presbyterian, Church of Scotland.) -From Russia Mr. Friedmann writes, in Jewish Intelligence: "A Jewish rabbi PALESTINE. applied to me for instruction and baptisin. Being unable to provide him and -To the sons of George Foy, whether they are still found within the COIU-
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
munion dating from him or not, noth. oult for some to abandon the many ing is more gratifying than the revival forms find oeremonies to whioh the peo- of missionary zeal within it on distinot- ple in this oountry have been acous- ly evqeli081 lines. Those Christians tomed for so many oenturies. We now whom we call Ritualists are doing a vast number thirty.seven members, besides amount of most excellent work. Yet, as five birthright members. We hope, as The Christian well remarks, it is good to the new-born babes reoeive physioal hold up, against some reoent rather growth and strength, that they may alarming reorudesoences of mere sacer- grow spiritually in the Christian re- dotalism, the recent growth of numben; ligion.
and zeal in the Sooiety of Friends-a "In the days before the Friends swiety whioh has ministers, indeed, began mission work here, many of our but has neither" clergy" nor" laymen." people were thieves and robbers. They One of the most beautiful missions of often fought and troubled each other the Amerioan branoh of the sooiety is and their neighbors; but now all is the Eli and Sybil Jones Mission in the changed. The people oome quietly to Holy Land. This has established a the meetings, and there is no need for monthly meeting at Ramallah, north of aTtns. Although the good ohanges are Jerusalem (held by Ewald to be Ramah slow, they are sure, and we oan be en- of Samuel), from whose epistle to the oouraged for the future. The ohanges New England yearly meeting we give seem like the new moon-not easily some extraots. It is signed by two desoried at first, yet as it approaohes Arab olerks of meeting• the full, oan euily be seen by the weak- • •• DEAB FBIENDs: • Graoe and peaoe est eyes.
be multiplied unto you through the .. Although far separated from you in knowledge of God and of Jesus our body. yet we feel that we are spiritually Lord.' The many blessings which have united. Our oountry, language, and been given us by our heavenly Father oustoma greatly differ from yours, yet through you oonstrain us to send you 'by one Spirit we are all baptized into greeting at this, the beginning of a new one body, … hether we be Jews or Gen- year. We realize that you are sending tileR, whether we be bond or free, and of your sustenance to this far· off land, have all been made to drink into one to elevate us, both temporally and spir- Spirit: itually. Not only this, but you have " Finally, we ask you, when you pray, given and are giving for our benefit your not to forget us who are connected with very selves. Those of your own hon- you in the bonds of Christian love. We ored membera have oome to us. First, especially ask you, in the meeting now we would mention the sainted Eli Jones, assembled, to lift up your hearts to the who, with his noble wife, was the only high and true God; to ask Him to founder of the mission. The good work riohly bless His work in this country, so well begun by him only eternity will where our Saviour Jesus Christ lived reveal, and the blessed memory of those and died, and to make this mission 8S a dear people of God in this place. will minaret upon a high hill, to slline out ever remain and be transmitted to our and bleBS all around. May the graoe of children and children's children after God be with youa11. In behalf of us. They are now saints in glory; but Ramallah Monthly Meeting of Friends I others of your numbE'r are walking in in Palestine. Your brothers in Christ, I their footsteps and have taken up their •• SALBl!llII: SAADU, . work. " CLEAII AUDI, ., Spiritual worship beoame wonderful " Clerks."
and beautiful to our people as they were carefully guided to an nndersl.anding of -If every member of another denomi- its meaning, although it was very dun- nation who is of Quaker desoent would
EXTRACTS AND
Bend 'one dollar to William T. HU88ey, days were like the spring oi Europe. North Berwick, Me., this exercise of The health of the people and the prod. .. natural piety" WOUld. we are Bure, uce of their fisheries were both good. bless both the giver and the receivers. In this land of perpetual hardship every mitigation is a matter of specia.! thank. MISCELLANEOUS. fulness. The grippe. it is true, visited the people, but was fatal in only a few -" When it is a time like that night cases. on the Sea of Tiberistl, when they labored in vain, who knows bot that, as -The Moravian congregations in yonder the Stranger on the shore called Jamaica are beginning to develop spe- to them, 'Cast the net on the right side cial interest in their East African Mis- of the ship!' 80 the Lord is already sion. The Presbyterians of Jamaica making ready the hour when the nets have long been specially connected with shall be found full and more than foil, the United Presbyterian Mission in and the word shall pUR, as in John, ' It West Africa. Perhaps these are the is the Lord!' Who knows, moreover, first·fruits of a mighty refluent influ· how the Lord will uplift the hearts of ence from the children of Africa upon His servants, having already prepared the motherland. for them the meal upon the shore. at which they may rejoice in His pres. -The quiet little Moravian Mosquito ence, and all questions sink into silence Mission is changing it1l face. "The before the one joyful consciousne88: Mosquito Reserve is no more the little • It is the Lord!' He was with them in laud, still and far from the 'World, in • the nigbt of waiting; He will be with which our missiollaries were the only them in the dawn of blesaing."-The authority. More and more is it coming Very Reverend Superintendent WJ:BNIIB, into the circle of the world's commerce. in Evangelisch·LutMrisclies Mi.tsionsblaU. This, in 80me respects, has its evil aides ; but it lays out a wider range of respon. -Great uncertainty has been felt over sibility before our Mission as the Lord the final rellults of the great abundance gives into our hands an ever wider and of Christian labor in Jamaica. Even more important field of activity." the present writer, after spending ten years in the island, knew not what to -" What David Livingstone is to the say at the end. It is therefore encour. tribes of Africa, Henry Martyn is to the aging that Bishop Romig, of the Mora. people of Persia. These clever Moham· vians, says: "We find the black people medans could argue point by point in owning land and hooses, a number of favor of their own religion ; but the fact small pe!8!nt proprietors, industrious, of this noble, Belf.8!lCriiicing life, so like honest, and God·fearing ; acquiring and the Christ he came to commend, either practising, year by year, those habits convinced them or sent them away of steady application; intelligence, and bsmed. The fact that so few were con· self·reliance so essential to Bucce88 in verted under Martyn, and that so few the black or white man. Among their have been won since, shows what a dim· . number to·day are lawyers, doctors, cult task the Church has before her. clergymen, and schoolmasters, talented, This work is not to be done at our ease, successful and respected members of with the mere surplus of onr wealth and their professions." The Moravians and the fragments of our time. It demands Presbyterians have been especja.!ly suc. all the ellergy, and faith, and prayers of cessful here in developing solid char. the Church. It is a dead lift, demanding acter among their people. the redeeming grace of the Almighty God working through man doing his -The Moravian brethren report that best. The Church of Christ is slowly the Greenland winter and spring of 1891 awaking to this fact…- The Ohurch were uncommonly mild. Some of the Manthly.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
THE WORLD AT LARGE. For the Church's marching orders see -Dr. Paton says it is demonstrated Matt. 28 : 19, 20, and passim.
by figures that in the South Seas ~ soul –As the .Mis.~ionary Ilerald reminds is ssved for every $5 expended upon us: .. Eighty-Ii ve years ago the directors missions. of the East India Company placed on -These are the words of David solemn record : • The sending of Chris- Brainerd, with reference to his toil in tian missionaries into our Eastern posbehalf of the Indians, and they cOLtain sessions is the maddest, most expensive, the secret of his success: "I cared not most unwarranted project that was ever where or how I lived, or what hard· proposed by a lunatic enthusiast.' A ships I went through, so that I could few months since the Lieutenant·Govbut gain souls for Christ. While I was ernor of Bengal ssid: • In my judgment, asleep I dreamed oC these things, and Christian missionaries have done more when I awoke the first thing I thought real and lasting good to the people of of was this great work. .,11 my desire India than all the other agencies com· was for their conversion, and all my bined.' "
hope was in God. " -All this happened only a hundred -A recent visitor to Northfield and years ago : A bishop of the Church of Mount Hermon, Mass., writes thus con- England said he had in his diocese a cerning what he saw: .. As one looks very good clergyman, but one who was around he must be impressed with the VfAry eccentric, and gave as proof of it massiveness of these foundations on the fact that the said clergyman actually which these great schools are estab· believed the Indians of North America • lished-the massiveness of the faith and could be converted! Three years after energy of one living, loving, and devot· Carey had arrived in India the Assem. ed layman ; and one asks himself the blyof the Church of Scotlanddenounced question, 'Suppose evel1/ layman and the scheme of foreign missions as "illuevery clergyman were equally devoted, sive," "visionary," "dangerous to the what would be the results to the church good order of society," and as " im. of Jesus Christ 1" proper and absurd to propagate the Gospel in heathen lands so long as there -The Moravian Church, after ten was a single person in Scotland who was years' provisional admlliistration, has withoutthe means of knowing the way finally assumed permanent control of of life."
the Protestant Lepers' Asylum at Jeru. -In a clarion call for a crusade in be· salem. half of the world's evangelization Canon -Things old as well as things new Farrar expostulates: .. If all the inhab- have a place and a value; therefore reo itants of the globe were to pass by us in call this : It is related of the Duke of long procession, two thirds of the whole Wellington that when he was in India innumerable multitude would be fetish many friends of missions would ask worshippers, or fire worshippers, or him, "Do you think, Duke, that we are idolators, or followers of Confucius, or making progress here? Do you think . sunk in the thinly veiled negations of India will ever be Christianized?" The Buddhism. Would this have been pos- old duke was wont to draw himself up sible if the Church had retained the and answer, "What do I think of mis· fervor and enthusiasm of her early faith sions? Will India ever be Christian· and had sent forth not merely an iso.
ized? What is ihat to me? Tell me lated preacher here and there, like a Paul, or a Boniface, or a Columba, or a the marching orders." Xavier, but·· an adequate number of laborers into fields already white unto " • Forward!' the captain's cry ; the· harvest ?" Theirs not to make reply, Theira but to do and die." -A missionary in Japan protests fluence of these truths to lead them to vigorously to the Missionary Herald abandon their old evil practices. I find against the use of the term heathen as that this plan answers better than any applied to the non-Christian peoples of negative teaching could possibly do."
Asia, and appears to make out his case. -This is Stanley's story of what one This is his language: "The Japanese Bible accomplished: "In 1875,. Miss are very sensitive over this word. It Livin~tone, the sister of David LivinglIeems to them an offensi ve and rude stone, presented me with a beautifully term, a word of inferiority or even of bound Bible. On a subsequent visit to contempt. It was from our English Mtesa I read to him some chapters, and Bible, doubtless, that it came so widely as I finished it flashed through my mind into use. Yes; but go to the Revised that Uganda was destined to be won for Version, and not one single passage in Christ. I was not permitted to carry the New Testament can be found with that Bible away. Mtesa never forgot this word in it. Christ and His disci- the wonderful words, nor the startling ples never used it. They spoke of na- effect they had upon him ; and just as I tions with respect and hope; never of was turning away from his country to heathen, pagans, outsiders. The revised continue my explorations across the Old Testament, too, has largely done Dark Continent, a messenger who had the same. Our new Bible is pretty well travelled two bundred miles came to me cleared up, so far as the word heathen is crying out that Mtesa wanted the book, concerned. The worst people in our and it was given to him. To-day the so-called Christian civilization use this Christians in Uganda number many • word most freely. Gamblers, hard thousands; they bave proved their faith drinkers, pharisaical moralists, and low at the stake, under the knobstick, and politicians cannot ring changes enough under tortur9 until death." on it. 'The heathen Chinese,' • the heathen Jap,' are the words of human -A Greek Christian in Turkey has beings who never had a noble thought sent to the treasury of the American toward the people of another nation, Board a draft for $1820, and wrote in nor a spark of true patriotism. So that the letter which conveyed it : "Feeling I would raise the question: Isn't it time that God has placed me under g~eat that we missionaries part company with obligations for blessings bestowed, I those who roll the word heathen under have decided to keep a part of the sumR their tongues as a sweet morsel of con- He has given me as a trust to be admintempt? Shall we Christians at home or istered for His glory, and a part I send in mission fields be courteous in preach- you to be used as herein directed" ing the gladdest tidings on earth, or This man became a Christian some years ago, while at Constantinople. He not?" Query.-Will not the same plan work has done much evangelistic work, enas well in Christian lands? Dr. Paton tirely at bis own expense, has been does not tell the cannibals to whom he the object of protracted persecntion, has ministered so successfully what has been often iu prison, and from the errors of teaching they must avoid, nor first bas calmly faced the probability of does he dwell even on the sins which losing all his earthly possessions.
they commit. But rather he tells them -Eugene Stock. of the Church Mis- that Jesus offers them full redemption sionary Society, after a wide observation from sin, and calls them to abandon sin of the facts in the case, is thoroughly and serve Him. Bishop Patteson, labor- convinced of "the unwisdom of trying ing among the same people, said : ,. I to create missionary interest by getting don't even tell them that cannibalism R parish or a SundaY·Rehool to support or taboo is wrong. I simply teach them a catechist in India or II child in a Mel- great positive truths, and trust to the in- anesian boarding-school." He repudiates " the idea that. missionary interest. AMERICA. is fostered at all by the plan of thus con· centrating attention upon one spot and United States,-Surely, groBS merone individual;" and affirms that·· had cantilism and materialism are not unione half the energy expended in get- versal even among wealthy Americans, ting a few pounds together for a local for the Oongregationalist is able to reoord object. been used to tell of the vast these as among the events of a siugle needs of India or Africa, and to band week: "John D. Rockefeller has added the praying people together to meet $1,000,000 totheendowmen&of theUniand read and pray and stir one an- versityof Chioago, to which, wit.hin four other up, the results would have been years, he had previously given $2,600,- much better." 000. Dartmouth College has been the reoipient. of $180,000. Miss Mary Gar- -The Medical M'18sionary Record of rett has given $400,000 to endow the New York has prepared with great care Women's College of Medioine at Johns a list of all the medical missionaries in Hopkins University, Baltimoro, while the world. It contains the names of Gammon Institute, in Georgia, haa just 359, of whom 74 are women, and only become tho legatee of an estate valued those poasessing full medical qualifica- at $750,000. Mr. George W. Vanderbilt tions are included. The Presbyterian has given' his art gallery building, Church of the United States has 48 ; the valued at $100,000, to the American American Board has 32 ; the Methodist Fine Arts Sooiety of New York City." Church, 30 ; the Church Miasionary So- The totalis$2,430,000," made known to ciety, 25 ; the Free Church of Scotland, the world within 168 hours." 20; the United Presbyterian Church, 10; and the Church of Scotland, 8, and -Perhaps, all things considered, Dr. the Presbyterian Church of Canada the Daniel Kimball Pearsons, of Chicago, same number. The United States has among living givers approaohes nearest 173 ; Great Britain, 169 ; Canada, 7 ; and to the ideal. Within five years his Germany, 3. As regards countries occu- benefactions have reaohed a round millpied, China has the largest number- ion, and in his giving he makes a spe- 126 ; India, 76 ; and Africa, 46. cialty of spurring others to open their purses. "I'll bestow this-sum on– -Bishop Levering, when asked how college, or theological seminary, or hosit came about t.hat the Moravians were pital, if you will secure this other sum so noted for their self-denial and activ- within a given time," ity in missions, replied: ., When the converts join the Church we try to get -It is estimated that it oosts well-to. them to realize that they are joining a do people in this country $125,000,000 great missiol1ary society." yearly to support oharitable institutions. while about $500,000,000 are invested -The Lutheran churches of Christen- in permanent buildings, where the dom sustain 40 missionary societies on ueedy are cared for, Add to this one 22 fields, occupied by 700 stations, 1000 item in the paragraph preoeding; add missionaries and 4000 native helpers, in also the cost of all our academies, col. charge of 210,000 members; 1600 com- leges, theological seminaries, eto.: to mon schools, with 60,000 pupils, and 25 this add the oost of our prisons, hoshigher institutions. Annual income pitals, etc. ; add also what we pay for and expenditures, $1,200,000. There tea and coffee, for fashions and all manare 20 institutions for the training of ner of personal indulgence-not to name missionaries, and the circulation of mis- tobacco and liquor; and is it not clear sionary periodicals is nry large. So that our 65,000,000 expend a hundredstates Professor W. Wackeroagel, of fold more upon themselves than they Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pa., in do upon the 20 times 65,000,000 in the the Lutheran Observer. world outside? -The American Institute of Sacred like an educational plan-but by an Literature, of which Dr. W. R. Harper earnest Christian woman, who pitied is president, has students in 15 differ- the children of her sex who were being ent countries, including Korea, Hawaii, sold as victims of the lust of agents and Burma, AfI8am and Bermuda; 3000 are miners. fur traders and adventurers. It enrolled in the Hebrewand Greek depart- would be impossible to exaggerate the ment, and thousands more in the English importance of Christian iniluence in elementary and advanced Bible study. checking evil in Alaska, or the heroism -It is estimated that the public and of missionaries of various denominaprivate hospitals of New York City con- tions who are pushing their work up to tain 11,000 beds, and during a year min- the gates of eternal ice in Bering Straits…
ister to between 50,000 and 60,000 pa- -In justice to the smaller denomina- tients, at a cost of $2,500.000. In addi. tions, as, indeed, also some of the larger tion, at the 50 or more public and pri- ones, it should be borne in mind that vate dispensaries upward of 664,000 they have but few men of wealth in persons receive annually medical or their membership, and hence their mis- surgicalllid. At least so much is done sionary societies receive but little or in the metropolis to solve" the problem nothing from bequests-a source whic):J.
of sickness." Rev. George S. Baker, supplies to the stronger societies a large pastor and superintendent of St. Luke's part of their income.
Hospital, states these facts in the -Our Baptist brethren rejoice at the Ohurchman. prospect of raising $1,000,000 to cele. brate the centenary of foreign missions. -There are now 4 Jewish-American John D. Rockefeller has contributed papers which favor holding synagogue $50,000; James B. Colgate, $10,000; services on Sunday. Upon this subject Charles L. Colby, $7000, and J. Lewis the Jewish Tidings says: "The other Crozer, of Philadelphia, $5000; while Jewish journals will soon fall into line, from one Baptist church $25,000 is exfor they certainly cannot long oppose pected for this same fund. the inevitsble. The sentiment of the majority of the Jews of America is un· ·-Chaplain McCabe puts two things questionably in favor of the introduc- together in this fashion: "The total tion of Sunday services, and come they income of the Roman Catholic propamust. " ganda in 1891, with all the world to collect from, was $1,271,947. The in- -The Boston Seaman's Friend So- come of the Missionary Society of the ciety dates from 1827, has an income of Methodist Episcopal Church for 1892 nearly $10,000, and has recently pur- was $1,269,483. Only about $10,000 chased a piece of property for its uses, of this came from our foreign miBBions. paying $32,000 in cash and giving a An increase of $3000 more in our in. mortgage note for $40,000. Vessels are come, and our Methodist Missionary So. visited and religious services are sup- ciety will pass the Roman propaganda. plied, as well as meals, lodging, etc. But, in justice, we ought to add to what the parent society raises all missionary The British and Foreign Sailors' So- offerings, such as the Woman's Foreign ciety raised over £21,000 (including the Missionary Society and the Woman's Bums raised for local purposes), and the Home Missionary Society, and Bishop Mi88ions to Seamen's Society (English Taylor's work. This brings the grand Established Church) raised £28,000 during the last fiscal year.
-Said Dr. F. F. Ellinwood recently: total up to more than $1,8oo,OOO-far be- " The beginnings of faithful work among yond the highest sum ever reached by the the Indians of Alaska were made, not Roman Catholic propaganda. We are by government agents-though the gov- fully half a million beyond Rome in ernment has now undertaken something our annual offerings." WOMAN'S WORK. Mount Lebanon, Baalbec, Tyre, etc., -The first woman's foreign mission- also schools for the blind and a staff of ary organiiation-the Society for Pro- 31 Bible.women, hareem visitors, and moting Female Education in the East, Scripture readers. The number of of England-was founded in 1834. The schools is 29, with the highest entry of first woman medical missionary was Dr. 3500 pupils. The sum needed for the Clara Swain (Methodist Episcopal), who maintenance of these various agencies reached Bllreilly, Northwest India, in . is £6000 per annum.
1870, and the work in which she was a – The Ladies' Association for the Suppioneer i~ now carried on by not less port of Zenana Work and Bible-Women than 75 of her sex. in India and China, in connection with -At the 32d annual meeting of the the English Baptist Missionary Society, Union Woman's Missionary Society (the occupies 22 stations in India, with a staff oldest in the United States), recently of 56 zenana visitors and assistants, and held, the treasurer's report showed the 160 native Bible.women and schoolreceipts for the past year to have been teachers. There are 64 girls' schools. $54,505 and the balance for 1891, $1398. RepresentativllS are to be sent this The expenditures for 1892 were $47,581, year to China. The expenditure was leaving a balance of $8322. £8600, and an increase of £1200 is urgently called for. -Of the $1,000,000 centennialoffering proposed by the Baptist Missionary ~Herr von Donner, of Hamburg. be- Union, the Woman's Society undertakes lieving his wife's recovery from a danto raise one fifth part-$200,000. gerous illness to be due to the skilful treatment of Dr. Michelsen, a woman -The Society of the Methodist Epis- physician, has given $500,000 to found copal Church has.12 hospitals and dis- a woman's hospital in her honor in that pensaries, in which, during the last year, city.
some 35,000 women have received care. EUROPE. A girl, a Hindu waif, once in the Bareilly orphanage, has since received a medical Great Britain.-According to a cataeducation, and is now in charge of the logue recently published, the library of woman's department of a government the British Museum contains copies of hospital. This society has promised 2700 different editions of the Bible, and Bishop Thobum to raise the money re- complete Bibles in about 90 tongues. quired to educate 500 girls, at an annual cost for each of $10. -Yct again does Saul appear among the prophets, for the London Times -The Society of the Reformed (Dutch) comes to the defence of missionaries in Church maintains a library committee China. It says: "The only real interwhich has in charge to loan to auxilia- preter of the thought and progress of ries a missionary library of some 50 vol- the West to the millions of China is the umes. Books can be kept two weeks. missionary; and when we remember A catalogue is printed, giving the post. that European knowledge of China is age of each book. Every copy loaned derived almost wholly from the works contains that most impressive chart with of missionaries, we may fairly say that :figures, "A Mute Appeal in Behalf of these men stand as interpreters between Foreign Missions." the East and the West. As to the char- ity, we can only answer that China had -The Daughters of Syria Society, no efficient hospitals or medical attend- of London, formed in 1860, has a ance until the missionaries established training institution in Beyrout, with them, and,in truth, she has no other branch day schools for Mohammedans, now; and when her great men, such as Druzes, Jewesses, Oriental Christians, Li Hung Chang and Prince Chun, are in and Protestants, in Beyrout, Damascus, serious danger, they have to go to the despised missionary doctor for that effi· dence of the pUblic. Some of the solcient aid which no Chinaman can give diers are doing a grand work in the them." mission field abroad, others are labor- ing in every city and town in the king- -If one is of the opinion that Britons dom, others again in villages: Laborare only selfish and greedy to possess houses, training.schools, coffee.houses, the earth, let him examine almost any prisons, public institutions, are reaping number of the London Ohristian and the bllnefit of the organization of the learn better. Entire pages are covered Church Army." with the names of all sorts of benevolent enterprises, and a banking firm -During 1892 the Board of Examiners in a single issue reports donations reo of the Propagation Society (S. P. G.) ac· cei"ed for no less t,han 116 societies cepted 15 clergymen and 15 laymen for which minister to the poor, the sick, mission work, and with regard to destithe distressed, and the heathen. nations, the 30 are distributed thus: 11 were sent to Africa, 2 to Newfoundland, -In the year 1833 the Rev. M, Jen- 4 to Canada, 3 to the West Indies, 2 to nings, a curate in Norfolk, gave an Australia, 2 to Corea, and 6 to India. apple-tree to the wife of a farmer in whose house he was lodging. When it -The Church Missionary Society has was planted, she promised that as long been holding meetings to agitate for a as she lived she would sell the apples large increase of non-ordained persons and devote the proceeds to the Society in the field. The key-note was struck for the Propagation of the Gospel. This by Mr. James Monro,late chief commispromise she faithfully kept for fifty-nine sioner of the Metropolitan Police, but years, during which time the tree only recently engaged in mission work in failed to bear a crop twice. Of the India, who suggested that the mission. exact sum received no account has been ary call was not to a select few among kept, I?ut it is known to exceed £50. the clergy, but was to the whole Church -to the laity as well as to the clergy. -Quoth the Evangelical Churchman One result of this exclusion of the laity (Toronto): "It is said, on the author- was that the number of missionaries ity of the priest in charge, that at the had been very much limited. It had shrine of the great heathen god at Cal- also created the impression in the minds cutta, not long ago, a sum equal to of the natives of India that laymen had $1,500,000 was given in one day as the nothing to do with religious teaching. devotions of the people to their god. He thought that the society would have Yet England, with all her wealth, can to follow up its scheme of associated lay only raise $5,000,000 ina whole year for evangelists by one of associated female missions, although she spends $600,000,- evangelists. 000, it is said, for drink. The very heathen shows us the spirit of sacrifice." -The East London Institute for Home and Foreign Missions was found· -The Salvation Army idea is taking ed in 1872 to train men and women for root. The London correspondent of the mIssIonary service. Upward of 3500 South~ Churchman writes: "The work have applied, coming from upward of of the Church Army is growing with 30 countries and from almost every dethat calm, quiet growth that means so nomination. Of those accepted, 120 are much. It is growing as the Church now in the midst of their course, and grew, as the oaks grow, with the roots about 640 have entered upon their work deep down in the soil. There is no sud- in the service of 30 societies. What den, gourd.like shooting up, no wild nobler monument is possible to the extravagance; all is solid and real. The founder, H. Grattan Guinness? men are carefully trained and proved, and are winning their way to the confi- -Colonel Evans, of the Salvation Army, explains in this way the phenome, nal success which has attended that or- at Kaiserswerth has 664 deaconesses, 192 ganization : ., The real moving, heart- , probationers, and 16 deaconess pupils.
stirring, soul.saving power has been the One of the deaconesses is a native of fire of the Holy Ghost. It is this fire Arabia.
that has enabled the weakest to face and -The persecution of the Jews in Russubdue the most brutal and vicious. It sia has had one admirable (?) result. It is this fire burning in their souls that is reported that some 30,000 of them have has made the prison.cell a palace and been forced by their misery to become the darkest dungeon a mansion of light. Christians, and they are kept corraled With it they have been able cheerfully apart from other Jews, under strict to bear poverty, hunger, suffering and watch and instruction, for fear they will trial. This, and this alone, is the hid- apostatize. den, secret, vital force that has placed the army where it stands to-day." A Moscow merchant has become the godfather of 400 Jews who have The Continent.-Light in a dark been baptized to awid persecution.
place. The Missionary Church of Bel- He promised to remember in his will gium has 25 pastors and 20 other agents, every one who should be certified to have who provide for 28 congregations and 63 received the sacrament once a year, Sunday-schools, and carry on evangel- and only two have so far reported them- istic work in 100 localities. They also selves.
have about 40 halls, and hold an aver- The March of Civilization.-Tramcars age of nearly 8000 meetings a year. are to run -erelong in the streets of Their growth varies from 500 to 600 con. Thessalonica. The concession has been versions every year. These are mostly obtained by Hamly Bey, a local Crmsus. _ among the poor miners and working- men, who give liberally and show great ASIA.
activity. Still it is impossible for them Turkish Empire.-Robert College, to meet all the expenses involved, and Constantinople, has issued its 29th anearnest appeals have been made to Eng. nual report, which is full of cheer. land and this country. Any persons in- The bulk of the expenses of the college terested in the work may forward funds was met by the students. The number to Mr. Louis Bichsel, 114 West Twenty- of pupils increased from 159 the prefirst Street, New York. vious year to 194, embracing 12 nationali- -The Berlin City Mission Society is ties, the Armenians, Bulgarians, and more successful than ever in its sermon Greeks being most largely represented. distribution. The weekly edition is now The number of Turks in the college will 130,000. Of these 18,000 are used in continue to be small so long as the gov- Berlin among those whose work does erDment maintains its hostility to fornot permit them to attend the church eign and Christian schools; but Presiservices; 67,000 go to other parts of dent Washburn believes that the time Prussia; 25,000 to other German coun- will soon come when this policy will be tries, and 6500 to other parts of Europe. abandoned. A new science hall is al- The Dresden Society publishes an edi- most completed, a professorship of tion of 12,000 each week, of which about chemistry and mineralogy has been es· 1300 go to other countries than Saxony. tablished, and a flourishing Young Men's Christian Association has been organ- -The Deaconesses Mother House at Kaiserswerth recently celebrated its fifty- ized.
sixth anniversary. There are now 63 -Dr. Balph, of Kessab, Asia Min<!r, mother houses, with more tban 9000 sis· holds a clinic in the morning. One day ters in 2800 fields of work. The total a man brought his wife to have the docincome was 8,000,000 marks during the tor treat her eyes. He asked him if any past twelve months. The original house one had treated her before. He replied, " No; I took her to a physician, and he an infidel's disfigurement of the classi.
asked me to pay two liras (about $9), cal work of Mohammedan theology. Bu t and I told him I did not want to waste in the end he was led to open the book so much money on her. Why," he con- and read a few lines, which so impressed tinued, " 1 would sell Iter for half. that him that he read on, and then expressed amount." his astonishment that there existed -If to be "mad" is a sure indication among infidels a man who apparently that" the gods" are about to send de· understood Beidhawi as well as an or· struction, it looks much as though the thodox doctor. time of " the sick man" was short. It is pleasant to read this in the London India.-Rev. W. H. Ball says that 90 Ohristian Leader: "The censorship in per cent of native converts in India are Turkey over the religious press is be. won by native preachers, men of won- derful eloquence.
coming intolerable, and Her Majesty's -The Rev. Abdul AU, of Banda, a representative has declared that the lineal descendant of the prophet Mo· Christian Scriptures must be admitted hammed, has died after more than intact. The censors have been erasing twenty years' loving and successful ser· , J~w' and 'Hebrew' in all places, vice in the Gospel ministry. He gained and inserting the word' Christian' be· converts from all classes, his first confore sinners, ,thus: 'Jesus came into vert of distinotion being a learned the world to save (Christian) sinners'- Maulvi. Another of his converts was as if no Turks could be sinners." And, one of the Maharajah's pandits. No further, the shocking intelligence comes journey was too difficult, if only he that a Mohammedan mob has burned could win the inquirers to whom he the fine new college building of the went to Christ. American Board at Marsovan. -A native paper of Bombay-the Dny. And why should not redemption be uno.daya-calls upon any person who brought in part by the locomotive? has found in any of the Hindu sacred Scarcely had we read of the completion books the thought that God hates sin, of the railroad from Joppa to Jerusalem to point out the passage, quoting chap. before we are informed that another is ter and verse. It says that it knows no under way from Acre, under Mount Car. utterance affirming that God desires mel, through Esdraelon, past Cana and that man should be saved from sin and Nazareth, across the Jordan, and thence made pure in heart. north to Damascus; that a French com· pany has broken ground for a third -There are more missionary socie- from Beyrout aoross the Lebanon range ties represented in India than in any to the same city; and, finally, that a other country of the world; there are Belgian company will soon build' a more missionaries, more sohools, more track from Samsoun, on the Black Sea, churches, more communicants, a wider to Ceyas, on the Mediterranean. thus opportunity for every form of Christian opening up the heart of Asia Minor! endeavor, the use of every weapon of Let His Serene Highness look out for Christian warfare, the application of the engine. every Christian principle. And well -Professor Fleischer, who died a few may it be so ; for the population num· years ago, was an uncommonly fine bers 288,000,000, and the idols wor· Arabic scholar. One of his works, an shipped 330,000,000. And besides, In· edition of Beidhawi's" Commentary on dia is under the especial care of Chris· the KOI."an," was submitted to the Sheik. tian Britain.
ul·lslam at Constantinople, the highest -Hindus show their piety in build· of all Moslem dignitaries, who consid- ing hospitals for mosquitoes, snakes, ered it beneath him even to glance at . and scorpions, but allow their wives and mothers to' die a do~' s death when at- react upon their thonghts and charactacked by disease, rather than expose ter." them to the touch, or even gaze, of a physician. -The editor of a Madras yernacular newspaper, himself" an astute, stanch, -T. G. Scott, of the Bareilly Theo- and orthodox Brahmin of a renowned logical Seminary, pleads with his Meth- priestly family," takes thlS gloomy view odist brethren to send him $20,000 for of the situation: "We entertain no enlargement: " The call ii for pastors more any hope for that religion which and. evangelists. In the history of this we consider dearer to us than our life. seminary 200 preachers have been sent Hinduism is now in its deathbed, and, out, but we now should send them out unfortunately, there is no drug which at a much more rapid rate, and here is can be safely administered into it for the deadlock. A Moslem college close its recovery. There are native Chrisby has been lately endowed with a sum tians nowadays who have declared a terwhich makes $20,000 look paltry; and a rible crusade against the entire fabric of Hindu temple is being completed at a Hinduism, and many men of splendid cost of some $2,000,000." education are also coming forth, even from our own community, who have al- -The Dublin University mission to ready expressed a desire to accept Chris. the diocese of Chota-Nagpore has settled tianity; and should these gentlemen in Hazaribagh, a town of 30,000 inhab- really become first Christians, and then itants. A number of buildings belong- its preachers, they will give the last ing to the military station, abandoned deathblow to mother Hinduism, because by the government ten years ago, have these men are such as will never turn been made over to the mission for a their backs from the plough after having nominal rate, and will serve the mem- been once wedded to it. Every moment bers for dwelling-house, hospital, dis- our dear mother (Hinduism) is expected pensary, chapel, and school. to breathe her last. This terrible cru- sade is now carried on by the native -The Missionary Herald of the Pres- Christians with a tenacity of purpose byterian Church in Ireland, referring and a devotion which in themselves defy to the fact that the missionariel! in failure." Gujarat ancl Kathiawar mourn over a want of vital godliness, a lack of spirit- -The famous Hindu god Lingam is ual progress, and the comparatively low now owned by an English gentleman, standard of morality among the con- who paid a sum equal to $13,000 for it verts, well says: "The converts have at an auction sale of East India relics been steeped in heathenism, with its in 1888. This image stands but 121 uncleanness and abominations of all in~hes high, but, small as it is, it is well kinds, from their earliest years. Their worth its weight in first-water diatastes and connections and habits ",nd monds. The base is of pure hammered beliefs have all been moulded by hell- gold, and around it are set 9 gems-a thenism. They have centuries of hea- diamond, ruby, sapphire, chrysoberyl, then teaching behind them. Even when cat's.eye, coral, pearl, hyacinthine, garthey see and believe the truth they can- net, emerald, and moonstone. The not in a moment shake off all the past apex, which is in the shape of a pyra. and attain the same strength of char- mid, is encircled with a plinth set with acter and purity of heart and charity of small but very fine diamonds. The spirit as those who have always lived pinnacle is a topaz in the shape of a in ",n atmosphere laden with Christian horseshoe, the centre being a cat's eye truth. The Dheds, from whom many of exceeding brilliancy. of our converts are taken, are the outcasts of Hindu society, the lowest of the When the last king of Delhi was exlow, and their degraded position must iled to the Andaman Islands, his queen seoreted this idol, and it 'Was nev'lr seen people are flocking in much mo,e rapid.
again until recent research brought it to ly than the missionaries can reoeive light. them. Last year the increase of con- -A Methodist church was organized verts was from 8000 to 10,500. If the about a year ago at Quetta, Afghanistan, olergy were doubled in number, and the and a new house of 'Vorship has since native agents multiplied by three, there been dedicated. would still be too much for them to do. The candidates for baptism are kept in -How far that little candle throws his the catechumenate for two, and even as beams! That is, what a world of good many as five years. can be accomplished in the Orient with a ridiculously small sum of money. China.-A miRsionary writes: "One Thus Bishop Thoburn finds that for $10 day we went to visit the giant Buddha each, boys and girls can be maintained of Foh.hsiang. At a height of Bome 600 for a year in boaraing-schools in the feet from the ground great niches have Northwestern Provinces, and he calls been cut out in the solid rook of the for enough to start 1000 on a course of mountain, in all of which are idols, and education. in the largest of which sits the Buddha himself. He is wade of the u~ual straw -This is a sample of how the heathen and clay, painted and gilded, and is no Hindus give, at least at Neyoor,. in the less than 100 feet in height. His feet native State of Travancore. We must are 12 feet in length, a toe-nail being premise that, in order to gain a certain the size of a man's head." privilege, he was ordered to be weighed in gold, and this gold made into coins -A Chinaman came to a missionary to to be distributed to the Brahmins. On ask for baptism. When asked where he the morning when the ceremony was had heard the Gospel, he answered that performed the Maharajah visited the he had never heard the Gospel, but had royal temple, where he spent some time seen it. He then told of a poor man at in worshipping the idol and repeating Ningpo, who had once been a confirmed prayers. He then retired to his palace, opium-smoker, and a man of violent put on his royal apparel, and armed temper. This man had learned about with a shield and sword, again went to the Christian religion, and his whole the temple, where there were assembled life was altered-he gave up the opium all the Brahmins of the State. 'fhe and became loving and amiable. "Oh," king then walked round the scales three said the candidate for baptism, " I have times, prostrated himself before the sa· not heard the Gospel, but I have seen cred part of the temple, and, receiving it. " permission of the priests, he mounted the scales_ Gold coius were put into -At a meeting of Chinese womell the other side until the Maharajah, with held at Winchow, a missionary read shield, sword, and all his ornaments, some extracts from the autobiogrose high in the air. This ceremony, raphy of John G. Paton, missionary to in which the king was •• worth his the New Hebrides, and suggested that weight in gold," cost 200,000 rupees, or prayer be offered for the degraded peo- £20,000-all given simply that the ruler ple of those islands. Afterward the of the State may have the privilege of women came bringing a contribution, seeing the Brahmins at their food. But which they had taken up of their own even then he is not allowed to eat with accord for Dr. Paton's work, saying, them, as he is considered to be of lower "We must think not only of those near, caste than they. but also of those afar off, for they also are our brethren.' , -Rev. H. G. Downes, of the Propaga.
tion Society, diocese of Madras, states -The records of the Medical Mission- that the outlook is most hopeful. The ary Association of China ,,-h.()'Y ~l}.at l!}6 foreign mIssIonary physicians have this though it is ten times more diffi· labored among the Chinese since 1834. cult for a Chinaman there to earn a dol. lar than it 'is for us in this land. The -The Chinese Recorder has some in. giving of that company for ten years ag· teresting statistics on medical mission. gregates $23,703. Thus even the China· ary work. In 1890 there were in the man is not altogether of the earth empire 61 hospitals, 44 dispensaries, earthy. and 100 mediaal students; the patients treated in one year heing 348.439. In -The China Inland Mission, laying 1891, in Shanghai alone, the number of foundations for solid and permanent patients treated was 56,933. work, is about to expend in Chefoo, a treaty port in Shantung province, £5000 Dr. J. G. Kerr, during his nearly forty in the cunstruction of a collegiate school years of work, has made this record: for boys and girls, primarily for the Over 1,000,000 attendances to the sick benefit of the children of its missiona· and suffering; over 35,000 operations ries, of wh0ll.l there are now 172, and in performed; some 30 volumes of medical order to save the cost of sending them to and other works translated; besides the Christian countries to be educated. But training of 100 or more native Chinese the children of other missionaries will as mediCal missionaries. For twenty be received as well as those of mer· years the desire of his heart has been to chants, etc., who object to patronizing see a lunatic asylum established in Catholic scb ools. China. To build and equip this will cost some $50,000, but when once started Japau.-A Japanese by the name of it will be almost. if not altogether, self· Jujii Ishii, who is termed the Oriental supporting. George Miiller, has an orphanage of Okayama, with 207 children in it-146 -Can these bones live? Yes, when boys and 61 girls. SOlDe are learning the Divine Spirit blows upon them. to print, some to be barbers, some to And a missionary of the Methodist New weave, and more than 170 are learning Connection records this marvel, which to make matches. There is a kinder. may well rebuke unbelief and lead us to garten for those under seven years. expect to see great things in China: English and agriculture will be taught. " But the whole village have renounced the boys, and the girls will be taught the gods of their fathers, and removed all the important work which will make every vestige of idolatry from their them good housekeepers. In Nagoya homes, and are ready to sweep away many children were left orphans by the from their midst all trace of a worship earthquake, and Jujii Ishii took them of which every other hamlet, town, and and started another orphanage. city in the empire has its monuments, and to have only a house for the wor· -This is the testilDonyof Dr. DeFor- ship of the living and true God. Prac. est, writing from Sendaf: .. That a wide tically, Tsai ChiI' is a Christian Village. Christian influence is coming in every- It is said that every family is, or inclines where throughout the empire is a fact to be, a Christian family. We have 44 of no doubt whatever. It is safe to say members (30 men and 14 women), and that the thirty years of missions in 'the remainder are either candidates, Japan, together with contact with Chris. linquirers, or hearers. " They propose to tian nations, has resulted in a wider build a church upon the site of a ruined and deeper Christian spirit in the govheathen temple. ernment, in education, in public opin- ion, in family life, in sO!,ial standards, -The Reformed { ncch) Church in than could be found at the end of the America has a body of disciples in third century in an empire that had be. Amoy numbering 968, who contributed come confessedly Christian." during 1891 the sum of $3382, or at the average rate of about $3.50 each. And
The Missionary Review of the World — August 1890
A MISSIONARY HEROINE
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XI1I. No. B.-Old Series.—AUGUST.—voL. m. No. B.-New Series.
I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS.
A MISSIONARY HEROINE.
BY REV. A. H. BRADFORD, D.D., MONTCLAIR, N. J.
Thomas Carlyle has written a book on heroes, but he has no place in it for heroines. Heroism, in the opinion of that cantankerous but honest writer, is something which belongs only to men, and to men of a fine quality of clay. The world should never forgive him for not including among his chapters one on the heroism of woman. His book, however, is a reflection of the common sentiment. Tenderness, delicacy, daintiness, and possibly uselessness, are regarded as the characteristics of woman, while of strength, courage, wisdom, and the power to do great things, the male sex is supposed to have a monopoly. Doubtless the heroism of woman has been, on the whole, passive rather than active, but patient endurance of suffering requires a loftier quality of courage than the battle-field. Carlyle'S book on heroes could be easily matched by one on heroines, who, while they have not been conspicuous before the world, have displayed qualities of sublimest courage in both action and endurance.
. Among all the records of the heroic no examples are more thrilling than the histories of the early missionaries. Those who go to heathen lands to-day know little of what was experienced by those who went half a century ago. Steam was not on the ocean; railways were not on the land; there was little communication among nations. The people to whom the missionaries went were proud, cruel, and some of them. cannibals. There was little public sentiment at home to encourage those who went abroad. Comfort'was exchanged for privation and suffering, and sympathy was uncertain. This paper will present an outline of the life of one of these missionary heroines of the early years of the present centllry.
In October, 1812, a young man, who was not even a Christian, went to Andover Theological Seminary to study, not for the ministry but about religion. The results were his conversion, the mission in Burmah, and the long and useful life of Adoniram Judson. While a student in Andover he went with others to the meeting of the Association in the neighboring town of Bradford, to apply for approbation to preach the gos{*l. This young man, one of four or five who had consecrated themselves to work in the foreign field, had already declined a professorship in Brown University, and soon after declined a call to 'Park Street Church, in Boston, at that time the largest and strongest church in New England. At the meeting Judson met Ann Hasseltine, a young lady who was born in Bradford, December 22d, 1789, and who is described as having been possessed of remarkable beauty and intelligence. It is almost incredible that, with the world as it was then, any man should have presumed to ask a woman to share with him such an undertaking as the missionary service. It is strange that those who had already made so great a sacrifice did not make still more and say, "'Ve cannot ask wives to go with us into such a life; we will go alone." But it was a manly, though singular, letter which Judson wrote to this young lady's father asking her hand in. marriage. It runs as follows: "I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure for a heathen land and her subjection to the hardships and imfferings of a missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean; to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent' death? Can you consent to all this for the sake of Him who left His heavenly home, and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing immortal souls; for the sake of Zion and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this in the hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with a crown of righteousness brightened by the acclamations <>f praise which shall redound to her Saviour, from heathen saved, through l]er means, from eternal woe and despair ?"
Ann Hasseltine was worthy of the man who asked her hand or she would never have married him after such an appeal to her father.
On the 5th of February, 1812, when she was twenty-three yeats of age, Ann lIasseltine and Adoniram Judson were married, and on the nineteenth of the same month sailed for Calcutta with Mr. a~d Mrs. Newell. It was no little thing to start from a cultured and beautiful borne in stormy February for a voyage of thousands of miles, expecting never again to see loved ones, and knowing that pain and suffering, loneliness and anguish, must be waiting to give inhospitable welcome to still more inhospitable shores. '1'he missionaries were not allowed to remain in Calcutta: the East India Company wanted no interference from the gospel in their nefarious corruption. They therefore embarked for Rangoon in Burmah, a land more inhospitable still, and still more isolated from English-speaking people. On the way Harriet Newell died and was buried on the Isle of France; and the 10!1ely, heart-sick party went on, threatened by sickness and death, Mr~. Judson the only woman on board. After eighteen months of traveling, part of the time in unseaworthy ships and part in severe ~ickness, Rangoon was reached. This pathetic extract from a letter, written from the Isle of France, tells its own story: "Have at last arrived in port; but oh, what news, what distressing news! Earriet, my dear friend, my earliest associate in the mission, is no more. 0, death, could not this wide world afford thee victims enough, but thou must enter the family of a solitary few whose comfort and hallpiness depended so much on the society of each other? Could not this infant mission be shielded from thy shafts? But be still, my heart, and know that God has done it. Just and true are thy ways, 0 thou King of saints."
On their voyage Mr. and Mrs. Judson had studied their Bibles and become convinced that immersion was the only true baptism. They therefore severed their connection with the Congregational churches, and went on their way trusting that they would be cared for by those with whose views they were in sympathy. Thousands of miles from home, these two travelers began their labors among a peopl.;) cruel and vindictive, jealous of strangers and hating strange religions. They studied the language, worked among the people as best they could, built ~heir little house and prayed and labored and waited. Mr. Judson was sometimes compelled to go to distant places, and his wife, nnattended, remained behind. A little one came into the household, staid just long enough to show what good company it could be, closed its eyes and left two bleeding hearts to mourn its loss. Mrs. Judson's strength then failed and alone she sailed to Madras, returning after a time in improved health. Other missionaries joined and left them, but these two continued their work. From the extended history of Mrs. Judson's life, I will select three series of events illustrative of her marvellous lleroism.
Having sufficiently acquired the Burmese language to be able to begin preaching, Mr. Judson decided to work for a time in a distant province. Leaving his wife with two other missionaries, he started to be absent about three months. At the end of that time the remaining missionary was summoned to the court with the threat, that if he did not "tell all he knew about the foreigners in the country they would write with his heart's blood." All was commotion; the converts were scattered; the missionary was kept in confinement. Then Mrs. Judson's wisdom and courage were manifested. Convince,d that under-officers were not acting with authority, she went boldly to the Viceroy herself and told her story so eloquently that the mIssionary was released. After this, cholera began its ravages, followed by rumors of war between England and Burmah; and six months had passed with no word from her husband or the ship on which he sailed. The war-cloud grew larger and English ships hastened away. The other missionaries decided to leave the field. It seemed best for her to go; but how could she? No news from her husband; the war-cloud still increasing: if he should return and find her gone, would they eyer meet again? Would they ever meet if he did not return? Even then she did Dot know whether he were alive or dead. At last prudence prevailed and the household goods were packed for the journey. She embarked on the last ship on which they could escape. And now I quote from her own words: "The vessel was several days in going down the river, and before putting out to sea was detained a day or two longer at its mouth. I immediately res~lved on giving up the voyage and returning to town. I reached town in the evening, spent the night in the house of the only remaining Englishman in the place, and to-day have come out to the mission-house. I know I am surrounded by dangers on every hand, and expect to see much anxiety and distress, but at present I am tranquil and intend to make an effort to pursue my studies as formerly, and leave the event with God."
That was magnificent heroism, all the grander because so quiet, so calm, so well considered. One woman, thousands of miles from home, standing by her lonely post waiting for her husband, with hardly a person about her whom she could trust! Her patience was rewal·ued by her husband's safe return.
The next example of heroism is seen when her health failed and it became necessary for her to return to America. A long ocean voyage without a companion, peril of death, peril of shipwreck, peril of false friends-all these things that poor sick woman faced, and, bidding farewell to the one true heart she trusted, started on her journey. But she could not be long alone. Friends rose around her. England was reached, where she was preceded by the fame of her noble self-devotion. Circles of culture and wealth welcomed the dauntless missIOnary. Wilberforce, Babington, and our own Charles Sumner laid their homage at her feet. And her welcome in America was not less cordial. After remaining here two years and a half, and having recruited a little company of missionaries, she started upon the long journey back again; this time never to return.
The closing scenes in the history of this unique career display daring, endurance and patience which have seldom been equalled and never surpassed.
Soon after she reached Burmah the mission station was removed to the capital, Ava. Everything prospered and the long struggle had apparently ended. Suddenly there were rumors of war. Then war was declared with Great Britain, and the British subjects at Ava were thrown into prison, but Judson was only watched. An English army occupied Rangoon, although it was thought by the ignorant and confident Burmese to be only an acciqent; they imagined that they were invincible. On gaily caparisoned boats they went, with dancing and singing, to meet the English, anxious only lest "the cock-feather chief would get away before there was time to catch any of his army; for slaves. One Burmese bdy sent with the army an order for four English soldiers to-manage the affairs of her household, as she had heard that they were trustworthy; and a dapper courtier sent an order for six to row his boat."
Defeat met the Burmese everywhere. "Secure the missionaries," cried the people. "They are quiet, let them alone," said the King. A receipt for money paid to Dr. Judson was found among the papers of an English merchant, and that was sufficient to incriminate him as a spy. An officer, with eight men tatooed as executioners, appeared at the house. "You are called by the King," said the officer; and the executioners, first throwing him to the floor and binding him tightly, took him away. Afterward they came to search Mrs. Judson, but she had safely hidden all money and papers. Her home they turned into her prison, and while she secluded herself, drunken officers revelled in her house. She sent her servant to learn her husband's whereabouts, and went herself to the governor of the city, getting nothing but the assurance, "The release of the prisoners is impossible." Other expedients failing, she sought the officer in charge of the prisoners and bribed him to allow her to see her husband. She found him in a condition disgusting and hideous beyond description. As a last resort she approached the Queen, through a member of the royal family, but received no encouragement. She so baffied the officers sent to her house as to save all the money she needed for supporting life. For seven months, hardly a day passed that she did not visit some one of the royal family. Writing home, she said: "0, how many, many times have I returned from that dreary prison at nine o'clock at night, solitary and worn out with fatigue and anxiety. . .. and endeavored to invent some new scheme for the release of the prisoners." At last she was allowed to make a small bamboo room in the prison enclosure where her husband could be more comfortable. In the midst of such circumstances a little child was born; and when the mother was again well enough to look after her husband, she found he had been put in the inner prison in five pairs of fetters. More than a hundred men were shut in a small room with no air except what came through the cracks in the boards. After she had succeeded in securing to the Nisoners the privilege of eating in the open air, they were, without warning to her, carried to a distant city. "You can do nothing for yonI' husband," said the heartless officer; "take care of yourself."
She learned where they had been taken, took her baby and two little Burmese girls she had adopted, and her cook, and started after them. Almost wild with pain and weakness herself, she found them. "There, in an old shattered building, under the burning sun, sat the poor prisoners, chained two and two, almost in a dying condition. She prevailed on the jailer to give her shelter in a wretched little room, half-filled with grain, and in that filthy place, without bed, chair, table, or any other comfort, she spent the next six months." To add to the misery, small-pox broke out in her family. After nursing the patients she was taken siek herself. 'rhis is the picture: The mother ill and at death's door, the father in a filthy prison, halfdead from suffering, the little bal)e crying for food with hardly any one to care for it, and all in a strange land among bitter enemies. Mrs. Judson recovered. The Burmese wanting her husband for interpreter, they returned to the capital. There she was attacked by spotted fever and was even given up for dead. But the everlasting arms were underneath her. Soon the war ended and the prisoners were saved. But for her, everyone of them would probably have been dead long be£ore. From a Calcutta paper of the period this statement has been taken: " Mrs. Judson was the author of th')se eloquent anQ forcible appeals to the Government which prepared them by degrees for submission to terms of peace never expected by any who knew the hau~htiness and pride of the Burman court. And, while on this ~ubject, the overflowing of grateful feelings on behalf of myself and fellow-prisoners compel me to add a tribute of public thanks to her who, though living at a distance of two miles from our prison, without any means of conveyance, and very feeble in health, forgot her own comfort and infirmity, and almost every day sought us out and administered to our wants. . • . When we were all left by the Government destitute of food, she, with unwearied perseverance, by some means or other, obtained for us a constant supply."
Professor Gammel, writing of her, says: " History has not recorded, poetry itself has seldom portrayed, a more affecting exhibition of Christian fortitude, of female heroism, and of all the noble and generous qualities which constitute the dignity and gloryof woman. In the midst of sickness and danger, and every calamity which can crush the human heart, she presented a character equal to any trial and an address and a fertility of resources which gave her an ascendency over the minds of her most cruel enemies, and alone saved the missionaries and their fellow-captives from the terrible doom which constantly awaited them."
The war was over. Sir Archibald Campbell, the English commander, honored her with distinguished compliments and attentions, and all the English who still lived in that part of Burmah looked to her as their saviour. She had had no helper or adviser~ With her babe upon her breast, her husband in a pen not fit for swine, and all the nation against her, she had never faltered.
Brighter days seemed to have dawned, and hope revivea with their coming. The mission station was changed to the new town of Amherst. There the weary missionaries built a little home and prepared to rest, and teach once more the good news of Him whose love they had so thoroughly tested. Dr. Judson was called to Ava to assist in the making of the treaty; and while he was absent, with few acquaintances about her, with no hand of kindred to sooth her pain and with a little child calling for her, she passed from earth who had crossed the oceans alone, followed her husband from prison to prison, and been a friend to the friendless in their distress. Under a hopia, or hope tree, they buried her, and the native converts mourned for one they loved to call "Mamma J UdSOll."
Thus lived aml died the woman whom I have deliberately chosen as the representative heroine-might I not almost say the representa-
DR. PIERSON'S LETTERS FROM ABROAD
tive hero ?-of the century. Have I exaggerated? Then listen to this noble tribute which appeared in the Calcutta Review in 1848: " Of Mrs. Judson little is known in the noisy world. Few comparatively are acquainted with her name, few with her actions; but if any woman since the arrival of the white strangers on the shores of India, has on that great theatre of war, stretching from the mouth of the Irrawady and the borders of the Hindoo Cush, rightly earned for herself the title of a heroine, Mrs. Judson has by her doings and sufferings fairly earned the distinction. Her sufferings were far more unendurable, her heroism far more noble, than any which in more recent times have been so much pitied, so much applauded, and she was a simple missionary's wife. . . . She was a real heroine. The annals in the East present us with no parallel."
In heaven's light how the list of women who have served the Master in missioJ)s will glow! Harriet Newell, who died at twenty and was buried on the Isle of France; :Mrs. Snow among the cannibals of Micronesia; 11rs. Coan in the Sandwich Islands; :Mrs. ShaufHer in Turkey; :Miss "Vest among the Zenanas of India; the holy company who have gone as wives, teachers, nurses and physicians,-we do not know their names, we cannot number them; they sleep in unmarked graves where southern seas wash golden sands, where tropic suns pour torrid heat. Unknown they lived, unheralded they worked, in distant lands they died; but when the historian of the future narrates the forces which have brought India, China, Japan, 'rurkey and Persia into the procession of civilized nations, no names will shine with fairer lustre than those of the mission:uy women who sought no reward but the privilege of doing good, and no fame but the opportunity of saving those for whom Christ died.
DR. PIERSON'S LETTERS FROM ABROAD. No. VI.-CUNARD ROYAL :MAIL STEAMSHIP "SERVIA,"
May 31, 1890. DEAR DR. SHERWOOD:-If this good ship comes into port, as is expected, June 9, it will bejust seven months since I took the Etruria for Liverpool, and now, on the homeward voyage, it is natural to take a retrospective glance. Since I set sail I have delivered, in one form or another, some 234 nublic addresses, closing with a farewell address in the Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland, on the early afternoon of Thursday, :May 29, just before taking the train for Liverpool. It seemed a very appropriate, though unpremeditated, coincidence that in the same place where, on November 20, the welcome meeting was held, the last address should be delivered; and, with characteri8tic Scotch cordiality and bonhommie, the whole assembly rose and cheered as their American guest left the Assembly chamber. And it is but due to these noble brethren to say that, between that welcoming of the coming and that speeding of the parting guest, nothing has occurred out of harmony with the singular generosity exhibited on both occasions. Dr. Duff himself had no nobler or grander reception when he came among the mercurial Americans than has been accorded by the more phlegmatic Scotchmen to his American coadjutor in the advocacy of missions. As I felt constrained to confess in presence of those great audiences in the Scotch Athens, this seven months' experience abroad has been a chalice of sweetness in which have been mingled no drops or dregs of bitterness. Let that stand as a hearty and permanent record of this mission tour. And what is said of Scotchmen applies not less to the English and Irish brethren in whose nomes and churches and public halls I have been so beautifully welcomed. May such interchange of courtesies and services be still more frequent between these great Protestant nations!
Some account has already reached the readers of the REVIEW of the meetings held in Great Britain up to the date of my departure for the Continent, April 1. It may be well, though these lines will not appear until the August number, to complete the record of this six months by a brief account of the months of April and May.
Rev. R. W. McAll, D.D., of the Paris mission, met me in London during the last week in March, at my own suggestion, and we held a series of meetings in the interests of French evangelization, aided by Rev. J. Howard Gill, of Paris, who kindly came to London to present the cause from his own point of view. Drawing-room meetings were held at Mrs. Studd's, Mrs. I.Jloyd's, in Kent; Lord Kinnaird's, Mrs. McCall's, Stadacona; and at Brighton, in the Y. M. C. A. Hall and in the Pavilion. I preached in behalf of the French missions at Blackheath and St. John's Wood to overflowing congregations; then a very large and influential meeting was held in Exeter Hall, on Monday evening, March 31, where Dr. McAll himself was the principal speaker; and the next day we left together for Paris. There a series of meetings had been arranged for me, in the American Chapel and elsewhere; and up to Monday night, April 7, I had spoken in all fourteen times, about half the time to English residents, and the other half to French auditors. Then, on the way to Rome, I tarried on successive days at Lyons, Marseilles, and Nice, and there visited and addressed the various McAll Missions. It was my desire to see for myself the actual working of the salles, not only in Paris but in the provinces., And after this careful and repeated investigation, speaking in the mission halls, and lodging in the homes of the McAll workers, the impression grows that here is to be found the model of modern missions. For intelligent zeal, for true self-sacrifice, for apostolic simplicity of method, for economy of expenditure, for excellence of business methods, fOt' catholic unity and for evangelical purity, we know of nothing in our day to surpass this work. Beginning with what men call an accidental visit in 1871, but which every true disciple sees to have been a Providential call and separation to a peculiar work, now, after these nearly nineteen .years, we find some hundred and thirty salles in Paris and in the provinces, with a total of some 19,000 sittings, and all carried on at an expen~ of about as many pounds sterling! These salles are rallying points for earnest Christian workers, and then radiating points for <earnest Christian effort. They mean meelei, around which gather all the best accompaniments of evangelism: Bible classes, mother's meetings, children's schools, inquiry meetings, and of late Christian churches are growing out of them, with sacraments and a living, growing membership!
Of our tour through Italy we have now only time to say that we were greatly impressed as never before with the need of Protestant missions in Roman Catholic countries. Whatever truth the Romish ·Church conserves is buried under a mass of rubbish, both ecclesias- -tical and doctrinal. We saw, even in Dublin, on a Roman Catholic church, the blasphemous inscription, " Marice, Peecatorwn Refugio," and on many a church in Italy the notice that in her name full indulgence for sin might be there procured! With many of these people the idea prevails, and it is taught by the priests, th:1t St. Joseph is the practical ruling power in heaven; because Jesus, as a faithful Son, obeys His mother, and she, as a loyal wife, obeys her husband! :Such work as the" Continental Committee of the Scottish Church" is doing in sustaining the work of Dt·. Gray in Rome, Dr. McDougal in Florence, etc., cannot be over-estimated. We were especially interested in Signor Capellini's Military Church in Rome, which ·deserves a more extended mention hereafter. We must also leave to a special communication the work of our"Waldensian brethren, which we went to the Vaudois valleys especially to examine. Never ha. we more interested hearts than as we trod among those historic scenes, .and read with new eyes the pathetic story of their martyr church in the midst of the very valleys and hills made sacred by the blood of their :sacred witnesses.
A recent enterprise of the Irish Presbyterian Church is known as the "Jungle Tribes'Mission." It proposes work among the Bheels and other jungle tribes living along the eastern border of the province of Gujarat in India, and does not insist on full college training for all its agents. Persons of a fair average culture, who evince a missionary spirit and genial devotion to Christ, and whose past labors give promise of success in Christian work, are welcomed as missionaries. There is to be a sort of probation for one year in the field, after which the Presbytery of Kathiawar and Gujarat shall decide on the question of continuance in the field. But the main feature of this new mission is that it is to regions beyond, now unreached by missionary ef'fort-a tract of over 6,500 square miles, with a population of 800,000, a large part of whom are jungle tribes, and wlwlly 'unprovided with missionaries, or Christian workers of any sort. Within this district are 1,776 towns, villages and cities, wholly destitute of all means of grace, and two of these towns number upwards of 12,000 inhabitants. In Ireland there are less than 500,000 Presbyterians, and yet there are 625 ministers to take care Of them, or one for every 800; whereas, here are 800,000 without one missionary! Rev. J. Shillidy says of them that" not one in a thousand has probably ever heard even the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," and yet 2,000, in that district alone, die every month in this awful destitution!
The field, thus so destitute and so open, presents great promise. Mission work among the Santhals began only twenty-eight years ago, and the language had to be reduced to writing. Yet, after nineteen years' labor, there were 5,400 converts. Among the Khols o~ Chota, Gossner's missionaries commenced work forty-four years ago, and while in 1850 there were but eleven converts, in 1861 there were 2,400, and twenty years later 44,000! When Adoniram Judson first went to the Karens they were described to him as "being untamable as the wild cows of the mountains." They also had not even a written alphabet untilthe missionaries reduced their tongue to writing in 1832. Yet there are to-day more than 450 Karen parishes, each supporting a native pastor and village school. There are from 30,000 to 35,000 communicants living, besides as many more who sleep in Jesus; and they have their own foreign missionary society.
As I left London the public mind was not a little excited over certain letters published in the Methodist Times from the pen of Rev. Hugh Price Hughes and Rev. Henry S. Lunn, M.D., touching Indian missions, and especially those of the vVesleyan Methodists. These gentlemen urge" a new missionary policy." Dr. Lunn gave up wealth and worldly luxury at home and went out to India, but returned after twelve months, and felt constrained to testify, first, against the educational policy pursued there, and, secondly, against the scale and expense of living on the part of many of the missionaries. The controversy awakened waxed warm, and even became personal. But after all allowance for heat on both sides, there remain some statements of fact which demand calm consideration.
There has been for some nine years past a dMiciency in the income of the Wesleyan Missionary Society of over twelve thousand pounds, which is thought to augur a growing dissatisfaction with the methods pursued by the Missionary Committee, or with the results of mission work in India. A tabular statement has been published, in which it appears that in 1881, when the last census was taken, the Wesleyan Methodist missions stood, in the increase of native Christians, at the bottom of the whole list. With a force of thirty-eight foreign missionaries in 1881 they had but nine native missionaries, and from 1851 had multiplied the native converts from 440 to 3,591 ; while Gossner's Society, with but fourteen missionaries and two native assistants had increased its native Christians from 123 to 32,800; and the American Baptists, with thirteen missionaries, had fifty-nine natives at work, and from 122 converts had grown to 57,070. In 1885, though occupying the sixth place as to age and the seventh as to missionaries employed, the vVesleyan mission stood only sixteenth in number of adherents.
Messrs. Hughes and Lunn quote Mr. Little and Mr. Findlay as say- ing that the work of the society is "fatally devoid of concentration, continuity and thoroughness"; and while tracing failure to the policy of the society, they impute no personal blame to the missionaries; but declare the missionaries to be picked men, and express high opinion of "their ability, integrity and devotion. The changes they recommend are: 1. That educational agencies should be quite subordinate to preaching of the gospel.
2. That educational agents should be, as far as possible, laymen. 3. That the advantages of education should be given mainly to their own native converts, especially intending to be native catechists and ministers. They charge education with absorbing far too much of the men and money of the society, and affirm that success is in proportion to the prominence given to the evangelization of the masses. It must be confessed that the testimony they adduce from Rev. G. Mackenzie Cobban and others is overwhelming. Evangelistic missions are re- ported as winning thousands where ednclttional missions reach tens. The Church Missionary Society and the American Presbyterian Mis- sions are quoted in contrast with those of the Free Church of Scotland, of which it is said that, following Dr. Duff's policy, on lines almost entirely educational, they reported in 1888, in Madras district, 78 adults and 187 children as the total of baptized adherents; and that in that mission since its foundation the whole number received is 622, while the expenditure has not been less than £150,000! The Telugu Mission of the American Baptists, on the other hand, reports at one station and in one year twice as many conversions as the Free Church in the entire presidency in fifty years; and the American Baptists peculiarly magnify the evangelistic element. Of course there is a difference in the caste of people among whom these various missions are carried on which must enter into any comparative estimate of results; but after all du~ allowance is made, this is a most startling showing. For the accuracy of the statements we cannot vouch; we are acting now simply as reporters of cllrrent news. A most serious charge is made against the missionaries' style of living. It is stated that it is unduly expensive and luxurious, and tends to put a distance between the natives and the missionaries. Quotations are made from native Christians and from foreign observers tending to show that a social gulf exists between the masses of the people and those who go there to evangelize them. In a word, that the caste spirit of India has found its way into the homes and hearts of some missionaries, and that this separation hinders the Lord's work, prevents natives from becoming Christians, and obstructs the progress of civilization. .Miss Joseph is quoted as instancing a native .civil surgeon who leaned to Christianity, but explained his reluctance to confess Christ because the. open espollsalof Christianity meant to him and his family a double ostracism-first, to be outcasts from the native society, and secondly, to be ereclltded from the society of European G/~ristians!
These gentlemen also refer to the custom in South India of holding .district meetings for Europeans only, from which even ordained native ministers are shut out. Dr. Lunn states that in a year's residence in India he remembers but one occasion where he was asked to take a meal at the same table with a native Wesleyan minister. At the Bangalore Conference of 1889 not one native minister had a place in the assembly.
The letters of Messrs. Hughes and Lmin call attention emphatically to the scale of living found in India. 'fhey state the average income of an Indian missionary to be £300 annually and a bungalow, :and they get this average hom comparison of seven societies. They give a table of daily diet, from whi'ch they show that good, wholesome food may be obtained for £40 annually; servants, seven in (lold weather and eleven in hot, may be obtained for £26 more; clothing for £24 more. Allowing for house linen and furniture, for charities, books and other expenses £50 more; this makes a total of but £140, or less than one-half the above average salary. Letters from Bishop Thoburn state that American Methodist ministers (married) receive about £122 per annnum and single about £80. Dr. Peck also writes, giving the salaries of married missionaries in three .conferences, in Methodist Episcopal missions, as follows: In South India, 1,800 rup., or £122; in Northern India and Bengal, 2,475 rup., ()r £168. Bishop Ninde adds his testimony that there is no complaint among these men that their stipends are insufficient, and expresses his concurrence in the via media suggested by Mr. Hughes.
Thus far we have acted as mere journalists, giving an impartial account of the current news. We cannot forbear to say, in the eapacity of reviewers, that, whether or not the course of these gentlemen has been wise, the matter is now before the public, and much of the confidence of the people in the conduct of missions will depend ()n the thorough and explicit manner in which these questions are dealt with. We have no doubt that our English Wesleyan friends purpose to pursue a course of both ingenuous and intrepid fidelity.
Meanwhile we have a few words to say which will not prejudge or prejudice the issue. 1. As to the educational policy of Dr. Duff and others, it is yet, upon trial, and the trial is not altogether satisfactory. Whatever may be said in favol' of education as a means of ultimate evangelization. two things appear to us to be plain: first, that education must be subordinate to evangelization-preaching precedes teaching in the divine order-and we are first to make disciples, and then teach them; and, secondly, it is Christian, not secular, education to which the Church is called. Simply to teach the arts and sciences, while it may serve to overturn the faith founded in ignorance and superstition, by showing its absurdity, may only unloose Hindu youth from old moorings with": out giving them any new anchorage, and the actual result is often no faith at all-an infidel. 1Ve have long felt that to educate the mind without the conscience and heart is to put edge-tools and sharp weapons into unprincipled hands. And the whole history of Government schools in India and secular education in Japan and China shows that such training without Christ only raises up a generation doubly without faith and without God.
As to the scale of living among missionaries, it must not be forgotten that the climate of India makes impracticable to many a foreigner work that he could do and has done in a cooler and more bracing atmosphere. Nor must we forget that caste restrictions, which forbid the same servant to do work that belongs to another class, make many servants a necessity where one or two suffice in America or England; and that the cheapness of servant hire allows a retinue of servants fo!' a small cost.
But after all this is said, we come still to the questIOn, On what scale of expense should a missionary live? We have no sympathy whatever with a sentiment at home which lays upon missionary laborers abroad an enforced self-denial; which begrudges them the comforts of a well-ordered and appointed home. There is no just and equitable reason why the church should demand of missionaries that they live on a scale of cheapness and plainness not required of her ministers at home. 'Vho can justify the partial and unequal policy that countenances a home clergyman in habits of living which are princely-manse, grounds, stipend, retinue of servants, luxurious table, costly dress, etc., and frowns on a clE.rgyman who is preaching in India 01' Japan and who does not live like a beggar? 'Ve fail to see why different fields of labor should demand such immense disparity.
But enforced self-denial and voltmtary self-sacrifice are quite different things. And the man who is a true missionary, at home or abroad, will, of his own accord, refuse to live in a style and on a scale which puts a practical barrier between himself and the souls he seeks to reach, uplift and save. We cannot shut our eyes to the conviction that one reason of the growing alienation of the masses from the in: churches is, perhaps, found the large salaries paid to many of our ministers at home. While we have not a doubt that they deserve all they get, and earn it, and that, it is perfectly equitable as a business arrangement, we are firmly convinced that it lifts the pastor above the level of his people, and particularlY'of the great" mass of the poorer and neglected classes. But especially abroad does it seem to us an indispensable requisite to success in reaching the native population that the tie of sympathy and of identity with their condition s,hould never be weakened. The very names of William Carey, Adoniram Judson, Robert Morrison, David Livingstone and Robert Moffat are sufficient both to demonstrate and illustrate this statement.
Ve seriously apprehend that the published statements of Dr. Lunn are not based upon a sufficiently broad induction from facts. Twelve months in India could scarcely prepare any man to speak very safely on such questions. We have just conversed on board the Servia with a missionary of the A. B. C. F. M., who has been twenty years in India, who says that the assertions of Messrs. Hughes and Lunn are in some cases grossly mistaken, and that India's conditions are such that the rules prevailing elsewherc cannot be applied there. But after all these allowances are made, is it not plain that there is danger of a decided decline in the martyr spirit, without which the missionary spirit cannot long survive ? We have often heard young men urged to go to the foreign field because no longer such selfdenial is necessary as was in other days. Such arguments 'are perilous. When any man or woman goes to Japan or India or China or Africa, leaving behind the principle of "losing life for Ohrist's sake and the gospel's," he would much better stay at home. The spectacle of selfindulgence, among heathen, Pagan and Moslem peoples, is not that which wins men to take up their cross after Christ. No life in these modern days has left a more indelible impreRsion of Pauline character upon the race than David Livingstone's, whose most marked peculiarity was was that he turned his back on everything that men hold most dear, and buried himself as the good seed of the kingdom in the heart of the Dark Continent. That was the secret reason why he accomplished those bloodless victories among savage tribes, and was more adored by those Africans than any foreigner that ever set foot on their territory. Let us have a new generation of men and women that count nothing dear unto themselves for Christ's sake and the gospel's, and we shall have a new harvest in the wide field of the world, whose fruit shall shake like Lebanon!
BIBLICAL THOUGHTS ON THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS
BIBLICAL THOUGHTS ON THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS.* BY THE LATE PROFESSOR DR. FRANZ DELITZSCH, LEIPZIG.
(Translated for THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD by Prof. Geo. H. Schodde, Ph. .D.) The Sacred Scriptures are the Word of God. Or, should we say more correctly, the Sacred Scriptures contain the Word of God? Both are correct. Our Saviour, in giving the cup to His disciples at the institution of the Lord's Supp.er, says: "This is the new covenant in my blood," and this has the same import as though He had said, "This is the cup which contains my blood," namely, the blood which establishes a new covenant-a new testament. However, the con- nection between the Holy Scriptures and the Word of God is much closer than the connection between the cup and its sacramental con- tents. The cup is the work of manO-made of lifeless metal; the Holy Scriptures, however, are written by men, but from the workshop of . the life of the soul; they are a human work which is at the same time a divine work, as God has taken human thought and writing into His service, and, through the impulse and direction of His Spirit, has used this to present His revelations. The Holy Scriptures are God's Word, and they contain God's 'Vord, for they come from Him, the God of revelation, but out of the souls of men, and written by the hands of men as the authentic documents of His plans, will and way.
But, we are told in reply, is there not a great deal in the Scrip- tures which stands in no connection with the plans, will and way of God, as, e. g., when in 1st Kings, iv. 22 seq., we read an account of the daily needs of the royal kitchen in the days of Solomon; or, when Paul, 1st Timothy, v. 25, tells his young friend to drink a little wine for his stomach's sake? Is this, too, God's Word? This objection is just as if one would ask in reference to the Biblical statement that God created man in His image, whether the finger-nails, or the eye- lids, or the spleen belonged to this divine image. These cases, how- ever, cover each other, or in part. For all men, not only the first of the race, but also th08e born of woman, are in every part and particu- lar God's handiwork (cf. Job x. 8). The Bible, however, is not a created work of God, is not a product of absolute authorship on the part of God; but is a body of writings in the production of which the • In the death of the veteran and venerable Professor Franz Delitzsch, of Leipzig, who entered upon bis reward lIIarch 4, 1890, the cause of Jewish missions lost its most ardent friend. The article here given is a translation of the last mission address made by the tireless lover of Israel. It is not this pathetic feature alone that makes it interesting. It has a representative value in showing the spirit and manner of the man. The Biblical character of the discussion, the sanguine hopefulness pervading the whole, the poetic fervor exhibited in almost every sen- tence, are characteristic and typical of the Leipzig savant. Like all of Delitzsch's literary pro- ductions, the address must not merely be read, but also be studied in order to be appreciated. It appeared originally in Saat aUf Hoffumg, the leading Jewish mission journal of the world, of which Delitzseh himself was for twenty-five years the editor and leading contributor.-Trans- lator. God of revelation made use of men of the most varied types and tiines and conditions; a book, then, which is not less human than it is divine, in which the human side is sometimes more prominent than the divine, and sometimes the divine more prominent than the human.
As man consists of a soul that is the life-giving principle in him, and of a body that receives from the soul its vitality, thus, too, in the Scriptures we can distinguish the inspiration as their central fact and life-giving spirit form their body-that is, the external features forming their periphery. Not as if we could say, "So far goes the inspiration, and there it ceases." Just· as the activity of the soul in the human body is felt even to the tips of the fingers, thus the spirit of inspiration permeates the whole of the Scriptures, from their centre to the farthest circumference, and of the whole is true what Isaiah says (xxxiv. 16). And yet there is always a difference in what in the Scriptures can be compared to the vital principle of the soul and to the life-receiving body. There are Old Testament selections, such as Psalm cxxx, which reflect almost completely already the religious standpoint of the New Testatment, and there are others, like Esther ix. 7- 10, in which the Old Testament standpoint is represented in an almost repellent, carnal phase. And yet the book of Esther belongs to the Old Testament Scriptures, for its purpose is to show us, according to its divine purpose and plan, how, on the one hand, the Sun of the New Testament was nearing the horizon, and how, on the other hand, the old covenant was becoming old and weak, more and more.
But why these thoughts to-day, at the annual celebration of our Jewish mission work? These thoughts are to prove to us that in those portions of the Scriptures, too, from which our mission work draws its authority and the certainty of being acceptable to God, the divine and the human are found together, and that, in accordance with the demands of the New Testament spirit, we must set aside the Old Testament restriction, in order not to forsake the Christian standpoint for that of pre-Christian Judaism.
As clear and light as the sun are those passages which proclaim it as our right and our duty to proclaim to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ; they are divine words which our Father in Heaven has put into the hearts and mouths of the Prophets and Apostles. Even more than this, they are direct divine words-words of Christ Jesus, in which the Old Testament longing for an earthly visible appearance of Jehovah have been fulfilled. Israel had the first right to the fruits of development. He Himself declares that He was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And He commands His disciples not to go into the streets of the Gentiles, or into the cities of the Sarmaritans, but to seek the lost sheep in Israel. But when after His death He as the Risen One had entered into the limitless life of perfection, in which His whole work is referred in a like manner to all men, the mission" too, which He had entrusted to His disciples breaks the bounds of nationality, and they are told to preach the gospel" to every creature." Does this, perhaps, mean all creatures henceforth except the Jews? How could that people be excluded for whose pardon He petitioned upon the cross? All the congregations outside of Palestine to whom the apostles wrote consisted of Jews and Gentiles alike, and more than twenty years after the death of the Lord, that apostle who more than all the others was appointed to preach to the Gentiles declares that the gospel was a power unto salvation, first to the Jews and also to the Greeks.
Our mission work is done in obedience to the will of God; it seeks to serve that gracious will of God which embraces all mankind. Preaching the gospel to the Jews, of whom there are now six and one- half millions, is the same as the work of evangelization of any other nation. If the friends of mission work among Jews or Gentiles would expect to convert every single individual of any particular nation to Christ, they would forget the word of the Lord, that the way is narrow that leads to eternal life, and that few there are who find it. All Biblical promises that speak of the conversion of nations do not refer to the great mass of people, but to the kernel in the midst of the mass; or, to speak with the prophets, to a "remnant," proceeding from the supposition that through the judgment of God a certain portion shall be separated from the mass, and this shall accept the grace of God and His Christ. This is especially true of Israel. After Isaiah has joyfully proclaimed the birth of the Messiah, who, as the visible presence of God, is called the Mighty One (ix. 5), he predicts that, even if the people were as many as the sands on the seashore, yet only a remnant shall be converted to the mighty God, who has made His appearance bodily in the Christ (x: 21-23). By this "remnant" is not to. be understood a min<,>rity within the majority of the people, but ratherthe nation itself filtered into a kernel, which, as Isaiah was informed:, when called to his work (vi. 13), was to grow forth anew from this·. kernel and become prosperous. This it is, too, what Paul means when, in resisting self-exaltation of the Gentles, he announces the secret of the all-embracing grace (Romans xi. 25 seq.), that" all Israel shall be saved "-all Israel, because to the Christ-believing Israel of the New Testament period, to which the apostle himself belonged, a Christbelieving Israel of the last times shall be added.
That ban and banishment shall not eternally be the lot of Israel; that!. at the end of days it will turn to the Lord, to the second David-that, is, to God, the Father of Jesus Christ; and that, when this conversiol. has taken place, it, with the help of the Gentile Christian nation in.. whose midst it is dwelling, will again secme the possession of the lan~ which has been given to it with an oath. This is taught by all portion!:! of the Scriptures alike, and this is confirmed by Him who is the incar· nate Word of God (cj: :Matthew xxiii. 39). That this word shall become true is confirmed by another word spoken at His departure .from earth (Luke xxi. 24). According to this, Israel shall not be scattered for all times; Jerusalem will again become the chief city of a Christ-believing Israel dwelling in the Holy Land. And, as a result, this will be an independent people. The answer which the Lord gave to His disci- ples when questioning as to the hour when He would re-establish the kingdom of Israel, does not refer to the fact itself, but only leaves the time to be settled by the Father. We are here considering words of God, from which we dare take nothing; words of God which are a fixed part and portion of the divine plan of salvation.
In the Old Testa~ent times the clear light of this divine idea is obscured in rising in the hearts of the prophets in so far as it is colored by a national and ceremonial method of thought, which is inseperable from a revealed religion in its preparatory stage. In the first place, although the prophets in a determined and cutting manner chide a dead -i. e., a heathen-ceremonial worship, as is also done by the Psalms (Psalm 1. 13 f.), yet not a single prophet or psalmist can picture to himself the worship in the last times without a restored sacrificial system. On this point the Old Testament view is corrected by the New Testament. Christ Himself is the end of the law; His voluntary sacrifice has for all times removed the shadowy form of the old sacrificial culture. Secondly, the Old Testament views the rremple in Jerusalem as the central place of worship for the last times and the place to which the nations will flock. But Christ, in His answer to the Samaritan woman, tells us that true worship is not bound to any particular locality. The New Testament revelation knows of no other world cathredral except the spiritual temple ~f the one Christian Church. And, thirdly, in general the New 'restament does not recognize any particular nation which 'more than any other is the people of God; no nation around which the other nations circle, as the planets circle around their suns(cf. Romans x. 12). And, fourthly, while in the Old Testament the people of God and the congregation of God are one and the same, the New Testament interest builds up the Church from among the nations; but the Church is a spiritual organization distinct from the national and State organizations. While a nation in case of necessity'can defend itself with carnal weapons, the true Church can never make use of fire or the sword-her weapons, are the Word, prayer, suffering and martyrdom.
But even if we take all this into consideration, the word of the apostle still is applicable to the Jews, spoken (Rom. xi. 29) then, or spoken in view of the end of days. Israel has fulfilled its world mission in having given to the world the Church of God, but it has not exhausted its world mission thereby. When it shall once have recognized Him whom they have rejected so IOlilg, and accept Him with
FOREIGN MISSIONS IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES
(lontrite heart, then will be fulfilled what is said by the Apostle Paul (Rom. xi. 15): "If their rejection became the reconciliation of the world, what can come with their reception but life from the dead? " (According to the original text.) Life fro11:1 the dead, a new spiritual springtime, will proceed from the newly-arisen Israel. The fulness of the Gentile nations will then have entered, but not in their entirety. Christ-believing Israel will help in completing the evangelization of the world. And when then on the ground where the temple of .solomon stood, and where there is now a Moslem mosque, sacred next to the Casba of Mecca, a mighty Christian temple shall be erected, then this will, indeed, not be the centre, but yet a mighty beacon of light for all Christendom.
FOREIGN MISSIONS IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES.
BY REV. EDWARD STORROW, BRIGHTON, ENGLAND.
(Concludedjrompage 501.) The early efforts of the first society in the cOLonies 1Il behalf of "schools, seamen, soldiers, prisoners and Christian literature, were con- siderable. It was led by the following incident into a foreign field of labor, in which it did noble and much-needed service throughout the century. Some of the letters of Zeigenbalz and Plutscho, narrating the successes, trials and pecuniary difficulties of their mission, having been laid before the Propagation Society, it generously sent them a donation of £20 and a number of books. The interest thus awakened was perpetuated and deepened, but it was thought that the scope of the society did not include India. Apparently this was as true of the Christian Knowledge Society, though it was finally arranged that it should open a fund for the special use of the Danish Missions in India. In this manner it was that essential aid was given to all the Danish and German missionaries we have named, and several more, and the society led on to undertake important missions of its own. Zeigen- balz and Plutscho were not only honored on their return to Europe by the king of Denmark, but when the former visited England he had interviews with George I., the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishop of London. That the interest thus expressed was genuine and abiding was proved by subsequent events. The king wrote to the missionaries. The Christian Knowledge Society deliberated on the best means of helping the mission. Most of the missionaries subsequently sent out visited England; were forwarded, in some cases, in ships-of-war, free of charge, and received, not only letters of encouragement and authorization from the highest ecclesiastical dignitaries, but gifts of money and material for their schools and printing operations, and annual salaries to supplement the small and precarious allowances they received from Denmark. Indeed, after the death of Frederick IV., the mission was mainly dependant on England for funds. Gradually this developed~ in a most friendly manner, into British Missions, though the agents, for the most part, were from Germany and Scandinavia. Swartz, forinstance, was for the greater part of his career a missionary of the Christian Knowledge Society, for when it resolved to establish a mission at Trichinopoly, in 1766, with the free consent of the Danish College of Missions, he transferred his services finally from one to the other. So J ainicke, the first European "missionary in Tinnivelly, where the gospel had been carried by Swartz and his native assistants; Huttemann, at first at Cudalore; Gericke, at Madras; Kiernauder, at Calcutta; and their co·adjutors and successors, were agents of this society. To it, indeed, belongs the honor of having done almost all that England attempted for the evangelization of India during the eighteenth century.
We now turn to the Propagation Society. Noone familiar with the foreign and colonial relations of England at the commencement of last century can be surprised that its chief efforts should have been directed for many years to the settlers scattered throughout the various North American colonies, and places in Europe, such as Moscow, Hamburg, Lisbon, Leghorn, and the Levant, ,~here groups of Eng. lishmen resided. Interest in the former was intense, and in the latter a duty, for their spiritual state was a disgrace to England and a scandal to Protestantism, whilst heathen lands were very little known, and the obstacles in the way of conveying to them the gospel far more formidable than they are now. Moreover, the funds at the disposal of the society were inadequate, when the most pressing claims were met, for any great and untried enterprise. It was not given, even in these early days, to pay much respect to the labors of others, or it would have left New England to the Puritans-destitute though it was of Epis.copal agencies-and would have concentrated all its energies on colonies where Christianity was little more than a name; but where vice and irreligion were rampant. Thus much money was wasted; the efforts of good men wtlre misspent in attempts to alter the opinions of Christians rather than in converting sinful men; and some of the true blessings of Christianity were lost or limited. Nevertheless, the society was heartily zealous in its efforts to spread religion and morality among nominal Christians, and to convert the heathen. It did immense service in sustaining and strengthening the struggling agencies which here and there existed, and in sending clergymen to districts and colonies where there were none. It is not. too much to say that the Episcopal Church, not only in the United States, but in all other parts of America, the West Indies, West and South Africa, India, New Zea- land and Australia, owes more to it than to all other agencies united.* * .. Missions of the Church of England," by Ernest Hawkins. But of its endeavors to give the gospel to the heathen, notice chiefly is here to be taken. That this was a part of its design is abundantly clear, if it were only from the careful and elaborate "Directions to the Catechists for Instructing Indians, Negroes, etc.," which at an early period it issued; although it was for some years less distinguished in this sphere than the other, chiefly because its agents were absorbingly occupied in setting things in order among their own countrymen" but partly through the error of leaving to the same persons the very diverse duties of ministering to Christian congregations and seeking the conversion of the heathen. Bray, who founded and' endowed an institution of great value, which exists to this day under the title of " Bray's Associates," for the support of negro schools in Nova Scotia, Philadelphia and the Bahamas, was not likely to overlook their interests in any society which he helped to found. We find, accordingly, in the early history of the S. P. G. Society, repeated notices of their instruction and baptism; of schools for their benefit; and attempts to alleviate their lot and to protect them from contumely and wrong, especially in New York and the West India islands. Nor were the Indians overlooked. The zeal of the Rev. Morgan Godwyn, trained at Oxford, and successively a clergyman in Virginia and Barbadoes, as exhibited in a pamphlet he wrote in 1680, entitled "The Negroes' and Indians' Advocate," seeking for them admission into the Church, the chief proposition of which was" That the negroes, both slaves and others, have naturally an equal right with other men to the exercise and privileges of religion, of which it is most unjust in any part to deprive them," was characteristic of the sentiments of many, both before and after the formation of the society. The opening century showed several gratifying evidences of this. There were, for instance, some thirty congregations of Christian Indians, in 1705, in the south of New England, thirty-seven native preachers, some of them having been ordained by the Puritans. There were also seven or eight English ministers, who had learned the Indian tongue, ,and frequently gave instruction to Indian assemblies.* In the year 1700 was celebrated the first public commencement of William and Mary's College, founded, as the charter declares, " that the Christians of Virginia may be furnished with a seminary for the ministers of the gospel, and that the youth may be piously educated in good letters and manners, and that the Christian faith may be propagated among the western Indians, to the glory of Almighty G<.>d." The society took up such work with great readiness, for, in its first report, grants are stated to have been made to two missionaries who were laboring among "the five nations of Iroquois, commonly called the Praying Indians of Canada," t and Mr. Thompson is reported as baving been" sent to * See Hawkins' History.
t This continued, with some Interruption from war, in one at least of the tribes, the Mohawks, all through the century, and with much success. instruct the Indians in Carolina in the Christian religion." In 1704, Elias N eave, as catechist of the society, opened a school in. New York for negro slaves, which, in spite of enormous difficulties, did immense good, and existed for at least sixty years. N eave had at one time 200 catechumens under instruction, and one of his successors, after twenty- three years' labor, reported that" not a single black admitted by him to the holy communion had turned out badly, or in any way disgraced his profession." * These statements are by no means exhaustive, but they indicate the direction in which much good was done. Gradually the way was prepared for work on a more extended and • independent scale. The first who entered on it was Mr. Thomas Thompson, who, after laboring for some time'in New Jersey, was sent, in 1751, by the society, at his own urgent request, as a traveling mis- sionary to the negroes on the coast of Guinea. The work thus begun was doubtfully sllstained for fifty years by a native clergyman named Philip Quaque, and was the foundation of the great and successful missions of the two English Episcopal societies in Western Africa. The Declaration of Independence, 1776, brought the labors of the society in the United States to a close. Thus it was free to enter on new and more destitute spheres, and at the end of the century it was partially or entirely sustaining agents in several of the West India islands, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, the Canadas, Australia and West Africa. This was a great deal to attempt on the slender resources it then commanded. Its income in 1701-2 was only £1,537. From 1710 to 1750 the annual receipts averaged £2,150; from 1750 to 1770 they rose to £4,000, but rapidly fell when the war with America com- menced, and ill 1801 were £6,457. Such were the varied endeavors made during 200 years to win the heathen for the inheritance of Christ. Instances of eminent learning, ability, zeal and consecration in the endeavor were numerous, but the results were not great. In estimating them we must consider the unsettled turbulence of the times; the demands made on Christian zeal by the aggressions of the Papacy; the rapid extension of the British possessions; the really limited number of those who, at any period under survey, understood and possessed the true missionary conception, and the want of efficient, well-organized and sustained methods of operation. Nevertheless, a great deal was done, and yet more was prepared for, and it would ill become us to fail in appreciation of those less-favored laborers, who laid, under enormous difficulties, the foundations of that great temple which, under far hap- pier auspices, we assist to build. If we look back just 100 years, to the close of the ninth decade of the eighteenth century, on the eve of the development of missionary zeal in the formation of so many important societies, we find there were but three missionary societies-the Propa- gation Society, which labored chiefly, however, in the colonies; the * See Anderson'S History, Vol. III., p, 332.
THE LACK OF CONSECRATION AND PRAYER
Halle-Danish Mission, which in a languid manner sustained the mIs_ sions in South India, and the Moravian Missionary Society. To these might be added the Christian Knowledge Society which, through the greater part of the century, rendered efficient aid to the missionary enterprise, and the Dutch Government, which in most of its possessions was mindful, though through imperfect methods, of its duty to its pagan subjects. But private and personal zeal had here and there been active, especially throughout the colonies of North America and the West India islands. The Methodists and Moravians were principally active in the latter; the Puritans and Episcopalians in the former. In the extreme north the Swedes and Moravians had a few interesting but small and struggling stations. The latter had the one only mission in South Africa, and the Propagation Society the only one on the west coast. The Dutch Missions in Ceylon and the Indian Archipelago were languishing. So really were those of Southern India, save where the gentle but potent influence of Swartz was felt. Altogether the sums annually spent on missions to the heathen was less than £25,000, and the number of missionaries less than 100. The native assistants to the missionaries were very few, probably not one to each missionary, and there were not ten who had attained to the status of ordained clergymen, so small was the attention given to this important ~eature of Christian propagandism. The converts, exclusive of the uncertain number of the nominal ones in Ceylon and the Dutch possessions, could not have numbered 40,000, belonging for the most part to weak and uninfluential races, and having but very few among them of marked ability, faith or position.* 'l'he difference between then and now in agency, influence and results proves the wonderful vitality and growth of missions, and is most encouraging as affording the most varied and ample evidence of their success.
* For an admirable statement of the position of missions at the beginning of this centnry, see Dr. Christlieb's" Foreign Missions of Protestantism," p. 5-16.
THE LACK OF CONSECRATION AND PRAYER.
[EDITORlAL.–A. T. P.] PART II.
(Concluded from page 514, July number.) 3. There is in the Church, we fear, a radical lack of consecration.
We use this phrase in no narrow cant sense, but in its proper sense of setting apart-self-dedication to the service and use of God. That is a great truth and fact: Ye are bought with a price and ye are not your own. Redemption is our purchase, at a fearful, unspeakable price. The redeemed becomes, of course, the property of the Redeemer, and salvation by faith is simply the acceptance of this redeemed relation. We not only renounce all claims of any other master upon us, but all right in ourselves. 'Vithout this renunciation there is no salvation, and it carries with it the consecration of which we have spoken.
Of course this consecration includes all our belongings. What, by a strange use of language, we call our" substance," so far as it belongs to us, certainly belongs to our Redeemer, and is henceforth devoted-set apart as by a vow-to His glory. This is the Biblical principle, and it has only to be recognized and practically acted upon to yield the most astonishing results. The financial basis of all our evangelization is rotten, because the money of believers is unconsecrated. There is enough wealth in the coffers of the rich-nay, there is enough surplus money in the purses of the poor, if properly gathered and systematically contributed, to evangelize this world. But it will never be given nor used until we look upon God, not ourselves, a5 the owner and proprietor of all. The question must be not, What can I spare for God and at the same time satisfy my conscience? but, How much can I sacrifice for God, how little can I spare for myself, and yet satisfy my own absolute needs? The ministry of money in the Kingdom of God is one of the great truths and mysteries that we are slowest to learn and penetrate. Men have worshipped Mammon; and it certainly suggests certain divine attributes, for-wisely used-money so multiplies the man's force as to suggest omnipotence; so multiplies the man's effective personality as to suggest omnipresence, and so multiplies the years of his influence as to suggest immortality. How contemptibly little and miserably short-sighted the selfishness that looks upon such a mighty factor in the world's evangelization and redemption as only a means of self-enrichment and self-indulgence!
We must learn the secret of true giving. First, this giving must be not only systematic but proportionate. He who gives one dollar out of $100,000, gives far less than he who gives the same sum out of $10,000 or $1,000. Dr. Joseph Brown, of Glasgow, quaintly says that no man can overlook this principle of proportionate giving if he understands his arithmetic, and that the practical neglect of it can be accounted for only on the ground that such people, when they came to "simple proportion," bolted over it into "vulgar fractions."
But the consecration we most need is that supreme self-offering, the consecration of body, soul and spirit unto God. Weare bought with a price: therefore are we no longer our own. Besser tells us of a redeemed slave, bought by a rich Englishman, in a slave-market, for twenty pieces of gold, and then presented ~ith a purse of money with which to buy a home. "Am I free? to go where I will and do what I will? Then let me be your slave. You have redeemed me; lowe all to you." He whom Christ has bought will not go free. He comes to the blood-stained door-post and asks that his ear may be thrust through with the awl and fastened to the door. Of him as of the master it is true, "Mine earsItlast thou bored, in token of my delight to do thy will, 0 my God." There is no liberty to be compared with such voluntary servitude. Years seem but a few days for the love the disciple bears to his Lord. Love shortens the longest term, lightens the heaviest load, strengthens the feeblest frame.
When such consecration is ours, everything else will be consecrated. The utensils of ordinary toil, the very pots in the kitchen, will be holy like the bowls of the altar. Then children will be the Lord's, not from childhood or birth only but from conception, and, like Samuel and John the Baptist, filled with the Holy Ghost even from the mother's womb.
4. There is a lack of supplication. Prayer has always turned the crises of the kingdom. It is a remarkable fact that, from the inception of modern missions to their present period, no important stage or step of their development has ever occurred except in connection with prayer. Even while the bulk of disciples were yet asleep to the needs of man and the duty of the Church, a few were, like Elijah on Carmel, bowed before God in importunate prayer. First, William Carey in England and Jonathan Edwards in America besought God to arouse an apathetic Church, and, almost simultaneously in England and New England, the Monthly Concert of Prayer began to be observed in 1784. Then prayer arose to God for the opening of doors into the whole habitable world. From 1819 to 1884 the most remarkable series of events occurred ever known in human history. Cannibal islands in the South Seas, Brahmanistic India, Buddhistic Siam, Persia, Turkey, China, Japan, Korea, and even Italy, Spain and France were thrown mysteriously open. Africa was suddenly thrown open also by that strange combination, the cotton spinner of Blantyre and the reporter of the New York Herald. Thibet stands today almost solitary and alone in shutting out the missionary, but the Moravians, always the pioneers, are carrying the blood-stained banner to the parapet of that shrine of the Grand Llama.
Then praying souls began to plead for increased supplies of men and means to enter these open doors; and workmen offered and money was furnished, until, in 1878, some twenty donors gave more than $4,000,000. Then the awful condition of woman in pagan lands attracted the attention of praying women and the great Zenana movement began, and simultaneously the organized form of woman's work. Then came an exigency when it seemed that there must be more volunteers-and from the educated classes; and, within five years, in this country and Britain upwards of four thousand young men and women, the flower of the Church and of society, have offered themselves willingly. Every time the Church has set herself to praying, there have been stupendous movements in the mission world. If we should but transfer the stress of our dependence and emphasis from appeals to men to appeals to God-from trust in organization to trust in supplication-from confidence in methods to importunate prayer for the- power of the Holy Ghost, we should see results more astounding than have yet been wrought. Itisa significant fact that in every department in which we naturally seek to move men most by appeals, we are di- rected to depend solely on prayer. "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth laborers into His harvest." The sup- ply of workmen is to be secured by prayer, but the quality of work- men is far more important than the quantity Power comes by prayer-the secret of power is fire, kindled from above. The sublim- est men of history have been men who stood alone, like Moses on Horeb, Elijah on Carmel, Daniel in Babylon, Luther at Erfurth, Sa- vonarola on the scaffold, and McAll in Paris, Moffat in Africa, Mor- rison in China. There is a sublimity about faith and solitariness. One man and God with him stands undismayed among a thousand foes and can carry off the gates of Gaza and lift the pillars of Dagon's temple.
It is said of Themistoc1es, at the battle of Salamis, that he delayed that naval engagement until the land breeze blew which swepthis vessels toward the foe, and left every oarsman free to act as bowman and spearman. Think what new power would come to us if the energy expended in propelling the mere vehicle of missions could be left free to do the work of missions; if the Spirit of God should sweep the Church toward the crisis of the engagement instead of our toiling hard to bring up God's people to the encounter.
In the Pantheon at Paris is a cartoon which represents a contrast of early Roman history. The pagan empire has reached its summit of splendor, and a Cresar is entering the Eternal City in triumphal procession. The scene is dazzling-countless legions of soldiery, captives of war in golden chains, spoils of priceless value, colossal elephantsall the pomp and pageantry of-human glory. Beneath, scarcely visible in the dim light, Christians are praying in the Catacombs, and the long galleries are the sepulchre into which the empire' must soon fall. Imperial glory is being undermined by martrys' prayers.
The picture is but an allegory on canvas. The world's pomp and pageantry are hollow and shallow; its power and glory are unreal and deceptive. The Cresars and the czars, the emperors and sultans,. with their crowns and sceptres, are not the actual governing powers in human history. In many an obscure garret or cellar, in the hut of the lowly, are the praying saints whose supplications move the arm which is the support of the universe. The Church has two unused motors: the power of consecrated money and the power of covenant prayer. The possibilities of either have never yet been proven. '1'he coming age of missions will show what mighty motive powers these are; and that we may quicken the whole pulse of true believers, let us. seek to inform the mind, impress the conscience, hallow the life and inspire the prayer of all who look for Him whose kingdom is to be world-wide and age-long!
When Christians are intelligent and consecrated there will be no lack of holy enterprise. That word conveys to us the conception of an undertaking resolutely attempted with the acceptance of all necessary risk. The children of this world have always put to shame the children of light. Commerce, science, trade, greed have accomplished results which the more potent motives drawn from the Word of God and fellowship with Christ have failed to secure. It is a burning shame to us that men should dare, for ivory and peacocks' plumes and diamonds and gold, perils and privations which the Church of God will not confront for the sake of souls. Scientists penetrate Indian jungles and African forests forthe sake of fauna and flora; men will colonize with increditable rapidity a desert tract, moved by the law of a carnal commandment, while we are not impelled by the power of an endless life. We see men of the world form colossal corporations for world-wide enterprises. If some new invention like the electric light, or some new discovery like that of kerosene oil, marks a new epoch in civilization, a few years elapse and it may be found in every land. I am told that kerosene lamps may be found in the heart of Africa and China and Japan. What is the matter with the Christian Church that the world-wide enterprise of Christian missions moves so slowly?
In the Peninsular war, for every Frenchman killed there was sent out by England the weight of a man in lead and eight times his weight in iron, not to speak of the cost in blood and treasure. In the Indian wars in this country it has sometimes cost on the average a million dollars to kill an Indian, while an average expenditure of $200 was spent in converting them. There is no lack of money nor means to compass the evangelization of the world within the present century if there were but the spirit of enterprise to dare and undertake for our Redeemer.
Talleyrand boasted that he "kept his watch ten minutes ahead of the re~t of mankind." The Christian Church should surpass rather than be surpassed by others in her enterprise. The time will come when disciples will look back to this age of missions with as much surprise as we now look back to those days when a learned prelate in the House of Lords, and a defender of orthodoxy too, could calmly argue against sending missionaries to the Orient! or as we contemplate with amazement speeches against the suppression of the slave trade that have no interest to us'except as fossils and petrifactions of an antediluvian era! Even now there are some believers to whom the present apathy seems inexplicable. The work of a world's enlightenment and salvation is the only work worthy of all the combined energies of the Church of Christ. It should be pushed with the patience, perseverance, indomitable courage and invincible constancy of those wh() •
PRAYER AND JlfiSSIONS
believe that they are under the direct and personal leadership of a divine captain. To the eye of faith, our celestial Leader, in garments Ted with blood, is signalling to His people to move forward, unitedly and promptly, and take every stronghold of Satan by storm. For what are we waiting? There is His command, now nearly nineteen <lenturies old, yet ever new in its obligation. There is His providence, with its present and emphatic challenge to us to enter the open doors of opportunity and march over the prostrate walls of unresisting strongholds. There is His grace, that has worked and is working new miracles and signs and wonders among tribes so degraded that to awaken in them even Godlike aspiration implied a new creation. The "Fulness of Times" lias once more come. The Son of God goes forth to war, and He summons all His hosts to a final assault. Before Him and a sanctified, united Church, even the gates of Hell shall not prevail. Oh, for the day when all along the battle lines a new movement shall be seen, before whose mighty advance Satan himself shall tremble!
PRAYER AND MISSIONS.
BY REV. R. T. CROSS, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
Much has been said of late upon this subject, but it will bear pre- <lept upon precept and line upon line. In a widely circulated book on prayer, full of instances of answered prayer, I was unable to find a single instance of prayer as related to missions. But one cannot search missionary literature to any extent without finding many such instances. The history of missions is a history of prayer. Mark on a chart· the missionaries, the missions, and the nations for which most prayer has been offered, and from that chart you can construct a history of missions that would be approximately correct. Prayer is the Church's vital breath in all its missionary work. Prayer and missions are as inseparable as faith and works; they are faith and works.
The church at Antioch sent forth their first missionaries with fasting and prayer, and the success that attended those first missionary efforts was in answer to prayer. How many prayers are offered for every missionary; prayers by his home church, by personal friends, by himself, by the missionary society, the denomination, and by the Church at large! To this fact it must be due, in part, that so few missionaries of all who have gone to heathen lands, among savage tribes, exposed to all sorts of perils, have met a violent death. The exceptions prove the rule, for God sees that it is best for the cause of missions that the surface desire be refused sometimes in order that the deeper desire be granted.
Harriet Newall went as a missionary at the age of nineteen. She and her husband had barely landed on a heaMlen shore when the authorities sent them away. They came to the Isle of Man, where she • sickened and died-all in a few brief months. Those who prayed that her life might be spared, prayed thus in order that she might do good work for Christ and advance His Kingdom. For that reason, evidently, her life was not spared, for the published account of that consecrated life and early death aroused a wonderful interest in mis- sions in this country in the early part of the century.
A poor mother of nine children in Vermont gave her mite to help send missionaries to the Sandwich Islands, and grieved because she could not give more. At family prayers she asked God to accept of one or more of her children. "That prayer," said one of her daughters, "struck me," and that daughter became the devoted wife and right royal helper of 1Iissionary Wilder.
1Iore than one missionary has found that prayer is a helpful agency in securing a proper helpmeet. Dr. Goodell, who for forty years did so grand a work in Turkey, says that after he decided to go as a missionary he prayed much for a proper helpmeet; but finally he began to watch as well as pray, and then his prayer was answered. When his friends, Thurston and Bingham, were under appointment to go as the first missionaries to the Sandwich Islands, the mothers of the young ladies to whom they were engaged positively refused to let their daughters go. Going without wives was not to be thought of, and it was not supposed that they could return, or that anyone could come to them for many years. Something had to be done and that promptly. The students at Andover prayed over the matter and then hired a fleet horse and sent young Goodell on a. forty mile ride to find a wife for Thurston, who had given him a. carte blanche in regard to two or three young ladies who had been described to him. One was found and it proved to be a happy marriage.
On the day of prayer for colleges, during the Week of Prayer, and at other times, parents and others have been praying the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers, and in answer to those prayers we see this wonderful movement among Christian students. Is it not the first wave in the rising of a mighty tide of missionary interest and consecration? Now let us pray that a great number of churches and missions may support each its own missionary in foreign lands.
1Iissionaries need and greatly desire to be remembered by name in our prayers. When they go down into the depth of heathenism they want us to hold the rope, and we do not hold it unless we pray for them. One thing they want us to pray for is that they may be helped in learning the language. When 1Ir. Wilder had been in India but a short time, he was jokingly asked to preach in the native language. He tried and succeeded. The natives were astonished, and they said, "We prayed for him." One day he had preached in eight villages, and such was the indifference of the people that, wearied and discouraged, he sat under a tree to rest. While there he received a letter from a friend in Philadelphia, who, among other sympathetic things, said, "Brother Wilder, we are praying for you by name every Wednesday night." He felt refreshed at once. He arose, went two miles to a large town, called on the head man, who ordered his fifty clerks to stop work and listen. He spoke of Christ for an hour; tears were in their eyes, and they urged him to go on still longer. HelJ,r that prayer of that far away sister missionary: "Oh, dear Lord, I have not time to pray this afternoon. Here are persons waiting for their poor bodies to be healed; souls are listening for the word of life to be spoken. Oh, dear heavenly Father, put it into the heart of some good Christian woman in America to pray for me while I go to minister to these Thy little ones!" The President of the United States can sit in his office and touch a button, and set in motion all the machinery in an exposition build- ing in a far distant city. The humblest Christian in America can, from his closet, send a wave of spiritual power to the other side {)f the globe by way of the throne of grace. Pray, then, for the missionaries, and especially for your friends among them, for those whose names or work you happen to know.
When the first missionaries started for the Sandwich Islands in 1819 much prayer was offered for them, and what seasons of prayer they must have had on the brig Thaddetl8 during that tedious journey of many months! When they reached the islands they learned that the old king was dead, that the new king had abjured idolatry and destroyed the idols; and, behold! there was a nation without a religion all ready to receive the Christian faith. In that fact, and in the Penticostal revivals that followed in later years, how wonderfully was prayer answered!
God's providences are very closely related to the prayers of God's people. A few years ago a German missionary society found itself in debt ten thousand thalers. Fourteen years before it had received as a gift three acres of what was suppose'd to be worthless land in South Africa. At this juncture diamonds were discovered upon it, and enough was realized by percentage paid by the miners to pay the debt. .
The founder of the Friendly Islands Mission applied to the London J.;fissionary Society for permission to start a mission on another island whose chief had requested it. While waiting in prayerful anxiety for an answer, a box was washed ashore which containe« a letter giv'. ing the permission. The wrecked ship was never heard from, and no other article from it was ever found. In 1815 Rev. B. Shaw went to Cape Town as a missionary, but on being forbidden by the Government to labor there, he bought a yoke of oxen and a wagon, and he and his wife started for the in-
THE JUBILEE OF THE NEW HEBRIDES MISSION
terior, not knowing whether they went. Afte~ going 300 miles, he camped on the 27th day near a party of Hottentots, who, with a chief, were going to Cape Town after a missionary to teach them the "Great Word," of which that chief had heard. Had either party started half an hour earlier on its journey they would have missed each other.
When a fierce storm of persecution burst upon the Turkish mis- sions of the American Board, much prayer was offered, and God interfered with such a striking series of providences in the Turkish nation and its capital that the persecutors were awed. They held a meeting, and agreed to stop the persecution and recall the Christians who had been banished. In the history of every ~ission may be found a series of striking providences in answer to prayer.
How marvellously prayer has been answered in this century in the opening of heathen nations to missionary work! India, China, Japan, Africa, the islands of the sea-what a volume of prayer as- cended to heaven that these might be opened to the gospel, and God opened them. It is hardly necessary to offer that prayer now. The prayer now should be that hearts may be opened. He who opens nations can open hearts as well; the hearts of the heathen to hear and the hearts of Christians to give on a grander scale than ever before.
The more our praYlilrs are answered the more we have to pray for. If the prayers of the morning are answered at noon, how busy we must needs be in the afternoon, and how much to pray for at night!
The prayers of the fathers in the early morning of the great missionary movement are being answered all over the world, and all over the world God's people need to pray mightily for a great ingathering.
God's people pray in many languages. They use many forms of prayer, and they ask for many things. But there is one petition common to all. They all unite in saying: "Thy kingdom come." Around that prayer there is unity. In offering it we are all one. It is the generic prayer that Christ taught us to offer. He knew that millions of lips would repeat it, and that it would be the prayer of the Church universal for ages. Surely He would not have taught us thus to pray if He had not known that the prayer was sometime to be answered by the complete triumph of His Kingdom on earth.
That prayer is the charter for all the prayers that we offer for missions and missionaries, in all their minutest interests. So let us make every 'week a week and every day a day of prayer for the coming of the Kingdom.
THE JUBILEE OF THE NEW HEBRIDES MISSION.
BY REv. ROBERT STEEL, D.D., SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES.
PART 11.* (Corwludedfrom page 106.) The way was not open for the settlement of a missionary on the island of Eromanga, where John Williams fell by the hands of the *Part I. of this thrilling narrative appeared in our February issue, but the concluding part failed tQ reach us till now; hence the delay.-Ens. • heathen, for 18 years after his tragic death. A.t the end of that period, however, as the result of the pioneering work of native teach- ers and the regular visits of the London Missionary Society's vessel, it was deemed safe to locate a missionary. A. man was found ready to undertake the perilous enterprise. The Rev. G. N. Gordon, of Nova Scotia, offered himself. He prepared carefully for the work, both by manual arts, theological study, and city mission effort. He attended medical classes in London for a short time, and in that city found a devout Christian wife. They reached Eromanga in 1857, and were settled at Dillon's Bay, where there was a sandal-wood establishment. For four years they labored in faith and hope, amidst trials and fears. Alas! they both became martyrs to their zeal, being killed by the savage heathen on the 20th of May, 1861. By that time a few converts had been gathered, and the Gospel of St. Luke and some other scripture portions had been translated and printed in the native language, so that something remained when the missionary fell.
When the sad tidings reached Nova Scotia, a brother of the martyr offered to take his place and raise the fallen colors. The Rev. James Douglas Gordon was already trained for the ministry, and like the Douglases and the Gordons of Scotland, who often in the past sent brothers to take the place of brothers slain, and thus carryon the warfare, he responded to the call in a Christian spirit. He reached Eromanga. in the first voyage of the Presbyterian Mission vessel, .Dayspring, in 1864. He labored there with great zeal and self-denial for eight years, and even went to pioneer Christian missions in Espiritu Santo. He was joined at Eromanga in 1866 by the Rev. James Macnair, who died at Dillon's Bay in 1870. After the arrival of Mr. Macnair Mr. Gordon took up a new station at Portinia Bay, and .was killed there by a savage heathen in March, 1872. He had just been revising his translation of the seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, and had concluded the account of the martyrdom of St. Stephen when his own martyrdom took place.
Thus the work was again arrested on Eromanga. But another man was ready to fill the gap. The Rev. Hugh A. Robertson and his young wife ventured to settle there the very year of Mr. James Gordon's martyrdom. They found some earnest Christians among the natives, and it has pleased the great Head of the Church to spare their lives, to bless their labors, and to reward their patience and conciliatory spirit. There are now over 200 communicants, and 33 of these are native teachers, who cover the whole island with their Christian influence. Several books of the Old and New Testament have been translated and printed. A neat churcl;t has been erected at Dillon's Bay to the memory of the martyrs. A fund was formed thirty years ago by Mr. (now Dr.) Wyatt Gill, for a monument to John Williams, but its object could not be carried out till the island was more peacefuL This fund accumulated by interest to more than £40, when it was made the nucleus of a Church Fund raised in New South Wales. The frame of the church was put up in Sydney in 1879, and opened for public worship by the Rev. A. W. Murray and the writer, and then shipped to Eromanga, where it was erected and carefully plastered within. It has regular pews, once in Trinity Episcopal Church, Sydney; a pulpit, once used in what is now St. Stephen's Presbyterian Church, Sydney; handsome lamps and a bell. There are two tablets, one on each side of the pulpit. One is a record of the martyrs who suffered for Christ on the island; the other records the gift of the church to their memory by Christian friends in New South Wales. When the foundation was laid, a descendant of the native who killed John Williams took part in the service. At the present time others of the same family are worshippers there. Thus Eromanga, so long noted for bloodshed, has become a Christian island.
The Presbyteriall Church of the lower provinces of British North America continued to send reinforcements to the New Hebrides Mis- sion, notwithstanding the adverse influences which operated so long to hinder the progress of the gospel. The islands had been pressed on the sympathies of Christian people by the melancholy events which had transpired. Before the death of the Gordons, however, the Rev. Messrs. Matheson and Johnston, with their wives, had been sent out. They were settled on Tanna in 1858-9, but they all, except Mrs. Johnston, died from disease early in their eareer, and she fol- lowed after her marriage with Rev. J. Copeland. The Rev. D. Mor- rison and his wife were settled on Fate in 1864, but after a brief day of earnest work they had to leave, and are since both dead. The Rev. J. D. Murray succeeded Dr. Geddie in 1872, but on account of his wife's health he resigned in 1876. The Rev. J. W. Mackenzie and his wife joined the mission at Fate in 1872, and have continued with much success. A Christian congregation has gathered around them. The Rev. Joseph Annand, M.A., and his wife came from Nova Scotia. in 1873, and after work in Fila Harbor and at Aneityum, went, in 1887, to pioneer Christian missions in the south end of the larged island of the group-Espiritu Santo-where some encouragement halil been received. Mr. Annand has acquired a third language of the Babel in the New Hebrides, and has already printed in a primer ex- tracts from scripture and some hymnli. Thus in forty years the Nova Scotian Church has sent ten brothers to this field of labor.
The Reformed Presbyterian Church in Scotland was composed of only thirty congregations when it sent Dr. Inglis to the New Hebri- des, but it also increased its staff of missionaries. The Rev. J ohn G~ Paton and the Rev. Joseph Copeland arrived in 1858, and were settled at Port Resolntion, Tanna. Mr. Copeland was early removed to take charge of the stations of Messrs. Inglis and Geddie while these gentlemen successively had long furloughs, and were passing the New Testament and Book of Psalms through the press. Mr. Paton with Mr. Johnston braved the perils of missiou life on Tanna, but after the death of his wife and Mr. Johnston, and many hardships and dangers, he had to take flight tothe station of the Mathesons. But even there no safety could be secured, and all escaped to Aneityum in a trading vessel which Mr. Geddie had sent for them. The calamitielil of the New Hebrideslfission gave Mr. Paton access to the hearts of Australian Presbyterians, from whom he obtained a.}arge sum to get a mission schooner and new missionaries. 'l'he vessel was built in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, and brought three missionaries on her first voyage in 1864. In 1866 an additional three came from Scotland and went to the islands with Dr. Geddie and Messrs. Paton and Copeland, who were returning to their labors. One of these new missionaries from Scotland, the Rev. T. Neilson, married the daughter of Dr. Geddie. By degrees the Presbyterian Churches of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand (north and Houth) have placed missionaries on the group. The Free Church of Scotland, having included the Reformed Presbyterians, has repre- sent.atives there. The Presbyterian Church in Canada, formed by the union of the various branches in former colonies of the great do- minion, has three missionaries.
Thus the mission has expanded during t.he 50 years which have elapsed since the death of Williams, and during 40 years sinceithe settlement of Dr Geddie. There are now 18 ordained missionaries, with a band of 120 native teachers. The islands of Aneityum, Aniwa, Eromanga, Efate, Nguna, :Metaso, Makuru, and Emae, are almost entirely Christian. Converts have been gathered from the islands of Taina, Futnna, Pele, Tongoa, and Epi. Missionaries have of late been located on MallieolIo, Ambrym, Malo, and Espiritu Santo. The Melanesian Mission, under Bishop Selwyn, gradually retreated to the north as the Presbyterian Mission advanced, thus showing a spirit of true Christianity. Their efforts are still continued on the islands of Aoba, Aragha, and Maiwo, on the northwest, where many have been taught and baptized. Thus the islands of the New Hebrides are al- most all occupied. But as some of those only lately provided with settled missionaries have, as Espiritu Santo and Mallicollo, the larg- est area and the most population, there is still much to be done in evangelization. A great amount of Christian liberality to the New Hebrides Mission has been evoked in Australia and New Zealand. The Presbyterian Church of Victoria has shown signal zeal through the earnef$t advocacy of the Rev. J. G. Paton, who has infected the congregations with his own enthusiasm. That church has now, in- cluding Mr. Paton, who acts as the traveling agent, five missionaries , on the islands. One of its stations was founded by the liberal gift of a single gentleman. A sum of £500 a year has been given to the Mission vessel for more than twenty years. The Presbyterian Church of Otago, not half the size of that in Victoria, has three missionaries in the field. The present outlook is full of encouragelilent, and it is hoped that all the islands may soon be evangelized.
As an instance of recent progress in the Mission, the labors of Rev. Peter Milne may be noticed. He was settled on the island of Nguna in 1870, amonga savage and cannibal people numbering about a thousand. For years the progress was very slow, and as the La- bor Traffic was then at its worst the island was in a state of chronic excitement. In July, 1871, a labor vessel was attacked by the natives and several were killed; but at length the influences of the gospel .were felt. Mr. Milne has now the whole island under Christian instruction, and has also extended his labors over five small adjacent islands. In 1888 he baptized 179 persons, and the number of communicants was then over 350. He had 24 schools, with 1,250 scholars. In August of this year he baptized, on the island of Emae, 64 adults and 13 children. Last year his Christian converts made 4,779 Ibs..of arrowroot as a contribution to the funds of the Mission. Such are the gratifying fruits which have appeared after patient work and waiting. In this central district Qf the New Hebrides there are more islands speaking one language-the Efatese, with only dialectal differences-than in any other part of the group. There are now four missionaries laboring there, two on :Fate, with its three small islands, one on Nguna, with four adjacent islands, and one on Tongoa, the centre of the Shepherd Isles, five in Dumber. Ultimately, one version of the Scriptures should suffice for the whole 14 or 15 islands.
Havannah Ha.rbor being a chief port 'of call for vessels, and a fine landlocked sheet of water, isa most important missionary centre. Rev. D. Macdonald has had great success there, and has 330 commu- nicants. On the other side, Rev. J. W. Mackenzie has a Christian (longregation, 140 communicants and 11 teachers employed as assist- ants. '1'he New Testament in Efatese was printed last year in Mel- bourne, under the superintendence of Rev. D. Macdonald. The New Testament is also now fully translated into the Tannese language; Rev. W: Watt has just left the island with it, and will carry it through the press next year in London, by the help of the British and Foreign Bible Society, by whose aid all the other versions have been brought out. The New Testament will soori be ready in the Eromanga language also. These efforts are described by the Rev. A. W. :Murray in his very interesting volume, "The Bible in the Pacific." The first mission brigantine-the Dayspring-was wrecked during a hurricane in January, 1873, but no lives were lost. She was cast on a reef on Aneityum, where assistance was at once obtained. A sum of money was soon collected by Rev. J. G. Paton for the new vessel. An insur- ance fund, started by Rev. J. Copeland in New Zealand, was brought up to £3,000 by]-"1r. Paton's appeals. After 15 years' service of the new vessel, which is a three-masted schooner, want of more frequent -communication by means of steam has begun to be felt. Rev. J. G. Paton, when on a visit to the United Kingdom in 1884, received £6,000 for a steam vessel, but as the expense of maintaining such a vessel would necessarily be great, the matter is yet in abeyance. Steam navigation companies, subsidized by Government, have opened regular monthly communication with the group, and a steamer is to ply among the islands to collect a trade. An arrangement has been madeto em- ploy this service for the benefit of the Mission during the next year as an experiment which may become permanent.
The French colonists have been agitating for some time to get the New Hebrides annexed to their penal colony of New Caledonia. A trading company has purchased large tracts of land near the best har- bors and good anchorages in the group to the north. Several planta- tions have been established, and a steamer regularly trades between the islands and N oumea. They have failed hitherto in their annexation scheme, chiefly by the opposition of the British colonies in Australia and New Zealand, and the efforts of missionaries and their friends who appealed to the British Government. Meantime, the treaty made between the French and British powers, that neither should an- nex the New Hebrides, is continued in force, and a joint naval super- vision has been established. A British Consul, also, has now been appointed to the New Hebrides. A New"Hebrides company has also been formed in Australia, and land is being secured, which may de- velop trade. The New Hebrides Mission has had special difficulties from the trying climate, the degraded condition of the natives, and the great diversity of the languages. These have been in great meas- ure overcome, and there is now no mission on the Pacific that has so many ordained missionaries in so limited a sphere and among so many tongues. The Mission, too, has been greatly tried by the Polynesian I~abor Traffic, which recruited so many young men for service on . sugar plantations in Fiji and Queensland. At first many evils were perpetrated, but by the protests and appeals from missionaries to Co- lonial and Imperial Governments, thefle have been mitigated. There .a1'e many thousands of natives in Queensland, and it is gratifying to record that an arrangement has been made by some planters to employ
THE STORY OF ELIZA AGNEW IN CEYLON
missionaries among them, by which good results have been obtained. The Presbyterian Church of Queensland has also a missionary at work in this field. In Sydney classes have been held for Polynesians in domestic service, and several have been baptized, and all conduct themselves in an exemplary manner.
The jubilee of the Mission thus furnishes many causes for thanksgiving and hope. Converts to Christ have been won from almost all th" islands. The Word of God has been rendered more or less into twelve different languages, and the islands rendered safe for settlers and for traders. A considerable amount of literature has been devoted to the islands and the missions. Some officers of H. 11's. navy have published notes of their cruises. Naturalists, like Dr. McGillivray, in his "Voyage of H. M. S. Rattlesnake," and Mr. Julius Brenchley in his "Cruise of the Curacoa," have aided science. Travelers like Mr. F. A. Campbell, in his "Year in New Hebrides," and lfr. Julian Thomas (the "Vagabond,") in his "Cannibals and Convicts," have described the islands. The lives of Rev. G. N. Gordon, of Johnston, and Matheson, and Dr. Geddie have been published. The Rev. J. G.
Paton has this year created a sensation by his thrilling autobiography, * such as has not been known since John Williams published his "Missionary Enterprises." The Rev. A. W. Murray wrote an account of missions in Western Polynesia thirty years ago. Dr. Inglis has issued two volumes of his reminiscences "In the New Hebrides." The "New Hebrides and Christian Misl:!ions," by the present writer, appeared in 1880.
* See an editorial notice of this work in our last number, page 524.-J. M. s.
THE STORY OF ELIZA AGNEW IN CEYLON. [Having heard Miss M. W. Leitch, in London, tell the following StOl;y of the marvellous work done by Miss Agnew, in the school where the Misses Leitch became her successors, I besought Miss Leitch to furnish the narrative for the REVIEW, which she did, sending me the advance sheets of her forthcoming book, "Seven Years in Cey- lon."-A. T. P.] ELIZA AGNEW, OR ONE WOMAN'S WORK IN THE FOREIGN FmLD.
One day the teacher in a day-school in New York City, while giving a lesson in geography, pointed out to her pupils the heathen and the Christian lands, and she must have spoken some very earnest words to them," for then and there a little girl, eight years of age, named Eliza Agnew, resolved that, if it were God's will, she would be a missionary when she grew up, and help to tell the heathen about Jesus. She never forgot this resolve. Until she was thirty years of age she was detained at home, because there were near relations who needed her care. But when she had reached that age, and her dear ones had been called away from earth to heaven, she was free to leave her home, and she went as a misuionary to Ceylon.
Some years before this, when the first missionaries reached North Ceylon, they could not find, among the more than 300,000 people there, a single native woman or girl who could read. There were a few men and boys who could read, but the people did not think it worth while to teach the girls. They said, "What are girls good for, excepting to cook food?" etc. "Besides," they said, "girls could not learn to read any more than sheep." The missionaries said to them, "You are mistaken. Girls can learn to read as well as boys." So they opened mission day-schools, not only for boys but for girls ai<>o. Though the parents willingly allowed their sons to attend these schools, they were very unwilling to let their daughters remain long enough to receive an education, as it was COlUUY>U for parents to give their daughters in marriage when they were only ten or twelve years of age. Seeing this, one of the missionary' ladies wished to commence a boarding-school for girls. She wished to have the native girls separated from the influences of their heathen homes, and brought under daily Christian influences. But none of the people would send their daughters to her.
One day there were two little girls playing in the flower-garden in front of the missionary's house at Oodooville. Ceylon is in the tropics, only nine degrees north of the equator. In North Ceylon there are two seasons, the wet and the dry. The dry season lasts nine months, and during that time there is scarcely &ny rain; but in the wet season, November, December and January, it rains nearly every day, and sometimes the rain falls in torrents-between nine and ten inches have been known to fall in twenty-four hours. While these two little girls were playing, there came on a heavy shower of rain, and as they had not time to go home, they ran for shelter into the mis~ionary's house. It continued to rain all that afternoon and evening, and the little girls became very hungry and began to cry. The missionary lady gave them bread and bananas. The younger girl ate but the older girl refused to eat. After a time, when the rain ceased a little, the parents went to look for their daughters. They had supposed they would be in some neighbor's house, but found them in that of the missionary. When they heard that the younger one had eaten, they were very angry, for they said, "She has lost caste." They found fault with the missionary lady, and the mother said, "You have given my child food, and it has broken caste and is polluted, and now we shall not be able to arrange a marriage for it. What shall we do? You may take the child and bring it up."
The missionary lady had been wishing for native girls to come to her, whom she might educate in a boarding-school, and here was a mother actually saying she might take her daughter, so the missionary lady thought that perhaps this was the Lord's way of enabling her to start the boarding-school. She took the little girl, fed and clothed her, and began teaching her the 247 letters of the Tamil alphabet. She sprinkled a little sand on the floor of the veranda, and taught the child to write letters in the sand. By-and-by, some of the playmates of this little girl came to see her, and when they saw her writing the letters in the sand, they thought that this was somekind of new play, and they also wanted to learn. The Tamil children have good memories, and in a very short time they committed to memory the 247 letters of the alphabet, and were able to read. Their parents, seeing this, and that the little girl was well cared for and happy, soon began to entrust more of their daughters to the care of the missionary lady. This was the beginning of the Oodooville Girls' Boarding-School, which was, perhaps, the first boarding-school for girls in a heathen land, having been commenced in 1824.
After Miss Agnew went to Ceylon, she became the head of this boardingschool. She remained in Ceylon for 43 years without once going home for a rest or a change. When friends would ask her, "Are you not going to America for a vacation ?" she would always reply, "No; I have no time to do so. I am too busy." Through all those 43 unbroken years, during which God granted to her remarkable health, she was too busy even to think of going home.
In the Oodooville Girls' Boarding-School she taught the children, and' even some of the grandchildren of her first pupils. More than 1,000 girls have studied under her. She was much loved by the girls, who each regarded her as a mother, and she was poetically called by the people "The mother of a thousand daughters." During the years she taught in the school more than 600 girls went out from it as Christians. We believe that no. girl, having taken its whole course, has ever graduated as a heathen. Most of these girls came from heathen homes and heathen villages, but in this school they learned of Christ and of His great love, and surrendered their young hearts to Him.
Miss Agnew lived with us in our home the last two years of her life, when she had grown feeble and was no longer able to retain the charge of the boarding-school. We felt her presence to be a daily blessing.
Near the close of her brief illness, and when we knew that she had not many hours to live, one of the missionaries present asked her if he should offer prayer. She eagerly assented. He asked, "Is there anything for which you would like me specially to pray?" She replied, " Pray for the women of Jaffna, that they may come to Christ." She had no thought about herself. All through her missionary life she had thought very little about herself. Her thought was for the women of Jaffna, that they might know Christ; that they might know that in Him they had an Almighty Saviour, a great burden~bearer, a friend that sticketh closer than a brother, one who had borne their griefs and carried their sorrows and could give their troubled, hungry, sorrowing hearts His own peace. At the very time when she was asking prayers for the women of Jaffna, every room in our house was filled with native Christian women who, when girls, had been her pupils, and they were praying for her-that if it were the Lord's will to take her then to Himself He would save her from suffering anu pain. God heard their prayer, and she passed away like one going into a sweet sleep. The attendance at the funeral service was very large. Many native pastors, catechists, teachers, lawyers, Government officials and others, the leading men of Jaffna Peninsula, who had married girls trained in the Oodooville Girls' Boarding-School, came to the funeral service, bringing their wives and children. As we looked over that large audience and saw everywhere faces full of love and eyes full of tears, and knew that to hundreds of homes she had brought the light and hope and joy· of the gospel, we could not help thinking how precious a life consecrated to Chri.~t may be.
In hundreds of villages .in Ceylon and India there is just such a work waiting to be done by Christian young women as that which, with God's blessing,. Miss Agnew accomplished in the Jaffna Peninsula. Heathen lands are open to-day as they have never been open before. The women of heathen lands need the gospel. The stronghold of heathenism is in the homes. Many of the men in India have to some extent lost faith in their old superstitious creeds, but the women, who are secluded in the homes, cling to the heathen worship. What else can they do? They must cling to something, and the majority of them have not heard of Christ. They are teaching the children to perform the heathen ceremonies, to sing the songs in praise of the heathen gods, and thus they are molding the habits of thought of the coming generation. Some one has truly said, "If we are t~ win India for Christ, we must lay our hands on the hands that rock the cradles, and teach Christian songs to the lips that sing the lullabies, and if we can win the mothers of India to Christ, her future sons will soon be brought to fall at the feet of their Redeemer."
There are in India 120 millions of women and girls. Ho:w many lady missionaries are there working among these? In the report of the last Decennial Conferen2e the number is given as 480, counting those of all Protestant missionary societies. Might not more be sent to that great work? We are tol<l that there are a million more women than men in Great Britain. Could not. many of these be spared from their homes, and could Iot some possessed of private means go on a self-supporting mission to this great field?
Think of the 21 millions of widows in India. What a terrible lot is theirs! They are regarded as under a curse. They are doomed to innumerable hardships. It is deemed meritorious to heap abuse upon them. It is thought the gods are angry with them, and that the death of their husbands is a punishment on them for some sin committed either in this or in some previous life. Their lot is so hard to bear that again and again they have said to the missionaries, " Why did the English Government take from us the right to be burnt on the funeral pyre with our dead husbands, for that were better than what we have to endure?" But Christian women could give to these widows of India the gospel with its message of hope, and before the brightness of its shining the darkness of their despair would flee away. The knowledge of the love of Christ would help them to bear their otherwise intolerable burdens. ,Let us remember that Christ has told us that whatsoever service we render to the least of His little ones, He will regard it as done to Him, and whatsoever we leave undone of that which W/l.<; in our power to do, He will regard the neglect and slight as shown to Him. Are there not many in darkness to-day who might have had the gospel had Christians done what they could for them '!
Failure to realize responsibility does not diminish it. Zenanas which forty years ago were locked and barred are to-day open. Especially is this the case in towns where there are Christian colleges. Wherever the Hindu men have been educated in these mission colleges, they are now willt~g, and even desirous, that their wives, daughters and sisters should be taught. We have been told by Hindu gentlemen that- there are llJany educated men in India to-day who are convinced of the truth of Christianity, and would confess Christ were it not that a wife or mother. who has never been instructed about Christ, would bitterly oppose their doing so.
Shall not Christian women who owe so much to Christ be foremost in doing the work allotted to them? What a consummate blunder to live selfishly in this generation! Are we giving the best we have to Christ and to His cause? Christ says, "Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." Did Christ only mean that for those who lived hundreds of years ago, or does He mean those words for us to-day? In the presence of a thousand million heathens and Mohammedans needing the gospel, with multitudes in heathen lands losing faith in their old beliefs and asking for the new, does He not mean those words to-day? Does He not ask that our time, our money, our influence. our friendships and our entire possessions should be laid at His feet, consecrated to His service, placed absolutely at His disposal? Opportunities such as we have to-day, if neglected, may not come again.
It is said that when the decisive hour in the battle of Waterloo came, the English troops were lying in the trenches waiting for the onslaught of the enemy. They had been ordered not to fire until the French were close upon them, and while they lay there in silence, Wellington rode up and down the lines, saying over and over again, "What will England say to you if you falter now?" One old officer declared that he said it a thousand times; but it is no matter how many times he said it, it was burned into those waiting troops till they felt as if they were lying under the very walls of Parliament, and when the command was given, " Now up and at them," every man felt that the honor of England was in his hands, and he was invincible.
Do we not hear the voice of a greater Leader saying, "-Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life"? What will the result be if we falter now, if Christians are worldly now, if they are Christians only in
A CHINESE SECRET SOCIETY
name but not in deed, if they only say" Lord, Lord," but do not the things which Christ says?' What will Christ think of us if we are not brave and true now?
Let us, at Christ's command, be ready to go forward, for the battle is not ours, but Christ's. Surely we will do well to place ourselves on His side, for we know that in the end His cause shall prevail. We know that all darkness and every evil thing shall be swept away, and that the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. Lord Northbrook recently, at the meeting of the Church Missionary Society, referred to his feelings at hearing Handel's" Hallelujah Chorus" sung. He said it was not so much the music as the words and thoughts that thrilled him. The greatest of all musical creations was inspired by the faith that from sea to sea, and to the ends of the earth, His dominion shall extend, and that from every part of tlill: earth shall yet arise the choral shout, " Hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth." That is the grander chorus, of which Handel's Hallelujah is but the faint and distant anticipation. It will combine the voices of all loyal, 10Ting saints of all ages, nor is there in all the world, in the obscurest hovel of pOTerty, one humble soul that prays" Thy Kingdom come," that lays consecrated offerings on the altar of missions, who shall not join that final anthem as one who has helped forward the great consummation.
[NOTE.-This book, "Seven Years in Ceylon," which is to be published by Partridge & Co., will be a very valuable contribution to missionary literature. It is not unknown to our readers that the Misses Leitch have been for some years endeavoring to collect ,money to establish a .. Jatl'na College and General Medical Mission in North Ceylon." Already considerably over one·half of the £30,000 they set out to secure has been raised, nearly one·eighth of this sum being given by a dear American friend. Any contributions forwarded to us for this noble enterprise we will very gladly undertake to send on to the Misses Leitch.-Ens.] A CHINESE SECRET SOCIETY AND ITS INFLUENCE ON EVANGEL- ISTlCWORK.
BY J. STEWART HAPPER, NEW YORK.
Evangelistic work among the Chinese in America has justly been characterized by those acquainted with it as being one branch of Christian work which has more discouragements and fewer visible results than almost any other mission effort which the Church is now engaged in. In a paper in the REVIEW last year, the reasons for this statement were very fully considered, but for lack of space no mention was made of a force at work among the Chinese, which is, perhaps, the greatest obstacle to the Christianizing of the heathen in our midst; and this opposition is all the more dangerous because of the secrecy of its nature, the fear in which it is held, and the impossibility of obtaining definite proof as to its real character, scope and influence. The Yee Bing, a Chinese secret society which flourishes in this country, with lodges in almost all the large cities, has come to be regarded by those who know the Chinese, and especially by us who are able to understand their language, as a most potent force for evil, and a powerful antagonist to all that is good.
Our information in regard to this organized body is still limited; for though we see the results of its methods, and oftentimes meet with 'dctims who have suffered at its hands, it is hard to get at the facts when superstition, fear, and the policy of self-preservation are combined to conceal the truth. It has been my lot to come in contact and in open conflict with this society at various times during the past five years, and what I have learned of its nature may be of use in enabling others to recognize this great enemy to the work which we are trying to do for the Chinese in the midst of us.
The original of the Yee Hing Society is known in China as the White Lily. ·or Triad Society. It was at first a band of native Chine"e, united by the most sacred and binding ties in an effort to restore the native dynasty and overthrow the Manchu rule. Its existence was, prior to the rebellion, headed by Hung ·Siu Tlmen, the 'semi-Christian fanatic, and, though his object was the same as theirs, he was so opposed to their practices that they left him and sided with the imperialists. So stringent are the existing laws against the society in China, that it is sure death for a man to belong to it; hence we hear very little ·of it in China itself. Of this parent society, Dr. Williams, in his "Middle Kingdom," says, "The Triad Society is comparatively peaceful throughout China proper in overt acts. . . but in Siam, Singapore, Malacca and the Archi- pelago, it has become a powerful body, and great cruelties are committed on those who refuse to join." This statement of his is borne out by the fact that in these different places its evil character and practices are so well recognized that laws have been passed against membership in it similar to the laws in ,China, though the punishment is not so severe.
When the Chinese came to this country in great numbers the society was brought with them, and, owing to the degree of freedom found here, it has flourished and spread all over the land. Membership in the society is openly admitted, and its character is explained to the newspaper reporter or to the .Sabbath-school teacher by the statement', "It it just like the Freemasons." Whether there are Freemasons in China or not, is a question for sinologues to decide, but there is no more resemblance between the Freemasons and the Yee Ring Society in this country than there is between the Grand Army of the Republic and the anarchist agitators. This can be proved by its form of initi- ·ation and by its acts.
From the ritual, which for a time was in my possession, I gained the fol- lowing account of what it requires of its members: The applicant for member- ;ship is sworn to secrecy, taking a solemn oath by which he imprecates death to himself if he ever divulges the secrets or refuses to obey the orders of the .society. Before going through the binding rite of initiation he is required to run the gauntlet of the members present, who, if they have any old grudge .against him, are supposed to take it out in striking or beating him as he passes between the two lines. After this no one is supposed to remember any past ,offenses. The initiate then takes an oath to lay aside all obligation to "father or mother,wife or children; " he will consider the demands of the society supreme, even if he be called on to commit crime. A ceremony called being" born again" is then gone through with, and as a final seal upon the whole initiation each man pricks his finger until the blood flows, the different drops are col- lected in a basin of water, and each member takes a sip from the mixture, thus symbolizing their close union as a sworn band of brothers. The leader is called "A-ma" (mother.) It is on a«;lcount of this giving up of the claims of filial duty that the society is so abhorred by the better class of Chinese. In oile village in the Canton province, the elders passed a law that any member of their clan who should thus give up his allegiance to his parents should be buried alive if the facts were discovered. It is said that one man was thus buried, his own parents assisting and justifying their course by saying that he might as well be dead in fact as in effect. It is needless to add that few members of the so- CIety are gained from the emigrants from that village, so great was the deter_ rent effect of this punishment.
The society has long since lost sight of its original purpose-the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty-and now it uses the power it has for the personal advantage of its members. Skilled in the tricks of the law, unlimited in their .ability to manufacture testimony and suborn perjury, they stop at nothing to effect their aims or to punish those who withstand their impositions. In the ranks of its members are to be found competent interpreters, whose knowledge of our language enables them to be perverters of testimony as well. From the ignorant laundrymen who do not belong to the society the society demands money tor protection, and they find it cheaper to pay than to resist. There are, doubtless, many of its members who have joined under a misconception of its character, for they represent themselves to be a co-operative benevolent society, whose aim is to befriend and care for the Chinese; but when a man has once joined, fear of the consequences prevents his leaving. If superstitious he dreads the breaking of his oath, if not he fears the vengeance of the members, who stop not at murder.
Many instances might be given to prove the above assertions. The most signal exposure of the workings of the society was made in a celebrated case at St. Louis in 1885. The Chu clan, who are very powerful in this country. had dared to oppose the Yee Hing Society. A charge was made against six of their members which involved the lIfe of the accused. For seven weeks the opposing factions fought daily in the courts. Testimony was adduced which proved that members of the society in New York had admitted in their meeting that the charge was false, but the men must be punished for daring to oppose the Yee Hing. The pe,rfect manner in which witnesses were instructed, and their absolute disregard for truth, were well shown at this trial. A dramatic scene was enacted one day, when one of the coolest witnesses was suddenly shown the ritual of the society, which he supposed was safe in New York, and was asked its meaning. So great was his dread of the book, which private members are not allowed to see; that he shook and trembled, and refused to read it. Yet a week afterwards, he calmly swore that he knew nothing about such a book, and had never seen it! By great exertions, the accused men were finally saved from the unjust charge, and a most signal victory was obtained against this secret, powerful, Proteus-like enemy.
The influence of this society, while in many instances seemingly favorable to Christianity, is in reality both actively and passively opposed to anything that is good or Christian. In many of the schools for the Chinese we find a majority of the' members are from the Yee Hing Society. Knowing the advantage that a knowledge of the language gives them, they are more anxious to learn than are their duller companions. Having cut adrift from the teachings of ConfuciUS, in regard to filial duties at least, they are more progressive and anxious to become acquainted with our manners and laws. At the same time, they are usually the proprietors or managers of the opium joints and gambling dens, which are the greatest objections to the Chinese living among us, and from the very nature of their ties it is impossible for them to become· Christians as long as they consider their oaths binding. Many of them have made a profession of Christianity, but it cannot be for the truth's sake, but because they appreciate the advantages of the moral support they receive from hood-winked teachers and zealous pastors.
Not only are the members of this society unpromising objects for Christian effort, but they prevent other Chinese from coming to the schools. If the object of their dislike is not sensitive and still insists upon coming, they will even force him to leave the city by a seried of persecutions. At one time, in a. school of which I was superintendent, such a persecution was commenced by means of a false charge in a court of law. One of their own members came to me and confessed that the charge was false but he would have to swear .tc the lie, as he dared not disobey his superior. By my intervention their designs were frustrated, though for a time the enmity of my scholars who were
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE. 603·
members of the Yee Hing took the form of violent maledictions against me and absence from school. It is said-and there seems to be good ground for the statement-that there is a sub-order of the society, composed of "hatchet men," who will commit murder at the command of the officers of the society. An attempt, at least, at personal violence was made in this city, at the very doors. of the Tombs Police Court, when a Christian Chinaman was assaulted after a case was tried where he had successfully testified against some members of this society who were arrested for gambling. For months a reward was offered for the heads of two Christian Chinese, and I have reason to believe that my own life was in danger for a time, if wishes could have effected my death.
This society and its influence is not confined to this country alone. In a report of the work among the Chinese in the Hawaiian Islands for 1887, I find the following paragraph: "Another most injurious influence, and one of the most hostile to the spread of Christianity, is the prevalence of a strongly organized secret society which extends all over the group (of islands). While in China it is at the risk of life that a man joins it, here it exists and flourishes in the most unblushing manner. It is a prolific source of evil among the Chinese, and is calculated to harden them against any good influences which otherwise might be brought to bear upon them. Our Christian converts are' often called upon to suffer its persecution, and fear of its power is calculated to deter othersfrom joining our ranks."
Much more might be said in regard to this evil agency, but enough has been said, I think, to expose the enemy, and therein consists the remedy for the evil. An open foe is more easily defeated than a secret one, and when the' secret society masquerades as a benevolent organization, when its members are equally prominent in the Sabbath-school, and, more secretly, in the gambling house and lodge room, then it is that the most harm is done. Let all who work among the Chinese look carefully into the motives of those who, wish to profess Christianity, and find out all they can in regard to them. We do not wish to decry results, but better one genuine convert than hundreds who join from wrong motives. It is true of this field as of every other, that the wheat and the tares must grow together till the Judgment Day, lest violence be done to the wheat; but as far as human judgment can decide, it seems impossible for a Chinaman to serve God and the Yee Hing Society.
H.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions.
A little circular has just been re- the vVestern States, and a Conference, ceived announcing Summer Schools for Christian Activity and Bible Study, for College Students. Northfield, Mas- which will be held on the finely lo- sachusetts, is the location for the cated camping grounds of the West- World's Students' Conference, which, ern Secretarial Institute. by the time this magazine goes to In attendance at Chautauqua and press, will have been held on dates Lake Geneva will be student volun- June 28th to July 9th, inclusive. The teers in great numbers and from all second summer school will be open for sections of the country: from abroad, students at Chautauqua, N. Y. (about returned foreign missionaries who are thirty miles from Buffalo), on July wide awake, consecrated and enthusi- 19th, to continue twelve days. Lake astic; from home, Rev. Arthur T. Geneva, Wisconsin-said to be by Pierson, D.D., who has been so might- many tourists the most beautiful lake ily used by the Lord both at home and in America-will attract students from abroad; Mr. RobertP.Wilder, Mr. Jno. R. Mott and Mr. Robert E. Speer will Mr. La Flomme, a volunteer, whose be in attendance at one or both of these conferences. enthusiastic presence and spirited ad- Chautauqua and Lake Geneva will dresses will be remembered by the be rallying points for student volun- teers to gather this summer; hence boys who. were at Northfield in 1887, we would urge volunteers to come if possible. Let no men with tired brains, writes recently from Tellomonchili, who are just free from college work, India, to a volunteer: suppose these conferences are conduct- ed on the cram system and offer noth- "I know the Lord has blessed you. ing but Bible study, sermons and And now that I see He is as wonder- prayer meetings; on the contrary, fully blessing Speer, I know it is not abundant time is allowed for reflec- your work, or Speer's, or Forman's, tion and for social intercourse and re- but it is of the Lord God. Our great creation in the form of out-of-door longings of two years ago, that the sports. Fellows whose "funds are low" volunteers might pull together, have (and few students are fIushat the close been satisfied. To see the grand en- ~f a college term) need not be deprived thusiasm with which they are sweep- of the privilege of attendance: the ing forward is, in the :promise of God, railroads offer cut rates, and oppor- one of the most inspIring sights im- tunity will be given, as in the past, aginable to men who are working for men to earn their expenses by a away beyond their strength, because few hours' labor each day in dining- they expect reinforcements soon. And room service. that is the position of our foreign force. They are like Wellington at Perhaps no man is better able to de- Waterloo, fighting a stubborn fight termine the needs of volunteers than against fearful odds; and as he prayed Mr. Speer~ the Traveling Secretary, for night or Blucher, so they are lookand by needs I mean requirements for ing for the coming of the end, or of effective spiritual service. He says: help. And we have not looked in vain. How the forces are pouring into the "Briefly, the needs of the volunteers foreign fields! But though the numare to-day: (1.) Information-intelli- bers of foreign workers have vastly ingence for themselves and to distribute. creased, yet only the advance guard They cannot work unless they have have deployed upon the great plain of something' with which to work; (2.) this world's need, and only here and Determination that,whether the Board there has a breach been made in the accept them or not, they will have the towering bulwarks of heathen unbelief gospel preached in the untouched lands and Mohammedan opposition. Our even though they die. (3.) Inspiration Christian churches must send out the -they need to glow with the Lord's sinews of war. This work is so pelife." culiar and so vast that for the fighting force the base of supplies must be the Truly it is just this inspiration, this home land-not for long, let us hope, glow that comes from contact with the but until the presentcrisis be past, and Lord's life. that we need above all the ingathered converts are able of things else. As volunteers, yes; as themselves to take up the work and obedient, loyal sons of God, we ought push it ahead unaided." to bring ourselves in touch with the men and the means which He so gra- During the college year, Mr. Robert ciously uses in the furtherance of His great ends. But, above all human aids E. Speer, our Traveling Secretary, has and instrumentalities, the Spirit of God is promised at these conferences. visited 65 colleges, 17 theological He will not fail us. And again, for His Kingdom's sake, volunteers, Come! seminaries, 7 schools, 8 State universi- ties. 7 normal schools, 7 Young Men's Christian Association State conven- tions, 3 Young Women's Christian Association State conventions, the New England College Conference, and also addressed meetings in 45 churches and 10 young peoples' societies. About 350 meetings in all were held. There were about 1,000 new volunteers se- cured, and $8,500 pledged to work abrfad.
MAX WOOD MOORHEAD. Notes on Afrioa, by our English Oorrespondent.
Portuguese Departure frum Nyas- tached to their necks, and in this saland.-Touching affairs at Mandala cruel fashion were driven from day and Blantyre, Mr. John Moir, of Edin- to day until sold to the slave-dealing burgh, wrote, on May 14th, that he Arabs. With such daily occurrences, had just received letters from his sons, crimes and horrors, Ethiopia stretches reporting quietness in the lately dis- forth her hands to God and man for turbed districts, and the exultation of deliverance.
the natives at the exit of the Portu- -"An Awful Land"-Rev. J. L.
guese. Rogers, laboring at Stanley Pool, Cen- -Experiences on Lake Nyassa.- tral Africa, among a race called the That noble missionary surgeon and Batekers, describes their habits and worker, Dr. Kerr Cross, has returned his own trials to a friend in London: to Great Britain on a furlough. He "They are very wild and given to describes the field of labor which he fighting. They always go about with has occupied some four or five years, their knives and spears, ready to kill at the extreme south end of the lake, anyone. In fact, one has to be very as a marvellously beautiful country. careful in walking among this people.
Every black man's village was a ba- I am on the best terms with all the nana grove, kept in the most perfect natives. The people buy slaves, and order and cleanliness. Cattle, grain, fatten and kill and eat them. This is and everyt~ng that a negro sets his an awful land to live in. During my heart upon as of value, was found in stay here I have had nine fevers.'''
abundance. The people themselves -North Africa Missioll.-Itappears were of noble character, and anxious- from the annual report of the Pas- ly awaited the gospel. Schools for the tors' College that Mr. Spurgeon has children were popular. The great launched his promised missionary so- curse of the region was slavery. In ciety, of which the first agent is 10- its domestic aspects it was unknown. cated at Morocco, in conjunction with The slavery which the missionaries the North Africa Mission. The so- witnessed was practised by the Arabs. ciety's income amounts to £600. Its They had recently instigated the Aw- course turns upon the replies to ap- amba, a large tribe inhabiting a tract peals for co-operation. Apart from a of land northwest of Bangweolo, to generous response laborers cannot be ravage the areas to the north, south, sent forth. Several of Mr. Spurgeon's east and west. The guns which students are being trained for the mis- the Arabs put into their hands to sion field.
hunt slaves were old British weap- -Another Missionary Martyr.-Of ons. For a gun the Arabs could buy that heroic Cambridge band of four a young woman, and youths, boys members, under the leadership of and girls brought certain quantities Douglas Hooper, who sailed from of gunpowder. In one instance the England for Mombasa on the 23d of Awamba carried out a horrible raid January, Joseph Dudley Musson Cot- on a village. They first set aside the tel', of Trinity College, Cambridge, grown men for slaughter, after the was a fellow-comrade. His friends women and boys, girls and cattle had recognized in-him the qualities of in- been secured. The fate of the poor tegrity, courage, ability and devotion, fathers and husbands could scarcely in rare measure. These were laid with be related. Placed in a row, their joy on the missionary altar in Uganda fiendish captors chopped off their -the, land of the martyrs. On the heads one after another. The hapless threshold of the King's conflict he has women, youths, girls, and children been translated at the early age of 24.
were bound by forked branches at- Following the news of Mr. Mackay's death, this intelligence appeals with noble martyrdom of so many of the native Christians is the strongest possad earnestness for more consecrated sible reply to those who so ignorantly opinA that Christian missions are standard-bearers. a failure. It must, however, be noted that it was, in all probability, -Dr. Felkin on Uganda.-In two the fact of Protestant and Roman Catholic missionaries both working -current articles, entitled" A Ten Years' in the country that caused a consider- able amount of the disturbance. One Review," Dr. Felkin lays stress upon cannot help believing that in uncivil- ized countries, such as Uganda, misan element prejudicial to the pacific sions of various denominations should not encroach one upon the other. evangelization of this extensive terri- Probably ecclesiastics may differ on tIllS point; still, it can hardly be tory. His views will be indorsed by doubted that had the Protestants,who first entered Uganda, been pernlitted those who have followed the course of to carryon their work without the disruption caused by the subsequent events in Uganda. He writes: introduction of an apparently new religion, much would have been dif- "Uganda has been convulsed by the ferent, and the undoubted advantages throes of intrigue and war. Mtesa is which the Protestants possessed in dead; Mwanga, after reigning a short 1880 nlight have served to prevent the time, was deposed, and has only re- intrigues which led to such loss of life." cently been _re-established upon his throne; was again deposed, and the country is the scene of fierce warfare. These disturbances have, however, served to show the hold Christianity had taken upon numbers of the poople; and surely the heart-rending history of the fierce persecution and -England end Germany in East 1885, Great Britain and' Germany joined in a mutual convention, having Africa.-For many years past the trade for its object the subdivision of East- .of Eastern Central Africa, stretching ern Central Africa into what are into the interior, had been carried on termed spheres of British and German by British subjects-Indian traders influence. In this subdivision Germany from Bombay. These traders formed obtained the larger share of the terridepots, or settlements, along the trade tory. The reason for this surrender routes of the interior, and established of the greater area, with the large and -commercial enterprises that resulted prosperous trade built by British enin an ever-increasing trade in ivory, ergy and capital, has not been exindia-rubber, and other tropical pro- plained. Ifit was an act of generosityto ducts, which steadily grew under the further Germany's colonization measfostering influence of Great Britain. ures, the fact that tropical Africa can- not be colonized by white people was Thirteen years ago the Sultan of not considered. The development of Zanzibar offered Sir William MacKin- Central Africa must for some years non a lease for seventy years of all his depend upon the commerce and trade customs revenue, together with sover- which can be created; and its real €ign administrative powers over the value to any country is the opportunwhole of his African continental do- ity it affords for the employment of minions; but the Foreign Office did not capital, and the demand it creates for manufactured goods. Here is a point give sufficient encouragement to the of real importance to the people of €nterprise, and the reply to an application for necessary authority and Great Britain. support was so guarded that Sir Wil- Trading companies, the Imperial liam MacKinnon did not feel himself justified in continuing the negoti- British East Africa Company and the ations. German East Africa Company, were formed to administer and develop their . The discoveries and explorations of respective areas. Unfortunately the Livingstone, Burton and Speke, Speke German enterprise roused the hostility and Grant, Baker, Stanley and Thom- of nearly the whole popUlation of the son, make it manifest that no other coast-line; but Lieutenant Wissman, nation can bring forward such claims who was dispatched as the special as Great Britain to having its fair agent of the German Government, by share of Eastern Central Africa, his prudence, energy, courage, and whether from ~he standpoint of first his knowledge of the natives, has supdiscovery, or from the trade and com- pressed these hostile demonstrations. merce that has been created in these The British company avoided the regions.
After the Conference of Berlin in troubles into which the German com- Ivory Coast, thus shutting out Sierra pany had fallen; and this may be the Leone and Liberia from further exten- cause of a somewhat unkindly spirit sions. This position, as regards the inwhich has been shown by the Germans terior, would be strengthened if Dain East Africa against everything homey also could be reached from the British. Noone believes that this north. Meanwhile, from Porto Novo, feeling is shared by the German Gov- the River Wheni has been ascended as ernment, but the action of some of the far as Affame, ninety-eight miles from German officials indicating a desire to the coast. There has been a collision squeeze the British down to the coast, with Dahomey, occupying the right and ultimately out of East Africa al- bank, and it is probable that a French together, and the course attributed to expedition may be sent into Dahomey.
Dr. Peters by a German newspaper, The French, it is said, are about to are evidences of the animus and hos- occupy Whydah. If so, the sooner tility among the German element of y oruba is under direct British influ- East Africa, and which sometimes mice the better for British trade and finds an echo in a portion of the Ger- also for our missions.-Church Mis- sionary Intelligencer. man press.
These irritating and useless manifes- -Useful Literature Society in India. tations should cease; they breed a bitter feelin~ where there ought to be a .A telegram from Calcutta, dated healthy nvalry; they prevent co-oper- April dth, gives the information that ation where there ought to be union; the Governor General in Council had and unless checked, they will destroy read the letter from the Society's Pro- visional Committee with much interthat united effort of two great nations est. The object of the society had his by which Eastern Central Africa can be rapidly and peacefully developed, the slave-trade destroyed, and the in- cordial sympathy and approval, for fluences of Christianity encouraged which he promised a grant of 500 rupees per mensem from Imperial and fostered. Let each respect his funds, provided the society was estabneighbor's landmark; and if Germany will hold out the right hand of peace and good-will, no one will clasp it with lished with a definite programme, more sincerity than her fellow-workers in East Mrica. True union means holding out prospects of success. The true strength.-Nineteenth Century. Lieutenant-Governor's answer ex- pressed approbation, with the reserva- -The :f"rench in West Africa -The French policy of extending, so far as tion that it would be necessary to they can, into the interior from Sene- ascertain the requirements and probagambia, is systematically followed out. The Niger having been reached at ble resources of the society before a Bamako, their expeditions down the grant could be made from provincial Upper Niger have brought Tombuktu exchequers. At the meeting held in within their sphere of influence, and Calcutta the indefatigable representa- tive from England, the Rev. James they are now feeling their way south- Johnston, gave an account of his suc- ward to the Gulf of Guinea. Captain Binger's expedition (1887-89) has ex- plored a large territory to the south, cess in founding identical societies at almost unknown before. The water- Madras, Bombay, Lahore and Allaha- bad. He stated that the purposes shed between the Upper Niger and the were the cheap reproduction in India rivers flowing southward to the Gulf of Guinea is not, he regards, a mighty range of mOlmtains, but merely rising of standard English and vernacular ground. The town of Kong, probably works, and to stirimlate the habit of reading by establishing libraries. The unvisited before by any European, was scheme has aroused English sympa- reached. It numbers from 12,000i to 15,000 inhabitants,exclusively Moham- medans, and is a great trade centre. thies, and in London it was suggested Thence he found his way to Salaga, on the Volta, a position which the Basle a similar society might be formed. mission has also reached from the It was urged by the Bishop of Calcutta Gold Coast. It can scarcely be sup- that the lead must be taken in India, posed that the British Government on in which case the society in England the Gold Coast will admit further extension in this direction. Further would be an auxiliary only. A plan west the way may be op~ned from of operations was deputed to a sub- Kong to the French possesslOns on the committee. For the growth of this laudable'movement a considerable sum ing not less than 7,000 people. For has been already subscribed. – Our English Oorrespondent that harvest of fifty years' work they -Continental Evangelization.-The might thank God.· The Walloon prov- Rev. Charles Merle de Aubigne (son of the celebrated author of the " History inces were more accessible to the of the Reformation "), a missionary pastor in Belgium and an eloquent gospel than the Flemish, and by the speaker in the English tongue, has lately commended the work of evan- working classes especially the faith gelization in France, Italy, Spain and other European lands. Himself a once delivered to the saints was ac- Swiss, and a native of classic Geneva, he has for some years sought the con- ceptable. The result of this was aversion of Romanists in Papal ,countries. In the Continental Catholic vast improvement in the social condikingdoms, where the people knew little save the darkness of Rome, the tion of the people. The curse of drink workers were apt to become despondent on measuring the strength of the was unhappily widely prevalent. forces arrayed against them. The faith of the evangelical heralds was There were nearly 140,000 drink shops revi~d by a visit to the Protestant country of England. In Great Britain distributed among a population estithe Gospel of Christ had attained a strong footing, and,consequently, the mated at four millions. That was at Protestants of other lands were accustomed to regard England as the very the rate of one to every thirty or forty incarnation of Protestantism. Might the day never dawn when the Church of the inhabitants. Striking evidence of Rome, which was trying to bring her back to the Papacy, would trans- was supplied of the influence exerted form England into a Roman Catholic vassal! England was and must re- by the gospel in ereating temperate main Protestant, In a Protestant land the people knew what the Bible had and sober habits, and considerable imdone for them, and were determined not to let it go. Belgium, the field of provement in various modes of life. his labors, was one of the darkest of Roman Catholic lands on the face of Their movement continued to make Europe. That had not always been its reputation. In the early Reforma- encouraging progress. It was growtion periods the Protestant spirit which evinced itself was crushed or ing day by day, and whole villages driven out by persecution. Fifty years back the name of Protestant was were coming over to the Protestant scarcely known there. Now the Egyptian darkness was again passing side. They believed that much greater away. A native Protestant church was established, composed entirely of things would be witnessed, and that those who were formerly Roman Catholics.· .Little by little some 26 con- thousands would yet turn away from gregations had been formed, embrac- the Church which had left them in error, to accept an enlightened, evan- gelical faith. – Our English Oorres- pondent.
South America. – Strategic Points.-8panish American civiliza- tion, while shaped largely from the cloister and the throne, has been in fact an organic growth from vital germs. It follows the path worn deep by the tread of all the Latin nations, from the theoretical to the practical. The dreamer of yesterday is the auto- crat of to-day; and loyalty- to "the idea" for the time prevaihng is the test of a man's usefulness, if not of his right to exist in his day and gener- ation. If we judge the future by the past, we must expect to tind in the prevailing philosophy the prophecy of the things that are to be. The lever that moves that world must find its fulcrum in the school text-book and the professor's chair, This view does not belittle preaching or any other work distinctly evangeli- cal. It means that the evangelical philosoI?hy must conquer the centre before It can control the extremities. "The idea" prevailing must be distinct- ively Christian before the institutions and the life can be ordered by Christi- ever been evangelized by an effort anity. It means also that when the from that side? ShaJl a start be made centre is conquered by Christianity with the lower class? Alas, who has then the Christian influence will flow faced the problem without losing all forth into all the ramifications of life heart in view of the abject and hope- and activity as certainly as sweet less servility of these poor and un- waters from a pure fountain. happy people?
One of the first necessities in Span- The old bonds are yielding and ish America, then, is to command the breaking away. The abolition of attention of the college students. Here, slavery, the surrender of class privi- more than anywhere else, is plastic leges, the spread of republican ideas, material. But it is material rapidly closer contact with Protestant civiliz- hardening and soon to hold with great ation, and the necessities of material tenacity the impressions ij; is now reo improvement and development of ceiving. The fine logical powers and natural resources, are influences work- phenomenal devotion to its ideals ing together to bring forward the de- which characterize the Latin mind, spised laboring man to a new position will build for them ana their country of importance and power. Here, then, a future nicely adjusted to the foun- is our second strategic point, Get hold dations now laying. Here, then, is of the middle'class, for it is destined the supreme opportunity to control to play an important, if not a leading, the future through the present. The part in the future history of Spanish means of such control will be in hand America.
whenever our missionaries are equip- In some regions the land is in small ped for this work. Until that time holdings. The people are independ- the citadel is in the hands of the ent, industrious and well housed.
enemy, and we can hope for only occa- Such communities, once won, will re- sional and minor advantages. The old ward the labor spent on them far bei- civilization is built on Romanism. tel' than those whose character is ser- The new threatens to take for its vile and without ambition. IIi some foundation some form of anti-Chris- of the cities the artisan class is comin~ tian speculation, inclining now to to self-consciousness. It has its di!!- idealism, and again to materialism. tinctive dress, combines, if it does not If we would determine its form to be organize, and is recognized as an ele- Christian we must press forward to ment in politics that must be cajoled.
the place where the determination is Unless it be in the school-room, there made, and that is in the college. is no better vantage ground in all the Another strategic point is more land. likely to be overlooked. I have else- Our objective point is to secure to where called attention to the fact that the reorganized society the best ele- one fatal defect of Spanish American ments of Protestant civilization. If social organization has been the want the artisans are to have a large influ- of a middle class-intelligent, conserv- imce and are to furnish, as is inevitable ative, respected and self-reliant, such in a republic, a fair share of leading as is formed by our mechanics, farm- men, then it is of the first importance ers, etc. This fault it inherited from that we put forth our efforts toward the feudalism of Spain, so strongly making them ideal citizens of a re- influenced by its contact with Oriental public. To this end three particulars modes of life. The evil increased by must be secured.
the circumstances of the conquest and The first is to elevate the artisan in of the colonial organization which intelligence and skill. The second is lifted the artizans coming from Eu- to impart to him the principles of a.
rope into the aristocracy and forced sound morality in' private, social and those native born into the servile class. public life; the safety of a republic is The presence of slavery drew the lines m the intelligence and morality of the more sharply and stamped labor in- masses. The third point is to free delibly with the stigma of disgrace. labor from odium. The artisan must So there has always been in Spanish feel the dignity of his calling and com- America a chasm broad and deep be- mand universal respect.
tween the two extremes of society, Now I believe it possible to secure and the workingman has been rele- all these points by one move, namely, gated to the lower class. the establishment, under mission au- The state of affairs here hastily spices, of artisans' schools-technical.
outlined has been a great hindrance trade, manual labor, or whatever they to mission labor. Where shall work may be called. The very pos~ession hegin? Wi,th the aristocratic and in- of such schools would lift labor to a fluential class? But, has a people new p1a.ne of di);'nity. Even a littlo acquaintance, of a really practical from head to foot, and continually shows it. Many of the men are too character,. with, mathematics and proud to work, but they are not too proud to steal or to kill; and the cruelty science would make a new man of the of the fathers is visited on the children 'unto the third and fourth genera- Spanish mechanic. And I would em- tion.'"
phasize, even from a es.e, ctuhlearreploiginiotuosf, /ljriting from Kerak, September 20, view, the moral, i. Mr. Lethaby relates some of hjs diffi- culties. "Our native teacher left us a training of the students. For, after short time ago without bidding good- bye, so now'all the work is in our own all other matters have received due hands; and we needed further help, even when we had some one. It is credit, the fact remains that what the astonishing what we have been ableto teach the children since their 'teacher' artisan needs, more than all else, to departed. But these have been terribly trying times to us. The Roman Cathomake him industrious and trustworthy lics are working hard to build their church, have subsidized the chief's and fit him for higher usefulness as a family and the parents of the children; and one day Mrs. Lethabyand I had a citizen, is a true morality. tough job. The two brothers who had been taught the most were to follow But could such schools be made a those who had been stolen from us; the older one was so unwilling that success? Undoubtedly itwould be in he would not go home. I could stand it no longer; so my wife and I went to each case an experiment, whose out- the Latin priest, denounced the con- duct before him and all there. Blandly come would depend on local circum- he denied all he had done. I then went to the father of the boys, told stances and individual fitness. But if how the priest had contradicted the whole, and how that was what he modeled after similar schools that have might expect throughout from that source. After dinner the older boy passed the experimental stages, and if came back, and both have been regular ever since; but of course it is like keepheld steadily to a missionary purpose, ing school in an earthquake."
I do not hesitate to say that they give In a letter of later date Mr. Lethaby tells of other troubles: "Last Sunday an almost certain promise of the very week we had a fearful scene; two Christian tribes hurling big stones and highest usefulness as a missionary drawing weapons against one another: agency. as a result, hours of work for Mrs. Lethaby with more than one man, but Are there not some at the centres of happily no death. The Moslems came in and separated these Christians(?) influence who will make a move to who began their struggle at the close of the afternoon prayers. These are get the great corporations that are some of the little things we have to go through, and trust through! But pushing out. into these countries, you can form some idea of the com- whether as railroads, canal enter- prises, or otherwise, to make this work a part of their undertaking?
REV. WILLIS WEAVER.
Union Star, Mo.
Syria.-Mr. Lethaby in Moab.
These devoted and solitary workers, Mr. and Mrs. Lethaby, are doing ex- cellent work in the land of Moab. " It is," Mr. Lethaby says, "one of the most beautiful and fertile bits of the earth's surface. But, alas! as of old, there is a 'burden on Moab,' and it can be stated in three letters: S-I-N. That burden upon the land is terribly real; the Turk will not allow the sugar to be grown; the Arab has not the sense to plant and gather the cotton crop; where ten hundred t!lOusand sheep might live, not one hundredth of the number are to be found; where a million quarters of wheat might be giv-en to help to feed your four millions of mouths in London, there are'thou- sands of acres lying idle, and all because sin has specially desolated this goodly and pleasant land. Two great sins of ancient Moab were pride and cruelty. And it is so to-day. A full- grown Arab of these parts, whether he be a sheikh ora beggar, is full of pride pensatory joy when we have read It young, experienced helper as soon as through for the first time the Gospel of possible. Rev. George Piercy, 276 Mark in Arabic to these little ones. Burdett road, London, E., is the secre- While they knew that Jesus was cruci- tary of the London council of Mr.
fied, the narrative was, until this Lethaby's Mission.
week, unknown; and as, after reading Tibet.-Dear Sirs: The news has the day's verses, I have detailed and reached us of a missionary from Lon- impressed the circumstances, it has don proceeding to Darjeeling, India, been a treat to watch the faces and with the intention of enteling Tibet attention of these little Bedouins. through Sikkim, if possible. This news Mark xvi:16 they have added to-day has constrained me to state a few facts to their stock of memorized texts. not generally known, perhaps, in refer- They now know the whole of the 90th ence to the opening of Tibet, and the Psalm, and say it beautifully, and are salvation of Tibetans.
learning Psalm viii. To teach the Tibet is a dependency of China, and Bible here is different from teaching it is to China's interest to give way to it in London; how they revel when a the desire of her Tibetan subjects to fact or a word really comes home to exclude foreigners. China also needs them! And I can honestly write, how Tibet as a buffer against English ag- I revel in the work, except when a gression, and Tibetan lamas find their Mujelli's face glowers over the gate, only hope of retaining their power and or people come to appeal for sick ones influence over the common people in whom we cannot leave to visit. this exclusion of foreigners. Only a "The last few days, while Mrs.' few months ago we had an instance Lethaby has been ill, there has been of this exclusive spirit in the experi- an addition to her work: the }foslem ence of Mr. Rockhill, a late member girls have been seized with a desire to of the American Legation at Peking, come again, and my wife has had tell who penetrated Tibet from the north.
or eleven of them in the afternoon. I Mr. Rockhill traveled with Tibetans, fear Arab girls will not for a long wearing the same dress as his com- time attend regularly enough to under- panions, and speaking their language, go an examination; but they read, do but when still thirty days from Llassa, sums, and write a letter, and know the capital, he lost all his baggage, be- more by coming; and we hope it will ing forced to re-enter China without prepare the way for a better future. having accomplished his object. Pass- Weare making fresh effort to get ing through this province to the coast, some help here who may be of some Mr. Rockhill told a friend who met service to Mrs. Lethaby in our own him that inside Tibet he was told by house and others." a lama that the real cause of the ex- A friend in Ireland, in sending a clusion of foreigners was the fear of donation for the work, truly says: Christianity. No wonder that such is "They are indeed a brave pair, and the case when at leastone sonin every deserve to be helped." Another friend family becomes a lama. It is another in London writes respecting a helper case of vested interests.
for Mrs. Lethaby: "Considering all Presuming that it is a desire for the things, hers is the harder lot, and she salvation of Tibetans that has called really ought to have English female forth in late years so much talk, pray- .assistance. It seems to me to be the er, writing for, and about Tibet, I am special need of the Mission, and I will surprised that so very little has been cheerfully give £5 as a nucleus of a done for the accomplishment of that fund for such a purpose." desirable end. The work of the brave Some responses have been made to Moravians in Ladak, Kashmir, on the this suggestion, and it is hoped to send west border of Tibet, is truly a most
MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE FROJll ALL PARTS
praiseworthy exception. Whilst others territory having an area of no less than have been talking and writing, these 50,000 square miles inhabited by ~i humble, faithful missionaries have betan tribes, for the lastten years open gone .to the work, translating the to the gospel herald; but, alas! utterly Scriptures and bringing some Tibetan neglected hitherto. sinners into the fold of Christ. Instead of wasting time waiting for Ti- Let those who long for the salvation bet to open, they have taken the gos- of Tibetans no longer wait for British pel to needy Tibetans outside Tibet sword and cannon to open a bloodproper. Here I am glad to add that stained way to Tibet. The way to Mr. Cecil Polhill-Turner and his wife, thousands of Tibetans, dying, utterly since some time last year, have been hopeless slaves to every sin, a prey to trying to do something for the many every lust, is now open in Sz-ch'uan Tibetans living in Outer Kansuh, N. and Kansuh, and has been open for W. China. more than ten years.
At present these are the only in- God willing, my wife and I hope to stances of attempts being made to be doing something ere long towards evangelize the tens of thousands of the salvation of some of these border Tibetans who live, some under British, outcasts. Brethren and sisters, pray but mostly under Chines~ rule, out- for them. Yours faithfully, side of Tibet proper. In this province (Sz.:ch'uan, W. China) alone there is It R. GRAY OWEN. O. I. M., Oh'entu, W. Ohina.
-The Ohristian (London).
III.-MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE FROM ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD-FIELD.
Ohina. fused to legalize the tramc in those noble and patriotic words: "It is true that I cannot pre- THE IMPENDING OPIUM CRISIS. vent the introduction of the flowing poison, but nothing will induce me to derive a revenue fin our June Correspondence (page from the vice and misery of my people." It 454) we gave our readers a copy of the is well known, too, how twenty years later this Petition of the Christian Churches of consistent opposition entailed another war, China addressed to the Christian and how the fourth son and successor, Hien- Churches of England, praying them fung, with his palace looted and destroyed by to use their influence with their the " civilized " enemy, finally agreed to the. Government to induce it to abolish legalization of tlje traffic with the imposition the opium traffic, the horrible evils of of a nominal duty. It may be known also that whichchey set forth. We have re- four years ago, after long delay and haggling, ceived from the office of the Bombay an agreement was come to which it was· Guardian, of India, the following thought would be a final settlement of the Memorial from the Christians of India question, though as a matter of fact it was to the Chinese Government, urging it open to revision after a period of five years. to continue its opposition to the But nothing is settled till it is settled rightly, iniquity and assuring it of Christian and the opium ghost will not down till it is put sympathyand support. The memorial !Iown by the suppression of the use of the drug speaks for itself, and we are sure will altogether. be read with interest. Mr. Robbins is an American missionary at Shanghai. The time for the possible revision of the -J. M. S.] agreement having nearly arrived, it seemed good to the editors of the Banner of Asia, at PRESENTATION OF .ANTI·OPIUM MEMORIALS AND Bombay, to propose a memorial from the Christians of India to the Chinese Government, ..l.TTITUDE OF THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT ON encouraging them in their continued opposi- tion to the iniquity, and reminding them that THE SUBJECT. the Church of Christ is not indifferent to the The world has heard the affecting story of wrongs inflicted on China and is not willing w the determined and implacable opposition to the opium curse of the Chinese Imperial au- thorities half a century ago; how the old Emperor Tau-kwang, after burying three sons who had died its victims, made such a des- concede that India is so dependent that it can perate effort to suppress the import as to be saved from hankruptcyonly by the plunder incur a bloody war, with loss of territory and and ruin of its Chinese neighbor. The prothe payment of vast indemnities, and yet re- posal was heartily seconded by missionaries and others, and with little effort ten thousand annual visit to worship at the F..astern Tombs. three hundred and forty-five signatures, in many languages (extending 100 yards), in- Having had communicated to him beforehand cluding a few names spontaneously sent from England, America and Australia, were ob- copies of the text of the memorials and a tained to the folluwing petition: rather lengthy explanatory statement, he "We, the undersigned, ministers and members of Christian churches, desire to record understood quite well theobject of ourmission, ' our sorrow at the moral and physical havoc which has heen wrought among the people 'of and this no doubt accounts largely for the China in consequence,of the opium policy of the British Government-a policy which has cordiality with which he received us. He been totally at variance with the principles of the Christian religion. We respectfully ex- graciously accepted the memorials and press our deep sympathy with the supreme authorities 01 China in their desire to save scanned the hundreds of names with evident their nation from the curse of the opium habit, and in order to further so wise and pleasure, promising to present them and our laudable an object, we would emphasize the importance of acting upon the opportunity statement to the central Government with his presented in the year 1890, under the additional article of the Chefoo Agreement (rati- own recommendation that they should have a fied May 6, 1886), to terminate that article, and to secure the execution of a new treaty re- most favorable consideration. The unmeasured pealing theTien-tsin Treaty, as far as it relates to opium, and also enacting the prohibition of terms in which he condemned the use of the the legalized importation of opium into China." poison showed that he appreciates the evils The Scottish Anti-Opium Society, hearing of caused by it and sincerely wished its entire the movement, sent, unsolicited, a similar memorial, signed by between six and seven suppression, which he said is the case with the thousand Christian workers in Scotland-all gotten up in a very brief period of time-show- other nlemhers of the Government. He said ing what might be done in Christian countries by extending the time and effort and duly in- it was useless to try to put down the native forming and encouraging the people. growth till the f~reign import was prohibited, The deputation entrusted with the present- when there would he hope of success. 'But ing of these memorials to the Chinese Government, Mr. A. S. Dyer and myself, are happy running through the whole interview was a to be able to report a very gratifying reception in China. The official through whom the note of sadness which found expression in the memorials were presented was that greatest statesman of China, if not of the world, Li question, "Will not the demand for a prohibi- Hung-chang, Viceroy of the metropolitan province of Chih-Ii and Grand Secretary to tion treaty with Great Britain bring on another the Chinese Government. He was a most appropriate person to receive them, not only war-a third opium war? " on account of his enlightened and liberal Tiews, but also hecause of his outspoken oppo- This question, too, quite agrees with other sition to the opium iniquity, he having declared as late as the year 1881 that the legalization of expressions from Chinese statesmen,,!specially the traffic was "not from choice, but because China submitted to the adverse decision of with the las(utterances of Marquis Tseng, the arms," at the same time going so far as to make proposals to the Indian Government to late Minister to the Court of St. James. and recoup them for a time for their loss of revenue if they would Itbolish the exportation of member of the Tsung-Li'Yamen, or Board of the drug to China. Fortunately his exasperation at America on account of the Exclusion Foreign Affairs. Four days previous to his Act had largely abated, so that there was no objection on that ground, especially when he death we had an appointment for an' interview knew I had been a resident in India for eighteen years. with him at Peking, and though at the time The day appointed for our reception was the appointed he was too ill to see us, yet he had 21st of last month, he having but just returned from accompanying the emperor on his shown evident sympathy with our mission, and had given expression to language which should sink deep into the hearts of all lovers of liberty and fair dealing, to say nothing of Christian principles: "WE ARE NOT FREE; we cannot take the first step."
Though these statesmen have heen assured that public sentiment. would not tolerate'
another similar war, yet they have seen so much of the duplicity of foreigners that they cannot tell what pretext they may use to carry out their designs, as they did in the last opium war. While looking at the Toku Forts, at the mouth of the Feiho, and rememhering the part taken in storming those forts thirty years ago by the representative of a neutral Government, U. S Commodore Tatnall, it has been nota little difficult to me to reconcile that action with the insertion of the Golden Rule in the treaty consequent thereto-an example followed by the not more consistent British Government. But let us now prove that it is possible and practicable for nations, as for individuals, to do as they would be done by, by helping with all our might to remove obstacles and stum- bling blocks from this unfortunate land, and thus prepare the way for our Lord and His blessed gospel. Pray for China.
Yours, for His and China's sake, Shanghai; May 6, 1890. W. E. RoBBINS.
P. S.-No foreigner as yet having had an audience with the present emperor, we did not strangers could ever be. Rev. J. R. McDougall attempt to see him, but we got a communica- says, "My own deep conviction remains unal· tion to his father, the Seventh Prince, which terable as to the truly spiritual character of has called forth expressions of great interest the Free Italian Ohurch Mission, and the imand a desire for more information on the sub- mense service it is rendering to 'the cause of ject. As' he and Viceroy Li are next to the Ohrist in Italy." emperor, we may expect that everthing will be done that can be done in the matter. Tibet.
Italy. Edgell Road, Staine., June 10, 1890. DEAR DR. PIERSoN:-I thought you might [We have received the following like to have the enclosed letter from Mr. C. Polhill Turner, in northeast Tibet. brief statement from a well-known The Manchu viceroy (Ching-Chai) for Kuku- nor (Blue Lalle) province lives at Sining, the Brooklyn lady who is deeply interested capital of Kukunor. Kumbum, the Mecca and Jerusalem of Lain Italian evangelization.-J. M. S.] maist Buddhism, is only a day's journey from Sining to the southwest, 20 miles. I suppose DEAR EOITORS:-I have been deeply im- half the 'Thibetan race is to be found on the Kansu borders. pressed with your earnest and ready sym- Neither the Chinese nor Tibetans seem to be jealous of our movements so far north, and it pathy in the cause of missions, and not having may be, when this wide open door is occupied, God will open the Sampo basin. It should be seen any mention of the Free Ohristian Ohurch noted that the language of Amdo is much like that spoken at Thasa, whereas the dialect of in Italy in your REVIEW, I enclose a report for Leh is very different. The princedom of lang, said by Hin to be the the year 1888, last year's report not having most powerful of the Kansu chiefs, has been open even for ladies quite ten years. My reached us yet; also a little sketch of the wife and another sister spent two months at Choni, the town whence lang rules three tribes church. -the Choni, Chokna, and Tiepu-whilel evan- gelized the neighboring Dungan and Chinese Hoping you may find something that will (Moslem half-castes, Turk and Chinese.) Does not jealousy of the English indicate a be of interest to lay before your readers, and special call for American Ohristians to occupy this field? I am quite familiar with all the also draw the attention of the Ohristian world approaches to Easrern Kukunor and South- ern Mongolia and Eastern Turkistan, but Centowards this worthy mission, and thus hasten tral Asia only has the third claim among the innermost parts of the earth. the coming of God's kingdom in this land of The native races of South America seem to have been almost overlooked, and Central superstition and bigotry, I am yours truly, Africa ought to have a share of every coin given into Ohrist's mission treasury. Brooklyn, N. Y. M. L. S. The interior regions, if attended to, will ne- cessitate a filling in of the routes thither. THE FREE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN ITALY. Conferences for the advancement of the spiritual life are going to be abused by becom- This brave little church deserves more than ing spiritual entertainments with a surfeit of a passing notice. Struggling, inch by inch, provisions. through the bitter opposition and persecution Devotional literature is multiplying. I get of the Romish Ohurch, it is, nevertheless, seven-fold more profit from news respecting steadily advancing, and becoming a power of the peoples and tongues of the earth and misgreat good in the evangelization of Italy. New sions to them. fields are being occupied, the labors of teach- Those who are actively engaged and deeply ers and scholars are being abundantly blessed, concerned in the spiritual needs of the regions contributions of the church are on the in- beyond will necessarily be in spiritual health. crease, showing a great spirit of self-denial It will be wrong if in all our large towns new among the members, many of them being poor halls have to be provided for serving out these in this world's goods. spiritual dainties when languages are still un- learned by Christ's witnesses, and races are Statistics for 1888 show 32 churches, large yet unvisited by I:eralds of Jesus and His resand small, 15 ordained ministers, 12 evangel- urrection.
ists, 3 colporteurs, 70 deacons, 30 elders, 1,522 communicants, 222 catechumens, 60 Sabbath- school teachers, 936 Sabbath-school children, 32 day and night-school teachers, 925 pupils, 43 out-stations. Hundreds of places are open to this little church, and demands are constantly made for preachers, but, for lack of means, they have painfully to refuse many.
Is not the Lord, by His wonderful working in behalf of this people, in the very heart of Papacy, showing to a Christian world a great opportunity to aid in the extension of His kingdom in this land, by the aid of their prayers and contributions?
Their colleges and schools are preparing earnest men to carry forward this work. These native teachers, through their bitter knowledge of what Popery is, and their acquaintance with the language, are much better adapted to the evangelization of their country than If God should ever take you round the globe United States.
on a visit to the mission stations, it might be THE SOUDAN MISSIONARY MOVEMENT. an acceptable service to point outto the labor- [In addition to our Editorial Note in ers that when Paul preached the glad tidings the last number we give place to the in its fulness (1st Thess. I), comprehensive- following official statement.-J. M. S.] ness, he proclaimed Jesus Christ the crucified Topeka, Kansas, May 22, 1890. DEAR EDrroR:-We believe that you will be one, and Jesus the risen one. interested in the tidings conveyed by the following telegram which was sent us from Platonism is the great theme in China: The New York City on the 14th inst. by Mr. Hel- mick of the Soudan missionary party: perfect happiness ofthe naked spirit at death; "Psalm cxxvi: 3. Eight sailed. City of Chicago. 1:30 to-day." the redemption of the body; life and incor- Letters which have followed this message bring to us the information that on May 14 ruptibility; the being clothed over with our there sailed from New York, to carry the house from the heavens. The spiritual body gospel to the Soudan, Africa, a party of eight persons, as follows: Charles L. Helmick, and the glorified bodyare, I fear, unmentioned formerly General Secretary Y. M. C. A. at in the 1,000 tracts now being circulated. Marion, Kansas; F. M. Gates, formerly Gym- nasium Superintendent Y. M. C. A. at Topeka, The translators in China have only got as Kansas; John E. Jaderquist and W. J. Harris, formerly Assistant Secretaries Y. M. C. A., far as using the word quickening. I hope a St. Paul, Miun.; Roy C. Codding, of Hastings College, Nebraska; Mrs. E. Kingman, forword wiII some day come into our vocabulary merly General Secretary Y. W. C. A., Topeka, Kansas; Miss Jennie Dick, formerly Assistant for resurrection or upstanding. Compare State Secretary Y. W. C. A., Kansas, and IIlr. James Trice, a colored man from Durham, S. Colossians ii., 12, oVY71yepe71Te (Resurrex- C. Thus in less than a year from the time when the Lord first placed in the hearts of a istis) 13, OVYECGiJ07(Ol770ey (Convivificavit), few young men and women in the West a desire to carry the glad mesSage to the ninety milboth rendered in Chinese by one word. lions of the Soudan, we are permitted to see nine persons (Mr. E. Kingman having already Yours in Christ's service, arrived at Sierra Lr"one as a forerunner in this movement) bid farewell to home, friends and GEORGE PARKER, of Kansu. everything that is dear, from a human standpoint, and go forth to that land where LETTER FROM MR. CECIL POLHILL TURNER. as yet there is not even one to herald the story of the Cross. As you doubtless know, . Sining, March 3, 1890. the entire party go forth depending alone upon the Lord to supply all their needs, there being My DEAR MR. PARKER:-I have not yet no promise of financial support whatever, exwritten to thank you for sending up the can- ceptasfound in the Word of God. Surely the Lord has already honored the simple faith of teen; much obliged to you; I don't think we these His servants, for, while no person has been asked to contribute even a dollar toward shall take it with us on our journeys. It is their support, yet when the day of sailingcame He had bountifully provided for their every rather elaborate for our two selves. need, SO that they lacked no good thing and could truthfully say, "The Lord hath done We have news of you from below Singau, great things for us, whereof we are glad." We qnote the following from a letter written and good news, praise the Lord. We often by Il friend at New York, who was permitted to be with the party until the time of their sailing: make mention of you in our prayers, and ask " There was great joy in their departure, and that you may all be prospered at home. a large number of friends whom the Lord had given them • . . were at the place of salling, lIliss Kinahan has been with us since Octo- and we sang as the vessel moved out' God be withyou till we meetagain,' and the party sang ber, and we have enjoyed her visit much. in reply' We are on the way.' I wish you could have seen the joy in their faces as they realized Miss Muir joined us last week, to help my that they were starting outto the Dark Cont;- wife. Trust you will stir them up well at Shanghai about Kansu. 'Ve are specially praying now that native ministers may be raised up in the Church, and looking for a bigger inftowing and outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
I have just been reading a native book on Tibet, published while I was at Chcutu, in which it is most strongly expressed that no foreigner is on any account to be admitted to Tibet; especiaIIyaretheEnglish to be feared, who have a telegraph and railway up to Darjeeling; soldiers and guard stations must be multiplied, etc.
Let us remember GOD. I don't believe Chinese Government and lamas together can stop us when God says .. Go. " Pray for a clear road for us. We hope (D. V.) to begin moving about amongst the Fantz iu a couple of momhs or so, and do not anticipate being tied to any place.
We want heap.• more prayer-importunate, unceasing. Unswerving obedience to the Word of God. Unquenchable love, burning zeal. Let's keep ourselves in the love of God, and it will be so. We want unlimited faith in what God can do. May God bless and keep you all. Love toMrs. Parker, Johnny, etc.
Your loving brother, CECIL POLHILL TURNER.
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
nent. It was an objectlesson which the Lord coast. 0ne trouble r experienced was in findwill not suffer to be without great results to His glory. The night before was spent in confer- ing anyone who understood what the interior ence and prayer until three 0 'clock in the morning, and it was a most blessed time, for the was. It will be best for us to get inland, as Lord was there. . . . The devotion of the entire party was very beautiful, and I cannot the people there are not drunkards, and have but think acceptableto the Lord. . . . Heel that this is but the beginning of what the never seen white Irien yet. The section we Lord will be pleased to, perhaps, make a great exodtts of His people. I feel that in less than think of going to is not, in fact, much better six months there will be many to follow. Let this burden' rest upon you: The gospel to be known than some parts of Africa that we preached to •every creature' in this generation; nay, may I not say in this century, and don't pretend to know. There is just enough may the Lord prepare the hearts of many more from Kansas soon to follow." known to assure us of its being populated by We are just in receipt of a letter from Mr. people who live in towns, and, generally Kingman, dated at Sierra Leone, West Africa, April 18, from which we qoote the following: speaking, are intelligent and peaceable. .
" . . . I have been in fine health all the . . I think eventually we ought to have a time since I arrived, and have been bountifully supplied with everything I need to make me Mandingo teacher in Topeka. One can stndy comfortable and happy. As you see by the address,- I am still stopping with the Bishop of so much better there. It is hard work to Sierra Leone, and believe that it has pleased the Lord for me to do so. . . . I have been study here. I am getting on nicely with the right in deciding to learn the Mandingo language. It is the language spoken in the sec- language. Expect to speak it well in less than tion we are going to. The Tinne, Souson and Mendi languages would only take you a couple four months." of hundred miles, as these tribes are near the Shall we not pray that during the coming months, not only from Kansas but from all parts of this country there may arise a great many more young men and women who shan gladly give their lives that the joyful message may speedily be brought to the millions who nOW dwell in heathen darkness? Let us give the King no rest (Isa. lxii: 6, 7) until we see hundreds, yea thousands, of our young men and women going forth as He may direct. For the speedy evangelization of the whole world, Thine faithfully, GEORGE S. FISIIER, State Secretary.
E. S. WALTON; Member for Missionary Work.
IV.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
The International Missionary Union. a meeting of missionaries. Itexercises WHAT IT IS. no executive nor administrative func- The nature and object of the organi- tions. It does not, however, refrain zation known as the International from making declarations of its con- Missionary Union has been more o~ victions or opinions on any questions less fully explained from time to time of thought or affairs affecting -the in this department of the REVIEW. But special interests with which it deals.
those having to do with the Union It does not, in the first insta~ce, spek find such wide misapprehension con- an audience, though no session passes cerning it that persons to whom it is a without utterances-by document or thrice-told story must be patient while address-calculated to interest and in- we make one more effort to widen tile spire audiences of thousands of people.
circle of those who understand it. In several instances vast audiences, This society is, perhaps, to be com- numbering from three thousand to pared with some of the learned socie- five thousand, have been assembled at ties, such as the American Oriental these meetings. But for three years Society, the Ethnological Societies, or, past the location of the annual meet- better yet, with the International ings has been sought rather in the Society of Charities, all of which are quieter retreat of comparatively small organizations of experts, meeting for cities or towns, as best adapted certhe study of the specific subjects tainly for a time to an organization grouped around their respective titles. which is in the nature of a council, a It is not, therefore, technically speak- school, a conference, or a congress of ing, a missionary meeting, while it is missionaries, assembled to compare 'experiences, to acquire specific knowl- have reached a circulation of many edge, which will lead to iwproved thousands of copies. methods in their work, aid them better to measure the forces which they con- The foreign' missions have felt the front, and also to strengthen and stimulus of the annual sessions during cheer each other in toil by spiritual these seven years past, and home and social intercouse, and, remotely, churches and their pastors have recog- to increase the interest of others in nized the educational and inspirational the work of world-wide evangelism. power to be of such a quality as to lead them to seek to bring these meet- It is composed exclusively of those ings within their geographical area. who are or have been missionaries to Invitations to hold the annual meet- countries outside of the United States ings, accompanied with the tender of and the Dominion of Canada, and to entertainment, have come annually pagan peoples within these territories; from localities widely separated from hence membership in it comes by each other-from the Atlantic sea- grace, not by vote, being inherent in board to Colorado, and from places in the fact of missionary service. It has Canada to several south of the Poto- been designateda "Missionaries' Club." mac and Ohio rivers. To those who have It is not, therefore, composed of dele- borne the management of the Union gates. The privileges of vote and this has not been an unwelcome index debate are reserved within the mem- of its Providential character. bership, save on invitation of the body or under exceptional circumstances The Union has thus far enrolled 225 which justify themselves. There is names of missionaries, moatly con- no fund nor revenue of any sort to aid nected with American and Canadian in paying the traveling expenses of societies. It has also among its mem- members in reaching the meetings. bers representatives of the English Hitherto the hospitality of the com- Baptist, the English Wesleyan and munities where the meetings were the China inland missions, gathering held have been equal to the free en- tbus missionaries from fields in every tertainm('nt of the entire number one of the grand divisions of the present. globe.
The missionaries have realized, in • THE MEETING AT CLIFTON SPRINGS. all instances known to us, a gracious influence in the widening of their 'The Place. – Whatever may be scope of observation beyond their own thought of other localities for the fields and churches, the eccumenical annual meetings, there certainly was ,character of the body making possi- an acknowledged fitness of things in ble a catholicity which surprises even selecting Clifton Springs, N. y" for those to whom it is most, grateful. the seventh annual session, which was The influence on the home church of held there from June 11 to 18 incluthis illustration of Christian unity of sive. The invitation to do so, under spirit and purpose, along with diver- the auspices of the Clifton Springs sity of organization and plan of work, Sanitarium, through its founder and has been suffiCiently strong to invari- chief, Henry Foster, M.D., "aided and ably command recognition. abetted" by the pastors, the churches and the Y. M. C. A., was of two or The Union views with some degree three years' standing. -of satisfaction another result of its meetings in the publication of special This Sanitarium has a basal missionpapers read before the body, of which ary idea. While its purpose is of a sufficient number have already been course to relieve all persons who come given to the public to make a large hither seeking restoration to health of .and creditable volume. Some of these body or mind, it hlvites missionaries, ministers and teachers to avail them- selves of its remedial skill and agencies cheerfully and gratuitously. The following mlsslonaries were in Among the more than 60,000 guests attendance at this seventh annual who have received here medical atten- meeting, viz.: tion are numbered over 200 missionaries from foreign fields, including AFRICA.-(l) Gaboon: Mrs. Albert Bushnell, many of the most eminent names of Mrs. W. C. Gault, Rev. A. W. Marling and the missionary force of the American wife. (2) Zululand: lIlrs. A. W. Kilbon. churches, such as Goodell, Schaeffier, Coan and Wilder. As these have had ASIA.-(l) Assam: Rev. M. B. Comfort. opportunity, in the Sanitarium chapel (2) Burmah: Miss Julia M. Elwin, l1iss F. E. and the village churches, to address Palmer, Miss Eva C. Stark, Miss Isabella .audiences representing every part of Watson. (3) China: Rev. S. L. Baldwin, D.D., the country, and to come in contact Rev. B. Helm, Miss Carrie I. Jewell, Miss socially with them, through many Ella J. Newton, Rev. W. P. Sprauge and ",ife, months of protracted stay in the insti- Rev. M. L. Stimson, Rev. M. L. Taft and wife, tution, the missionaryinfiuence on the Rev. Wellington J. White. (4) Syria (Damashome church which has gone out from cus): Mrs. Belle McD. Patterson. (5) India: this centre during a third of a century Rev. Ray Allen, Rev. J. E. Chandler, Miss M. woulJ be impossible to compute. Nor M. Day, Rev. J. T. Gracey and wife, Rev. S. can we know the amount of the H. Kellogg, D.D., Miss Martha C. Lathrop, generous benefactions of these guests Rev. J. T. McMahon, Rev. J. L. Phillips, M.D., while here, to special objects on mis- Miss Grace R. 'Ward, Rev. Francis 111. Wheeler, sionary fields, though there is an Rev. Thomas Tracy. (6) Japan: Mrs. S. C. available record of an aggregate of Adams, Miss Georgiana Banens, Miss Marmany thousands of dollars thus con- garet Brown, Miss M. J. Cartmell, Rev. I. H. tributed. This institution is therefore Correll, Miss Anna Y. Davis, Miss M. A. Priest, an able ally of all missionary societies. Prof. M. N. Wyckoff. (7) Malaysia (Singa.- The contribution it has made to the pore): Rev: Goo. A. Bond. (8) Siam: Rev. work by restoring, with God's bless- William Dean, D.D., Rev. S. R. House, M.D. ing, to health, and thus to years of and wife, Rov. Eugene P. Dunlap and wife. protracted service, so many expert (9) Turkey: Rev. Lyman Bartlett and wife, missionaries has been invaluable. An Miss Nellie S. Bartlett, Miss L. B. Chamberinstitution which "repairs" mission- lain, Rev. R. 111. Cole, Rev. Geo. F. Herrick, aries may rank with those which pre- D.D_, Rev. H. T. Perry. pare them. Besides, it is widely known that this entire property. the AMERICA.-(l) Ala.•ka: Mrs. Sheldon Jackownership of which was at one time son. (2) Mexico: Rev. Wm. P. F. Ferguson, shared by several stockholders, gradu- Miss Henrietta O. Ogden. (3) Guatamala: ally became the personal property of Miss Annie E. Ottaway. (4) Argentina: Mrs. its founder, and that some years since R. T. Lore. (5) Chili: Rev. J. 111. Allis. he magnanimously donated it for the benevolent use of missionaries primar- AUSTRALIA.- Rev. Adolphus Hartmann~ ily, together with other classes named, EUROPE.- (1) Bulgaria: Rev. W. H. Belden~ making the title absolutely over to a (2) Italy: Rev. C. W. Cushing, D.D. (3) Spain: board of trustees, that it may be held Miss Laura Sanford. in perpetuity for the purpose to which MICRONESIA.-Miss Ella T. Crosby. it has thus been dedicated. The property thus transferred is valued at Grouped by societies represented not less than a half million of dol- they stand as follows: lars. The meeting of the International Missionary Union in this place was, American Board, 17. Baptists, 8, as follows: therefore, along the line of the central Regular, 7; Free, 1. Methodists, 20, as folthought of this institution. lows: Canada Methodist, 1; M. E. (U. S.), 17; Methodist Protestant, 1; English Wesleyan, 1. Moravians,. 1. Presbyterians, 18, as follows: U. S. A., 14; U. S. (Southern), 1; Canada, 1; United Presbyterian, 1; Reformed Church, 1. Miscellaneous, 4, as follows: Italian Bible and Sunday-school Mission, 1; ·Women's Union Missionary Society, 2. Total :lIissionaries, 67•. Others – Secretaries: Canada lUethodist, 2; Moravian, 1; M. E., 3; Students' Movement,. 1-7. Appointee,1. Total persons present, '15..
THE PROCEEDINGS.
A brief reference to the proceeding!! and sayings of a body, multiform in its personnel, its themes, and its ac- tion, protracted through more than seven hours of each day for over a.. week, must necessarily exclude inci- jects. One of these is along the line dent and description. The devotional of an historical survey of missionary hour from nine to ten o'clock of each labor. Last year Rev. James Mudge morning eludes language. The illu- presented a paper on the' 'History and mination was of that light which Present Status of the Missionary So- never was "on sea or shore." The gen- ciety of the Methodist Episcopal eral features of the suggested syllabus Church," and Rev.Dr.GeorgeW.Wood of the meetings were, however, was assigned to prepare this year a mainly followed. "The Dependence of similar paper on the American Board. Missions on the Holy Ghost" was the Though the paper wa..~ well-nigh ready _topic of the prayer-hour for the first he was detained by illness. Two other day. "The Relation of Prayer to Mis- historical papers were, however, pre- sions and Missionaries," which was the sented. The Rev. J. Taylor Hamilton, theme of one hour, brought out touch- secretary of the Moravian Missionary ing and tender instances of special Society, read an able paper on that answers to prayer, in the providential society, which will appear in our help, guidance, deliverance and sup- columns hereafter. Rev. W. L. Whip- port in missionary work. Perhaps of ple, D.D., agent of the American tlus series of devotional meetings, the Bible Society in Persia, presented a two which stand out most prominent- paper, which he was detained from ly are the Consecration Meeting of reading, entitled "A Review of the Sunday morning and that of which Past Ten Years of Bible Work in the theme was "The Personal Realiz- Persia-1880-90. " ation of the Word of God in Mission- ary Experience and Observation." 'Ve Another group of topics which would lmve to write a serial if we at- came under review were classed tempted a reproduction of the marvel- under the title of "The Mission Agent." lous statements of this session alone. The first phase of this was "The Call and Qualification of Missionaries." Many members, accustomed to at- Rev. S. H. Kellogg, D.D., of Toronto, tend these meetings, sent communi- formerly of India, discussed "Educa- cations and salutations. That of the tional Qualifications for Foreign Mis- Rev. Cyrus Hamlin, D.D., we publish sions." Admitting that laymen may herewith, because it contains state- sometimes be employed with advan- ments of general interest. tage in foreign missions, provided they are moved by the Holy Ghost to Members of the Union are on almost full consecration, he emphasized the every foreign mission field, in active paramount importance of a thorough service, and these constitute what is training for the following reasons: termed an "Outlook Committee" to 1. In order to master the language and report on special developments in mis- speak accurately. After he had been in sion work, or in-the political, civil, or India a year, he preached a sermon, as religious world, coming under their he supposed, with power, but when he notice, which affect the interests of asked a learned native whether he had misslOns. Several members of this made his thoughts intelligible, he re- Outlook Committee sent reports of in- plied, "God in heaven knows what terest. We append a letterfrom Rev. you meant, and if you will be so kind Dr. Shedd of Persia, and another from as to explain it to us perhaps we may Rev. T. J. Porter of Brazil, and will lmderstand it too." It takes skill, pa- publish others later. tience and labor to acquire a foreign tongue, and, other things being equal, It has been thought well to give the educated missionary who has ac- some plan, not only to each annual quired one or more languages at school meeting, but to the series of annual should excel others in the acquisition. meetings, with a view to continuity of presentation of some classes of sub- ·of the language through which he is pared missionaries. They do not seek to communicate with the people whom to have men go to the fields indepen- he goes to serve. 2. To gain respect dent of boards or churches, though ·of the learned, especially in Oriental colleges and schools or churches are lands. 3.The missionary, like Timothy, encouraged to furnish the support of must organize churches and select and individual missionaries as supple- train a native ministry. 4. He should mental to their regular contributions. be qualified in instances to translate A resolution was adopted requesting or aid in revision of translations al- the officers of the movement to annu- ready made. ally send a representative to the Union. "Mechanics as a Part of Missionary Training," by Mr. H. E. Brown, sec- Under the topic "TheSupportojthe retary of the International Committee Mission," discussion was had on the ·of the Y. M. C. A., was prepared by following points: special request. It was published in the July number of this periodical, Mission Economics: 1. Self·support. Expe- and we need do no more than refer rience and observation relative to it. our readers to it. Coming under this general head was the subject grouped 2. Asceticism in its various forms as con- in the following questions: "What has nected with missionary work. been done by laymen as missionaries? What more can be done by them? How 3. What modification in the present style should they be sent out? What should of missionary living and what reduction of be their standing and salary as com- salary, if any, can be made with advantage to pared with ordained misssionaries? the work ? Should they be sent out by a separately organized missionary society? Should IIi this discussion abundant recog- we petition the older missionary so- nition was had of the criticisms of deties to send out more lay mission- the last few years from eminent aries to work on ~)lr fields? What persons in Great Britain and else- other steps should be taken in this where, such as Mr. Caine, M. P., and ·connection?" Messrs. Lunn and Hughes of the Wesleyan Church of England. After The discussion of these three themes a full, honest and searching consid- occupied one session. At a later eration of the subject, the Union session "The Student Movement: its adopted a resolution expressive of Present Status and Future Develop- their disposition to be amenable to .ment and Modification," was con~id the judgment of persons competent to ered, with a representation of it by investigate and pass upon the subject, the editorial member of its executive and their eager desire to see how to I corps, Mr. Max Wood Moorhead, who improve the administration of mis- came by special invitation of. the sionary funds, either as pertains to Union. This was followed with a themselves or to their missions. They paper on "The Dangers to be Guarded distinctly solicit the most searching Against in the Movement," by Rev. investigation, whether from friends or ]','[r. Ferguson, and a running fire of opponents, provided· only the parties friendly but often critical inquiry, in are equal to their task, and will do it which Mr. Moorhead cheerfully and candidly and thoroughly. They have clearly explained, and, where neces- nothing, tl1ey believe, that may not be sary,defended his society. He stated fully and frankly disclosed, relating that some 250 of these volunteers are to the support of the missions. They .already on the field. The officers of believe the present administration of the movement do not desire to encour- mission funds, especially that of the .age the sending out of poorly pre- greater societies, as a whole, judicious and economical, and would gladly do their part toward improvement, if the way to it can be pointed out.
" The Foreign Field" was the title of another general classification of topics under which was considered, Taft, of the Peking University, China. 1. "The Religious Systems to be dealt which we propose to present to our with." As this is, like the historical readers later in the year. A third depaper, proposed to be an annual topic, partment of the survey of the field in which these systems are taken up was to be found in the succession of in turn, two were considered this year addresses on the various mission -"Tauism," by Rev. Dr.Baldwin, and fields delivered in the several sessions "Buddhism," by Rev. Dr. Kellogg of and on Sunday, and in one entire Toronto. An entire session was set evening given to "Exceptional Comapart for these addresses, followed by munities," e. g., "The NativeRacesof comparison of views by members who Mexico," "The Chinese in Singapore," had had experience in dealing with "The Alaska Indians and the Black them. Fellows of Australia." Rev. Mr. Fer- guson treated the subject of "The Na- Dr. Baldwin treated of the historical tive Races in Mexico" in a paper suporigin of Tauism, and analyzed it as a plemental to one which we published philosophy and a religion and a super- from his pen lately. This paper also stition. It started as pure rational- will appear in our columns. ism but gradually became grossly idolatrous, the founder of it being dei- Rev. Mr. Bond, of Singapore, stirred fied and his image worshipped. Dr. the companywith thrilling statements Kellogg drew a strong contrast be- about Malaysia; and Rev. Mr. Harttween Christianity and Buddhism, the mann, of the Moravian Mission to Auone being theistic and the other athe- stralia, described his life among its istic; the oneaffirming the other deny- aborigines. Mrs. Sheldon Jackson, at ing the existence of a soul; in the one another session, spoke of Alaska man (Buddha) becomes God, in the peoples. other God (Jesus Christ) becomes man; one seeks salvation from sin, the other Naturallyanother general class of from suffering; in the one the means toipcs was "Obstacles to Mission of salv.ttion is by the work of another, Work." The "Upium Question" in in the other by man's own works; salva- China, especially in relation to ,the tion attained in Chri~tianity is through prospective revision of the treaties of atonement, regeneration and resurrec- foreign nations with that country; and tion to eternal life of soul and body; also the "Present Phase and Status of in Buddhism it is the extinction of the Chinese Question in America," being. In the matter of ethics Chris- were ably discussed. Memorials to tianity teaches love to man and God; the Queen of England and to the Buddhism inculcates selfishness. President of the United States were Christianity purifies and glorifies adopted, and Rev. Drs. Hamlin and family life; Buddhism discourages Baldwin were appointed to present and denounces it. the petition to President Harrison in person. The second department of topics pertaining to the field was "The Literary Under the caption of "Forms of and Intellectual Forces to be Con- Missionary Activity," several topics fronted." Professor M. N. Wyckoff, were taken up. "Woman's Work for of Tokyo, Japan, presented a paper on Woman" was considered in three "Education in Japan," which we have sessions. In the first one a represenalready published, by anticipation, in tative of each field was allowed five our July number. This, however, minutes to present their work, which was much enlarged upon in his ad- was followed by three lady speakers dress, and by the other speakers on on the special topics, "Boarding and the subject. "Education in China" Day Schools and Orphanages." In the was an able paper, byRev. Marcus L. second, the missionary ladies met the secretaries of ladies' societies present in a conversazione, and in the third, Treasurer-Rev. S. R. House, M.D., Water- the lady missionaries discussed freely ford, N. Y. the comparative efficiency of meth- ~ of work. Questions were freely Librarian-Rev. James Mudge, East Pepasked and frankly answered. perill, Mass.
The New York TnOune received by Executive Committee-Rev. S. H. Kellogg, wire daily despatches from this meet- D.D., Toronto, Ont., Rev. C. W. Cushing, D.D., ing. Of a farewell meeting held for Rev. C. W. Park, Rev. Benjamin Helm, Rev. those who would depart before the J. A. Davis, Miss C. H. Daniels, M.D., Mrs next annual gathering of the Union it Belle McD. Patterson. said: Prayer ABked for Missionaries in PeriL "The evening session in the great tent was ·crowded with a sympathetic audience to see Bishop J. H. Vincent, of Buffalo, N. .and hear more than twenty of the missionaries who are returning to their fields this Y., sent the following letter to the year. Tears and smiles chased one another <Jver many faces as the roll of missionary International Missionary Union at its lands was called, and devoted Christian men And women of many different denominations late session, and requested prayers in said they knew no higher joy than to be missionaries privileged to return to the dark behalf of the parties indicated in the lands, where they may tell the gospel to perishing souls. The Rev. Eugene P. Dunlap, document. It explains itself, and will .of Siam, presided, and the venerable Baptist, William Dean, dismissed the departing mis- appeal to all saints whom it may .sionaries with an affectionate benediction. " reach: "Jerusalem, May 14, 1890. The" reception" on Saturdayafternoon of the President of the Union .. RT. REv. AND DEAR Sm:-I shall only write and Mrs. Gracey and Dr. and Mrs. Foster crowded the large parlors of a few lines this time to let you know that our the Sanitarium, and was greatly en- brother and'sisters at Kerak, 1I1r. and Mrs. joyed. Lethaby, and their young fellow-worker. lIliss The thanks of the Union were ten- Arnold, are in great peril and need the prayers dered to its hosts, and Dr. Henry Foster addressed the missionaries. of the united Church. You are the only minis- ''Jlhey will not forget his personal testi- ter of the Methodist or Wesleyan denominamony to the power of prayer to help -even those from whom we are widely tion with whom I am acquainted, and I thereseparated, nor his forcible closing fore beg that you will use your influence in admonition, in which he said: the churchesto have supplicationsand prayers "God does not allow his children, offered in their behalf. The Turkish Govern- ,as a rule, to remain long together. ment has decided to march its troops to He permits them to meet for refresh- Kerak as soon as the caravans to Mecca have ment for a time, but then they must :sepal~ate for work. It has been so passed. It seems that fighting will be inevit- -ever since apostolic days. Brethren," able, and, in spite of the pressing representahe said, "you have had your feast, now go and work." He invited the tions of the consuls here, the three heroic 1Jnion to come again " next year and missionaries have wisely or unwisely resolved every year." to remain firm at their post of danger and, as they believe, of duty. Tbeir Master and ours OFFICERS FOR 1890-91. President-J. T. Gracey, D.D., Buffalo, N. Y. is, we well know, able to protect them without Vice-Presidents-Rev. Cyrus Hamlin, D.D., our poor petitions, but it is His declared will Rev. S. L. Baldwin, D.D., Rev. William Dean, that we should inquire of tbese things from D.D. . Him. Yours very respectfully, Secretary-Rev. William H. Belden, Bristol, "J. E. HANNAU." Conn. Letters from Drs. Hamlin and Shedd.
Letters to the International Mission- ary Union were received from many of its members who could not attend. We give only two of them. They are of general interest: LETTER FROM REV. CYRUS HAMLIN, D.D. To INTERNATIONAL MISSIONARY UNION:-I wish to send my Christian salutations to the brethren and sisters-fellow·laborers and "companions in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ," and to assure them of my ear- nest desire to be with them. Thousand Island Park, Bridgeton, and Binghamton are all fresh in memory and refreshing also. I will unite my prayers with yours, that the same divine presence which we have felt in all those reuuions may be granted in fuller measure to ward over this sea. 'Ve are going now, as we your assembly. did then, alone. We have left all our children in America, but congratulate us that the The -missionary cause has made decided promise is fnIftlled, "Lo, I am with you, " and progress since we niet at Binghamton. We that we are counted worthy to be sent again. ·cannot say now "The harvest is great but the CongratnIate us that we go now not to laborers are few." The harvest is great and strangers, but to many friends and to abundant the laborers are many, but the gifts are few. labors, if we have but the grace and strength On Friday next, the 13th, thirty-one mission- to meet them. CongratnIate us that on the aries are th have their farewell meeting at way we are met by tidings of blessing. Let- Park Street Church. In 1838 there was a fare- ters reach us telling of precious revivals in well meeting and only myself and wife were many of the congregations among tire Nes- farewelled. torians around Oroomiah, and of more tIran 400 inquirers. Passing through Constantinople The funds have not increased in proportion one feels that the year past has been one of 'to the laborers. When I went to Constanti- quickened movement in spiritual things in this nople I had $800 salary, but I soon had work great Turkish empire. Thus it is pleasant to on hand which demanded and received $2,000, return to our work greet.ed by this spiritual and without the $2,000 the $800 and the mis- breath of heaven, more refreshing than the sionary would have been comparatively of no balmy breezes of spring. value-would have been so much lost. The -chief work is to be done by native laborers, If spared to reach our field, we shall go ,and our missionaries must, be provided with from ,Batoum to Tiflis, thence to Erivan, at tire the means of fitting them for the work and base of Mt. Ararat, and thence to the Persian bringing them into it. boundary at the River Araxes, or Arras, and thence by caravan eight days further to Oroo- What can be done to make the silver and miah. We shall reach our destination a few the gold come forth from pockets where it days before your meeting. May I ask your rusts and corrupts into the treasury of the special prayers that my wife and I may re- Lord, whose it is? turn to our work in the fulness of the Gospel of Christ, and especially that the Holy Spirit Let us not call for less men and women. may bless the class in theological study of 12 More men and women, but more money! Let young men that I shall at once aid in teach- us not send forces into the field without a com- ing; that these young men may be truly 'missariat! apostles prepared and sent to the perishing about them; that God would bless the King of Self·supporting missionaries often do an ex- Persia, who has so many desires to see his -cellent work, but they cannot do the work of country civilized and enlightened, and that .a well supported mission. Translations of the spiritual power may be given more and more Bible, books, tracts, colporteurs, itinerants, to the missionaries of Persia and to the native churches, schools, have all to be aided, and the church members; that the religious interest native element trained to work. The mission- of the last few months may prove a permr- ary must have tools to work with. We have nent blessing, and may extend to all parts of missionaries enough until we can better sup- the field. ply them with the means of efficient work. I can only write you snatches this evening, Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest but I trust some one will be among you to that He would send forth laborers into the represent Presia more fully than this brief harvest abundantly supplied with all means letter. that accord with His will to reap the harvest ·of the world. It seems to me thata period of rapid change is hastening and beginning in these Moslem Yours, in Christian sympathy and love, lands. In the long chain of Moslem lands, CYRUS HAMLIN. from the Pillars of Hercules to India and China, the two links that are the weakest are LEXINGTON, lIIASS., June 9, 1890. Egypt and Persia. If strong Christian influ- ence prevail in either of these the chain is LETTER FROM REV. DR. SHEDD, OF PERSIA. broken, and the Moslem power divides asun- der. The hope in the case of Persia is grow- STEAMSHIP POLLUCE, BLACK SEA, May 13, 1890. ing brighter. There are more signs of progress To the International Missionary Union: in opening the country to commerce and to Christian influence than in centuries before. As we steam along the beautiful shores of the A British navigation company are opening .Euxine our thoughts wander to Clifton Springs. the only navigable river from the South. An We remember the earnest request that all the American company are at work opening members of the I. 111. Union would contribute artesian wells. Banks are founded with to the meeting this year, and our prayer as- British capital, railroads projected and highcends that you may have a blessed meeting. ways for wheeled vehicles are under construc- I am sure you will, with such infiuences about you as pervade Clifton Springs. How much my wife and I would enjoy sitting with yon in those heavenly places and coosulting concerning the kingdom of our Lord; but it is better that we shonId be on our way to Persia. We .are retnrning not so young and strong as we were 31 years ago; when we first went east-
THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
tion, and mining and manufacturing com- truly say "What hath God wrought!.. Every panies are getting under way. For the time time of difficUIty has been followed by greater progress is iu the air, and the Shah is the most blessing of the Holy Spirit. I have never felt progressiv~ man in the empire. He and many the difficulties of the work so strongly as now, Persian rulers desire to grant religious tolera- when entering again into the field, and I am tion and to curb the ecclesiastics. With these sure also that my faith was never stronger in coming changes there must arise new diffi- the gospel and the power of Him "whose I culties and missionaries need new wisdom and am and whom I serve." zeal to embrace the opportunities, and as the way opens to carry the gospel to every crea- With .Christian salutations to all who were ture. These missioliaries must be not only present last year and. to all who love the Lord American or European, but native Persian. Jesus Christ. Looking back over a series of years we can Most truly yours, J. H. SHEDD.
V.- THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY SECRETARY F. F. ELLINWOOD, D.D.
Missions in Pa.pal Europe. 2. The dead sects of the East should The very caption seems strange. be looked upon in a different light It would have been natural enough from that in which we place Moham- when the "man of Macedonia" ap- medans-though even the latter peared to Paul, for Europe was then should be approached as those who a heathen countt-y. But the late profess to worship the God of Abra- Professor Christlieb, though entirely ham, Isaac and Jacob. But with in favor of aiding the Protestant Nestorians and Greeks there is an ap- churches of France, Spain or Italy, peal to Christ and to the early historic entered a mild protest against placing Christianity. And the same is true any part of Europe in the same cate- of Papists. However the "Light of gory as Africa or China by calling it the W orId" may be obscured by the a foreign missionary field. All en- worship of Mary or of saints and im- lightened minds aim to make proper ages, that true Light furnishes the discriminations, though this is not al- point of hopeful approach.
ways easy. No one who knows any- 3. There should be a broad discrimi- thing of the dead Christian sects of nation between work in Papal coun- the Levant has any doubt that mis- tries and that of the heathen world as sionaries should be sent to Persia or to their comparative claim. The first the Turkish Empire, unless it be the and paramount duty of the Christian Archbishop of Canterbury, who seems churches of this age, whatever be to think that the venerable Greek and their name, is to proclaim the gospel Nestorian Churches should be pro- to the nations who have ,never heard tected against Protestant invasion. of Christ. In this duty Protestants There is, in our day, every variety of and CatholicsshouId stand upon com- opinion as to the question, What is mon ground. It is the reproach of legitimate and necessary to missionary both that they have monopolized the work, and what is to be regarded as great salvation for nineteen centuries mere proselyting and unwarrantable whilethe majority of mankind havere- interference? The time has come mained in total ignorance of the gospel.
when a discriminating judgment 4. American Christians at least should be applied in all missionary en- should draw a distinction between the terprises: claims of Papal Europe and those of 1. Even work among the heathen the Spanish American States. In the should be carried on intelligently. first place there is a geographical Hp-athen systems should be thorough- consideration. Mexico and Central ly understood, and should be ap- America are at our door, and South Iproached in such a way as to win suc- Americanot only belongs to our hemis- cess and not to block the way against it. phere but is in close sympathy with our political institutions. The Protes- than a proselyting process, which, tant churches of Europe naturally feel instead of leaving the Huguenot that the responsibility of evangelizing Church a unit, strengthened in its these countries rests largely upon the ancient faith and order, has rather American churches. tended to break it up into the various sects. But there is another and more cogent reason. The type 6f Romanism which The only alternative to this divisive prevails in Spanish America is far process is to contribute funds in aid of lower than that of the Continent. these Protestant churches and allow European Catholics themselves have them to apply that aid through their spoken of it as a virtual heathenism own missionary agencies. But it is (for example Abbe Domineck, chap- not always easy to decide between lain of Maximillian). And broad- these methods. On the one hand the minded statesmen in Mexico have churches left to themselves might welcomed Protestant influence as a preserve their unity, but on the other blessing to the Mexican Church. hand it is claimed that being won over to Baptist or Methodist communions But, making all proper discrimina- they are quickened into a higher tions, a good rule in Christian duty is spiritual life, and are more effectually that which Christ Himself laid down, guarded against the prevailing " This ought ye to have done and not Rationalism. The question is a broad to leave the other undone." There are one. That the Methodist and Baptist many reasons for aiding the Protest- missions in Germanyand Sweden have ant churches of Continental Europe. led thousands of Lutheran converts to America owes a lasting debt of grati- a more vital faith and a higher life tude to the Huguenots of France. Af- seems clear, although the thousands ter the terrible massacre of St. Bar- who have thus been won cannot be tholomew in the sixteenth century classed with converts from heathen multitudes of survivors migrated to races, yet unquestionably they conthis, as to many other countries. The stitute a more vital element in the religious faith and life, as well as the religious life of the Continent than ever national character of our colonies, before. were enriched by the Huguenot elements, and the kinsmen of those We have little sympathy with the staunch exiles, wherever they may be idea that missionary work is valuable found, should be regarded as our just in proportion to its undenominabrethren. tional character. The church is the best of all organizations forthe exten- There were others who in those days sion of Christ's kingdom, and the of terror took refuge in remote fast- different churches will accomplish nesses of their native land, where they most for those who are brought into long remained shut out from the complete sympathy with them in docworld. One of their descendants, trine and order. Whatever evils attach writing recently of their history and to sectarian zeal it is better than loosetheir present needs, says, pathetically: ness and disorder, and organized mis- sionary agencies under responsible " When our Protestants came down management are better than the freefrom their rocky peaks or out of oo.v- lance enterprises which are responsible erns or forests they were timid, to nobody and whose general tendency happy to be allowed to live, more like is towards transient impressions rather a degenerated race than like true than established churches and self- Huguenots-they had suffered so much perpetuating institutions. and so long." There is one danger just now which The same writer complains that may be regarded with no little ap!","'~- much of the work that has been done for this people has been little more hension, and that is the division of the attention to the present drift of these Protestantmission workof Continental great interests, and of prompt meas- Europe into a number of separate and ures to secure system, economy, in- rival interests, each having an Ameri- creased confidence and more generous can headquarters in New York or aid. Boston and a network of collecting agencies throughout the country. But perhaps quite as important as this is an earnest and prayerful sym- One after another these societies- pathy for the Continental churches. for they are such-are being formed, The spirit of the age is against them. and their success will lead to the crea- There is no longer the moral earnest- tion of many more. To say nothing ness of Ambrose in Italy or of Co- of the discouragement and bewilder- ligny in France. Rationalism, on the ment of American pastors amid this one hand, and hierarchical supersti- multitude of rival appeals, and the tion on the other, chills their ardor. serious detriment to those great mis- Loose conventional sentiment in re- sionary boards which aJ:e earnestly gard to the, Sabbath and' other relig- striving to get on without collecting· ious observances lowers the tone of agencies,will such a policy be wise and spiritual life. They know almost safe even for the churches which are nothing cf the revivals which have aided? blest our land. What they need most of all is a baptism of the Spirit. They A sharp ~nd exciting competition should receive funds with which to in the American market; so much push their evangelization into new thought and interest turned away districts; they need also the prayers from the proper development of a of Christendom for a divine refreshing self-reliant, moral purpose and an ag- upon the churches themselves. gressive zeal in the churches them- selves; the handing over of the mission- As to the relative merits of different ary work of these churches to a central causes, those undoubtedly have the committee, to be carried on largely by first claim which lead to the estab- foreign funds. Will not all this tend lishment of permanent and self-sus- to apathy and to greater and even taining and self-propagating institu- greater weakness? Even in heathen tions. We should never forget that lands an undue spirit of dependence is what Paul aimed at was churches. fatal to the stamina of the Christian He was not satisfied with exhorting rank and file. ever-changing multitudes. His whole work and that of his associates was It is essential to the growth and ef- constructive. He ordained elders in ficiency of the Continental churches every place. He made each com- that they should as fully depend on munity of converts organic from the the development of their own effort start. and their own liberality as if there wore none in any quarter to help them. What work of street preaching or bazaar preaching or chapel preach- Then let that effort be supplemented ing, that forms no church-that rather , by systematic and generous aid from glories in the fact that it is undenomi- more favored lands. Let this be done national and never mentions the word without personal solicitation, and by church-cancompare for one moment proper concert of action. Our own with that of the Waldenses, whose mission boards will all gladly trans- solid organization has lived and toiled mit contributions as directed and with- and testified and suffered and bled for out expense. If any discrimination ages, and which to-day, after so long is made let those objects be specially and so glorious a history, is still one of favored which are most economical of the most vital forces of Southern ocean voyages and the expense of Europe? collecting. There is need of serious
1890.] EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOrrcs
Are they "Rioe Ohristians 'I " the glad message which he had re- c.eived to relatives and neighbors, Something over a year ago the whereupon they sent a deputation beg- Church Missionary Society proposed ging that a teacher might be sent. to transfer its mission work inthe Prefecture of Hing H wa, China, to another " These villagers, " says the record, missionary organization, partly for " show a liberality which is without a reasons of comity with respect to ter- parallel in the history of missions. In ritory, and partly with a view to econ- all there are eleven Christians, none of omy of funds. But the people in the them yet baptized, and all very poor. district sent a petition asking that they But last year they subscribed $35 for might remain in the former connec- the repair of their place of worship, tions, and promising to maintain their and they have this year subscribed $35 ieachers and catechist themselves. more for the support of a catechist,be- Thereupon the Missionary Conference sides supplying him with rice. The resolved to continue the connection. schoolmaster in the village gave his The Christian work in this district is whole stipend for the support of the ·thus practically self-supporting. catechist, and having in consequence insufficient means to supply his own A missionary who has since visited wants, he sold his only field. Others Ring Hwa says: "I cannot but con- of the little band .have pawned their trast the zeal and devotion of these clothing to meet the sum promised." people with the lukewarmness of too "It is sometimes said," writes the mismany in Christian lands. This district sionary, "that our converts are rice embraces over 6,000,000 of people. Christians. I should like to ask where The superintendent of the catechists in Christian England you would find . bears in his body the' marks of the a parallel to the above?" Lord Jesus' in the form of a scar inflicted by an older brother because he At the little village of Kiang Sang, had embraced Christianity. He wears the missionary, arriving late, began his scar with the more satisfaction after tea to examine candidates for from the fact that his brother finally baptism, and continued until ten died a Christian believer." o'clock,after which the superintendent of catechists continued his exhorta- The missionary had the joy in one tions until midnight. In the morning little community of receiving five to the work of examination was continthe fellowship of the Church. In an- ued, after which thirteen were acceptother he was accorded a truly Chris- ed, all men from the neighboring tian reception with a feast. One mountains. woman brought six or seven others to the service as a result of her faithful These are but incidents, but any labor, and twelve of her own family Christian, comprehensive man, groupare adherents of the Church. In an- ing them together as one entire picture, other village six women had been pre- will not fail to see how the rays of light pared for baptism by the faithful la- are thus breaking through the gloom bors of the catechist's wife. A yonng of a great and populous district; how girl of fifteen had been very active in earnest is the faith and zeal of those influencing her friends to receive the here and there who have received truth. In another village a man, who the truth; in a word, how rich is had been treated in the mission hos- the harvest which there waits to be pital at Kang Chu, had made known gathered.
VI.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
A Great Missionary Pioture. products together, the achievements These are days of great Expositions. of the age array their mightiest tro- The industries of the world bring their phies, to astonish the eye and overwhelm the mind of the beholder. and pavement, are represented life-size While we write preparations are in figures of the great men and women progress for a visible demonstration who have made French history for a of America's greatness in connection hundred years past; and through th8 with the quadri-centenary, which will arches are to be seen the various his- probably make the grand Exposition toric events, portrayed in vivid forms of 1892 the most manificent and colos- and colors, which have marked the sal "World's Fair" ever known in progress of the age. human history. By following the picture from th8 The thought occurs to us, and it is left of the observer, around the entire not the first time it has found expres- circle, a complete and very unique sion in these columns, that the fulness panorama of the century is made to of the times has come for a grand pass before the eye. The days of the Exposition of Missions, and it ought Revolution, with the horrors of the to be in connection with this great guillotine; then the Napoleonic epoch, commemoration at Chicago. Ameri- with all the glory of victorious war; ca's discovery was really the result of troops returning from brilliant tri- a missionary spirit, as anyone will umphs passing in review before the feel who knows the history of Colum- Empress Josephine; then Louis XVIIL bus and has seen his own manuscripts and his court; the days of the New with the signature Christo-Ferens. Republic; then Louis Napoleon and Moreover, there is a curious and sug- the coup d'etat; then the Francogestive coincidence: the year 1892, Prussian war and the fall of the while it marks the completion of the revived Napoleonic dynasty, and then fourth century since the discovery of again the Republic, until we reach America, completes the first century again the statue of France, at the foot of modern organized mIsSIOnary of which stands that typical Frenchendeavor. The same year, therefore, man of the latter days, Victor Hugo! that commemorates our quadri-centenary also commemorates the cen- As we stood studying this superb, tenary of missions. historic and artistic achievement, again the conviction forced itself upon Why not have atIeast, then, a great us that the history of this missionary missionary exposition on canvas? At century, from 1792 to 1892, affords a Paris, in t!'le gardens of the Tuileries, theme for the painter's brush and the there is a famous painting by Alfred artist's genius which it would be Stevens and Henri Gervex, called the difficult to surpass in suggestiveness, Histoire du Siecle, 1789-1889, and a fruitfulness or attractiveness. Let marvellous picture it is, presenting the us suppose that some artists of a high grand outlinesof the history of France order of ability should undertake such during the century past. Both its a grand work. What a magnificent conception and execution are unique. picture might result! We can even The huge canvas lines the entire in- now see it stretching around the inner terior wall of a circular building, wall of some cycloramic building. whose circumference we take to be The Cross of Christ might be the cennot less than one hundred and twenty tral object, with a supernal glory feet. At one point on the vast painting breaking through the deep darkness, is represented an ideal statue of and lighting up, as with a touch of France. Toward the right of the gold, a little shoemaker's shop at statue stretches a marble corridor, Hackleton; the door stands ajar and with pillars and arches, completely reveals a young man of eighteen years covAring the canvas, until it curves cobbling, while his eyes wander from around to the left of the statue. At his work to a book that lies on the the base of this corridor, on its steps bench beside him. It is Cook's Voy- ,ages. Before him on the rude wall of years again are passed, and the picthe shop hangs a rough brown paper ture now represents a memorial hall map of the world, made in cobbler's built to the memory of the first Karen ink, on which, by different shades of convert. The Kho Thah Byu Hall color, the comparative religiouscondi- stands confronting the Schway Mote' .on of the different races is set forth. Tau Pagoda; they are close by, and ..A. little farther on that same young they bespeak the contrast between the man is seen preaching from the box Karens of 1815 and the Karens of pulpit in Andrew Fuller's chapel at 1865. The same picture might repre- Kettering, and just beyond is seen sent the Lone Star Mission as it was in Widow Wallis' humble home, where a 1853 when the American Baptist .Mis- IiimaU group of obscure Baptist minis- sionary Union threatened to abandon ters are signing the first modern cove- it; and a quarter of a century later, nant of missions. Among the sur- when all along the river-banks might rounding figures may be seen Sydney be pictured over 2,000 converts bap- Smith, who points a scornful finger at tized in one day! The picture we the nest of consecrated cobblers, whom are imagining would of course reprehe proposes to "rout out" with the sent Morrison, wearing the queue and arrows of his wit. Then a vessel is studying by the light of his little liieen to set sail, and on board stands earthen lamp far into the small hours that same William Carey, on his way of the morning, while he sought to to India. Further on may be seen the translate the Bible into the Chinese shores of Tahite. Mr. Nott is stand- tongue. And seventy-five years later ing in the midst of a group of savages Hudson Taylor pushing his 300 evanand cannibals, reading from a new gelists and teachers into the unoccutranslation, just completed, of John pied inland provinces of China, and iii: 1G. A warrior in the group is planning to preach the gospel within moving forward, and reaching out his the next five years to every soul in the hands toward the missionary-the first middle kingdom. The picture would convert after fourteen years of toil. portray Commodore Perry's squadron Around may be seen the cannibal anchoring in the bay of Yeddo in ovens, even now roasting human vic- 1854, and, with the open Bible on the tims for the feast. Let the eye now capstan, seeking to unlock sea-gates pass around the circle and see Tahite barred for 200 years; and 30 years lahalf a century later. Every mark of ter Japan revolutionized, with nothing Christian civilization now marks the unchanged but the natural scenery. island. All Western Polynesia now appears as part of the domain of The artist would of course give Christendom. On the Fiji Islands Africa a place on his great canvasalone are nearly 1,000 churches of her thousands of slaves, driven in their Christ. That first convert has now yokes to the coast, falling in scores by multiplied to 750,000. the way; Robert Moffat and others like him making their way into the Another scene very early in the interior, with no ~weapon but the century. Adoniram Judson has just sword of the Spirit. He would depict arrived in Burmah with his devoted David Livingstone dying on his knees wife. They are beginning work in the little grass hut at !lala, praying among the wild men of Burmah-the for Africa. And then the missions despised, euslaved Karens. A decade that crowd around the great eastern passes, and in the next section of the lakes and creep up the Congo from picture we behold a simple church of the west. The callvas would repre- €ighteen Karens, the insignificant sent Stanley raising his cap to the fruit of ten years of labor. Sweep the hero whose heart is buried in Africa, €ye around the circle again until fifty when he found him at Ajiji in 1871and then in 1890; the canvas would the grandest defense of Christianity glow with the magnificent recep- in our day. tion to Stanley in Albert Hall in London. The conception grows upon us as – How would Carey in his cobbler we consider it, and we hope some one shop contrast with the great ecumeni- capable of executing it will undertake cal council of missions in 1888-with it. 'While we have not the genius, Exeter Hall crowded for ten days the experience and the facile brush with the nobility of the Church from which are needful to make such an all lands. We have no space to depict idea crystalize into achievement, we further the wonders which such a would gladly contribute from our painting might embody. But it is a limited acquaintance with the history marvel' to us that no artist has yet of the century such of the material elaborated the conception! What is necessary as we have gathered by a Waterloo, Gettysburg, Sevastopol, long and a painstaking study of the to the divine war of the ages! If great theme. Let some others who French history for a hundred years have skill in art and wealth in store furnishes an inspiring theme which give the thought embodiment in vismakes the artist's brush thrill with ible form, and give the world its. patriotic emotion, what shall be said greatest historical painting!-A. T. P. of a ce~tury of missions that has seen the whole church of Christ marshalled A Prize Offer. into line for evangelism, and the face of the world transformed! If artists The Editors of this REVIEW are seek transcendent themes, here is one. thoroughly convinced that no one If only the pecuniary reward is in obstacle stands in the way of the proview, what throngs such a painting gress of missions so prominently as would attract! No part of the Glas- lack of faith in the supernatural gow Exhibition drew larger crowds power of God. There is too much than the Indian exhibit, where, in dependence on appeal, on organizaminiature, the homes, costumes, tem- tion, on human instrument, on Governples and rites of India were set before mental patronage, on the influence of the eye. When we were in London, education and civilization; and too litin the Stanley-African Exhibition, the tle simple looking untothat real source most attractive features were the of success, the POWER OF GOD IN tableawx; inanimes, in which the ANSWER TO PRAYER, first to open doors dwarfs and other tribes of Africa of access, then to raise up and thrust were represented. as they are in their forth laborers, and then to break native wilds, and the Arab slave- down all opposition and make the hunters were represented in the act truth mighty in converting, subduing, of capturing human prey. We ven- saving and sanctifying. ture to predict that could such a picture, representing"the history of the At the same time we believe not missionary age, be hung in a suitable only that the promises of the Word building in Chicago inconnection with are distinct, definite, ample and overthe great Exposition of 1892, it would whelming, but that their actualfuljilpay the cost of its production in a ment is the standing miracle of the single season, and be an educator of age of missions; and that if the Church the mind and heart of hundreds of could be brought face to face with the thousands; and that after it had ac- facts, unbelief would receive a powercomplished its work there, it would ful, and, in the case of many disciples, go around the world, the greatest ar- a death blow, and believers would gument and appeal for missions and realize that it is not by might nor by pow.er, but by the Spirit of the Lord that all true missions are to be carried forward.
We therefore invite contributions tothese pages, giving examples from the spirit of the utmost friendliness and desire for th~ future success of modern missionary history of the un- the cause-that the time has come when far more, if not the chief, attenmistakable interposition of God in tion should be given to the work of sifting, discriminating, training, and answer to prayer, and in behalf of His looking sharply after the already en- rolled 5,000 students. A thousand fold servants and their work. We desire more .depends on the character, the fitness, the integrity and continuance these articles not to exceed about of these pledged men and women, than on their mtmber. We have great con- 3,000 words each, and to contain not fidence in, and share in the anxiety and desire of, the leaders and officers less than ten such examples, brief of this movement, and we know the! are not blind to its incidental evils and and telling, duly authenticated. To dangers. May God give them wisdom and fidelity in their responsible trust! encourage investigation and thorough We have been led to write the above work in this direction we hereby offer by the reception of the following let- ter from the Rev. Lemuel C. Barnes, to the writer of the best contribution D. D.; of Newton Centre, Mass., a representative man of New England, $100, and $50 for the second best, the whose whole heart is in the mission- arywork.-J. M. S.] Editors to be the judges, and to have DEAR DR. SHERWOOD:-I heard the the right to their exclusive publication subscriber to the enclQSed, who is unin " THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE der appointment to Japan by the WORLD." They are to be at liberty American Baptist Mission Union, give also to use any competing articles in the address from which this is an exthe REVIEW, other than the prize arti- tract. It seemed to me that he made cles, by paying the usual rate per a valuable summary and analysis of page. All such articles to be sent to the volunteer movement not otherus before January 1, 1891. .And upon wise published. I accordingly asked this sincere effort to promote acquain- him to hand it to me that I might tance with the modern signs of God's bring it to your notice for the MISfaithfulness to His promises, and in- SIONARY REVIEW, if you should think creased faith in the presence of the best to use it there. Captain of the Lord's host with His Yours truly, faithful witnesse8j we ask the blessing LEMUEL C. BARNES. of God. A. T. P. J. M. S. June 17, 1890.
The Student Volunteer Movement. EXTRACT FROM AN ADDRESS ON THE [Our deep interest in and high ap- STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT preciation of this wonderful uprising, as the pages of this REVIEW abund- FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. antly prove, make us very jealous of its reputation, and anxious to do "The most serious criticism passed what in us lies to promote its healthy upon the movement is that very few growth and highest efficiency. That of those who sign the pledge ever mistakes should be made; that large reach the foreign field. This is partly numbers should take the pledge true and partly false. hastily, under high excitement, and afterwards lose their enthusiasm The churches have supposed that and disregard their solemn promises, the volunteers were ready to appear was to be expected. Weare clearly before the various boards, and conseof the opinion that too much effort quently have looked in vain each year has been put forth simply to secure forthe forthcoming men. But it must pledges and roll up a vast list of be rememliered that the band is made volunteers, not using due care and' up of students in all stages of prepardiscrimination in the selection. It ation. Of the 5,000 who have taken will be fatal in the end if all are ac- the pledge 86% or 4,300 are still in the cepted and enrolled who offer them- schools; 5% or 250 have reached the selves. Personally we have carefully foreign field; 1% or 50 have been restudied this "movement" from its jected for various reasons; 3% or 150 origin, and during the past few have graduated but are still in this months have had peculiar opportunit- ies to learn the present spirit and attitude of a very large proportion of this army of volunteers, and we do not hesitate to say-and we say it in country; 5,% or 250 have deserted the their lands in the reservations allotted cause. While these figures partly ex- to them in the State of New York. plain the meagre results thus far ob- The most scandalous measures were tained, there still remains the sad resorted to in order to induce the fact that a large number have brought reproach upon the movement. Legislature to sanction this wholesale robbery and cruel injustice, and, to its What is the cause of this defection shame, the Legislature did its best to and what can be done to remedy it? consummate it, and but for the exer- cise of the veto power it would have The chief cause is change of purpose, and the students thus affected succeeded. This bold and just act of may be divided into three classes. The Governor Hill favorably contrasts first class is composed of those who wiih some of his other vetoes, and we have simply become tired of the move- rejoice the more to recognize and ment, and, without regard topledge or sense of duty, have deserted it. For speak of it. In this fight the Indians these there is no remedy. of the Empire State have had some able and persistent defenders, nota- The second class consists of those who bly the Presbyte1'Y of Buffalo, which, have lost tl;wir enthusiasm, yet, feeling by its early and courageous action, the need of an excuse, take refuge in the form of the pledge. The pledge is in exposed the atrocious lies which effect ambiguous. It reads, "I am these unscrupulous schemers set on willing and desirous, God peqnitting, foot, vindicating the Indians from to become a foreign missionary." Mor- their gross assaults, and pleading ally, the pledge is regarded as binding their case with singular force and inboth by outsiders and in most cases telligence, in the press, and wherever by the volunteers. Literally, it is not the voice of Buffalo Presbytery could binding. The volunteer says, "When be heard. Two full and carefully- I signed the pledge I was both willing and desirous. Now I am neither. I did prepared reports of a committee, of not promise absolutely to go, and I which Dr. William S. Hubbell was violate no pledge by staying at home." chairman, "appointed to investigate The third class is made up of those charges made "against the Indians of who signed the pledge so early in Western New York," are before us, their course that they could not know their own minds, and with the devel- making each a respectable pamphlet. opment of faculties and a change of ~ever was there a more signal "vinditaste, there has come also a legitimate change of purpose. What, now, is cation" made than in these pages. the remedy? Experience has shown We recognize also gladly the serthat some form of commitment is necessary. It is therefore suggested that vices of Mr. John Habberton, on the two ~ledges be adopted. The first, to editorial staff of the New York Herald, be gIven in the early part of the who made a visit to each of the eight student's course, should bind hint only reservations in the State, and made a. to work for the cause of missions, and report covering two full pages of the to give thorough and prayerful con- Herald, confirming the statements of liIideration to his own going to the for- the Buffalo report. He went on his eign field before making permanent own prompting and a stranger to the choice of any other occupation. The members of Buffalo Presbytery. He second pledge should be given near the 'writes as follows of his investigation: close of the course of study, and only after the first had been taken, and "I went into the Indian country IiIhould bind the signer irrevocably to only to write a descriptive sketch, but the foreign field. This arraugement when I detected the undercurrent of would avoid the dangers incidental to swindle, and studied out the means by premature action, and would affix to which public opinion was being infludesertion an opprobrium which would enced, I thought it proper to change be wholesome." W. B. PARSHLEY. my method, and to leave out many picturesque features in order to make Defeat of "The Whipple Bill." room for justice and indignation."
The friends of the Indian, and all This article was extensively noticed right-minded men, will rejoice that Governor Hill has vetoed this iniqui- tous measure, cOJ:tcocted by the Ogden Land Company and a lot of greedy whites to dispossess the Indians of
ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS
by the press and drew attention to the upon Trinidad by the Rev. John Mor- Indians of New York State. And it is ton, the veteran missionary, in which bnt fair.to notice in this connection he says, "Coma at present vacant;" the able and admirable article of Dr. and he closes, "This field is now in Ellinwood, in a recent number of this urgent need of men, one for Coma REVIEW, entitled "A Plea for the and one for British Guiana. Pray ye Senecas." His statements and argu· therefore the Lord of the harvest ments bearing on the whole subject that He send forth laborers into His are timely, truthful and vigorous, and harvest." This prayer is already half no doubt contributed to the decision answered. Rev. Fulton Johnson Cofwhich saves the State from doing a fin, B.A., had sailed from New York, great wrong and protects the Indians as misssonary-elect for Coma, before in their constitutional and inalienable your December number was issued. rights. Thus the Rev. Mr. Morton's answered prayer accompanied him from the Justice to the Indian is so rare a maritime provinces of Canada to his thing that we record this triumph beloved Trinidad. The Lord be with peculiar satisfaction and grati· praised for His prayer-hearing love; tude.-J. M. S. and may He answer all our prayers for the glory of His cause. Answered Prayer. REV. A. W. LEWIS, B.D. DEAR Dr. PIERSON;-In the Decem- YARMOUTH, N. S. ber number of your invaluable REVIEW there appeared an excellent article VII.-ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND ST A TISTICS.
Universities Mission to Central Africa. missionaries-ordained, 17; lay, 20; female, 20; native 1wlpers-ordained, 2; readers, 8; teach- Secretary: REV. DUNCAN TRAVERS, 14 Delahay ers, 62; churches, 6; communicants, 686; St., Westminster, London, S. W. total baptized persons, 920; total number of adhere:lts, 1,922; schools, 20; scholars, 837; REPORT FOR YEAR ENDiNG DEC. 31, 1889. boarders, 438; scholars baptized, 394.
Receipts. £10,603 4 1 This mission occupies two fields-Zanzibar -Generalfnnd………………. . 1,739 15 6 and the mainland-the latter including the .Special funds…• " . . .• . ……. . 2,469148 Usambara, Roouma and Nyassa region. Children's fund..••……•••••.•• 47215 I) InAfrica………………….. . Medical work is carried on at two stations, and there is a mission steamer on Lake Ny· Total. …. . . . . . .. . . . . .. …. • . £15,285 9 8 assawhichserves as an itineratingchurchship, with classes aud services. Expenditures. 'On missions general. …………….. £14,301 United Brethren in Ohrist. Missionaries onfnrlough………….. 1,428 Rome expenses….. • • .. .. ……. ….. 1,287 Secretary: REv. B. F. BOOTH, Dayton, Ohio. REPORT FOR YEAR ENDING IIIA.RCH 31, 1890. Total……………… …. …….. £17,016 Amount expended for foreign Deficiency met by sale of invested fnnds. missions……………. '" …… $26,223.90 A comparative statement for 1888 and 1889 Total amount raised by the board for all its departments…….. …. $44,759.00 shows; Mission in Sherbro Country, West Africa.- 1888 1889 Foreign missionaries, male, ordained, 18; lay, 25; female-missionaries' wives, 16; other Number of European ladies, 5; native ordained ministers, 3; other helpers, 40; organized churches, 131; preachmissionaries……… 70 65 ing places, 405; communicants, 6,712; added during the year, 1,150; theological seminary, 1; …….. :Subscriptions, dona· £16,280 £15,285 students, 23; other schools, 13; pupils, 568. tions, etc. . ~ Two semi·monthly papers are printed.
Expenditure at home The year has been an unusually successful one. and abroad ………. £17,117 £17,016 Average cost per Euro- pean worker… , _…. £244 £262 .cost per cent. of raising funds…………….. 7~ 7% STA.TISTICS. Misions, 2; stations and out-stations, 18;
of Evangelical Lutheran Foreign Missionary Work, Including Four Lutheran and Reformed
Compiled by REV. J. N. LENKER, Western Secretary B. C. Extension, Grand Island, Nebraska.
'1 " 3 '" . i – —- – — — — ForeignNative oj oj Work· Workers. ers. r:: " ~ aoj :8 -'–'- ~ ~… " al " "" ..,;..w.5… 0 NAME OF SOCIETY. :-I "0 ""I-< HEADQUARTERS. ..,; FIELDS OF WORK. 1;) oj 'C oj :;~g ~ …0 .~ .S Ol '0 O::sl oj oj 0 -w"0=. ~ 'E 'E ~oj § oj ~w. Z ~ – 0 i-l 0 P< – – – — 1 Leipzig……………………… Leipzig, Germany ……… 1836 23 22 2 12 188 23 14,014 149 3,653 $2,263.00 $73,084.00 South fudia. 2 Harmannsburg………………. Harmannsburg, Germany. 1849 66 70.. .. . .. . 37 .••. 13,424 56 2,028………. 69,967.04 S. Africa, India, Australia. 3 Gossner…….. . ………… Berlin, Germany ……… 18.36 13 13 4 17 247 25 34,500 85 2,100 2,129.60 38,720.00 India. 4 Berlin ……………………….. Berlin, " ………. 18.36 50 56 15 5 449 …. 21,038 60 3,542 4,995.92 75,020.00 South Africa and China. 5 North German ……………….. Bremen, " ………. 1836 3 8 1 1 22 ••. 6 Brecklum…………………. Brecklum," …….. 1877 2 4 .. : …. . 1 .••. 664 16 321 266.20 21,780.00 New Zealand, Gold Coast. 7 Jerusalem …………………… Potsdam, " ………. 1845 3 2 …. 7 1 20 ………. 9,000.00 India. 800 4 200 •••• • • • .• . 7,000.00 Palestine and Egypt. 8 Berlin Women's Society………. Berlin, " ……… 1850 1 1… 1 …. .. 81 1 40 ………. 4,000.00 China.
9 Evangelical Lutheran ……………… Bavaria, " ………….. 1887 …… " ….. .. ……………………….. .. ……………………………. German Possessions. 10 Danish Government Mission …… Denmark……………… 1721 3 …. 3 43 4 11 Evangelical Lutheran ……….. " ……………… 1863 6 4 1 3 15 1 8,733 127 1,982……… 14,520.00 Greenland. 12 Evangelical Lutheran to Karens.. .. ……………. 1884 4 1 …. …. …… .. .. 523 10 92 ………. 12,584.00 India. 1 13 Evangelical Lutheran…. .. .. Stavanger, Norway…….. 1842 33 40 14 16 902 20,600 '''386 30,620 :::::::::: ····96,800:00 s. Africa and Mada~ascar. 14 Fatherland ………………….. Stockholm, Sweden…….. 1856 10 10 19.. 26 168 9 498 ……… . 42,600.00 East Africa and India. 15 State Church………………… Sweden ………………. 1877 4 3 3 …. 2 15 58 3 68 ……. . 12,598.00 Natal. 16 Finnish Lutheran…… …….. Helsingforz, Finland …… 1868 3 6…… 3 1 150 3 800 …….. .. 11,374.00 Southwest Africa. Evangelical Lutheran………… Reval, -:Russia………….. 1 17 Board F. M. Gen. Synod………. Baltimore, Md …………. 1882…. …. '''7 …3. ..iw ii·,53s ···iM ·4~330 ···i,555:00 … -.ii,202.35 S. India and W. Africa. 18 1837 5 5 20. 19 Ex. Com. F. M. Gen. Council….. Philadelphia, Pa … '" .. 1869 …. 5 …. …. 69 …. 20 Board F. M. U. Synod, South….. Strasburg, Va………… .. …….. .. 1,000 55 700 '" …… 10,000,00 India. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Japan ~sed). 21 Basle" ………………………. Basle, Switzerland …….. 1815 45.92 117 44 22 Pilgrim Mission*…………….. St. Chrischona," …….. 1848 2 17 …… . 490 59 20,907 229 8,513……… 174,240.00 India, China, Gold Coast. 23 Rhenish* ……………… '" …. Barmen, Germany…….. 1828 56 71 60 10 4 .••. 400 1 120 …. .. … . 9,500.00 Abyssinia, Austria. 24 Evangelical Lutheran of Poland.. Warsaw, Russia… .•.• …. … 1 1 .••….. 31,608 95 5,435 10,771.52 93,170.00 S. Africa, Borneo, China. 415 24 25 Paris Evangelical* ………….. Paris, France …………. 1824 25' 33 17 22 177 .. .. 3,500.00 Polonia and S. Africa. 60,180.00 Africa, Society Islands. 26 Evangelical Lutheran ………… Holland………………. 1882 1 1 ……………. .. 1,000.00 Sumatra.
———·1——-1—————-·-,1—1——- – – – – – – – – – – 1 – – – – – – – – 1 – – -357-46-8 2-60-14-4 -3,24-6 -173-1-88,0-20 _1,4_37 _66,7_42 _$25_,25_3.08_$~88:1,_839_.39 I.—-~– – – – – – – – – – – – – – 27 lIioraviant………………….. Hrunhut, Saxony………. 1732 127 135 151 21 956 686 84,201 223 18,280 ………. $81,326.52 N. &S.America,Africa,etc. Total…… ….. ………….. …………. …… …….. 484 603 411 165 4,202 859 272,221 1,660 85,022 $25,253.08 $963,165.91 " Lutheran !Uld J.Wformed. t The Moravians, who takE) the lead in Foreign Mission Work, have thl) same confessiQn of faith. as the I,.utherans.
ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS
United Presbyterian Ohurch of Church Door Collec· Scotland. tions………… .. 1,253 1 3 Secretary: Rev. JAMES BUCHANAN. Juvenile Offerings.• 2,009 9 11 Livingstone Mission 5,104 1 10 REPORT FOR YEAR ENDING DEC. 31, 1889. Donations (General Receipts. and Special)…… 5,402 18 11 Ordinary Fund-Church Contri· Special Funds, Inter· butions .. . … £23,610 3 8 est, etc………… 9,581 14 7 Legacies….••• 4,823 16 ;- – – – – – £41,884 19 10 – – – – – Transfers, etc. 3,39'Z 11 10 Sent Direct to Stations. ……… 774 0 0 £31,826 12 1 Col. and Con· Ladies' Society for Female Edu- tin'tal Work. 1,403 2 2 cation……… ……………. 15,137 16 5 Special Objects……………. . 2,886 19 1 Zenana Fund……………… .. 4,375 5 4 Total at Home …………… £57,796 16 3 Donations, etc., Total.. …………………. £40,491 18 8 Expenditures. Abroad ……….. £ 9,189 0 0 Grants in Aid……. 12,873 0 0 For Ordinary Fund. ………… £27,546 6 3 College and School Balance on Fund………. ; ….. £ 4,280 5 10 Fees…. .. …. …. 16,249 0 0 38,311 0 0 Balance from Last Year. …•••• 3,648 19 4 Total Income ……………….. £96,107 16 3 Expenditures. Transfer in 1889…………….. 35 13 7 £95,317 0 0 Total Balance in favor of STATISTICS.
– – – – – Ordinary Fund….. …… £ 7,964 18 9 Missions, 7; stations and out·stations, 207; foreign missionaries (ordained), 51, lay (in. Estima'd Expenditure for 1890.. £29,142 0 0 cluding evangelists), 46, female (missionaries' wives), 32, other ladies, 38; medical mission. >-3 '•1~0;~;:5'~@'~:8":>:'~:~:QQ"!>"~!-53.'1~';~~S;.' aries, male, 24, female, 3 (included in above); native ordained ministers, 14; licentiates, 10; [ · . . : • •• ~-.i~;P- other helpers, 600 (native divinity students, 46); organized churches, 42: total number of : preaching places, 207; communicants, 6,620; additions, 647; colleges and theological semin. ;': : I Stations aries, 6; students, 947; other schools, 320; I and pupils, 25,879. ~I <o~~@t1",~ Out-Stations. In additi0l' to the income for foreign mis· ~I ~~ ~ MEisusiroonpaeraines, , sions, other committees report as raised for ~Ot~ …. ~WOt the conversion of the Jews, £7,524: for Conti. I Ordained. nental work, £6,285; for Colonial work, £3,515; making the total miSSionary revenue of the I : II European Free Church of Scotland for the evangelization Missionaries, of the world outside of the United Kingdom, °1 : : Cr.:lOf~..-: Medical. £113,431 16s 3d ,equal to $567,155. .~ '" 1 : ~: ~. ~I! . ~ 1 European C.Q ….. ~-.l: Evangelists . I European Zenana Missionaries. ! w: I : Native w: "' ….. '~ " Ministers, !S/ Ordained. London Missionary Society.
~I I ~ :i:-.::J~~I<1->4:: ~ Native Secretary: REV. EDWARD H. JONES, Mission Other I Helpers. House, Blomfield St., London, E. C.
f:1 I '>ON) "'~ Communi· REPORT FOR YEAR ENDING MARCH 31, 1890 cants. ~i ~gjffi~!~J1U . Receipt•. I Subscriptions, donations, collec· ~I Ii ~ 8:, : ~: eo….. ~ Inquirers. tions…………………….. ' £101,283 14 7 ~tgoo~ Legacies…. ……………….. 16,17713 6 ~I oo..~. ~ ~~: ~ 1 Week·Day Dividends ………… ……….. 3,993 17 7 . '""" Schools. ~~~~. ~-> I Total………………….. £121,455 5 8 ill / 1 Pupils. I I I Expenditures. Deficiency from last year .• " .. , £2,736 4 10 I'reeOhurch of Scotland. Regular expenses…………. .. 115,416 18 8 Investment………………… . Secretary: Dr. GEORGE SMITH, C. I. E., 15 Balance in favor of the society.. 3,000 0 0 North Bank Street, Edinburgh, Scotland. 302 2 2 REPORT FOR YEAR ENDING MARCH 31, 1890. Receipt•. Total. ……………… '" £121,455 5 8 Included in the donations, etc., above are Associations …….. £14,836 11 4 £25,783 2s. Sd., raised for special objE1Cts. On Legacies………… 3,697 2 0 account of change of date of closing the finan- {lial year, only eleven months are represented of England, and in 11 of these there are misin the r"port. sionaries either entirely supported or assisted by the society. The largest and most import- Statistics. ant are naturally in India, but the present lfissions, 8; missionaries-male, 156; female, year has witnessed the commencement of 36; native ordained ministers, 1,194; preachers, work in Korea. In 11 out of the 15 dioceses in 4,225; church members, 68,805; other native Africa also there are missionaries of the adherents, 269,862; Sunday-schools, 381; society, and here too the largest work is in scholars, 22,415; day-schools, 1,990. scholars, Cape Colony. Of the 13 dioceses in Australia 105,980; local contributions and school fees, and Tasmania, there are but 4 that receive £20,302 11s. 3d. any assistance, and these furnish no report. The Society Islands have been removed from New Zealand and the Pacific furnish 8 dio· the list. ceses, but the only missionaries are in Hono· lulu and Norfolk and Fiji Islands. In North Presbyterian Churoh of England. America there are 20 dioceses, of which 1 each in New Brunswick, Quebec, Montreal, Nova Secretary: JOHN BELL, 13 Fenchurch Avenue, Scotia, Newfoundland, Caledonia, New West· minster and Algoma, and 3 in Rupertsland London, E. C. receives assistance from the society's funds. REPORT FOR YEAR ENDING DEC. 31, 1889. Of the 10 dioceses in the West Indies and South America, 7 (Guiana and 6 in the West Receipts. Indies) have missionaries of the society. The only regular diocese in Europe is that of Gib- Bal':'nce from Last year…. . •.. £ 498 12 11 raltar, but there are numerous chaplaincies.
Congregational Contributions… 6,497 2 6 Moravian Missions. Juvenile Fund…. .•…. ….. …. 1,785 3 8 Scotch Committee ..•••. …….. 2,740 0 0 Secretary: Rev. B. ROMIG, Hrunhut, Saxony; Legacies. …… ………… …… 1,454 15 3 or, Rev. B. LA TROBE, 29 Ely Place, Holborn, London, E. C. Donations. ………………… • 1,347 14 9 Receipts.
Miscellaneous………………. 710 14 3 1. Contributions from Congregations: Balance Overdrawn…………. 2,086 4 0 Continent of Europe.. ••.. .£1,031 19 5 Total…………………… £17,070 7 4 Great Britain and Expendit"Tes. Ireland….. •• 1,478 4 3 North America .. 2,240 12 6 Foreign Missions ……………. £15,767 1 11 Mission Proviuc's 81 5 0 Home Charges… . ……. . ….. 848 17 6 – – – £ 4,832 1 2 Interest………………… ….• 149 0 11 Amounts on Accounts……….. 305 7 -0 2. Contributions from other Christian Churches: Total ………………….. £17,070 7 4 Europe ………. £4,344 18 2 Great Britain.•.• 2,685 3 4 STATISTICS. North America.. 24 0 9 – – – – 7,054 2 3 r Missions, 2; stations, 5; out-stations, 130. Missionaries-ordained 20, medical 10, lay 3. Legacies and Endowments: 2, female 16; native pastors, 8; evangelists, Europe….. .•.•. 4,686 17 9 lOS; theological students, 41; organized Great Britain…. 1,644 15 9 churches, 43; communicants, 3,572. North America.. 420 12 0 – – – – 6,752 5 6 Sooiety for the Propagation of the Gospel 4. Mite Societies: in Foreign Parts (S. P. G') Europe ……… . 662 4 4 Great Britain… . 9 17 3 Secretary: Rev. H. W. TUCKER, M. A., 19 North America .. 56 17 0 728 18 7 Delahay Street, Westminster, London. Interests………………….. •• 132 18 3 REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDING DEC. 31, 1889. Total. ……………………. £19,500 6 S Receipts. Expenditures.
Collections, Subscriptions and For the Missions …………….. £ 7,997 6 2 Training of Missionaries……… 433 14 2 Donations: Sustentation, Pensions, etc……. '8,978 11 8 Management ………………… 1,858 9 1 General Fund .. £86,921 11 2 Miscellaneous … …….. …. …. 134 5 0 Special " 18,964 14 1 . Total…………………….. £19,402 IS 1 Legacies: – – – – £105,886 5 3 General Fund.. 9,468 6 2 Special 107 2 0 9,575 8 2 Rents, Dividends, etc.: General Fund.. 5,007 16 7 Special 4,569 9 7 9,577 6 2 £125,038 19 7 The society combines Colonial and Continental work with its foreign work in suph a way that statistics of the last are not easily gathered from the report. There are in Asia 17 dioceses of the Church
PROGRESS OF MISSIONS-MONTHLY BULLETIN
The statement of the London Association STATISTICS. shows: Missions, 13: stations and out·stations, 131; Balance on Hand …………….• £ 39 lP 11 mISSIOnary agents, 292; native missionaries and assistants, 51: native other helpers, 1,659: Collections…………. ………. 7,078 15 6 communicants, 29,971: baptized adults, 15,271; candidates, new people, etc., 5,949: baptized Total. ……………………. £7,118 15 5 children, 34,615: schools, 232: scholars, boys Paid to Treasurer Moravian Mis· 9,958, girls 9,836, total 19,794: total teachers, 316: monitors, 467: Sunday·schools 107, sions ………………………. £5,859 10 9 scholars, children 8,371, adults 6,603, teachers, Expenses of Management…….. 485 0 0 996. Printing, Traveling Expenses, etc. 433 0 2 Balance in Hand……………… 341 4 6 Total…………………….. £7,118 15 5 VIII.-PROGRESS OF MISSIONS: MONTHLY BULLETIN.
Africa.-Stanley's Remedy fOI Slavery in rangements for establishing steam locomotion Africa.-There is only one remedy for these on the Zambes!. wholesale devastations of African aborigines, and that is the solemn combination of Eng- -The drink traffic with the native races of land, Germany, France, Portugal, South and Africa received a large share of attention at East Africa, and Congo State against the in- the annual meeting of the English Congrega. troduction of gunpowder i'lto any part of the tional Union in London, and the question was continent except for the use of their own ably presented by the Rev. John lIfcKenzie, agents, soldiers and employees: or seizing who moved a resolution strongly condemning upon every tusk of ivory brought out, as there the traffic, and expressing the hope that meas· is nota single piece now·a·days which has been ures might be devised for exterminating it. gained lawfully. Every tusk, piece and scrap, He suggested that a geographical belt be in the possession of an Arab trader has been fixed in Africa by international agreement, steeped and dyed in blood. Every pound north or south of which it should be illegal to weight has cost the life of a man. woman or introduce strong drink. child: for every five pounds a hut has been burned: for every two tusks a whole village -Congo Balolo Mission.-We have news has been destroyed: every twenty tusks have from the third party of Balolo volunteers, been obtained at the price of a district, with who are gone to found the John Wallis Alex- all its people, villages and plantations. It is ander station on the Maringa. They made a simply incredible that becanse ivory is required brief stay in Madeira, and proceeded by the for ornaments or billiard-games, the rich Portuguese steamer. Several offers of service heart of Africa shonld be laid waste at this from fresh volunteers of suitable character Jate year of the nineteenth century, signalized have since been made, and £500 have been as it has been by so much advance: that popu- received for the establishment of the fourth lations, tribes and nations should be ntterly station, which will be caJled Berger Sta- destroyed.-Scribner's Magazine. tion, and will probably be situated on the -The statement made by the Duke of Fife, Juapa. at the meeting lately held at the Mansion House, to forward resolutions against the un· Australia.-Evangelization Society of restricted importation of arms and intoxicants Victoria.-The sixth annual report, like its Into Africa, is important. He stated that predecessors, is a story of the gospel testi· although they (the B. S. A. Co.) were not reo mony in districts remote from the abundant presented at the Brussels Conference, they means of grace which are the privilege ofthe were in thorough agreement with its aims. larger centres of population. During last year' One of the directors of the British South 66 missions were conducted, 134 places being Africa Company has lately, in an 'interview visited altogether. The evangelists not only with the King of the Belgians, said that they cheered by their efforts many Christian wished to take active steps to co·operate in people living in comparative isolation, but, by any anti·slave resolutions passed at Brus· the blessing of God, were enabled to arrest sels. The Dnke of Fife also stated at the many sinners on a downward course, a.nd Mansion House that they had resolved abso· point them to the Saviour. Mr. C. Carter is. lutely to prohibit the sale of intoxicants to the secretary of the society, whose offices are 131 natives. In this they will be only following in the steps of the African Lakes Company, Russel st., Melbourne. which has always signalized itself by refusing to have any share in the sale of intoxicants to Belgium.-In a recent communication, the natives. The British South Africa Com- M. Anet, of Brussels, mentions that during the pany is working in entire co-operation with the past year over 500 new members have been African Lakes Company, aRd is making ar- added to the Christian Missionary Church of Belgium from the ranks of Popery and infidel- ity. This small but most devoted body has 32 pastors, 4 evangelists,7 Bible-readers, and 5 colporteurs, and it occupies 87 different lo- calities, in which the gospel is preached. We are extremely sorry, however, to see that it a volume of 1,000 pages probably, will be a has fallen behind in its finances. noble contribution to the already opulent -The appointment by King Leopold of Mr. literature of missions.
Stanley as Governor-General of the Congo ~Statistics.-The follOwing is a summary Free State, and the acceptance of the appoint- of the statistics presented to the' conference, ment, will he gladly received by all civilized carefully compiled by the Rev. J. W. Davis, nations. D.D., of Soochow: Brazil.-The church at Sao Paulo has Foreign missionaries-Men, 589; wives, 390; Over 700 pupils, and the principal has been single women, 316. Total, 1,295. compelled to refuse admission to more than fifty in one month for want of room. Brazilian Native helpers-Ordained ministers, 209; }.fission says, "In several of the States of the unordained, 1,260; female helpers, 180. New Republic it is proposed to make attendance on the public primary schools, to be or- Medical work-Hospitals, 61; dispensaries, ganized under the new government, compul- 43; patients (during 1889), 348,439. sory. Three hundred years of Romish ascendency has left Brazil with over eight millions of Churches-Organized churches, 520; wholly people who can neither read nor write. " self-supporting, 94; one-half self-supporting, 22; one-quarter self-supportin!l', 27. China.-Conference at Shanghai.-We learn from Dr. Happer that the conference Bible distribution (1889)-Blbles, 1,454; New has been a great success—430 members, of Testaments, 22,402; portions, 642,131. Total whom 204 are ladies. It has been arranged to prepare a Union Bible in three versions, all 665,987. three agreeing in meaning-one in the high Communicants, 37,287. classical language, one in simple literary Pupils in schools, 16,816. style, and one in Mandarin colloquial. This Contributions by native Christians, uniting on one Bible, after forty years of separation, is cause for devout thankfulness and $36,884.54. rejoicing. When the report was brought in, The statistics of our own church (the Presthe doxology, "Praise God, from whom all blessings fiow," was sung, and devout thanks byterian Church North) are included in the above sumn;tary. Dr. Happer also kindly gives them separately for the convenience of all interested: Men, 58; wives, 43; single women, 21; in all, 122.
Native members of Presbyterian Church North,4.
Statistics of the eight Presbyterian bodies in China-Men, 124; wives, 93; single ladies, 46; in all, 263.
Whole numher of Presbyterian Church mem- bers, 12,347.
Whole number of pupils, 3,794. Whole amount of contributions, $13,007.
given in public prayer. A full report.from him -A converted Chinaman on the Pacific in our next issue. coast sold himself to work as a coolie in New Rev. Dr. Thwing also sends us this concise Guinea for the sake of working among his own statement of the character and doings of the countrymen, and hefore he died he personally conference: led to Christ 200 of his companions. How 1. It was notable on account of its infre- many of such heroic lives have no written an- <J.uency. Held but once in a dozen years or nals, save in God~s "book of remembrance!"
more, it had a special value. Rarum charum France.-Missionary Conference at est. Chamounix.-There wiII (D. Y.) be a mis- 2. Its numerical size. No such gathering of sionary conference at Chamounix during foreign missionaries on heathen soil has been August, probable date 18th to 22d, for prayer before seen. At the first conference 129 were and praise, in connection with various fie1ds enrolled; 432 in this meeting. of gospel labor, information concerning which 3. Its geographic scope. Some were two, will be given by Rev. F. B. Meyer, of Regent's three or more weeks coming from distant Park Chapel, London; Pasteur Vernier, of parts of the empire by slow boats or slower Valence, Drilm,,; Pasteur Lecoat, of Tremel, mule-carts. India, Japan, Europe, and Brittany; lIIonsieur R. Sailleus, of the McA11 America were also represented. Mission, Paris, etc. All Christian friends are 4. Its intellectual and moral power. It was earnestly invited. For information as to a brainy conference. There weremissionar- railway fares, board and lodging, etc., appli- ies new and old, gray-haired sinalogues, auth- cation may be made to Rev. N. L. BIuett, ors and Oriental scholars, physicians and sur- Avenue de la Gare, Annemasse, Haute Savoie, geons, specialists in various branches of study France.
and men eminent ·as educators or in the ad- India.-All missions at work among the ministrative departments of service. Santals report numerous accessions and rapid 5. The devotional and spiritual temper of development. At the present rate of progress, the body kept pace with its intellectual. Oc- in a few years Santalistan will be as thor- casional flies got into the ointment, but, for all oughly Christianized as Tinnevelly now is.
that, the ointment was pungent and precious. The Norwe~ian Lutheran Mission has a mem- 6. The wide horizon of thought opened by oership of 5,272 at 14 stations. More than 400 the fifty papers and the substantial unity of were baptized last year. Mr. Campbell, of the the conference in its central current of thought Scotch Free Church, reports very hopefully made it a stately and commanding power. of his section of the field; he cannot provide .Its well-prepared papers and debates, making teachers fast enough to instruct the people who are anxious to embrace the new faith. in Bordaux, as apostOlic missionary in Africa, From other sections ofthe field similar reports and as missionary preacher in lIfadrid and are received. The set time to visit India's Barcelona. Pastor Rodriguez sends us his aborigines seems to have come. The Dlissions photograph and an interesting sketch of nis which have been properly equipped and effi- life. Much may be expected from him. cientlymaintained are able to take full advan- tage of this movement toward Christianity.- Sweden.-Our readers may remember the Indian Methodist Times. request for prayer that recently ClIme from -A great field is opening in India for female missionaries. Owing to the secluded our brother Leonard at Stockholm. A card condition in which the native WOmen of that country are kept they can only be reached, to under date June 10 says: "With great pleasure any considerable extent, especially in the cities and large towns, by those of their own I write of the answer to prayer in the recent sex. Mrs. C. W. Forman, of Lahore, writes: conference in Stockholm. They decided with- " The women of India in the cities are not out a dissenting voice to begin a mission in reached by the preachers of the gospel; some China, and as soon as possible one in Africa. have never seen one. I do hope we shall soon A young man came forward to offer himself have ladies here in Lahore to take up the for China, and said it was laid upon his heart Zenana work. If we had nine or ten ladies to be a missionary when he was seven years visiting in the city they might never meet old. There was great rejoicing. Pray that each other at their work, and yet there would many others may follow." be portions left untouched. Oh, indeed, we want no curtailment of the work amongst the Tibet. – The Tibet Prayer Union.-Mrs. women; it is when they are reached that a bright day will dawn for India." Polhill Turner, writing from Kan-suh, China, • This call should not be unheeded. The re- asks: "Are Christians quite unmindful of the sponsibility rests upon the Church. Women in large numbers are willing and ready to leave multitudes in perfect bondage to Buddhism in home and kindred and enter upon this work At once if the Church will supply the means. Tibet and the neighboring districts? we hear Japan.-During the year ending April 30, so little of prayer for the work among them. 2,129 converts were received into the churches The devil has immense power through the of the A. B. C. F. M., an average of over 43 to Lama system. Attacking him among Tibeteach church; 43 of the 49 churches are self-sup- ans will be no child's play, but a tremendous porting. Christianity is advancin¥ rapidly, struggle, and if the work is not of God it will be yet there are still 250,000 Buddhist prIests in the an utter failure." No, we are not unmindful of empire, or more than eight times the total Tibetand the multitudes enslaved by that vast number of Christians. religious system, whose practical atheism knows no Creator, no sin, no soul, and no Sav- -The Congregationalist Church at Oka- iour. Our experience of nearly forty years' yama has 542 members and a Sunday'school of work among Tibetan Buddhists bears out the more than a thousand scholars. Itsnpports, be- statementthatitis no child'splay. ltisa tresides its own pastor, 4 paid evangelists, 13 out- mendous uphill struggle,. and, in the conviction stations, a Young 1len'8 Christian Association, that our own and any other missionaries ena women's temperance society, a monthly gaged in it need the special and constant intermagazine and a small dispensary. cession of Christians at home, we have started a" Tibet Prayer Union." A minor feature of Mexico.-We are glad to report that plans this Union is the request to those who are pri- vately willing to be known to one another as for the establishment of a theological training intercessors for Tibet, to Rev. B. La Trobe,29 school which shall meet the wants of the mis- Ely Place, London, E. C. Among the names sions in Mexico have at last been completed. sent .in are some from the Continent and the Preachers who can speak the Spanish language United States. And we know that others have are needed in the southwestern sections of the marked the invitation in the Periodical Ac- Unites States as well as across the border, and counts for March, 1890, and are acting (indeed hence it has been felt that the New West Edu- in some cases have long been acting) on the cation Commission and the American Home suggestion, without desiring to be named. The last quarterly letter of the Moravian Prayer ~:,~~:~ ~~~';fYinm:~~t ::i~t~~~t;c:i~~ t~~ Union has again shown hearty interest and co- operation. institution for the training of theological stu- United States.-Dr. Arthur Mitchell, ~~~t;e':~l~ o"t:~~~r:t~~:!~:~~a~a~a~~ secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign establishment of the" Rio Grande Congregational Training School," which is to be located Missions, who has been visiting its stations in at Ciudad Juarez, formerly known as Paso del Norte, which is just across the Mexican line Asia, is impressed with the vast unoccupied from El Paso, Texas. Rev. A. U. Wright, of Cosihuriachic, has been detailed for this work fields in Central China. Cities of from 75,000 on the part of the American Board, and has to 300,000 population have not one missionary already moved to Ciudad Juarez. It is ex- of any denomination, or even one native helppected that the institution will be opened in er. In traveling by canals from Hang Chow the early autumn.-Missionary Herald. to Shanghai, a day's journey, he passed scores of great cities, with teeming populations, Spain. – The Jesuit, Father Raphael de totally destitute of gospel influences. What Zufa Menendez, of Spain, has been received causes especial grief to him is the fact that into the Protestant Church by Pastor Lopez these places are so accessible, both geographi- Rodriguez. He was well known as professor cally and as respects treaty relations. He writes, "There is as little excuse for leaving a city of 100,000 souls on the New York Central railroad without one single preacher of the gospel, as for leaving cities of that size, and of double that size, utterly neglected within twenty-four hours of Shanghai." Surely, China's neglected millions appeal pathetically to Christendom.
-By the kindness of friends, a copy of Dr. Pierson"s "Crisis of :Missions" has bean presented to each of the students attending the Divinity Halls of the Uhurch of Scotland at Edinburgh, Glasgow, St. Andrews, and Aberdeen.
INDEX OF CONTENTS OF THE AUGUsor NUMBER
INDEX OF CONTENTS OF THE AUGUST NUMBER.
PAGE PAGE I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS …… 561–603 ENGLAND.-Society for the Propaga- n.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLI- tion of the Gospel: Origin and Operations GENCE. . . . . . •• •. • . . . . . . . . . •• •• 603-612 in the 18th Century, 580; dO., Report for rn.-MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE.. 612-616 1889, 636; Report of Presbyterian Church IV.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.•. 616-624 for 1889, 636; Report of London Mission- V.-MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS 624-628 ary Society, 635; do., Universities Mis- .VI.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT sion ……………………………… 633 FRANCE. – Missionary Conference at TOPICS ••… i ••………… 627-633 Chamounix………………………. 633 vn.-ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK INDIA.-Useful Literature Society, 607; Irish Presbyterian Church, "Jungle Tribe AND STATISTICS…….. _• _" •• 633-637 .l-Iission," 569; Missions Among the San- vrn.-PROGRESS OF MISSIO"S: MONTH- tals, 638; Need of Female Mi~sionaries .. 63~ Indians, Defeat of the "Wbipple Bill" .••.. 632 LY BULLETIN .. _…..•.•….. 637-6.39 ITALY.-The Free Christian Church …. 614 IX.-INDEX TO CONTENTS…… •.•••• 640 JAPAN.-A. B. C. F. M. Mission, 639; Buddhist Priests……………………. 639 Authors. Jews. Professor Delitzsch. on Conversion of the…… .. …………. _……. 575 EDITORS.-A. T. Pierson, Letters from Judson. Mrs. Adoniram (Ann Hazeltine), A Abroad, No. VI., 567; The Lack of Missionary Heroine, by Dr. Bradford … 561 Consecration and Prayer, 583; Edi· "Jungle Tribe Mission" of the Irish Presby- torial Notes,627; J. M. Sherwood, Edi- terian Church……………………… 569 torialNotes………………………… 630 ME Xleo. – A Theological Training Agnew, Eliza, The Story of, in Ceylon…•• 596 Bradford, A. H., D.D., A Missionary Hero· Schoo!. ……………………………. 639 Missionary Exposition, A Grand Picture of 627 ine ……………………………….. 561 NEW HEBRIDES.-The Jubilee of the Cross, Rev. R. T., Prayer and ~1issions .••. 580 Delitzsch, Dr. Franz, Biblical 'Thoughts on ~Iissions Established there ……..•• , . .. 691 Prayer. Dr. PlArson, Editorial, 583; Prayer the Conversion of the Jews, translated by Professor Schodde •..•••….•••….•• 575 and Missions, 588; Prize Essay on, 630; Ellinwood, F. F., D.D., Missions in Papal Answered Prayer…. ……………… 633 Europe, 624; Are they "Rice Christians~" 627 Prize Offer for Contributions on Answers Gracey, J. T., D.D., International Depart- toPrayer………………………….. 630 ment……………………………. 616 SCOTLAND.-Free Church of Scotland. Happer, J. Stewart, A Chinese Secret So- Report and Statistics for 1889-90, 635; ciety and its Influence on Evangelistic United Presbyterian Church, Report and Work …………………………… 600 Statistics for 1889………………….. 635 Hamlin, Dr. Cyrus, Letter to I. M. U…… 622 SOUTH AMERICA.-Strategic Points. 608 Shedd, Dr. J. H., Letter to I. M. U……:. 623 SPAIN.-Conversion of the Jesuit Father Steel, Rev. Robert, D.D., The Jubilee of the Raphael de Znfa Menendez…………. , 639 New Hebrides Mission…. . .. . …• . • .. .. 561 SWEDEN.-Answered Prayer……….. 639 Storrow, Rev. Edward, Foreign Missions SYRIA.-Mr. Lethaby in "Ioab ………. 61() in the 17th and 18th Centuries (conclud- Student Volunteer Movement,608; Criti- ed) ……………………………….. 579 cism and Letters …………………… 631 TIBET.-Interesting Letter from Rev. Countries and Subjects. R. Gray Owen. 612; Letters from Rev_ Goo. Parker and Mr.Cecil Polhill Turner, AFRICA.-Portugnese Departure from 614; The Tibet Prayer Union ……….. _ 639 Nyassaland, 605; Experiences on Lake UNITED STATES.-Sailing of the Kan· Nyassa, 605; "An Awful Land," 605; sas Band of Missionaries for the Soudan, North Africa Mission, 605; Another Mis- 615; Chinese Secret Society and its Influ- sionary Martyr, 605; Dr. Felkin on ence on Evangelistic Work. 600; Dr. Uganda, 606; England and Germany in Mitchell's Views of China's Needs……. 639 East Africa, 606; The French in West Wesleyan Indian Missions Controversy… 570 Africa, 607; The Soudan Missionary Movement, 615; Universities Mission to Statistics. Central Africa, 633; Congo Balolo Mis- sion, 637; Drink TraffiC, 637; Stanley's Evangelical Lutheran Foreign Mission- Remedy for Slavery,637; Duke of Fife's ary Work–Table…………………. 634 Statement….. …… ………….. •…. 637 Free Church of Scotland, Reportfor 1889-90 635 AUSTRALIA. -Evangelization Society London Missionary Society, Report for of Victoria………………………… 637 1889-90 ….. .. .. ….. . …………….. 635 BELGIUM.-Uew Members to the Chris- Moravian Missions, Last Report………. 636 tian Missionary Church, 637; Stanley's Presbyterian Church of England, Report Appointment_…………… _ ……… 638 for 1889.. _………….. '" ………….. 63& BRAZIL.-Sao Paulo School and Educa- Society for the Propagation of the Golipel tion ………………………………. 638 in Foreign Parts, Report for 1889.. . _.. 636 CEYLON.-Eliza Agnew's wonderful United Brethren in Christ, Report for work ……………………………… 5Il} 1889-90 ……………………………. 683 CHINA-The Impending Opium Crisis: United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, Anti-Opium Memorial, 612; Shanghai Conference, 638; Statistics Presented…. 638 Report for 1889 …. ……………….. 635 Universities Mission to CentralAfrica, Re· Continental Evangelization…………… 608 port for1889 …………………….. 633
The Missionary Review of the World — June 1889
REVIEW OF THE
VOL. XI. No. 6.-Old 8eries.–JUNE.–VoL. II. No. 6.-New Serie•• I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS. A RETROSPECT OF THE WORLD'S CONFERENCE.
[EDlTORIAL.-A. T. p.] THAT grand gathering in Exeter Hall, London, in June, 1888, has in many, perhaps in most respects, had no rival, not to say superior, in all church history. This we have affirmed previously, repeatedly, emphatically; and after the lapse of a year, we see no reason to modify this judgment. Nevertheleiils, as we calmly pass in review the proceedings of those ten days, we seem to see, more and more clearly, a few marked errors in the conception and execution of that great plan, and in the management of that great conference, which were avoidable; or to say the least might be avoided whenever another similar gathering shall be held. This we say in no spirit of carping criticism. The more we see of a fastidious and fault-finding temper, the more we are impressed that the hypercritical and the hypocritical spirit are very closely allied. That conference was an alabaster flask of ointment compounded of precious and fragrant materials by a divine apothecary; and there were in it no dead flies to send forth an ungrateful savor. But it would have been strange indeed had there been no infelicitous features, no lack of forecast and discrimination, no mistakes in methods, which prevented the conference from reaching its highest and widest results for good. To some of these we shaH now advert. 1. One conspicuous mistake was made in the selection of chairmen. The policy of the committee was to change, at every session, the presiding officer. The desire was to have some distinguished clergyman or layman take the chair at each new assembly, and to divide up these honors so as to distribute them over as wide a representation as possible. Some of these chairmen were not only men of mark, but of marked capacity and ability for the place. Others were as conspicuously unfit. We all know how much depends on the selection of a. presiding officer. He not only guides but often inspires the entire meeting. His tact, promptness, decision, suggestion, are the very hinges upon which turn the success or failure of the court or conference whose presiding chair he fills. A moderator of an association, presbytery or other ecclesiastical assembly ~ay facilitate business, suppress
A RETROSPECT OF 'l'H'E WORLD;S CONFERENCE
disorder, disentangle the perplexities of confused and contradictory motions, and stimulate fraternal harmony and prayerful unIty; or, on the other hand, may positively hinder, embarrass, obstruct, the whole proceedings. Sometimes even the voice and enunciation of a chairman, his manner, glance, attitude, may have upon the body of which he is the temporary head an unconscious influence. We have seen a whole throng of ecclesiastics run wild in debate, because, at a crisis, the chairman was flushed and embarrassed and undetermined, and waited a moment too l()ng before decided action. So important have church courts found this matter to be, that the suggestion has more than once been made that a permanent moderator should be selected to guide their deliberations.
At this great conference one was occasionally placed in the chair who, whatever his personal character, had really no fitness for a presiding officer. Timid, hesitating, flustered, stammering, without even volume of voice or distinctness of utterance sufficient to be heard; unacquainted with even the simplest rudimental principles of pltrliamentary law, such men ought not to be put into a place where they can neither do themselves credit nor help anybody else. For such po~ sitions men should be chosen not for some conspicuous service rendered to church or state, to science or art, to letters or to humanity, but preeminently because they are fitted to guide a deliberative body or a popular assembly. A very distinguished man was not long since nominated for such a position in this country; but, before the vote had been taken, his awkwardness, dullness of hearing, slowness of comprehension, made evident into what a "sea of troubles" he would have plunged the assembly had he been raised to the chair. As it was, a much younger man, comparatively unknown, was made moderator,. and showed no common aptitude for the place. The time has fully come when, in great deliberative bodies, the chair is no longer to be a high seat of honor to which to exalt some popular favorite or idol as a mere figurehead, but a throne of power for which the first and last and indispensable requisite shall be competency to preside and control.
II. Some serious mistakes at the conference were made by the speakers themselves. As not every man is fit to preside, so not every man is fit to make an alidress or prepare a paper for such an assembly. The more we hear of public speakers, the more we are satisfied that in the vast majority of cases, apologies are themselves without apology. Time is too valuable to be consumed in useless explanations, tame self-depreciation and false humility. If the apology be true, the speaker has no right to be making the address; if untrue, he has no right to be making the apology. Yet a man will rise before a magnificent audience of intelligent and cultivated people; and, where every moment is golden, coolly state that he has "had no time to prepare," or feels ," in· competent to speak on the theme" assigned him, or in one ofa thousan_d ways excuse himself .for what he is about to say or read; when, if what he states be true, he ought, by every law of good sense and ethical propriety, to sit down and leave the more room for somebody who is prepared. Every speaker should make the very best preparation possible, and then plunge in medias res, from his opening sentence giving his hearer something that has cost thought and is worth thought. We remember to have heard aman of no little distinction rise to address a large assembly on a great occasion ; and, though appointed to the duty months previous, calmly inform his auditors that he "had made no preparation save that which he.had made on his way to the meeting," iu a ten miuutes' ride on a tram-car! If true, that was an insult to the assembly: and unfortunately his speech proved that it was only too true.
A grievous blunder it is to bring in irrelevant matter, especially where brevity, condensation and concentration are essential. There is an impassable gulf between having to say something and having something to say. Those who easily took hold and firmly kept hold of those great audiences were invariably those who spoke, keeping most closely and clearly to the subject. The more direct the track, straight to the heart of. the theme-recte viam secare-and the more vigorous the handling of it, the closer and more absorbed the attention. It was observable that matter, interesting in itself but foreign to the discussion, was ruled out by an impatient or listless audience, if not by a watchful and impartial moderator. Some of the papers were simply specimens' of riding hobbies. Some writer, who had been studying a topic, or making a book, would take opportunity to inflict on his helpless hearers a treatise, having only a nominal connection with his theme, and sometimes so foreign to it as to appear such to the most casual and careless observer. Sydney Smith saidthat "in preaching, the crime against the Holy ghost is dullness." It is very nearly an unpardonable offense to intrude and obtrude before such a body as that which met in Exeter Hall any address or paper which has not been carefully prepared on the subject under discussion, or which lacks the pith of sensible suggestion or the point of fitness and applicability. Spea.kers should be chosen, competent to treat these great themes, and conscientious enough to take pains in preparing; and only such should be heard.
Even in the voluntary remarks that followed the papers there was no real reason why a law of judicious selection should not have been followed. Cards were sent to the secretary indicating a desire to be heard, and the parties were called upon in the order of application. The consequence was that not infrequently the most forward rather than the best furnished speakers engrossed the priceless moments of tha.t great gathering. That a man wishes to be heard is not always a sign that others wish to hear him. To the happy conduct of such assemblies a certain amount of "natural selection" and" survival of the fittetlt" is essential. Every public gathering draws moths about it, which do little more than fly into the flame, singeing their own wings and obscuring the light.
To flaunt one's denominationalism in such a conference is a most grievous mistake. Yet a few-a very few-were guilty of what was so out of taste aud out of tune with the whole key of that ecumenical council. For once from every quarter and every denomination came the champions of missions. In such a presence, it behooved us all to forget our tribal standards as we rallied around the Ark of God. Yet some felt it needful to let the rest know that for them to appear in such a promiscuous gathering was an unusual condescension; that it must not be construed into any abandonment of the peculiar tenets of their" church," or even as an admission of the comparative unimportance of such tenets, as non-essentials. A few such protests and sectarian professions were heard, but they were the only inharmonious notes in a general, beautiful, orchestral harmony.
We ought all to rise above such a level. Why should a Presbyterian in an assembly of the church catholic insist that he abates not a jot of bis belief in the "parity of the clergy" and the" divine right of the presbytery" ! Or a Baptist announce his undiminished confidence "in believers' baptism" and that too only by "immersion"! Or an Episcopalian declare that he must not be understood to admit the validity of Hnon-episcopal ordination," or as conceding that the barriers separating" the church" from the rest of the body of believers are to be easily stepped over! If there be any magnanimity in fellowship with those who differ with us, such great-mindedness is always unconscious, for in nobility, as in humility, self-consciousness is destructlvp of the very grace itself.
III. Another mistake made at the great conference was undue mUltiplioity of meetings. Ten days were assigned to the sessions; and not only were those days, with rare exceptions, crowded with almost continuous meetings, from 9. A. M. to 10 P. M., but there were generally three or four simultaneous gatherings; and to make matters worse, at these different gatherings, at the same hours, different themes were discussed, making impossible attendance at all, and therefore compelling members to choose what they could best afford to miss, though the choice was often no easy one to make. Two marked consequences were observable. First, there was more or less confusion. Persons would go into one meeting and then, from a strong desire to hear some speaker or some discussion in another section meeting at the Bame hour, would go from one to another creating inevitable disturbance. Frequent cbanges of this sort were quite unavoidable and often a very serious hinderance to enjoyment, profit and even good order. Secondly, there resulted, as a conseqnence of these multiplied and divided meetings, the loss of aU unity of impression, and of that peculiar cumulativeness of impression, which is even more desirable than such unity. To have had fewer meetings, and to have arranged them so that essentially the same body of auditors might have attended them all, so far as they chose, would have served to secure from beginning to close a continuous, growing, climacteric interest. But, as it was, the conference was cut up into several minor conferences, which, for all unity or continuity, might almost as well have met in different halls or even cities. It was very noticeable that, so far as unity and continuity of assembly were conserved, the richest results were realized. The interest and enthusiasm touched floodmark only in those large evening assemblies where, without the diversion or .distraction of having rival meetings at the same hour, essentially the same audience met from night to night, and felt the power of every new accretion of argument and appeal. In our judgment, it had been better either to have appropriated more days to the discussions, or else to have .attempt~d to cover less ground, rather than to have split up the hody into so many parts. Section may sometimes be vivisection. Those who attended the Evangelical Alliance meetings at Washington, D.O., the year before, will remember how by continuous sessions in the same assembly chamber, the very ends, sacrificed at EXeter Hall, were admirably served and conserved.
IV. It was, we think, a mistake for the committee of the confero ence to hamper themselves ana the boay with neealess restrictive rules. Laws are the servants, not the masters, of intelligent bodies; otherwise they turn human beings into mere automata. Even Sabbatic regulations, however strict, are "made for mun," not man for rules and regulations. The human mind is too great and grand for any parliamentary matrix, 'and all regulations, not based upon immovable essential moral principles, must be elastic and flexible.
For instance it was determined in advance by the committee that no resolutions should be introduced into the conference. The restriction was well meant. To have put up no such barrier would have left open door for every religious "tramp" or " crank" to find his way into the field of discussion and inflict on helpless ears his resolutions upon his favorite topic. But that such a body should meet as never met before, and never may again, and not be free to act in such ways as to make its power felt and its effects lasting, was to resort to the strait-jacket. ~'he committee themselves felt the awkward constraint of their own restrictions. When the giant evils of rum in Africa, opium in Ohina, and licensed vice in India called for vigorous remonstrance, they felt the need of a series of resolutions, ably advocated, and adopted by the conference. But there was that rule against res- olutions! To "save their constitution" they held the great public meeting for protest, on the night after the conference clol!!ed ; but, as 406 A RETROSPECT OF THE WORLD'S COl.'fFERmNCE.
they wanted it embraced within the proceedings of the conference, they stretched the conference beyond it ; and it fell to the writer, on that occasion, to review the lessons of those ten days at the close of that .u additional meeting" for the passage of the resolutions!
Would it not have been better to avoid this paradox by not adopt. ing in advance rules so stringent? To have determined that only such resolutions should be submitted to the body as had been pre.
anviously approved by the committee would have shut the door against intruders without locking it so effectually against the committee themselves as to compel them to climb up some other way.
V. It was, we think, a mistake that no attention was given by the conference to the great uprising of young men in our coZle.tes and semina,ries. The last five years have witnessed a sort of crusade of missions in which the main movers, the leaders, have been students. As we write, word comes to us that over 3,000 in our own country alone have signified a willingness to enter the foreign field when their course of preparatory study is completed. Making all proper deductions for mere evanescent sentiment or transient enthusiasm; discounting liberally for all hasty action under the influence 6f strong and pressing appeals; not unmindful of the fact that time is a great sifter of even honest purposes, and that hundreds of such pledges will be bloll'D away like chaff before the wind when the crisis of final decision comes; with all reasonable reduction, we have still left one of the most significant movements of modern times. When such men as Stanley Smith, and O. T. Studd, and Arthur Polhill-'l'urner in England, and John N. Forman, and Robert P. Wilder, and Mr. Goforth, and J. H. McVicar in America, lead on a great nprising of students, and thousands respond, "Here am I ! send me," there is some force at work that is more than human. Our sons and our daughters are beginning to prophesy. It looks very like the coming of a last great Pentecost of missions. Some notice shonld have been taken of so stupendous a development. If such a mighty current needs nothing more, it needs proper restraint; it needs to be banked up and turned into a true channel, and kept from spreading into a mere shallow, superficial freshet, where breadth of surface is mistaken for depth of stream, and energy of action is ultimately displaced by mere stagnation. A new spirit of missionary consideration and consecration is abroad in the universities of England and America. Age must counsel youth; experience must temper enthusiasm. Ardor and fervor must not be dampened and quenched, nor left to burn fiercelv and burn out, but must be moderated and controlled. We hoped to'the last that the conference would have given a careful and prayerful consideration to wha~ we cannot but regard as one of the signs of the times which it behooves sagacious disciples to discern, and thereby read the present and forecast the future.
VI. It seemed to many delegates a very serious mistake that no provision was made for permanent and closer bonds of fellowship in missionary work. During ten days of constant contact there ha,d been no break of harmony, no really discordant note. It was a foretaste of heaven, the days of heaven upon earth. To part was inevitable, for duty called in different directions, and "tabernacles," even upon Tabor, are not to be expected. But there were certain bonds of comity and unity, of counsel and co-operation, which might have been perpetuated, and thus have given also a certain perpetuity to the conference itself.
After the lapse of a twelvemonth we do not see any good reason why a permanent Standing Oommittee might not have been created by that conference, that should have been thoroughly representative in character, and to whom might be referred many matters needing careful consideration from time to time. We would not have such committee legislative and authoritative, but simply advisory and representative, and in three directions principally they might have rendered efficient service: 1. In keeping up a certain living contact and practical fellowship between denominations of evangelical believers.
2. In adjusting matters of difficulty, preventing misunderstanding and collision, and promoting a true comity.
3. In providing for the proper division of labor and forces, so as to insure the impartial occupation of all mission fields.
There were many reasons why the blessed and delightful fellowship of that fortnight should be, as far as possible, made permanent. No name but that of Ohrist had been named; contact not only served as an expression and manifestation of charity, but as a means of developing it. To have such contact broken and lost was more than a calamity-a disaster. Oontact could not be maintained at every point, but it could have been at certain points like links in a chain, and such a committee would have served as such links. All questions involving the delicate matters of mutual comity, or the practical co-operation of disciples on mission fields, such an advisory board could settle in behalf of all the churches. Without claiming authority, their advice would become authority.
In reference to the occupation of the whole field, snch a committee could at least wield great influence in three directions: First, Where any local field is now fairly preoccupied, those who are working in it conld be left unmolested. The valley of the Nile might be left for the most part to the United Presbyterians; Turkey to the American Board; Syria and Siam to the Presby~erians of America; Burmah to the Baptists; the Lake Di&1;ricts of Eastern Equatorial Africa, the various islands of Polynesia, the openings in papal lands, to the various bodies already successfully at work-nntil help is needed and may be spared from more needy" regions beyond," Secondly, Fields already open but wholly unoccupied, whose vastness is overwhelming and demands careful division of labor, might by such committee be apportioned to various Ohristian denominations.
And thirdly, Fields not yet fully opened but about to become accessible, could be watched and preparations made for their speedy occupation when the full time has come; as for inliltance Korea, Thibet, etc.
We have already in these pages adverted to this subject, and, after much thought, feel constrained to press even now the appointment by the various evangelical denominations of some sort of Advisory Board who, by correspondence and as far as may be by personal conference, may act for the whole church of Ohrist. Such men as the Earl of Aberdeen, Sir John Kennaway, Dr. Wardlaw Thompson, Eugene Stock, Esq., Rev. A. O. Thompson, D.D., Rev. F. F. Ellinwood, D.D., Rev. Hudson Taylor, Rev. A. J. Gordon, D.D., Rev. W. M. Taylor, D.D., Bishop W. X. Ninde, D.D., James Mathieson, Esq., Rev. J. Murray Mitchell, LL.D., Rev. W. S. Swanson, Principal McVicar, Rev. Phillips Brooks, Bishop Potter, Bishop Huntington-who would hesitate to follow the counsel of such men in matters pertaining to the great world-wide field of missions!
VII. There were mistakes of a minor character which pertain to all things human. This limiting of speakers to "five minutes" is one of the absurdities of modern impatience and "fastness." A'man'who, like Dr. Oairns, carries big brains qnder his hat and a big heart in his breast, takes proportionately long to get" under weigh." It was more than offensive to hear some really great and wise m;::,n rung down by the inexorable bell, when he had just laid the basis of his remarks and was just prepared to give us the results af wise and deliberate thinking; while some smart but shallow speaker, who mistook" audibility and volubility" for logic and eloquence, rattled through five minutes and" finished" without saying anything. It was painful to iee that the modesty of some men of merit kept them back because their very aversion to the bell and the five-minute rule increased their embarrassment, while the assurance of others emboldened them to "occupy the time" without any real suggestions to offer. It was very strange to us to hear such an audience actually arrest with mock applause certain men of whom they tired or who overran their proper limits; or to observe evidences of manifest favoritism on the part not only of auditors but of presiding officers and committee men.
But these ware the spots on the sun-the insignificant blemishes on a fair face that was on the whole beautiful and even radiant. He would be very critical and run his criticism into captioul!lness who would turn a telescopic or microscopic eye upon such defects. Here was a grand gathering of missionaries and missionary workers and sup- porters brought face to face and eye to eye from the earth's ends. Here were men competent to speak from actual experience and observation of all phases and perplexities of the work, in every sphere. Here were laborers who spoke with the authority that belongs only to an actual toiler; they were not theorizers lazily sitting on cushions and dreaming about missions, but faithful workers who had borne the burden and heat of the day, and some of whom had already reached reaping time and borne also the sheaves to the garner. 'rhe facts, sometimes poured upon the assembly in one address, came like a deluge for volume and like a torrent for force and momentum. The sight of some men and women, whose names are already immortal for their service to missions, repaid us for a trans-oceanic journey. Even R. N. Oust, Esq., whose keen scalpel mercilessly cut with incisive blade into the faults of the conferenoe, wrote with discriminating and eloque~t pen, such as he knows how to use, in appreciation of all that was best in those days of fellowship. With impartial judgment he condemned what he disapproved, and praised as loudly the manifest solidarity of the churches, the disappearance of offensive denomina- . tionalism, the grand federation of the greatest benefactors of mankind, speaking every language, but using one dialect of faith; and the forming or renewing of precious ties of friendship.
We think it too soon to forecast the ultimate results of such a conference. Perhaps it is true that no original idea was struck out, and no novel information or even important practical suggestion elicited. It is possible to be too near as well as too far off, to see clearly and form just conceptions. Too near a view limits our prospect; too distant a view dims it. But if that ten days does not inspire new devotion to missions; if those two imperial volumes, which constitute the greatest encyclopedia of missions extant, do not feed with the fuel of facts the kindling interest in the world field; and if the body of disciples there gathered do not feel a closer and more vital bond with all true workers in that wide field, we shall be greatly mistaken. We earnestly hope that within a few years another like conference may assemble. The year 1892, which marks the full completion of the century since William Oarey formed that first Baptist Society in Ket- tering, suggests the natural time for the next WorId Oonference. And what stupendous changes may take place before that year 'has opened no huma:n being is sagacious enough to forecast. If, years ago, Dr. Duff could say that, to which ever point of the horizon we look, signs of changes greater than the world has ever seen confront us, it is far more emphatically true to-day. What a century was once required to accomplish a year now works out; and so every hour be- comes a hinge and pivot of history and destiny. Let us, like Erskine, call God to witness that we are "doing our best to .bring on a definite issue between Ohrist and His adversaries." The thicker and hotter the battle, the quicker the rout of the foe. The whole world
THE OUTLOOK IN JAPAN
is the field, the whole church is the force; let us bring the field and the force into actual contact, from the rising to the setting sun, and from pole to pole, while we humbly remember that the only true force in missions is the FIRE FROM ABOVE 1 THE OUTLOOK IN J APAN.
BY REV. GEORGE WM. KNOX, D.D., TOKIO.
THE statistics of missions and missionary work for 1888 are instruc- tive. The growth of the Japanese churches continues. There are 5,785 more Christians than at the close of 1887, the total being 25,514; 1,970 children are included iu this total. Ten years ago there were not 2,500 Christians in Japan. In another decade these tens of thousands should be hundreds of thousands. Another tenfold increase is not too great for faith.
The increase is as great in other things. These Christians gave last year yen 64,454.70 for church and missionary purposes. Comparing • Japanese poverty with American wealth it is as though 25,000 Christians in the United States, including women and children, were to give $600,000, a standard that no denomination has yet reached, though certain favored localities exceed it. In the Itchi and Kumiai churches, Presbyterian and Congregational, the standard is still higher.
The 15,800 Christians, including children, in these two bodies gave yen 51,000, an average of three yen and twenty-three sen per member.
T~at is as if Presbyterians and Congregationalists in the United States were to give more than $30 each a year for religious purposes. Certainly Christianity in Japan is not eleemosynary.
The Japanese ministers are 142,40 more than a year ago. These men are sometimes put down in mission reports as assistants of the foreign mISSIOnaries. In Japan such statements are most misleading. The fact is the missionaries are the advisers of the Japanese ministers. I am most intimately acquainted with the polity of the Presbyterian (with the Reformed) lnd the Congregational missions. The missionaries are already the advisers and friends or at most co~laborers with the Japanese ministers. The latter and not the former are foremost in the most important work. Ten converts are led to Christ by them to one brought into the church by the direct agen<Jyof foreigners. And in councils, committees, synods, and boards the Japanese are in the lead.
The actual state of things would surprise men who have been ac- customed to regard foreign missionaries as the main factors in the preaching of the gospel. Some of the largest and most successful churches have had little or no foreign assistance. Were every foreign missionary and every,dollar of foreign money withdrawn at once the church would still advance and still seek to preach the gospel to all Japan. .
I am not undervaluing missionary work, but am seeking to state its true value. The church succeeds in Japan because it is led by earnest, educated Christian Japanese of the right kind. But hardly one of these men has achieved great success who does not bear the impress of some foreign missionary. The. influence has been direct and permanent, and the missionary thus works through the Japanese far more ef- fectively than he could possibly work himself. Christ's method must. be the missionary's. If the foreigner can spiritually quicken twelve men who will be his apostles he has achieved a grand success. Then the wide results garnered by these men will be his crown and rejoicing. Every mission report in Japan repeats and emphasizes this lesson, though sometimes by contrast.
There are lessons for Boards in the United States in such facts. The foreign missionary must be able to do this thing., If he cannot per- sonally lead men to a high standard of personal consecration to Christ, if he cannot prepare them for successful war, he is relatively a failure. Japanese mmisters can preach more effectively than he. Japanese teachers can almost rival his best efforts in the class room. They are fully ready for all the routine of work. If, then, he cannot supply high spiritual and intellectual stimulus; if by word and life he cannot raise these men to higher grades of life, he is a failure. At present it is vain to send missionaries to Japan who are not exceptional men. The church is at last ready to send many men, and now the higher test comes at once. The church must send its best. Quality and not quantity must be the ambition; or, better still, the best quality in large quantity. The mission service need not be ashamed; it has fair share of the best now. But in fields like Japan none others are of use. Som~ Japanese ministers in intellect and spirituality excel some foreign missionaries.
A large part of the missionaries are in schools. The missions report 15 boarding-schools for boys, with 2,704 students, 39 boarding-schools for girls, with 3,663 pupils, and 47 day-schools for boys and girls, with 3,299 scholars. Half of the men, and nearly all the ladies, are in these schools. The schools are still for the most part under "mission" control. But the most successful one of all has a Japanese for presi- dent, and he does his own thinking, and forms his own plans. Some of the other schools also give the Japanese a large place in their con- trol. These schools are doing a great work for the Christian Church. The Government does so much for education that their influence in general education is relatively small. They are not the introducers of western learning and scientific truth. Their mission is the formation of a body of select men and women, combining spiritual force with in- • tellectual attainments. They are to train the leaders for the church. There is a constant advance in their equipment, but.all feel that equip- ment in things material is only a small aid to growth in things spiritual. It is still to be proved that the great institutions of to-day will exceed in solid results the groups gathered around individuals in the period just past. At the same time in every school the religious influence js constant. They are not like the missionary colleges of India that graduate a "kind of theists." The graduatelil in large majority are earnest Ohristians. Now we seek one thing more-the consecration • that will make them the fearless, devoted and successful leaders of the Lord's hosts.
The number of missionary societies continues to increase. We feel like saying, Hold! Enough! If any church or society, British or American, thinks of launching a new mission, let them seek some other field, or come prepared to unite with some of the organizations already here. We have weak missions enough, and strong ones too, for that matter. Were our mission forces combined, we should not need an- other man; indeed we could dispense with a third of those already here. It is our disunion that makes our mission work so extravagantly costly. It is absurd to place three missions of as many different churches in one small country town of Japan, as absurd and wasteful as to plant a half dozen denominations in a frontier village in the United States. As long as the churches in the United States prefer that sort of thing, and are ready to pay for it, it will no doubt con- tinue; but it costs more than wasted time and money. A Oongrega- tionalist has just written to a Presbyterian, "The division of our few Ohristians in the same neighborhood into two churches of dif- ferent names is the greatest obstacle to our work here," and he ex- presses his perfect willingness to enter Presbytery if thereby harmony can be gained. And yet men in the United States oppose union in Japan, because they happen to be dissatisfied with the results of the plan of union in New York fifty years ago, and associations threaten to cut off their contributions to the Board if union is effected. Let it be understood that the present plan of separate action, in Japan at the least, involves great waste.
The Episcopal societies have united their churches in the Nippon Sei Ko Kwai, the Holy Church of Japan. The union proposed by the Meth- odist missions is postponed because of unsympathetic action at home.
The union of the Reformed and Presbyterian bodies will be completed by the union of the Oumberland Presbyterian Ohurch in the coming spring. The further union with the Oongregational churches was voted by the synod of the United Ohurch in November, but the Gen- eral Association of the Oongregational churches postponed action until spring. Thus their action is still in doubt. This union, if effected, will be of great service to the cause of Ohrist in Japan.
FRO}! THE PRISON. • In December, 1887, a large number of men from the province of Tosa came to Tokio to present a petition to the Government. After Borne delay the Government declined to receive the petition, but the Tosa men still lingered in the city. The Gover~ment professed to find something dangerous in their presence, and issued new regulations for the preservation of the peace. The men from Tosa were ordered to leave Tokio, and the more prominent were lodged in prison. Some of these men had never seen the laws which they were said to have broken. They had no trial, but were told that they would be released if at once they would leave Tokio, not to return for a specified • time. They stoutly denied having broken the laws, and declined to make such confession, or to (lven imply acquiescence by leaving the city. So they were sentenced to imprisonment for two years. On the promulgation of the constitution they were released, having been confined for fourteen months.
Some of these men are Christians. They are gentlemen, and have served their country in the past. One of them is well-known throughout Japan, and especially for his honesty and frankness. They found the imprisonment hard to bear, of course. The food was not enough to satisfy them, anq. the prison bedding and clothing was scanty, and they suffered from cold during the first winter. As time went by, however, both food and clothing were increased. When they entered the prison one of them had his Bible with him. It was taken away, but afterward Bibles and other religious books were freely given them. They read and studied the Word continually; they held morning prayers, and as the few opportunities occurred, they taught their fellow prisoners.. Now they say: "Our imprisonment was grievous to our bodies but beneficial to our souls. We learned the meaning of the gospel as never before. We value prayer and believe more firmly in God's presence and communion with us." Through their labors six of their fellow prisoners were led to Christ.
THE NEW CONSTITUTION.
Japan has a written constitution. It was promulgated on the 11th February. The city was given up to rejoicing for days. The illuminations and decorations were exceptionally fine. Almost every house in the city was ornamented. Thus the emperor redeems his promise, made on his accession. Japan again leads Asia, indeed is in advance of some European states. As we read the provisions for the protection of the rights of subjects, for the judiciary, and for the exercise of ample powers by the Imperial Diet, whole centuries of English constitutional history unfold before our eyes. There is some ground for the boast that' Japan will do in a generation what we have accomplished in centuries. It is only a generation, less than a generation, since Japan was a feudal despotism tempered by assassination. In 1871 feudalism was abolished. And yet there are men in plenty who talk of the Japanese as an inferior race, not at all to be compared with "us." Some think them inferior to the Chinese. If that judgment is correct Europe and America must need look to themselves when
liON. ION KEITH-FALCONER. [Ju.a
China wakes up. The imprisonment of the Tosa men will be the last incident of that sort. I Laws will be, made by the Diet, and no one shall be arrested or punished without due process of law. Arbitrary law and government end.
To us one of the most immediate points of interest is the article that promises religious liberty. The fact has been undispnted for years, bnt its official and constitutional recognition by the emperor will have its influence.
What new pretext can Western powers now find for failing to comply with Japan's most moderate and reasonable request for the revision of the treaties, and the abolition of extra-territoriality? Russia and Austria most likely will fear to intrust their subjects to the tender mercies of this Government, though, to do them justice, these powers have never been credited with an obstructive policy, but pretexts can doubtless be found. or made by some ingenious power. We trust the rumors that the United States are just ready to make a new treaty on terms of equality will prove true. Japan is ready to grant every right and privilege to foreigners that she gives her own subjects, if they will come under her laws. Japan cannot ask less. All obstacles to freest travel and residence are of foreign making. For our part we are glad that this empire will not yield further. Her position is just. II; is "Christian" diplomacy that is unjust, and as short-sighted as unjust.
THE APOSTLE OF BUDDHISM.
The Buddhists are credited with following Christian example in all their propaganda. They have tried lectures, girls' schools, newspapers, young men's associations etc., all without success. Copies are seldom of great worth. Now they have gone a step further and have imported a missionary from America, Col. Olcott. He is the same man to whom Madame Blavatsky referred in the letters that were printed several years since, first in India. His connection with that acute adventuress does not seem to have quenched his love for the occult. We shall see what will come of his mission to Japan. He was welcomed to-day, March, 1, in Yokohama by a throng of priests. If he can improve these men in wit or morals his mission will not have been in vain. He has ample field for missionary work.
HON. ION KEITH-FALCONER. * A MODERN ApOSTLE.
BY REV. W. J. MUTCH, NEW HAVEN, CONN.
THE best there is in human life is not too good to be given to the I service of humanity in behalf of God's kingdom. This truth has been no more impressively exemplified in modern times than in the noble *}{emorials of Hon. Ion Keith-Falconer, M. A:, late Lord Almoner's Professor of Arabic In the University of Cambridge, and missionary to the Mohammedans of Sonthern Arabta. By Rev. , Robert Sinker, B. D., Librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge. With portrait, map and iIlustratlous. Cambrldie: Diihton Bell & Ceo life and early death of Hon. Ion Keith-Falconer, a modern apostle of the best stuff that men of our day are made of, and yet not too good to give himself as a living and dying sacrifice to humanity in carrying the word of God to those who have it not.
H blood and lineage counted for as much with us as it does in Great Britain, it would add greatly to our interest in the name of Keith-Falconer to trace the noble ancestry of this son of the Earl of Kintore back through the critical and stormy periods of British history, past the standards of Bruce and Wallace, and back to the year 1010, in the reign of Malcolm II., King of Scotland, when in a battle with the Danish invaders Robert Keith won by his valor the title of Hereditary Great Marischal of Scotland.
But it is not until 1856 that the life of our subject began; and in the years that followed from infancy to college life there iii! nothing that need detain us save the generous and loving child, who was devoted to the truth, had no patience with shams, had the largest sympathy, frDm the fiest, with the suffering and needy, and found his greatest enjoyment in seeing those about him happy and comfortable. He was a faithful 'and interested student of the Scriptures from the time of his earliest reading. His old nurse tells of his going about to the cottages of the peasants soon after he was seven years old, and reading the Bible and trying to explain it. On one occasion, having saved his pocket money for the purpose, he went to the store and bought for himself some cakes of a favorite kind, but on his return he met a hungry-looking boy and promptly gave them all to him. 'rhese things were never known at home save as some one else than he chanced to mention them, but they reveal thus early a vein of pure gold which was to enrich the later life.
It is stimulating to know that with these generous qualities he was not of that solemn, sickly and unenterprising sort which so many good children are represented to be. He came to the front in athletics; and being six feet and three inches tall and finely proportioned in his manhood, his physical contests were a sight worth seeing. He became president of the London Bicycle Club, and was not content with anything less than the championship of all England, which he won in 1878 by five yards in a five-mile race with John Keen, then the champion professional of Great Britain. In 1.882 he was the first to accomplish that remarkable journey on the wheel from Land's End to John O'Gro!lit's house, nearly 1,000 miles, which he accomplished in thirteen days. As a phonographer also he would probably have ranked second only to Isaac Pitman. He was the author of the article on Shorthand in the "Encycl@pmdia Britannica," which is a marvel of comprehensive and condensed accuracy.
In college there were others more brilliant than he, but none more interested, independent and persistent; and his stubborn persistence enabled him to win positions, honorlil and prizes of the hiihest order. But his aggressive evangelistic spirit could not be confined within the college walls, and so with some companions, among whom he was a leader, he went among the lower classes in Barnwell with the simple story of redemption. The work outgrew their halls, and an old theater was purchased with subscriptions largely given or solicited by Keith- Falconer, and from this work, in which I.e was a leader while yet a leader in undergraduate college life, the wretched and unchurched village of Barnwell has been transformed into a comparatively respectable portion of the university town.
But there is a far greater city mission enterprise than this with which his name is connected. It would be an interesting digression if we could trace the history of the Tower-Hamlets Mission in the East End of London. Mr. Oharrington, the leader of this enterprise, was a great friend of Keith-Falconer, who all through his Oambridge dayt! went often to visit this work and to help it on. About 1880 he spent much time in devising ways and means, and in securing subscriptions, £2,000 of which he gave himself, for the Great Assembly Hall, which now towers up on Mile End Road, where 5,000 people may gather under the sound of one voice, where a people's service is held eyery night, while the play-houses and grog-shops have greatly declined in value since the hall was built, and where one of the worst regions of human degradation in modern city life is being redeemed, not in the mind of a wciter of tales, but in the alleys and hovels of East London, by the simple gospel of the risen Lord. Keith-Falconer has been a main factor in all this movement, working as a humble layman in private life who but rarely attempted to speak in public. His direct evangelistic work was mostly in the direction of what he called" having a talk with a man," which would mean a quiet, private conversation about those sacred issues which lie deepest in life. This he always welcomed an opportunity to do. For instance, we find him writing in a letter to his wife, in 1884, while on a bicycle tour with a friend in Sutherlandshire, "We had a job to get across the Kyle. It was very low water, and we had to wade some distance before we got to the boat. We had a talk with the boatman, who said he had been praying and searching for years, but ' couldn't find Him.'"
And so it is as a layman that all his religious work was done-no less indeed commissioned of God for his work than if he had been an ordained minister of the gospel; but on the other hand, no more com- missioned than is every disciple of Jesus Ohrist in the world to-day.
There remains to be sketched one more enterprise of this short life, which may give a fitting impression not only of the life here set forth, but of what is still more valuable, the truth which is set at the head of this article.
While in his college life he had followed a large varIety of studies, his chief interest had centered upon the Bible and the languages in which it was written, especially the Hebrew, and from the Hebrew his interest spread to the whole family of Semitic languages. After the close of his college study he gave Arabic his chief attention for many months, until he had mastered the classic language and its literature, including the Koran; and then he spent a winter in a forsaken place in upper Egypt for the purpose of getting the colloquial language, the temper of the A,rabic mind, and the nature of the Mohammedan religion. For all this work he seems to have had no other conscious motive than his love for the study-a mere scientific interest, and yet who can doubt that there was a sub-conscious motive, an impulse from God which did not rise into the consciousness of the man himself until it had done its work, and made him, while yet a youth, the master of all this knowl- edge. If now this knowledge were followed up in one direction it would, by general consent, make him the greatest living Orientalist, and if it were followed up in another direction it might open the door of many locks that should let the light of the gospel into the heart of Mohammedanism.
Here was a parting of the ways. Science, fame, and comfort on the one hand, and on the other seclusion, with only God and the gos- pel, and a wretched world about him, the dangers of a foreign land and climate, and the sacrifices of nobility, distinction and wealth at home. But there is no moment of hesitation in choice with him. He im~ediately, and in the most methodical and business-like way, sets about finding the strategi() point of attack, geographic and ethnic, upon Mohammedanism. The knowledge of Arabic, which he found himself in possession of, must be used to the best possible advantage to the kingdom of God, which it was always his ambition to.serve.
After careful deliberation he settled on Aden as the point to be ex- amined, but his methodical style required that it should be visited and the climate tried and the methods of operation decided upon on the' ground; and so in October, 1885, he and his wife went to Aden, which is a British coaling station at the point where the Red Sea opens into the Indian Ocean, opposite the Somali coast of Africa, and the south- ernmost point of the Arabian peninsula-a barren, comfortless wilder- ness of sand and rock twelve degrees from the equator. But it is a point from which the arteries of Arabian commerce run inland to the whole country. As many as a quarter of a million camels come into Aden from the interior every year, and there is one of the best harbors in the world.
He saw at a glance that the commission of the apostles to heal dis- eases was what was needed there to open the hearts of the people; for the numberless of aftlicted have no relief there, and a skillful surgeon – would be a blessing whose value none could estimate. His knowledge of the Koran was superior to their own, and he found that by helping them, and then "having a talk with them," he was very kindly received, and the news wonld be carried far away to bring others f~r1ike treatment. Finding no trouble in the climate either for himself or wife, he decided that this was the point to be occupied. His plan was to establish a hospital and a school, both of which could be filled almost as soon as they could be built. With this plan clearly drawn he returned to his home to prepare for the work.
A Ohristian physician was secured; he studied medicine himself; he put himself under the direction of the Foreign Missionary Agency of the Free Ohurch of Scotland, for he did not believe in the free lance business in missions, although he proposed to bear the whole expense of the mission himself.
Just at this point, to his great surprise, he was appointed professor of Arabic in Oambridge, but as this position was partly honorary, re- quiring only one lecture or short course of lectures in a year, the teach- ing being given out to an associate, he accepted the appointment, be- lieving that it would give him more influence and enable him to draw the world's attention to :fJ.is work in far-off Arabia. So he prepared and delivered his first course of three lectures on "The Pilgrimage to Mecca;" and early in November, 1886, in the evening after his last lecture, he started for Aden.
Only five months of lahor lay before him; but in that time with his wife and Dr. Oowen, a work was set onfout, buildings begun, a char- acter and a fame established in all southern Arabia, which with the, blessing of God and the support of man gives promise of solving 000 of the hardest problems laid at the feet of the Ohristian world to-day- , the evangelization of the Moslems. Before that five months ended there were but few who had come in contact with this mission who would admit that they were Moslems, and when spoken to about it they would say, "There are no Moslems here." The Gospel in the Arabic found a ready market and a reverent reading among those who had seen the spirit and power of the Ohristian physician.
But the noble fellow was stricken with the Aden fever. It is not a very dangerous disease, and therefore the surprise even to his wife and the doctor was very great when one morning they found that he had quietly slept out his life while those who had been watching at his bed- side slumbered with him.
"The falling asleep," sa,ys the Free Ohurch resolution, "in the first months of fervent service, of Hon. Ion Keith-Falconer in the extreme Asian outpost in South Arabia gives solemn urgency to his last appeal to the cultured, the wealthy and the unselfish, whom that devoted vol- unteer for Ohrist represented [when he addressed them in these words]: 'While vast continents are shrouded in almost utter dark- ness, and hundreds of millions suffer the horrors of heathenism or Islam, the burden of Eroof lies upon you to show that the .circum-
JEWISH MISSION WORJ[. t1t
stances in which God placed you were meant by Him to keep you out of the foreign mission field:" .
Was it a mistake of Providence that this noble young apostle should be thus early called to "depart and be with Ohrist"? Was it a mis- take that he should have gone to Aden in the first instance? His dis- tinguished position and accomplishments were so widely known, the interest in his enterprise so deep, the love for his person so great, that the dispatch announcing his death sent a shock through the whole kingdom. The call of the church for a volunteer to fill the breach was responded to by thirteen young men from the graduating class of New College, who were ready to be used in the foreign field in the place and manner in which they could do the most good. Others are being led by his example to prepare for a like work. And so, like Samson of old, great as he was in life, he was greater still in death.
This is the kind of men our age is calling for-men who are willing to use what God has given them, and the best he has given them, to His glory• Nothing is too good to be so used. This man was no special favorite of grace. There are thousands who have equal qualifications, except the willingness to use their gifts for God and humanity.
A new value has la.tely made itself known in the Keith-Falconer mission, which promises large benefit to civilization. Since British occupation has turned the current of the Arabian slave ~rade away from lower Egypt, that current has set in right across by Aden.
In September last a British man-of-war captured three cargoes of Abyssinian children, 217 in all, being carried into Arabia for the most degrading servitude. They were nominal Christians. Of course their homes had been destroyed and their friends killed. The mission has put a large number of them in its school, where they will receive a Ohristian training and be sent back as missionaries.
And so another important outpost has been occupied by the armies of the Lord, and is now effectively manned with a force of Ohristian teachers, physicians and evangelists. The Rev. William R. W. Gard- ner, one of the prompt young volunteers, who has been since prepar- ing himself for the special work, has just now joined the mission, and there is every prospect for great good to come from the work of this modern apostle.
JEWISH MISSION WORK.
BY REV. PROFESSOR GEORGE H. SCHODDE, COLUMBUS, OHIO.
THE retirement of Professor Franz Delitzsch, without doubt the leading representative of the gospel cause among the lost sheep of the house of Israel in our day and generation, from the editorship of the Saat auf Hoffnung, the leading journal devoted to this special de~ partment of mission work, after an uninterrupted management of that quarterly for twenty-five years, is a timely occasion briefly to give a bird's..eye-view of the problems, principles, methods, and results of the evangelization of Israel. Such a resume is all the more a matter of present interest, as developments have been going on in this department of mission activity, the records of which form a not unimportant chapter in this, the greatest mission century since the apostolic era. Primarily in the growth of interest in this important work and in the clearer perception of the problems involved and of the correct methods of solution; and, secondarily, also in the success that has attended the efiorts, Jewish gospel work occupies a public prommence in the activity of the church that it never before enjoyed or was entitled to.
When Delitzsch established his journal, he was, at least in central and northern Protestant Europe, a vox clamantis in 'deseno. Affairs stood better in this regard in England. Even as late as 1881, the statistician Haman could report only 20 societies, with about 250 men, and expending about $300,000 annually for the evangelization of Israel. Last year Lic. Dr. Dalmen, the new editor of Saat aufHoffnung, could report 47 Protestant Jewish mission societies, with 377 missionaries, and spending nearly $500,000 annually. In other words, in scarcely half a dozen years, the activity in this ardnous field has almost literally doubled. The Jewish popUlation of the earth is about 6,400,000. There is then one missionary for every 16,976 Jews, and these people are accordingly, in comparison to the nearly one thousand million non-Christians of the globe, which are the figures of so good an authority as Daniel's Lehrbuch der Geographie, by far better provided with gospel privileges than are the heathen nations. This growth of zeal for Israel re-establishment has indeed not been contemporaneous with the revived activity for foreign mission work. The latter had fully half a century the start of the former. But it is an open question whether in regard to methods and manners, principles and means, the cause of Jewish mission work has not gained as much in the last decade or two as the foreign mission cause has since the beginning of the century. Indeed the debatable ground in the latter seems to be greater in oxtent and the interrogation points to exceed in number the difficulties and differences in the former.
It goes without saying that the gospel work among the Jews is the most difficult in the whol-l sphere of evangelization. The problems here are entirely peculiar and unique. It requires but little knowledge of psychology and history to understand why this should be the case. The trouble lies 01;1 both sides, Christian and Jewish. The attitude of the Christian Church, at least practically, has never been what it should have been toward the Jews. Proselyting rather than conversion has been the aim over against Ismel down to almost the present time. There has been a conspicuous absence of that love for ISJ;&el which is an .absolutely necessary prerequisite to successful evangelization in their midst. At best, the attitude of Christians toward the work has been a negative and indifferent one. The poBitive element of zeal for Israel's spiritual interests has been confined to exceeding- ly narrow limits. Nothing like that general interest which character- izes the activity of the chnrches in theforeign and home mission causes in general has been or can be aroused ;or the gospel work among Israel. Just to what degree this apathy and limited interest is the expression of that spirit which in earlier centuries made the Jews the special object of the persecution of a civilization calling itself Ohristian, would bean interesting problem, but one not to be discussed here. To a greater or less degree the popular prejudice against the Jews is the deposit left in the thought of the age from the antagonism of the olden' times. In Ii large measure it is an inheritance and not the result of CODSelous8Dd intelligent reasoning.
That to a great extent the Jews were and are the cause of the antip- athy of modern society and Ohristianity is a matter beyond dispnte. The enigmatical social disorder called anti-Semitism is sufficient evi- dence of this. It is a mistake to regard this opposition to Jewish in- fluence pervading all central and eastern Europe as a rAvival of blind medieval hatred of the Israelites. It is not a new crusade after the manner of a PfefIercorn in the days of Reuchlin. It is the out- growth of the new!3tatus in modern society, socially, politically, ~nd otherwise, which has been granted to the Jews also as one of the Te-:- sults of the general policy of emancipation characteristic of our century. For about three or four decades all political and other disabilities have been removed from the Jews; and as a consequence this gifted people have been crowding into all the higher and influential positions in so- ciety, in education, in politics, in finances, in journalism, and else- where. The Jewish influence in modern society is far in excess of their proportional numerical strength. It is against this undue pre- ponderance of Jewish leadership which, as Semitic in origin and char- acter, is regarded as antagonistic to an Aryan and Ohristian civiliza- tion, that the anti-Semitism of the day is directed. It is a fiction that . the Jews are persecuted for their religion's sake. The problem is pri- marilya social one, and its agitation, aside of some inexcusable excesses, a. legitimate and needful one, made necessary by the social statistics of the day.
A somewhat remarkable confirmation of this is the singular phenom- enon that wherever the Jews are most nUl'lerous and are most influen- tial, that there the work of their evangelization has the fewest friends. Russia and Austria do very little for the cause, and it is in these two countries that fully two-thirds of all the Jews of the globe live. Ger- many, with its many millions of Protestants, does les8 for this work than little Norway with its two millions. But in the Scandinavian countries a Jew is but seldom seen, and the Ohristiansthere, notwith- standing their poverty, take a kind of a sentimental rather than all intelligent interest in the work, and have a warm heart for Israel. In England, where more is done for the cause than in all the rest of Christendom together, the Jew is not numerically 80 well represented as in Germany and eastern Europe, and the distasteful features of his in:fl.uep.qe are to a great extent absent. Besides this, the general lead which England has taken in the work of missions over aU the rest of Europe has not been without its effects in this field also.
Besides this very granting of perfect equality to the Jews, which has been outwardly at least the occasion of tho anti-SemitIc movement, but which naturally, as the expression of a civilization that is Christian in character, would have been expected to make the beneficiaries of this ,emancipation more friendly to Christianity, has had, if anything, the opposite effect. In so far as assimihtion and amalgamation has taken place, it has practically consisted of a comprQmise between traditional Judaism and modern thought, in such a manner that the outcome is little better than radicalism and rationalism. The modernized or "reformed" Jew as a rule entertains little more than such empty generalizations of theological and scriptural ideas that make him feel a warm sympathy with vapid Universalism and Unitarianism. It is the western Jew who has imbibed this new wisdom; and among this class of Israelites the efforts of gospel messengers have practically been love's labor lost.
The problem becomes all the more complicated by the fact that the missionary meets the Jew not as he does the heathen. The latter he approaches as a superior, the former more as an equal. In both cases ho must remove error as well as build up truth; but in the case of the Jew it is intelligent error, fortified by argument and history. The Jew sees in the Christian one who has departed from the pure worship of Jehovah and feels himself in possession of a religion purer and higher than that which he is asked to substitute for it. If there is any idea that has entered into the very marrow and bone of Israel, it is the con- viction that as the chosen people of God it is their mission to uphold the standard of pure divine worship, of monotheism, and that it is their historic and divinely assigned work to bring the religious prin- ciples maintained by JudaIsm to Impremacy in the hearts and minds of the nations. It is true that this is more a theoretic and abstract idea; for Judaism, since the downfall of its political power and the great dispersion, has not been a missionary religion and has made little or no propaganda of its peculiar tenets; yet this does not diminish but rather strengthens the tenacity of this conviction. And this has been fortified by the religious development in Israel for fully two thousand years. The representative Jew, particularly of the East, is the Tal· mudic Jew. His position is essentially the Pharisaism and legalism of the New Testament era, strengthened by the whole Talmudic thought since that day. The Old Testament is seen only in the light, or rather darkness, of Talmudic and Rabbinic thought; and this makes it all the more difficult to prod uce a tabula rasa of error for the erection of Christian truth. To this comes the further factor of a blind hatred of Christ. Vollert, a recent messenger to the Jews of the East, says on this point (BaatautHoffnun~, 1889, Jan., p. 39): "!tis possible to impress upon them that the Messiah has already come; they will listen when we say that they have rejected Him and therefore have deserved their fate; but as soon as we say that the rejected one is 'Jesus,' the Crucified, fire and lightning of the eyes show that the limits of the endurable have been transgressed."
This condition of the problem must determine the methods and manner of its solution. Modern mission workers and thinkers in the field of evangelization in Israel are unanimous that there is but one way proper for the treatment of so intricate a question, and that is the prosecution of the method already adopted by the first writer in the NewTestament, Matthew, namely, to show that the Messiah of the New Testament is the fulfillment of the Messianic predictions of the Old. The work among Israel is more a work of argument than it is anywhere else in the whole sphere of mission activity. Instruction and conviction have here a place not found elsewhere. For that reason the preparation of a Jewish missionary is necessarily a more arduous task than that of a messenger to the Gentiles. He must be not only a good Biblical scholar and interpreter, a logical reasoner, but also well versed in the Talmudic literature, the errors of which he is to refute. Just in this connection is seen the great importance of the revived Instituta Judaica, which are found at fully a dozen German and Scandinavian Universities with a membership of 300 and more and consist of voluntary association of students under the leadership of men like Delitzsch, Strack, Orelli and others, and devote their energy to the study of post-Biblical Hebrew and its literature. But the greatest agencies in this regard have been Delitzsch's and Salkinson's Hebrew New Testaments. The former has been circulated in more than eighty thousand copies, particularly in eastern Europe and in Siberia. The latter has appeared in a second edition of 200,000 copies, and a generous Scotchman has paid for 100,000 copies to be used for missionary purposes. The reports of what the mere study of the New Testament has done to make fair-minded Jews see in the Christianity of the New Testament the fulfillment and complement of the preparatory religious development of the Old, often read almost like miracles of missions. They furnish renewed evidence that the New Testament is the best commentary on the Old. It is this idea, too, that is at the foundation of the various Jewish Christian movements which started independently . of each other and of direct Christian influence in Southern Russia, Siberia and Hungary. Thought and study of the New Testament awakened in these reformers the conviction that brael's development into Pharasaic legalism was a false course, and that the historic mission of the people can be fulfilled only by beginning anew there where the fatal error set in, that is, by accepting the New Testament development as the legitimate and correct outcome of the Old. In this way the correctness of the methods of modern Jewish mission work is vindicated by independent evidence from an entirely foreign source.
Of course even with all arguments in favor of the Ohristian mission_ ary the great work of captatio benevolentiw still remains to be done, and is an all-important factor and most difficult task. The Jews as a class hate and mistrust the Ohristian missionary. They cannot believe' in the purity of his motives, leait of all if he is himself a convert. There seems to be only one man of prominence in this work who has gained the love of all Israel, and that man is Franz Delitzseh. He has given such eVIdence of his affection for that people, especially in the, anti~Semitic agitation, that even the most radical Jews respect him and his motives. To him they all listen, and this fact explains to a great extent the strong influence of his New Testament translation. When recently he addressed a pamphlet to thinking Israelites entitled "Earnest Questions to the Educated of the Jewish Religion," 4,000 copies were disposed of in a few weeks, and many Jewish journals gave it a most respectful treatment. ,But as a rule it is exceedingly difficult to gain the ear of Israel for the gospel. It is a common idea among them, and also among certain Ohristians, that every Jewish convert is a hypocrite. Such rashness forgets that Ohrist's disciples were Jews and that thousands of Jewish converts have noble records on the pages of church history. Think only of such modern instances as the father of modern church history, Neander, whose centennial was bnt recently celebrated; of KalkaI', who presided at the Oopenhagen meeting of the Evangelical Alliance; of Philippi, the great conservative dogmatician of Rostock; of Oaspari, the fine Orientalist and historical scholar of Norway, and men of this kind.
Ooncerning the successes of the work little can or should be said. The estimate of Missionary de la Roi, of Breslau, that fully 100,000 jews have since the beginning of the present century found their way into the church through the mission activity is probably no exaggeration, but must stand ()n its own merits. Oertain it is, that greater gains have been made than friend and foe as a rule are inclined to think. But here as well as elsewhere the question of snccess is important for us only in its relation to the decision as to the correct methods. Ours it is to be faithful to the divine mission command, leaving the consequences to Him who gave it His people.
MADAGASCAR
MADAGASOAR.
BY L. P. BROCKETT, M.D., BROOKLYN, N. Y. (Ooncluded/rompcl/l4J858.) I III. PROGRESS OF THE GOSPEL IN MADAGASCAR. THE dea.thof the wicked queen RanavalonaI., and the accession of her son Radama II. to the throne, marks a.nother epoch in the history of the Mal.a. g'asy. From that date (August, 1861,) there was no more persecution, no more exclusion of missionaries or other foreigners from the island, and no more wars for slaughter or for slaves. All religions were tolerated, but idol· atry was not overthrown, and the idol keepers bided their time. Radama II. was a young man of rather weak intellect, though in early lifE' of many good impulses. He had associated, before his mother's death,. with many of the native Chrilltians, and at one time professed conversion, but never united with any of the churches. After his accession to the throne he formed an intimacy with some French adventurers, who used him for their profit, and his own and the nation's injUl'y; and having, very unwisely, abolished all duties on exports and imports, the vile rum from the Mauritius was brought into Madagascar in immense quantities, and he became so addicted to its use as to be almost constantly intoxicated. Drunkenness, became for the first time a prevalent vice with the Malagasy, especially with the coast tl'ibes. The cessation of persecution, and the hopes which were entertained of the young king's good conduct, brought the missionaries back to Madaga.sear,and the Christians who had been scattered everywhere in the island gather.ed again in Imerina, and very many of them in the capital, Antananarivo; the schools and churches were opened again, and the city, so long dellOlate, re– sumed its activities, and again became populous. By 1863 the missionaries found that in Imerina (the land, of the Hovas) there were 37,000 communicants inthe churches, 150,000 professedadhel'eBts to Christianity, and more than 50,000 children ready to enter the school;' So mightily had the Word of God prevailed, even under the instrumentality of native preachers and teachers, for, during at least twenty-fiveyea'1's, them' had been no European missionaries there. They had only the New Testa.- ment in thtlir own language, and the translation of this was not perfect; of course their knowledge of the doctrines of Ohristianity was defective; but they had passed through the fires of persecution, and they knew that they loved Jesus Christ, as their Saviour and Redeemer, and were ready to die for Him. There seemed for a little time to be a probability of the return of persecution. The king, while strongly addicted to his cups, was under evil influences. A French adventurer named Lambert had persuaded him to give him a grant of lands to the amount of nearly one-third of the arable land on the island, and this without any consideration; the idol keepers and idolators had formed an association, naming themseives the M6namaso, "the king's friends," and they were constantly advising him to issue decrees which would injure or destroy the Christians. He was for a time restrained by his Prime Minister, who favored Christianity; but finally Radamall. W8.1I. induced by the Menamaso to issue a decree that whenever individuals orvillages had a quarl'el with each other, they might go out and fight it out, and if any of them were killed the survivors ShOUld not be punished. The people understood that this meant a civil war of extermination against the Christians; and gl'eat efforts were made to induce the king to revoke this decree, but he stubbornly refused to do so, and ad4e<l otherpersec1.ting edicts,
JUNE
The Menama80 were exiled, hut the king, in his sober moments, still ad. hered to his decree, and when drunk.was very violent. A revolution ensued and the Government officials, after using every effort to control him, finaU; put him to death May 12, 1863, and proclaimed his widow. Rabodo, queen under the title of Rosaherina. It was announced to the people that Radama II. had taken his own life, because his friends the Menamaso had been ban- ished. The new government under Queen Rasoherina was to be one in which the Queen. the nobles and the heads of the people were to unite in making the laws; and decrees were at once premulgated as absolute by the new govern- ment; that the sovereign should not drink spirituous liquors; that the friend- ship with foreigners should be maintained; that there should be perfect lib. erty of conscience, and freedom of religious worship to all, natives and for. eigners, Christians and idol worshipers; that the ordeal of the tangena should be abolished, and that the death penalty should be inflicted only for the greatest crimes, and solely by thE' consent of the sovereign and her coun- cil. The people promised obedience to these decrees, and the Queen took the oath of allegiance to them. Rasoherina was not a ChristIan but she proved a good sovereign. Her reign was a stormy one, from the repeated revolts of the coast tribes who had been attached to Radama II., and would not believe that he was dead; from the imperiousness and intemperance of her Prime Minister, whom she was eventually obliged to banish, and from the intrigues of the French. who had made great demands, based on the grants made by the late king to the adventurer Lambert. Finding that she would not concede the lands, the French demanded through their Consul and Admiral an indemnity of $180,000 which she was eventually obliged to .pay in order to obtain the return of the concession. The mission work meanwhile was going forward; new missionaries from the Friends, the Nor- wegian Lutherans, the Church Missionary Society, and eventually the So- ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel came in. Treaties were made with Great Britain and the United States. The Queen was in failing health, and seemed inclined to go back to idol worship, which indeed she had never fully abandoned. On the 1st of April, 1868, Queen Rasoherina died at her palace in the capital, and the next day the Prime Minister and Council chose Ra- . moma, a niece of the cruel Queen Ranavalona I., as her successor, with the title of Ranavalona II. Her reign was signalized by the adoption of a lib- eral constitution fpundeu upon the recognition of Christianity as the ruling power in the state, but not to be administered in a persecuting spirit. At the funeral of Rasohel'ina, and the proclamation of Ranavalona II., no idols were brought forward, nor was idol-worship mentioned in any treaty or state paper. The idol-keepers realized that their power was gone, and fell back into obscurity. On the 3rd of September, 1868, the Queen was crowned at the palace of Andohalo in the presence of a vast concourse of people. A copy of the Malagasy Scriptures, so far as tt'anslated, elegantly bound, was placed conspicuously at her side, and the royal canopy was emblazoned with ScrIpture texts. The coronation oath was administered to her with her hand on the sacred volume. Early in October, the Queen, her Prime Min. ister, Rainilaiarivony, and the household of the palace, met togethel' in Christian worship. On the 19th of February, 1869, the Queen, follOWing the exa.mple of her predecessor, was married to her Prime Minister, a man of remarkable ability, and of pure and noble character. In Madagascar, as in England, the Prime Minister is the real ruler of the country; and in this case he has retained his power through two administrations, and has car- ried it through gr~t qifficulties alld da,ngers. Oil the 21st 9f February,
MADAGASCAR
two days later, the Queen and her husband were baptized by Andria.mbelo," one of the native pastors, and united with one of the mission -church~. It was the custom in Madagascar that the new sovereign soon after his or her coronation should erect a new building, usually a palace, on the palace- grounds: Ranavalona II. decided to build a Christian church there of the beautiful Malagasy marble. Her next· step was the public burning of all the national idols, September 8,1869, and proclamation asking all her peo- ple to follow her example, and henceforth to worship the only living ,and true God. Her request was complied with by all the people of Imerina, though some of the unconverted natives looked forward with terror to the coming harvest, when they thought their idol gods would revenge them- selves on them by a famine, but the ensuing han-est was more bountiful than any which had previously been known, and their fears were allayed.
IV. THE PROGRESS OF THE GOSPEL UNDER RANAVALONA II. We have already spoken of the circumstances attending the accession and coronation of Queen Ranavalona II. ;.of her courageous and frank avowal of her determination that Christianity should be the ruling and controlling influence in the state; of her burning all the national idols, and her virtual command that the people should also give their idols, ancestral statues and fetwhes to the fiames, and the instant response followed by a universal demand for teachers of the new religion. We have also spoken of the public baptism of the Queen and the Prime Minister, and of the erection of a beautiful marble church in the palace grounds by the Queen. There have been instances iii European history within the past three centuries where a ruler has felt it a duty, from motives of state policy, to lead in the change from Romanism to Protestantism, a change almost as great as that made in Madagascar by Queen Ranavalona II. ; but, in the English case of Queen Elizabeth, the sovereign did not deem it necessary that her own life should be an example of genuine piety and devotion to her people. The Queen of Madagascar having avowed herself a Christian, felt that it was her duty and her privilege to live thenceforth a holy, Christian life; and we doubt if in all the annals of history since the commencement of the Christian era, there can be found a record of a purer and more saintly life on the part of a professedly Christ.ian ruler. She carried this devotion into aU the relations of life. Her only questions in regard to any proposed action seflmed to be: Will this glorify God, and will it be for the good of my people? For fifteen years she was spared to bless her people and make them a civilized and Christian nation. How she learned so much of statemanship and effective administration is a gre;;:t marvel; but we believe that she sought and found wisdom from above. Let us enumerate a few of her wise measures and deeds: Whatever she could do to facilitate the work of the missionaries she did promptly and well; she established also large numbet's of government schools in all of which Christianity was tal~ght; and these not only among the Hovas but .among the heathen tribes so far as was possible; she gave equal rights to all her subjects in their religiOUS worship, Catholics as well as Protestants; and when the French Jesuits who, under her liberal administration, had planted missions and established schools, began to intrigue against the schools, churches and missions of the London Missionary Society, and the Friends Mission, whom they called canting Methodists, and finally went" so far as to demand that the whole religious instruction of the nation should be gIven up to Romish . priests, she rebuked them with firmness, and assured them that while there should be perfect freedom ~f wOl'ship and religious belief, no sect or denomination would be allowed to interfere or plot against any other. Her people begged her to expel these Jesuits, who had always been the enemies of the nation, and were really only French spies; but she refused, preferring to subdue them with kindness. She enforced the observance of the Sabbath; caused a code of laws to be prepared based on the best codes of England and America, by which crime should be ('ffectively punished, strict morality promoted, the rights and duties of the family should be maintained, and the strictest purity enforced; emancipated all the the national slaves, and by repeated edicts greatly diminished slavery among her people. She established a government printing house where not only the laws, but the Scriptures and the text books for the schools should be printed; introduced the Tonic Sol-fa system in all the schools, and printed both music and hymns in Malagasy, for religious worship as well as for the use of the schools. She greatly multiplied copies of the Scriptures, which, in 1869, had first been published complete in the Malagasy language. Finding a necessity for more thorough supervision of the various departments of the government, she selected, with the aid and counsel of the Prime Minister, a cabinet of ten of the most competent men in the kingdom to take charge of the agricultural, educational, military, commercial, manufacturing, land and other interests of the country, each of whom was directly responsible to the Prime Minister and herself. When the wild tribes made hostile raids, and it was necessary to suppress them by force, she instructed the military officers to avoid bloodshed, and to show them that their Queen was ready to redress their wrongs if they would appeal to her. The levying of taxes, which in all oriental nations is accompanied by frauds and oppression, was by her wise management made so light a burden that none of her people were distressed by it. In accordance with the immemorial practice of the Kings of Imerina and her immediate predecessors, the sale of lands in fee simple to foreigners, and of mining lands to anyone, was prohibited. Commerce with other nations was encouraged. Treaties of commerce were concluded with France, England, Germany, Italy and the United States, and their provisions carefully observed.* Yet this just and righteous queen was to be suhjected to great and severe trials, through the greed and malice of the French Government, and the bitter hatred and bigotry of the Jesuits, who were acting in the double role of missionaries and spies at Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. For nearly sixty years the French had cast longing eyes on Madagascar. More than once they had attempted to take possession of portions of it by force, but had been thwarted. They desired the glory of foreign conquest, and *This great advance in civilization, in good government, in morality and educational pro- gress, rests not solely on the testimony of the missionaries. who might be regarded as prejudiced witnes!es. In March, 1881, Admiral Sir W. Gore-Jones, at the direction of Earl Granville, British Foreign Secretary, visited Madagascar. taking with him Mr. Pakenham the British Consul, and spent three-a.nd-a-half months in a careful examlna.tion of the condition of the people and the administration of the Queen. Theil' report gives the highest commendation of the Queen, whose reign they declared" the greatest and most beneficial that Ma.da.gascar ha.d ever seen." .. The Hova people," said the Admiral… are now in that condition that they are ready to burst into perfect civilization; large num_ bers of the younger men are highly educated; the missionary schools are fuil of children. and thus the educaotionof the future generation is assured. Under the Queen's administration the Hovas had become a Christia.n people, the children were being educated 1D the Christian faith; the trial by poison had been abolished; more than 150,000 Mozambique slaves had been emancipated; an admirable code or laws, criminal and civil, had been ena.1lted and enforced; an army of 40,000 trO<!ps had been organized, armed a.nd drilled•• This testimolQ' is conclusive.
they wanted possessions in the East and especially 1D the Indian Oeean. After the disastrous Franco-German War, they turned their attention afreshto conquests in the East, attempting most unwarrantably the capture of Tonquin, and seeking to find some pretext for seizing Madagascar. The Jesuit missionaries, furious at theirfailure to compel the Queen to relinquish to them the entire religious control of the island, and to expel at their bidding the Protestant missionaries, were also zealously seeking some pI'etext on which the French Government might seize the island and thus give it upto their control. They represented to the French Government that the Queen, though amiable, was very weak; that there was no military force there worthy of the name; and thata very slight pretext would be sufficient to provoke a conflict; when, if bullied, she would at once succumb to their gemands. Tkiere was a French adventurer there, by the name of Laborde, who had obtained some grants of lands for agricultural purposes without consideration from the weak and intemperate Radama II., and some commercial privileges from Queen Rasoherina, the predecessor of Ranavalona II. ; he now demanded the title to these lands in fee simple, which the Queen refused, as contrary to the laws. He then declared that this was a violation of the treaty of 1868 with France (which was false), and appealed to the French Government to enforce the treaty. The Queen endeavored to pacify him, and to pay him for the concession which he had received from Radama II., but his death occurring soon after, his son and heir, M. Edward Laborde, refused to be satisfied, under the advice of the French Consul. The French had long had a trading station at the island of Nosy-be, on the northwest coast of Madagascar, and had gradually taken possession of the whole of that island. The northwestern coast of the main island, as well as most 01 the western and southwestern coast was occupied by the SakaHtva, a ferocious heathen tribe of large stature and nomadic habits, whose hostility to the Hovas was easily aroused, because they had destroyed their idols, and established a nominal Christianity throughout the island. The French sent their emissaries into this tribe, fomented their emnity to the Queen, made a treaty with them, giving them a claim to a considerable tract, nearly one-third of the island, to which this tribe had no title, and promised, that in case of a war with the Hovas they should be their allies and tht'y would provide for them. These were the only pretexts they had for the demands they now proceeded to make on the Queen; but having assembled a squadron of French ships of war in the harbor of Tamatave, and having taken counsel with the French Consul, the son and heir of the adventurer Laborde, and the Chief of the Jesuit missionaries, communications were made to the Prime Minister and the Queen; but the demands of the French Consul and the Admiral were so extravagant and unjust, and their representations so false, that no settlement was possible. Though the treaty of 1868 had expressly recog- nized the Queen as Queen of Madagascar, they persisted in addressing her as Queen of Imerina, or Queen of the Hovas, and when she refused to receive their communications as thus addressed, they changed their form to Queen Ranavalona II., and addressed insulting communications to the Prime Mmister; and the Commodore made public speeches at Tamatave, which were utterly unworthy the officer of any civilized government. After about six weeks of this fruitless discussion. the French Admiral and Consul drew up an ultimatum, dated June 1, 1883, requiring: 1. That the possesion of all .the island north of the 16th parallel should be guaranteed to them. 2. An indemnity of $200,000 for the claims of French citizens, includingtbe La.borde matter. 8. A revision of the treaty and a controlling voice in all matters
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affecting the policy of the Hova Government. A categorical answer Was dema.nded within eight days from the date of the ultimatum under penalty af the immediate bombardment of Tamatave in case of delay.
The ultimatum was promptly rejected by the Queen, and the Prime Minister notified' the French Admiral of the fact. The longer presence of the French residents in Antananarivo having been rendered impossible by the action of the French Admiral, they were on the 29th of May ordered to depart after five days' notice. They protested, although the Hovas in Tamatave had been expelled by the French at one hour's notice. They had been for many months actively engaged as spies, and the French Government or any other European government would, under similar circumstances, have put them to death or placed them in close confinement, but the Malagasy Queen was too thoroughly imbued with Christian principl(> to do either; she sent them away laden with food, with bearers for theilfeeble ones, and transportation for their effects, and a military escort to accompany them to the French lines. They, obdurate and maligant to the last, complained to the French commander that they had been robbed by the Queen's orders, and demanded and eventually obtained a tenfold indemnity for their alleged losses from the Malagasy Government. Tamatave and the adjacent ports were bombarded, and the British Consul, Mr. Packenham, who had been a firm friend of the Queen, was ordered, when dying to leave Tamatave in 24 hours, but died on the 23d of June, 1883, before the time expired., The Queen, desirous by all righteous means to avert the calamity of war from her people, sent an embassy to France, England, Germany and the United States to plead her cause.
The Queen's health had been failing for some months, and the excitement and trouble probably hastened her end. She died July 13, 1883. Hel' death was as noble and befitting in its Christian manifestations as her lite had been. She declared that she died fully trusting in Jesus Christ as her Saviour. She charged her successor and her Prime lIIinister to remember that her kingdom was resting upon God, and that He would take care of it. They were to continue as before in all matters of religion. Not one foot of her land was ever to be ceded to the French. Having joined in the usual evening prayers, she closed her eyes in death, " calmly as for a night's re- pose; like flowers at set of sun."
V. TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS. Queen Ranavalona II. on her death bed named her niece, Razatindrahety, her successor, and asked that at her own death she might be buried quickly so that no interruption should happen to the preparation for resisting the French. She was buried on the 17th of July, 1tl83, her niece having been previously proclaimed as her successor, under the title of Ranavalona III., the Prime Minister, Rainilaiarivony, still continuing to guide the affairs of the kingdom. T~le position of the young Queen was a very trying one. She was a widow, tho::~h only twenty years old, had been very highly educated, and had given evidence of decided abilities and of being a sincere Christian. Her manners were gracious and courteous, but it was thought that she was rather proud and haughty and not quite so amiable as the late queen. She had an excel- lent and wise counselor in the Prime Minister, whom, according to the cus- tom of the country, she subsequently married, though he was about seventy years of age. But she succeeded the wisest, most judicious and most saintly queen who had ever occupied an Oriental throne, and at a time when her na- tion was at war with one of the most powerful nations of Europe. She
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could· rely upon the loyalty of her people, and wha.t was of far more consequence, she placed her dependence upon God, who had brought the na.tion .
thus far, and would not, she believed, leave them to perish. She declined to be crowned till the following November (1883) preferring first to make herself thoroughly familiar with her duties under the instruction of the Prime Minister. But no time was lost in this delay; the arming and drilling of the troops went on; arms of all sorts and Gatling and Gardner guns were imported from America; eminent military men, of English and American birth, were employed to instruct the troops in tactics, in fortification and in cavalry evolutions; all export of food and provisions was prohibited. The ambassadors sent by Ranavalona II. to Europe and America returned; their mission had been successful everywhere, except in France; there the Government had treated them roughly, and even refused them a hearing. But their mission in England, Germany and in the United States had raised up for them powerful advocates, especially among the Society of Friends, who were bringing such moral forces to bear upon the better disposed citizens of France as did lead to a change of feeling in that Republic.
On the 22d of November, 1883, the coronatioll of Queen Ranavalona III. took place. .From her palace at Andohalo, in the capital, she was borne in a beautiful palanquin to the" Sacred Stone," where all the sovereigns of Madagascar al'e crowned, and thence to the great plain of Mahamasina, where were assembled a half million of the Malagasy, all thoroughly loyal. The Queen made an eloquent and impressive speech, without notes, in which she avowed her dependence upon God, and her belief that as He had brought her to the kingdom at such a time as this He would protect her people and herself, if they worshiped Him in sincerity and truth; she reviewed the past, and her predecessor's glorious reign, expressed her intentions of ruling in the fear of God, and her determination of going forth to lead her people to battle for the right, if it should be necessary, and asked them to stand by her loyally. From all the vast concourse shouts of loyalty and devotion went up, and the people asked the Prime Minister to answer for them to the Queen. He did so in a speech of great eloquence, in which he pledged himself that his own body and the bodies of all that vast multituue should be her wall of defense against her and their foes.
The people went frantic with joy at this declaration, and when, bowing to the missionaries, he told the Queen that much of the recent progress of the nation was due to their teachings, the cheers of the people were renewed more loudly than before. The Queen then descended from the platform and entered a small carriage drawn by a white pony. The pony was taken from the shafts and the highest officers of the court drew the carriage through all the sixteen passageways or streets which divided this mighty host into sections that she might greet all her people and be greeted by them. No accident marred the joy of the day, and on her arrival at the palace she went immediately to the palace church, where a religious service of thanksgiving closed the eventful day.
Meantime the war went on languidly, but without result. The Admiral bombarded the smaller ports and trading places along the.. coast without warning, always to the loss of some subjects of other nations, and sometimes to the destruction of their lives and property. These raids only inspired both natives and foreigners with such hatred for the French as to make any permanent occupation of the country on their part impossible for· many years to come. The Hovas, selecting strong locations neal' the points occupied by the French, fortified them and compelled the French and their Sakala.va allies to keep .under the shelter of their own guns, and any attempts to work their way to the interior were sure to result in their being picked off by.the Hova sharpshooters. Meantime the coast fever struck down more than half the French troops, and from a force of from 2,500 to 6,000 troops, constantly reinforced, they never had fifty pel' cent. of effectives. The Admiral was constantly demanding more men and more money; yet he had nothing to show for it. The drain upon the French army and treasury was oecoming frightful, the more so as they were at the same time expending large sums on 'fonquin with an equally ignominious result. At length this and the strong remonstrances against this unjust war which the Friends had presently led to the overthrow of the French Cabinet, and M. Freycinet replaced M. Ferry as Secretary of Foreign Affairs. In the two years which preceded this change the conduct of the French admirals and Consul in Madagascar was brutal and offensive in the extreme. They bombarded and captured Mojanga and other ports on the northwest coast, often without notice, stirred up the Sakalava to undertake raids and murders on peaceful viliages in the interior, demanded neg'otiations with the Queen, but continued active hostilities while these were in progress; at each attempt at negotiation they grew more insolent, refusing to recognize the' Queen as sovereign of Madagascar, threatening to take possession of the whole island, and demanding now a protectorate, which would be a virtual cession of aU power to them, now a third of the island in fee simple, Ilext the expUlsion of aU Protestant missionaries from the country, and its delivery to the Jesuit priests, and always an increasing indemnity. To these demands the Queen opposed a firm but courteous refusal, offering, however, indemnity for their alleged losses if the other demands were withdrawn. Then the Admiral Miot and the Consul announced their intention of capturing Antananarivo, and dictating terms of peace from the Malagasy capital. This was absurd, and did not alarm the Queen or the Prime Ministel'. The capital was nearly 5,000 feet above the sea, and the ascent to it was precipitous, through a dense forest, and there were no roads in existence, or possible for the French. They made some demonstrations toward capturing the capital, but never succeeded in approaching within 25() miles of it by the route which they took. Had they been able to come within 100 miles they would have been met by a force of at least 20,000 well-trained Hova troops, occupying a strongly fortified position-the key of the route to the capital-and well provided with artillery, Gatling and Gardner guns and small arms, and thoroughly provisioned. There was no time when the French could have brought 1,200 troops of all arms, aside from their Sakalava allies, to this expedition, and the Sakalavas always fled when attacked by the Hovas. Feints were made of maldng this attempt, but Admiral Miot never really intended it. Meanwhile, in 1884 and 1885, the Admiral had attempted to carry the fortified camp of the Hovas at Manjakandianombana, about ten miles from Tamatave-which had threatened the French for two years. The Hovas had about 20,000 troops of all arms, and were well provided with artillery, arms and ammunition, and were commanded by General Willoughby. In both actions the French were defeated with heavy loss and compelled to retreat. They had about 1,500 white troops and a large number of their savage allies. The last expedition was commanded by Admiral Miot in person. Meantime the condition of the French was growing more critical every day. Sickness and small losses from skirmishes were rapidly reducing their numbers, so that less than one-half of their force was effective, and the French people were unwilling to furnish money or men for 1'0 unprofitable a conflict. M. Sailliens, one of the most eminent of their statesmen, who had himself visited Madagascar, had published a book on the subject, in which he told the French people plainly that this whole conflict had been brought on by the JesUIt priests, froUl hatred of the Protestant missionaries, and from the determination to control these Malagasy tribes; that it could never succeed, and if it could it would ruin the French nation; that the conquest of Madagascar would require twenty years' time, a billion of francs ($200,000,000), and the lives of 200,000 men, and even then they would not be safe from constant guerilla attacks; while they would have the satisfaction of knowing that they had sent back into barbarism a nation which gave a brighter promise of speedy civilization than any other on the face of the globe.
It was evident to the French Government that they must make peace; yet they were reluctant to own themselves beaten. On tile other hand, the Malagasy were growing stronger every day. Th'ey had suffered some losses, but they had made more gains. They had acquired much knowledge in militaryaffairs and statesmanship, and this, without the demoralization and wreck which war usually brings; notwithstanding the losses by battle and by sickness, their population was larger than when the war comme,nceu. Religious worship, under church organization, ,was constantly maintained in all the camps. In the two largest camps there were twenty regularly constituted churches in each, with their pastors, who were soldiers, and their families and schools were established in each camp, and the teaching went on regularly. Many natives among the soldiers were converted. Strict temperance was maintained, and Christian song resounded from all the camps.
Several times during 1884 and 1885 the Queen held kabarys, or mass-meetings, at which hundreds of thousands of her subjects assembled on the great plain near the capital, when she told them of the progress of the war, of her affection for them, and of her trust in God. Their loyalty to her and their affection for her gave her great encouragement and strength. At one of these mass-meetings she proposed that the Premier should voice the prayer of the nation that God would send them speedy deliverance. It was a grand scene! The venerable man, with bared head, gave voice to their petitions, his lips quivering with emotion ,at each sentence, while from these hundreds of thousands of earnest worshipers the responsive amens came up like the voice of many waters.
Obviously, the Malagasy, if they had had a firm, unflinching friend among the nations of Europe or America, were in a position to dictate terms of peace, and France would have accepted them. As it was, with a new and courteous envoy in place of the former brutal ones, France exacted hard' and unjust terms, though hel' own losses were very heavy. She had expended more than twenty-five million dollars, and had sacrificed at least 12,COO men and some of her best officers, and she gained only a bay and harbor in the poorest part of the island, a titular right to interfere in the foreign policy of the Queen, a right to lease lands for a long term of years, and two millions of dollars' indemnity for damages to her own and other citizens. But she was glad to withdraw at any price.
The Queen of Madagascar, being relieved from these burdens and trials, has returned to her more congenial task of endeavoring to elevate and bless her people. There was no falling back during the wal' in the number of churches, of communicants, anu of schools, and in the midst of great peril and of death, thousands found consolation in their faith in the ever-living Saviour. Queen Ranavalona TI. had established a branch of the Red Cross Association in Madagascar, and her successor continued it. It proved of great service to her own tl'oopsduringthe war, and not only the sick and wounded Malagasy, but their wounded enemies also received help and'healing from its nurses. At the close of the war it was found that the French, having used the Sakalava and exposed them at all points of dangel', and to the deadly coast fever as well as wounding and death, after promising to care forthem, had abandoned them to their enemies. Many of them had perished in their miserable huts, and hundreds were wasting away from fever and wounds, having no one. to care for them. The Queen interested herself personally in ministrations of mercy for them, and by her care and attention many of them were brought back to life and health, and from being the bitterest of enemies j:.o the Queen have now bl;'come her loyal and loving subjects.
As soon as peace was restored acti ve work was resumed in the establishment of new schools and missions among the border tribes. Twice the Governmeni found that there had been feeble efforts to restore idol worship and the poisonous ordeal of the tangena. These attempts were promptly put down and "the more excellent way " taught, of the worship of the one living and true God. The laws were enforced all over the island, and everywhere was the love of Christ proclaimed. God's richest blessings came down on this faithful work for Him; 1887 and 1888 have been, in a peculiar sense, veal'S of the right hand of the Most High. The accession of converts has been very large, and the people have been pressing into the kingdom of God in: great numbers. Of course, there is some danger of unworthy persons being admitted to the churches, now, as in apostolic days} for intemperance and lust are the prevailing vices of the heathen population; but the churches are, as a rule, very careful and prompt in their discipline, and temperance and purity are strictly required of all their members. Yet, unquestionably, the righteolls souls of the missionaries and native pastors are sorely tried, by the fearful prevalence of immorality, lyingand intemperance among their professed converts. In a country which, sixty or even fifty years ago, was as wholly given over to lust as Corinth was in the apostle's time, it is hardly to be expected that these sins sbould be wholly extermi- nated. The Queen and her officers are models of purity; but the influence of the French traders, officers and sailors is of the vilest character, in promot- mg concubinage and gross licentiousness, and the English, Italian and Amer- ican traders are not much better. The English Government is responsible for the prevalent intemperance, forcing, as they do, the vlle rum of the .Mauritius into the island, in spite of the strict prohibition of the Malagasy Government. The statistics of the churches and schools to July, 1888, are as follows: There are not more than 40 European missionaries in all, but there are over 1,000 ordained native pastors, about 5,000 native preachers, 1,300 schools, with 125,000 scholars; 150,000 church members, about 450,000 adherents, and at least 1,500,000 nominal Christians. The people are very quick to learn, and a larger proportion of them are more inteillgent, even in religious matters, than most of the common people in European coun- tries. With all its short-comings and faults, Mada&,ascar is the missionary miracle of the nineteenth century.
LAY MISSIONARIES IN CHIN
LAY MISSIONARIES IN CHINA.
BY B. C….TTERBURY, M.D., PEKING, MISSIONARY PRESB. BOARD.
THE object of this paper is to briefly emphasize the following: 1. Need of more Christian workers in China. 2. Advantages to be gained in employing a certain proportion of lay workers to supply this need. 3. These lay workers should be sent out by our various Missionary Boards. 4. On the missionary field they should conform in dress and modes of living as closely as possible to the habits of the Chinese. Before discussing these points, let two objections which are commonly urged by many against this whole subject of the employment of lay agencies by the church be stated. The first of the objections is, that the employment to any considerable extent by the church of lay agents necessarily means the lowering of the standard of an educated minister and lessening their influence. But this by no means follows. The Christian Church in its various branches represents a constituency of evel'y class of society and all grades of intelligence. So long as our congregations are composed of intellectual, cultivated people, they will demand an intellectual, cultivated minister, and the demand must be supplied. In China, as well as elsewhere, men of high attainments are needed to translate books, study the various systems of religion, and preach to converts adval}ced in Christian knowledge. Such should be sent out by our various Boards. But besides these there is room also for another class of laborers of different attainments and education. The employment of this latter will no more interfere with the functions of the former than do the track-layers and other workmen who follow the civil engineers disturb them in their duties, as they layout a railroad. The employment of the one leaves the other freer for his special line of work, and the need for engineers with their superior attainments is all the more sharply brought out by contrast with those who are engaged in other details of road-laying. The other objection to this subject is, that lay workers are often cranky, inefficient workmen, and It costs as much to employ them as it does so-called thoroughly educated clergymen. ThIS objection would have weight if it could b~ shown that there are no cranks 01' inefficient men among the graduates of our theological semina.ries. It is not proposed to send cut hap-hazard, to the missionary field, every pious man or woman who comes along merely because he or she wants to become a missionary. Candidates desiring appointment must present the same credentials as to fitness for the work as do other missionaries, with the exception of not having pursued a regular theological course. Those recommending these candidates for service must be sure of their experience in Christian work, of their knowledge of the Bible and acquaintance with Christian evidences. There are such earnest, Christian men and women" of sanctified common sense" who wish to be engaged in God's work. To say that such lay workers are necessarily cranky, difficult to control, and even if not educated up to the highest notch cannot do"honest, efficient work, shows a non-acquaintance with what many of our city missional'les, those connected with the Young Men's ChristIan Associations, members of the China Inland Mission, and many other prominent and honest Christian workers, are accomplishing. In the East, the names of Wells Williams, Dr. Hepworth, Peter Parker, are household words, yet they worked and translated for the church without having been in one of its theological seminaries. The argument that since it costs as much to support a lay worker as it Joes a clerical missionary, and hence the latter sbould always be chosen, should sometimes be turned around and stated thus: That since it costs as much to send out a. clerical, as a lay missionary, our Boards in their selection of agents should give preference to the latter. The church must understand that the employment of one class of men, ministers we call them, to the almost utter exclusion from Christian work of other classes has no sanction, either in the Bible or apostolic teachings. A theological education per se is no guarantee of success in Christian work; like wings to a flying fish, itoften changes what otherwise might be a good swimmer into a very poor flyer.
The first point alluded·to above is the necessity for more Christian laborers in China. By way of illuskation we present some statistics, copied from various sources, but accurate enough for practical purposes. Four hundred millions of people, 35,000 Protestant converts, and not all these giants by at1;y means either in spiritual power or Christian knowledge. This proportion can be better appreciated by supposing that every letter of our English Bible could stand for a Chinaman. It would take over 100 Bibles to represent the number of heathen, while the Epistle to the Romans would stand for the members of our various Protestant churches. At present in China there are laboring. say, about 300 ordained ministers, or one to considerably more than one million of inhabitants. In the United States this proportion is as one to every 800 people. In that country also there are over 1,000 counties representing districts more populous than some of our states where the gos- pel has never yet been heard. The whole Empire is practically open to mission~ry eifort, but the workers-where are they? We constantly hear that our theological seminaries do not graduate a sufficient number of capable men to supply even home demand. Under the present system of choosing its missionaries for work abroad, our Boards then must either depend on those who are needed here, or, on the principle" anything is good enough for the heathen," send out men who can be of no use at home. Why there is this dearth of those willing to enter our theological seminaries we do not discuss. The fact remains that many who are fitted to do good work for the church both at home and abroad do not take a theological course. Why should not our Missionary Boards, if they cannot seCUl'e a sufficient number of efficient clerical missionaries, send out a certain proportion of such as their agents to China and other fields.
The second point to be spoken of is that even if a sufficient number of theo- logical graduates were offering themselves for missionary work, there are some'advantages to be gained in certain Hnes of work in rather employing lay workers. In China those who are willing to listen to and believe in the gospel are not the intellectual or wise, although these are notto be neglected.
But it is the coolies, the farmers, the villagers, the small tl-adesmen, who form by far the greater part of our native congregations. To get hold of these not so much intellectuality is needed as an earnest, loving heart. To instruct and guide them, an acquaintance and sympathy with their daily life is more important than a knowledge of Greek or Hebrew. He who is will- ing to put on their dress, live in some such manner as they live, eat of theit'
food, and sitting on the same bench, is able to talk about what interests them, speaking simply of the folly of idolatry, and of the one true God, will win their hearts. To fit one for this simple work the ordinary theological training is no sine qui non, but perhaps a hindrance. A knowledge of how to deal with the lower classes comes from having bad personal contact with them, and here the layman oCten has the advantage over him who has passed sO many of his years in his study pouring over his books. . Another advantage also to be gained in sending out lay workers in China is that these are more likely to be free from theological bias and the powers of church traditions, and hence will probably work in greater harmony with ,those of other denominations. This is no slight consideration. The figure of the various sects being but different branches of the same army, butallengaged in fighting for the same cause, is a good one. But when the infantry begin to boast that they are better than the cavalry, or the cavalry assert that the artillery are not loyal to the King because they differ from themselves in drill and equipments, then the simile loses its force. In China there are those who tell their converts that their own churoh, the Greek Church, the Roman Catholic Church, are all right, but that the members of other Protestant bodies are all wrong. There are husbands immersed by close communionists who are not allowed to sit at the same communion table with their wives because immersed by others who believe in open communion, while the most powerful argument used against the formation of a union theological seminary was the fear lest the students would not be able to study Whedon's Commentaries. Of course, neither Chinese converts nor other sensible people understand why there should be these differences amongst those worshiping the same God, reading the same Bible, and expecting to go to the same heaven.
A union native church in Japan, China, and other heathen countries will become a possibility only when those who have the oversight of the bewildered flock are willing to consider all loving the Lord Jesus in sincerity as their brethren. The graduates of our theological seminaries are chiefly responsible for this keeping alive on missionary grounds the differences be- tween the various sects, and for this reason perhaps some should be confined to work in home lands where they can do less harm.
The willingness also of laymen to vary according to necessity the charac- ter of their religious meetings is another argumentin favor of their employment. To reach the masses in China demands. the same versatility and adaptability to circumstances as in New York City. A set order of service consisting of a certain number of prayers and hymns, with the ., unfolding" of a text into innumerable heads, all of which must be gone through with or God is not duly worshiped, will no more attract certain classes in that coun- try than here. Some there can fill our largest chapels, for those coming ex- pect to be interested with plenty of good gospel singing, with catching tunes and addresses. short and to the point, while others-well, vice versa.
The third point to be briefly touched upon is that our various Missionary Boards instead of sending out only those who have had a regular theological education, as is the custom now, should send a certain proportion of others who do not possess this qualification. Young men and women are offering themselves for missionary work. If suitable, why should not the church make use of them? The Y. M. C. A. movement is outside of and independent of the church, principally because in the church itself as at present run-to use a political phrase-by those controlling it, there is but little encouragement given to the lay worker to spend and be spent in its sel'vices. The diploma of some seminary seems necessary for anyone wishing to fill any position under its control. Is it not better to change somewhat this plan even if preconceived ideas have to be given up, and insist that the men and women nurtured as children in its bosom shall also be allowed to spend their maturer years in its service, instead of being compelled when wanting to be of use in the world to join outside agencies because unable or unwilling to take a certain prescribed course of preliminary education? The fourth point to which we have come is: If theselay workers should be employed by our various Missionary Boards they should, when on· the missionary field, be willing to adopt the native dress and live in native houses. In other words some of the methods employed by the now well- known China Inland Mission should be adopted by other societies as well.
At present in China the average salary of our missionaries, if married, is from $1,000 to $1,200 ; about two-thirds of this sum is pald to single men. Be- sides this there are other allowances made for ehildren, medical expenses, house rent, when necessary, all of which will increase this amount some- what. The average cost of a house built in the usual foreign style is about $3,000. It must be noted carefully that it is not said that these salaries are too much, or that the residences built for the missionaries are too large.
Christianity represents a following composed of the wealthiest in our country and the resources of the church are large. In the ports it looks well to see substantial buildings connected with missionary work, and, mingling with all classes of society, many missionaries are compelled to maintain more or less so-called "style" in their modes of living. But in the country villages and interior towns, where many of our converts live, workers from abroad can live more as do the native Christians themselves by adopting their style of dress and homes with certain modifications on half the above mentioned salary with a like reduction in the cost of mission premises. This statement can be corroborated by many actually Jiving in China under ttese conditions. In this mode of living a saving is effected along the whole line of household expenses, dress, servants, coal, furniture, while any sacrifice of some of the luxuries of life is more than compensated for in being able to say in the matter of self-denial to our native helpers and church members" come," instead of " go," getting nearer to the people and by putting a brake on the general tendency to unnecessary expenditures in living, so characteristic the world over, ward off much hostile crioticism.
To have $100 a year to spend on their family expenses would seem a large sum to the majority of our church members and native pastors. Surely, then, some of their Christian brothers from the west should be able to get along on several times this amount. We believe there are those willing to go out as missionaries under these'conditions, and if so our Boards should be willing to send them.
The objection that thus there would be two grades of salaries for men and women laboring in the same society has but little weIght. In the Methodist Church it is an understood thing that its younger men shall do pioneer work and receive less pay than do others living in the large towns of the country. In every society, or in any business firm, there are in- equalities of pay and duties. If thought best the difference thus saved iii salaries might be invested in some life insurance company to be paid to the missionary after a certain number of years of serVlce. In the matter of children also somewhat larger allowances to those who receive just their living expenses on the foreign field than to others in some cases should be granted, when these children have to be sent to the hOIl!eland for education. .
The ideas suggested in this paper that lay missionaries, as well as clerica.l, should be sent out by our Missionary Boards to China at least, and that these-with the idea of bridging over as much as possible the chasm which lies between the foreigner and the Chinamen-should adopt nati ve dress and native modes of life, is in harmony with the example of Christ lJ,nd the teachings of the New Testa-ment.
lSS9
Rev. Dr. Martin; President of the Imperial College,Pekin, thus writes oil .this subject: .. On the advisability of lay missionaries coming to China I hold strong views. The field is so vast, and the work called for so various, that it would be a fa,tal restriction to send out none but ordained miniHters. It would be like depriving an army of its non-commissiolJed officers• .. Of the class of lay laborers that appear to be required we may mention two or three. First, medical men, a class whose influence in China is steadily Il'rowing and whose mem- bers are for the most part unordained. Second, teachers-educational work in China has a great future. It would be a grand mistake for missIOnary societies to follow blindly the example of the apostles and limit their agents to the one work of preaching. Times have changed. and methods must be changed to Buit them. Third, artisans: the back- ward state of the arts in China opens a wide door for Christian enterprise in this depart- ment. Good men, possessed of mechanical skill in different lines, might benefit the Chinese and at the same time earn a support for themselves, bnt aiming chiefly at religious results it would be well for them to form part of a missionary organization rather than to act independently."
He thus answers the question: Should some of the principles of the China Inland Mission be adopted?
.. By all means. These prinCiples in general commend themselves as based on common sense and have acqnired the prestige that comes from experience. Native dress' and native honses are required in most places as an indispensable condition to the peaceful and effective occupation of the ground."
Rev. Dr. Blodgett also gives the weight of his experience and labors in China on the same subject. He writes: .. Are there men gifted with God's Spirit and consecration to Christ's service among the lay workers in the United States 1 Are there those whom God has approved, to whom He has given fruits of their labors? If so, and if they are desirous of preaching the gospel in China, let them come. There is a pressing need in North China for a class of laborers whO, leavinlr to others book making and extensive study of the Chinese classics, shall be both able and willing to go with native helpers into all the towns and villages, preaching the gospel. Snch men should wear the Chinese costume, eat the food of the natives,live in native houses, sleep upon their furnace beds. Undismayed by annoyances of all kinds, they should be able to follow up such service year after year for seven or eight months each year with patience and endurance. Would any lay workers or ordained pastors or any thoroughly educated men be ready to join such a band of workers on equal terms 1 If I mistake not some of our best educated young men, those of choice spirits and rare gifts, would rejoice to cast in their lot with such a band and, WesleyJike, 'evangelize China.'"
Dr. Blodgett goes on to give some sound practical advice as to just how he considers this plan of the use of lay agencies can best be carried out.
Rev. Mr. Beach of Tung Chow, also writes in the same way.
EMIN PASHA.
BY RET. LOUIS GROUT.
WHO is he? what is he? where is he? what is he there f01', or what is he doing? Few questions of a far-reaching character and interest are just now more common than the above concerning the Prussio-German doctor-friend of Gordon, Governor of Southern SO,udan, African explorer and benefactor, eminent linguist and lfaturalist-whose assumed name stands at the head of this article. Eduard Schneitzer, who took the Arab-Tur~ish name and title of Emin Pasha, for the sake of the help it might give him in his beneficent work in the Soudan, was born of Protestant parents in Oppeln, Prussian Silesia, March 28, 1840; began the study of medicine at Berlin in 1858, and graduated at the university of that city in 1864. Fond alike of travel and of natural history, he went that year to Turkey, crossed over into Asia Minor, remained there until 1873, then returned to Constantinople, where he soon mastered the Arabic and several kindred languages. In 1876 he entered the Egyptian service as a medical officer, wf1s sent to the Soudan, and eventually to General GGrdoIi.; and then, in 1878, after the Egyptian Government
£:MIN PABBA
had made Gordon Governor-General of all Soudan, it accepted the general's l·ecommendation and appointed Dr. Schneitzer to be his successor as Gov. ernor of the equatorial provinces in South Soudan. Here it was that he llloid aside all indications of his European origin and assumed the name of Emin and the title Bey, Effendi, or Pasha, that he might the more readily reach the people over whom he was set as rulel',.at the same time telling his friends that" a Turkish name would never change an honest German into a Turk."
The region over which Emin Pasha has been called to rule may be described in general terms as on the sources of the White Nile and of the Aruwhimi, a branch of the Congo. It is sometimes spoken of as the province (or provinces) of the great equatorial lakes, and sometimes as the eq)latorial pl'ovince of the Soudan. It lies between twenty-eight degrees and thirtyeight degrees east longitude, and extends from the equator to five degrees north latitude, includes at least a part of Bahr-el-Ghazel and Niam-Niam on the north and west, and has the Congo Free State, of which the King of the Belgians is nominal ruler, for its southern border. Its capital is Wadelai, situated just a little north of Lake .Albert Nyanza and about a thousand miles south of Khartoum. When Ismail, the Khedive of Egypt, formally announced an extension of his Soudan rule southward, so as to include the whole Nile basin up to the equatorial lakes, he issued a flrman to Sir Samuel Baker, giving him absolute control over the whole country south of Gondokoro. Then, in 1873, when Baker retired, General Gordon was sent to take his place. Both evidently did what they could to suppress the nefarious slave-hunting in which the .Arabs and others had been for a long time engaged, and were making just these provinces the great field of their operations. When Emin Pasha took Gordon's place he, too, gave himself with great zeal to this work, as also to every other good thing, and for a time with much success. But when the Arab slave-dealers and the Mahdi combined to recover their country from Egypt and the English, and well nigh succeeded, they began also to set Emin Pasha's rule at naught, and so revive the iniquitous business to which that rule was so stoutly opposed. No doubt both Baker and Gordon did, each in his turn, all it was possible for any man to do in their circumstances in such a field and with such a desperate o.Pposition as they had to contend with. Nor does Dr. Emin fall at all behind them in his zeal, his efforts, or his success. Great praise has been bestowed on them each and all. Great praise is their due. Few who have not had experience in such a work can ever know or appreciate the strength of the opposition they had to encounter. At present the great business of hunting, catching, transporting, and selling men as slaves is almost entirely in the hands of the Arabs. They believe in it. They delight in it. They have hosts of helpers in their employ. Great are the gains they make in it. Their religion approves it. Their Bible, the Koran, encourages it. All the Mo- 113,mmedan governments in Africa combine to sanction and aid the inhuman practice. And yet.much has been done-done by the men just named-to limit and suppress the abomination and to promote the weal of the people under their care.
Of Dr. Emin it is said: .. He found his province in a condition of chaos when he undertook the government. Disreputable officials had obtamed power and inftuence, the slave-trade was in tull force everywhere, innumerable cruelties and oppressions of the poor negroes were rife on every hand, no Industry or agriculture was encouraged, and the government showed an annual deficit of £3.9,000. In one short year Emin introduced a wonderful change. He put down corruption, banished oppression, and changed misery into prosperity. In four years he had expelled all the Arab slave-dealers; had replaced Egyptian soldiers by natives of his OWJ1 training; had turned the deficit into a profit of £8,000 a year; had introduced the cultiva.-
EMIN
,tion of cotton and indigo, colfee and rice; had constructed permanent roads, and est&b- , lished a regula.r mail between his several stations, a.nd introduced camels and oxen for ,tranSDort. Meantime he had won the love and confidence of all the tribes that lived in his territory."
Surely both great and blessed was the work done by Dr. Emin during those few first years of his reign; great, also and well-earned, has been the praise of it in all Christian lands. And yet, ifever the philanthropist; the Christian, or any other man should get the impression that any such benighted province is to be redeemed or put on a basis of sure, continued life and peace so quick, and without other agencies. no mistake could be greater. Least of all can any African province on which the rapacious eye of the slave-hunting Arab has been set be permanently recovered, save by a large admixture of those most earnest efforts which have their origin and efficiency in the truth and grace of the gospel-efforts the full force of which can never be brought to bear upon any most ignorant and degraded people in a day or a decade.
During Baker's foul' years' rule in the Upper Nile basin, he was said to have" given the cruel commerce of the Arab slave-dealers a severe blow." During Gordon's subsequent rule there he, too, was said to have" given the slave-trade a deadly blow." :And yet Emin is said to have found" the slave- trade in full force everywhere; .innumerable cruelties and oppressions of the poor negl'oes were rife on every hand." And now, after all he has done to "clear his territory of slave-dealers" and "banish oppression," some who have most freely accorded to him this well-deserved praise say: "The sad- dest news we have heard from Africa in many a day id that the work of this great and many-sided 'man is probably at an end, and that the people he so ably and heroically served are remitted again to barbarism and the slave- hunter." Nor will any who know the full meaning of the late uprising in the Soudan to throw off Anglo-Egyptian rule, or the meaning of recent mur- derous assaults on Christian missions in the great lake regions and on the east coast of the continent, n~ed be told that the slave-hunting spirit and power of the Arabs are bent on having permanent, unlimited sway in all Central Africa. To this end theyal'e steadily looking and working. And here it is we have the secret of Emin Pasha's long-enforced insulation and destitution-why nothing was heard from him for more than a year; why he was hedged about so long" at Wadelai making garments of cotton he had planted and spun, making shoes of ox-hides he had taught the people to tan, using honey for sugar,.hibiscus-seeds for coffee, making candles of wax, and soap of tallow mixed with ashes, living on a few vegetables and meat, waiting for Stanley, of whose coming he had heard.'; It was in Janual'Y, 1886, that Dr. Emm wrote of his having been prac- tically cut off from the civilized world for the last three years. Six months later he wrote asking for succor-not an armed force, but supplies, including ammunition for his own forces. Responding to this a.ppeal, the British Government fitted out a relief expedition in the early part of 1887, and ap- pointed Stanley to the charge of it. Toward the cost of this, which consisted of 'i00 men and ample supplies. the Egyptian Government contl'ibuted $50,- 000, and the British Geographical Society $5,000. Starting from Zanzibar, Stanley moved by steamers to and up the Congo to Stanley Falls, then re- turned to the Aruwhimi, on which, at Yambunga, he left a camp of men and supplies under Major Bartelott, and started on foot for Wadelai. While Stanley was makihg up his expedition at Zanzibar he chaneed to fall in with that arch slave-dealer, Tippu Tib, captured and subsidized him, thinking it better policy to buy up than fight one who had been for years the great ter- ror of the helpless tribes of Central AfriCa, and of both commercial alld mis-
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sionary settlements among them, as also one whose intrigues and. power over an army of slave-dealing Arabs had seemed to be well nigh unlimited.
Having taken this uncrowned king into his empioy, Stanley made him a.
kind of sultan, with headquarters at Stanley Falls, to be at once a paid ally of the Congo State, and especially a champion helper in putting down the terrible slave-traffic in Central Africa!
When Stanley started on his expedition he hoped to reach Wadelal in eight months, or by the middle of October, 1887. But his journey on foot from Yambunga was slow and difficult. About the middle of January, 1888, a little less than a year, it would seem that he met Emin at Wadelai, having with him 330 men and plenty of stores, all well, yet greatly exhausted, hav- ing been compelled to make a long detour to the northeast to avoid swamps and hostile tribes. And yet another year had expired before anything like authentic or definite intelligence had come to us from him. It was near the close of 1888 that he was reported as having been captured by the Arabs, but nothing was known of him. Indeed, it was only about the middle of last December that the House of Commons was discussing the question of send- ing an expedition for his relief. But on the 16th of January, 1889, the con- tents of a letter reached Brussels, written by Stanley to Tippu Tib, dated August 17, at Bonalya, twelve days' march from Stanley Falls, in which he says he left Emin May 28 at Wadelai, well and with abundant supplies, and that he would take the men and stores at Yambunga and start on his return to Emin in ten days, hoping Tippu Tib would join them, either in helping Emin strengthen his post or in efforts to make his way in safety to the coast. Whether this letter is genuine, and what may be the developments of a later date, are points of great interest on which all are anxiously wait- ing for definite intelligence.
Few are the examples of heroism, self-denial, and persistent devotion to a great beneficent work such as we here find in Emin Pasha. The narrative before us is clearest proof of his self-sacrificing interest in the redemption of Africa. from the terrible suffering and wrong to which for long ages she has been subject. To see" a single European standing by and defending a prov- ince 400 miles in extent from north to south by 700 from east to west, full of poor, helpless negroes, resolved to protect them from being victimized by Arab slavers, and to lend them a hand toward civilization and security"- what nobler, more inspiring sight does the age offer for us to study or ad- mire? His love for his work and his attachment to his people, and theirs to him, were beautifully indicated when he wrote, last year: "These natives have stuck bravely to me, and they deserve the best government and help that can be given them." Already in a previous letter had he signified his glorious purpose, when he said: "The work that Gordon paid for with his blood I will strive to carryon-if not with his energy and genius, still accord- ing to his intentions and in his spirit. . I shall remain with my peo- ple until I see that both their future and the future of this country are assured."
STUDENT VOLUNTEERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS.
"THE MISSIONARY NET."
VOLUliTlIIEBB will be interested in a letter of Bishop Thoburn's, of India, given in the January number of The Ohurch at Home and Abroad. The Bishop is a man of wide experience, and thinks that less than ten per cent. of those caught by "the missionary net" are accepted by the Boards or persevere in their intention. Many are of unsuitable age. Others have" a quiver full of little arrows." Some are rejected because oC defective education and no habits of study. "A slipshod, superficial, Inaccurate graduate of a college will be beaten clear out of sight by the careful and alll)11'IIte country school-teacher who studies." Three.fourths are rejected for one of the above
18$9.] GENEItAL MISSIONARY
r8.asone. The average age of those that are left is about 27. Some of these are rejected bJ the physician for physical disability; others because their testimonials are not satisfactory. When. the number has been sifted down, perhaps from 100 to 5, some of tholle who are accepted may change their minds or find excuses for not going at once. The Bishop brings against yonng men the charge of not r('ally knowing their own minds. "Forewarned is forearmed"; many volnnteers will take the hint as to the conditions and requisites of final acceptance.
MR. WILDER'S WORK.
Mr. R. P. Wilder, traveling secretary of the Student Volunteer movement, has completed a snccessful tonr in the South and East. At Louisville, Ky., 13 men decided for foreign missions. At Mayville College, Tenn., six men and six women signed the volunteer pledge. At the East Tennesee College Conference Mr. Wilder met Mr. Mott, and the two worked together. The power of the Holy Ghost rested upon them in such measure that on Sunday there were 20 inquirers after Christ. At the earnest request of the authorities another day was spent there. Monday afternoon, at a meeting for cadets, 22 sought Christ. Four of the five captains are now Christians. On Monday night there were 15 inquirers. Five men decided for foreign missions. At Chapel Hill, N. C., five pledges were secnred and the sum of $187 was raised. At Hampden-Sidney, Va., 16 men signed the volunteer pledge. At the New England College Conference Mr. Wilder /lgain met Mr. Mott. Fourteen male volunteers were secured. At Amherst, $250 was raised among a small number of students. It is hoped to increase the sum to $700.
Mr. Wilder will spend April in Iowa and Nebraska; in May he will visit Kansas, Missouri and lIlinois. NOTES.
-The University of North Carolina will send a teacher to Japan. -At Bryn Mawr three college girls have volunteered for foreign missions. A representative will be seut a year from November. -Oberlin was visited by Mr. Wilder in March. Thirty-two volunteers enrolled aud between $300 and $400 were secured. -The Northfield Letter to volunteers is published. A copy will be sent to every volunteer. Extra copies may be had at three cents each. -A district convention of the Inter-Seminary Missionary Alliance, held March 14th at Lancaster, Fa., was addressed by Dr. A. T. Pierson. -College Secretary J. R. Mott, Chairmau of the Executive Committee of the Student Volunteer Movement, has been doing efficient work in the South developing aud organizing the volunteer forces. -At a Missionary Conference in New York City $565 was raised by the ladies toward the current expenses of the Student Volunteer movement. The expenses for the year will be about $1,400. The Foreign Mission Committee of the King's Daughters will keep Messrs. Stoops, O'Brien and Smith in the field this summer recruiting volunteers.
-The student volunteers of North Carolina are planning an active campaign in that State. There are 15 volunteers in three colleges; they expect to raise the number to 50 before the year is out.
-Mr. W. H. Hannum, Correspondin/!: Secretary, has issued statistic blanks to be filled out by volunteers. The blank is accompanied by a letter stating briefiy the growth and organization of the movement, and pointing out the consequent need of a permanent and reliable record. Statistics are gathered under four heads: (1) Personal; name, address, age, etc. (2) As a volunteer; when decided, at what college, training in Christian work. (3) As a foreign missionary; when sent, by what Board, foreign address, present opinion as to the needs of the foreign field. (4) About others ; any points as to missionary interest, etc., that would not be likely to come to the attention of the Bxecutive Committee. The intention is to get and keep a list of volunteers carefully revised to date, and to have accurate information of the plans of each.
n.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
I.-British and Foreign Bible Society. from heaven. It was impossible to go over the LORD BRASSEY recently made an whole field dealt with iu the reports, and he naturally looked at places which in the course eloquent address in England from of numerous voyages he had personally visited. The condition of those places would, he knew, which we abstract some items of in- be one of complete spiritual destitution but for the efforts which were put forth by that society. terest: In the dark continent he knew from personal experience there were great difiiculties in the THE total issue of the Scriptures since 1808 work of distributing the Scriptures. On the amounts to 116,459,000 volumes, and the in- West Coast there was a deadly climate which crease In the sale and distribution is one of carried away many of the noble Christian men steady progress. Such an enterprise must be who went forth to do the work of the Lord in costly, and It was gratifying to know that in that country; and on the East (ioast, in "ddl- 1Iugland it had beeu so nobly supported. The lilt of contributors included thousands who ~e !pven nu!1er the promptings which came ,tion to the d!1lleulties of climate, they had the Ing flgures, which show a sustained· Increase hostility of the Arabs, which mnst be met by a mixture of eourage and tact which was not often among the Mohammedan pupils, distrtbuted met with in fraU humanity. Even in Africa the work was making progress, and Mr. John- over every stage of edncation, and chiefly nostone, who was doing good service on board a mission steamer on Lake Nyassa, aaked them ticeable in the private schools, which were at- (or an increased supply of the Scriptnres in Arabic. In the reports there was an interesting tended by 240,47'~ pupils, as compared with IDS,- account of how the Bible was eagerly asked (or by the travelers in caravans, to read in the 415 pupils in 1886-7.- Our Engli8k Oorrespondlong rests in the mid·day and evening. In the ent. ' island of Mauritius, too, the circulation of the Scriptures was doing a great work. and became A Remarkable I1ocument. a valuable influence for the spread ofChristianity The following is an extract (tran'Jamongst the migratory coolie population. Re- lated) from a document addressed by ferring to India he said that it was satisfactory the Greek Patriarch of Constantinoto learn that the distribution by saJe of the ple to the BisRops under his jurisdic- Scriptures was the largest on record, and the tion, dated June 9, 1844.-G. W. reports from Madras and Bombay were ofa pro- WOOD, D.D. gressive character. They knew the seclusion in which the women of India lived, and the dlf- " And in the days of onr most holy predecesflculty there was in conveying to them the pre- sors, as well as in our own, the church has not cious trnths o( the Gospel. The society had failed to write and to command your Holiness done a splendid work in organizing the agency most carefully to see to it, that within your dioof mission women, who were enabled to carry ceSe there be neither bought nor sold, nor read the truths of the gospel to the heathen and Mo- by the Christians under your charge, anti-relighammedan women of India. There was not less ious, anti-government books, such as entirely than 300 native Christian women engaged in that corrupt the Christian people in their politics, most valuable and yet most d!1llcult work. their religion, and their morals. And we do not doubt that obedient to ecclesiastical authority. After alluding to the labors of the society in you will discharge this your eptscopal duty, and Ceylon, China, Japan and the Colonies, he re- watch most diligently that the Christians withmarked that if Christians had found God's iu your jurisdiction be not injured politically, 'Vord a comfort in the hour of trouble and sor- religiously, or morally. And especially influrow-if they had drawn from the Scriptures enced by the fact that the Old Testament has guidance beyond all expression precious, among recently (in the year 1840) been translated from many dilllcult tasks-if they had drawn precious the Hebrew, we would recall to the remembrance hopes for the life of the future, and felt gratefnl of your Holiness what the church has written at for the precious feast of which it had been their different times concerning this subject, comprivilege to partake freely, the promptings of manding you unchangeably to persevere in such !(1"atitude would impel them to do their utmost watchfulness, and take good heed that this Old to extend to others the blessings which had Testament, recently published, be neither sold, been so largely bestowed upon themselves. nor bought, nor read in your diocese, as not be- ing received by the church; nor any kind of II. India.-Educational Report, 1887-8. anti-religious, antt-government book. You are to prevent the Christians in your diocese from The total expenditure on education, which was' the sale, purchase, and reading of such corrupt 2,1)2,41,414 rupees in 1886-87, rose to 2,61,_ books that they may not be corrupted in their 111,280 rupees iu 1887-88. The percentage of politics, their religion, and their morals; and the total population of school'going age that you are by your counsels and instructions to actually attended school was 11.8, as compared conflrm them in their eivil and religious dnties, with 10.7 percent. the preceding year. On March that yon may please God, the Royal Govern- 31, 1887, 3, 343,544 pnpils were on the rolls of ment, and your holy Mother herself, the great the different 6chools to which the statistics re- church of Christ." late, wh.!le on the same date in 1888 the nnmber had risen to 3,460,844. The numbers attending Africa.-Slavery. A meeting was school in 1886-7 comprised 2,960,859 at public held last week in Exeter Hall, to and 872,685 in private institntions; and, in 1887-8, consider the slave traffic so far as 3,021,721 at pnbllc and 439,123 at private insti- it affects Africa. The audience intutions. There were 2,345,794 Hindns, as com- cluded many ministers of religion, pared with 2,303,812, in 188&-87; 804,485 Ma- military men, and ·politicians, who homedans as compared with 752,441; 23,160 listened with much interest to an ad- Europeans and Eurasians, as compared with 23, dress on this important subject by 185 ; 74,498 native Christians, as compared with Commander Cameron, R.N. 60,611; and 203,121 of other classes, including aborigines, as compared with 192,314. There The Archbishop of Canterbury presided will be lome surprise expressed at the foreso and delivered a. thoughtful opening speech. He rejoiced to find that English people are making up their mind!!! that all slavery
"1889.] GENERAL llUSSIONAltY
must come to an end. He would fain we Which the subject was treated in great de- bad been moved to this determination by tail. He maintained that under good and the principle that every kind of slavery is peaceful government slavery would disap- a degradation to him who slaves. and a pear.
worse d<'gradation to the man who makes The Bishop of London moved a resolution his fellow slave. rather than by the Intoler- urging tbe British Government, either able evils which"lie behind the system. and alone or in association with other powers, have now assumed so gross a character to consider the possibility of devising meas- that lihe human mind revolts at the very ures calculated to d'iminish aud suppress thoughtof them. Whole tracts of Africa the evil, and. moreover. to use all its influ- are. he remarked. returning to the silent ence to secure the maintenance of the Zam- void which preceded the creation of man besi as an open highway. This was second- on the earth. and we may well ask what is ed by the Dean of Westminster. and carried at the root of the matter. There ought to with acclamation. A healthy public opin- be a power of resistance amongst the peo- ion on this subject in GreatBritain is great- ple. but we see that among the African ly needed at the present time. and it such tribes there is. unfortunately. nothing that meetings. with really warm-hearted as well deserves the name of community. no form as fully informed speakers. could be ar- of national life. We find. however. that the ranged throughout the country, much good African people form communities round must result.-The Ohristian (London).
about Englishmen. and learn from them -Details of Mr. Stanley's journey for the re- many things. Therefore. continued the lief of Emin Pssha have at last been made pub· Archbishop. it is beginning to dawn upon lie. The letters, received in London, cover the us that the way to stop slavery is to guide period between the departure of the expedition these great nations to profitable labor by from Yambunga, Jnne 28.1887, and the returu what may be called" industrial missions." of Mr. Stanley to Bonalya, August 17,1888, for We either possess or have claims to large the reserves left under Major Barttelot. Writ- tracts of country in East Africa. and it be. ten at the same time with that sent to TippoQ hooves us to consider why God has given us Tib, published last December, they were appar.
power Over them. Whatever we do in the ently held back lest the harrowing details O!
matter we should do as Christians. and privation snd failnre should deter the wily .Ara then we shall have God's blessing. from sending reinforcements. The expedltio, Commander Cameron dealt at length With started in June, 1887, with 389 officers and men, the horrors of slavery. and the pressing and with a reserve force nnmbering 257 lel need for tbe abolition of the system. In under charge of Major Barttelot, and after al.
Central Africa. he said, whole nations. mil- most incredible hardships, reached the Albert lions of people. bave been swept away, and Nyanza in December. Fighting' began with the the iniquity of slavery is increasing. Le- llrst day's march, and continued with almost all gitimate trade is a valuable ally in efforts the tribes along the ronte, while dreary marches to stop slavery. but it· cannot flourish through interminable forests, desertion, stsrva- alongside of the fearful traffic. The speak- tion and disease, rapidly decimated the colnmn.
er exhibited large branches of trees. called The famished men sold their rilles and clothing .. slave forks," Which are bound to tbe tor a few ears of corn, deserted with their am· necks of slaves. The victims of this wicked munition. and became at last so demoralized bondage have no fear of death. but rather that resort to the death penalty became abso- desir~ it, for something worse than death lutely imperative. To crown the ghastly record, awaits them after enduring the awful ago- when the lake and plenty were reached, hos- nies while traveling. Commander Camer- tile tribes blocked the way and cut oil' com- on claimed that it is the duty of Britain to mnnication with Emin, and in the lack of am- say to those nations who dabble in slavery. munition and food, compelled s retreat to the .. You shall not do this thing." If we show highlands. Four months were spent in collect- ourselves perfectly clean in this respect. ing the scattered aud enfeebled forces left in the our influence will be very great. He also rear, aQ.d In the recovery of Mr. Stanley from claimed that w" have an indefeasible right Sickness, and in April an advance guard re- to the great lakes of Africa. In conclusion. tnrned to the lake and met Emln. who had he urged the desirability of conciliatory come from Wadelai in a steamer in search of intervention in African all'airs for the good them. A halt was made of several weeks, Mr.
of the people. with a police force to main- Stauley endeavoring by many argnments to in- tain order and prevent slave.hunting and dnce the Austrian to leave his post and return fighting. He asked his bearers to pray to under his escort to the Congo. As the latter God for the success of well-devised pro- had. however, some 10,000 people under his posa's to meet the necessities of the case. care. including a large number of women and captain Hore. of the London Missionary children, he naturally hesitated to aval! himself Society. for twelve years resident at Lake of the offer, not the less when informed of the TIIoll,anyika.. followed with an addrvis. in disheartening experience of the relievin~ PutT.
'446 GENEIUl.. MISSIONARY INTlilLLIGENCE
Instead, he furnished Mr. Stanley with an es- sac- of the whole expedition would have been cort oflOl men to enable him to return over his route, relieve his abaudoued stations, aud add rificed for want of water had it not been for the to his forces the reserves left under Barttelot at timely intervention of a tribe ofwanderlng Bush- Bonalya. The arrival' of the explorer at the men, who dug pits to a depth of six or seven latter poiut in August last, his appeal to Tippoo feet, and, sinking hollow reeds still further Tib' for reinforcements, aud his return, pre- in the sand, sucked up a supply of water. After sumably by a newaud shorter route, to Emin, sending home the wagon, Mr. Arnot and twenty were aunounced in the letters made public iu porters started ont on foot, carrying with them December. Since then his movements have calico and beads for trading purposes, and a been unknown, though dispatches last week supply of food and water. They traveled for state, ou the authority of Arab traders, that four days before they came to any ponds, and both explorers were on their way to Zanzibar, then, to their horror, they found that some ele- accompanied by some 8,000 people, and with phants had exhausted them. With the greatest a rich store of ivory. However this may be, difllcnlty he prevented his porters from throw- the details of Mr. Stanley's march to the Nyanza ing down their bundles aud at once starting oft' leave no doubt that the expedition has been the for the Chobi River, sixty miles distant. Ulti- most disastrons in which he has ever engaged, mately he induced the men to look for water, neither his jonrney to Tangauyika nor his voy- but withont snccess, until nightfall,when one age down the Cougo having compared in suf- of his servants returned bringing with him a sup- fering and loss with this last fearful passage. ply which had been furnished by a tribe of Of the 389 men with whom he started only 199 Bushmen from a hidden deposit in the desert. were lef.in Au,:ust last, while of the 257 re- PaSSing the trading station of Pandematenka serves left at Boualya, he found but 61 avail- the Chobi was reached. After replenishing his able for service. The inviucible courage and supply of food, Mr. Arnot returned on his path unparalleled fortitude of a man who will adhere to the trading station, 70 miles back. On to his purpose under such discouragements his way to the river again he was struck down cannot fail to add a new luster to his marvelous for the first time with African fever. His car- career. riers had gone on in advance, and he was only , Central Africa.-A missIonary's jour- accompanied by two boys, one who was about ney. Mr. Arnot, missionary and traveler, attend- as sick as' he was, and the other only thirteen ed a pnblic meeting in the Christian Institute re- years of age. Golug back to Pandematenka, a cently, and ga'e an account of his journeyings in distance of 30 miles, this lad brought aid. Central Africa. Addressing a crowded audience, Humanly speaking, he saved his life. As it WIlS, he said he began his travels on the East Coast, he had been lying for two and a half days iu the and going through the colony of Natal, the desert without food and water. After many _ Orange Free State, and the Transvaal, struck a weeks' illness be joined the King's boats on the northwesterly course, emerging on the west Zambezi. G.lme was scarce, and the expedi- coast of the continent at BengueIla. Reports tion were compelled to replenish their larder by which had been received in this country from shooting at the crocodiles as they came to the the missionaries in Africa had shown that their surface of the river with food from their hidden enterprises had been very disastrous, the reason stores of half-pntrid meat, and causing them to being that they had been chiefly connected with drop what they had in their mouths. After the lowlying fever-breeding coast districts. He many hardships Mr. Arnot reached the popu_ had early read in Livingstone's travels that he lous empire of King Maidi, an enlighhmed mon- believed in the existence of a great central arch, at whose hands great kindness was ex- water-shed, and he thought that surely-al- perienced. His country, it was explainelI, was though he had no great government at his back divided into districts, over each of which there to support him, and no science to help him in was placed a chief, who in turn was responsible traversing his way-he might be able to push to one of the King's 500 wives. In concluding past the waterways, and get to the water-sheds Mr. Arnot pleaded for missionaries to be dis- and mountainous parts of the country. Before patched to Africa; not young men who were any missionary could deliver his message to the sent from hol.i::~ with the object of relieving the natives he required to be three, four, or five platforms here, but tried and reliable misslon- years In the land to learn the language, there- aries.-Gtasqow Herald. fore it was oftme utmost importance to find a healthy place where this initial di1llcnlty could -Missionary interests have be·come very be overcome. Through the kindness of a native extensive in East Africa. The Church Mis- chief; Mr. Arnot said he had had placed at his sionary Society, and the Universities Mis- service a traveling wagon with servants and a sion, of the Church of England, the Estab- team of twenty oxen. Starting in the dry sea- lished and the Free Church of Scotland, the son from Shoshong, he traveled by this London Missionary Society, the United meaus until he got into a region where the tBB Methodist Free Churches and the Church ~e fly was so prevalent that the cattle and wag- of Rome, all have missions on the coast or on had to be sent back. Before this severe in the interior. The Church Missionary hardships had been encountered, aud the lives Society has two distinct lines of missions– one with its basis at Mombasa, in the Eng- lish sphere of influence, with eil:'ht stations, some of which are on or,near the coast and -A statement Is made In a CinCinnati some in the interior. On.. is in the neigh- paper which seems wildly exaggerated: that borhood of Mount Kilimanjaro. The second 34 missionary societies are at work In line of stations is that which stretches Africa and its 200,000,000 souls are all pracUcfrom Zanzibar to Uganda. There are nine aily within reach Of Ohristian miBBion./ The stations in this line, beginning with Ham.. revolution in Uganda, leading to the eJtpplboia and Mpwapwa, nearly due west from sion of missionaries, seems like a very fatal Zanzibar,aud including Usambiro. Msalala blow to missions and even civilization In and Nasa, south of the Victoria Nyanza, Africa. But we wait to see God work good and Rubaga, in Uganda, a t the north of the out of seeming evil. great lake. The Universities Mission has twelve stations-one at Zanzibar, four in -" I don't know under Heaven, unless it the Usambara country north of Zanzibar, be in China," said Dr. Guinness, "a more four onlor near the River Rovuma. and hopeful mission than that Congo field, and three on the east shore of Lake Nyassa. here it is for you. You have now waterway The two Scottish Churches have-the Free to the whole of it. It is healthy, notwith- Church five stations on Lake Nyassa. the standing all statements to the contrary. The Established Church one on Lake Shirwa, at interior is healthy beca.use it is high land, the south of Lake Nyassa. The route to well watered, richly wooded, moderate in tbis region s by the Zambezi and Shire its climate, and rich in popnlation. The Rivers. The London i:'lociety goes further tronble with missionaries has been that west than any of the other societies and they stick to the coast line, which is malarplants two stations on Lake Tanganyika, ious. Instead of keeping up in the ordinary and one at Urambo in the Unyamwezi coun- way, in red-tape style a particular station try, south of the Victoria Nyanza and near with a few missionaries, you want to make the stlLtions of the Church Missionary So- an advance into this great interior parish. ciety. The route was formerly from Zanzi- It is no use for your people in this country bar through Mpwapwa to Ujijl; now there to say: •This is the colored men's work, is another route by the Zamhesi aud Shire, let them do it.' They are suited to be the Lake Nyassa aud a road thence to the south- explorers and controllers of such moveern end of Lake Tanganyika. The United ments. White men must be the leaders and Methodist Free Churches have two missions lay the foundation, when the colored men in the Mombasa region,and one in Gallaland. will be the helpers. The Soudan is the true Three German Protestant societies have home of the negro, a vaster region than the five stations-three in Gallaland, one in Congo, wh~ch is 4,000 miles across, with its Zanzibar and one in Dar-es-Salem, where twelve nations, and not a mission station. one of the massacres took place. It is the It is the last region of any magnitude un- Berlin Society which maintains the last penetrated by the gospel." two stations. -Exciting events in the Soudan. It will These are all the Protestant missions be- be remembered that the Madhi of the Soutween Wito and the Rovuma River; but dan, who captured Khartoum and murdered there are German and French Roman Cath- Gen. Gordon and his men, died of small-pox olic stations. There are three French sta- not so very long ago. His successor in tions on or near Lake Victoria, the most power, whose forces were recently defeated h.nportant of Which is the one in Uganda, by the Rritish at Suakim, is not a real Mahunder the control of Plire Lourdel ; two on di. Hehas assumed that tit,je, while his real Lake Tanganyika; one at Bagamoyo. near title is simply Khalif of Khartoum. What Zanzibar. and one or two others. The Jesu- seem t,o be entirely trustworthy advices, its have also a few stations, and the Ger- now inform us that this present powerful man Catholics have one at Dar-es-Salem. ruler has been denonnced as a false Madhi, and ordered to abdicate his authority and In all, there are thirteen missions-six get out of the Soudan by the Sheik of the British, four German, and three French. Senoussi, whose headquarters are in the One society, the Church Missionary, alone large oasis of Faraja, on the western border has spent $500,000 in the last 30 years in of Egypt and south of Barka, and whosefol- East Africa.-Independent. lowers comprise one of the largest religious followings in the world. It is the purpose -The Portuguese mails now bring the of this sheik to unite all the orthodox Mos- Congo's month within 15 days of Enrope. lem orders in one theocratic body, capable A letter in the London Telegraph describes of defying all secular anthority. It is prob- Monanga as the ferocious ruler of 10,000,000 able that more than 1,500,000 fierce Moslems people, with 1,500 wives, whom, for pnre are already prepared to follow wherever he malice, he kills off at the rate of five daily. may choose to lead, and that he now has a He is the large st slave-dealer in Africa, an- force sufficientlynumerous and fanatical to nually furnishing 150,000 victims, to be sold enable him to execute the order already in Asiatic Tnrkey. He is said to have made namE'd, and drive the Khalif of Kh&rtoum his courtiers take oath to exterminate the from the Soudan. When the conftict comes, whites who mi&"ht seek to "eat up Uganda." It will be no child's play. It will be bloody altars, and 883 double open altars. There are and exte'rminating. While neither Great 974 shops where things used in idolatrous wor- Britain nor Egypt can expect more from ship are made and sold, a very large number of Sheik Benoussi than from the Khalif of which are given entirely to the manufacturing Khartoum, the contest between these Ma- of such articles. There are 67 shops which hammlldan rivals will be eagerly watched, make idols, but many of the clay idols used as one in a procession of stirring events, come from the great potteries in the country.
which during the next decade are to attract The quantities of fire-crackers. used in idol-wor- the attention of the civilized world, and ship in Oanton are made in the country. There work wonderfnl changes in Africa. are probably not less than 12,848 persons en- -Bishop Symthies writes from Zanzibar, gaged in the mannfacturing of ariicles used in February 10th: .. I have had somelow fever worshiping idols and spirits, and that live for the past week and am not fit for much, upon their connection with idolatry. This is but I hope I may get my two confirmations iu Canton alone. In addition there are tens of this week, and start with GE>ldart for Magila thousands of women -largely engaged in folding in about a fortnight. It becomes increas- the paper money they burn to the idols and ingly dilficnlt to get stores up to the Bondei spirits. There are three quarters of a million country. It would be equally dilficult to get dolIars spent in Canton every year for idolatrous them through Lindi if it was not for our kind purposes. Mr. Simmons says: "I believe the Arab friend Sellim, who lately saved some above estimates are below the real troth in of our men from being murdered, and who nearly every case; I have purposely kept the has sent a message to Masasi to say that as figures as low as I could, for I do not want to Ion&, as he lives no one shall hurt our stores ' make a bad thing worse than it really is. These or our people. In the face of such action as estimates do not Include the expenses of stated this, together with the protection given to omcial worship, nor do they include the ex- the French Mission by Bushiri, and his atti- penses of the annual theaters, decorations in tude toward us, it is absurd to say that honor oUhe god of fire, or the feast of lanterns, the disturbances here have anything to do etc. The expenses of these are very large, and with religious antipathies-they are entirely are met by an assessment on each shop or political-but I shall probably write to you house, and are often paid under protest. Ihave further on this head. I understand that thought it best not to include any idOlatrous exthe blockade has quite failed in preventing penditures that were not voluntary. To inarms and ammunition being imported into clude these would make the annual expense the conntry, and what is much worse, it considerably greater." Right on top of this has failed to prevent an infiux of foreign huge idolatry the Indian Government is forcing Arab kidnappers, whose presence is a new thousands npon. thousands of cases of opium and serious danger."-Central Africa. every year, deadening the consciences of the people to the sound of the gospel. Shall not -African ivory is the best in the world, God judge for these things ?-Bombay Guarand the finest quality comes from the inter- dian. ior. The tusks of the African elephants are larger than those of any other country. -We agree with the suggestion made by Both the male and female eie;>hants have the Banner of Asia in regard to the opium traflarge tusks, while in India the tusks of the fic of China. Mr. Dyer says that iu 1885 the female elephant are very small. The aver- Chinese Government obtained from GreatBritage weight of a tusk is from 20 to 50 pounds, aiu an opium agreement which can be made but sometimes they are nine or ten feet to terminate on January 18th, 1891, by twelve long, and weigh 160 pounds each. The cost of months' notice being given on either side. The ivory has trebled in the last 35 years, selling opinm tramc has got so decided a hold on now for $8 a pound. It is said that a pair of China, that the Chinese Government will not tusks are often worth £l,OOOsterling. Zan- find it easy to take effective steps fOl' banishing zibar is the great African market for ivory. the curse from the country; but Mr. Dyer sug- From this point it is shipped by merchants gests that the British churches should unite all to India, London, Hamburg, etc. The chief their strength in encouraging the Chinese autrading center in the interior is Tabara, in thorities to close the present agreement, and to Myamweo;i. where various caravan routes refuse to be party to another. In this we think meet. The trader equips his caravan at the churches of India, a country where the evil Zanzibar, and places it in the hands of an of opium is far more patent than it is in Eng- Arab who goes from Bagamoyo to Ta- land, should take an early and decided initiative. bara. Let an infiuential and repl'esentative council be formed at once in this country, whose first bus- Chlna.-1do!atry. Rev. E. B. Simmons iness it shall be vigorously to expound the gives in the OMnese Recorder some statistics matter to all the Christians in this country, with regard to idolatry in Canton. There are both by the press, and by public meetings, 'rhe in Canton and the snburbs 663 temples of vari- issue of this should be the strongest and mo.t ous kinds and sizes, 83 Buddhist nunneries, 50 numerously sign~d exprelSsion of opinion that places where Buddhist priests live, 145 places Christian India has everJl:iven u.tteranQe tQ. M where Tauist priests reside, 275 Shetan or open soon as possible similar councils sbould be India continue to prod the Government in a vig_ formed in England and America. If the Christ- orous way upon its failure: to act eJllc1entIy ian Church can speak with effect at all, here is upon what there is called the" Drink QuestiOll " its opportunity. The opium contract is un· -which means the almost nnrestrleted mannspeakably toul, and absolutely indefensible. facture and sale of intoxicating drinks, and the Let China be told that au)' effort which it makes rapid increase of drunkenness among the nain the direction of abolition will receive the tives of the country. At a recent meeting of moat energetic and persistent support from aU the Methodist MissJonary Conference of Calthe Christian churches of India and the West. cutta, threQ important resolutions upon this As surely as the Lord reignetb Buch an effort subject, were adopted. The first urged the shall not fail. We hope the suggestion will at immediate organization of a Temperance AIonce be acted on.-Harvest .Field. llance for India. The second strongly fa- vored "local option" as to the establishment India. – A Chief Commissioner's of outstills and drinking houses. The third appointed an expert in such mattters to View of Indian Missions. At the lay- collect all available, information as to the results of the present excise system in India, fortbe puring of a cornerstone of mission build- pose of preparing and laying before th~ Govern- ment a memorial upon this subject based upon ings connected with the Methodist existiug and incontestible facts. Undoubtedly the men who passed these resolutions mean Episcopal Mission, Jubbulpur, Mr. business, bnt as the attention of the Government has recently been repeatedly called, and in vain, Mackenzie, Chief Commissioner of to the demoralizing results of the present excise system in India, it is not certain that any heed the Central Provinces, after refer- will be given to these presentations (or the twentieth time. But tha t is no reason for dng to recent criticisms of missions, sleeping over a matter so important. Continued prodding may finally stir np the authorities. said: -Movements among the Jews. The vari- ..It may be that direct results, iu the shape of ous Jewish societies. at home and abroad. conversions and baptisms, are not so startling are specific and Divinely-approved inas the church at home would like to see them. stances of the general law of a multiplicity But this is only a superficial estimate of the sit- of operations in harmonious combination. uation. No man who studies India with a see- Their chief mission may be snrelyaccoming eye can fail to perceive that the indirect plished by the union of living agencies, inresults of missionary euterprise, if it suits you cluding ma.nagers, collectors, mission dep… 80 til call them, are, to say the least, most preg- uties, and missionaries, all working togethnant with promise. The Dagon of heathenism er. These various agencies must work into is being undermined on all sides. To careless each other's hands. As zinc aud copper bystanders, the image may 100m as yet intact in must be broughtintodirect-communication aU its ghoulish monstrosity, but its doom we through an efficient connecting bath in or- know is written. And great will be its fall. I der to the'prodnction of a powerful galvan- have often given it as my opinion that, ere many ic current, so our missionaries at a distance years are over, we shall have in India a great and our friends here mnst be brought into religious upheaval. The leaven of western direct contact, that there maJ be success- thought, and the leaven of Christianity together ful working, praying and giving on the part are working on the inert heap of dead and fetid of all. superstitions, and, by processes which cannot always be closely traced, are spreading- a re- The Jewish societies founded in England generating ferment throngh the mass, which are eight, with 294 agents,55 stations, and must in time burst open the cerements that nOw an income of £59.394. In Scotland there are enshroud tbe Indian mind. It may not be in five missions, with 71 missionaries, 17 sta- our time. It may not be in the time of our im- tions, and an income of £12,631. There is mediate successors. But it wi!! be when He the 'Irish Presbyterian Missions, with 27 Bees fit with whom a thousand years are as one missionaries, 9 stations, and an income of day. My own belief is that it will be SOoner £3,6-34. There are twelve German Associa- than the world, or even the canons of the tions, wIth 13 missionaries, 6 stations, ano! church, snppose. What the Indian Chnrch will an income of £3,188. There is the Basle be, by what organization governed, to what pre- Friends of Israel Mission, Switzerland, with cise creeds a:tllliated, I, for my part, do not pre- 1 missionary, 1 station, and an income of tend to foresee. It is being hewn out now by £518. There are three Dutch societies,with many hands, furnished from many countries. 8 missionaries, 2 stations, and an income of But the main burden of the growing work mnst £888. There Is Pastor Kruger's Mission in ere long be taken up by the children· of the In- France with an incotDe of £60. In Sweden dian soil. It is not beyond the bonnds of lJossi- and Norwaly there are five institutionS, bility that the native church may in time pro duce its own apostle, destined to lead his coun- trymen in myriads to the feet of Christ. The 8tory et Buddha may renew itself within its pale."-Okr01lie~6 L. M. S.
-Drunkenness. ·llissionary orgaDizations in
MISSIONARY CORRlI:SPONDJl:NCII FROM .il.L PAR11i1
with 6 missionaries, 4 stations, and a.n in- that in several places you lind Buddha. excome of £1,440. There are seven North horting his followers to found places where, American Missions, with 34 missionaries, both the sick of men and animals could be 33 stations, and an income !>f £5,680. The a.ttended to. Andyou lind that the great Jewish Societies of Great Britain and Ire- ., King of Glory" in Northern India is said la.nd are 14, the agents 39l:, the sta.tions 81, to have founded places where the hungry and the annual income £75,659. The total ware fed, where the thirsty received drink, number of societies is 47. the certified work- where the naked were clothed, where the ers 457, the fields of labor 132, and the total weary were re~ted, and where the sick were annual income upward of £87,000. De Ie supplied with couches and remedies. But Roy, who has considered the subject of re- we learned, a.lso, from the Buddhist Iiterasults very carefully, is convmced that ture that it was mainly to their own monks, 100,000 Jews and Jewesses have been bap- a.nd to their own teachers, that much of tized during the last 75 years; and that these favors were given. It was not until these proselytes and their descenda.nts, if the Master came that any more general intaken together, would number250,OOO.-Rev. stitutions of charity or active philanthrop· John Dunlop, 8ecreta17l 01 the British Socie- ic work was done. Christianity came and stimulated its followers to found hospit~ls. tlllor the Propagation Of the Gospel among And so we 'find, before Christianity had been three centuries old, Fabola had the Jew.. founded a hospital in Rome. It is only on -Medical Charity the Fruit of Christiani- the banks of the great stream of grace that issues from the Throne of God that there ty. It is to the spread of Christianity tha.t 1l'1'0W the leaves which are for the healing of we owe the great development of medical the ua.tions.-PrO!eB80r Macalilter, F. R. S. charity throughout the world. It is true that hospitals existed and were diffused to some extent before Christianity. It is true III.-MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE FROM ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD-FIELD.
France. tation, to recommend the SaTiour to those aronnd them. [THE following very important communication from our esteemed From the origin of the work we have aimed personal friend and correspondent, not to form separatist communities, but to swell Rev. R. W. McAB, D. D., as to the the ranks of the existing Evangelical bodies. ingathering of the converts, into the But, while hundreds have foond their way into mission churches and branches, will the churches. hunda-eds of equally genuine conbe read with much interest. It will verts have remained outside them. Many of serve ,to dissipate some erroneous mis- our dear people have lived and died without the conceptions and to correct some ma- privilege of commemorating the Saviour's saclicious misrepresentations concern- ridce. Various canses have led to this-In ing the McAll Mission, in the recent many eases, the distance !tom any church where efforts to establish denominational tbey could find a Christian Home; in others, churches in connection with the the fact that the neighboring ministers, through Salles.-EDS.] absorption in pastoral dnties or otherwise, were unknown in the station; or again, the impression, OUR greatest deligbt is to witness decision especially on the part of the poor, that.a wei· for Cbrist, a joy whicb has been often renewed come would not be accorded, has kept them during the closing seaSOn. Second only to this back. is our satisfaction when these new disciples enter into the fellowsbip of neighboring Evan- From an early period of our history, and mOre gelical churches. We cannot tsbulate the list and more strongly as the work has taken deeper of those who, during successive years, have root, the numerous friendS visiting our stations, tbus publicly confessed their faith; but we American, Eoglish, Scotch, pastors and laymen know tbat, could the number be ascertained, it alike have,with emphaticunanimity,urged opon would be found large alike in Paris and through- os the necessity for taking measures to bring all out France. In various churches, whole groups our converts into Christian fellowship. J'oryears exist whose religious life commenced in our we have been considering how to accomplish mission·rooms. Among these, not a few have this without in any degree compromising the become diligent Christian workers. Some are undenominational character ofthe mission. Connow evangelists in our own and kindred socie- ferences have been held with French pastors ties; others, while pursuing their worldly call· and !symen on the subject. Until recenUy, inil, are lIeeking by preaching. teaching, or visi- prayerful study had. failed to suggest a mode of joint action such as the representatives olthe various French denominations could see their way to accept. At length, we have been direct- ed to a method of oraanlzation which will, we trust, supply In a great measure this" missing Bonne-Nouvelle regolar worship has been instilink." The proposal has been favorably viewed tuted in connection withthe Reformed Church or by those of our eswumed French brethren to France, our colleague, M.Victor Van der Beken, whom it has been communicated. It Is twofold: being the pastor in charge. All the evangelistic ' work of the statibn proceeds unchanged In 1. Wherever a mission station is placed within the new Mission-Hall of the Rue du Temeasy reach of a French church whose pastor or ple, in the middle of Paris, we are jOint tenants pastors take interestin the evangelistic work, we with Pastor Auguste Fisch and the Free Church invite such pastor or pastors (of whatever Evan- under his care. On the expressed desire ofthese gelical denomination) to take measures in our esteemed friends, we gladly united with them mission room for organizing a group of the se· in securing this important centel' for aggressive rious attendants with the distinct aim of pre- effort amidst a densely peopled district. In the paring them for membership of the parent new hall of the Rne Saint-Denis, also In the very church. In such case, we leave it with these heart of the city, are combined our mission stabrethren tb adopt such measures as the usages tion, transformed from the smaller one of Bouleof their own church may dictate. We vard Sebastopol, !lnd a new mission church, invite them to constitute these persons as an aided by a Committee of the Baptist denominaanne:lle or branch of their church using their tion in America, under the charge of our welldiscretion as to the administration of ordi- known colleague, M. Ruben SaiIieus. In a nances in the mission room or otherwise. The whole series of onr stations, neighbOring pastors only condition we impose is that whatever fel- are working with the view of forming Christian lowship Is formed shall be on the broad basis of groups or branches of their respective churches Evangelical faith, and that the mission station, in the mode already described, and these include as such, shall retain unchanged its strictly unde- representatives ofthe Reformed, Lutheran, Free, nominational chl!scter as a place for purely Wesleyan and Baptist communities. Gospel effort. On examining the list ofourstationsinParis and 2. In other cases, where existing churches throughout France, we find the following number are too far distant, or stand aloof from mis- brought more or less directly into relation with sionary effort, or where the teaching is not existing churches. Reformed Church of France, purely Evangelical, we are prepared to welcome 57 stations; Lutheran Church, 3 stations; the formation in our stations of distinct mission Union of Free Churches, 21 statioLs ; combinackurchea with their mission pastors. There is ation of several of the above three churches. no reason why each such mission pastor should 15; Wesleyan, 3 ; Baptist, 6; total, 105 stations. not continue to be or become also an Evangelist of the mission. But in these cases also, we re- Of the remaining twenty stations, some are gard it as essential that each church and pastor so placed as to be, more or less, in relation should be folly identifted with one or other of with a number of churches indistinguishably ; others are newly planted and not as yet specialthe existing denominations, so as to avoid the ly linked with any. liability of forming separatist communities. The Lutheran Church, so widely dill'used In Wherever the occasion for a mission church Continental Europe has, in France, only the may arise, we shall always hold ourselves ready Important Oonsi8toire of Paris, and those in the to co-operate with any of the French societies district of MontbeJiard. Our work has not enof evangellzation-" Societe Centrale," " So- tered into the latter district; hence the comparciete Evangeuque," "Societe de Geneve," etc., atively small number of stations as yet placed in constituting such a church as one of the reg- in immediate relation with our Lutheran brethular posts of those societies. In certain cases, ren. The French Wesleyan Evangelistic Mission where no Evangelical ageucy whatever exists in directed by the Rev. W_ Gibson, B.A., carrying a department or district, or where joint action on a work closely resembling our own, accounts with the mission may not be accorded, we shall for the fewness of our stations in which our be prepared ourselves to form the converts into Wesleyan friends are specially iuterested. Many a fellowship; but every such community shall of the stations comprised in the above list have be aftlliated with one or other of the existing been formed at the request orand are aided by the denominations, according to the conscientious contributions of the several churches with which convictions of its members.' Where such a they stsnd in relation. church is constituted and exercises its worship iu one of our mission rooms, the mission funds Those who carefully study the above statement cannot be used for its expenses. The use of the will perceive that the strictly unsectarian charroom mayor may not be granted without ren- acter of our work remains uninvaded, since each tal, according to the need of the particular case; denomination is alike welcomed to the spheres but its sustentation must be provided for either it is prepared to occupy, whilst our hearers are, within itself or from independent sources, the gifts entrusted to us being set apart wholly for of course, left entirely free to connect themselves evangelization. either with the Christian group in the station they frequent, or with that in any other of our We are happy to add that, on the bases Indi- stations, or to jOin any Evangelical community cated, we have already been enabled, during this to which their convictions may lead them, year, to make ahopeful commencement in sever- Above all, we would claim from every reader al quarten ofParia. In ountation of Boulevard who desirell the advancement of Our Lord's. Kingdom in France, a fervent prayer that these He has already secured from a member of his own family $25,000 toward the erection onward ,teps may be Divinely guided, so as tp of the proposed building.
issue in the fuller .ingathering of the spiritual Mr. Swift proposes to secure $25,000 more. Witb this $50,000 he will erect a building in fruits of our. enterprise, and in giving stability the heart of the business community which will be devoted to mercantile men. There and permanence, under the power of the Holy is another .important community which we must reach. I refer to the students. The Spirit, to all that we are permitted to attempt Imperial University has over five hundred students. Near by it is a large preparatory in His name. R. W. McALL. college containing nearly one thousand, also the leading Commercial College of the We append an extract from a let- empire with 500 students. Fully 2,000 stu- den~s, the brightest young men in Ja.pan, ter of Mr. Gustave Monod, Jr., are located in this quarter. Over one hun- dred of them are Cbristians, a far larger Agent f01' France of the British and proportion than Yale, Williams, Bowdoin, and other American colleges had at the close Foreign Bible Society: of last century.
.. For the past seventeen years I have been There is not a single place in all Tokio where the students can go for social recrea.- constantly traveling throughout Frauce, and tion after study hours, except the tea hOUses, whose waiter girls are a terrible snare. have made repeated visits to the various towns There is no hall near these institutions where relildous meetings can be held. in wbich the McAll Mission carries on its work. Now, our proposition is tbis: Erect a I have intimate relations with the pastors of all small, home-like building in the very center of this large student communitV. Place in denominations in these town" and it is a rare charge of it a student of strong intellectual and Christian character as general Secrething if I am not'asked for information respect- tary and we will accomplish a work second in impor~nce to none now carried on in tbis Ing the mission. I beg distinctly to state, not empire. The building and lot will cost $10,- 000. The property can be held by a board only that I have never beard it alleged that this of trustees, consisting of Japanese gentle- men of hi~h Christian and social standing, work had taken any denominational bias, but who will protect the purpose of the 'invest- ment. The amount specified will secnre a that no suspicion of the liability to such a ten· property nearly twice as valuable as the same sum invested in America. If yon dedency has ever been hinted." sire to invest this amount in a permanent Christian enterprise in these lands which (Signed) GUSUVE MONOD, Jnnr. are turning toward Christianity, I do not believe that you can do a greater work than PABIS, January 7, 1889. this, because these students, if Christian- ized, will become the" Pilgrim Fathers" of [The following, from the Commit- Japan.
tee of Direction, may serve to con- Commending this matter to your sympa- thy and wisdom, I am, firm the previous statement.-EDS.] Very sincerely yours, MISSION POPULAIRE EVANGELIQUE nE FRANCE, L. D. WISHARD.
PAIUS. January 8,1889. [THIS letfer, from the son-in-law The Committee of Direction having been of one of the editors, was written made aware of a serious rumor in the United only as a private letter, but will be States that a tendency has arisen in the mission read with interest, as giving a to depart from the neutral ground of the Evan- glimpse of how practical work is gelical Alliance on which It was founded and which it has maintained until now, the nnder- begun.-EDS.) signed, composing that Committee, feel called upon to utter a unanimous and earnest protest HIROSHUU, JAPAN, Jan. 18, 1889. again~t this allegation, and to offer a summary I have now been in Japan about nine or of the steps recently taken, as affording the best ten months, and am glad to say tnat I am contradiction of this erroneous impression. getting along now with the work quite a They declare that the accompanying paper (prepared by Mr. McAll for the Annual English Re· little. I think it well to begin to use the port before the rumor in question reached langnage ",little, asl am able, and sol have Paris) contains an, exact stateIIent of the facts, and has their entire approbation.
(Signed) R. W. McAlI, D. D., T. Howard Gill, M. A., Benjamin Couve, Pasteur de rEglise Reformee, Alfred H. Kellogg, D.D., Charles E. Greig, M.A., Ruben Saliens, Pastenr, Louis Sautter, Edouard Kern, Gustave Monod, Junr., J. Henry Benham, M.D., Lond., Eugene Revell- laud, EmUe Rouilly, Leon Reider, William Soltau.
Japan.
WE are permitted to print the fol- lowing private letter: TOKIO, March 11, 1889. There is a plan to erect a building in Tokio for Association work. There has been a succesllfullnauguration of aSSOCiation work 1U this city, and a very competent man has beeu secured who proposes to spend his life in working among the young men of Japan. begun to read the Scripture and have this Syria. week written out and translated a IIhort prayer which I mean soon to use in public. [A PRIVATE letter from a friend If I could have my teacher all the time I in Beirut communicates to one of should probably have a sermon translated the editors the following facts, under ·into Japanese within a few weeks. As it is date of Feb. 25, 1889.-EDS.] now I hope to preach in Japanese before the year is up since my arrival. Of course, I Dr. Jessup has just started with his wife shall have to read the sermon; the time is for a trip to Egypt. You may notice a great yet remote when I can hope to preach ex- dearth of letters (in aU the magazines) from temporaneously, as I mean to do so soon as I get sufficient command of the language. Syria. This is owing to the strict watch Last Sunday Ipreached to the Japanese in Dr. Lambuth's church throngh an interpre- which is kept on aU the reports sent home. ter, and enjoyed it exceedingly. It was a In consequence of a letter written five years sermon to disciples on the parable of the ago one of the missionaries recently has great supper in Luke xiv. After touching suffered, by the rigid orders at the cnson the excuses I spoke as strongly as I tom-house received from the Porte, the could on going out quickly to compel others loss of much time and some very valuable to come in. I wrote out the sermon in full books. No copies are allowed to enter and gave it to nhe interpreter to study be- of Dr. Thomson's .. Land and the Book." forehand, and consequently he translated The Government is daily pntting heavier quite accurately and promptly. I enjoyed restrictions on our work, and we dare not it e:xceedingly, and the Lambuths, as well as aJlow a word of complaint to be seen in the Japanese, seemed to be much gratified. print lest our work and communities Two weeks ago I administered the com- should thereby suffer. The articles on the munion here, but all I did was to read the increase of Mohammedanism which caused Scripture and administer the bread and so great a stir in England some time ago wine, and prononnoe the benediction in were all translated and published in the Japanese. Moslem paper at Damascus, to the delight of the Mohammedans throughout the We are greatly delighted at having been ,country. In the same way articles in the able tostart a prayer-meeting, composed of New York Herald, noticed by the Indepenall the missionaries iu Hiroshima. We have dent. speaking in unfavorable terms of misalready felt much blessed In the two meet- sionaries and their comfortable homes find ings already held. their way, clothed in glowing Arabic phrases, into the papers of our Jesuit and Catholic There is a certain Japanese, one of our presses here. This will show why the misnative chul'ch members, who has the char- sionaries do not write more often and more acteristics of an old Scotch Presbyterian, a fully of their work. great stickler for orthodoxy, but quite opinionated and headstrong. He is, we believe. A little paper is issued st'mi-weekly by the a true Christian, and we recognize his work pupils of the Mission Academy at Sidon of as being very valuable, for he has won many which Mr. Eddy is head. There are four membera to the church from heathenism; editors and each beside the labor of editing but owing to his peculiar temper he has writes out one copy of each issue: one they done much to keep the church in a state of keep, one goes to Mr. Eddy, one to Zahleh, agitation. He has just been here, and I and one to the Sidon Female Seminary. took him aside after diuner with me and Everycopy is quite perfect in its general aphad along talk with him on the subject of pearance. All is done with the ordinary Arab brotherly love, and afterward prayed with reed pens. The illustrations are by one of him-aU in Japanese. This was the first the pupils, who, having the monopoly of the time I had offered a prayer iu the native artistic talent in the Academy is obliged to tongue, and, of course, it was very short and furnish/our copies semi-weekly of his provery simple. At 3 o'clock I went to our ductions I He has never had a lesson, but preaching place, which I have established often his work is quite creditable. with my teacher, where I read the Scriptures, 9ffered a short prayer, and again at The fifty-fourth annual gathering of the evening worship with the servants read the Syrian workers has just closed. For thirty- Scriptures and offered Prayer-preparing seven of these years Dr. Eddy has been conmy prayers beforehand and having them nected with the work here, and begins to corrected by my Japanese teacher. I write feel himself as if he w<1Uld enjoy a sight of this to show you how soon I have been able the loved ones on the American shores after to begin work and use of the la.nguage, and an absence of thirteen years, but his work that this tongue is not after all so difficult for a year at least will not admit of this. of attainment. Albania- Yours affectionately, WE gladly give space to this ap- FRED. S. CURTIS. peal in behalf of a needy and neg- lected field, In a note to one of the editors the writer, Rev. J. McBaird, ans, frowns upon any Instruction, howeverflOOd missionary of A. B. C. F. M., says: not given in Greek. ' .. The Southprn Presbyterian Board has the Greek work bordering on Albania, and Albania is not near any of the patha ot. com-_ the A. B. C. F. M. the Bulgarian. 1 have written to our Board urging the Prudential merce; her country Is mountainous, and her committee to und",rtake this work, but the answer is that they do not see their way to children have seen but little of civilization, exdo it. If you can persuade some society to take up the work I shall be glad."-EDs.J cept as they have gone to other countries to MONASTIR, EuRoPEAN TuRKEY, MARCH 4,1889. earn a little money. Schools are few. In some Between Montinegro on the north and Greece on the south, lives a people for cities there are poor Turkish scbools, but none whose spiritual welfare almost nothing has been done. 1 refer to the Albanians who, in the larger villages. Greek schools are found with the Rumanians that live among and know the Albanian tongue, number a little in southern .Albania. These are useful only for less than 2,000,000. They are doubtless the descendants of the anci",nt l11yrians and those who can attend them long enough to learn Pelasgians. Their language, which isquite distinct from the Slavic, the Greek or the the Greek language. Those who want a fair Latin, has twodialects, the Gheg or northern and the Tosk or southern. oriental education mnst go beyond .Albania's At least'one half of the Albanians, as far as they have any religion, are Mohamme- borders to lind it. The mass of the people can. dans, mostly of the sect called Bektashi, whose members are noted for being skeptical not read, and mauy of those who can read canand prayerless, and often great drinkers. Unlike other Moslems they seem to be at. not nnderstand what they read. tached to their race more closely than to their religion. Ask a Mohammedan, who is The little that has been done for the evangeliof Bulgarian or Greek extraction, "What are you?" and the reply wiII always be, .. I zation ot Albania bas been done by the agents am a Moslem." Ask an Albanian Mohammedan the same question and his reply of the British and Foreign Bible Society, who most probably will be, .. I am a Skipetal' " (Albanian). About one-third of the race have translated and printed all of the New belong to' the Eastern or Greek Church. Of these the larger part are Tosks. The re- Testament and six of the larger books of the Old maining one-sixth are Roman Catholic. The latter are found mostly in northern Al- and have madejonrneys up and down to give bania. rhe spiritual destitution of the Albanians the Word of God to the Albanians in their own is very great. The Moslems are in as great spirtual darkness as are any other Moslems. tongne. A primer, a simple catechism, a his- The Roman Catholics are under the thumb tory of the Old Testament, and a ~mmar, have of of the Jesuitll' who make no attempt to give also been prepared, The B. and F. Bible Soc. can· them a knowledge of the leadiug truths the Bible, but who are very hostile to the colpor· not however take up and carryon the work of a teurs who wish to give the Word of God to the people. Those connected with the Greek Church missionary society. Though friends of the are worse oft" than the Greeks for whom Protestant Christians are working, for by far the Albanians have pleaded for some miSSionary larger part of the .Albaniaus are utterly ignorant of the language-Greek-used in the church SOCiety to send out a few men to preach and to services. That .Albian schools have not existed till very recently is not only a great mis- carry on missionary work, no favorable reply fortune for that people, but is also a punishment for being born .Albanians. Tbe Greek ecclesi- has been received. So far they have passed by astics have turned their church into an instrument for Heleniziug the .Albanians, and con- on the otber side and left this destitute people sider it more meritorious to wean them from the Albanian language than to give them spirit- in their destitution. ualinstruction. The Greek party, while spending mone;!, for Greek 8~hools amoDS thE! Alban, The present is a favorable time for beginning missionary work among the Albanians. The government is bundin~ some roads which will open up the country. Brigandage and lawless· ness have received lately a severe check. Col· porteurs report a great and increasing readi- ness to listen to the gospel. When Mr. G. D. Kyrlas, an Albanian Protestant, was at Korcha about a year ago, he was invited by both Mos- lems and Christians to preach in the school. Large numbers attended his preaching the three weeks he was there and preSsed him to stay and work among them. There is a growing desire shared by both Moslems and Christians for instruction in their native tongue.
The Lord has raised up some .Albanians who, whether working for the British and Foreign Bible Society, or associated with any mission- ary society that takes up the .Albanians; woald be a great help to the cause of Christ. One of the colporteurs of this region Is a devoted .Albanian Chl'istian. The agent of the BIble So. ciety here. Mr. Kyrias, is an .Albanian of such edncation, ability and piety that we Bulgarian missionaries would be glad to see him pastor of a Protestant Bulgarian church. He however feeA that he must work among his own people. He has a brother and a sister, both earnest Christians,who willllnish their course in school in about two years, and who wiIlprobabIy enter the Alballian work, 11; lDY be.slted : Are the Albanians a promta- Hankow, Hanyang, and WnehaD!: a leWD. popu- IDgpeople for miYionaryelfor~ t I gin it asm,. lation that cannot be -rery far short of the pap- opieion that they are. Intellectually they are ulation oC Liverpool and Glasgow taken to!:eth- equal to any 01 the racea of Turkey. They are er. In the country districts round about are more accessible than the Greeks. Though there many other large towns and vmages, &l;!d we are but Cew Albanians in Monastir, and preach- long to see European evangelists stationed in ing hal been in Bulgsrlan, six of our small various central positions throughout those dis- flock are Albanians. NotwithstRndinC the tricts, Crom which, with the help oCnative Christ- mountainous character of the country, the iane, each one coull. work the surrounding sparseness oC the population, and the 1lIll"1Il7 region. There is no likelihood that this work character ot some of the Albaulaus, I thiuk a can ever be oTert:tkcn by t~e existing agenCies.
mll!llionary society would ftud thla a profitable We therefore invite men who hal"e an independ- field, aud while somewhat hedged in by Turkish ent income, or 't7hose personal friends are able authorities, would ftud abuudaut oppportunity and willing to send them abroad, to come out .
both to sow aud to reap. With so large a part of and supplement in the way just described, and the Bible already printed in Albanian, and the without any cost to the society, the work that possibility of getting at the outset the assistance is being already dOlie by the society's mission- of earnest and educated Ohrlstlan Albanians, aries. Most of the English societies now repre- Albania would seem to be a 11eld that some sented number some unpaid missionaries miasionary society would covet. amongst t:telr nge::J.ts. We wish for all the mis- Anyone hoping to do something for the evan- sions n larGe incrc~se of such workers. An un- gelization of the Albanians may write to Rev. married mUn of frugal habits could probably Alexander Thomson, D.D., Oonstantinople, live here on £lCO per annum. Our desire is that Turkey, to Mr.G. D. Kyrias, Monastlr, or to me. every one coming to Hankow in connection J. W. BAmD. with this scheme may be provided with free quarters; we shall try to arrange that house Ohina. rent shall at all events be as small as possible. To any medical man anxious to combine eTangel- [THE lack of space compels us to istic work with the practice of medicine, we can abridge the following appeal.-EDS.] promise rare opportunities for usefulness here, and the consciousness of ha"ing been able to do A SBLF-SU!'POltTING MISSION 011' TBlC LoNDON untold good to the bodies and also to the souls of men. We do not appeal for single men only. MISSIONARY SOCIlCTY. Married couples would also find a hearty wel- come and plenty of work, but should be full ofthe Editor, of TlllI MISSIONARY RJCVIlCW 011' TUB missionary spirit, strong in health, and prepared WOJlLD.-The London Missionary Society has to put up with inconveniences. We could not for years had dialculty in raising funds Cor carry- recommend married people to come out uuless in!: on itl work. With an almost stationary in- they had something like an assured income of come it is very dlftlcult to extend operations even £200 per annum, and more if they had children. in countries whereit already has representatives, anli almostlmpossible to commence new missions We will correspond with any who wish fuller in other lands recently opened to European com-. information; or inquiries may be addressed to merce. A long experience of liC. in Ohin.. leads the Rev. R. W. Thompson at the London :MIsus to disbelieve altogether in the principle of re- sionary Society's oalce, Blomfield st. E. O. It ducing to the lowest possible point the salaries is not essential that honorary workers should oC missionaries. A missionary may of course haTe a college education, or be ordained, but they should be .. self-supporting," having private erei8t on a very small ineome indeed, but if the great majority ot Europeans are to live in health, to work ejftciently as missionaries, and sources of Income, not supported by a church, to give to their children a proper education, or bT a local auxiliary oC the parent SOCiety. something more than the bare necessities oC life Finally we appeal to parents poss8l!sed of is requisite. We think, however, that the work means, asking them If they have children who might be very largely developed, by the addition desire to become missionaries, to enable tbem oCa band of entirely uuremuneraUd labortrs. to do so as honorary members of the society. Few things will help so much to convince the We ourselves are prepared, if others willjoin world of the disinterestedness of missionaries, US, to forego the salary and various money- as seeing the missionary body largely recruited allowances Cor personal needs granted by the society to Its miSSionaries, and we appeal to from amongst men and women of culture and youn!: men possessed of private means to come good social position, who are willing to go forth out and unite themselves with UB as honorary- into all the world to preach the Gospel to the workers in the Hankow MiSSion of the London heathen, taking no~hing for their service, but Society. lITing on Inherited wealth, their hands strength- The needs of this district cannot well be over· ened and upheld by the prayers, and sympathy, stated. In the very heart of a province contain- and benedictions of Ohrlstian parents.
ing many millions, Hankow presents one of the GBIFFITII JOlIN.
ftuest centers for missionary enterprise in the ARNOLD FosTlCB, lfhol, wqrld. We have ~ tba tllree cltl8ll qf I[4D;ow, OHIN4, 21st -l"annary, 188Q. The Ohinese New Year. represented by a tablet inscribed to bim" Of" myriad yea1'!." When the bighest o1II.cial ar.- LETTER from our correspondent, rives, wbo ie Canton is tbe Governor-General, having jnrisdiction over two provinces, the Dr. A. P. Rapper, President Chris- master of ceremonies gives directions. The civil officers arrange themselves on one side actian.College. cording to tbeir rank before tbe tablet and the military officers on tbe otber side, the one cor- CANTO1", CHINA, JAN. 31, lE89. responding to the other. At tbe direction of the THIs is the Chinese New Year's day. This master of ceremonies all the Officers, in SIlOOIl8numerous people of three huudred millions are sive gronps, prostrate themselves before the keeping holiday. Every employment Is stopped, tablet which represente the emperor, with ihe all the wheels of business stand still; all the ceremony which denotes the most profound adschools are on vacation. The toiling, anxious oration, tbe tbree kneelings and tbe nine knockmillions are resting. These few days are the ings of the bead, i. e., three knockiDgs of the only complete rest days out of the three hnndred . forehead on the 1Ioor after each one of three and sixty-five days of the year. All the Govern- successive kneellngs. This presupposes the dei· ment offices, Cram the highest to the lowest are fication of the emperor, as the emperors were closed for a mouth. The seals of all offices W6~e deified. Tbis deification is implied in the dessealed up on the 19th of the l~th mouth to be ignation of tbe emperor as tbe son of Heaven brought ant. for use on the 20th of the 1st .-heaven, the patron god of the Cbinese Em· mouth. This law of the Government would pire by whose appointment the emperors role. appear to be to give the officers time to arrange all the details of their official business and keep Heuce the officers of this government are them in proper order. bound to serve His Majesty, not by the bonds of All the business of the people must be finished loyalty and faithfulness which bind tboseofother np and settled on, or before, the last day of the lands, but by this bond of annual worship and year; and all outstanding accounts settled. solemn vow. This bond no doubt contribntes These details of business often cause the streets to the peace and stability of the Government. of the cities to be thronged with the surging But what a manifestation of the blindness of the crowds till midnight. But then the tormoil natural heart which can give to a mere man the ceases, and the bustle and hurrv ends. homage and worship which Is due to God ooly- • Tbe closing days of the old year and opening who is Lord of lords and King of kings. May days of the new year are given to idolatry. Ac- all wbo read tbis be led to increased ell'ort and cording to their estimate of the merciee received, prayer that tbe knowledge of the only trne God and of their ability to give, the people of all may soon extend througbout tbis whole land, classes and conditions return thanks to their and its multitudinous people worship Jehovah. goda, by the burning of crackers in tbeir banal' and offerings of incense and fruits, etc. Witb Korea. tbeflrst hrYur8 of tbe new year they commence their 'prayers and offerings. to tbe gods for STIRRING statement and appeal blessings and pro.perity during the new year. from Rev. R. G. Underwood. This early worship has precedence of every- thing else. Tbe rejOIcings and feaRtings do SEOUL, Jan. 2, 1889. not commence till tbe evening of the first day, "THE CHECK IN KOREA." or the morning of tbe second day. Tbns is pre The work in Korea, a8 indicated by statistics sented a scene, which cannot be seen anywhere and as far as it can be indicated by so imperfect else, of such an immense multitude engaged in a method, is very encouraging. Tbe Lord has wOT8h.ip, at the same time in every family indeed blessed us, and as we see how good He bouse and shop and store and temple in the has been to us, how far His bleSSings have been whole land. What an evidence does this fact above all tbat we could bave boped or thongbt afford to the truth that man is religious by na- or even dreamed of, and how He bas granted us ture, and that the acknowledgmeut of depend- so much more than we had faitb for, we feel ence upon superior beings bas come down like calling upon all Christendom to jOin in from the very earliest altes of onr race. And singing ballelujahs of praise for what haR been what an illustration is tbis of the force of pa- done in tbis little land alone. Tbere bas been a rental example and instructiou-that tbis wor- steady advance all along the line, and in no de- sbip has tbus been handed down from genera- partmEmt of tbe work, in no portion of tbe land, . tion to generation for four tbousand years, in bas tbere been the slightest sign of a backward unbroken continuance and without change. move. In the past year alone the churcb in Korea On this first day of the new year there is ob- has multiplied over fivefold, and to-day, instead served a worshiping service wbich is un- of a score of earnest workers, there are over a known in all other lands. Every state capital bundred followers of the Master in this land. has a temple for the worship of tbe emperor. The calls from the country are as loud as ever. On the morning of the first day of the year all On all sides are CetUS for teachers and ministers. the officers oftbe Government, from the highest Wherever the seed is SOwn it seems to take, to tbe lowest, civil and military meet at tbis root, grow and bear frUit. If we only bad the temple to worship. They meet in a large hall at four o'clock in the morning. The Emperori. meil to seatter the seed, how 800n this land Korean of "Nearer my God to Thee," which might be won to Christ 1 The soil has indeed been prepared by God's Spirit and is ready for was followed by the sermon on the" Duties'and the seed, yea, we might say for the harvest. There have jnst gone back to their homes and Responsibilities of the Watchm"lu." .. Uri hal work in different parts of the country eight earnest Korean workers who have spent a pon chlkpoun-A. Charge to Keep J Have," month here in Seonl, being instrncted in Chris· tlan doctrine and the proper methods of diffns· then followed, at the close of which Mr. Appening the truth, and a more thoughtful set of Bible stndents cannot be met anywhere. While here geUer, assisted by Mr. Ohlinger, distributed the they have studied night and day, and have shown a really carefnl study that was very encourag- elements. It was indeed an impressive service. ing. For instance, they would come, after hearing a lecture from a foreigner with the question, God was with us and it was good to be there. "Mr. – – said so and so. "We do not doubt but that It Is true, but we cannot dnd it in the Now let us stop and think a moment. Let us Bible. Where did he learn that and how can we know it is true f" Or, again: "We see look at Japan. There the missionaries waited that Matthew and John were Christ's disciples, bnt who were Mark and Luke? We cannot years for the ftrst convert, and it was not till dnd their names in the list of Christ's disciples, and how come their writings in the • Sacred they had been there for ten years that a church Book?'" And, at another time they said, .. We now see why the fuu'l' Gospels are in the Bible, was organized, and not till years after "that any but why Paul's Epistles and the other books of the New Testament are there, but who wrote the semblance of publicity was given to their ser- Acts and by what right Is that In the Canon?" vices. Now glauce at this land. Opened to the While these questions are simple enough, and from a class at home would excite no remark, world by treaty with the United States in 1881. when they come from Koreans, who are only just coming out into the light, they show a Dr. Allen, the first missionary to Korea, a phycritical study and a careful thinking that we had not expected. sician, arrived in the fall of 1884. Others fol- During the stay of these men we were blessed lowed in tne spring of 1885. In July, 1886, tbe with tbe presence and power of tbe Spirit. The burden of their prayers during the whole month first convert baptized. In the fall of 1887 the was for this One thing-the presence of the power of the Holy Ghost in their own hearts and first church, a Presbyterian, was organized with in the hearts of the believers throughout the country. As He always is, the Good Lord was ten members. In February, IIJ88, a union week the hearer of their prayers, and just while they were here there was a great ingathering. In of prayer among the natives was held. In May, the one month there were no less than 28 appli cants for baptism, of whom 19 were received. 1888, .. The Check in Korea" appeared. In The other nine are now earnestly studying the way, aud ere long we hope to admit them also July, 1888, all signs of the .. Check" as far as to the bleSSings of the ordinances of the church. Just before they returned to the country we in- this land is concerned have disappeared. A new vited the Methodist Church here to nnite with us in celebrating the Lord's Supper. What a .. Check" for Korea has appeared in the for- service we had lOur little room was made larger by the removal of a partition, but before getfulness of what the Lord is doing here on the the hour came it was full and several were com- pelled to stand the whole service, which lasted part of the church at home. nearly two hours. In December of the same year the Power of The service opened with the invocation in Korean, and from first to last we all felt that the Spirit is poured out on Korea and a score or God was indeed with us. Then with heart and soul we all joined in singing "Before Jehovah's more are gathered in in a month. In January, Awful Throne." in Korean, to the tune of" Old Hundred." At the close of this dYe Koreans 1889, the church numbers over 100 (Methodist atood up and openly avowed their belief in the Saviour and received baptism. Prayer and read- and Presbyterian). There are two well organ- iug of the lesson for the day, Ezekiel xxxiii., were followed by .. Hauanim Kakahl," the ized churches in the land. Public servicllll are held every Sunday in two parts of the city.
Weekly prayer meetings are sustained. Boys are working for the Master and holding a prayer meetiug for themselves. The little band Is firm.
They trust in the Lord. He is leading them.
Now what has the church done at home in view of this r The Methodist Board have" cut down appropriations because the work is stopped in Korea t" The Presbyterian Board have decided to send no more men until free- dom of religion is granted t It is time for this idea to be put aside. We do not know that a change In the treaties is de· sirable. We have now all the work that we can do, and more, and we do not know but that if restrictions were all removed it might not be the greatest .. check" that the work had yet received.
Pray for the work that it may go on triumph- antly; pray for the laborers that we may know how to work aright, but while you pray let work go with your prayers. Give of what God has given you for this cause here. Let not the cause of Christ languish for lack of funds.
You are the stewards of the Lord; withhold not the tithes and you will be blessed yourselves.
But who will come, is the question. Does not the Mcaallstaenr dnoowbeysary, .. Go"? Who will hear His Will you not" come over and help us ?" and then with God on our aide we will take this land for the Lamb. We plead" In His Name."
INTEltN.A.TIONAL
IV.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
CONDUCTED BY J. T. GRACEY, D. D.
The Press on Foreign Mission Fields. nacular newspapers to be examined FROM the inception of modern by the Government Translator. By 1872 these had grown to thirty-nine. missions, the power and importance of the press in all heathen lands, The statistical returns for 1885-86 eminently in those having a litera· for India show a steady growth and ture, has been recognized. As long a new departure. There were 1,094 ago as the Liverpool Conference on presses at work in that country. Of Missions in 1860, we find reference to these 294 were in the Northwest the volume and character of native Provinces and Oude, 229 in Bengal, literature in India. 228 in the British territory in Bom- In 1858 Rev. James Long quoted bay, and 20 in the native states, 200 statistical details from the Govern- in Madras, 71 in Punjab, 26 in Burment Report of Bengal, on the ver- mah, 16 in the Central Provinces. 5 nacular press in Calcutta, showing in Berar,4 in Assam, and 1 in Coorg.
that in 1857 the Calcutta presses The number of newspapers printed alone issued for sale 571,670 books, in English during the same year was of which a little less than ten thou- 127, as against 117 in the previous sand (9,550) were Christian. The year, and of newspapers printed in almanacs numbered 13€i,000 and the the vernacular or bilingual 277, as Hindus depended on these to de- against 259 in 1884-85. The Punjab termine auspicious days for mar- is not reckoned in the calculation, as riage (only 22 in the year), for first the returns do not separate the Engfeeding an infant rice (27 days in the lish and the vernacular papers, but year), or commencing to build a give a total of 67 for both. By far house, and the like. The educa- the greater number of the vernacutional works, such as algebra, arith- lar newspapers are published in the metic and agriculture, numbered Bombay Presidency, which supports 145,300. Of books abounding in ob- no less than 104, the Northwest Provscene matter, 14,250 were printed; inces and Oude coming next with 72, of works of fiction, 33,050 copies and Bengal next with 54. In Madras were issued. Of books printed to there are only 29, and in Coorg no sustain the systems of mythology newspaper either in English or in the and Hinduism, 96,150 books were vernacular is published. The numpublished. ber of periodicals published in India -excluding the Punjab-was 284, of In 1871, 769 books were published which 102 were in English and 182 in in Calcutta, of which some 700,000 the vernacular. copies were printed, about one-third being in English, one-third in Ben- The whole number of publications gali, the rest miscellaneous: ArablC, registered during 1886 in BritIsh In- Hindi, Persian, Sanskrit, Santali, dia was 8,963, of which 1,485 were in Urdu, etc. The growth thus indi- Urdu. cated will be emphasized by the In forming an estimate of the statement that it is estimated that growth of thiil literary energy it from 1811 to 1821 the total issues of must be borne in mind that full free" the press were not over 16,000 copies. dom of the press only dates from The leap from that to over half a 1835. It is now well known that a million as we have seen in 1857, and single native publishing house in to over. 700,000 fourteen years later, Lucknow has sent an order at one indicates a great increase of literary time to England, for $25,000 worth activity. of paper to be used in his printing establishment. In 1863 there were but tw~lve ver- I Dr. Weitbrecht, at the London Conference of last year, said that This literary aggressiveness is not "the vernacular books which are limitedto India and Ceylon. Burmah, read for purposes other than studious too, is astir. A report before us or professional are, to a great extent, says: morally pernicious. And this ap- plies also, in great measure, to the .. There are printing presses In Rangoon. one English literature favored by young of them a steam-press, owned and condncted by India, so far as it is secular. Secunatives, which are devoted to the printing of a larism and ft'ee-Iove go hand-in-hand Buddhist literatnre, and cheap editions, put in to furnish the mental food of many attractive forms, are exposed for sale on pagoda English-reading natives." Another platforms, at steamer landings on the river, and speaker, Mr. Madie, said: "I have wherever people are likely to congregate In all been informed, and I am afraid it is parts of Burmah.'" the case, that at the present moment at the different railway stations in But a good deal of this literature India, the contractor for the supply at present is of foreign importation. of books has certainly supplied liter- In 1872 there were eleven booksellers ature of a most degrading and disin Calcutta with extensive shops and gusting nature, that is to say, transwarehouses, whose chief business lations made from the very worst of was importing books and periodical French novels." literature from Europe. Their imports aggregated about $250,000, of Dr. Murray Mitchell added his teswhich the bulk was of course from timony that the number of readers Great Britain, but some from France in India and China is rapidly increasand some from America. The most ing, and the natives are circulating of this was educational. poisonous literature to a fearful ex- tent through the agency of the press. Of the moral character of much of this indIgenous literature it is almost Turning to Japan we find it no needless to write. Dr. Murdock, easy task to write of the literary writing to Lord Napier in 1871, ex- kalaidoscope. The modern newspressed the opinion that it would be paper started in Japan as late as better for India if the whole of its 1871. By 1873 the number of newsindigenous literature were burned papers transmitted through the mails up, and a writer in the Indian Evan- exceeded half a million copies (514,- gelical Review said that "the issue 610), and in 1874 this was multiplied / of books and pamphlets was increas- more than fivefold, over two and a ing in India enormously, very few of half millions of copies (2,629,648) pasthe best vernacular books being free sing through the mails. The next from obscemty, while the great mass six months saw a number (1,839,846) of novels and poetry published in almost equal to the whole year's is- Bengal are distressingly filthy. A sues before. In 1879 eleven millions writer was quoted at the Allahabad and a quarter passed through the Conference as saying in 1852 : Post Office which was 100 per cent. "There are for sale in the Calcutta gain on that of 1876. TheJ;l came the bazaar, pamphlets written fortheex- restrictions of the Government, but press purpose of reducing bestiality despite all, the new'5paper press to a systematic theory. Had we not continued to develop, and by 1880 seen them we could not have be- fourteen millions newspapers passed' lieved in their existence." And of through the post offices of the emthe current Bengali literature Rev. pire. All these newspaper ventures' J. E. Payne said before the Confer- are not of course successful. In ence, that it "consists largely of 1880, of 149 new newspapers started, poetry. dramas, and fiction, and there is very little that is not licentious; probably not one in twenty of these wor~sis fit to read.'" 114 of them never saw 1881; of new with young Japan has been growing journals 266 were commenced in stronger under the influence of such 1880, 47 of which soon succumbed. imported inspiration from the west.
In 1887 a dozen daily newspapers ReV'. Dr. D. C. Greene, in an able were being published in Tokio, three paper read before the' General Con- in Osaka, and more in other large ference of Protestant Missionaries in towns. The total number of works Japan in 1883, said Paine's" Age of published in 1881 reached 4,910, Reason" is known in Japan under the against 3,792 the year previous. Of name of Dori no Yo; and Robert these 545 were on political subjects, Ingersoll's article on Christianity being almost double the number of from the North American Review those of the previous year of this was translated under the name of character: on political economy, 15 Yesu Kiyo Hai geiki Ron. A native works were issued in 1880, and 25 in pamphlet was brought out in 1881 1881. Of books on law, l1il80 pro- entitled Yesu Kiyo Mudori, or Chris- duced 207, and 1881, 225. Medical tiani ty Against Re'ason.
works advanced from 229 to 267; Another was by a professor in ethical and moral works increased Tokio on the Errors of Christianity from 32 to 93 ; historical books, from Exposed, or Yaso Kiya Ben waku.
196 to 276; poetical works, from 491 A book on Christian superstitions to 556; books on drawing and writ- was said to have much influence ing from 127 to 339; engineering with Chinese scholars. Paine's ,. Age works from 8 to 28; books on com- of Reason" was said to be read very merce from 70 to 113. The books on extensively. Another class of Anti- scientific subjects, geography, chem- Christian literature is of native ori- istry, natural history, astronomy, gin, and is based on political grounds slightly declined. School books were, of objection to Christianity. The howevt>r, hearly half as numerous principal books are Fukuzawa's work as all other books -put together. In entitled Bummei Ron or Treatise on 1880 they numbered 707 and in 1881 Civilization; his JiJi Shogen, a they were '704. Lighter literature Word for the Times, and a book was not neglected, 193 volumes of called Yaso kiyo koku gai, or Chris- tales, novels and the like being pub- tianity an Injury to the Country.
lished in 1881. It is needless to attempt in a brief The special feature which chal- article any summary of the literary lenges our attention in the modern features of so great a country, and literature of Japan is, however, the one whose literature is so permeating ready adoption of ll}odern Anti-Chris- and many phased as China. There tian literature. Agnostic and mate- are a few things, however, which in- rialistic treatises from England and dicate a remarkable modification of America have found their way to Ja- the literary life of this nation as im- pan. Huxley's "LaySermons," Spen- minent.
cer's "Data of Ethics" and a large Through ages the classics have range of similar works are read ex- consisted almost exclusively of ethi- tensively by the students of the cal maxims, and these are the text of Government and other English Chinese education of which one reads schools in various parts of the so much. Science was discouraged.
country, and in translationll more Confucian ethics were the standard or less among the students of the ,of scholarship.
normal schools and academies. But recently the Chinese Govern- They form the staple of articles in the ment has made a decided innovation current newspaperIiteratul'e, and the on these centuries-old customs. In materialistic tendency of thought 1888 the Peking Gazette, the official organ of the Emperor, added ques- are uncounted, but 'who in 1843 tions on foreign :science and learning, prmtedoverthree hundred thousand to the examination papers of the tracts, and as long ago as 1872 these tens of thousands of students as- aggregate initial forces had in circusembled at the provincial and metro- lation more than ten millions of politan examinations. Thjl Govern- separate issues. It is impossible to ment had, some time before, engaged follow the development of this foreigners to translate books and agency over anyone of the great follow the current periodicals of heathen countries. . other countries and translate every article bearing upon China; and The rapid growth and the steadily these translations were printed in an augmenting demand may be seen by official newspaper published every a slight glance at the Madras Refifth day for exclusive circulation ligious Tract and Book Society which among the Chinese official class. in the first fifty-five years of its ex- istence printed 7,521,529 copies, and We have no space to show the lit- in the next nine years printed as erary influences which are pervading many more. Forty years latercame other mission countries, such as the the Christian Vernacular Education Spanish-speaking populations of Society, which averaged for its first Mexico, the Argentine Republic, and twenty-two years put into circulaothers on the American continent, tion nearly two and three-quarter nor that of Italy and even of parts millions of publications. Far in the of Africa. Northwest the Punjab, Lucknow and oth!'lr presses have poured forth Enough has been thus hurriedly 'their leaves which are for the healing traversed, to show the vast and im- of the nations. minent need of the hour in the use of the press for evangelical pur- The early China missionaries acposes. Of course we cannot recount complished marvels in the producwhat has a.lready been done in the tion of literature. Commencing department of missionary labor. with Joshua Marshman, the first When Carey, Marshman and Ward translator of the Scriptures into Chion Lord's day, March 30, 1800, stand- nese, who began his work in Seraming at a four corners, or four-cross- pore in 1799, we have a noble band i'oads, sang Bengali hymns, and of litterateurs. Dr. Morrison became then distributed them in print the author of 13 Chinese and 19 Engamongst the people, they began the. lish works; Dr. Milne, of 21 Chinese mightiest revolution the Continent and 3 English; Dr. Medhurst, of 63 of India could experience. Within Chinese, 29 English and 7 Malay; twice twelve montns they had dis- Gutzlaff, of 61 Chinese, 2 Japanese, tributed 22,OQO tracts in the vernacu- 1 Siamese, 5 Dutch, 7 German and 9 lar, and these grew to at least a mil- English; Mr. Muirhead, of 89 .Chilion tracts and pamphlets by 1806, nese and 8 English. Drs. Doolittle, and the year 1815 alone saw the cir- Legge, Edkins and others kept the culation of far more than a hundred literary current flowing in Chinese, thousand. The Church of England, Mongolian, Malay, Japanese, Siathe Baptist, and the London Mission- mese, Dutch, German and English, aries in Calcutta re-enforced the ef- and now Dr. Yung J. Allen tells us forts of the "Serampore Three" in he has translated 90 volumes of his- 1818, the one with 6,000, the next tory, geography and science. OCthe with 15,000, and the last with 88,000 Christian presses estab.lished in variprinted issues, and the whole cul- ous parts of this Empire, there is no minated in the Calcutta Christian space to write. The last annual re- Tract and Book Society, whose issues port of the American Presbyterian Missionary Society says of the press the all-round development ofa at Shanghai: "The business of the Christian church and a distinctly press comprises two departments- Christian civilization. Neither ha.ve the manufacturing and the distribut- we cared to discuss the numerous ing. The former includes the foun- phases of the scope to be given dry, typesetting, pi'inting and bind- to the Christian press in these ing. The foundry has seven casting countries. How far it should be machines constantly at work which ' confined to religious publications, cast six sizes of Chinese type, besides or take also secular type and English, Korean, Manchu, Japanese, much besides, are questions for Hebrew, etc. There is also ma- separate discussion. It is, how- chinery for stereotyping, electrotyp- ever, not much except a question of ing, matrix-makifig, typecutting and capital. Why should not a mission engraving." Three presses are run press issue educational books which by gas, and five by hand, and from 80 tend to augment the intellectual life to 100 persons have been employed. of a people, even if it be in the form And now comes the statementwhich of elementary school books?
caused us to select this press as an The Greek "Alphabetarian" was illustration; " The earnings of the issued by the American Board press at press for the year, including increase Malta in 1829, 27,000 copies of which in the plant, stock, etc., were $12,- were sold in two years. Rev. Mr.
629.65, of which $5,000 were turned Craven issued a small Hindustani into the treasury for current mission dictionary with discriminating defi- work." We do not mean that it is nitions and carefully selected illus- alone in this self-supporting and trations, which was published at the revenue-yielding feature. It is not energetic Methodist Press in Luck- singular herein, else the very point now, India, and 60,000 copies were we desire to make would be dulled, sold in two years.
viz. : that it would seem that no de- These incidentals, however, of the partment of work could so readily mJl>in question should not divert our be made self-perpetuating as a mis- thought from the vast and rapidly sion press, and that a round sum increasing necessity which exists, given for the foundation of a press that the Christian Church shall mul- would be as wise and as useful a dis- tiplythe operations of its press in all position of money as would the en- foreign fields a hundredfold and do dowment of a professorship or even it at once. The hour has struck. The of a college. The power, the reach, procession moves. What we do we the influence of the press, is honey- must do qUickly.
combing tl1ese heathen communities, and the Christian Churr:h should .. Honor the Emperor, :Believe in take such large leadership of the :Buddha." general movement over the world as "Son-NO Ho-Butau Dai Dodan,"
will secure, if not the control of the which is translated in the caption of press in these great countries, yet, our articl~, is the title of the new as- at least such moral power as will sociation in Japan which seeks to materially affect its issues. secure a revival of Buddhism.
We have not discriminated between The Japanese Buddhist is becom- the necessity of furnishing health- ing sensitive to the Christian mis- ful literature for the heathen, and sion, and compliments its efficiency that of meeting the wants of the nat- by seeking to stir up his co-religion- iveChristian community–a commun- ists to rivalry with its pl'opaganda.
ity which must be furnished with all The Japanese newspapers have for the many-sided literature essential to some while past been tellin~ of able
INTERNATION.ll
Buddhist preachers undertaking to in operation along with the course of expound their doctrines with re- the social developments with the newed activity, a~d also of the es- moral and intellectual progress.".
tablishment of schools and other This, to an English reader, is atleast agencies in imitation of Christian a little less mysterious than Om missionary methods, all intended Mani Padn~, the unknown prayer to to counteract the force of Christian the unknown God of unknowable evangelism. The Lew missionary Buddhism.
society organized by these Buddhists But the editor of Bijou publishes can be partly understood by the fol- several letters from persons in this lowing quotation from its prospec- country, describing the hollowness tus: of Christianity and exalting Budd- .. Son-No Ho-Butsu Dai Dodan is an asso- hism as pre-eminently adapted to ciation established for the purpose of main- the needs of the Western barbarians. taining the honor and majesty of our Em- The editor thus expounds Buddhism peror and the truth of the doctrine of for English readers: Buddhism-a union of those who wish to protect our land and religion from the con- .. The fundamental ideas on which Budd- tempt of foreigners. Those who unite with hism hingesare, that the !ltate of constancy, us are expected to avoid everything that or eternal continuance, cannot be found in would lessen the reverence due to his Im- the whole universe, and that there is noth- perial Majesty or the infiuence of Buddhist ing to be pointed to as egoity : and the ob- doctrine. For instance, in selecting our ject of Buddhism is to drive away the conrepresentatives to the national parliament, fusion, and acquire the illumination, of the to provincial assemblies, to town councils psychical state. Every sect agrees on the or local offices, in the distribution of all fundamental idcas and the object; but honors, in appointing school teachers, of- there are found many grades of practice ficials of societies and business companies and principles in the preachings of the etc., we pledge ourselves carefully to ex- Tathagata himself, as well as of the deficlude all who are disloyal to the Emperor or nitions of several points of the doctrine. untrue to Buddhism by belicving in the This reason is that he intended to render foreign religion called Christianity. If these his teachings available to all the circumpoints are kept well in mind and carried out stances which the human beings present in practice, we, 39,000,000 of brethren united among themselves, that all they might be in one, will so protect our country that saved from the dark, miserable circle. This though many a difficulty and many an in- accounts for why Buddhism is divided into ternal social and political problem may sects;." The second extract is in verse, anp arise, still our Emperor's position shall is described as coming from the drama of stand secure and the doctrinc of Buddha the •• Toy Cart" : shall remain unshaken. Yes, if we but stand together on this solid foundation of truth, .. Be virtue, friends, your only store, the result will be that no foreign land will And restless appetite restrain, point at us with the finger of scorn. Now, brothers, if you can see the truth as here Beat meditation's drum, and sore stated do not hesitate to come and join our Your watchagainsteachsense maintain; band. Give us your hand, we shall then all stand together and add to the strength and The thief that stiII in ambush lies, life of our Yamato-damashii I" To make devotion'S wealth his prize.
In order to properly present the •Cast the five senses all away, That triumph o'er the virtuous will, interests of this missionarj society these Buddhists have established at The pride of self-importance slay, And ignorance remorseless ki1l.
So shall you safe the body guard./ And Heaven shall be your last reward."
Kioto a missionary magazine pub- There is, however, little occasion to lished in the English language with apprehend any protracted or powerthe title of Bijou of .Asia. The edi- ful movement toward a real revival tor says of Christianity in Europe of Buddhism, from the success of this -and America, "It is losing its influ- new departure of its missionary so- ence upon the social life and is drop- ciety and magazine. These move- ing away the principles forming the ments, intended as counter forces to part and parcel of its system, owing Christian aggressiveness, of which to the factors which naturally carne we have had many in India and ,I China, whether organized by Mos- powerful allies; shorn of means,of preatlge, lems, Brahmans or Buddhists, have of solid foundationi decay staril)g tb9l!l in been ShOl·t-lived, and are significant the face, no wonder they seek forsympathy rather as containing an acknowledg- and try all kinds of experiments. 'But 'this effort to tack themselves on to oUl-pOor, ment of the power of Christian mis- friendless.,deserted Emperor Is too comical.
sions and an apprehension of their Where is ther~ in all Japan a eJapallese further success, than as at all likely who does not reverence and honor his to furnish a true rallying point for Majesty Y But belief or unbelief in Budd- hism is a matter of choice that has not the revival of the fast decaying forces of remotest connection with our loyalty to the these old faiths in the face of the Emperor. Buddhism may have been of new civilization and the new dogma of Christianity. The editor of The benefit to Japan in olden times, butit is out- Christian, himself a Japanese, re- grown to-day 0.8 the clothes ot childhood are outgrown by one who has come to man- hood. Japan Is now putting away ohildish plying to the editor of the Bijou of things. If Buddhists want to form a politi- Asia, writes as follows: cal party to help themselves, let ,them form a really Buddhist party, and not attempt to .. Buddhism feels that the influence of the mix two things which are as fa.r as the poles old doctrine is decaying, and many are the asunder. But -this dragging in of religiOUS experiments and plans projected to save matters into political life, as they-wilIh to the waning cause. Five or six years ago do in regard to electionll, etc.., is a. matter they started a plan of preaching and lec- that cannot be too severely reprehended. turing on a large scale to expose th" errors We do not wish to see here the-poJitico- of Christianity and to expound the Buddhist religiolls contentions that disgrace papal law: at the same time Yaso-Taijl-Chris- countries. If Buddhism can hold its own tianity expelling society-was started with by the fair teaching of doctrine and by winhigh hopes. These plans failed and the next ning the hearts of the people well and go,od, move was to open girls' schools, establish but if it needs political power to preserve woman's societies, young men's associa- its life it must be in a pitiable condition intions, etc., etc., in imitation of the doings deed." of the Christians. All this is a benefit to Japan, no doubt, but it is suicidal for Budd- "Sunny Spain." hism. for Buddhism and education cannot THREE centuries ago Spain inaug- exist together. Superstition and knowledge urated in the City of Seville what will not mix. Buddhism looks upon Chris- France had theoretically originated tianity as its great enemy, but the real but dUl'st not then attempt to realize enemy of Buddhism is the light of the nine- amongst her people-the terrificInteenth century and the incoming of western science. In India. Bra.hminism is true to it- quisition. Nowhere, even in Spain, self eand opposes the education of the have so many been burned for fidelimasses !Lnd of woman; it may be respected ty to their convictions as here. Here while it is opposed by Christians. There old men, youths, girls died for their would be something manly in Japanese Buddhism standing its own ground and faith. Of the martyrs that cry be- fighting with its own weapons, but when it neath the altar what multitudes asholds its superstitions with one haud and cended from this city! a city so beaugrasps at edncation as an aid with the other tiful that the motto is current still, it IS simply to be pitied. The strength of Buddhism in Japan is wholly in uneducated "He who has not seen Seville, has elderly people, who still believe its teach- seen no wonder." ings. The boys and girls who entered the It was a happy day for Seville when primary schools when the present system was established are now becoming men Rev. L. S. Tugwell, the' British and women, taking the place of the elders chaplain at that place, purchased in who are little by little dropping out, and 1871 the fine old church, San Basilio, hence the decay of Buddhism. But now we have a new scheme. In reading the procla- once a Benedictine monastery, that mation of the Son-No Ho-Butsu we appre- 'ciate the trouble into which they have the gospel in its Simplicity might fallen and pity them, for they are like a once more be preached therein, and lonely castle in the midst of circling foes to ,whom nothing is left but hopelesssurrender. a congregation of a'thousand persons Within, scarcely an intelligent and edu- cated believer; without, no rich or wise or assembled. That work has extended over many parts of Spain; We read of crowded congregations at Malaga,
TJUIl MONTHLY OONOERT OF-KISSIONS
where cruel persecution has failed to – The ticket olllce in the Callt lit Sevilla does Dot su.bdue the pastor or injure the work, open until Saturday; but on Friday 3,000 .per- sons assemble in front of the D68pacho, and and of the success of village missions, walt there Courteen hours in order to prooure and of one occasion where over 200 – cards of admission. A detachment of troops is persons were unable to gain admis- sent to keep order, but Cor all that there Is a.
sion to the room, listening eagerly good deal oC rough horse-pisy. Blows are struck. – at the door and windows. "We have revolvers are produced, arrests are made, and indeed many trials," writes one pas- the authorities threaten to clear the streets'. As this would deprive the multitude of their covet- tor, "but come what may we must ed seats in the bull-ring, order is eventnally re- preach Jesus." stored. Fearing a serious conllict in the Calle But Spain is still a Roman Catho- de Sevilla, however, the Governor of Joladrld lic country. An Evangelical pastor arranges for the tickets to be sold at the bull . ring itself. Directly this announcement is made tells us that when a bull fight, some the crowd march In a compact body to the time ago, was to be given on Sunday Plaza de TOf'08. When the tickets are proafternoon in Seville, in aid of the duced, nearly 10,000 people are standing In the Roman Church, the corners of the blazlnj!; sunshine. On Sunday all the great cen· streets were covered with posters on which the Virgin Mary was repre- ters ot the City are deseried. The Fine Arts Exhibition, which is open free, has scarcely a visitor. But the bull-rlng-the admission to sented as seated between a bull and which is from 14 to 15 twenty-five shilllng……..is a bull-fighter. A recent writer gives packed, and as much as £10 is paid for a seat us this description of the Sunday, for in the shade. which the Roman Catholic Church is responsible in Spain. He writes of "It is a terrible fact that the priest and the bull· fighter are the two chief factors of the day. in- deed, they go together, for bull-fights are fre- Madrid: quently given in aid of the expenses of public .. There is to ,be an extraordinany bull-light on worship, and the proceeds of the revoltinc e1- Sunday, and special attractions are announced. hibltions are called" pWu8 alml."
V.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D.D.
SUBJECTS for the month: Africa 7. Malayo-Polynesian, Madagasand Freedmen. Consult volume for car. 1888, pp. 411, 468, etc. This is a valua.ble classification. AFRICA.-Physicallyit is compared Religion.-Some of the tribes are to an inverted saucer, the coast line so low sunk in barbarism that they comparatively low, ascending to come as near as any people to no reranges of hills and mountains, with ligion; the language has no words to table lands, SOOO feet high, beyond express properly religious and spirand between. Population vaguely itual ideas; and the consciousness of estimated at 200,000,000 and over. spiritual things, and almost the ca- Keane arranges the -races in seven pacity for apprehending them seem main groups according to language. no longer to exist. Moffat thought some of the people scarcely reachable 1. Semitic, along north coast and even by the gospel, and counseled in AbyssiDia. as the threefold condition of all suc- cess, "Patience, Patience, PA- 2. Hamitic, Sahara, Egypt, Galla and Somali.
S. Fulah-Nuba, in Western Cen- TIENCE." tral and Eastern Soudan. Throughout the northern region, 4. Negro, Western and Central Sou- the crepd of the Moslem is nomina.lly dan, Upper Nile and Upper Guinea. prevalent but is not practically very influential. It is rather a barrier to 5. Bantu, south o[ 60 n. Lat. except the gospel than a positive religiOUS in Hottentot land. belief. On the west coast the Mo- hammedans are divided into Mar- 6. Hottentot, extreme southwest (rom Cape to Tropic of Capricorn. abouts and Soimachees ; the former ers or canoes to give alfJes.8. tQ these are rather stricter in observing the teeming millio.ns. One sta.rts-it(b~ laws and customs of the sec~the mouth of this imperial strea.m and Pharisees of the Mussulmans In Af- ascends 125 miles of navigable river, rica-while the latter are looser, then for 185 miles encountel'S rapids more secular, even eating pork and and cataracts; bu.t beyond that for drinking intoxicants. over1.000 miles, from Stanley Pool to Stanley Falls, is one grand stretch of Fetichism is more widely prevalent navigable river, with branches runin Africa than in any other land. It ning each way navigable from 100 to is the lowest form of superstition 800 miles, and leading into the heart and both marks and makes the deep- of this rich and populous territory. est degradation where it prevails. Dr. Burrell in his excellent book on The people from the river-mouth the"Religionsof the World" compre- up to Stanley Pool and the equator hensively describes Fetichism thus: line are civilized by contact with "A Fetich is any material thing, white traders, and their pagan cusliving or dead, not divine, to which toms largelymodifled. They speak reverence is paid on account of a one language, musical. of Jarge casupernatural influence proceeding pacity of expression and easy of from it. acquis~tion, and along this line the seven Congo stations are already Central Thought: a man not the planted. 'Beyond the point where the controller of his own affairs. 1. His Congo crosses the equator, lies anmaster is Fetich, the fortune giver. other vast populatIOn, . more de- 2. He may have many fetiches of graded, less civilized, and needing at divers kinds. 3. Fetichism is not once the full array of Christian Polytheism, Henotheism or Panthe- institutions, but yet entirely desism. 4. It is however a system hav- titute. ing both a creed and a cultus. 5. It is better than materialism, for it Their moral and· spiritual state is holds to the- reality of supersensib1e hardly conceivable without contact things. To the question: What shall with them. With no idea of God or I do to be saved? it gives no answer. immortality, they worship fetich cha.rms; sickness is not brought about Africa is so wide a territory, that by natural causes, but is the result of in addition to matter furnished in. enchantment; hence the medicinethe last volume, we give only notices man must trace disease and death to of some few missions. some unhappy human victim or victims who must suffer the witch's The Oongo Mission. penalty. One death therefore means another-it may be a dozen. Here A grand open door is that which God runawayslaves are crucified, robbers has set bef "Ire our Baptist brethren in buried alive, young men .cruelly dethe Congo basin! a million square capitated, andhuman beings areeven miles in the heart of equatorial devoured for meat. Africa, made accessible by the great Congo and its tributaries. And yet this people, after centuries of virtual seclusion, are now both The great lakes, Nyassa, Victoria, Iitel'ally and morally accessible. They Tanganyika, are isolated; they must welcome missionaries, come to. the be approached by a long and weary chapels, and prove teachable. Even walk of from 500 to 800 miles from now cruel customs and superstitious the coast, and afford no means of notions are giving way before patient, penetrating the surrounding coun- humble, scriptural instruction. .The try; but the Congo and its branches walls are down, and the hosts of God present from 4,000 to 6,000 miles of river roadway, needing only steamha.ve but to march straight on and heroism of the gospel does not de- take what Dr. Sims calls "the last mand needless exposure or careless stronghold of Paganism." venture.
Wonderfully indeed has God linked Here is a grand opportunity. It Protestant, Greek, Roman Catholic, m'ay be doubted whether there has, and even Moslem 'nations in the ad- been anything like it since the ministration of the Congo Free State. clarion voice of our Great Captain Never was such a highway open for trumpeted forth the last commission. the gospel since our Lord ascended. Ethiopia is stretching forth her hands unto God. On those hands The Arabs from Zanzibar and the are the marks of manacles which coast are moving up toward Stanley England and America helped to rivet Falls and the north country, estab- there. There is but one atonement lishing themselves in large villages we can make for Africa's wrongs-it to capture slaves and carryon ne- is to lay down our lives, if need be, farious traffic, while the Protestant to redllem her sable sons from the forces slowly move upward from the captivity of sin. west. The question is, Who is to occupy the Congo Basin? and the We ought to turn this Congo into question is to be settled at once. This a river of life, crowd its waters great highway of rivers means traffic with a flotilla of Henry Reeds, line and travel; this rich and splendid its banks with a thousand chapel tropical country invites trade and spires, plant its villages with Chris- settlement. Into whose hands shaH tian schools, let the Congo Free such a heritage be surrendered? The State mark its very territory with Christian Church must give prompt the sign of Christian institutions, so answer by action, her reply must be a taking possession, and the old law that to cross its border will be to pass is the new one: "Every place that from darkness unto light. Where is the sole of your feet shall tread upon our Christian enterprise, that such a shall be yours:" the resolutions of work, with such a field and such . enthusiastic missionary conventions, promise, should wait for workmeq the prayers of all Christendom, the and for money! What do our con- planting of the banner of the cross verted ypung men want, as a chance at a few commanding points-all to crowd life with heroic service, that this .will not do. We must send out the Congo basin does not attract enough Christian laborers to meas- them! Here what a' century ago ure off that soil with their own feet. would have taken fifty years. to ac- complish, may be done in five. The " But it is unhealthy"? So are all unexplored interior is open, the dark tropical and especially equatorial continent waits to be illumined. climes to those who are not ac- Nature· has cast up her highway of customed to the intense and steady waters, and there is no need to gather heat, and do not use common sense out the stones. Give us only the 'in adapting their clothing, eating and two-wheeled chariot, with steam as drinking, and habits of life, to these the steed to draw it, and the men and peculiar surroundings. One must not women to go in it bearing the gospel, go from temperate to torrid zone, andfl'om end to end of this highway and wear the garments, eat the heat- we can scatter the leaves of that tree ing food, use the stimulating drinks which are for the healing of the na- and risk the exhausting labors which tions. are permissible in cooler latitudes. A trip to New Orleans or Florida has Where are the successors of Mof- proved fatal to many a fool who fatt and Livingstone! What a hero would not take advice. Even the was he who dared forty attacks of fever and then died on his knees be-
sid~Lake·. Bang-wealo, tliat he might of lieen already formed neaHj ',400
tip open. tbe 'dark recesses of Africa, members, witbas many more'~p:: plying. There were two out-stations. to the missionary I Let us pour men A native elder had moved for health's sake to a new part of the country a.nd money at the fe'8t of our Lord. and some six months after 40 con: verts were gathered into a churoh,· We'have not yet paid our debt to the fruit of his work. Some three: Simon the Cyrenean and the Eunuch years and more ago a chief asked for'· the fifth time to have a station in of Ethiopia! his territory, and just then Barclay Amerioan Mission in ~t. Church,Edinburgh,oifered to support an evangelist. Thus the request Rev. Dr. Muchmore writes: was providentially met and shortly " At the request of Ismail Pasha, there were 93 converts. Said Pasha made the mission, in its infancv, a present of an old building, For 50 years the Dutch Boers which" served them a long time. opposed the work, and even burned Being in the way of the improve- down Livingstone station. Now they ment of Ismail, he proposed to give theni in exchang'e the present posi- themselves are crying out for evantion, On which they erected the pres- gelists. They seemed moved by the 'tmt building, so spacious and so belief that they were the modern adequate to all their needs. In ad- Israel of God, to destroy others about dition he gave them about thirty-five them as God's people did the Ca~ thousand dollars. The money for naanites. the building was nearly all given by outside friends in England and We have elsewhere rE'ferred to the America. The mission field has as cruelty and tyranny of the native centers Alexandria, Monsura, Cairo, chiefs as seen in ,Dingaan, a Zulu, , Assiout and Luxor. They have of who when 100 girls came bringing communicants, 2,042; attendants, provisions to the Kraal, the tribe 4,449 ; evening prayer-meetings, they came from havingoifended him, 2,180 ; which is a wonderful dis- and one girl being considered the closure of true inner life, for this is equivalent of 30 cattle, he killed the the test everywhere of a standing or girls in one foul massacre, thus ex- falling church. In the next test- acting the penalty for the offense, ben'evolence-they do not faU behind. 3,000'head of cattle. He sent out There is raised by native members two spies to hunt for cattle, and and adherent.s for church work $5,043 they mistook game for horned -$2.49 per member. They gave also cattle. He ordered theil eyes to educationalcongregationalschools gouged out, saying, "Of what use $5,508. In tuition fees in all schools, are eyes f0 such men!" Similar city and counil-y, $11,211. Whole things are going on now along the value of the property of the mission Zambesi. It was to such people that $193,304, a good showing for thirty- Rev. W. H. Thompson first brought three years. In the schools of Miss the gospel: and now over 200,000 are 'Vhateley are between three and under its influence, over 50,000 are four hundred boys and girls. These now church-members,and onechurch beneficial statements are fm'ther con- numbers 1,400. There are five or six firmed by the reading habits .of the training schools; LovedaZe is con- people. Bibles and books are sold, spicuous for its educational work: 9.651 volumes, money realized $2,552. out of 2,000 or 3,000 pupils only 15 Religious publications, 8,993 vol'lmes; have gone back to heathenism. money realized, $1,149. Educational books for schools sold everywhere, Rev. Robert Cleland writes from 19,179; money realized, $4,405. Total Chiradzulo: attendance in the Sabbath·schools, 417. "
Zululand.-Ourpersonalfriend, Rev. James Scott, of Impolweni, gave in the course of the mission tour in Scotland in August, 1888, a most fascinating account of his own work in Zululand. A church had
· 1881).} THE MONTBLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS•
.. Perhaps in 110 part of the heart of Africa are came a freedman. there were 4,000.000 of peo–., there so many memories clustered as here. A pie who owned not an average of ten cents little over twenty years ago, and livingstone apiece, Ignorant; nnable to read and writewttb, came here with Bishop Mackenzie and that ill· few' exceptions; but with a religlou8 aptitude fated band. Within five miles lies that beauty-· possessed by few peoples, !laving a reverence Cully·situated spot, Magomero-heautiful, as for holy tbingsthat admitted no skepticism fir kneeling nnder an arch made by a thousand infidelity, and a strange respect tor the marcreepers, we find the open grave of poor "Birrup riage relation, notwithstanding they had been who, dying, buried his dead bishop, only to re- educated in the midst of a system of concubintreat along those solemn fOreRt plains to die. To age and compelled to regard the relation of husthis spot, again and again on his last journeys, band and wife. parent and child as dissolvable the great.souled livingstone turned with a glad at the will oC the master." Be says tbia race is hope not unmingled with a feeling of regret. doubling every thirty-fivo years. Bere the gospel was first planted in the heart of this great land." -In the South there are now 16,000 colored teachers, 1,000,000 pupils, 17,000 in the male and The Rev. Dr. Daniel Lindley, who' female high schools, and 3,000,000 worshipers for twenty-five years was a mis- in the churches. There are 6 normal schools, sionary among the Zulus, used to tell 50 colleges and universities, and 25 thoological some very interesting stories about seminaries. They pay taxes on nearly $2,000.- those poor blacks, who are very ig- 000 worth of property. This in the Southern States, which, if including the Northern States, norant, and live in a very miserable would double the property valuation. way, wearing little or no clothing, and having wretched huts for homes. This is a wonderful showing from a race that has 200 year~ of slavery and 4,000 years ofbarba. OC('Atsionally a poor, naked, black rism back of It, when in 20 years of emancipac man would come to him and ask for tion, under all lis repressive circumstances, it a shirt. None could be obtained makes such a showing. American generOSity within 200 or 300 miles, except from has done for the Sonth in 20 years what states- Dr. Lindley, who was glad to supply manship has failed in for over a century; but the man at cost. Next, he would generosity should not be depended upon, RS want a pail' of trowsers; then he even that can reach a limit. The negro popuwould bring a rqugh piece of plank lation Of the United States is now 7.000,000. or slab of a tree, and three stakes, and ask the missioqary to bore hole& African NoteS.-The area is estimated in it, that the stakes might be placed at 8,500,000 square miles, exclusive of in them for legs, and thus make a islands. Of the territory of Africa, England has stool; for he would be unwilling to sit the controlling influence over 1,000,000 square on the ground with his new clothes; miles; Germany, 740,000; France, 700,000; other then he would want a chair for his powers-Portugal, Italy, etc.-have various wife, and would begin to treat her possessions, raising the whole to 6,500,000 and their little children more kindly. square miles. Now, for that Zulu to come to beg for a shirt wa:;; the same as declaring -Bechuanaland postal-runners carry the that he mean t to give up heathenism mail at the rate of 130 miles a day-each runner and become a Christian. covering 15 miles. The. route hetween Tangier and Fez, in Morocco, is 150 miles of mountain- The Freedmen. ous, crooked roads, and bridgeless and ferryless rivers. The Arab earriersrun, walk and swim SENATOR BRUCE, in his lecture on this distance in three and a half days. the Race Problem, says: -An African traveler, Commander Cam- .. The people of the United States have en' eron,states that half a million negroes on that countered on their soil three other races: the continent are taken from their homes and sold red Indian, the yellow Chinaman and the black into slavery every y"ar. African. The red man's land, the Chinaman's labor, and the negro's peraon have been ap- -The London MiSSIonary Society Mission propriated. Race conflicts sometimes prodnce on Lake Nagami, in South Africa, reports' an amalgamation of the Inferior as hi Mexico, ex- iateresting ea.se of a self-taught preacher, termination as In the case of Indians, and the Bokaba, who had learned the truth from porsubordination as in case Of the blacks. tions of scriptural translstions made by Dr. When the war'ended and the co:ored lDan be- Moffat and Rev. Wm. Ashton in 1857. Be had found the 53d chapter of Isaiah, and had been led to behold there" the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." Very hum- hIe in spirit, he has neverthless proclaimed the truth to all about him. .. It is all bahblement," he says. "We are like infants; but the mother understands her Infant, and God understands His children better still."
EDITORIAL NOTES. [ J
-The veteran Dr. )(oll'at, after hearing a deplorable condition. At e•." 1IIDIl' harbOr Christian brother remark that If he were a on the coast may be (ound Bnlpburie RIllcl, aqar yonng man he would go to Africa, said:" I and water, which these tradera sell as braDdy, wonld go to·morrow were it in my power; and I think I am not too old yet… gin, etc. The first German Colonr aOO the Congo lands Mao were bought with liquor. . -One ofthe m,oat terrible facts in modern bottle of rum is current coin. The clamor for drink Is heard here as Cor .. Backsheesh .. history is the forcing of ligum trade upon in Arab lands. One ship brought to the Niger Africa by nominally Christian nations. It is 300,000 bottles oC gin. Brandy has almost taken the unanimous testimony of missionaries that the place oC the native beer on the gold coast; the natural cruelty and bloodthirstiness of the and drunkenness has become so common Africans are kindled into the madness of , that it is a rnle not to visit an omcial after dinner. demons by ftrewater, and beneath the wounds No street preaching is allowed in the evening, of European traders this poor land lies bleeding for no man dare face the intoxicated mnltltude. at every pore. From the cradle to the grave every evening in the West African's life Is saturated with strong- When Bishop Penick reached Africa in 1877, drink. Funerals are horrible to see, sometimes the first word of English he heard breaking $500 being spent for rum and powder on such from African lips was an oath, showing that occasions. A missionary says at times a whole the devil's missionaries had outstripped the village is drunk. )(any sleep with a bottle missionary of Christ. The steamer on under their heads, for use during the night. which he sailed from Liverpool carried fOOT One native dealer is reported as keeping 96.000 missionaries and $50,000 worth of rum to the bottles of brandy in stock for the Interior west coast, and weekly that amount was sent from the civilized world to curse that people. trade." An African missionary writes:" The steamer The New York Timea:" Every ship that on which we came brought apparatus to establish a mauufactory of brandy. They will soon have takes missionaries to Africa carries enough 700 barrels of the poison ready for sale." The poisonous rum and gin to offilet in evil the good etl'ects of a thousand missionaries. Since the secretary of the London Missionary Society opening of the Oongo region enormous quanreports that in all the tribes of South Africa tities of the stutl'-so vile that there is rio brandy is the greatest curse of the natives• market for it in any civillzed country-has .. The bralldy-keg does far more harm than the been shipped to the savages. 14lssionaries in all parts of the Dark Continent are now pleadpowder-barrell " .. Mohammedan influence hinders the sale ing with European governments, for the restric- tion or abolition of the tramc. " of liquors on the East Coast; but iii spite of that the German traders import $20,000 of brandy a No wonder Christian people are petitioning year. In South Africa, Hottentots, Kamrs and those in authority to suppress this iniqnltous others perish beneath this curse by thousJ.nds. tramc on foreign shores I On one Sunday noon,an English gentleman count ed at the diamond fields 317 natives dead drunk, One distillery in Medford. Mass., has a conwhile many others were partially intoxicated." tract to supply parties in the Congo Free State with 3,000 gallons a day for seven years I .. West Africa is, If possible, in a still more VI.-EDITORIAL NOTES ONCURRE:NT TOPICS.
Another Assault on Missions. ably inadequate; he thinks the com- mittees at home largely responsible, FOLLOWING in the wake of Canon and that there is urgent need both Taylor, Mr. W. S. Caine, }:[. P., vis- of better men and better methods. iting India, etc., indulges in some- what superficial but critical remarks Mr. Caine is a brilliant example of on missions, which have broughtout the inadecluacy of the ordinary tour- a heavy counterfire from Secretary ist to make accurate observations or , Baynes, of the Baptist Missionary induce sound conclus~ons touching Society, andR. Wardlaw Thompson, missions. He writes about Indian of the London Missionary Society-. missions with the air of a thorough The replies, however courteous, are explorer, yet his travels have been a merciless exposure of the super- entirely confined to North India, for ficialityof his information, and the many reasons the hardest and most injustice of his strictures and the in- barren part of the whole field.' In accuracy of his statements. He at- the Madras Presidency he might find tempts to make out the educational tens of thousands of converts, and policy a conspicuous failure, and the in Ongole and the Telugu country numerical results of missions miser- the greatest harvest field'since apo6-
NOTES
'to!icdays. Yet he. knows nothing of he mistakes egregiously when he the Arcot, Madura, Tinnevel1y, My- prOnounces their "failure complete sore districts or of the work of the and unmistakable" in this direction.
L. M. S. in the Canarese country and He forgets the intelligent and sym- Tra.vancore. pathetic hearers, not to say actfYe Even as to North India, where helpers, who are furnished to evan- Moslem bigotry and Brahman idola- gelistic missionaries from the stu- try have built barriet·s so far insuper- dents trained in these schools; and able, Mr. Caine's criticisms are mis- overlooks the secret faith which as leading. He overlooks Rohilcund yet is not bold enough to face oppo- and the work of the Americl:.n Meth- sition and persecution by open eon- odists, I:.nd Ahmednuggur and the fession. When he advocates the gra.nd missions of the A. B. C. F. M. turning over to the Government of and Calcutta with the work of the all secular education, he evidently L. M. S. In all these not only are , did not know that he was committing there many converts, 'but a con- one of those blunders which Talley- stantly Msing ratio of increase. Mr. rand pronounced worse than a Caine seems to have turned his blind crime. The Indian Govet'nment is, eye to almost every successful field on all matters connected with moral- and his open eye to the more difficult ity and religion, avowedly and neces- and fruitless ones. sarily neutral. To hand. over the With the iron flail of Talus, he entire training of India's vast multi- would at once demohsh all the mis- tudes to agencies destructive, not sion schools and turn over all secular constructive, or to associations posi- education to the Government! This tively 'and professedly heathen in ." Daniel" comes to jUdgment, and character and sympathy, would be in an instant would settle questions madness.
that have engrossed the attention of Mr. Caine is troubled with the cost the ablest men from William Carey of maintaining missionaries. He to AlexanderDuff and John Wilson- thinks the fact that the missionary with one stroke sweepirig away the ., lives in a good bungalow. eats the laborious work of a half century I sacred cow, drives his dog-cart and Mr. Caine is not embarrassed by his is in all respects a BurraSabib," puts humility. "M. P." does not stand an impassable gulf between him and for modest person. Should nis ad- the ordinary Hindu; and holds up in vice' be followed, men who have admiring cou.trast the Salvation studied Indian missions on the Army and the Jesuits. He says, if ground for a generation would con- all the English Protestant missionsider that the religious future of ary societies could furnish 200 men India was disastrously wrecked. He of lil,e devotion, the work of con- seems to think the major part of the verting India would begin. He admissionaries are giving the bulk of vocates celibacy and asceticism as their time to educational work. conditions of success. As to the whereas of the 48 male missionaries in Salvation Army, etc., even those India, in the employ of the L. M. S., who most admire their self-denial, only one-fourth are teaching; and question. the e15ciency and wisdom of the $125,000 spent annually there by this society, only one-twelfth was of their methods and the pt'obability of their ultimate and pet'm~nent granted last year to educational success. And as to celibacy, Dr.
work. Eli Smith, the hero of Syrian mis- Mr. Caine observes quiie truly that "ions and one of the wisest men ever the number of conversions directly on the field of Oriental missions, traceable to the schools is small, but emphatically advised young men to
married to the illi$sion field., and English membel' of Farliamenti{'al_
his cI"owning reason was th3ot'heath- though it must be confessed that 8; enism needed nothing more than the letter'to the secretary of ~e s~e practical exhibition inthe Christian ties would have seemed the first im- home of what Christianity can do pulse of a real friend of missions, for the woman and wife, mother and lest inaccurate statements and un- daughter, and for the whole house- warl'anted conclusions might be hold life. Who dares to say in the rashly put before the public. But, light of history and experience, that attributing to Mr. Caine only the best it is wise to erect in India a celibate of motives, we are constrained to say and ascetic order of ministers, as a. that if he should in a speech in Par- normal Ohristian product, where the liament betray as little knowledgeof very fact of celibacy is a presump- the subject and as fallacious and tion against chas tity! Mr. Caine superficial a course of argument,' he may be a fall' Parliamentarian, but would very soon become a carcase for he is not a safe umpirical critic of the vultures to pick in pieces. We Indian missions. We prefer as a are reminded of Dr. Parr's witty re- judicious and judicial observer some tort to the student who proposed to man like Sir Bartle Frere or the write a book jointly with him: "If Viceroy Lord Lawrence, who has we should write a book and I should lived on the very ground and knows put in all Iknowandyou all lIoU don't, what he talks about. what a big book we would make!" .
Where MI". Caine got his mathe- The following paragraph from the ..Britiah matics we cannot conjecture. He Weekly" may throw additional light on the reports 62 English Baptist mission- matter of Mr. Ca.ine's opposition: .. The main points stand out quite distinctly. In the flret aries at work in India instead of 42, place Xr. Caine, previoU8 to his going to India and makes the number to have was not a subscriber to either the lIaptist or the • doubled from 1880 to 1888; whereas London MIssionary Society,a fact which shows' it has only risen from 35 to 42, one- that he was prejudiced against them. In the second place, belore he went the friends of the fifth increase. He reports the net Society were made aware that he intended to at- increase in the Baptist churches in tack them. In the third place, 8 propotlal WM – India for the year previous as 53 in- made by his friends that he shonld go out as a stead of 153; and his eager eye does representative olthe committee. In the fourth· not discern that the rate of progress place, Xr. Caine, without submitting Imy of his upon previous membership is far in grievances to the responsible authorities, rushed exceSB of that of the whole Church with them into print. The result has been, it is said, a temporary diminution of contribntions, of Christ in England during tpe same , a result not to be wondered lot when itis remem- bered how many are always seeking aneXCU8e to period, notwithstanding the far more escape from giving. but the real damage bas fallnumerous and mountainous obstacles en upon Mr. Caine himself, and if he wishetl to that in this Gibraltar of heathenism know what opinion his countrymen haveformed confront the missionary. Mr. Caine ot him he has only to ascend a platform."-A.
tells us the net gain to native Baptist T.P.
churches has been only 746 during A oonJtliiSPONDBNT who forgot to lIign bls the past eight years, but he does not communication thinks tha~ the China say that during that time 3,830 con- Inla.nd Mission may be ma.de a means of verts were added to those churches. awa.kenlng missionary enthusiasm and He makes 495 salaried workers to be greatly extending the preaching of the in the employ of the Baptist mis- good news in that interesting country. He sions instead of 300. euggests tha.t it would be easy for every towu of, sa.y 10,000 inhabitants, to find 100 These are enough to show that persons zealous for missions, who would this self-constituted critic is a very give, in addition to their other o1ferl~s unsafe guide. We would not at- one cent a, da,y for the support of a missiontribute "malice prepense" to this a.ry in the China Inland: and tha.t this amount ~i8'ht ~ collec~ weekly or,
1889,]'
ll1!)nt;l4by ~,ehildr~n, thJls deepening sense of their stewardship intlie tneU' interest in-the :work. The persons ma.tter of property, eonscientiousin gi-viUgweekIy ~l.·;m;'nthIY to the work would the habit of ,regularly set.ting aside Iia.vetheir thoughts awakened and feel the Lord's portion, and faithful in mUl'hmoreci,uterest tban in,glYingonee a keeping it sacred and bringing it to, • year aIldthElll forgetting aU about it. The His treasury. No such system can money thus given bv members of dilferent be perfectly carried out unless each churches wonld draw them closer together, member becomes his own collector, helping to answer our Lord's prayer for for no collectors can be found to un- unity of heaJ,"t. The sanction of the pastors dertake to gatherall these little sums would be needed and then tberewould beno from so large a body of donors. The difficulty. And then this famine in China theory is perfect; the" BUT" lies in is"s'l'ch ~a grand 'opportunIty to show the its practical working. The Women's spirit and vallie of the religion of Jesus. Boards are doing more than all the Succor sent from far-olf lands, beCl!ouse our other agencies together to work out r~ligion prompts and requires such offer- this organization of the littles. ings, would'do more to recommend it than hundreds of missionaries could do. As to circulars and appeals, the editorsand publishersof this REvmw Weought'to do this work and give the cannot undertake to issue urgent ~p missionaries Oil the ground hundreds of peals for every needy and worthy thousands for distribution. A penny a day cause. We regard it our province to will preserve life there. One dollar would, present the facts and arguments of therefore,save a life for. 100 days. By that missions and leave them to make time something will grow that may be their own appeal. Every page of eaten. ' this REVIEW might be crowded with these special calls for help and lose We a,re asked by this correspondent to their power by theirfrequency. We send out a circular to subscribers, laying must set a rational limit to our this matter before them and teliing them provin~.-A. T. P. what 'to di>,and'he feels' sure 'that in re- sponseto such' burning words,thousands of AMONG other letters receiyed by the dollars would go to the relief of the starving editors is the following: Chiill;se. I am a subscriber to and a constant Such letters as this are not uncom- reader of your excellent REVIEW. It is mon, but they overlook two impor- worth Its weight in gold to the ca.use. I tant facts. First, there is no doubt write to ask can't you give us a. series of pointed and arousing"articles, <>n the subject that the true way to support mIs- of Monell, in its relations to the Kingdom oj sions i~ by gathering the mites sys- God, e. g., one on God's Dependence on Money, tematically and constantly, and so as the chief agency of evaDgelizing the ,world-not abBolute dependeJ1ce on it, of aggregating millions. Butthe trouble course, but His voluntary dependence on it isthe gathering. It is easy to demon- -you understand; one on the demands of strate that one cent a day given by a the age and times on the church for large million people amounts in a year to and increased surrender of the Lord's mouey $3,650,000, but the difficulty is to get in saving the world; one on God's OW7UlT- a million 'people to give the cent a ahip ot money and man a steward, and day, and to provide some way of other articles bearing on the general Hub- gathering such gifts. If we could ject. We need such articles from pens that "organize the littles" the problem can dissect all the main facts .in the case. would be solved, but after 1,800 years Just a.t this time, it Stems to me, 8uell a of Christian history it is still an un- series is demanded. The church must be ' aroused to her responsibili ties in the solved problem. A perfect system premises. Missions under God cIOn only suc- by which all church members may ceed by the use of money. You bave shown be reached, and small gifts regularly us the calls of tbenations; now wake n" n'p on and systematically collected and dis- the means to answer these calls. Tbe money tributed, will mark a much higher question ca,nnot be too elablrately bl'Ou;lt level of Christian liCe than we have ever yet attained. It demands not only a pastor, first of all in thorough sympathy with such plans, but a ({hurch membership imbued with a
NOTES
out ill, your pi!.ges a.nd burnt into the minds up the work, enlarged membership, of yonr readers. The church at large is £'1'0wing interest and larger contribufearfully derelict iu her guty. Hence a tions all along the line. An appeal stirring up of the whole subject of money was made lor $500 to aid Mr. McAU would, it seelDs to me, be in the direct in special work in connection with line of your mission. I should rejoice to see the coming Exposition in Paris, and such a ha.ndlin2: of the SUbject as you are the response, amid great enthusiasm, able togive it. I trust you will see your way was $2,500.-J. M. S. clear to gratify us along this line, and so help on the cause in one of its most, if not WE heartily indorse the words ~lf the most, e~sential plans and methods 01'- the Christian Intelligencer concerndaiued. ing an enterprise that deserves re- cognition and support on the part of The editors have long had this in the Protestant Church. mind, and OUi' brother's appeal only brings our own seed-thought to ripe- For ten years the Rev. James A. O'Connor ness. We propose a series of articles has been holding meetings in the Masonic on the ministry of money. We be- Temple, Sixth avenue a~d Twenty-third lieve this whole question needs a street, for the instruction of Romanists in very serious and thorough examina- the truths of the Scriptures. Be was once s tion, and we purpose to deal wIth the prip.st in the RomaI1 Church, and is thoronghly matter boldly and radically. It is acqnainted with the errors of that chnrch in manifest that money has never yet theory and practice and their disastrous come to the front in the work of results. He has exposed these errors' with evangelization. Thegivers are either singoJar discretion, aud has faithfoJly set over the few who give largely, or else the against them the revelations of the Word of many who give sparingly and inade- God. Cousequently there have been many couquately. But neither the rich nor versions every year, including several priests. the pOOl' have yet learned practically Last year two priests were sent by Mr. O'Conthe true doctrine of stewardship. nor to Princeton Seminary to prepare for the ministry. Mr. 0 Connor is strongly recom- The Amerioan MoAll Assooiation, mended by Dr. Howard Crosby, and by Dr. MacArthur, of the Baptist Church, "as admir- THE sixth annual meeting of this ably qualilled by his experience, as well as by association was heid in Philadelphia, his sonnd judgment, to preach Jes)ls to his April 10th and 11th, and was one of former co-religionists." Other ministers speak remarkable interest. The outgrowth with equal force in his favor. The mission has of the self-denying efforts of Miss for some time felt the neeil of a building of its Elizabeth Beach, who originated the own, in which all the departments of the work movement and founded auxiliaries can be housed, all the meetings held, and where in various cities of the Union, the priests leaving the Roman Church can lind a association has now become. national, temporary home. A suitable building in a conpr~ided over by Mrs. Marine J.Chase. venient location can be bought for $3O,COO, of The treasurer reported $30,795 sent which $1,400 have been given already without to France during the fiscal year-an solicitation. Contributions toward the pnrchase increase of $3,000 over the last year. can be sent to Mrs. William ·Campbell, Treas- The General Secretary reported urer. 36 West Eighteenth street, or the. Rev. 55,600 copies of publications-" Quar- James A. O'Connor Secretary of the Board of terly Record," leaflets, tracts, and Trnstees, 60 Bible House, New York.-J. M. S. pamphlets-issued during the year, and a widely increased publicity to WE have already commended to the work through the secular and the notice of our readers The Chinese religious press. The Representative Evangelist, published both in Eng- Secretary reported seven new Aux- lish and Chinese. Weare g'lad to iliaries formed, a notable increase in note its appearance in magazine the sympathy and co-operation of form as it begins its second year. pastors, three new States taking The office is now 52 West 22d street, where its editors will welcome all in- terested in the Chinese work. Its Ellglish editor is the son of Dr. Hap_ pel', of the Christian College in Can-
EDITORIAL
ton, and this first numbel' con tains a vexation ovel'the ••'total depra.vity of fine photograph of the stltdents now types.'~ In spite of plain copy, severa.l .in that college, which we hope to re- proof-readings and "eternal vigi- pI'oduce in a. future number of this lance," mistakes will creep into the REVIEW. The editor promises arti- printed page, and often they are in- cles during the current year from explicable, and no amount of invesH- several eminent. writers .who are gation suffices to bring to light the specially fitted to interest us in the real culprit. Thus in the May num- Chinese work. We feel that Mr. ber of this REVIEW that grand article Happel' deserves great praise for his by Prof. Leonard-The Marvels of heroic work in this field. There are Moravlan Missions-must be spoiled 100,000 Chinese in this country; by being transformed in the "Con- there are perhaps from eight to ten tents" to The Marvels of M01'mon thousand in New York, Brooklyn Missions I And, as if one such in- and Jersey City alone. Of this num- .iquity was not enough fOl' the num- ber but a small fraction are under ber, the" printer's devil," without a instruction in thEe' schools. There is shadow of reason or authority, must a large class, the "washers" in the slyly interpolate on page 393, at the laundries, who are anxious to leal'n, top of the column, a series offigures, yet never go to the schools, for many represen.ting years, which have no of them are middle-aged and too business there, the years at the top proud to go where their ignorance of the previous page governing the and slowness expose them to the ridi- entire columns on both pages.-J•. cule of the younge~'andsmarterones. M.S.
.. We do not ask for any donations, bnt we do WE have received advance sheets ask for dollars to be sent in payment for papers of Volume I. of THE MISSIONARY to be taken or sent to any Chinese 18undry YEAR BOOK which will be published where there is a sOlli who has not heard of the in a few days by Fleming H. Revell glorious go,pel, though living, perhaps, uuder of 12 Bible House, New York, simul- the very droppinl(s of the "anctnary. The Word taneously with its issue in London is a living Word aud powerful, and if one dollar by the Religious Tra.ctSociety. The can send an Evangehst to sueh a one t'velve American portion of the work-over times a year, who ean, perhaps, be reached in no one-fourth of the whole-has been other way, will anyone grudge the expense f" prepared by Dr. J, T.. Gracey, which -J.M.S. insures its being well done, In our next issue we will give further notice WE are happy to announce that of it. the Woman's Presbyterian Board of Missions of t.he Northwest has begun The Hebrew Messenger, edited by the preparation of a series of mis- Prof. Julius Magath, Emory ColJege~ • sionary maps. One on China is is welcomed to our list of exchanges, already published; one on India is and we warmly commend it to the in preparation, and maps of other sympathy and aid of all who are countri:J.& are to follow. The m:;,ps interested in Hebrew. mission work. are 4 by 5~ feet in size and mounted The editor writes: on cloth. Price $2.50 each. The price is very low, considering the .. The Hebrew Messenger is the only paper size and excellence of the maps. The of the kind published in the South. I try to proceeds are all to go to the society use all the time I can spare from my duties which .publishes them. as a professor In EmoryCollege to get Chris- tian churches interested in the evangeliza- IF there be any class of workers tion of Christ's own kinsmen according to that deserve commiseration, itis we thellesh." poor editors..In an editorial career of more than forty years, we have It is a. noble wOl'k and deserves the had occasion to shed many tears of prayers and aid of all God's people.
PROGRESS OF ,MISSIO~S-MONTliLY BULLETIN
VII.-PROGRESS OF MISSIONS: MONTHLY / BULLETIN.
Afrlca.-Congo Baptist Mission. An- much damaged. It has sitting aCCOIllDla- other faithful workman- Mr. Slade, has dation for 1.000 worshippers, but at the Callen. The cry is for reinCorcements. 'Only opening service no less than 2,000 managed three men to speak to hundreds of thous- to squeeze into the building, and the school- ands willing to hear. Arthur Brooks, killed room and its grounds were thronged by January 21 by natives, was the eleventh thousands of spectators. All the chiefs but martyr of the East African Mission of the two of the Bonny district were present with London Missional"y Society. their a.ttendants. The service was con- -News reached Zanzibar January 17 oC ducted by the Bishop and his son, ,Arch- Arabs' attack on German station at Tugu. deacon Crowther.
and of massacre of three missiouaries,. The -The London Missionary Chronicle says: Arabs, incensed at the danger to their in- .. The East African situation has during the famous slave trade, are on ,the warpath, last five years undergone complete change and threa ten all missions. in consequence of German aggressions; and -H. M. Stanley. It is very refreshiug at slowly, but surely, Great Britain is discov- last to get definite and trustworthy intelli- ering that friendship with Germany is a gence from this intrepid explorer, whose costly article, and that German coloniza- real name, it appears, was John Rowland. tion schemes are inimical to British Com- His letter Crom the Aruwimi Ri ver, dated merce and Britisb missions."
August 28, 1888,lately received at London. -The Wesleyans report solid prosperity is full both of traKic interest and heroism. in the Mysore district. We quote from the -Bishop Taylo. asks for $4,000 for a Harvest Field: .. We have reached and special w<lrk, to be called a b'irthday gift. pa.ssed the first thousand in the church Richard Graut, treasurer of the Bisbop'" membership, a goal towards which we have work. calls upon .. all who favor self-sup- been striving for a long time. The full num- portiug work to make a grand rally and ber of members is now 1,103, being an in-'
make the old hero'S heart leap for joy crease during the year of 113. There has by making it $50,000, and he gives it a start been no spasmodic outburst of revival by a gift of $5,000. The Transit and Build- power. but in most of the stations steady ing Fund Committee send II' missionariesto growth. The largest net increase has been share his labors and perils. And since May in Mysore City, where 34 have been added last the committee have sent ten missiona- to the church. In the boys' schools there ries to Chili, and still the call comes with is an increase of 426, and in the girls an in- much entreaty for more. The needs DC the crease of 329. Sunday-schools are growing work in Chili, Brazil, and other South Amer- satisfactorily. There have been. 56 bap- ican States are even greater just now tban tisms of adults from heatnenism, some of in Afl'ica Romanism, which in those which are full of interest.
countries is nothing more than heathenized -Congo Balol0 Mission. There Was a Chl"istianity, has reigned there Cor 300 large gathering at Exeter Hall lately to bid years. The true light is just breaking in, farewell to eight missionaries about to and a powerful reaction in favor of liberty, leave for Central Africa in connection with intelligence and religion has commenced. the new mission to the Balolo people, of -Rev. E. F, Baldwin, who is laboring as whom there are about 10,000,000 in the valley 'an independent missionary in Mogador, Mo- of the Upper Congo. The mission Is an ex- rocco, with a companion recently made a tension of the Livingstone Inland Mission, twenty-days' trip into a part of the country founded in 1878. and now occupying and where Europeans have seldom gone. They working a chain of seven stations from the went strictly according to Christ's instruc- coast to the Equator. These new recruits tions in Matt. x., without money, provis- go out under the auspices of Dr. Guinness' ions or change of clothing, but lacked noth- East London Institute, and will reinforce ing by the way. They enjoyed unusual fa- the Livingstone Inland Mission, which. Cour cilities for preaching to the people, ·and years ago, was tranderred to the managewere even admitted to the mosques, and ment of the American Baptist Missionary preached to the Mohammedan priests. ' A Union. The enterprise now becomes unde- considerable number of converts have been nominational, and appeals strongly to those gathered, but they suffer great persecu- to whom hard work, rather than a large tion. salary. is all attraction. Fifteen hundred -Bishop Crowther arrived at Bonny on pounds has heen subscribed for the new January 20. A, week later he opened the mission.
new church of St. Stephen at that place. -Tripoli Occupied. At last Tripoli has The new church Is of iron, and was built (at been entered. The Lord has thus enabled the cost of the people themselves) t.o take us to occupy in some measure Algeria in the place of another which had become 1881, Morocco in 1884. Tunis in 1885. Tripoli in 1889. Mr. Michell, who has been working England.-The amouilt of thedrink bill in Tunis, accompanied by Mr. Harding, who for 1888 was some 8625,000,000, or $15 for left England February 1, landed in Tripoli every man, woman and child in the Unittld tbe-lI7th.- Thus far they &re getting on well. Kingdom. :They find the people more bigoted than In Tunis. Beside the work they may be able to -One of the notable men'of Cambridge i" do In the city and neighborhood, they will Canon Christopher, who proclaim!! his interbe able to send some scriptures by the cq.ra- est in missions by annually entertaining a vans leaving for the Soudan which, with great company of representative men to the blessing of God, will spread the light breakfast. Among his guests this year around Lake Chad. (numbering 300 in all) was the Bishop of British Columbia, whomade what isreported Burma. '- Dr. A. T. Rose says many to have been" a very sturdy and inspiriting Karena are g<?ing over to the Burmese lan- speech." 1'Iis description of his first intro- duction tohis Episcopal" palace" was very gua:;;eand Buddhism. He baptized In Jan- graphic. The .. palace" was simply a uary 20 Burmans. Sunday-schools in Ran- wooden shanty without windows or roof, goon sent 575 for the Hammerfest Chapel, and the flrst thing he and his wife had to do Norway. The first copy for the new Sgau was to nail strips of calico across the roof Karen Bible went Into printers' hands in to keep out the moonlight. January. -The S. P. G. report an increase of 28,- Chlna.-The" Chinese Exclusion Bill," 6011. in the year 1888 over the income of 1887. passed by Congress has reacted in China This is made up of two dona.tions of 25.296Z. to excite great hostility to Americaus. and and 2,288Z., and an increase in the general especially missionaries are suffering perse- income of 3201. cution. When Dr. S. Wells Williams arrived in Canton fifty years since, there was a -The Universities' Miuion has a missiondeath penalty for teaching foreigners the ary fleet on Lake Nyassa. consisting of the Chinese tongue, and there was but one con- following: (1) The Charles Jansen, with two vert in China. Now there are more than dingeys; (2) a larger boat, capable of carry- 35,000_ ing several parsons; (3) still large.. rowing craft, known 80S the consular boat ; (4) a del- -The Missionary Union undertakes a new ta metal centre-board boat; and (5) the missionatSu-Chan,inSz-Chuene. Rev.Wm. 0u8e1 a centre-board sailing boat of galvan- Upcratt and Geo. Warner, both of Minneso- ized steel. ta. go to be supported by young men in Baptist churches of that State. Out of 500hi- France.-At the recent meeting .ot the nese seeking to enter Dr. Hspper's Christian C.ollege, Canton, more than halC had been in McAIl Association, held in Philadelphia. Chinese Sunday-schools in theUnited States. nearly 83,000 was raised as a special offering t<> pay for the two Salles Evangelique, Champ -Increase at Foochow. At the last ses- de Mars, where daily services are to be sion of the FoocLow Annual Conference, held, opposite the entrances to the Exposi- Bishop Fowler presiding. the total number tion grounds. Hundreds of thousands of of members reported was 2,320-an increase strangers. visiting Paris, will be ·confrontof 111; probationers, l,346–an increase of ed by these RaUes, at Porte Rapp and Place 122; mission money raised, $411.46–an in- du Trocadiro. crease of $80.20; self-support, 51,03O.31-an increase of 592.72; church bUilding, $2,8O"l- FOrmOSa.-The English Presbyterian .9&-an increase of 51,341.98. church has appointed another ordained missionary (Mr. Ferguson) to the island of CUba.-B1Sho, Whitaker, of the Protestant Episcopal church, has lately returned Formosa. The Rev. W. Campbell, F.R.G.S., from Cuba, and speaks of tbe religious ont- who is returning, takes with him the gospel look on that island as follows: .. There is a of Matthew in raised Romanized type, which loud call for the gospel. People are ripe for he has prepared for the blind. As the bUnd missionary work. and welcome all well-di- are treated with respect in China,their infiurected efforts. lt is evident that the gener- ence may be used for much good,if taught to al sentiment has been, and still is, favorable read the Scriptures; just as now their infiuto Episcopal services; but the church has ence is very evil from mostly following the been slow in supplying this demand, and art of fortune-telling. Mr. Campbell is also hence the Baptists are conducting a very taking a reprint of the Dutch gospel presuccessful mission in Havana; and many pared by missionaries, who labored among hundreds, tired of the exactions of the Ro- the Malays in Formosa, some 200 years ago, man Catholic church, are welcoming the when theyweredrlvenawa.y. The Dutch are simpler and plainer service furnished by likely to recommence this mission. the Baptists. Considering Cuba as a field for Protestant work, it may be said the peo- -Rev. Dr. Mackay, of the Canadian Presb. ple desire Protestantservices to that extent Mission in Formosa, writes that there are that no more hopeful ground for effort can now fifty churches, 'so arranged that aUt be found anywhere." North Formosa is In a sense occnpied, and that there a.re fifty-one native preachers Who are the sharpest, brightest, most talented and learned class of men in North fit for their oftice by their Idleness, If not Formosa. ' their sensuality, the native population 'of Ceylon now unites with the Church of E1ig- IcC!!land.-Rev. Geo. Bryce writes from land in demanding a dissolution bf the ex- Winnipeg, Jan. 17, that 58 members, all Ice- isting partnership between the British gov- landic converts; have been received to ernment and Buddhism. The sooner this is their first commuuion.· At an aftermeeting done the better. 19 others professed faith. -Mr. W. S. Caine, M. P., writes thus to a Indla.-Ongole field alone has half as number of infiuential English newspapers many member& as in all Burma all 'lnder one pastor, Rev. I. E. Clough, D. D. concerning blS recent investigations at -The school which Pundita Ramabai will Lucknow: .. An opium sot is the most establ1sh for high caste widows will be entirely hopeless of all drunkards-once he Is well secular, on account of the prejudices of the into the clutches of this fiend, everything Hiudus against Christianity. The medical work gives way to its fierce promptings. He only for women, fostered by Lady Duft'erin during works'to get more money for opium. Wife, her residence in India, Is now endowed to the children, and home are all sacriftced to this extent of about $275,000. It has three objects: horrible lust. The receipts of the governto train female physicians, to afford medical re- ment of the North-West Provinces and lief, and to secure a supply of trained nurses. Oude from opium, bhang, and other intoxi- Five lady doctors and a nurse have been ob- cating drugs is no less than £67,000, and is tained from 'England. About 200 young women on the increase. It will give your readers are being educated in the medical colleges of some idea of the way in which this horrible India. There are 12female hospitals and 15 aided traffic in intoxicants is being stimulated. dispensaries. Classes have been formed for the if I give the average revenue for the Northtraining of female nurses.' Although the work West Provinces and Oude from all intoxiis not ostensibly Christian, missions are indi- cants for the three years 1878-79-80, as comrectly beneftted. pared with 1885-6-7. In the former, case, its yearly average was £284,000, in the lat- -More than 1,200 adults were baptized by ter it had run up to £546,000, showinlr a members of the North India Conference of doubled consumption within seven years. the M. E. Church during the past year. Every day I spend in India. brings fresh Alluding to this at the recent conference proof that the government are stimulating Rev.C. A. C. Janvier assigned the following the sale of intoxicants to the very verge of as some of the reasons why this success decency, for the sake of the cheaply colwas granted: 1. Special and systematic ef- lected and rapidly increaSing revenue forts are made to reach the lower castes. which it furnishes." 2. Large and speedy results are prayed and looked for as a neces.ary consequence of Indlans.-Twelve years since the Mothe presence of the Holy Spirit. docs were savages. Now they are industri- ous farmers, ILnd half of them confessing -Assam ranks tenth in territory and Christians. The Rocky Mountain CI,,·i.tian eleventh in population among the provinces Advocate says: .. While the Dakota Indians of India. 2,424 schools in Assam have 63,- were savages it cost the Government $1,848,- 997 male pupils, and only 4,626 female •. ooOto take care of them seven years. The These are less than ten per cent. of the pop- cost after their conversion for the same ulation of school age. length of time was $120,000, a difference of $1,728,000 in favor of Christianity." -In the northwest of India and of Oude, missionary physicians are coming promi- .Jerusalem.-The city is growing rapidnently into notice. Nearly 72,000 cases were ly and improving in appearance. The Ro~,h8treated at eltlven missionary dispensaries, childs have completed a new hospital. Near and 11,000 women Bought relief a~ Mrs. Wil- is a new Abyssinian church. The Russians, son's dispensary at Agra; 18,850 women have erected a new church, consulate, a.nd and children were treated at the Thomas lodging-house for pilgrims of the orthodox. dispensary at Agra. The women doctors faith. Near to the Russian Buildings is ,the in charge succes.fully performed some very .. German House," for German Roman Cathimportant surgical operations. olics, from whose top the German and the papal fiags fioat side by side. The Russians -The British Government and BuddhIsm. have also built a high tower on the summit As a rule, Great Britain has not iilustrated of the Mount of Olives, from which can be the teachings of the gospel in India. In seen the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. CeYlon matters seem to have been going in about the same way. There the British .Japan.-Accordingto a Japanese editor some time ago became tle patrons of Budd- the Protestant churches have grown from hism. as the Government assumed the re- 38 to 151, and the members from 3,700 to 11,- sponsibility of maintaining Buddhist wor- 600 in the last three years. ship. It turned over to Buddhist priests the revenues of hundreds of thousands of Dr. Duane B. Simmons died in Tokio, Feb. acres of public land. Because in this way 10. He went out as a medical missionary of it,has made those priests in many cases Un- the Reformed Dutch chnrch, 1859; after the restoration of 1868 he became Government thrown down; the houses of the congrega- Medical Director and organized the IIrst tions met with the sa.me fate, and priests hospital service. and people were hunted out of the town. No massacres took place. The persecution be- -The Empress has established a college gan in June and continued until October, for )Vomen, to be snperintended by a com- when it ceased, beoouse there was nothing mittee of foreign ladies. Twoare Americans, more to destroy, and all those who would two English, and the other two French and not apostatize were in flight. The acts of German respectively. violence took place under the eyes of the Chinese authorities, who did nothing topun- MadagaSCar.-After 15 years' labor ish the olfenders.-Tke Missionary. the printing of the Malaga~e bible is com- plete. Tu rkey.-Minister Strauss, at Constanti- Mexlco.-ProgreBs in Mexico, thinks nople, lIas rendered another useful ~erVlCe Dr. J. Milton Greene,ismarked not so much to the American missionaries in the Turkish by statistics, as by the changing attitude empire. The local authorities closed the of the people toward the Prote~ta!}t mis- mission school at Istubigo, in the provlnce sionarjes. Sixteen years ago the printing- of Beirut, and other officials elsewhere w;,re offices of the oity could not be induced to about to follow their example, but Mr. print copies of the Decalogue. Now thou- Stranss at once secured from the Grand VI- sands of pages of religious literature are Zier atOonstantinople an order to the gov- issued yearly. So, too, the drift of thepopu- ernors-general of the provinces of Beirut lar mind is shown by the lessening respect and Damascus to reopen the school, which for,and fear of, the priesthood, and by the had been closed, and not to interfere in any greatly diminished attendance at the idola- manner with any American schools. This trousfeasts. is the more satisfactory becanse one rea.son given for the closing of the school was the Scotland.-TheSumTotRlofourNation- fact that the managers refused to reject a.1 Drink Bill is this year a little larger than Mohammedan children applying for admis- it was last. but, considering the increase of sion. This refusal was maintained flrinly our population, the averageexpeudlture per and, in spite ofit, the desired support of the ,person is less. The amouut is portentious- Oenstantinople authorities was granted. £124,603,ll39-whlchgives£il 6s.1Od. for every Good sense and tact are as important to a man, womal1. and child in the kingdom.- diplomatist, and often are equally effective, Church oj Scotland Monthly. as support by a military or naval force.- (/ongreqationali.t. South Amerlca.-In Ecuador none but United States.-Women's Organiza- Roman Catholics are allowed to preach, to the people. The Custon-houses are watched tions. There are in this country 48 national by'the Jesuits to prevent the importation societies of Women, with a direct member_ of Bibles and other prohibited books. Per- ship of 500,000. The largest is the W. C. T. U., sons who do not confess to the priests are with 210,000. Then follow the missionary, objects of popular hatred and violence. peace, suffrage, philanthropic and educa- tional orga.nizations. Twelve of these have SWeden.-Amission house for Lapland- jollied with the National Oouncil, formed to ers has been founded in North Sweden by unite all the women societies lUto one great Empress Eugenie, the noble giver. league.
Thlbet is the only known country on -The followmg act of Christian comity on the part of the Protestant Episcopal Ohurch earth not open to missions. It has an area of Missionary Society, pa.ssed January 29th, 750.000 square miles, about as large as all the will commend itself to our readers: territory in the United Sta.tes east of the Mississippi River. The greatestlengthfrom U Resolved. rrhat in sending mlssionaries east to west is 1,500 miles, and the population to Brazil It is our purpose to occupy such is estimated at 8,000,000. It is the strong- points as are not now under the care of any hold of Bud<lhlsm. Lhassa, the capital, is other Protestan t missioD&ries. " the" Rome" of the Buddhists, and the Dalai Lama IS the Buddhist pope. He is su- -Zenana Work. The Church of Scotland preme in ~oth temporal and spiritual things. Ladies' Association for Foreign Missions One monastry has about 5,000 Buddhist including zenana work, has just completed priests, and there are about 60,000 in the ,its 50th year. The income of the society has country. Thibet is virgin soil for miSSIons. shown a considerable increase on the pr..· The country is trIbutary to China.-Baptist vious year, and the committee have never Miss. presented a more hopeful report. -The Roman Catholic missions in Thibet -At a late gathering in the Mildmay Conhave been broken up by the violence of the natives. The MiBstons (/atlwliqttes, of Lyons, ference Hall, the Church of England Zena"" states tJ>.at the stations have been utterly Missionary Society bade .. God-speed" to destroyed, except one establIshment, which nineteen ladies who will shortlybe aiding in is on the Chinese side of the great Thibetan the noble work of the society ameli&' the decliVIty. Last autumn the mission houses women of IndIa and China. and bUIldings were one by one burned or -The Committee ofthe Church of England ing, and found homes for them, mostly in the Zenana Society reported at their annual country, where theyaeqoired habits ofindustry, lIleeting a year of blessed work. One bun- economy, and self-snpporting thrift. Many a dred lIlissionaries, aided by assistant mis- man of intelligence and npright character will sionaries, Bible-women and native teachers, look back in mature years to this agency with had labored earnestly among heathen and profound gratitude for hiS life of prosperity and Mohammedans. usefalness.
Ninety.four per cent. of all the rum manu- -The Protestant Churches of the United factured in the United States is made within Ave States contribute annuaJly $11,250,000 for formiles ot Boston State house, and nearly aJl the eign miSSions, and, according to Dion Bouciliquor exported from this country to Africa is cault, .. more than $2('0,000,000 are paid every shipped from the port ofBoston. year by the American people for their theatrical entertainment "-nearly $18 to support the the- -Said a heathen to a missionary, "There ater for one given to send the gospel to heathen must be something in your religion which makes nations, and yet there are those who declaim you come all the way out here to teJl us of it. against the cost of foreign missions. I am sure I would not go so tar to teJl you ol -College students. The colleges never had mine." so many professing church members in them as -Last year's Imports from Japan Into the at present. Yale In 1795 had bnt Cour or Ave students who were church members; to- Uulted States were nearly 816,000,000 in value- day nearly one-half hold such membership. more than the purchases of any other nation. Princeton in 1813 had but two or three openly As these goods were largely of a character profeSSing the Christian faith; to-day abont especially attractive to American women, the one-half, and among them the best scholars. In question arises as to their corresponding in- Williams College 147 out of 248, and in Amherst terest in the women ot Japan. It is computed 233 out of 352, are members of chnrches. Out that conversions smong Japanese women num· of a total of 2,493 students, in 24 colleges, there ber forty per cent. more, according to popula- are 1,782 church members; engaged in system- tion, than among women of other countries. A atic Bible study, 2,009; 106 creditable conver- call comes from a society of women near Tokio sions the past year; and 377 intending to enter for a missionary twice a week to teach them the ministry. fancy work and the Bible, which is an advance on earlier requests. The tendency in Japan Is -Am. Sunday-school Union. From March toward a nominal rather than a spiritual Chris- 1 to September I, 1888, its missionaries In the tianity, so, to fully establlsh evangelical Chris- Northwest established 484 new schools, and tianity, the Rev. Mr. lloyd pleads for" mighty aided 943 old schools, where 5,022 teachers are and intense efforts for the next tew years on the now giving Bible instruction to 50,233 scholars. part of those who hold to the pure Gospel of J eSU8 Christ." -The Pope has ordered Roman Catholics in aJl parts of the world to maintain an increasing With a Joss-house and a Buddhist temple in agitation in favor of the restoration of his tem- New York the old cry of" heathen at home" poral power. It is stated that the raising of 500 sounds with anew force. The 3,200student volun- recruits by Cardinal Lavlgerle for the suppresteers are no less needed to carry the pure gospel sion of the slave trade in Africa, is a pretext for Into the strongholds of heathendom before the restoration of the Pontifical Zouaves. these errors and superstitions spread further. I -"High missionary authorities aftlrm that, -The great reason why the mission churches ,especially during the past twenty years, foreign on the continent of Europe do not become self- Aelds have witnessed more converts, in propor- snpporting is the emigration to America, which tion to the efforts put forth, than the home takes away their best young men. This weakfields. Chrlstiaulty has been established in ens them, but strengthens the churches in this more than My islauds of the PaciAc. Among country. the most remarkable instances are the Fiji Islanders, 00,000 of whom gather regnlarly for -Freedmen. Within a few weeks two gifts Christian worship. Madagascar was almost amounting to '26,000 have been made to the whoJlya savage nation twe'!ty years ago, whIle people uuder care of the Presbyterian Board at present its queen, with 20,000 of her subjects, for Freedmen, the gift of Rev. Wm. M. Harare proCessing Christians. There are over 100 grave,a. colored man of Louisvi11e, Ky., is es- Christian congregations on the western coast of pecia.lly worthy of mention. He was born a Africa, and in Sierra Leone over 50,000 Africans slave, was freed during the war,and has, by profess Christ. The slave trade, bad as it is In simple industry and economy, l:'8.thered a the interior, has been suppressed along 2,000 little property. At the age of 70 he makes mJles of sea coast. In China, missions are m it over to the Knox church (colored) ID the operation in forty walled cities and 360 vil- sha~ of a building for purposes of worship, lages."-S4lecUd. worth $10,000, after having jl'iven the use of It to the church for ten years, rent free. -Since the organization oC the Children's Compa.ratively speaking, this IS one of tne Aid Society, it has picked up out of the street noblest and lar&,est benefaction. of modern 86,000 boya., pren them Wholesome moral train- times.