The Missionary Review of the World — March 1893
THE QUESTION OF ENDOWING MISSION CHURCHES. [Mar<'h
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XVI. No. B.-Old &ries.—MAROH. —VOL. VI. No. B.-New &riel.
THE QUESTION OF ENDOWING MISSION CHURCHES.
BY REV. EDWARD JUDSON, D.D., NEW YORK CITY.
The Christian finds himself within the large embrace of three concentric horizons. The outermost is the Spiritual Church, that vague and majestic conception which glimmers here and there in Holy Scripture and reminds us that all souls, whether dwelling on this green earth or in any other world, who turn reverently and obediently to what light they have, belong to one flock and have one Shepherd. It is not to this, of course, that the term church relates, as it occurs in the subject of our discussion. Again, there is a second religious horizon that environs us less remote and more definite. Within the Spiritual Church we find rigid ecclesiastical crystallizations, with one or another of which each one of us has come somehow or other to be identified. We are Romanist, or Anglican, or Wes- 1eyan' or Baptist, or Congregationali.st, or Presbyterian. These social organisms are called denominations or communions, and sometimes in loose and popular phrase, with slight if any vestige of scriptural warrant, churches. It is not to these religious phenomena that we refer when we speak of endowing churches. No one ever thinks, in this country at least, for instance, of endowing the Anglican communion. Our subje~t relates I'ather to what is sometimes called the local church, which constitutes our innermost ecclesiastical horizon. It includes those believers in Christ who habitually meet together for worship. They form a society into which new members are initiated by baptism. It is their custom at stated seasons to take the bread and the chalice in memory of Christ. They remind each other of His teachings, and they praise and adore the Eternal God as foreshortened and revealed to the human consciousness in His personality and character. In these ways they help one another to become like Him. Nor is this all. They endeavor to change for the better the character of the circumjacent community, which they call the world, by bringing into the consciousness of individuals those great truths concerning God and duty and the future life which Christ taught and exemphfied. This they accomplish by preaching, by private conversation, by the symbolism of the sacraments, and especially by their blameless and disinterested r.ehavior, which reflects tt.e image of their Master as the rising sun is mirrored in the glassy surface of a mountain lake. As Whit. . tier writes regarding a departed saint: "The dear Lord's best interpreters Are humble human souls; The gospel of a life like hers Is more than books or scrolls.
.. From scheme and creed the light goes out, The saintly fact survives; The blessed Master none can doubt, Revealed in holy lives."
It is regarding the local Church, then, that we pursue the inquiry whether it is desirable that it should be endowed. . Should large sums of money be bestowed for the purpose of securing to the Church a perennial revenue to be applied to its work and worship ~ It seems to me this depends upon the character of its environment. If a church is imbeddeC' in a community which is predomina.ntly Christian in its spirit, where there exists an underlying consciousness that is responsive and congenial to evangelical truth, then there may be no need of endowment. The ordinary appliances of religion-the worship, the pr.eaching, and the Sunday-schoolwill suffice; and enough decent, church-going people will nat11ralIy flow in to meet the expenses of the establishment. If, however, the Church is situated in a population the inner consciousness of which is heathenish and antagonistic to the Gospel, then will spring up the necessity of an endowment. The best appliances are requisite in the way of preaching, architecture, and music, because the Church is confronted with the difficult task of impressing and attracting those who are essentially indifferent, and even hostile. But it is so poor that it cannot meet the expenses of such appliances. And then the forces that converge against it are so tremendous that, besides paying its ordinary current expenses, it must use at least an equal sum upon its field in aggressive work, or else it will be sure to go to the walL 'Vithout endowment its outlook becomes hopeless.
It seems, then, that there are two different kinds of field open for church work. There are places where the prevailing social influences are favorable to the building up of evangelical churches. If you have a good minister, attractive music, and stately architecture, the church seems to grow itself. Real estate keeps appreciating, decent and respectable ~hurch-going people come streaming into the neighborhood, and they naturally find their way into the sacred edifices that have been prepared for their use. The minister preaches two good sermons on Sunday, delivers his midweek address, performs his round of faithful pastoral visitation, and at the end of a year or two rejoices to see his pews comfortably full. He fancies perhaps that he does it aIL But he is like a boy rowing down stream. The oars are reinforced by the steady, swift current. If he is a shrewd man he will always be careful to select a place where the social currents converge in his favor. He will call it securing a strategic position. He will never know what it is to fail. He knows how to avail himself of a general tendency. But it is as if a workman should use the strongest- tools where there was the easiest work to do, or a general were to train his heaviest guns upon the weakest point in the enemy's line, or a physician were to inject his most potent medicaments into the least dis- eased portions of his patient's body. In pursuance of this policy our evangelical churches have been steadily retreating up Manhattan Island, until it begins to look as if we were to be whipped off the field. We are like a man who in his sleep pulls the bedclothes up around his neck, leav- ing his legs stark and bare. This is not a plea for down-town churches. I am coming to feel that our hardest field is the great middle belt of our city_ If I am not mistaken, all of our churches had better reef themselves up for a long, steady blow. We have made the mistake of huddling our best preachers and our most amply equipped churches in that part of the city where they are least needed; and, on the other hand, just where the population is densest and materialism most strongly entrenched we bring to bear our cheapest and poorest gospel appliances. But the churches cannot escape the great masses which they have left behind. We catch their diseases; they have a saloon on every corner; they outvote us and control our municipal politics; while we, in our Chickering Hall confer- ences, like righteous Lot of old, vex our righteous souls day by day with the filthy conversation of the wicked.
As ancient Rome assumed such an attitude toward the rest of human- ity that she had either to conquer the world or be herself annihilated, so -the Christian Church, in her relation to the huge masses of alien and unevangelical life with which the lower parts of our great cities are being solidly packed, must either penetrate them with her spirit and sub- due them into receptiveness, or confess herself a conspicuous failure. From these ever-widening social swamps there steals upward a dense miasma, which poisons not only our municipal life, but, through that, the State and country at large. Alien forces are gradually engulfing us, as in a case of dropsy the water creeps on and up until the vitals are flooded. The conflict for Christ in the evil neighborhoods of our large cities is simply a Waterloo issue. As Goethe has it : " Thou must rise or fall, Thou must rule and win, Or else serve and lose, Suffer or triumph; Be anvil or hammer."
A church that pulls out of the slums in order to secure a more favorable and congenial environment is like the hard-pres:;ed ostrich, that hides its head in the sand from its pursuers. Such a policy is a violation of the fundamental principles of the Gospel. Such churches cease to be essentially Christian. They are pagan forms of social crystallization, with a thin gilded veneer of Christianity. They have Christ's religion with the bottom fallen out. They spcnd oceans of money in satisfying their own pious sensibilities with fine preaching, exquisite music, and solemn architecture, and yet wonder that they make no converts. They do not touch social sores, and do little or nothing to change for the better the character of the city in which we live. They are splendid illustrations of refined. pious selfishness. The world sees through it all and turns infidel.
The minister or church that pursues this policy may meet with swiftfooted success. At the end of a year or two the pastor will be made glad by seeing beforc him a large audience, and the church officers will have no ugly deficit to wrestle with. But the very swiftness of your success awakens your misgivings. You begin to be suspicious of so speedy a victory. You recall St. John's profound generalization-we know that the whole u)orld lieth in the wicked one-and you wonder that, with this environment, the Church of Christ should advance with such long, easy strides. You begin to ask yourself the question that fell from the lips of the aged patriarch Isaac, when his younger son undertook to palm himself off as the elder, and spread before him the savory but premature dish of venison: "How is it thou hast found it so quickly. my SO'/ll,.2" You proceed to analyze the audience that you have gathered, and you discover tllllt it is made up of individuals who were good church· going people before. You explore the ecclesiastical pedigree of those who fill your pews, and you find that they are ,·egistered. You have only succeeded in getting a handful here and a handful there, from this church and from that. There is no production of new material. It is a mere sleight-of-hand performance. It is as when you turn a kaleidoscope and the same identical pieces of glass shift and only form a new combination. You have really made no impression upon the great non-church-going mass. The acute pleasure you experience in seeing so many people in your church is a good de31 mitigated by the thought that another minister, here and there, is correspondingly depressed by observing their absence from his. Many a so-called successful church is built up at the expense of a score of feebler ecclesiastical growths. Is there in this any real gain to the cause of Christ in the world ~ It is the duty of the Church! then, not to turn itself into a travelling show, but to stick to its field, provided humanity is there, no matter how degraded and unresponsive. Let it change not its place, but its methods, gearing itself anew for the kind of people God sends. Let it cling at least to the edges of our social swamps. The only way in which the ignorant and vicious will ever be improved is by close contact with the intelligent and the pure, who shall come among them in the spirit of the One that laid His glory by and took upon Himself the form of a slave. The Church cannot lift the masses at arm's length. Her methods too often remind us of the grim, heartless joke perpetrated on us in our boyhood when we fell down and were saluted with the cheering words : " Come here, sonny, and r II pick you up."
But the Chutch must not only keep close to the common people, but it must adopt new and aggreSSive methods, educational, philanthropic, and evangelistic. The sermons and addresses and the pastoral work which, in a more congenial field, seemed to accomplish so much, now prove ineffec- tive. Amid the worn-out conditions of our down-town churches, all that the Angel Gabriel could do on the old plan would be merely to retard the process of decay. Some say the simple Gospel is enough. Yes, but how are you going to bring people within the sound of it ~ You are like a per- son ringing a bell in a vacuum. Humanitarian measures are required in order to pull humanity around and direct its sad, averted gaze toward the cross.
'As to the suggestion of definite methods, one becomes instinctively shy and reserved. Fields are so different. What wiII succeed in one place will fail in another. We cannot afford to be dogmatic. We make so many mistakes and must so often noiselessly retrace our footsteps. We have to feel our way along like a ferry-boat entering its slip.
Of one thing, however, we may be sure: it is that the worst need the best. Cheap appliances will fail. We shall never reach the people with our servants' dining-rooms and our cold victuals. They must have the best preaching, the best music, the best architecture. The Salvation Army has made its mistake in this country by trying to palm off on the people a cheap and sensational religion. The persecution which it incurs and glories in is often due to the outraged reverence and sense of decency which you wiII find in the lowest classes. There is truth in Lowell's Yan- kee phrase, " 'T",int a knowin' kind of cattle That is ketched with mouldy corn."
The whole grade of worship and instruction must be kept at its highest level. It is a mistake to suppose that plain people wiII be attracted by cheap and nasty surroundings. They wiII feel happiest and most at home in the finest church edifices, provided, of course, that these are near at hand. The poor enjoy the feeling of ownership and responsibility in a beautiful house of God. I would put the finest churches among the poor and the cheapest among the rich.
But besides the services of the church, which should be frequent, attractive, and inspiring, there should be close at hand social appliances for work among young men-sitting-room, library and reading-room, gymnasium, and other provisions which the Young Men's Christian Association has found so useful. What is more important still, let the churches reach after child-life, especially among foreigners. This can be done by Sunday-schoo18, singing-schools, industrial Ichools, kindergartens, and even primary day-school, as well as day-nurseries. In this way the Church can control the whole educational life of the child, both on Sundays and week-.
'tHE OVKRFLow O]j'
days, from iufancy to the age of ten. This is a much more roundabout and expensive way of changing the character of our city than by legisla- tion; but it is the only way in which the task can be accomplished. And for work of this kind the Church needs endowment. My equation is that a church will need to use on its field each year a sum equal to what it re- quires for its ordinary current expenses. The revenue from its endow- ment should be as rigidly as possible applied not to the· current expenses, but to the aggressive work which it must do in order to breed up and to bring in people who will cheerfully pay the current expenses. If the reve- nue of the endowment be used for the support of the clergy and other ordinary current expenses, the offerings of the people being applied to mission work, the tendency will be >to raise a breed of ecclesiastical paupers and spongers.
The question how to secure an endowment is too wide and varied to be treated in this paper. The thought of endowment may be incorporated in the erection of a church edifice. A part of the ground may be improved with a view to purely ecclesiastical and financially unproductive uses; while the rest may be occupied by a revenue-bearing building. I sometimes think that our churches are very extravagant in their use of property. In a part of the city, for instance, where worldly men are erecting structures from six to sixteen stories above ground, with two or three floors under the earth, and using these buildings during all of the twentyfour hours of every day for business and for residence, you will see the people of God spreading out their edifice with a frontage of one hundred and fifty feet and occupying a single floor, with their church proper and Sunday-school room placed side by side. And this space, which they enclose and shut in from the cheerful habitations of men, they use about ten hours a week. The rest of the time it is occupied by mice, silence, and gloom. It is no wonder that they try to shirk the burden of taxation. A business conducted with such extravagance would be strung up on the reef of bankruptcy within six months. The question arises, Could not a part of this valuable ground be so improved as to secure to the church a permanent endowment for its missionary, philanthropic, and educational needs ~ THE OVERFLOW OF MISSIONS.
BY REV. A. J. GORDON, D.D.
In this closing decade of the nineteenth century the stream of missionary effort seems to be overflowing its banks and making for itself many new channels. The old societies continue their noble work, bllt the rising tide of enthusiasm will no longer confine itself to these. Vast numbers of men and women are being influenced by the Holy Spirit to enter upon the work of foreign missions, and in proportion to the strength of the movement will inevitably be the "differences of administration" and the " diversities of operation" legitimately attending it. In all this the intelligent friends of missions must rejoice and be glad.
The demand for ecclesiastical uniformity which many are now emphasizing is neither according to the teaching of the Spirit nor according to the analogies of nature. The tree does not remain a trunk, but it ramifies and separates its substance into thousands of limbs and branches. ,. The scandal of a divided Christendom," so called, has proved the strength of an evangelizing Christendom in this age of missions. There are scores of agencies now in use for propagating the Gospel among the heathen when there would have been but one if the condition of solid ecclesiastical unity had obtained. Not that we would contend that the division of Christians into sects is the ideal condition-God does not, in this present time, do His greatest work through ideal conditions. Certainly the spectacle of sixty-five missionary societies laboring in India, forty-six in China, and thirty-four in Africa, and all operating by diverse methods, but in substantial good-fellowship with each other, ought to be regarded as a kind of providential compensation for that divided condition of the Christian Church to which we are largely indebted for this number and variety of agencies. So the increasing versatility of method in conducting missions which we are now witnessing augurs. we believe, only good for the great work of giving the Gospel to the world.
This versatility is manifesting itself in the following ways: First, there is a growing tendency for single churches and individual Christians to take up direct missionary work among the heathen. The article on " Decentralization in Missions, '.' which the writer contributed to the June number of the MISSIONARY REVIEW, has called out a large number of responses from Christians of various names. From these it is eYident that the idea is taking root in the minds of lovers of missions, and that it is destined to be more and more widely developed. In the last session of the General Assembly we find the Presbyterians giving considerable attention to this question, and urging its favorable consideration upon their churches. A writer in the Episcopal Recorder for August 4th calls fpr earnest reflection upon this subject, and questions whether this direct participation of the Church in foreign missions might not "work a revolution in the defective and comparatively inefficient schemes which have characterized the method of conducting the work of missions among' the heathen in the past-methods which have failed to reach the heart of the Church, which have obtained hundreds of dollars, where ten thousands should have been gladly furnished from Christian people, whose aggregate incomes run into hundreds of millions." • The idea of direct church-participation in missions is the central one; but this carries many other considerations with it-such as the distribution and consequent increase of missionary responsibility, the development of greater dependence on God, both among the home churches and on'the foreign field, and the resultant strengthening of faith and prayerfulness and consecration among Christians.
The most notable indication of the rising sentiment in these directions which we have seen appears in a prospectus, which now lies before us, of the Baptist Interior Mission. The movers in this enterprise are several men who have won high positions as earnest and successful missionaries in China lInder the Southern Baptist Board. The proposal for a new departure in the work of their denomination in China is not the result of sentiment, but the outcome of practical experience and of deliberate reflection. And remembering that the movers in this undertaking intend to put themselves under their proposed new scheme, their suggestions demand respectful consideration. We make the following quotation from this paper.
After stating their conviction that without a change of method the demands of the field cannot be met, and that under the new plan it is proposed to leave the coast and ports and to plunge into the vast interior, where millions on millions are still waiting to hear the sound of the Gospel, the authors of this prospectus go on to say : 1. We shall receive only a support, not a fixed salary, leaving it for each one to say, when he has come and had time to know what it costs on his field, what the amount shall be. His constituents will rely on his judgment and honor in the matter. We, the missionaries, who identify ourselves with this mission, now or hereafter, may differ in our opinion of the amount needed, and the needs may be different on different fields; but that the churches may have a basis on which to start off, we will say let them arrange to give each missionary annually: For his personal support, $300 (that is, $600 for a married couple), and $100 extra for each child he may have ; but " support" means support in his work; so, for house rent, say $50 ; itinerating, $50 ; and teacher of the language, $50. Total, for a single missionary, $450 (U. S. gold). This is less by $300 at least than is allowed the missionaries of the Southern Baptist Convention. Yet it has been tried and proved to be sufficient for a comfortable living. The fact is, that more than jour hundred of China's missionaries are living on less.
2. Our reasons for making this reduction to a support only may be roughly stated to be : (1 ) We appreciate the fact that it is the Lord's money, given to Him mainly by those who are poor. We cannot afford to take this money and indulge ourselves in the comforts of which they denied themselves to give it when it is entirely unnecessary. (2) We wish to be more on an equality with our brethren, the pastors of town and coun- iry churches at home, to whom we look for sympathy and help. (3) Many whom the Lord calls to China seem kept at home for the want of funds. Now, the Lord calls the men and the Lord calls the gifts, and yet they are out of proportion. Are they out of proportion ~ May it not be that the few that go to foreign fields consume too much money on themselves and their work ~ (4) And, especially, because it is a principle of our religion, as was expressed in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. In His mission to the lost He became poor that they might become rich. Among these poor people it is especially expedient, and we are persuaded that he who would be most successful in winning their souls must, like his Lord, become poor (also compare 1 Cor. 9 ; 12). 3. This support, as is expressly stated, is to come fr~m the churches, the divinely appointed agents of the Lord to carry om His command to evangelize the world. The Holy Ghost may now, as of old to the Church at Antioch, say to a church: "Separate Me–=–so and so-for the work whereunto I have called them." Two churches, or a group of churches, may unite in supporting a missionary; much as some churches have to do in supporting their pastors. These churches become responsible to the missionary for his support in his work-i.e., what they give him he gets, and what they do not give him he does not get-and he, in turn, becomes responsible to them for work done. Let mutual responsibility be felt, and just as sure as the living body throws, at every beat of the heart, its warm life-blood to its remotest member, so sure will the Church, the body of Christ, sympathize with and support its far-off evangelist.
4. That this support be a free gift. God not only loves such a giver, but owns and blesses only such gifts. This reverting to the scriptural method, the giver giving as to God and the receiver receiving as from God, will bring into exercise more faith and trust in God. will be more honoring to the Spirit, and will obviate the nuisance of begging. This allowing the churches their divinely appointed functions will insure against centralization of power, whether at home or on the field. It will render unnecessary so much machinery, and relieve the contributions from the tax of lubricating' and running it. No paid agents will be wanted. The pastor alld other officers of the Church will be quite sufficient.
Those of us who have served many years on missionary boards know how many vital points are touched in these quotations. It would not be becoming for us who are living at home, surrounded by all the comforts of civilized life, to impose such a regime upon our missionary brethren. But when, with a full knowledge of the situation, a thorough experience on the field, and a deep sense of the responsibility involved, certain devoted mis- sionaries propose this new departure for themselves, our heart and voice and deepest conviction respond amen to the suggestion. We have no doubt of the rich success of the enterprise, for it is apostolic, and therefore has the guarantee of the Holy Spirit's furtherance j and it is practical, having the experience of several notable missionary enterprises of this century.
No doubt the teaching of that remarkable object lesson, the China Inland Mission, haf influenced the movers in this enterprise as it has affected many other promoters of foreign missiops j for the method out- lined is very much the same. Whether the experience of the China Inland Mission augurs success or not, let these facts answer. This mission is one of forty-six now operating in that great empire, representing the strong- est and wealthiest Protestant denominations. Yet though one of the youngest, this society has one fourth of all the missionaries on the field j has sent out a hundred missionaries in a single year-a reinforcement which not one of our great Protestant societies, with their large wealth and vast co~stituency, has been able to effect j and is receiving annually, with- out solicitation of any sort, the needed funds for the work.
Thus we believe that the new enterprise proposed by these Southern brethren has the evidence of demonstrated success as well as the sanction of Scripture to support it. A widening of the channel of missionary effort is seen also in the in- creasing employment of lay workers on the foreign field. By lay workers we mean especially men and women without college or theological training. The proposal to commission such as laborers among the heathen has always awakened sharp discussion, from the days of Von Welz to those of Gossner and Harms. But the policy condemned by many is as strongly approved by others, both on the ground of necessity and of utility. The necessity appears in thc fact that of the large number of graduates emerging yearly from the universities, so few comparatively are moved to undertake missionary service; and the utility in the fact of the demonstrated success of these humbler laborers.
Dr. Warneck, of Germany, one of the ablest of living writers on missionary themes, speaks strongly on this point. In the midst of a plea for a " fuller representation of the thoroughly trained element on the foreign field," he says: "It is not to the credit of German Protestantism, which indisputably stands at the head of all Protestant churches by its scientific theology, that it sends precisely the fewest theologians into mission service. Do our theologians haply suppose that they are too good for such service?" This statement is a significant one, and his question is a searching one. The feeling is not confined to Germany that it is a waste of high literary culture to bestow it upon bloody cannibals and degraded barbarians. We have even heard the most fervent friends of missions say of some especially gifted and brilliant university graduate, "that with such pre-eminent talents for home service he ought not to go abroad. "
If in these circumstances men possessed of high consecration, but deyoid of high culture, present themselves for foreign service, shall they be discouraged? Dr. Warneck speaks emphatically upon this point. He says: "Not a few missionaries, indeed, who have gone abroad without scieutific training have proved themselves pre-eminently intelligent even in the literary department, and conversely, it is indisputably true that university training affords no general guarantee for important performances. Moreover, it cannot be denied that a considerable proportion of our missionaries, with their seminary training, suffer from a certain narrowness of view, and that thereby their whole acting and bearing is influenced not to the advantage of the great work to which they are called. I am far from desiring none but scientifically educated men for the mission service. We need all sorts of men for it."
We would put especial emphasis on this last· sentence : " We need all sorts of men. ' , There are dialects to be mastered on the foreign field beside the linguistic-the mother tongue of sympathy and fellow-feeling; the universal speech of suffering and pain. He who can conjugate the8e through all their sorrowful moods and tenses has the highest requisite for successfully preaching the Gospel to the heathen. Such missionaries as Burns and Crossett, in China. have read us a memorable lesson on this point. It is a significant touch, in our Lord's picture of the wounded traveller journeying from Jerusalem to Jericho, that while both priest and Levite passed by on the other side, the good Samaritan "came where he Was.'' The missionary who can come where the sin-bruised and dying heathen are, get down close to them and bind up their wounds, is the one most demanded on the foreign field. And it has been repeatedly found that the uncultured missionary has ability in this direction which the learned do not possess, and find it exceedingly hard to acquire. It has been our fortune to know two or three men who, with only the most ordinary educational qualifications, have yet achieved very remarkable success in their labors among the heathen. In every instance the secret has seemed to be in their ability to come close to the heathen, entering into their homes, and journeying for months together among their villages, and so getting " bap- tized into a sense of all conditions." Like fits like, and it is reasonable to suppose that missionaries taken from among the common people should be especially fitted to reach the common people.
Then it should not be forgotten that it is the Gospel, not the preacher, that is "the power of God unto salvation." It is not the magnitude of the man, but the magnitude of the message, which determines the results of preaching. Hence we believe it true that a small man with a great Gospel will do more execution than a great man with a small Gospel. And here is one of the standing wonders which we do well to ponder-the clearness and force and effectiveness with which many of our humble lay preachers are able to declare the Gospel. It is our privilege to be acquainted with a great number of evangelists. By far the larger part of them have never enjoyed the advantages of academic training. Yet it is a constant surprise to observe the simplicity and power with which many such are able to present the Word of life.
If such men prove excellent evangelists at home, why not abroad 1 Their training and habits of life have fitted them to live far less expen- sively than their more cultivated brethren. And here is a very great desideratum-cheaper missionaries and a far greater number to engage in purely evangelistic work among the heathen.
The work which Dr. A. B. Simpson and his co-laborers in New York are doing deserves the thoughtful consideration of the promoters of foreign mISSIOns. His success in raising such great sums of money through the simple agencies of prayer and faith and a deepened spiritual life, and his ability to send out a larger delegation of foreign missionaries in a single year than anyone of our great missionary societies with their vast con- stituency of men and means, constitute another impressive object lesson for the friends of missions. This work was begun as an individual enterprise by the pastor of a single church, and though now it has been organized into a society called the International Missionary Alliance, its methods are – almost identical with those outlined in the prospectus of the Southern mis- sionaries to which we have just referred. The missionaries whom it is sending out are largely non-college and non-seminary men. From our
MISSIONS, THE SALVATION OF THE CRtlRCH
knowledge of them we judge that they are mostly working men and working women, with little of what is called liberal culture j but they are brought under the instruction of thc Missionary Training School of Dr. Simpson, a school where the great essentials-a knowledge of the Word of God and a definite experience of the Holy Spirit's power in the soul-are much insisted on, and with this fitting they are sent forth to the foreign field.
This society, though only five years old, has now about one hundred and fifty missionaries working in foreign countries. About twenty-five went out to the Congo last May, and two other parties, consisting of sixteen persons, went to India in July and August. The Soudan Mission, which this society is operating, is a truly aggressive undertaking. 'The first missionary to this field sailed two years ago under the leadership of Mr. Kingman. Others have since followed, till the present working force is about twenty. Their base of operations is Freetown, Sierra Leone, and their line of advance is up the Rokelle River, which they have already ascended nearly two hundred miles, planting a continuous line of stations. The leader of this movement is Mr. George S. Fisher, of Kansas, whose aggressive work in this enterprise well illustrates our subject, the "Overflow of Missions." Dr. Simpson has received very large donations for his work, $100,000 having been contributed since last August.
In many respects this is an 'original enterprise. Its bold reliance on God and its apostolic methods mark it as an instructive study. We have heard conservatives question whether the kind of recruits it is sending out are likely to succeed. For ourselves, we have no doubt about it. They who honestly attempt to carry out the great commission are bound to succeed. The only palpable and culpable non-success in missions is that of the theorists and critics who stay at home and devote themselves to discounting and disparaging those whose methods they do not approve. There is no danger that too many shall attempt to obey the great commission ; there is no peril in the present missionary overflow.
MISSIONS, THE SALVATION OF THE CHURCH.
BY JAMES E. MATHIESON, ESQ., LONDON.
" For Adam was first formed, then Eve; and Adam was not beguiled, but the woman being beguiled hath fallen into transgression: but she shall be saved through the childbearing, if they continue in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety" (1 Tim. 2 : 13-15 [R. V.]).
Which things seem to be an allegory concerning Christ and the Church and missions.
"The second man is the Lord from heaven" (1 Cor. 15 : 47). The tempter came unto Him and plied Him with manifold temptations j but He was proof against every seduction of the wicked one, and came forth from the ordeal without taint of sin, holy, harmless, undefiled. He remained the unerring servant, " the faithful and true witness," the obedient son, all through His earthly ministry; and to His Church-by the Word and Spirit-He continues the unerring guide, the" witness to the people, the leader and commander of the people" of God.
Eve is a suitable type of the Church. What is Church history? is it not a continuous record of failure, of defeat through the machinations of the adversary, of disobedience to the command of her Lord and Master, of uncertain, hesitating testimony ? We need not fasten upon the awful departures from truth which we see manifested in the apostate Church of Rome, nor upon the corruptions which disfigure the Greek Church; yet how shameful and how sorrowful that the larger part of Christendom to-day should remain sunken in the deplorable idolatries in which Europe thus lies spellbound, unable to shake herself free! Let us come nearer home, and look at Protestantism. Are Satan's deceivings not visible here, too, though in forms less repulsive and with consequences somewhat less disastrous? Our search for a perfect church, faithfully reflecting the image of her heavenly Lord, will prove a vain quest. Lutheranism in Germany and Scandinavia has degenerated into a lifeless sacramental formalism which exerts little influence over the lives of the people in leading them Godward and heavenward; the Reformed churches of France and Switzerland have been infected with rationalism, and icy coldness has crept over them; the Church of England, "rich and increased with goods," is backsliding into priestcraft, the leaven from which she never was thoroughly free. What a portent, that a Bible-loving nation, seeing no mention of priests in the enumeration of her ascended Lord's gifts to His Church (1 Cor. 12 : 28 ; Eph. 4 : 10-12), nor any recognition of priesthood in the pastoral epistles, should not perceive the dishonor to our one great High-Priest by the admission of official priesthood in the Church below! If we turn to British or American nonconformity, can we be satisfied with its lack of reverence in handling Holy Scripture, and the increasing disbelief in the supernatural? or with the infrequent remembrance of our Lord's death at the communion table? for without determining for others how often the holy supper should be observed, the very expression, " as often as ye eat," surely implies frequency; and can we feel complacent with churches which silently ignore the blessed hope of the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour? What we have just said about nonconformist churches applies with equal force to the Presbyterian communions. To how many of the churches of to-day-to the churches founded by Luther and Calvin and Knox, by the English Puritans, and later by Wesley and Whitfield and Chalmers-might not the great aposUe exclaim, as he did to the Church of Galatia, "Ye were running well, who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?" Ah! the hinderer came upon the scene, and with his seductions drew the Church aside and far away from her first love. The history of the Church universal is, in greater or less degree, a record of backsEding and of deterioration, because she has listened to other voices than the voice Divine; has given way to expediency and compromise, to worldliness, to traditions of men, and, above all, to unbelief in the living God.
But, in view of all this defection and unworthiness, how wonderful the longsuffering patience of our God! Instead of utter destruGtion there is a prolongation of the day of grace. Yet here a law of the kingdom pre- vails which we cannot afford to overlook: the Church-any branch of the Church-is" saved through childbearing;" her safety, her continuance in existence as a living Church, depends upon her reproduction of churches. And observe, I do not think we are to look to mere enlargement within her existing borders, the addition of new members in the sphere of her local boundaries, although that is sure to accompany the otlJer increase on which I lay stress-namely, the bringing to the birth of churches beyond her limits, or, to use the apostolic expression, /I in the regions beyond." At the tribunal of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5 : 10), when the Master reckons with His servants, may we be permitted reverently to conceive Him saying, "Who . hath begotten me these ?" and pointing to Africa and the East, the Church of England would answer that she was the mother Church; and for some of those in In.dia and China, American and British Presbyterians would reply; and to those in Madagascar and Mongolia our Congregational brethren would lay claim; and of those in Burma and on the Congo, the Baptists would own the parentage; and for those in Polynesian islands of the sea, our "Vesleyan friends ; and for those in Garenganze and Malaysia, the Plymouth Brethren; and for those in Labrador and Little Thibet and among Jerusalem lepers, the Moravian Church. But oh! the ominous silence of dead and buried churches-dead and buried because the law of their continued existence was set at nought; no daughter churches after their image, in their own likeness, to "rise up and call them blessed." Their name and their memorial has perished with them.
A word concerning the reproduction of mission churches in the likeness of the mother Church. In whose image does any true mother love to see the reflection in the child she has borne? her own or her husband's image ~ 'rhere can be but one answer : the mother delights to see the lineaments of her husband reproduced in her child. Is it so in the Church? Is there not effort everywhere tp perpetuate the special features of the mother Church, rather than a jealous longing to see imparted the impress of the living Lord npon newly born churches in heathendom and elsewhere? Is not precious time oftentimes wasted in the attempt to transmit creeds and catechisms and liturgies which are not essential to the growth and well being of newly gathered companies of believers; or to repeat, under unsuitable conditions. forms and ceremonies which hinder rather than hasten progress toward full stature; and which tend to stereotype, on far-off fields, those differences which-in some aspects at leaRt–are a acandal and a weakness to Christiani.ty ~ It is blessed to think of the obliteration of denominational distinctions in the gloryland, when the completed body of Christ shall acknowledge the one name of her undivided Lord. Were it otherwise, and the question could be put concerning the many-named and much subdivided churches which have witnessed and labored and suffered for and with Christ upon the earth, "Which is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven 1" methinks the Master's reply would be, "The Church of the United Brethren ;" and whatever our various preferences and proclivities may have been as mem- bers of the Church down below, I consider it unlikely that any of us would for a moment dispute this supremacy of the Moravian Brethren as a missionary church. They have shown us a magnificent example j why have we been so slow to follow it 1 The Moravian Missionary Society, begun in 1732, is the oldest Protes- tant enterprise for evangelizing the heathen. A few years since public attention was called to the miserable condition of lepers in India and elsewhere j but the Moravians began to carry the good news to lepers in Africa seventy-four years ago, and to those in Jerusalem twenty-five years ago. Of their income of £70,000, nearly two thirds are raised by evangelized native churches, which contain over 90,000 converts, a total three times as numerous as the members of the home churches, which have sent forth missionaries in the proportion of one for every sixty members, as compared with one for every 5000 members among Protestant churches generally. What significance in this last statement-how honorable to the Moravians, how humbling for Protestants generally!
There is a vast competition in our day and a great array of statistics with reference to the comparative progress in numbers, in buildings, in the annual revenues, and the voluntary gifts of the various churches. In this competition established and free churches and all the denominations vie with each other amid various experiences of success and defeat. It does not seem likely, now that we are drawing near to the close of the second millennium of Christianity, that anything will arise in the conditions of mankind in the leading Protestant lands, or in the phases of theology which largely govern the minds of men in lands ruled by Bible principles, to greatly alter the proportions which now obtain between the various sections of the Ohurch in their numerical Rtrength and social influence and power. Fluctuations there will ever be locally; but over the whole areas held by Protestantism no very marked displacements by one over the other are probable. Partial success of one branch of the Church will but stimulate to greater endeavor in another branch to replace what has been lost. Is it beyond hope that we may one day see a pause in this hitherto endless strife for mastery in seeking to gain the first or second or third place in membership, in edifices, in revenues, which now engages the ceaseless watchfulness and activities of leading men in every denomination? and instead of this feverish race for supremacy in an age which seems governed largely by statistics, a more prayerful pondering of our Lord's parting command, a turning to a more excellent way and to a nobler strife, in a determination to keep in the foremost place the vast neglected work which her Lord has set before His Church, " Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." The. competition for the foremost place in over-churched Britain, for example, is becoming a scandal and a snare, and a sorrow of heart to many of God's children; oh, for a blessed rivalry for that first place now held by the Moravian Brethren! Baptists, Presbyterians, Wesleyans, which of you will first abandon this insane grasping after more people at home, whom some one else is pretty sure to evangelize if you fail to do so, and go in with all your might for daughter churches in Africa, Asia, South America, and other virgin soils, where the sowing and husbandry will yield you far richer harvests 1 What a blessed determination it would be if, abandoning the extravagance and selfishness involved in building more home churches, some branch of the Church resolved to fill the mission treasury to overflowing, and called upon her sons and daughters to go forth to the needy fields afar off with promise of prayer and reinforcements? For the sad truth remains that since" where your treasure is, there will your heart be also," the heart's affections, the solicitudes, the prayers of the Church are concentrated on the home work and home interests, and but little heart and little prayer flow out toward the great mission cause. In point of fact, the" great mission cause" is a misnomer; it is a weak, spasmodic, half-starved affair; no hced or little heed is given to the proportions of the fields which claim our regard; we give profusely, we give our substance to home demands; we give grudgingly, we give our superfluity to the vast fields out of sight.
How does our blessed Lord regard His Church's disregard of His commands? I fear the curse of barrenness falls upon home churches because of their disobedience and self-seeking. The history of Israel is repeated in much that we see in the Church to-day. "Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself" (Hos. ~ 0 : 1) ; unto himself, not unto God. "Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little.
Ye looked for much, and, 10, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it" (Haggai 1 : 5, 6, 9). Oh, the meagre results, the few conversions, the sickly spiritual life in Christian communities at home; the Gospel hardening, the growth of unbelief, the increase of ungodliness! Let the Church awake to her true mission in this dark world and yield obedience; and what days of blessing may we not behold once more! ~'Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesns" (Phil.
2 : 3-5).
THE LORD'S WORK IN SPAIN
THE LORD'S WORK IN SPAIN.
BY REV. J. P. WIGSTONE, MISSIONARY, LINARES, SPAIN.
Just of late I am up from Andalusia, where my present work is visiting other brethren-two of whom studied in the Pastor's College, London-and scenes of years ago have been recalled by what is occurring here now. For instance, I lately accompanied a brother missionary to a neighboring town to bury a child. The priests and the authorities appeared at the house where the dead lay, and against the father's will forcibly carried the body away and buried it in the Roman Catholic cemetery. Another brother was called to visit one of the converts in a dying state. He had only just reached the house when the priest made his appearance, alleging that he had also been called. He had a number of witnesses. The house filled with people, as is often enough the case here under similar circumstances. The priest raged and stormed and held up his fist in the face of the evangelical pastor. The sick Christian woman, hearing the dispute about who had been called, cried out: "Silence, all ! I wish to make a public confession." (Here the priest smiled, and approached graciously at the last word.) "I am trusting only to Christ for salvation through His death on the cross; and if I die I want to be buried in the evangelical cemetery." The witnesses of the priest told him they were needed no longer, and went out. What did the priest do ~ He went and lodged a complaint with the mayor that he had been called to attend this dying woman, and that the evangelical pastor had threatened him and hindered him in his duty. The priest's witnesses deposed that the woman declared publicly she didn't want the priest but the pastor, and that the priest had threatened the pastor and not the pastor the priest. The mayor took doctors with him and satisfied himself that the witnesses spoke the truth, the dying woman being still able to say she wished nothing to do with Rome.
A third friend has had his meeting-place shut up by order of the Governor of Corunna. The English ambassador has been communicated with. This is a case of trying to show by law that the door of the meeting .place must be kept shut at Santa Eugenia, when no such thing is done in any other part of Spain, nor has been done during the last twenty years! These are matters of the present time, and make the past matters along the northwest coast of Spain new to me ; and I will speak about the commencement of the Gospel in these parts.
The first meeting in Galicia was commenced by the" pastor" before mentioned and myself in the year 1875 in Corunna. After a month's search we got a meeting-place, and went to the governor of the province.
" Yonr Excellency," we said to him, "we are going to begin the preaching of the Gospel at Puerta de Arriba on Sunday night at six o'clock."
" Vho gave you leave to do that 1" replied his Excellency. We explained to him that the law only required that notice should be given to the governor or mayor, and that we thought it best to give the notice in this case to the superior authority, as it was the first meeting of the kind held in all the four northwest provinces.
" Let me tell you," said the governor, " that if you commenced such a meeting the people would tear you in pieces; and I advise you for your own sake not to attempt any meetings here."
" Your Excellency, we have come all the way from Madrid for the purpose" (a journey then of twelve hours by rail and thirty·six by diligence), " and we quite intend to go on with the meetings."
" Then" (here he began to be very angry), " I warn you not; and if you do, I will take you prisoners from the platform. I can't inflict previous punishment, but I will begin when you begin."
" Then, your Excellency, the first meeting takes place on Sunday night 1.t six 0'clock. "
We left him, after he had renewed his threatenings. I must say we did not feel very comfortable. We were a long way from all our friends; we did not know the people of Corunna, but we did know something of Roman Catholic fanaticism. We went, in our extremity, to our God, and cried for help. The day arrived for our first meeting. "Will the governor keep his word? 'Will anybody come to the meeting?" we asked one another, as my friend and I prepared to go down to open the door. As we approached, sure enough, there were four policemen in full uniform. "Are they going to take us 1" was a very natural question. The door was opened; two or three people straggled in. As the first person entered, one policeman cried out" Order I" As another went in, another cry of " Order I" was heard; and so we entered, and they roared out " Order," and that word for the policemen seemed to be the order of the day. "They have not taken us," remarked one of us to the other. " We are not at the platform yet," was the reply. But we did get to the platform, and without interruption from the authorities; preached with all our heart and soul to a small congregation of about fifty the glorious old Gospel of salvation instant and free to the repenting sinner that comes to the Lord Jesus Christ through " Jesus only." These occasions of speaking to those who have never heard the joyful sound before of the great salvation have been among the happiest of our life. Would to God that thousands who can do so would go into all the world and try it I The next Sunday, at about 4.30 P.M., we looked out of our window and saw the square filled with people of every class. "Whatever can be the matter!" we asked as we looked out. The servant said, "Why, they have come for the meeting." Come for the meeting I Yes; an hour and a half before the time there were about two thousand people there. Cornnna was moved with curiosity. Let us begin the meeting at once. One went to open the door while we got hymn-books, etc., ready, and when We went down we couldn't get in-the place was packed with people in a solid mass. We went up to the house, got down into the back yard by a ladder, and with much difficulty got in at the back door. Happily the platform was just at that entrance. What a scene! The people were perched up everywhere, even sitting on the shoulders of those who occupied the seats. Well, we did our best to "make t.he message clear and plain," and then asked the congregation to retire and allow others to come in. They did ; and in the others came. We had another meeting. After it the crowd outside cried: "Come and preach to us from the balcony!" No, we had no voice left j besides, if we had, that was clearly against the law of " No public manifestation," and we thought it well to keep within it.
For weeks people came from the villages near as well as from the town j so that we were obliged to give entrance by ticket. The American viceconsul was exceedingly friendly, and took the tickets at the door as the people entered. When we appeared in the streets the folk stood at their doors and stared j came out at the balconies and stared. Why ? Well, the priests for centuries had been telling them all kinds of queer storip.s about Protestants, such as that we keep murdered children hanging up by the feet in the cellars to be eaten; that we had horns and tails j and it was natural to be curious to have the first glance at such wretches. Nevertheless, it was a good thing that the one subject of interest was the Word of God, the Gospel of Christ, for weeks in the whole neighborhood. I may just say that we sold hundreds of Bibles, testaments, and Gospels, and distributed thousands of tracts.
The archbishop drove up from Santiago to annihilate us by a series of declamations against Protestants. The people went to hear him during the day, and us at night. They went out of our meetings saying, "The archbishop tells nothing but lies." Not that we ever went into discussions. No j we kept to the Gospel of free salvation to the chief of sinners by Christ alone, and the hearers drew the inferences.
The Lord blessed the preaching to the salvation of souls. " I am of your opinions," whispered a man tv us as we stood on the street one day. He whispered because newspapers were speaking against us, and we had many enemies. " To be of our opinions will do little for you. You must be born again," we answered. We had a long talk with him about his soul. The next preaching was from" The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. " This man was at it, and next day he came to us and told us it had cleansed him. His wife soon professed conversion. His aunt, a bigoted Romanist, with whom they lived, was in a dreadful way about this. He spoke to her about the Gospels. One evening she was alone about meeting-time, and felt a desire to go which she could not shake off. She went, heard, believed, and brought her husband. He was soon converted. The aunt had $42 (£5 lOs.) worth of images in a glass case. She burned them, and said: " Now, Jesus onJy is my Saviour." Women sold the butcher meat in the market. Four of them were converted to Christ. One, a woman over sjx feet high, haq been a notorious cb,aract(}f
THE INQUISITION IN MEXICO
-smoked, drank, cursed and swore. She was soon known to be changed. As she sold the meat I have seen her speak to her customers about their souls. On one occasion she took up a piece of meat, gave it a chop, then looked at the customer and said: "If you don't go to church for salvation you'll be lost." Another chop at the meat and another chop at the customer, and that finished that particular transaction; and then for another. A man was converted, and his landlord called him from his village, eleven miles from Corunna. "You must either leave the Protestant meeting or my house and land." "I'll leave the meeting," was the reply. "Do as I do," said the landlord. " I read the Bible I got from them privately. " "We will," said the tenant. So the tenant and his wife read the Bible privately, and read one day that Christ would be ashamed of them before His Father and the holy angels who were ashamed of Him. They feared that word and returned to the meetings. The landlord called them. "Yes, we have gone back to the meetings. We are afraid that otherwise Christ would be ashamed of us before His Father and' the holy angels," said the man. " You must leave the house and land," said the landlord. "At once ; if you will allow me anything for the labor bestowed on it, well and good; if not, take it, labor and all." The landlord was astonished, and knew he would find few such honest men as John, and said: "Well, John, you can keep the house and lands; and if anyone molests you about your religion, send him to me." John went home and offered the largest room in the house for the meetings in his village, and shortly after his wife and he gave a room all ready furnished with platform and seats for Gospel meetings; and the meetings have been held in it ever since. Indeed, the work in Corunna and neighborhood has continued till this day; not in our hands; but after we left to preach in other towns and villages of Galicia, the converts continued the meetings till God raised up others to go on with the work.
When we came out to Spain in 1873 we had a conversation with the president of the college, that Greatheart the Second-C. H. Spurgeonwhen he said: "So you are going to Spain and trusting God for support in money matters ~" " Yes." "Would you not rather go under a committee~" "No." "Neither would I," said Mr. Spurgeon. We reckoned that if God wanted us in Spain He would support us there; and though many supporters have gone to heaven, others have been raised up, and we have been helped hitherto.
THE INQUISITION IN MEXICO.
BY MISS LAURA M. LATIMER.
The heavy, massive door of the Inquisition creaked upon its hinges as it opened and' shut me in. I passed up the broad stone stairway, along , th~ wide corridor, under the arches of ..t..h~ e loftr stone columns, to the room my friends had prepared for me. It had been the covercd way to the Inquisition, and was of most astonishing proportions for a bedroom. In the centre of the room was a large brass bedstead. Beautiful lace curtains were gracefully draped around thc brass rods, that reached nearly to the ceiling, and with such an imposing canopy it lookcd as though it might have been the couch of an empress. In the dim light of the tiny lamp the dark, uncanny corners seemed to me to be only hiding places for the shadowy forms of those cruel monks who had been driven from Mexico years ago. I passcd back again down the stone stairway, through the open court to the dining-room. The room had been enlarged. Twelve cartloads of human skeletons my friends found in that mysterious wall four yards thick. The mortar had been made out of the dust of dead men's bones. The horrors of the place oppresscd me, and I was glad when the evening meal was over and my friends led the way to the parlor. The theological students had gathered around the organ with violins, cornets, and flutes, and as I entered the room they commenced playing so gayly the air " Bonnie Annie Laurie," that I soon forgot the ghostly terrors of that gloomy building. But how strange it seemed to me-the Inquisition of Mexico transformed into a theological seminary of the Methodist Episcopal Church! The great, gloomy, sunless stone structure, with its grated windows and brick floors and unwritten histories of untold horrors, erected to crush Protestantism, had become the training school for Mexican missionaries.
The Roman Catholic Church in Mexico had become very rich. The cathedrals were ablaze with gold and jewels. A statue of the Assumption was said to cost $1,089,000. It required two men to lift thc candlesticks of solid gold. The statues of the saints were covered with precious stones. The high altar was the richest in the world. The crosses were studded with amethysts and diamonds. The annual revenue of the clergy from gifts, charities, and parochial dues was more than the entire aggregate revenues of the country, derived from all its customi't and internal taxes.
The wealth of the Church was hundreds of millions of dollars, but the nation was impoverished. The war of Independence had devastated the country. The trcasury was empty, the soldiers were unpaid. The widows and orphans of the noble patriots were suffering for bread. At this time of dire necessity the Government asked of the Catholic Church a loan of $14,000,000, but it was refused.
Congress decided to confiscate the Church property in order to save the country from bankruptcy, and convents, nunneries, and monasteries were offered for sale. And then commenced the struggle between the Roman Catholic Church party and the "Liberals," and there followed a series of revolutions that plunged the country deeper and deeper in misery. A few miles from the city of Oaxaca are the ruins of the wonderful palaces of Mitla, the home of the ancient Zapotec kings. The rocky spur of the Sierra lladre has a wildness of beauty here that is unsurpassed. Near Oaxaca, in the year 1806, Benito Juarez was Dorn. The little Zapotec Indian boy was left an orphan when only three years old, and at / the age of twelve he fled from his cruel master and was sheltered by a good Franciscan lay brother, who taught him to read and write. In the year 1834 he was licensed to practise law, and soon became judge of the Supreme Court. He rose rapidly to distinction j was for several years Gov- ernor of his native State, and in the year 1858 he was President of Mexico.
Juarez was the leader of the" Liberal" party. The Liberals fought for free schools, a free press, and universal religious toleration.
The Catholic Church party appealed to the Pope at Rome for help to overthrow the Republic. An army of French troops were sent to aid them, and Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, was crowned Emperor of Mexico. Juarez was driven to the very boundary line of Mexico, and there he appealed to the United States for help. Our President sent a messenger to Napoleon IlL, demanding the recall of his French troops, for no foreign army would be permitted to remain on American shores. The French army left the country, Maximilian was besieged at Queretaro, tried by a court-martial and condemned to be shot.
The Princess Salm-Salm rode one hundred and sixty miles in a carriage, to San Luis Potosi, to see President Juarez to plead for the life of the Emperor. She said: "It was eight o'clock in the evening when I went-to see Juarez, who received me at once. He looked pale and suffering him_ self. With trembling lips I plead for the life of the Emperor. The President said that he could not grant it; the Emperor must die to-mor- row. I fell on my knees sobbiJJg, and plead with words that came from my heart, but which I I)annot remember. The President tried to raise me. With tears in his ey~s, he answered in a low, sad voice: 'I am grieved, madam, to see Y1)U thus on your knees before me, but if all the kings and queens of E'U'ope were in your place I could not spare his life. It is not I who take it. It is the people, and the law, and if I should not do its will, the people would take his life and mine, too.' The wife of General Miramon came into the room, leading by the hand her two little children. It was a most heartrending scene to hear the poor wife and little ones praying for the life of their father. Senora Miramon fainted and was carried out of the room. These trying scenes were too much for Juarez. For three days he kept his room and could see no one."
Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, was the brother of the Emperor of Austria. He was brother-in-law of the King of Belgium, cousin of t.he . Queen of Spain, cousin of the Queen of England and Empress of India. The man who made every throne in Europe tremble when he signed the death-warrant of the Emperor was a Zapotec Indian. This man, kind to a fallen foe, tender to the suffering, was nevertheless formidable. 1Vith black, piercing eyes, a mouth of inflexible decision, the face calm and serene, he had a bearing as royal as those Zapotec kings, among whose deserted palaces he had played in his childhood.
1S93.J 1'RE HEY. A. W. Mt11mAY, OF SAMOA. 18B
Juarez had paid his generals and soldiers in script, to be redeemed by the sale of the confiscated church property, and convents, monasteries, and inquisitions were offered for sale. No Catholic dare buy this sacred property, for the archbishop had forbidden it. With the fall of the Empire the way had been opened for the missionaries. But no Catholic would sell any property to a Protestant, and so it came that many of those costly buildings were purchased at a very low price. The old convents and monasteries purchased by the boards of foreign missions were often of startling proportions, and with an overwhelming air of grandflur about the lofty columns, broad corridors, and spacious courts; and so this is the way it came about that the Inquisition is the property of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Again I visited the theological seminary at Puebla. A large, beautiful garden, in the heart of the city, covering half a block, and which had once belonged to a famous convent, had been purchased for the students. Surrounded by a high wall, nothing of the noise and confusion of the busy city could be heard within those thick, high, gray stone walls. The figtrees were laden with their purple fruit. The vines hung full of luscious grapes. The jessamines and rose- bushes were clinging to the crevices of the walls, just as fragrant and pretty as they were more than a hundred years ago, when gentle nuns trimmed the vines and rested in those rustic seats under those great forest trees. I could see the theological students with their books everywhere in the garden-on the stone seats by the fountain, or under the shady trees, or on the broad corridors or balconies of their new home. The damp, dark cloisters of that sunless, cheerless, gloomy building had been abandoned. The Inquisition was vacant and deserted, but the huge key hung upon the wall, as harmless now as the bloody key of the Bastile, that I saw at Mount Vernon, the present of Lafayette to Washington.
THE REV. A. W. MURRAY, OF SAMOA.
BY THE REV. ROBERT STEEL, D.D., SYDNEY.
One of the few remaining contemporaries of the great apostle of Polynesia, John Williams, passed away from earth at Sydney, New South Wales, on July 8th, 1892. The Rev. A. W. Murray had been identified with the Samoan Mission for more than half a century, and witnessed the commencement and the triumph of Christian missions in several groups of the South Pacific Ocean. His life stretched over the most active half of the century of modern evangelistic enterprise, and gathers around it much of the interest attached to the wonderful success of the cause of Christ in Polynesia. He was born at Jedburgh, in Scotland, in 1811, and was brought up in the Church of Scotland. The wife of the Rev. Robert Lundie, minister of the parish, was the means of his firl"t religious impressions. She took a special interest in Christian work ill the parish, and was afterward well known as the wife of the Rev. Remy Duncan, D.D., minister of the parish of Ruthwell, author of the" Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons," in which his wife bore a part, and the founder of savings. banks. Mrs. Duncan also wrote a book on " America as I Found It," after a visit to that country.
Mr. Murray joined the fellowship of the Church of Scotland at Kelso at the age of seventeen. When he decided for Christ he also devoted himself to His service, and cherished an intense longing to engage in mis- sionary work in the foreign field. For this purpose he offered himself to the directors of the London Missionary Society, and was accepted. He was sent for training first to the Rev. Richard Cecil, M.A., the rector of Tiervey, a well-known evangelical clergyman of the Church of England; and afterward to Homerton College, London. Mr. Murray was thoroughly in earnest, and did his utmost to prepare for his work. He was one of a band specially selected by the directors of the London Missionary Society in response to the appeals of the apostolic John Williams, then on a visit to England, to reinforce the South Sea Mission.' So long as fifty-seven years ago, in 1835, Mr. Murray with his young and devoted wife sailed from London for his far distant sphere. He was one of a band of six missionaries, all except one being accompanied by their wives, who sailed in the Dttnottar Castle, a small craft of one hundred and eighty tons, chartered for the occasion. The route lay by Cape Horn, which was passed in the depth of winter amid intense cold and storms. Provisions were short and poor, accommodation was scanty, and the voyage long and trying; but it came to an end, lind in April, 1836, they anchored at Tahiti, where they witnessed the triumphs of the Gospel. Mr. Murray was appointed to Tutuila, one of the easterly islands of the Samoan group. In June, 1836, they were landed along with Rev. G. Barnden; but before settling a visit was paid to those islands of the group where missionaries had been already settled. In July they were introduced to the chiefs and people of Tutuila, and were left by the brethren to fulfil their mission. The island was about twenty miles in length by five or six in breadth; the surface was high, broken, and of a volcanic appearance. Its harbor of Pangopango was magnificent. The natives were about four thousand, and they were in some degree prepared to welcome the missionaries. 'Vhalers sometimes called at the island, and Captain Morgan, commanding one, was found to be a devoted Christian. He remained three weeks with :Mr. Murray at a time wben sllch a visit was unusually welcome. It was while Captain Morgan was there that he started the idea of a mission sbip, and Mr. Murray suggested that he should offer himself to the directors as captain. He at once did so, and the Samoan missionaries strongly recommended him. On his way horne the vessel which he commanded was wrecked off the Australian coast, but he escaped and reached England just in time to be appointed to the mission vessel, the Camden. For fifteen years he did eminent service to the missionaries, to one of whom he owed his knowledge of the Saviour. In those early days communication with England took long; it was actually three years before Mr. Murray received letters from Britain! Mr. Williams returned with 8 band of new missionaries in 1838, and in 1839 perished at the hands of the heathen on Eromanga while endeavoring to introduce native teachers. It was a great blow to the Samoan Mission ; but in Divine Providence it led to renewed efforts to evangelize the New Hebrides. When the call was made for a brother missionary to take teachers to these islands, the Rev. T. Heath, one of the Samoan brethren, volunteered, on the express condition that if he too perished in the attempt, another brother would take up the fallen colors and follow him! He succeeded, with some difficulty, in locating teachers; but these faithful pioneers had a severe ordeal to pass through among the savage people of Eromanga. It was as much as ever they could do to survive, and that only by the assistance of some of the more friendly natives at the risk of their lives.
Mr. Murray was an earnest evangelist when he mastered the language, and he animated his teachers with a like spirit. His colleague, Mr. Barnden, was drowned while bathing on December 31st, 1838. The whole work of the mission on the island then devolved upon Mr. Murray. There were thirty villages, and the people had become anxious for Christian instruction. As many as three hundred were candidates for baptism. Great times of awakening followed, about the very season of the revival in Scotland, in 1839-40, and many were converted to God. About this period Mr. Murray had the joy of welcoming new missionaries, one of whom was the son of the R~v. R. Lundie, his parish minister at Kelso. Mr. G. A. Lundie, however, died in 1841. During that year Mr. Murray accompanied the mission vessel on a voyage to the New Hebrides and Loyalty Islands to locate teachers in favorable openings. He had the honor of introducing Christian teachers to Futuna and Aneityum ; hut those who had been left on Eromanga on a former voyage, after the death of John Williams, had to be removed, owing to the cruelty of the natives. On arriving at Sydney a new reinforcement of missionaries were found waiting, two of whom, Messrs. Nishet and Turner, with their young wives, were specially designated for Tanna. Their settlement was unpropitious, and as they were in danger from the savage people, they had to escape for their lives.
In another voyage, in 1845, Mr. Murray was on board with Dr. Turner, and introduced native teachers to the island of Efate. On resuming his work at Tutuila, five years after his commencement, he could not fail to mark the contrast in the condition of the people. The churches were crowded with eager worshippers, and the work of conviction and conversion seemed to be even greater than before. There were not wanting trials and disappointments, sometimes from the violent conduct of heathen chiefs and sometimes from the defection of weak converts. In 1847 Rev. John Geddie, his wife, and Mr. and Mrs. Archibald arrived from Nova Scotia, desirous of founding a Presbyterian mission in the South Seas. Mr. Geddie had, like the great pilgrim father, Abraham, gone forth, not knowing whither he went. He and Mrs. Geddie stayed with Mr. and MrE'. Murray till the John Williams could take them to the New Hebrides, where a faint hope had appeared for the settlement of a missionary. Mr. Murray accompanied the party, and in 1848 Aneityum was occupied. One of the Samoan missionaries, Mr. Powell, remained for a year with the Geddies. In 1849 Mr. Murray visited the New Hebrides again, and cheered the party in that outpost of Christian work, and removed Mr. Powell to Samoa. Shortly after his return home, Mr. Murray resumed his work; but his wife's health necessitated a change. Before that occurred, a severe hurricane devastated the island. Cocoanut and breadfrnit trees, banana plantations, native houses, and the church were destroyed. Food became scarce, and death followed famine. Only one provisIOn remained of great value in Samoa in such times-a coarse yam grew spontaneously in the bush, deep in the soil, and escaped the effects of the storm. Bananas were nearly all destroyed. There has, however, been found a merciful provision in the latter case. When John Williams was in England, Mr. (afterward Sir) Joseph Paxton. gardener to the Duke of Devonshire, at Chatsworth, gave him many plants to be tried in the South Sea Islands. Among them was a root of the Chinese banana, which is short in its height and yet singularly fruitful. On reaching Samoa, Mr. Williams thought this root dead and dried, and threw it away. Mr. Mills, one of the missionaries, picked it up and planted it on trial. It grew, and increased so rapidly that it was highly valued. Every teacher took roots of it when he went to pioneer the Gospel into other islands. At the present day the MUGa ChinensiG, or Cavendishii, is found everywhere from Hawaii to New Guinea! Famines of food in many cases of hurricane have been prevented by means of this dwarf banana.
In 1851 Mr. Murray exchanged spheres of labor with the Rev. J. P. Sunderland, and occupied Manono, where he remained for three ye!1.rs. In 1854, when the Rev. W. Mills retired, he was transferred to the important harbor station of Apia, in Dpolu. This beautiful port he calls " the queen of the Pacific." While discharging the duties of this station, he also supplied for a time the place of the Rev. C. Hardie at the institution for training native teachers at Malua. There 'he had for his colleague the Rev. George Turner, LL.D., who rendered very great service to that work for many years, and latterly, along with the Rev. Henry Nisbet, LL.D. Both of these brethren took a leading part in Scripture translation and in the revision of several editioas of the Bible printed in London. Dr. Turner issued the latest one in 1886 after careful revisio~. Some 75,600 copies of the Bible and portions have been circulated. Mr. Murray also rendered some service, though in a less degree, to the work of revising the Samoan translation of the Scriptures. He did eminent service in mission voyaging, and in performing the work of an evangelist. On one of his voyages to the New Hebrides he spent three months with Mr. Geddie, and consulted about the desirableness of getting a mission vessel for that group. Missionaries had by that time been settled on Tanna and Eromanga, and teachers on Aniwa, Futuna, Efate, and other islands to the north. Serious disasters, too, had occurred. The Gordons had been killed in 1861, the missionaries on Tanna threatened and obliged to flee, and native teachers had been in peril. It was felt that more frequent visits of a mission ship were required. This led to Mr. Paton's visit to Australia, and the successful effort to secure the first ])ayspring. Mr. Murray hailed this accession to the missionary fleet, as he had the cause of Christ in the New Hebrides much at heart. He was always forward in the extension of the kingdom of Christ. In 1865 he went with a party of teachers to the Ellice Group ; he repeated the visit and sflttled new pioneers on heathen islands. On some islands candidates for baptism were met, examined, and admitted to the Christian Church. Mission voyaging was a special delight of Mr. Murray, and he had great tact in dealing with the most barbarous islanders while endeavoring to gain their consent to the introduction of native teachers.
Except during visits to Australia, on account of the health of his wife, in 1853 and 1858, Mr. Murray labored at Samoa. A marvellous change had passed over these islands, fourteen in number. Mr. Williams, in a vessel of a most romantic history, as it was entirely of his own construction, sailed for that group in 1830 with a band of native teachers, who were allowed to remain. Two years afterward he visited the scene of their labors, and was overjoyed to find at one place a congregation of fifty Christians, distinguished from the heathen by a band of white cloth on their arms, and who had been enlightened by one whose only Christian instruction had been obtained from a native teacher on another island. There was a great desire for missionaries. When these came, they found a people prepared for the Lord. In ten years the faith of Jesus Christ prevailed. In Samoa, out of 34,265 of the native population, 26,493 are under the instruction of the London Missionary Society'S agents. There are some under the care of Wesleyan missionaries, and others under Roman Catholic priests. A seminary of 72 young men preparing for the ministry had been establiJhed. As much as £1200 had been contributed in a single year to the funds of the society by the Christian converts. Commerce had also come to the group, and the people had ad· vanced in the useful arts.
Mr. Murray adopted Baptist .views during one of his visits to Sydney, and he took charge of a small congregation in one of the suburbs for two years; but his heart was in the mission, and in 1863 he returned to Apia, where he continued for seven years.
His wife's health requiring a change, he proceeded to Lifu, one of the Loyalty Islands, where a large company of the natives had already been gathered into the Church. Mr. Murray had not been long in Lifu when the New Guinea Mission was proposed. A company of native teachers volunteered to act as pioneers in the new field, and Messrs. Macfarlane and Murray started on the important enterprise of settling them in 1871. It was a hazardou!I work, but it was successful. Mr. Murray took a second voyage to New Guinea with his wife in 1872 with eight native teachers from th… Loyalty Islands. Mr. (now Dr.) Wyatt Gill brought six more from the Hervey Islands. These were placed on islands in the Torres Straits and on New Guinea. Mr. Murray spent two years at Cape York watching the difficult mISSIOn. It was an anxious time, for some teachers had sickened, some had died, and some were murdered. The work, however, went on. The ranks were reinforced, and European missionaries were settled. Now a Christian Church is on New Guinea, and the New Testament is printed in the Motu language under the care of that noble missionary, Rev. W.o.. Lawes, who has just brought it from London.
Mr. Murray returned to Sydney in 1875, having spent forty years in active mission work. He then retired from direct service in connection with the society, but not from service to the cause. He visited England in 1875. In 1863 he had published a large and valuable book on " Missions in Western Polynesia." In 1876 he issued a narrative of his" Forty Years' Mission Work in Polynesia." He next prepared" The Martyrs of Polynesia," a striking record of those " who loved not their lives unto the death" for the sake of Christ. Then followed "Eminent Workers for Christ," a series of biographies. And he crowned his labors by publishing in 1888 "The Bible in the Pacific," a most interesting record of all the translations of the Holy Scriptures into Polynesian languages. His pen was never idle. lIe wrote in periodicals throughout all his time of retirement, and he left several MSS. ready for the press. He fr,equently preached during the same period, and always seemed happy in declaring the Gospel of Christ. He was a devout man, of great fervor of spirit, of burning zeal, and of marked catholicity. All who knew him loved him, for he loved all who loved the Lord Jesus Christ. He died in his eightyfirst year, and his funeral was attended by representatives of all the missionary societies, and by a large company of Christian friends who had loved the man and honored the missionary. That might be said of him which Wesley said of Fletcher: "I was intimately acquainted with him for above thirty years, . . . and in all that time I never heard him speak an improper word or saw him do an improper action. To conclude, many exemplary men have I known, holy in heart and life, within fourscore years, but one equal to him I have not known, one so inwardly and out· wardly devoted to God."
Mrs. Murray was long an invalid, but grew in the divine life. She passed away to her Saviour in 1882. Three years ~fterwarJ Mr. Murray was married again to a widow lady resident near Sydney. In her fello"- ship and ministering attention he lived seven years. He left only one son -an invalid -and five grandchildren.
DAVID BRAINERD
The Samoan Islands, where Mr. Murray labored so long, are all evangelized. Nearly all the young people can read and write. The nentrality of the group has been recognized by a conference of the powers of Great "Britain, Germany, and the United States. The rights of the citizens of these States with respect to trade, residence, and protection are equal. A native king has been elected, and a supreme court has been established, presided over by a judge from Germany. The climate is delightful, and is becoming a resort of such as desire a pleasant residence with an equable temperature. May nothing disturb the blessed work of missions there !
DAVID BRAINERD: HIS CHARACTER, WORK, AND RELATION TO THE MODERN MISSIONARY MOVEMEN'l'.
BY REV. W. D. SEXTON, DETROIT, MICH.
David Brainerd was one of a small but brilliant galaxy of names that appeared in the first half of the eighteenth century. Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley were both born in the same year-1703 j George Whitefield in 1714 and David Brainerd in 1718. These are names that still shine with unfading lustre. Individually and collectively they made profound impressions upon their own time, and bequeathed to subsequent generations a rich legacy of Gospel doctrine and Christian life. Both in England and America they arrested the ebbing tide of spiritual life, and set new bounds to the manifestation of God's power in reclaiming and sanctifying sinful men. It is no exaggeration to assert that they revolutionized the Christian thought and practice of their age.
In this group the names of the two Americans, Jonathan Edwards and David Brainerd, are indissolubly linked together. Jonathan Edwards was the representative character of ~ew England theology j David Brainerd was the representative character of New England piety. The former has been justly called" the apostle of Christian doctrine j" the latter, "the apostle of the Christian life." Each of these men exerted a marked influence upon the other. Neither would have been what he was without the other. Taken together, they mark an era in the development of Christian doctrine and the spirit of evangelism.
David Brainerd was born at Haddam, Conn., April 20th, 1718. He was born on a Sabbath day, a fit prophecy of his holy life. According to his own testimony, he was born again on a Sabbath day, July 12th, 1739. He began his missionary career among the Indians in April, 1743, and died at the home of Jonathan Edwards in Northampton, Mass., October 9th, 1747. For so short a life, it was marvellous in its influence upon subsequent generations.
As a boy he was not remarkable for precociousness, except along the line of unusual thoughtfulness upon teligious themes. From a boy he WI8 somewhat sober /lIld J1lUClI inclined to melanchol!, a characteristiq which increased as he grew older and at times became a source of great distress. At the age of seven or eight he became greatly concerned about his soul's salvation, and was specially terrified at the thought of death. His anxiety drove him to the performance of religious duties, but he found no satisfaction in them. He found it a melancholy business, which de. stroyed his eagerness for play. This concern, however, was of short duration, and left him at ease in Zion and without hope in the world. He continued in this state of little concern about his personal salvation till he was about thirteen years of age. At this time a mortal sickness prevailed at Haddam which greatly excited and alarmed him. This turned his attention anew to religious things, and from this time onward he was much engaged in religious duties j but he found little satisfaction, because they were performed, as he himself afterward discovered, from an entirely wrong motive. Just at this time in his life he was greatly distressed and saddened by the death of his mother. His father had previously died, and he was thus left an orphan at the age of fourteen. Naturally inclined to melancholy and to morbid self.introspection, these events deepened and intensified the sombreness of his life.
At the age of twenty he began to apply himself to study, with the design of fitting himself for college. According to the custom of the time, he put himself under the instruction of his pastor, at whose home"in Had· dam he then lived. He withdrew himself entirely from the society of young people, and gave himself exclusively to his studies and religious exer· cises. He read the Bible through .twice in less than a year, and applied himself assiduously to secret devotions. These were years of intense longing after spiritual comfort and rest, of constant struggling with the hardness of his own heart. During this period we find increasing mani. festation of a marked feature of his character. This was his habit of introspection. By it he made the most careful analysis of his own motives, and cultivated the keen discrimination which discerned the difference between true and false religion. So thoroughly and continuously did he analyze his own thought and affection, that he looked upon himself as the very worst of sinners. Sometimes he wondered that God would permit such a wicked person as he to live. The thought of our time is so occupied with the material and the external, so unused to such introspection and self·analysis, that we can scarcely understand the pain of such spiritual vivisection as Brainerd practised upon himself. It is certain that what the theologians call the" law work" was thoroughly and painfully accomplished in him. It is certain also that this process laid the foundations broad and deep for the remarkable piety of his after life. Unquestionably much of the shallowness of spiritual life in our generation arises from a shallow conviction of sin, which precedes the work of Divine grace in the soul. Many are now brought into the kingdom of God by a hot-house process which results in many blossoms of promise, but in little fruit "brought to 'perfectio~," For IUontqs Brahwrd ~oped in darkness, grievously burdened with a sense of sin. 'While not asserting the necessity of such prolonged agony in entering the kingdom, we may assert with confidence that "in a deep sense of sin, more perhaps than in anything else, abides a saving knowledge of God." Gradually Brainerd was led to see that all his religious duties were performed from a motive of selfish. ness, to secure his own happiness, and not from any respect to the glory of God. The realization of his condition greatly saddened and distressed him.
On Sabbath morning, July 12th, 1739, as he was taking his customary walk in a solitary place, a new experience dawned upon his soul. He describes himself as in a mournful and melancholy state. He tried to pray, but found no heart to engage in that or any other duty. He felt that the Spirit of God had quite left him. After trying to pray for nearly half an hour, and while walking in a dark, thick grove, a vision of unspeakable glory opened to the view and apprehension of his soul. This vision was a disclosure of the character and attributes of God such as he had never known. His description of it reminds us of a SImilar disclosure of God to Isaiah when he was called to the prophet~c office. His melancholy was dispelled, and he was so enraptured that he says he was " delighted and captivated with the excellency, loveliness, greatness, and other perfections of God." This event marked the beginning of an era in his life. The peace which he then received was not of sustained duration. Gathering clouds soon dimmed its radiance. Still this was a real disclosure of God to Brainerd, and he never forgot the radiance and joy of that day.
In September following this event he entered Yale College. He began his college course with great reluctance, lest he might not be able to lead a life of strict religion. It was while at New Haven that he came in contact with a movement which very largely gave direction to his whole after career. His relation to this movement gave rise to the saddest episode of his life, and at the same time intensified his zeal for the salvation of souls. This movement was rightly called" The Great Awakening." It is difficult for us now to appreciate fully the exigency which gave rise to the movement. Practical religion had fallen into decay. Faith had decayed into formalism. Christianity had become with many a dogma. At least it was no longer a manifest life in many of its professed adherents. Orthodoxy consisted in church-membership and the knowledge of theological shibboleths. The complicated relations of Church and State were then still unsettled. These relations made church-membership a political necessity. The result was a church, many of whose members were utter strangers to the experimental knowledge of religion. It was openly maintained that piety was not a necessary condition of church-membership. It was even claimed and publicly maintained that conversion was not a necessary qualification for the work of the Gospel ministry. With such notiolll> eutertained and defeudeo, it was certainly time for an awakening. The one idea which was emphasized in this movement above all others was the necessity of the new birth. We are gravely assured that this idea had been generally neglected, and in some Christian communities was utterly unknown. It was like the driven ploughshare in new soil. It caused intense religious agitation. It gave a mighty impetus to the cause of practical righteousness. The movement began in Northampton, Mass., under the searching and powerful preaching of Jonathan Edwards. The news of the remarkable revival at Northampton spread and produced a profound impression. The result was that when Whitefield visited New England in 1740, he found the soil everywhere prepared. Great revivals attended and followed his work. It is not surpri!ling, when we consider the situation, that the movement developed imprudences and extravagances. We could scarcely expect that the wheat would be wholly devoid of chaff. Amid much that was excellent there was also much that was unadvi!led in action and utterance.
The movement reached New Haven when Brainerd was in his Sophomore year. His soul was stirred. His was just the nature to be intensely moved by this religious quickening. He entered into the movement with zeal and enthusiasm. He himself afterward declared that he was guilty of imprudences and indecent heats. In his Junior year an imprudent remark, in regard to the piety of one of the authorities in the college, led to a difference between himself and the Faculty which resulted in his leaving college. His sensitive nature was deeply wounded by what he considered the unfair treatment which he received in connection with this event. The scar remained through life. During the year and a half that followed he made several attempts at reconciliation. At the time when his class graduated he presented to the Faculty a written apology, which is a model of Christian forgiveness, courtesy, and fairness. It was a sad day for him when he saw his classmates recei~-e their degrees, while he was destined to carry through life the brand of an outlaw. He harbored no resentment, but this event deepened and intensified the melancholy which was a part of his natural temperament.
The interval of a little more than a year between his departure from college and the beginning of his missionary career was spent in preparation for the Gospel ministry. Two things are pre-eminent in his experience during this year : the first, a morbid desire to die, and the other a passionate longing for the conversion of the heathen. The sense of his own sin and unworthiness, always so vivid, and increased now by the refusal of the college authorities to be reconciled, threw him into great dejection of spirits. He frequently breathed out his intense desire to be freed from the burdens of life. In his longings for the conversion of the heathen are manifest the risings of those characteristics which were destined to stamp his influence forever upon the world's history. At this time he declared that it was no matter to him when nor where nor how Christ should send hilll. '.I'he desire that God would enlarge HIS kingdom was the constant theme of his prayers. He longed to be sent among the heathen, but the way seemed closed, so that in August of 1742 he said he had almost lost his hopes of God's sending him afar among the heathen.
But while God was preparing the workman for the work, He was also preparing the path to the work. While Brainerd was pouring out his ardent prayers for the heathen and longing to be sent among them, God was stirring the hearts of Christian men in Scotland and America to begin a mission among the Indians. In this very year-1742-the Scotch Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge appointed three minis- ters of the Presbytery of New York as their commissioners, and authorized them to send· two missionaries to the Indians. These commissioners selected a Mr. Horton as their first missionary, whom they sent to Long Island. The second whom they selected was David Brainerd. Their proposal to him met a most hearty response. He had been longing for just such an opportunity to glorify God.
His first appointment was at Kaunameek, about half way between Stockbridge, Mass., and Albany, N. Y. Here, in what was then a lonely and melancholy wilderness, he began that career of missionary work which for complete self-abnegation and loyal service has never been surpassed and seldom equalled since apostolic times. The privations of the most distant and solitary foreign missionary at present are not greater than the privations which he endured. For many months his bed consisted of a heap of straw in a floorless log house. His food was hasty pudding, boiled corn, bread baked in the ashes, and sometimes a little meat and butter. Of him it might be said truly that it was his meat to do the will of God. His complete abandon to this work is evidenced by the fact that he sold the little patrimony which he possessed, and planned to use the proceeds in the Lord's work. He burned the bridges behind him.
It was the original intention of the commissioners to open a mission at the Forks of the Delaware, but for prudential reasons the execution of the plan had been dealyed. At the end of Brainerd's first year at Kaunameek the way appeared open to carry out the original design. Just at this time he had several flattering calls to accept the pastorate, but having put his hands to the plough, Brainerd was not the man to look back. He declined these calls, and started for what was then the distant post at the Forks of the Delaware. He now manifested a growing desire to do some special work for God. He himself says about this time, "Last year I longed to be prepared for a world of glory, but of late all my concern is for the conversion of the heathen, and for that end I long to live." It was this passionate longing for the salvation of souls which, growing stronger and stronger, urged him onward in his career of heroic toil. In addition to his work at the mission station, he undertook long journeys westward to the Susquehanna, to carry the Gospel to the Indian settlements upon the banks of that river. These journeys were always accompanied with much privation and sometimes with positive suffering. Through the unbroken wilderness he pushed his way, sometimes overtaken with storms, sometimes prostrated with a burning fever which detained him in the lone and terrible wilderness, and yet through all his sufferings he utte!"ed not a word of complaint, except that he was not living as near to God as hE' ardently desired. When he reached the distant settlements no comfortable lodging place awaited him. The" prophet's chamber" awaiting him was a wretched corn-crib, into which he crawled and passed the night. His thought was never of his own comfort. He saved not himself. His anxiety was that God might be glorified in himself and in the extension of Christ's kingdom. In the midst of his inl'essant labors and fatiguing journeys he was constantly suffering from poor health. Sometimes for several weeks he would be unable to attend to his accustomed duties. At such times he was greatly distressed, not on account of his personal suffering, but because he could do so little for the Master. He longed to do much in a little time, and any cessation of work made him feel that he was living for nothing; but in the midst of all his suffering he was constantly breathing out his longing for more conformity to the image of Christ. He was constantly hungering and thirsting after righteousness.
He spent a little over a year at the Forks of the Delaware together with these journeys to the Susquehanna. At the end of the year he was more dejected and discouraged than usual. Thus far, after two years of prayer and toil, he had not a single convert to encourage him. He had been zealous in work, he had agonized in prayer, but the fruit had not yet appeared. All this time he had preached and taught through an interpreter, and even the interpreter was still a stranger to the saving grace of God. This was an occasion of great anxiety and sorrow to the lonely mISSIOnary. The truth which he spoke with so much earnestness necessarily lost much of its force through the coldness of the interpreter. Is it any wonder that this man, who was by natural temperament inclined to melancholy, should become discouraged ~ He was so disappointed and saddened that he contemplated giving up the work at the end of the year j but the dawn of a brighter day was nearer than he thought. In ways that he least expected God granted to him the desire of his heart.
About eighty miles southeast of the Forks of the Delaware was a small settlement of Indians at a place called Crossweeksung. Brainerd determined to visit this place and present the story of the Gospel. He found them peculiarly susceptible to the truth. They were immediately interested and impressed. The news of Brainerd's presence and preaching spread abroad, and the natives began to flock in from every direction. It was here in the following eighteen months that his ardent desires were at last gratified. With increasing joy, we may say it reverently of him, he saw of the,travail of his soul and was satisfied. The revival which now accompanied his labors was one of the most remarkable in the history of Christian enterprise.
Suddenly there fell upon the whole Indian population what Brainerd called "a most surprising coneern." From all parts of the eountry the people came streaming in, eager to hear the Gospel. They listened in speechless interest to his preaching, and many fell down in frantic distress of soul. The air would sometimes be full of their cries for mercy Multitudes were overwhelmed in distress of soul. This condition was not brought about by the presentation of the terrors of the law. Brainerd did not preach to the Indians such sermons as Jonathan Edwards's famous sermon, " Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." His presentation of truth was rather along the line of what we call the doctrines of Divine grace. He says that under this preaching sometimes the power of God seemed to descend upon the assembly like the rushing of a mighty wind, and with astonishing energy bore down everything before it. He compares it to "the irresistible force of a mighty torrent or swelling deluge, that with its unsupportable weight and pressure bears down and sweeps b~fore it whatever is in its way." This was not a mourning which ended in tears. Many of the wretched savages were rescued from superstition and gross wickedness, and gave ample evidence that they had passed from darkness into the marvellous light of God:s children.
It was painfully evident, however, that Brainerd's work could not be long continued. His physical strength could not endure the strain. During this single summer he travelled more than three thousand miles, often for several weeks preaching nearly every day and faithfully training the converts by means of catechetical classes. He organized the converts into a church, the first church ever organized on this continent solely of Indian Christians. The following summer, as he continued his work, failing health was constantly pressing upon him. Consumption, that grim monster of disease, had fastened its relentless hold upon him. His heroic efforts to continue his work are exceedingly pathetic. He did not give up until absolutely forced by constantly increasing weakness. In the spring of 1747 he reluctantly bade his congregation farewell and turned his face to New England, still hoping even against hope that he might rally and return to his beloved people. He went to the home of Jonathan Edwards, to whose daughter he was engaged in marriage, with the, ardent hope that rest might restore him to health. He there consulted the family physician, who told him frankly that his life was nearing its end. He was not at all disturbed by this announceme!lt. He had too often longed for death to be terrified when told that it was approaching. He rallied sufficiently to make a visit to Boston, where he interested some prominent Christians in the conversion of the Indians. To the very last he was consecrated to his chosen work. The result of this visit to Boston was the raising of money and the sending of two missionaries to the Six Nations. While there he was brought very low, but again lie rallied and was permitted to return to Northampton, Mass., where he died at the home of Jonathan Edwards, surrounded by the tender ministry of friends, October 9th, 1747. .
He had not yet reached the thirtieth mile-stone in life's journey-a
EA!lT AFRICAN MIB~IONI!!
short life, yet imperishable in its influence upon the progress of the Redeemer's kingdom. It was a life of deep humility, intense longing after God, and magnificent heroism. When duty called, he went forward unflinchingly. The lesson which he himself drew from the long and weary path, before he reached the consummation of his desires in the converSion of souls, was" that it is good to follow the path of duty, even in the midst of darkness and discouragement." To the account of his self.devotion, as published in his journal, the modern Church owes more than we can estimate for the spirit of evangelism which has given force to the mis· sionary movement of the present century. The story of Brainerd had something to do in stirring the mind and heart of William Carey, the " father of modern missions." Samuel Mills learned the same story from the lips of his godly mother. Henry Martyn was inspired to similar deeds of heroism in foreign lands. So the circle widens. Who can measure the power of one short life consecrated to the Master's service? If Brainerd's spirit of abandon to the cause and kingdom of Jesus Christ were to possess the whole Church of Christ, the fulfilment of precious promises would be at hand. The story of his life will never lose its power. So long as the Church of Christ eudures it will be told as an evidence of the possibilities of grace in the individual, and the supernatural power of an ever·present Christ to work miracles of grace in the conversion of souls.
EAST AFRICAN MISSIONS.
TRANSLATED BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK.
On our way from Uganda to the East Coast we pass the stations of the C. M. S. in Djaggaland (Moshi on the side of Kilimanjaro, Taveta or Taita, and SangalIa), where at last the first baptisms have taken place. The translation of the Gospel of Matthew is just going through the press.
The well-known Free Church missionary, Dr. Stewart, appears to have undertaken something of great importance for East Africa in the establishment of the missionary settlement in the domain of the chief Kilundu on the Kibwezi River. This is now in prosperous progress northward of Kilimanjaro. This industrial settlement is patterned after Lovedale, in South Africa, and is called New Lovedale. The British East African Company has contributed $48,000 toward it. It was established by a great caravan consisting of two hundred and twenty persons. This en· countered serious difficulties, especially on the two days' march through the waterless Taro waste, but happily reached its goal. Work at once began-tree-felling, house-building, road-making, planting, etc.-and in a few months there stood a little village in the African wilderness, with a pretty church, in which Sunday services are held in Swahili. They have also brought along a little herd of cattle, includillg sixty oxen. They hope by using these to relieve the poor Wakamoa womcn! on whose shoulders alone the field work has hithertq rested. They are contemplating also a second settlement at Machako, some fifteen miles northwestward.
It may not be uninteresting to say a word respecting the founder of this mission, whose future, under God, is so promising. He is now a man of sixty-one years. Born February 14th, 1831, as the son of a Scot· tish farmer, Dr. Stewart studied theology, and after having served for a short time as assistant pastor, and having found that the Free Qhurch yet hesitated to establish a mission in Central Africa, he went independently into Zambesiland. Here he accompanied Mrs. Livingstone to her hus. band, who was then on the'Shire, and was present at her death. On his way home he, at Dr. Duff's suggestion, visited Natal and Transkei, and then made a report to the home church of the prospects of missions in the regions traversed by him. During his stay in Scotland he studied medicine, and then, as a Central African mission seemed yet remote, went, in 1864, to Lovedale, which attained to its present importance under his guidance. The daughter institute of Lovedale-Blythswood, in Fingulandwas also established by him. When in 1874 Livingstone's remains were deposited in Westminster ~~bbey, Dr. Stewart was present, and it was principally his zeal to which it was owing that the two Scottish churches (the Free Church and the Establishment) were induced to take in hand their Nyasa Mission. After having first completed extensive buildings at Lovedale, Dr. Stewart, in 1876, assumed charge of the Livingstonia Mission, which under him has attained to so grand an extension. Accordingly, when the British East African Company meditated establishing a settlement like Lovedale inward from Mombasa, all eyes were turned upon this well-proved man, and after a brief stay in Scotland the youthful veteran, with the consent of his Church, undertook the execution of this difficult enterprise last summer. Just at present, after having brought things well in train, he is again at home.
A little north of Mombasa, in the Wituland, the Neukirchen Mission has its two stations-Lamu, on the island of that name, and Ngao, on the Tana River. The present force is five missionaries. Everything here is in the shell j there is barely a beginning made with a small number of scholars. Lamu, being Mohammedan, is a difficult soil. Whether Golbanti, the neighboring station to Ngao, also on the Tana, has been reestablished by the united English Free Methodists, is not clear.
The Bavarian Lutheran' Mission, whose 'field is very near Kisulutini, has now three stations-;-Djimba, Mbungu, and Ikutha. These are now pretty well established, and a small number of believers begins to be gathered. They have a good deal of trouble about starting schools.
The accounts of the English Mombasa Mission are yet defective, although a new station-Djilore-is mentioned as being opened among the Wakamba. On the other hand, the station at the ternlinus of the projected railroad has been given up. Indeed, we are not sure as to the CODtinuance of the railway itself. We come now to the German" sphere of influence," and here strike first, in Tanga, upon the first station of the German East African Society (Berlin IlL). Northwest of that is the second station-Hohenfriedbergfounded about a year ago. The third station (the first established) is at Dar·es-Salam. There is the hospital over which there has been so much discussion. From this point they are planning for a fourth station among the Wasaramo. As yet there is no intelligence of any results whatever, even at the two earlier stations. Hohenfriedberg appears the most hopeful, where some active young clergymen of regular training are at work. (In Germany university men are an exception among missionaries.) Some rather fantastic crusading plans of these young brethren are doubtless youthful fantasies, soon to pass away. We cannot believe that the committee will encourage any such.
At Panga, a little southwest of Tanga, we come upon the first of the four main districts of the Universities'Mission-namely, Usambara, with its 12 stations, Kologwe being only a year old. The number of scholars at this has risen from 330 in 1890-91 to 722, and a large number of natives are active as teachers. The last opened school, at Mlembuli, was built. entirely by the natives. Special attention is given to schools throughout the district. The second main field of the U. M. is the island of Zanzibar, with three stations, two being devoted entirely to education. They are now about erecting a mission hospital. The Swahili literature has been enriched by several new works. The mission has suffered a heavy loss in the death of Susi, the well-known servant of Livingstone, who for years had been the right hand of Bishop Steere and Bishop Smythies. The third district of the U. M. lies a good way to the south, on the river Rovuma, and now embraces five stations, at which a large number of baptisms have taken place, and the number of scholars has also increased. Fourthly and finally, the Nyasa district, with nine stations, all which, except two island stations, lie close together on the east central shore of the lake, in the Portuguese " sphere of influence." Here also gladdening progress is reported. For instance, at the central station alone, on Likoma Island, the number of the baptized has risen from 66 to 110; of the school children along the shore, from 259 to 421. A new station is planned at Isombe, in the centre of Yaoland ; to the literary treasures have been added a little catechism, a translation of Mark and of an Old Testament book.
Eastward of Bagamoyo, about a third of the way, as well to Victoria Nyanza as to Tanganyika, are found in Ugago the three stations of the Church Missionary Society, lfwapwa, Mamboia, and Kisokwe. A small number of believers has been gathered here, the Sunday services are attended by several hundred persons, and on their preaching tours the missionaries find a friendlier reception than at first.
Within the German "sphere of influence" the London Missionary Society has a station at Urambo, some thirty five miles east of Tanganyika, where a missionary physician renders services widell" sought after. The two oth~r stations of this society are at the south end of Ta~ganyika :"-'F~ambo, and the new station, Niumkurlo, right on the shor~ of the lake. There at last regular missionary work is in course, and first C0nve.rts have been baptized. We say at last, for no other Central Afr;can mission has experimented around so much and, in proportion to the sacrifice .of men and money within fifteen years, accomplished so ~ittle as this. The Report for 1891 gives a review from 1880-90 which is not very heartening. We cannot resist the impression that there has been here a lack of steady and well-advised guidance.
We come now to the Nyasa missions. Northward an'-~ ~northwestward from the lake, in the German "sphere of influence," .le first the two stations fonnded last year-vVangemannsheight, of the ',';erlin Society, and Makapalile, of the Moravians. The Berlin Society is ll:inded to push on its work vigorously, and has just appointed two additionallllen f0r this field.
The Free Church also, having given up Kararamuka, founded a new station at the north end of the lake, beyond the river Songwe, in the German " sphere of influence." It is called Uwnmdale, and was established by Dr. Kerr· Cross. It is a short two days' journey from the Moravian station Makapalile. Dr. Kerr-Cross and his companions are enchanted by the beautiful and fruitful mountain-land, whose height they estimate at from five to seven thousand feet. The Scotch brethren have been received with extreme kindness by the natives, with whom the doctor can converse in Wakonde. The women and children, it is true, are very shy. Unhappily, the missionhouse was burned as soon as built. The latest news is that the Arab slavetraders to the north of the Nyasa are already plying their accursed trade after the old fashion, and there is only too much reason to fear their hostile designs against the new stations.
The Free Church missions all lie on the west shore of the lake, and those of the Universities' Mission on the east. The two missions, so different in their ecclesiastical tone, maintain cordial terms of neighborhood and friendship. The Free Church headquarters are at Bandawe, a fresh and vigorous station, influential far and wide around. Here prevails an active missionary life. E.-ery Sunday, besides the Sunday-school, there are two numerously attended services in the vernacular, and on several days of the week Bible and catechism classes. The missionaries have been very reserved in granting baptism, but have now the joy of administering this holy sacrament to growing numbers, and have also been permitted to admit no small company to the communion. Thus there is growing up a well-established Christian Church, which itself exercises a watchful discipline, and co-operates in spreading abroad the Gospel. Every Sunday native believers, especially trained to this work by the station missionary, go out into the surrounding twenty-five or thirty villages to the distance of fifteen miles, to carry thither the knowledge of the Gospel, and over one hundred natives help in the numerous schools which have been established, and in which more than four thousand children receive Christian instruction. Four native tongues have been thoroughly studied and applied; in Nyanja the whole New Testament is already printed, as well as a number of school books; in the other three there are at least individual gospels, primers, etc. Moreover, there is an active industrial life also at the station-a printing-house, book-bindery and joinery, gardening and tillage, laying out of roads, etc. An especial blessing is the medical mission, with its healing mercies among the people. This has been pec~liarly beneficial in the many intestine wars of the natives themselves, as well as between the Arab slave-hunters and the natives. Happily these are becoming less frequent.
Westward from Bandawe lies Ngoniland, with its savage population. This is occupied by several stations. Here also, notwithstanding the continuous disturbances from war, the Gospel is gaining increasing influence. Services and schools are more largely attended, and candidates are coming forward for baptism. In the south of Ngoniland the wildness of heathenism is the mORt intractable. Wars have within a year raged here which have not only greatly hindered the work of the mission, but have put the lives of the missionaries in danger. The Livelize Valley, at the south end of the lake, was full of wasted fields and villages burned and despoiled. The mighty chief Mponda, whose territory lies along the southern outlet of the lake, availed himself of the war between two Angoni tribes to fall upon both and secure slaves in multitudes, whom he then sofd to the Arabs, which in turn roused the British consul, Johnston, to undertake an expedition against him and the Arabs, in which he himself suffered considerable losses, and appears to have made unhappy mistakes. The missions have.been by no means at one with the course of his policy. Happily the consequences appear to have been by no means so disastrous as the anti-English press of Germany was glad to forebode. At all events, the stave-hunting land wasters have been inspired with a measure of salutary terror. The missionaries, moreover, were forced to witness repeatedly proofs of the yet unbroken might of sorcery. In a single village which they passed they found thirty men lying corpses from the poison ordeal. In southern Ngoniland the Reformed Dutch Church of South Africa also has a station, Mwera. It is in its infancy, but has already candidates under training for baptism. The present chief is not so hostile to the mission as his bloodthirsty father was, but sadly given to drunkenness. Some new missionaries have just been sent out from the Cape to form a second station.
On the way from the Nyasa to the coast we finally reach, in the Shire highland, the extraordinarily flourishing station of the Scottish Establishment, Blantyre. Not only in Blantyre is there a growing church, but such are forming also in Domasi, Chirazulu, and Milanje, while friendly relations are developing with almost all the tribes around the Shire. Three hundred children go to school in Blantyre, the girls' boarding-school
Ml!:XICO'S TWOFOLD CURSE
alone having more than fifty pupils. Thirteen youths are in training as teachers, twelve as printers, nine as carpenters, two as gardeners, eight as masons; the communicant class is so full that a single missionary can scarcely superintend it ; .the great church-a Central African cathedralis filled on Sundays, and the attendants come also from outside, often from afar. For greater freedom of movement the mission will soon have a steamer of its own.
The Catholic missions also are developing a vigorous activity in East Africa. Outside of Uganda they are confined to the German " sphere of influence." The order which has been longest at work (since 1861) is the French Congregation of the Holy Ghost and the Sacred Heart of Mary. The vicariate apostolic assigned to it, North Zanzibar, comprises seven stations, the well-known Bagamoyo being the chief. In 1879 the Lavigerian missionaries of Africa (known as the White Fathers) appeared on the scene, first in Uganda, where their intrusion upon the Protestant mission established almost two years before has wrought such dire confusion. Besides the vicariate apostolic of the Victoria Nyanza, the vicariate apostolic of Tanganyika and the provicariate apostolic of U nyamyenve have been also assigned to them. A part of the former extends (with three stations) from the west shore of the lake into the Congo State, and belongs to the provicariate apostolic of the Upper Congo; the latter lies wholly within the German" sphere of influence," its central station being Tabora. The number of the" White Fathers" at work in these districts is very considerable; on the Tanganyika there stood at their side an armed force commanded and organized by two Belgian captains, primarily, it is true, to suppress the slave trade, but secondarily also to give more emphasis to the missionary activity of the Peres. For these gentlemen are "at once missionaries and soldiers." They gather the natives into villages, which stand under their protection, etc. There exists also a prefecture apostolic of South Zanzibar, which is committed to the St. Benedict M. S. of St. Ottilia in Upper Bavaria. At present Dar-es-Salam is its headquarters. It is intended soon to restore the station Pugu, destroyed in the revolt.-.Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrijt, July, 1892.
MEXICQ'S TWOFOLD CURSE.
BY REV. J. MILTON GItEENE, D.D.
Romanism and infidelity, these are the great obstacles which impede the true elevation and progress of our sister republic. The latter is the natural result and fruit of the former. I am aware that in saying this I am antagonizing not a few among us who cherish the belief that Romanism is a better form of religion for the Mexicans than evangelical Christianity would be. The trouble with all such is that they do not know what Romanism, pure and simple, is. They have in mind the Romish Church modified by its Protestant enviL'onment, such as we see it in our own land, obliged by an enlightened public sentiment and conscience to be externally and to do many things which are in contradiction to its traditional and essential principles and policy. I saw the other day, in Omaha, a specimen of the maguey plant, perhaps three feet high by two feet in diameter. It was an exotic. If I had taken it as a fair sample of the product I should have greatly erred. It had been dwarfed and hindered in its development by its unnatural and unfavorable lmrroundings. I could not but contrast it with the magnificant plants) had seen in Mexico, where soil and climate favor their growth, and where they attain to the height of ten to twelve feet and a similar width. So it is, if I mistake not, with Romanism. What we see in our own favored land is really a modi- fied form of the system. It is not the natural and symmetrical de'velopment of its declared principles. It is not the normal outgrowth of its peculiar genius and spirit. Take the authorized utterances of Romanism and compare them with the Church as we see it, and they do not correspond at all. For example, Rome teaches that the many should be kept in ignorance and that only the few should be educated. But among us it is rare to find a Romish child who is not being taught either in the public or the parochial schools. And Father McGlynn gives us the explanation of this when he says that" if there were no public schools there would be no parochial schools. " In Mexico, where the Romish Church has had uulimited sway for more than three centuries over a people naturally gifted and susceptible of high civilization, she has educated only a very few of her children, so that el'en to this day not more than one in ten of her men and not one in twenty of her women can read, while she has suffered slavery for debt to exist under protection of law over a large part of the country. The canon law of the Romish Church distinctly declares that the Pontiff" as God is far above the reach of all human law and judgment, and that all laws contrary to the canons and decrees of the Roman prelates are of no force." In our own land, Romish citizens, as a rule, are obedient and loyal so far as outwardly appears, and honor the claims of the civil law; but in Mexico the people, following the precepts and example of the priesthood, fought for thirty years the nascent republic, and to-day are found in uncompromising rebellion against the laws of the land relative to public instruction, monastic orders, public religious processions, and the wearing on the streets of priestly vestments. Wherever these and such like laws are respected it is done under protest and only through fear. Away from the great centres there is a systematic and consistent violation of them. One of the provisions of Rome's canon law is that" heretics are to be deprived of aJl civil and paternal rights," and it is added, ' , We do not esteem those homicides to whom it may have happened, in their zeal for their mother Church against the excommunicated, to kill some of them." Now, in the United States converts from Romanism enjoy equal liberty and protection with others. Here there is liberty of speech and thought and conscience, and we do not think of the system as being at all distinct in this particular from any other church. She respects and tolerates even her apostates. But how changed is all this as soon a1l we cross the Rio Grande and pass into Mexico! There the system, unless directly checked by the civil authority, sanctions the principle that in Rome "there can be no toleration. " It is forbidden to employ a Protestant artisan or to consider him as having any rights which others are bound to respect. He may be insulted, robbed, and injured in person or family with impunity. If he has aught to sell, he must accept less than his neighbors j and if he desires to buy anything, he must pay more for it than they. He may literally be spit upon and stoned and buffeted, and can find no redress even in the courts, because in effect Rome wears the ermine. Nay more, Romanism shoots, stabs, butchers those whom she considers as heretics, and so far from considering this as crime, she defends the assassins. Witness the massacres of Aca. puleo, Ahuacuatitlan, and Almoloya, and the martyr roll of sixty which stains the pages of missionary history of Mexico during the last twenty-five years. Many among us will be found to deny the existence in the Romish Church of an authorized tariff wherein every sin, however loathsome, has its price j but we who have seen and read said tariff, consider it only as a principle whose practical outworking is seen in the every-day life of priests and people as we have known them in Mexico. In no other way can we explain the existence of perjury, drunkenness, gambling, and fornication almost universal among the priesthood, and of practical polygamy, lying, stealing, and adultery among the people j yea, and even of murder. Let us not "deceive ourselves. Look at the encyclical of Leo XIII., under date of September 25th, 1891, and read these words: "Naturalization oaths have been demanded in order that the subjects of the true Church might be made to subscribe to the United States Constitution, with its impious laws and nefarious teachings, to compel them to renounce the true authority of the Catholic pontiff." This is in full accord with the canon law of Rome, but not with Rome as unthinking people see and judge her. That law says that" the constitutions of princes are not superior but subordi· nate to ecclesiastical constitutions." How, then, can a consistent Roman Catholic be an American patriot, an obedient and loyal citizen? He can· not j and he will, if intelligent, defend himself by citing one of the canon laws, which says that" no oath is to be kept toward heretics, princes, lords, or others." Now, Romanism as it is, and as thus described, has in Mexico given birth to a twin curse, which is disbelief-an utter lack of faith not only, but an attitude of bitter animosity toward the Bible and all that is called Christianity. The fathers and brothers of the country very gen erally coincide with the sentiment which I recently saw in a representative newspaper, that" the Bible has been the greatest obstacle to the civilization and progress of Mexico." They believe that Roman Catholicism is the legitimate successor to the Church ()f tne apostles j they consider our
A CONVERTS' HOMEo
Bible an adulteration and ourselves as impostors, and believe that they have seen and known Christianity in seeing and knowing the Romish Church. And thus to-day French, German, and American infidelity, including spiritualism, find nowhere a more hearty welcome or a more congenial field than in Mexico. And for this reason I consider missionary work in Mexico, as in all papal countries, more difficult than it is in pagan lands. The Gospel has not to encounter and overcome a :t>ase system of heathenism, but a shameful counterfeit of itself, a public sentiment bitterly prejudiced against it by a system worse than heathenism that has palmed itself upon the people as Christianity.
A CONVERTS' HOME.
A Converts' Home for High-Caste Women has been opened at Masu- lipatam, under the lady missionaries of the Church of England Zenana Mission. It is the first building of the kind north of Madras. A cor- respondent sends us the following particulars regarding it from a letter in the Lut:hera,n Observer: " This home stands forth amid the heathenism around, a refuge to the timid, cruelly treated widow. It invites into its portals the deserted wife, homeless mothers and orphan children, all of whom find a welcome and an incentive to liye useful and honorable lives. The need of such a home may not be known to all my readers. Let me briefly explain:- In our part of India, whenever caste persons become Christians-often if only a leaning toward Christianity is manifested-they are cut off from every privilege of home. Here most emphatically accepting Christ means to the high-caste a forsaking of home and friends. It is so rare that I have never heard of an instance in which a caste woman accepting Christianity wall able to care for herself. The helplessness of Indian women is almost beyond the power of those living in Western homes to understand. Before these women can support themselves and care for themselves they must be under the most careful and wise training for years. When they become Christians they can seldom do more than read a little; in household work they are extravagant, careless, often dirty; in takiug care of their bodies or their children they need constant watching. In order to train them for useful work, for valuable members of the Christian Church, for examples of true womanhood to their heathen sisters, arrangements for as constant guarding as for children, combined with the freedom to develop womanhood, is necessary. Such a building is the Converts' Home at Masulipatam. At present there are about fifteen women and children in the home. It is a soul-inspiring sight to see these women, diligent Oat work, happy during recreation hours, devout at prayers. Some are preparing to help the sick, some are teachers in Mohammedan and Hindu Zenanas and in the girls' schools. The Misses Brandon had to borrow money to build it, and have made themselves responl"ible for the sum borrowed. Something is surely wrong with the Church at home when such a thing is necessary. A money order sent to Miss J. R. Bran. don, Masulipatam, South India, or Rev. A. O'B. Brandon, 206 Amhurst Road, West Hackney, IJondon, would reach her safely. "-English Paper.
INTERNATIONAL DEPA,RTMENT
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
BDITED AND CONDUCTED BY BEV. ;So T. GRACEY, D.D.
The Decennial Oonference in India, per cent. The aggregate figures for India, Burma, and Ceylon are as fol- [J. T. G.] lows: Native Christian community at the end of 1890, 559,661, being an in- The custom of holding a general con- crease of 142,289 during the nine years ference of all the missions in each of from 1881 to 1890. The number of' the great foreign mission fields once in communicants is 182,722, being a gain ten years or so is one involving great of 69,397. The number of pupils in labor, considerable expense, and inter- mission schools is 279,716, an advance ruption of work, but it certainly must of 92,064. Of the grand total, about find its compensations in the wisdom 175,000 are boys and 104,000 are girls. got from interchange of view and the These figures exclude the Sundaygeneral attention attracted to the work, schools, the pupils in which number as well as in the mutual stimulation of 135,565, compared with 61,688 in 1881. social and religious intercourse. We Taking the figures by provinces as to have looked with great interest to the communicants, Bengal gives an increase Conference which convened in Bombay, of 32 ; Northwest Provinces, 193 ; Punin the last days of last year and the jab, 210 ; Central India, 111 ; Bombay, early days' of this year. The papers, 88, and Madras, 55 per cent. Scheduled discussions, and addresses will be filter- in relation to denominational societies, ing through tho press for many a day American and British, the Baptists show to come, and we must be content with 53,801 communicants, as against 30,245 a partial reference to it at this time. in 1881; Congregationalist. including the LondoD Missionary Society and the THE STATISTICS. American Board, 13,775, as against 9689 ; Episcopalians, 52,377, instead of We had come to make estimates of 40,990; Presbyterians, 11,128, instead the growth of the missions, based on of 5714; Methodists, 15,782, instead of the previous ratios of increase, so as to 4205; the large proportion-viz., 13,111 anticipate what these returns would -being those of the Methodist Episshow; but we have reckoned wrongly copal Church of America. this time. The figures are not as encouraging as was anticipated. We can- Confining ourselves to the statistics not now say what the cause or causes for India proper, we find that a striking may be. One feature of difference is feature of these returns is the increase that these are made for nine years, of agents. The foreign and Eurasian while the others were made for ten agents went up between 1871 and 1881 years, the change being made to con- from 488 to 586-increase, 98 ; between form hereafter with the date of the 1881 and 1890 the advance wall from government census. So far as ratio of 586 to 808, lin increase of 222, or more incrpase goes, of course it is not so easy than twice as many as the preceding to maintain this on the larger number decade. This shows an increased inas on the smaller; it is much easier to terest in Christian countries in the double ten than it is to double ten thou- evangelization of India, and an increase sand; but the returns do not need any in the opportunities and conditions of apology. They will show an advance foreign work. The next item of interper cent far ahead of the ratio of in- est is the increase of the native ordained crease in the popUlation. Possibly the workers. From 1871 to 1881 the adincrease of the population might be vance was from 225 to 461, an increase conceded to be 10 per cent, while the of 136. Now it is from 461 to 785. an Christians have incfeaaed at least 50 increase of 324: whioh shows an en- superstitions and beliefs are dying couraging growth in the development down. Christian llentiments and be. of a stable organization of the native liefs are taking their place. church. The number of native preachers went up between 1871 and 1881 .. There are evidences of Divine pow. from 1985 to 2488, an increase of 493 ; er and grace, the Holy Spirit at work now they have advanced to 3336, an in- taking of the things of Christ and recrease of 858. When we remember the vealing them to men. What is wanted, theory that no country can be evangel- what should be looked for, wrought ized but by its own native agency, this for, is more of that Divine power." increase in fact and in ratio is very encouraging. There is the other fact, ~ PAPERS. however, to be borne in mind when 'we get too much elated, that. these are al- The papers prepared for this confer. most exclusively paid agents, on the pay. ence were presented in printed form. roll of the societies or of the churches, We refer to only a few of them. Rev. and that these agents have grown faster J. L. Phillips, M.D., the General Secrethan the statistical results. An increase tary of the India Sunday·school Union, of 25 per cent in the agents in the pre- in discussing" The Sunday-school our ceding decade brought 100 per cent in- Opportunity in India," gave the results creBlle of communicants; now an in- of his labor and observations during crease of one third in the agents yields twenty five months of travel throughout an increase of but 28 per cent in com- India. In considering the opportunity, municants. he referred not only to the quarter of a lao in regular attendance upon mis. The various denominations show sionary day-schools, but to the millions varying excellences. The Church of more not reached by any school and England leads in the number of foreign right religious influence, who are acordained missionaries in India proper; cessible to us now, but who were shut the Baptists in the number of commn- to our fathers. Calls are coming from nicants ; the Presbyterians in the num· many Hindu and Moslem homes to ber of pupils in Anglo.vernacular teach their sons and daughters, from schools; the Methodists in the number parents who will never accept the truth of pupils in female boarding.schools, themselves; in fact, who say, "We day schools, zenanas, and orphanages. shall die as we are, hut our children will be Christians." In many cases We have dealt only with the lesson these children will bring their unbe. of the bare statistics, and that only very lieving parents to Christ. He quoted superficially; but there are other items cases in point. His next point WBll the which lie beyond statistics, like those opportunity which the Sunday.school which Rev. Edward Storrow mentions affords for developing the native church. in The Ohristian when he says: " Few comparatively may become pun. dits and preachers, physioians or "The number of secret disciples is translators, or achieve success in any unusually great. Some missionaries of the so-called learned professions, but of large experience and sober judgment the Sunday-school brings them an op· suppose that their number does not portunity for service admirably adapted fall short of the avowed adherents. to all classes." 'Ihe Sunday-sohool af- However this may be, their great num- fords an opportunity for increasing ber attested by various witnesses is an Christian endeavor among Europeans. important evidence of the success of "Everybody knows how much of the missions beyond the avowed lines. ungirt loin and unlit lamp there is in India. Our Sunday-schools are calling " Christianity, in a general but real out idlers into service Within the sense, is undoubtedly advancing. A past two years quite a number of Euroknowledge of Bible truth Dnd doctrine is greatly on the increase. Heathen peans have begun leaming a language I am thankful to say their funds are at for the sake of working among the chilo last exhausted, and they have closed dren." Dr. PhiHipspleaded for organ. their last school. Now I· hope we shall ized effort. Since the organization of be more frtle."
the India Sunday·school Union, in 1876, "The Religious Training of Chilo this line of work has been greatly in. dren" was treated by Miss S. F. Gald creased. There are denominational and ner, of the American Woman's Union.
geographical organizations that should She pleaded for the employment only of be advanced. He looked forward to a believing teachers in the schools. Sh,e uniQn of all the Sunday.school forces said: in India and Ceylon. He urged co· " A missionary from the Oorriya dis· operation, and the improvement of trict said to me: • In some of our viI· their present methods by preparation lages where heathen pandits are em· classes for teachers and Sunday-school ployed I was delighted in my periodical literature, and asked attention to the visits to hear how beautifully the boys India Bunday-Scltool Journal. He urged repeated their Scripture lessons, but a normal training for the older pupils, close questioning one day brought out wanted a Sunday-school in every Chris· the fact that without exception they tian congregation, in bazaars and vil. had been taught that Jesus Christ was lages, in Hindu schools where invited, their Krishna, and in another case com· on tea and coffee estates for cooly chilo ing under my own knowledge, the pan· dren, such as have been recently opened dit frankly confessed that he taught in Ceylon, also for servants and their both his own religion and ours. I children, among patients in the hos· asked another Brahman pandit, Suppose pitals and dispensaries. Dr. Phillips one of the children in your school has travelled thirty thol1sand miles in should be convinced of the truth of the interests of this work since he took these verses that you are obliged to it up some two years ago. make them commit, and should want " Evangelistic Work among the Wom. to become a Christian, would you op- en of India" is a paper by Miss S. L. pose it? 'I most certainly should,'
Mulvany, of the Church of England was his answer. They are not all so Zenana Mission. She pleads 8>lpecial1y frank as this, or there may be some too for Moslem women. Speaking of the indifferent to their own religion to care wave of opposition which passed over to emphasize it."
their mission at Amritsar, she quotes ., The ~ Young Men's Christian Asso- Miss Wauton as writing: ciation as a Missionary Agency" was " I think there was much more prog. discussed by David McConaughy, Secre· ress noticeable in former years than taryof the Indian National Committee, during the last ten years, but perhaps who stated that within a few years the it does not follow that there is really missionary conferences at Tokyo, Mad· lesl!l. We have had some tremendous ras, Calcutta. Colombo, Jaffna, Peking, attacks made upon us, first by the Arya Shanghai, Sao Paulo, and Mexico had Somaj, who nearly emptied our schools, testified to the adaptation of this form and then by an Anjumani Islamformed of work among the young men of these for the purpose of resisting the efforts several fields. The United States and of the Zenana Mission. In short, both Canada have sent two men to Japan, were rival missions; they copied our two to India, one to Brazil, and one to plans, opened schools close to our doors, Mexico, and another is going to China.
swept our scholars into them by dint They gave to this work last year $9588.
of bribes and threats, and following us The English National Council has sent to the houses, tried to get them closed out two secretaries, one for Egypt and against us. This Anjuman has beAn Palestine and one for Bombay PrAsi.
going on for more than three years, but dency. In India there was an associa.- tion formed as long ago as 1873 in Tra- sufferers without the suggestion or even vancore, the earliest association in Asia. the knowledge of missionaries. There are only four of the associations llOW in existence which were known at WORK AMONG THE DEPRESSED CLASSES. the time of the last Decennial Conference. The First National Convention The papers on this subject were very called for India met February, 1891. 'interesting. Dr. S. Martin, of Seal- A national committee was formed to kote, said : "The work among the de. superintend the work throughout India. pressed classes is difficult, but yet the There are now sixty-eight associations most encouraging, and the fact that misenrolled. sion work in India has had its greatest success among the lower classes is a We rEgret that we cannot summarize proof that it is of God, and gives us en. the able paper on " The Social and Legal couragement for the future. A success- Rights of Native Christians," by Rev. ful work among the most ignorant classes H_ E. Perkins. It concludes by recom- will make the evangelization.of the more mending a committee to investigate intelligent masses an easier, task. A what are the precise rights, legal, so- practical exemplification of the power cial, and domestic of the native Chris- of Christianity to elevate the low and tians, and to seek further legislation, degraded will be its best recommendashould such be found necessary to pro- tion to others. As to the best method tect those rights. of conducting work among the lowest classes, this is a question that has not ~'Mission Work among Lepers" was yet received a solution satisfactory to treated by Wellesley C. Bailey. "The all. Where there are large numbers of Moravians were the first in this field, inquirers they cannot be received into and led the van in this as they have the mission compound and instructed. done in so many undertakings of diffi. They must be left in their homes cultyand danger," says the writer. He and instructed at such times as oppor· records their work in South Africa. In tunity offer!!. Mass movements should India there was from comparatively be expected. The apostles helieved early days indiTidual work for lepers. in mass movements, and baptized all In 1847 General Ramsay (C.B., KC.S.I., that wanted to come, three thousand as he afterward became) commenced a in one day. The lowest classes should work with Rev. Mr. Budden in Almora, not be bought. The evil effects of the in the Himalayas. In 1864-65 ninety- system of giving aid is felt in work six of these lepers were received into among the lowest classes, and has been the Christian Church. In 1860 a leper a serious hindrance to progress. The asylum was begun in Calcutta. In 1868 instruction given before baptism should Dr. John Newton, of the American Pres- be elementary; not too much should be byterian Mission, began his work in their expected of those that can neither read behalf at Sabathu. " He was pre-emi- nor write." nently the leper's friend. He tended them as a mother might a child. Con- The paper of Rev. E. W. Parker, temporary names may be heard in his- D.D., of the Methodist Mission of North tory, but his will, I believe, live forever India. was of peculiar interest, as this in the lower Himalaya Mountains." mission has had a great work among Gossner, Lutheran, the Methodists, the these classes. Church Missionary Society, the Free Church of Scotland, the Basle Mission Dr. Parker started out with a definiand others, with the" Mission to Lep- tion of the depressed classes as those ers," are at work in eighteen principal who belong to no one of the regular and nine subordinate places in India. castes of the Hindu. They have been In several instances lepers have done oppressed by all castes. As in their missionary work among their fellow- castes they are not, strictly speaking, Hindu, so in religion they are outside of Hinduism, having gurus of their training schools turned out effective <>wn. They are mainly day laborers. workers for their field9. The work 1'hough set free by English law, tbey grew gradually, as the following will are actually slaves. They have never show: In 1859 there were two native been educated. Few can read or write. preachers, five communicants, four These people are more accessible to Christian boys, and eight girls in the Christian workers for the following schools. In 1868 there were 30 preach. three reasons: (1) Their religion is not ers, 665 communicants, 297 boys, and orthodox Hinduism, but some side issue 168 girls under instruction. One hun. less firmly established and tenacionsly dred and eighty·seven were baptized. held, and so it is not so difficult to In 1888 there were 168 preachers, 7944 change them. (2) They have not the communicants, 2027 Christian boys, pride of caste that raises them in their and 1327 Christian girls in school, and own estimation above all others, and there were 1958 baptisms. Besides the they readily receive Christian teachers school.teachers in the village, with (3) Many have the idea of " moving on." superintending evangelist from a group' They are willing and anxious to rise, of villages, a leader in each congrega. and will take hold of any who may tion is appointed as assistant pastor. seem able to help them. These are, These latter are voluntary, unpaid as· therefore, the" accessible classes." Sir sistants. District conferences are held William Hunter bears testimony to this quarterly. At the religious meetings, point. He says: "I should not be can- not only the paid agent, but many did if I left the impression that I ex- Christians also come. Meetings are pect any large accession from orthodox constantly held for three days, and the Hinduism or Islam to the Christian people receive much spiritual uplift. Church. It is rather from the lower Direct conversions are often traced to castes and so:called aboriginal people these meetings. These conferences, that I believe direct conversion will or Christian melas, have been a very chiel1y come. At this moment there important part of the work. And in are fifty millions of human beings in 1891 the results show the power of the India, sitting abject on the outskirts of Spirit of God. There are 261 native Hinduism or beyond its pale, who within preachers and 381 exhorters of a lower the next fifty years will incorporate grade and 736 Christian teachers, with themselves into one or the other higher 15,000 children under instruction. The faiths. Speaking humanly, it rests with number of communicants is 9487, and Christian missionaries in India whether of baptized probationers, 16,913. Ac· a great proportion of these fifty millions cession by baptism in 1891 was 17,038, shall accept Christianity, or Hinduism, including children, so that the whole or Islam… The work of the Methodist Christian community is over 50,000. Episcopal Church in the North was es- The object has been, not baptism, but tablished after the Mutiny. First a few conversion. people, about twenty miles from Mora- The Rev. A. Campbell, of Manbhum, dabad, came over. The work spread in Bengal, said: "Work among aborigines, the surrounding villages, schools were such as the Santals and Karmalli Kales, established, and the young men were among whom he had labored for a trained up as evangelists or teachers, period of over twenty years, differs In another direction a fakir was con- greatly from that among what are known verted, and brought many of his former as the depressed classes. In the Santal 4isciples over. And so the work spread country they did not meet with anyin several directions, and education and thing at all resembling the depressed evangelistic supervision found the meth. condition of many in Bengal, Southern od of developing the work. In the India, and elsewhere. In the Santal mean time, the theological schools and country the aboriginal element pre· dominates, not that the bulk of the them from all parts of the" civilised,"
population if! aboriginal, pure and aim- Western world. Their contact""tb ple;·bnt that the .majority of those pio- those nations, with the exo&ptioD of felling Hinduism have much in com· the missionary representatives of them, mOn with the .aborigihes indeed; they and now and then others in businesa were often referred to as semi-Hindu- and official circles, only con6rms·th~m izedaborigines. What were known as in their ideas that all religioUIl beliefs the higher castes among Hindus were are but outgrown and inefficient £acton sparingly represented in many parts of in modern civilization. In other word&; theSantalconntry, and the result was they are possessing themselves olbut that religious toleration, to a most sur- the excrescences of a Christian civiliza- prising exteht, was extended to each tion, rather than its realities and bless.
other by all classes of the people. The ings. Luxuries and intellectual cul- Santals Bnd others like them were, as a ture are able to do no more for them rulEl, poor and ignorant. but they have ,than they did for corrupt ancient not in their own country got the same Greece and Italy.
opposition to contend against when Favorable.-Although Satan is thus seeking to raise themselves socially alert and successful in gaining strategio th"t .the castes on the outer fringe of positions in the struggle for the rule Hinduism had to meet when desirous over the hearts of the millions of India, ofl'Sising themselves from the servile yet the Gospel is, notwithlltanding, and depressed state in which the high. making steady and permanent prog.
er castes had so long kept them." ress. The fast spreading appreciation of the benefits, physical and intellect- ual, of educational attainment and Mission Outlook in India. a.nd Burma.. discipline is awakening the spirit of liberal inquiry, and the spiritual needs BY BEV. C. A. NICHOLS, BASSEIN, BURMA. of men are asserting themselves. These UnJavorable.-Infidelity never had so will not rest content with the negations full an access to the people as to-day. of infidelity. There are already about Tbe greater number of the English in- 500,000 consistent Protestant Christians structors in the government colleges scattered throughout the empire, who and lower grade schools are either by their life and their direct teaohing avowed infidels, and breathe into their are not only supplementing the labors pupils their own unbeliefs, sometimes of the considerable force of mission- aggrsssiyely so ; or, if not, they do not aries from our own lands, but are bring- feel free to do anything positive in ing their fellow-countrymen to think, the line of religious character-building, as the missionaries never could do, in from the strict neutrality which the regard to the power of the Gospel in government insists upon in its teaching transforming character. A Christian force. Both of these courses tend in vernacular literature is fast growing, the same direction. Both go .toward and the vast treasures of religious and the production of a generation of promi- biblical literature in the English Ian.
nent men, who, by virtue of their influ- gUlloge are becoming more and more ao· ence c'onsequent upon their high attain- cessible to the millions of India, who ments, will in the future tell tremen- now can use that language with facil- dously upon the opinions and beliefs of ity. Through God's inftnite wisdom a great mass of 'the people of the coun- the greatest transformations in India, try_ The sanctions of their old religion spiritual as well as material, through are gone, and they have no new moral the power of the Gospel, have had their imp.ulsps in their stead. The flood of first great triumphs from precisely those direct· infidel literature flows in upon claslles of the. people whom the higher pta,., cute people had eome to believe were eating the evils against which it wbolly incapable of betterment, and in 1890 the co-operation of publio as- these people are marvellously outstrip. semblies and of orgmized bodiea w.s ping those who had thought themselves sought, and these have been obtained so. greatly their superiors in every walk through the omcers of the International in life. It is 888y to see how great the MiBBionary Union, the Young Men'.
evidential value of this order in the Christian Association, the YouDg Peo- Christianization which God has caused ple's Societies, the Good Templars, Sal.
to i_ue from missionaty effort. Ac. vation Army, Knights of Labor, IIJld cordingly, notwithstanding the opium others.
curse spreading 88 it is, in spite of the At the great meeting of the World'.
many ways that Satan is employing to Women's Christian Temperance Union gt'$f~ upon the pantheistic atheism of in Boston, November, 1891, between the Eut the infidelity of the West, and two and three miles of this petition W88.
in the face of the hindrances of profii. on exhibition. The original signatures gate representatives of nominally Chris· were in three or four parallel columna, tian oountries, the leaven of the king. pasted on muslin one half yard wide dam of light is working, often silently, and bound with red and blue tape, and but is surely undermining the kingdom the document was used tofeatoon Tre- of darknesa in these parts of AIIia. mont Temple on that memorable ooca- sion. Lady HeRry Somerset brought scores of thousands of tbese llignaturea m.t.orr of a Great Petition. wbich had been obtained by Miss Mor. gan, of South Wales, in Great Britain, BY KBB. lIIIlnmVA. B. NORTON. where the interest in the petition ia very grcat. ,.
The first organized elfort in behalf of It is proposed by those having the a world-signed petition for the abolition petition in charge to call it in for eI.
of tbe tramc in alcohol and opium was hibition at the Columbian Exposition in August, 1885, when the general offi- of 1893, and to have connected with It cers of the United States c. National a total abstinence chain of the pledge Union" of the World's Woman's Chris· autographs of the children of the world, tian Temperance Union forwarded to composed of several million links of their miBBionary.at.large, Mrs.. Mary cards in red, white and blue, contain.
Clement Leavitt, then in a foreign land, ing their signatures. It is desired to the" Petition of the World's Woman's double this monster petition before Christian Temperance Union for the May, 1893. [The form of petition oan Protection of the Home, addressed to be had by addressing the writer of this the Govemments or the World." article, .. The Temple," Chicago, m- This was also presented by Mrs. Mary B. Willard, September 12th, 1885, to J. T. G.] the International Temperance Conven- tion then aBBembled in BruB8els, Bel- Western Polyneaia. and Auatralia. gium. It has been circulated round the globe, and its almost two million Bishop Montgomery, of Tasmania, signatures are written in the dialects has paid a Tisit in the steamer &utI&_ and characters of more than forty coun- Cross to all the stations of the Melane· tries and provinces. sian MiBBion, and has been favorably In addition to the signatures of all impreBBed with the work earried on in women of legal age, and the endorse. the Banks, Santa Cruz, and Solomon ment of all men, of whatever creed, na- groups, and in three Dorthem Islands tion, race or color, who a~ee in devre- of the N~w H4Ibti4es. .u:~ NIQ Tlai*ed Norfolk Island, the headquarters of the He had been attending the nightlilcbo01 mission. on Saturday, October 22d, and on going The New Hebrides Mission is losing home was attacked by some savage na- the services of the Rev. J. R. Laurie, tives of Malayta, one of the Solomon who has labored for thirteen years on Islands. He was found covered with Aneityum, where the people are now all blood, and his hymn.book beside him.
outwardly Christian. The health of He had chosen a text for his address on his wife has necessitated his resigna- the next day-" Never man spake like tion. She bas, however, recovered un- this man."
der treatment. The Rev. A. Morton Miss Barnes, Who came out to be the has resigned for a similar cause. He wife of Mr. Hey, the Moravian mission- may go to Korea. The Rev. F. Paton, ary in Northern Queensland, was wel- son of the veteran Dr. J. G. Paton, has comed at Brisbane. She is sister of been appointed to the New Hebrides. Mrs. Ward, whose husband is Mr. Hey's The Rev_ J. W. Mackenzie, who has colleague.
been twenty years on Efate, and the The Baptist aentmary.-Tbis great Rev. James Annand, M.A., who has event, which may well' be called the been nineteen years in the group, are Carey Centenary, or the Centenary of reCll'nlting in New South Wales. Mr. Modern Missions, was celibrated by Mackenzie is carrying a Scripture his. enthusiastic meetings in all the chief tory and hymn-book in Eptese through cities of the Australian colonies. Min- the press. isters of Presbyterian, Wealey.n, and Two lay missionaries, good craftsmen, Congregational churches joined with have just gone to the New Hebrides to Baptists in recognizing the wondrous .assist Dr. Lamb on Ambrym. results of darey's movement in 1792• Mr. Eugene Stock and the Rev. R. W. It was specially felt in Australia, as it Stewart, M.A., have concluded a very was the perusal of Cook's voyages in successful mission tour through the Polynesia that led Carey to conceive Anglican churches of Australia. They his purpose, and which also inlluenced have created much interest in the Dr. Hawies, Dr. Bogue, and otbers in Church Missionary Society, and have forming the London Missionary Soci.
formed auxiliaries. Mr. Stock, who is ety. Indeed, all modem missionary the missionary editor in London, was societies date from that.
allowed to occupy pUlpits both in Syd- The Rev. W. Newby-Fraser and his ney and Melbourne. He is a man of a wife have left Sydney for missionary fervent missionary spirit, and an excel- work in India in connection with the lent evangelical speaker. Ohurch Missionary Society. Mr. New- The Wesleyan Mission in Fiji have by-Fraser has for some time been curate got an Indian catechist to labor among to the Rev. T. B. Tress, of St. Peter's, the coolie's there. Sydney. Much interest has been taken The Wesleyan Mission in New Guinea in his devotion to the Indian field, and is now fairly at work. The governor, valedictory addresses and presents h~ve Sir William Macgregor, gives a good re- been made to him.
port of its influence upon· the natives. The Rev. F. J. Paton, M A., the Mrs. Reid, of Tasmania, has given a youngest son of the veteran mission- boat for the Raluana Mission Station, ary, Dr. J. G. Paton, has been ordained, New Britain. and has gone to the New Hebrides. He AusTRALU.-A Christian Krmaka has is the first of those born in a mission recently been made a martyr to his faith family on the New Hebrides who has in Queensland. He. was a zealous become a missionary there. He is to teacher under the Rev. T. McIntyre. be settled on the island of Mallicollo.
tq~ missionarr in the Macka! district .'{…e. .mit Jlission.-Ten learB ~o the <;,;. ..,. Society of Jesus began a mission among and superintendent of the. oldest mis- the aborigines of Australia,· near Port sion of his oliurchin that country. Be Darwin, in the Northern Territory. sends the following rejoinder to the Two other stations were opened on the critioism of a oorrespondent on the Daly River. These three were olosed II Methodists entering Ohentu in West year ago, 88 they were either too near China: the town of Palmerston or on too poor NEW YOBX, January 14, 1893. a soil. The Government of South Aus- DEAB SIB: There is more absurdity tralia then gave a grant of land on the to the square inoh in the little notioe right bank of the Daly River, about headed" Missionary Oomity," in your sixty miles from its mouth. It includes issue of Deoember, 1892, page 940, than three hundred acres of good land, and I have seen anywhere in a long time. a tract of oountry on the opposite bank It ought to be fuily understood that of one hundred square miles in extent. missions which are at work in any of The government also gives about £50 a the provinoes of Ohina always expeot year. Many difficulties have had to be to have a representation in the c~pital encountered, and the life is very try- of the provinoe, and, therefore, the ing. For a time the missionaries had sending of missionaries by our Society to live in rude" humpies," similar in to Ohentu is no ground of complaint on arohiteoture to those of the blacks, and the part of the Ohina Inland MiSSion, had to endure privations; but they any more than it will be a ground of have now got a proper house erected. oomplaint on the part of either of our They are one hundred and seventy missions that the Oanadian Methodists miles from Palmerston, the nearest have also established themselves in that township, and there is not easy or fre- oity. Bad this sort of theory been es- quent oommunication. The mission_ tablished, the China Inland Mission aries have had to live on kangaroo and would not now be in many places where wild game for months, and they have it is operating suocessfully, as it was also been subjeot to fever. The blacks much benind other missions in Ningpo, have gathered around them, and some Shanghai, and many other places. land has been cleared and cultivated. It is hardly in plaoe for" Speotator" The superior is Father McKillop, who -whoever he may be-to suggest to our is Australian-born. There are three mission that it shall ocoupy some of other priests and seven lay brothers the unoccupied cities throughout the engaged in the mission. They wish province before it establishes itself in the oountry around to be reserved from the oapital. No prinoiple of missionary Ohinese and white settlers, who have comity has been violated by our send- been entering thedistriot as miners, in ing missionaries to the oapital city of a order to make the mission really useful province; on the contrary, we are fol- to the blacks. The language has been lowing in the general line of missionary mastered, and the missionaries are operations in the empire, and with hopeful of suooess. abundant example from the Ohina In- land Mission itself. RO:BERT STEEL. … NORTH SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES, Sincerely yours, November 26th, 1892. ,So L. BALDWIN.
Another Note on ltissionary Oomity. International M'lSsionary Union.-The International Missionary Union sends Rev. S. L. Baldwin, D.D., the Record. out its announoement of its tenth aning Secretary of the Methodist Epis. nual meeting. to beheld at its permacopal Missionary Society, was hims(,lf a nent place of meeting, Olifton Springs, missionary for twenty years in China, N. Y., J~e 14th-211t. All foreign mis- our disposal to give to the publio in it. sionaries of whatever field or board, present state, and so we oan only say whether temporarily or permanently in tblt if the counoil haviDg the matter in this country, are urged to attend. Cir· oharge do not make any improvement, oulars have been mailed to all Amerioan even on the initial program, it will be missionaries, whether in this country a very rich and varied Congress. It is to embraoe every feature of missionary 0.- any other, whose postal address is work, whether in Christian, oivilized or pagan and other non-Christian lands. known. Should any not reoeive the It will deal with the moral, sooial, and same, they will understand that it is religious problems of our cities and our through some cause the sooiety oannot oivilization in general; denominational control. It is expeoted that a larger unity in the solution of practioal benevnumber than usual will be in attendanoe olent problems; methods of evangeliz. this year, owing to the number of mis- ing the masses ; all forms of home mis· sionaries who may avail themselves of sionary work; Bible work; foreign mis. this centennial year to make a needed sions, their rellex in1luenoe, their agenvisit to this oountry. Over one hun. oies ; Christian governments and human dred were present at last year's session, rights; and a grand concert of prayer and every missionary we wot of desires will probably btl within the plan. Emi· to get the inspiration and information nent men, secretaries, expert workers of a week in conference with mission- in all departments ate to be invited to aries from all the fields of the world. discuss themes and to exchange views To missionaries there is simply no sub- and narrate experiences. stitute for this annual gathering. All misaionaries are requested to send their -We have reoeived the following, the -post address to the Associate Seoretary, lin. Dr. C. C. Thayer, Clifton Springs, 1lrst part of whioh we oannot answer, N. Y., and with or without further no· tice to inform her if they can probably and the second part, as we understand attend the next session. Entertain· ment is extended to all missionaries in it, involves a oontroversy in whioh only attendance, free, by our incomparable host, Dr. Henry FOIIter, the founder of those having the fullest information the Sanitarium. Any information about the Union oan be had of the Seoretary, should take part. The Rev. Dr. Shedd. Rev. W. H. Belden, Clifton Springs, N. Y. This body is not limited in its of Oroomiah, or Dr. Barnum, of Har. membership to American and Canadian missionaries, and those of any other put. might answer for the Amerioan country who have served in non-Chris· tian Aelds who may be in this oountry Ihissionaries, and our oorrespondent are earnestly invited to partioipate in the proceedings and share the hos- probably knows the views of others, pitality extended to the members. who think that the present administra- Other visitors can find acoommodation in the Sanitarium or in exoellent tion of this mission is neither broad nor boardiDg·hou8es in the plaoe. brotherly. J. T. G. The World's Gongrusof M'Ulsions.-We have had • glanoe at the tentative pro- 8m : It is declared that one objeot of gram of the World's Missionary Con. the arohbishop's mission to the Assyrian gress, whioh is to be held in Chioago, Christians is to print the anoient 8yriao September 28th-October 5th inclusive, service books, and that in doing so but we do not understand that it is at " heterodox" expressions are expunged. But oan you or any of your readers oblige with information 1. As to whether adoration and pray- ers to the Virgin and saints are thus ex· punged, and, 2. How does this misRion affeot the work of the Amerioan Protestant mis. sionaries among the same people?
AIlfATJiIEB.
HASTINGS, October 31, 1892. Ill.-DEPARTMENT 'OF CHRISTIAN EN.DEAV.O,R.., CONDUCTED BY PIWFESSOB AMOS B. WBLLB.
Presbyterian Endeavorers have reo them that they may do the Jnostgood. cently held a missionary rally at the Now the Chicago unfon will gatherad~ blissionrooms in New York. The meeting was largely attended, and a perma- dresses of missionaries, hospitals, il.rrby nent organization was formed to push posts, navy-yards, and other plao~8 missionary plans and inspire systematic giving among Presbyterian Endeavor- where such literature can be used to ers.The E~deavorera of the Reformed Churches in and near the metropolis good advantage, an.:! will supplythesb met at about the same time in the New York headquarters of the Reformed addresses to all good.literature commit. Church, and, after an enthusiastic meetin~, formed a similar organization with tees that apply. ', similar purposes. Both of these' new movements are full of life, and are cer- Young Lutherans have already raised tain to accomplish much good for the cause of missions. In a thousand ways $1000 of the $5000 needed for' thai, the Christian Endeavor movement is arousing the missionary activity of the memorial church at San Diego, Cal.; young. Endeavorers of the Disoiples have r8.ise,a City unions are developing specialties in Christian Endeavor work. The as much for their mission church in Philadelphia union aims at becoming national headquarters for correspond. Salt Lake City ; Methodist Protestan,t ence committee work. These Christian Endeavor correspondence commit- Endeavorers are making good progr418S tees, be it remembered, are formed to welcome and look after in a friendly on the funds for their mission church way those Endeavorers that move to strange oities. It is quite impossible at Kansas City ; Reformed Church EIIfor each correspondence committee in the country to keep the address of every deavorers are collecting funds .for their other, but if the Philadelphia union persists in its present determination, second Christian Endeavor memoriat it will constitute a central bureau of addresses. If John Smith is to leave church, and the Endeavorets of the JacksonVille, 0., for Columbus, Cal., the correspondenoe oommittee of his First Baptist Church of Salt Lake City Endeavor society, acting through the Philadelphia union, will notify the are hard at work raising money for, ,a Columbus, Cal., Endeavorers, and they will be all ready to give John Smith a mission chapel. May aU these noble cordial greeting when he oomes. The Chioago union, in similar fashion, aims undertakings find speedy success, and to become national headquarters for good-literature oommittees. These com-' prompt to undertakings greater still. mittees, gathering up the old books and periodicals of the congregation, is Presbyterian Endeavorers, in their often at a loss to know where to send December contributions to the foreign mission board of their church, made,a gain of $687 over the same month of 1891. In their contributions from May to December they made a gain over the previous year of $2346.
One of the most pt"osperous and use.
ful sooieties of Christian Endeavor con- nected with the Reformed Church is found in their Boys' High Scbool at Madanapalle, India. These Indian En- deavorers are active in evangelistio work, and a recent report from them testifies that during the past year they reached with the Gospel 16,000 souls.
The Connecticut State Christian En- deavor Union is the oldest in existence, and some recent changes in its consti- tution are the results of muoh experi- ence. It now formally refuses member- ship to societies in non-evangelical churches, thus following a distinctly understood 'Christian Endeavor pt"ino
DEPARTMENT OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR
It ciple. utilizes the experience of its asked for a few words concerning the history and growth of the Christian former State presidents by constituting Endeavor movement. Then, after a them an advisory board. It requires hearty prayer by one of the Chinese all expenses of the State work to be brethren, Mr. Yeung asked me to give met by voluntary offerings only-no as- them some words of counsel and ad. sessments. It provides a State superin- vice, which I proceeded to do as well as tendent for the new Senior societies, I could for about five minutes, while now springing up among the older Mr. Wisner, of the mission, translated church·members and the Christian En· what I said. I never knew better, howdeavorera who have .. graduated." ever, the meaning of the phrase, 'a few Good points, all of these. feeble remarks;' for it is exceedingly difficult to speak with any force through Here are some extracts from a recent an interpreter. I have no doubt, letter of Dr. Clark's describing a Chris- though, that Mr. Wisner made up in his tian Endeavor meeting in China. It translation for any lack of mine. After was in Canton. " The. girls' society these remarks, Mr. Tao, one of the na· wanted to come, but it was thought tive teachers, was called upon. He said hardly proper for the young ladies to that he regarded my visit as providen. come so far in the evening. When we tial, tecause it might help them to reached tile chapel of the boys' school spread abroad their detestation of the of the Presbyterian mission, where the opium traffic. He said that a commis· meeting was held, all were in their sion had already gone to England to places, about a hundred Chinese men present the claims of poor, opiumand boys. and all rose while the mis. cursed China, and he hoped that I would sionaries and the visitors took their ask the Christian Endeavor societies places. The room was beautifully dec· everywhere to pray that the traffic might orated with floral emblems in Chinese be abolished; and that China might be characters, which meant, as I was told, freed from her galling chains. This 'Peace,' 'Prosperity,' 'Welcome,' etc. I promised to do, and I am glad to take Behind UR, in Chinese characters, were this first opportunity partially to reo two large scrolls, which were afterward deem my promise. After this, Mrs. given to us, and were translated as fol· Clark and I were presented by the so· lows: 'Fa·ti [Flowery Region] Chris- ciety in Fa·ti with two beautiful hand. tian Endeavor Society [literally, Urge- painted fans, on one of which was on·in·the·service·of·salvation's-Lord So- painted, in Chinese characters, Dr. cietyJ respectfully p~esent. May you Rankin's beautiful hymn, "God be take the blessed tidings, and proclaim with you till we meet again," on one them until they fill every region where side, and, on the other, the date, which water and cloud reach: The other reads as follows: 'Western calendar scroll would have shocked our modesty, one thousand eight hundred ninety·seehad we· known what it meant, so com. ond year, which is the same as Bright plimentary was it; but we reminded Achievement [name of reigning emper· ourselves, lest we should get too puffed or] eighteenth year, ninth moon, the up, that these Chinese knew very little last division of ten days' (each moon· of us, since we had been in Canton only is divided into three divisions of ten two days, and that they were apt to days each), aU of which might be reo deal in Howery compliments. Mr. duced to 'November 17th, 1892: An. Yeung, who led the meeting, gave out a other column on this same fan reads as bymn, which was sung very heartily to follows: • Beautiful Nation [the Ameri. the tune of ' Silver Street: Then he can] Clark, teacher, came to the Ex. called upon Rev. Mr. Noyes, of the mis. terior East, Fa·ti [Flowery Region] 10· sion, to tell why we had come together, cal stlciety [of Christian Endeavor]. All and what my mission wus. Then we sung another song, und Mr. Fulton was the believing disciples requested Fak edly ripe for the Christian Endeavor Yam [the given name of Mr. Yeung, idea. I had the impression beforehand who led the meeting] to make a record, that Japan was not ready for our Sooi- it being a joyful matter,' Mr. Fulton ety ; but these few days have quite dis- and the other missionaries say that pelled this notion, so far as the vioinity Christian Endeavor is splendidly adapt- of Tokyo and Yokohama is conoemed.
ed to the Chinese because they are To be sure, I am not so rash as to pre- used to guilds and associations, and dict with certainty the same growth and the idea of the society seems natural to the same staying power for the Society them. .Moreover, they do not feel that here as in America, and I am well aware they have really become Christians un- that there must be adaptations to fit it til they have taken part in meeting, so to Japanese ways; but human nature tbat the prayer-meeting pledge is not everywhere is very much the same, and irksome. These societies in Canton are all the indications point to a rapid and doing capital work. Every portion of steady and healthful growth. I believe this meeting of which I have written that the society is in some ways espe- was planned and carried out by the na- oially adapted to Japanese soil. They tive boys-decorations, scrolls and all. like it because it is a self-governing so- Join me in your prayers, will you not? oiety. They are an independent peo- for these brethren and sisters of ours ple, and do not like to be • bossed' in in Canton and throughout all China, their forms of 'religious servioe any and let us thank God for the wonderful more than in other matters."
success of Christian Endeavor here as Here are some sample bits of Chris- everywhere. " tian Endeavor news, oollected from the Rev. T. Harada, of Japan, has· writ- papers of a single week: Two Endeavor- ten a forty-four page pamphlet, giving, ers of Viotoria, Australia, have raised in Japanese, full instructions in regard $1250 and opened a little Chinese ohap~ to the formation and conduct of Chris- e1. A Colorado society, having prom- tian Endeavor societies. Such a man- ised to raise ,half the salary of a mis- ual has been written in Armenian by sionary, has published a oook-book to Rev. G. H. Krikorian, of Turkey, to aid get the money. Three students in a the cause in that country, but the Turk- single Presbyterian theological semi- ish censors of the press have forbidden nary were led from other oallings into its pUblication. They declare it a dan- the ministry by Christian Endeavor gerous work, dealing with •• brother- work. An Ohio society sends a mem- hood," "endeavor,"" union," and such ber as missionary to China. The Good- proscribed themes, besides being an at- will Mission of South Dakota has an tempt to organil'le a society. Says Rev. Endeavor society of forty active mem- Henry O. Dwight, of Constantinople, bers, mostly Indians. A Texas Society .. In response to our argument that the helps support a Chinese mission Sun- society is for spiritual culture, the reply day-school, a mission school for ohil- is given that the point objected to is dren, and a missionary in China.
organization for any purpose, it being the object of the government to prevent people from learning how to organize."
Native Christian Endeavorers in Turkey Dr. Clark's joumey to the Antipodes run serious risk of imprisonment if dis- is making one thing very clear, and th at covered. . is the adaptability of the Sooiety of In Japan Dr: Clark spent three and a Christian Endeavor to all sorts and con- half weeks, and held forty-six exceed- ditions of men. The Society has no ingly profitable meetings. Concerning " most-favored nation" olause in its oon- Japan and the Christian Endeavor move- stitution, but all olimes and peoples are ment he Rays: " I find Japan unexpect- its own, rV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT~ Home and City Missions, to go to the devil. He remlDded theln that the Church of England was the The whole number of home mission- wealthiest religious society in the world. aries who were connected with the Among its members were thos8' who Board of Home Missions of the Pres- poss888ed hundreds of thousands of byterian Church a year ago were four- pounds-nay, millions. Were those per· teen hundred and seventy.nine. Of sons really awake to the true state of this number nine hundred and four, or affairs in the country? He did not nearly two thirds, were at work in the think they were. He advocated'greater States and Territories west of the Mis· simplicity of life among the wealthier sissippi. The great home mission field classes of society, and remarked that of the country is there, unless. indeed, while £127,000 a year was spent upon the great cities and mining regions of perfumed spirits from abroad. the anthe East are to be taken into_account. nual income of the Church Pastoral Aid Then the question becomes a very ur- Society was only .£49,000. The one gent one, pondered in many minds, true remedy for existing demoralization whether the scattered peoples in the was the taking from house to house alld regions beyond the great rivers do not door to door throughout the land of the absorb much labor which should be Gospel of Jesus Christ. more profitably expended on crowded oities like Chicago, Cincinnati, Pitts- The Rev. T. Y. Darling, formerly burg, Philadelphia, and New York. C. M. S. missionary in the Talegu coun- One such city as Chicago, set as on a try, supplies a graphic sketch of the hill, has as distinct and far.reaching life of P. Venkayya, who was his flrst influence for good or ill as an entire ministerial seal after being engaged in territory in the mountains. itinerant missionary work for eleven years without making a convert. The English Notes. narrative constitutes a notable chapter . [J. Do] in the romance of missions. WhBt hath God wrought? It is not always The .Moral Oondition of England.-The the case, as this narrative shows, that Dean of Norwich, speaking at a meet· ., the Lord never uses a discouraged ing held at Memorial Hall, Islington, servant. " The exceptions to this rule, expressed himself as decidedly of the if it be one, may well hearten those {)pinion that the moral and religious who have lost heart. "I looked upon condition of England was never so bad myself," says Mr. Darling, .. as one as' it is at the present moment. He privileged to sow the good seed, but said the population of this country is not to see in the flesh the issue." The 29,000,000, of whom over 16,000,000 in. Lord, however, ordered it otherwise, habited six counties. This fact was and that on the very day when, after alone sufficient to illustrate how much preaching Jesus and Him crucified to a overcrowding there is. He called atten- large crowd. and percei ving not the tion to the fact that at present £26,000,- faintest sign of encouragement. he re- 000 is expended per annum by the work· turned to his bungalow sadly dishearting classes for strong drink, and that ened and literally in tears." It was 6,000,000 of our people are living in then, in 1859, that P. Venkayya, by the habitual neglect of public worship. powerful impulse of the Spirit, sought, What must be done to stem the current with some 8ssociates from the same of evil? Personally, he and those who village,' the discouraged worker and emsympathized with his views would not, 1:lracod with joy the Christian faith. God helping them, allow this country
EDlTORlAL DEPARTlIIElI'l'
Forthwith there hall been continuous and 10,880 attendants on' publio wor· . reaping. The first convert died Sep. ship. Methodism has not been the tember 20th, 1891, faithful unto deaIA; progressive force in France that it has and now the number of Ohristian ad· been in England; still, small as it is, it hlll"eDts of this mission is 2945. represents a living power in Frenoh Protestantism, which, should Method. The Ninety-eighth Report of the Lon. ism disappear, would have reason to don Missionary Society is to hand. say, "A virtue has gone out of me." The income is unprecedentedly large, The senior minister of this mission is representing an increase on last year of the Rev. James Hoc/nt, born in 1812, fully £35,000, and leaving a balance in and now in the fifty.ninth year of his favor of the Society of £9544 8s. Id. ministry. He has been, and still is, in The total receipts were £193,998 19s. 6d. labors abundant, a watohful pastor and indefatigable evangelist. The troubles in Ohina, while they have seriously inlluenced the work, Wesleyan Methodism in South Oeylon have not caused it to mark time. The has suffered numerically during the Society reports a large amount of work past two years from disciplinary ac· done during the year. In particular tion. It is believed, however, that the the success attending medical missions energetic use of the pruning.knife has is accentuated. made the hold of Ohristianity upon the people stronger, the Ohuroh purer, the A fairly hopeful view is taken of the agents and members better qualified prospects and the results in India. for aggressi ve work than in any other Northern India, – however, is under- period of the history of this mission. manned, and various important stations are in a critical condition. The Cape General Mission is being reinforced by the Rev. Walter Searle, With respect to Madagascar the Re- late Oongreg"tional minister in Birport strikes a jubilant note. A revival, mingho.m, and his talented wife. Mr. whioh began in the capital in May last, Searle becomes joint secretary with Mr. has spread to several outlying districts Spencer Walton of thill young but ener and much fruit has been reaped, espe· getic mission, and the new editor of the oially among the young. Happily many South African Pioneer. By a train of of the people are in possession of the events God has been preparing this ser· vant for the foreign mission field, lead· Scriptures, and have a considerable ac- ing him to aspire after a close walk with God and Divine unction in preach. quaintance with the truths of God's ing. Two oircumstances specially call Word. for mention. The first, a conversation with the Rev. W. Haslam, on the sub- In South Africa the first faint. streaks ject of soul.winning, which led this of light are discernible in Matebeleland; brother definitely to ask of God for an in Oentral Afrioa peace has reigned at addition of a hundred souls to his both centrea of the miSSion, and tokens church in one year. This petition was of blessing have been given, but the literally fulfilled with the overplus insky is somewhat lurid. The fear is cident to beaped.up measure. The sec· that the slave.trading community will ond circumstance was the effect pronot submit without a struggle to the ~uced by the reading of Dr. Pierson's establishment of British rule in -that " Crisis of Missions. .. Feeling the im. region. At New Guinea pioneering and mense disproportion between the work. settling-are going on vigorously. ers at home and those abroad, Mr.
From an able summary in " Wesleyan Missionary NotioE's" of the Methodist Ohuroh in France, we learn that Meth. odism began there exactly one hundred years ago. Now there are 64 ohapels Searle leaves his loving church and cannot and will not give any effect with his wife goes forth to bear the whatever to the votes which a majority gospel embassy to the mixed races of of its members recorded while in oppo- Africa. sition! Is this consistent withany pos- sible view of political morality? Is it English Wesleyan missions report grati- any wonder that the opposition preBS fying progress in the province of Can- taunts the supporters of the Governton. In three centres of that province- ment with their folly in supposing that Canton, Fatshan, and Mong Fu Kong– the fair promises of Liberal statesmen native self-supporting churches have meant anything? And will the nation been established under the control of tolerate such disgraceful tergiversanative pastors, and independent of tion ?" funds from the British Missionary Society. Trained to giving from the start .. The Father that seeth in secret" is of the mission, the churches above the Father that worketh in secret alBo. mentioned have now taken over the en- Whether at home or abroad, it is those tire financial responsibility. whom the, Father prepares who receive the Son. .The case of Ghulam Akbar, To-day there are nearly two thousand formerly mullah of a mosque in Haripur, more Christians in the Canton Province as detailed in this month's India's than there were in all China in 1872. Women, gives rise to thisrellection. No The total cost of Christian missions in Christian inlluence had reached him. aU China in 1872 was £120,000 sterling, He had only casually heard of the zenana and the present cost of missions in the teacher in the bazaars; but it is Canton Province is something less than enongh. the Father's secret work within £40,000, so that for one third of the made him more than ready to seek at money we have more Christians. With her lips the jewel of priceless instrucsuch facts and figures before us we tion. .. Here." said he, .. is the Koran, thank God and take conrage. here is so-and-so and so-and-so," men- tioning various Mohammedan contro- Much of the success of British Wes- versial and theological works; "bnt leyan missions in the Canton Province these do not tell me what I want, to is traoed to the training school at Tsang know. I am such a. sinner; how can Sha. A notable preacher, .Mr. Lau Sing I be saved?" The sequel does not sur- Nam, was trained at this institute. He prise us that one so manifestly dra.wn discourses in various large preaching of the Father should, at the close of halls in Canton five and often six days the second interview, have electrified a week, when he holds spellbound a his instructress by standing upright couple of hundred Chinese for an hour with his hand upon his heart and makor more. For many years his mother ing the solemn confession, ., I believe and brother were his bitterest oppo- that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; nents, but the Lord has heard his pray- and that He is my Saviour. " ers and brought both in penitence to the Saviour. The Rev. R. C. Forsyth, Baptist mis- sionary of Taing-Chu-Fu, Shantung, Great disappointment is felt in this North China, has had a good yesr. country at the attitude of the Liberal Many have been baptized and received Government toward the opium traffic as into the membership of the church. voiced by Lord Kimberley. The Friend He estimates the number of converts of Ohina thus sums up the matter: .. By this year at 120. the voice of their colleague (Lord Kimberley), who is responsible for Indian At the Baptist Mission Rsiu Chou. affairs, the Government declares that it Shansi, headway is being made, though for the time more under than above ground. The Rev. Herbert Dixon advantage of the special rates should writes, <lOur work here has progressed send their lIubscriptions throngh the quietly, without any great visible addi- secretary of the Movement, Bible House, tion to our numbers, though we have New York.
Bome such; but there are many more Contributions to the Fund may be who are willing to listen to what we sent direot to Funk & Wagnalls, 18 and have to say, and not a few who confess 20 Astor Plaee, New York.
that it is the truth, but say they dare We give below a statement of the ac- not face the persecution that open pro- count for the two years just past. It fession entails." will be seen that while the outlay has Cheering news is to hand from the been about the same each year, the in- Congo. The Rev. H. Ross Phillips re- come has almost entirely ceased.
ports at Mbanza Mputu the baptism of Dr. Or.
the chief of the town and four others. 1891. ..$200.40 1891. ..$291.80 The town was quite en fete. The ordi- l . 1892… 193.00 I 1892… 7.00 nance of the Lord's Supper followed $393.40 $298.80 the baptismal service. While curiosity De it balance 94.60 and wonder were predominant in many $393.40 of the spectators, there were signs of a deeper feeling. Scenes from Missionary Life.
Student Volunteer Fund. "The Bishop's Conversion, .. * by The editors :lind it necessary to make Mrs. Ellen B. Maxwell, is a book with another appeal to the friends of mis- a purpose. Ignorance of facts has been Idons, and of the Volunteer Movement the canse of much harsh criticism of in partioular. The offer of the REvmw missionaries 80S to their style of living.
at a prioe less than oost of publishing It is to dispel this ignoranoe and cor- was made in order that many of the rect false impressions that Mrs. Max- young men and young women who well gives to the publio this narrative have signified their intention to spend of every-day life and work in India.
their life in the Master's servioe in the The scenes are well selected and vividly foreign field might be enabled to grow and forcibly pictured; many of them in knowledge ooncerning the work to be being drawn from her own personal ex- done. The offer has been widely ac- perience. As Bishop Thoburn says in oepted, and has oonsequently necessi- his Introduction : "Practical mission- tated a oall for oontributions to make aries have nothing to fear, but much to up the. deficit. The outlay has been hope from a truthful presentation of about four hundred dollars ($400), and their work to the Christian public."
the donations from editors and friends The book will prove valuable in awak- reaoh only three hundred ($300). The ening renewed interest in missionaries amount lacking must go on increasing and conveying accurate knowledge of unless some response is made to this the constant toil and many hardships appeal. The editors and publishers are which they are called upon to undergo.
desirous of continuing their offer un- It cannot fail to convert many besides limited, and have recently extended it the bishop to a belief that missionary to members of the movement in Eng- life is not one of ease and luxury, but land. It is earnestly hoped that a gen- one which shows clearly the unselfish.
erous response in sums large or small ness and true heroism of those engaged will remove the necessity for any cur- in the work of the Master in heathen tailment or restrictions. lands.
Volunteers who are able to do so will '" The Bishop's Conversion. By Mrs. Ellen B. aid the cause by paying the regular sub. Maxwell. New York: Hutton & Eaton, Price scription price, Those desiring to take $1.50.
THE KON'l'HLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
I V.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
MEnco,* CENTRAL AMEBICA, WEST INDIES, CITY EVANGELIZATION.t The West Indian Isla.nds and the MOil- than three centuries after their discov- kito Ooast, ery of them could be. sung. better than BY THE BEY. PAUL DE SCHWEINITZ, NAZA· of almost any other part of this sinful BETH, PA. earth, It is certainly most appropriate in .. Where every Pl'Ollpect pleuea, And only man is vUe."
this year of the Columbian Exposition And the saddest part was, that the vUe to tum our attention to that portion of men were not so much the heathen, bow.
this New World which was first dis· ing down to wood and stone, as the covered by Christopher Columbus, and Christian (God save the mark!) Euro.
note what has been accomplished there peans.
for the upbuilding of Christ's kingdom Already in the early' years of the in those fair lands during these four Spanish domination the aborigines were centuries. Strictly speaking, it is only almost totally exterminated. The abo some of the West Indian islands that solutely fiendish cruelty practised upon are known to us four full centuries, and them by their Spanish conquerors, and the very name of the archipelago testi- often in the name of religion, resulted . fies to the first erroneous ideas of the in their annihilation. It is said that original discoverers. 2,000,000 of these mild Indians were This string of islands stretches in an found on the island of Hayti, and after S.shaped line from the peninsula of thirty years not one was left. No trace Florida to the northeastern coast of of the Caribs is now to be found any.
Venezuela, the somewhat deformed S , where in the islands.
lying on its side, and measuring, rough- These islands became the great bone ly speaking, 1500 to 2000 miles in length. of contention between conllicting Euro- The islands on the north and east, with pean nations and changed ownership the peninsula of Yucatan, Central and very frequently; but, no matter what South America on the west and south, flag waved over their unfortunate enclose the Caribbean Sea. which takes shores, the planters, having extermiits name from the aboriginal inhabit- nated the native-born laborers, were alants of these islands. The whole archi- ways clamoring for men to work their pelago lies between the 10th and 25th huge plantations. Hence in thele parallels of north latitude, and all, ex- wretched islands African slavery was cept a few of the Bahama Islands, south first introduced into the New World, of the Tropic of Cancer. Situated thull and for nearly three centuries the West in the most favorable portion of the Coast of Africa was depopulated to sup. tropical zone, the islands naturally ply the awful West Indian demand. present a most luxuriant vegetation, For many years the poor blacks were and are said to produce a greater variety deported thither at the rate of 100,000 and more magnificent palms than any a year. Catholic Spaniards, Lutheran other part of the globe. Oranges, ba- Danes, Reformed Dutchmen, Episco. nanas, cocoanuts, yams grow in great palian Englishmen imported, bought, abundance, while the sugar-cane and sold, branded, whipped, mutilated, coffee plantations have been the chief used for fiendish and IUltful purposes source of their commercial importance. these miserable sons and daughters of These islands were veritable little pars- Afric's sunny plains. Whatever may dises in the western sea, but for more have been the character of slavery else- • pp. 153 (Feb.), 180, 201 (this issue). where, here its barbarity beggars de- s(lJ,iption! and tile 4istillct f&Qe of Pl"Qlatpp. t 113 (Feb.), 161, 218 (tl;tis issue). toes to this day testify to its awful im- Moravian Church and the first mission momlitie1l1 One year, a<!cording to the to the West Indies on August 21st, 1732.
swom testimony of the planters them- The missionaries labored at their selves, sixty thousaud punishments trades by day to support themselves, were inflicted upon these helpless and at night preached the Gospel tc.
wretches in four colonies alone, and the poor blacks. Truly apostolic in- tholle the best ordered. One planter deed! The negroes heard the message caused the death of sixty slaves. gladly. Hitherto their principal knowl- Marriage was forbidden among them, edge of the name of God was derived and any attendance upon the means of from the brutal oaths of their overseers, grace was on the majority of the estates and if they had heard of the Saviour, punished by the lash. The imported they thought He was only the white negroes were kept in their original hea- man's God and Saviour. Now that they tnenism, and to its miseries, .. having heard He was for them, too, these weary no hope and without God in the world," and heavy-laden ones eagerly came unto were added all the horrors of such bar- Him to find rest for their souls.
barous slavery. The blacks, of course, But the masters and overseera at once far outnumbered the whites-even a few raised a storm of opposition. They years ago the whites formed only 17 per did not want their slaves to become cent of the population; and yet no one "better Christians than·· they were, "
of these" Christian" whites cared for and they feared the missionaries would the souls of these poor heathen hordes; interfere with their lustful practices.
and thus it went on for centuries. The slaves were flogged unmereifully Finally, far across the waters, in a lit- for going to the missionaries, and the tle colony of refugees for conscience' latter were finally thrown into prison; sake from Bohemia and Moravia gath- but they prayed and sang aloud, and ered with some eamest souls from vari- crowds gathered outside the prison ous provinces of Germany upon the es- windows to listen to them, and many tate of Count Zinzendorf in Saxony, were converted. At this juncture, "the eye of pity" began to gaze upon which was some six years after the in- these man-persecuted and apparently ception of the undertaking, and also God-forsaken blacks. When the little after various changes had taken place colony of Bohemian, Moravian, and in the force of the missionaries, Zinzen- German Brethren which constituted dorf, without knowing anything of the the but just renewed Brethren's Unity deplorable state of the workers, moved (Moravian Church) in Herrnhut num- by an irresistible impulse came himself bered only six hundred souls all told, with reinforcements to St. Thomas.
the first mission of this Church was be- When about landing he said to the ac- gun; and this mission was to the West companying brethren: "What will we Indies-just sixty years before Carey do if we find the brethren no longer sounded his call for a mi88ion to the there?" "Then we are here," was the East Indies. prompt reply. Whereupon Zinzendorf Touched by the tale of a negro slave uttered the historic exclamation : brought to Europe by a Danish noble- " Gens eterna-these Moravians!" He man, two Brethren, Leonhard Dober secured the prisoners' release, but the (afterward the Chief Elder of the opposition continued.
Church) aud David Netschmann (after- Not only did they have to contend ward the first bishop of the Renewed with evil men, but also with dire fevers.
Brethren's Church), .were dispatched The first fifty years of the mission on without funds and without any pros- St. Thomas alone cost the lives of one pect of financial support to found a mis- hundred and sixty missionaries, or an sion on the island of St. Thomas. average of over three a year on just that Thus began tM first mission of the otle iHland; but the gaps were always filled up and the work went on. Ten at this time, it is easy to see with what'
died on St. Croix in a few months, but difficulties the work is surrounded.
Zinzendorf only sang in German verse : Nevertheless, the Moravian missions ex- " Ten have been sowed as if 101lt, but pect to be constituted an independent upon their bed (seed-bed) stands' This province of the Unity, on the same foot- is the seed. of the Moors,' " while twelve ing with the home provinces, by July, were on their way to take their places. 1899, and are receiving but little sup- Six died in a few weeks on St. Thomas port from Europe lind America now.
in 1817. The same day on which the There are at this time but very few news reached Bethlehem, Pa., eight absolutely heathen negroes on the Brit- volunteered to take their places. ish and Danish islands. Nearly all are Such consecration had to tell, and nominally under the care of some their work spread from island to island ; church; but remnants of African super- but then their stations were often de- stition can be found among many. and vastated by hurricanes, earthquakes, sorcery is still practised by some. Sex- droughts, and famines, but neverthe- ual immorality, the awful legacy of sla- less they kept on. very, is tlteir besetting sin. The actual Gradually the opposition began to church-membership of the Moravian die down. Planters began to see that missions is not large, because of the the Christian negroes were more faith- striot churoh discipline exeroised; but ful and reliable, and that they brought the rules of the Churoh are very rigid better prices in the slave-market (sic I), in this respect.
and, by the by, to this day" Moravian" Another peculiar phase of the work negroes are particularly sought after as at present is the unfortunate caste feel- servants. ing that has grown up between the Thus for over a century the mission- "colored" and the "black" people.
aries labored among the slaves, until The blacks are those of unadulterated finally the Day of Emancipation dawned negro descent; the colored are those -in the British Islands, August 1st, with white blood in their veins. The 1838, in the Danish Islands in 1848. latter, little realizing that their color On the night of July 31st, whatever may testifies to their parents' shame, look have been the disturbances among the down upon and despise their blaok heathen negroes, the Christian negroes brethren. The" colored" people are, gathered in their churches and spent on the whole, more intelligent, but they the solemn night in praise and prayer. are slower to become genuine followers Their watchers were stationed on the of the Lord Jesus.
surrounding hills to report the first On the island of Trinidad, which has rays of the sun that was to rise upon but recently come into renewed promi- the day of freedom, and when their nence, there are a large number of hea- hallelujahs heralded that glorious dawn, then coolies imported from the East the worshipping congregations poured Indies, numbering over sixty thousand.
forth, praising God with loud voices almost slaves, and sadly needing the that the year of jubilee had come. blessed Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Up to that time there had, of course, The Moravians have a large number been no possibility of self.support, and of native helpers and teachers educated in spite of all the help received from in their theological seminary in St.
truly Christian planters, the work was Thomas, and in their nonnal school for beset with numberless difficulties. The male teachers in J aroaica and for female mission made great strides in the fol- teachers in Antigua and Jamaioa.
lowing yeaTS, but the problem of self- The Moravians entered the islands of support is being solved but very grad- St. Thomas and St. John in 1732; fit.
ually. As laborers receive in Bome is~ Croix, 1740 (these three are Danish, all Ilnds only 19 lind 20 cents a day even the rest of the islands on which Moravian missions are situated are British) ; prime.minister, or at least did in very Jamaica, 1754 ; Antigua and Barbadoes, recent times.
1765; St. Kitt's, 1777; Tobago, 1790 ; No attempt to Christianize the inhab.
Trinidad, 1890. On these islands they itants was made by any church for more have 50 stations, with 49 foreign mis- than three centuries after its discovery sionaries, including their wives; 14 or- until, in 1849, the Moravian missiona· dained native missionaries and 777 na- ries entered this field, and they are the tive helpers, exclusiTe of teachers, with only laborers there. The history of 40,468 souls in charge. Furthermore this mission is extremely interesting.
129 day schools with 171 teaohers, all but the space for this month has already native, and 13,749 scholars; and 70 been more than used up, and only a few Sunday-sohools with 938 teaohers and more sentences oan be added.
13,899 pupils. These statistios are for A peculiar feature of the work here the year ending July, 1892. The Mora- is that it must be oarried on largelyoy vians were the first to enter all these means of a ship. The coast is indented islands exoept Trinidad. If it were not with frequent lagoons, which make the for their striot discipline they oould building of roads impossible. Hence number their adherents by hundreds of the India.n hamlets can only be reached thousands. by means of a ship from the sea.
The Methodists, Baptists, Presbyte- In spite of the degraded condition of rians, and Anglican Episcopalians have the Indians, the mission has been won· missions on a great many of the islands derfully successful. The Nicaraguan already mentioned, and also on some Indians, have again and again begged where the Moravians have no stations. the Moravian Brethren to oome to them, We have no reoent statistios at hand of but the Jesuits have so far succeeded their work. On the French islands, in influencing the government to forbid Guadeloupe and Martinique, the only their entrance, although it is relenting.
missions (up to 1890) were those of the and a wide field of influence seems to Roman Catholic Churoh. be openin~ before this mission. The THE MOSKITO COAST. building of the Nicaraguan Canal will have a tremendous influence upon the Four hundred miles southwest from mission, we trust, for good, and it is Jamaica lies the Moskito Coast, which earnestly to be hoped that this canal is the east ooast of Nicaragua, in Cen- may remain under American (i.e .• Unit- tral Amerioa. It is a narrow little strip ed States-Protestant Christian) con- of land about 200 miles long, surrounded trol.
on all sides by the Republio of Nica- This summary must be closed abo ragua, except the east, where the Carib- ruptly with the latest statistics. There bean Sea washes its shores. It takes its are 12 stations with 19 foreign mission- name not from the insect, but from the aries, including their wives; 4 ordained Mosco or Moskito tribe of Indians, who native missionaries and 66 native help.
dwell there. It is about the size of ers, beside the teaohers with 4739 souls Holland, and has from 10,000 to 15,000 in charge. Furthermore, 13 day schools inhabitants-Indians, negroes, mulat. with 13 teachers and 671 scholars, and toes, and whites. It is becoming more 12 Sunday·schools with 44 teachers and and more important from a commercial 776 pupils.
standpoint.
Although disoovered in 15Q2 by Co- N. B.-Since the above article was lumbus, and claimed by various nations written the Nicaraguan government has in turn, it is now, strange to say, a granted permission to the Moravians to semi-independent Indian reserve, with begin mission work among the Indians an Indian chief as ruler, for whom the in Nicaragua adjacent to the Moskito Moravian missionary aots as practical Coast.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
VI.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY REV. D. L. LEONARD.
Extracts and Tra.nsla.tions from Foreign Jews in Germany. I have received Periodicals. news from Bavaria that a Dr. B. and all the members 'of his family ha.(re em· BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK. ANDOVER, MASS. braced Christianity; others are IIC- quainting themsjillves with the teachings -" The peoples who are able to main. of Christ, and our venerable missionary. tain their national independence are Mr. Jacobi, in Konigsberg, writes about proceeding to shape their ci viI institu. the great change which is coming over tions after the Christian pattern; the educated Jews. For instance, he has rest are accommodating themselves more been recently invited to the conference and more to the suzerainty of Christian of Jewish religious teachers of East nations. Prussia, held in Konigsberg. Among those who took part were nine school •• The axe is already laid at the .root inspectors and twenty.five teachers. of the trees ; and although the immemo- Rabbi Dr. Bamberger, of Konigsberg, rial, giant oak, planted by a ConfuciUEl presided. Papers were read on differor a Buddha, does not fall in a decade ent subjects by Rabbi Tonn, of Alten. or two, very probably not in a single stein, Rabbi Sturmann, of Osterode, century, yet the first strokes have fallen, Rabbi Dr. Rulf, of Hemmel, Rabbi and the counter·mission, engendered by Scherbel. of Gurnbirmen, Inspector them, proves that men anticipate its Rev. Peritz, of Konigsberg and others. fall. The Crescent also can hardly fail • I need not say that these proceedings Boon to strike its colors. An uneasy had great interest for me,' writes our foreboding says as much to the Moham. friend Mr. Jacobi, 'and the favorable medans themselves. If you could hear opportunity was used to distribute Gertheir private whisperings, you would man tracts.' "-Jewish Intelligence. find them everywhere lamenting: •It is the century of the unbelievers, the AFRICA. Christians' century.' The coming cen· tury also shall be ours; at first, no -" Among the West Coast tribes of doubt, sadly to their displeasure, yet Africa there are no written laws, custom afterward will they be thankful to us and the voice of the elders alone regu. and give glory to God."-L. TlERNERSMA, lating all their jUdiciary affairs. The in De Macedonier. administration of law is much more sim· pIe than in countries of a higher civiliza· -" It is cheering to notice that the tion, less troublesome, and, if anything, Grand Duke of Baden, son·in.law of the more effective. The conscientious stu· late Emperor William I., has taken a dent cannot live among these people firm stand against the anti.Jewish at· any great number of years without in· tacks. He lately celebrated the fortieth creased respect for many of the instituanniversary of his accession to the tions by which they govern themselves. throne. On that occasion he expressed Some of them, when described on paper his sympathy with the Jewish people, from the standpoint of the visitor, who and conferred high decorations on sev· at best can know nothing of the inner eral of their community-rabbis, univer. life. appear extremely grotesque when sity professors, magistrates. He sin- read on the other side of the sea by peogled out for a special distinction his ple who only regard the negro as a cartrusted Finance Minister, Dr. Moritz toon on human nature. Many things Elstatter, who has held this important that seem ridioulous from a distance be. post for twenty.four years. The Gos. pel is making great strides among the
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
come on closer inspection objects of ad- poses upon itself some task requiring miration. T4ese people manage to rule energy and self-sacrifice and patience themselves without all the long com· for the benefit of the world. There plicated system of Europe and the Unit- must be something big of some sort ed States. There are here no jails, no which it has to do, which does not pay policemen, no safes, and no lock,ups, directly, but which, consciously or un- and yet among the natives, pure and consciously, it insists on doing, even to simple, life and property are much safer its own immediate detriment. The than in countries that boast of their Roman work was to stamp the notion wonderful civilization. A brass kettle of law as distinct from will into the may be set down in the midst of the white races, and it did it, and died only town or village and left for an indefi- of weakness when it drew back from nite time and it will not be touched. that great task, and suffered the reign That article is known here as hard of will to overpower almost entirely the money, and is the same as gold in other reign of law. Our work in the world is lands. Try that in the city of New to give its dark races a fair chance of York and see how long it will remain advancing; to maintain among them the undisturbed. Many a time, while trav- wonderful pax Britannica, which makes elling, I have left goods that to a native a continent like India as safe as the would have been wealth, in a town, in Strand; to let them, if they will, civil- a mud hut, with no other protection ize themselves, and assist them in the than a simple mat hung before the door work. This is specially our work ,in to keep out the rain. Often they have relation to negroes-first, because we remained weeks; and would have been hate slavery, the grand negro trouble; absolutely safe for any length of time." secondly, because we alone of the na- -Rev. DAVID A. DAY, in Lutheran Mis- tions can govern negroes without op- sionary Journal. pression; and thirdly, because the -" Everywhere in Christendom,' negroes have chosen us out from the alongside of the great apostasy, which nations as the one they will obey most is extending so appallingly, there is easily. Even the slaves in the Southvisible also a growing love to missions. ern States, with all their terrible wrongs, Christendom, inspired, as it were. to a never rose on the Anglo-Saxon planters breathless emulation of effort, precipi- as the Haytian negroes rose on their tates itself upon the tribes encompassed French and Spanish masters. Dr. Blywith the night of heathenism, above all den, perhaps the ablest negro alive, has in this part of the world, which has testified in the writer's hearing that hitherto been accounted the darkest. wherever he has travelled among his This is visibly of the Lord. He is own people, and he has travelled far, he minded to tear away all hindrances has found universally the same feeling which yet delay His advent. He is -that they would rather submit to the minded to hasten His coming. For this English than to any other white race, end He sets every force in motion. Sci- the conviction being that·, though they ence and romantic love of exploration, are violent and sometimes terrible, they culture, and humanity, colonial and mean well by us!" Under these circommercial development, all is con- cumstances the leadership in East Afristrained to serve Him ; all these things ca, from the Mediterranean to the Cape, are highways for the feet of the messen- has fallen to us; and we conceive that gers that are publishing peace."- it should, at any reasonable sacrifice, be retained. Just look at this single Jahresbericht of the Unitas lfTatrum. case of Uganda. It is conceded that we – " We hold that no people will ever have there no white enemy to dread; keep up its character at its highest level and the facts, therefore, resolve them~ – keep it noble, in fact-unless it im- selves into this. By cutting a road-
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
we do not say a railroad-of three hun- we have actually secured to ourselves by dred and fifty miles; establishing a diplomatic effort a recognized though post or two; putting two or three thin kind of sovereignty. It seems to steamers on the Victoria Lake; and us that the House of Commons, if it organizing a minute force-say three votes for such a retreat, does a shamethousandmen-of Ghoorkasand Soudan- ful thing-as shameful a thing as could ese, with three mule batteries of artil. be done, except, indeed, one which, to lery, we can give a country as large and our amazement, is also pressed upon us fertile as England, with a large popula- by semi·official arguments. We can tion, profound quiet, commercial order, keep the protectorate, it is said, it being the opportunity of rising from the Afri. guarded by a European treaty, and yet can to the Asiatic grade of civilization. evacuate Uganda. That is to say, we We can allow Christian teaching, Prot- can keep our rights and do none of our estant and Catholic; we can set every duties; insist on our claims,. and fulfil man and woman free; and we can ren- none of our promises; leave Uganda, der it as safe to practise the simpler arts • the garden of savage Africa,' and -agriculture, weaving, andhouse·build- warn off any rival who might, from ining-as it is in Caithness or Sutherland- terested or other motives, restore a semshire. Englishmen can hardly under· blance of order. It is monstrous counstand what it is for negroes in Africa to sel. If we go, let us go utterly, and conmake even that beginning; but perhaps fess openly that our energy is overtaxed, they may l1nderstand the consequences and leave any white race that will try of our absence. The Arab slave-raid- to perform the duty from which, from ers, already on the verge of sovereignty, mere selfishness-for there is no other will enter Uganda, supported by their motive-we have shrunk."-The Specsavage allies, the Munyuema, and the tator, in Ohurch Missionary lntelligencer. fierce converts they arm with muskets, and turn the whole land into a wilder. -Lord Rosebery, speaking of Uganness whence all villages have disap- da, says to the C. M. S. deputation: peared ; where' no man or woman will "We-at any rate I-view it as a counbe safe from kidnappers for a day; try of great possibilities, as the key, where order will be unknown, except in perhaps, of Central Africa, as commandthe invaders' camps; and where one ing the Nile basin, as a field recently of third of the population will have per. heroic enterprise, as a land that ha.s ished, one third will have been sold been watered by the blood of our saints into slavery-predial slaTery, not do. and martyrs; and I, for one, as a Scotchmestic-and where the remaining third man, can never be indifferent to a land will have been driven out of its fields which witnessed the heroic exploits of into the jungle to live a hunted life on Alexander Mackay, that Christian Bay. roots and fish. In one generation hope ard, whose reputation will always be will have disappeared, Christianity will dear not only in his own immediate have been forgotten, and the people, northern country, but throughout the just emerging from savagery, will have empire at large. Gentlemen, I say that, been thrown back into the condition whereas we view Uganda from all these from which in three thousand years they different aspects, in my opinion you have only escaped at intervals-a con· represent the greatest force of all, be. dition worse, because a little more con· cause you represent what Mr. Bosworth scious, than that of the gorillas. And Smith eloquently called that continuity this not in a land of which we know noth. of moral policy which Great Britain ing, or with which we have no concern, cannot afford, at any time or in any but in a land which we have entered, dispensation, to disregard. That conwhere we have made treaties giving us tinuity of moral policy is a. moral force rights, and therefore duties, and where .by which, in my opinion, this country
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
has to be judged. It is the salt which than his own. The preacher at St. savors our history; it is a spirit which Paul's Cathedral yesterday said, with has exalted it; and it is by that when no less truth than eloquence, that one we have passed away that, in my belief, of the Divine marks of Christianity was we shall come to be judged." its suitability to people in all parts of the world. Well, that is perfectly true, MISCELLANEOUS. but we go far to diminish its truth-or at least to make that truth not apparent -Professor Kume, of the Imperial -if we go out with a sort of impression University of Japan, has published an that couples with the mission of preachessay designed to prove that Shintoism, ing Christianity the mission also to inwhich now worships only the emperor troduce, to teach, and enforce all the and the national heroes, was originally conventionalities of the civilization of monotheistic. This view implies a de- the end of the nineteenth century as nial of the divinity of the Mikado's an- seen in a respectable suburb of Loncestry, and has given great offence_ don." Professor Kume has been placed by the government on the retired list. He illustrated this by an amusing story : -" When a chief of the Cherokees was asked why the Cherokees are so " An old friend of mine-not a mismuch in advance of the other tribes, he sionary of this society, I am happy to replied: 'Because we have taken care say-on seeing a great congregation beto educate our women as well as the fore him in a chapel in one oJ. the Pacimen.' "-Home Missionary Monthly (W. H. fic islands, wrote an account of the M. Board, Pres. C.). scene, which subsequently found its way into print. He wrote: • The vast -The Church at Home and Abroad ob- building was crowded to suffocation; jects, with much force, to the expres- the king and the queen were there; the sion " this or that communion." It ad- hymns were sung with a sound like mits that, unhappily, we may require thunder; there was the most intense denominations for a good while to come, interest in the sermon I preached.' but remarks that amongChristians there And do you think the good man went can be but one communion, "the com- on to rejs;lice at the success of the sermunion of saints." mon? Not a bit of it ; no, he went on to say, 'And my heart was sad in me, -At the annual meeting of the So- for in the whole of that vast con~ega ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel, tion I do not think there were half a Sir Arthur Gordon, after remarking that dozen persons in complete European he had seen the society's missionaries costume.' "-Mission Field. in all parts of the world, and had, as he believed, ., never come across a single ""':At the same meeting the Bishop of missionary of it who was not animated Mashonaland remarked: "There seems by the true spirit, and who was not to be an idea that those who know most a self-denying man," proceeded to re- about missions do not support them. mark that" an abstract fitness" in mis- My experience has been the opposite. sionaries was hardly enough, but that Three of the most distinguished soldiers they should have also a fitness for the in connection with Africa, an admiral, particular place to which they were a governor, an administrator, are the sent." A missionary should be able to class of men who support us in Africa. enter into the feelings and spirit of There is a class who must be strongly others; he should not go out with opposed to missions, namely, those who stereotyped, fixed, Western ideas; and bring into these countries which must he should be able to tolerate other waYl:l tend to destroy the poor black children of living and other modes of thought both body and soul. These men must
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
dislike mIssIons with all their heartB ; opened, the peoples are brought near, and it would be well if our active op- to a degree of which only a few decades position to them were even stronger back there was scarcely a presentiment.
than it is. We tamely accept what we The Lord is laying a pressure on us to hear to the disparagement of missions work so long as it is day. Christendom without investigating the truth. More must trade with her talent ere the Lord than a year ago one of the most read of comes. Thank God that many in Chris- the London weekly newspapers pub- tendom have understood this summons.
lished a letter bringing against an Afri- However we may lament the shortcom- can mission, close to the home of the ings of the Church, yet none the less is writer, a certain definite charge. It it true that in obedience to the com- was answered by our offering to pay all mand of the departing Christ, • Go ye expenses in connection with the inquiry, into all the world and preach the Gospel and the value of the time expended, if to every creature,' the messengers of the the writer could prove a single instance Gospel are gone forth into all the world.
of what he had asserted to happen gen- In this work our Lutheran Church has erally. This answer was published in her part, and may she to-day, so far the same paper; but from that day to as represented by us; strengthen her this nothing has been heard of that faith anew, although on the word which man." was given of old, inllame her zeal and – " An example of Mary Mo.ffat's revive in the freshness of an undying love."-The Very Reverend Superinfaith is that during the darkest time, tendent WERNER, in Evangelisch-Lutherwhen not a single man or woman about isches Missionsblatt. them seemed in the least degree touched or even interested in the message of sal- -" The peoples contend with one anvation, a friend in England wrote ask- other, they advance in their might, in ing what presents to her might be of their civilization and culture, and then use. She answered: 'Send us a com- again decay; but through all the conmunion service; we shall want it some fusion and tumult proceeds the still footday.' The parcel was long on the way; fall of One Invisible, and amid the vicisbut just the day before that arranged situdes of nations and kingdoms grows for receiving the first six converts into a single kingdom day and night, the the Church, the box arrived containing kingdom of Him who saith: •All authe communion vessels for which Mary thorityis committed unto Me in heaven had asked hearly three years before."- and in earth.' When His appointed Woman's Work, in Missionary Reporter. time arrives He causes the sun of the -" When we cast our eyes over the Gospel to shine upon the peoples, and lands of the earth, over the shores of His love has then power to melt even the oceans, the broad continents and the ice which has chilled a hundred the island world, southward and north- generations under the bondage of sin, ward, eastward and westward, of many and to shatter the citadels of Satan.
peoples the first-fruits are scarce gath- Yet has He long patience to wait. Not ered in, and the great multitude are still till the long-delayed event may we ador.
waiting for the message of salvation. ingly say, 'It is the Lord.' Even thus The time presses. We know not how does St. Paul review the wonderful ways near the coming of the Lord is, but mul- of God with the nations, and exclaim: tiplying signs remind us of the word, , How unsearchable are His judgments e This Gospel of the kingdom shall be and His ways past finding out. For preached in all the world, for a witness who hath known the mind of the Lord, unto all nations; and then shall the or who hath been His counsellor? . . .
end come.' The ways to the heathen For of Him, and through Him, and to world are set in order, the doors are Him lire all things!' "-Ibid. IN GENERAL. -This is the scientific view of it, and science speaks with authority: "The -To him who, month by month, foreign travellers and residents in the from the whole wide world diligently South Sea Islands who write with such endeavors to gather facts relating to hOliltility of missions there are men who missions and to exclude all fictions, find the missionary to be an obstacle to there is solid comfort in the saying that the accomplishment of their evil pur- " the man who never makes any mis- poses." – Oharles Darwin. takes never makes anything." But all the same, the struggle for accuracy in -There;is a story of a minister who every statement goel! courageously on. plead so earnestly for foreign missions that, when he asked for those who -" Blessed are they who see the day would volunteer to enter upon the work, of glory, but more blessed are they who his own daughter came forward promptcontribute to its approach."-Bishop ly and offered herself. Taken by sur- Secker. prise, the father said: "Oh, daughter, I did not mean you." How easy to talk -Dr. S. J. McPherson, apropos of the with fervor without meaning much! recent decease of a certain millionaire, used these words so painfully and terri- -The tithe as a standard for giving bly true: "A selfish man is a Dead to the Lord will not answer for all. He Sea, and wants all things to be inlets whD gives $1 out of $100,000 gives far without any outlets; but a fine char- less than he who gives the same out of acter, like a sweet-water lake, must have $10,000 or $1000. Dr. Joseph Brown, outlets as well as inlets. His life is an of Glasgow, quaintly says that no man interesting study for likeness to the can overlook this principle of propor- Dead Sea." tionate giving if he understands his arithmetic, and that the practical neg· -In less than 80 Y'Olars 30,000 mis- lect of it can be accounted for only on sionary Baptists in the United States the ground that such people, when they have grown to over 3,000,000; while came to simple proportion, bolted over it 40,000 anti·mission Baptists have grown into vulgar fractions." to only 45,000. "I do not know," says Rev. William Brock, " what there would -A Brahman said to a missionary: have been in the Baptist denomination "We are finding you out. You are not if there had been no Baptist mission. so good as yonf Book. If you were as It was the real source of inspiration to good as 101U' Book, you would conquer the churches." Insert any other de- India for Christ in five years." nominational name and the statement is equally true. –Joel Chandler Harris, of "Uncle Remus" fanie, is the son of a mission- -The great commission of the Master ary. and is about to revisit his birthwho bids His followers" Go ye into all place on the African coast, where his the world, and preach the Gospel to parents were once settled. every creature," is often understood as if it read, .. Stay ye in this part of the -A building that at one time beworld, and preach the Gospel to the few longed to the Inquisition has been purpeople who have already heard it." chased by the Baptists of Bahia, Brazil, Whereas the command is to all, and for mission purposes. "Surely the equally to all. And the many who are wrath of man shall praise Thee." not called to go themselves are bound to send substitutes for the service-sons, -Whoso would conjure wisely with daughters, offerings-and to pray with- figures, first of all must be sure that beout ceasing to the Lord of the harvest. hind his figures are solid facts to match. Yes, go or send substitutes. Of the bulk of the world no census has ever been taken, and so whenever the numbers of human kind are given, it is to the next Assem bly looking toward &.
to be remembered that outside of North more economical expenditure of mis- America, Europe, and India, and a few sion funds. After expressing its con- smaller regions, all conclusions are fidence in the unity of the Church, and based only upon estimates-that is, its belief in co·operation as a practical guesses. Africa used to contain 200,- method of expressing that unity, it ex- 000,000 and upward to even 300,000,- pressed the desire to co.operate with ODD, but now statisticians name 165,- other churches in bringing about this 000,000, or even 130,000,000, as probably. reform in the missionary field of the.
nearer the truth; while a recent writer West.
would leave to the Congo Free State WOMAN'S WORK. bnt 8,000,000 out of the 40,000,000 who have been supposed to dwell therein; Past and Present.-It marked the be-· and, finally, along comes the Chinese ginning of a new and important stage in ambassador and declares that the popu- the growth of Christian missions wpen, lation of his country is grossly overesti- in 1861, and largely through Mrs. Doremated, and instead of 400,000,000 there mus, in Ne'!V York City, was formed the are but 125,OOO,000! Calculations, he Union Missionary Society, the first of says, have been based upon the num- its kind, at least in the United States, ber found to the square mile in the and by the co-operation of women. vicinity of the seaboard, while further from six denominations. The need back, over tbe bulk of the area of the of the new movement was so great, empire, the density of population is and the call was so evidently from on. much less. high, that presently the idea was taken. up and acted upon by others, and now it -Mr. Moody finds young Irishmen has come to this, that any church which from the old country so especially valu- is not supplied with a Woman's Board able, when trained for evangelistic is counted singular and far behind the· toil, that in closing his work in that times.
island recently he offered to depart from Not less than 75 such organizations his usual rule of requiring candidates can now be named, of which 50 are in the to bear a portion of the expense of their United States and Canada, and the rest training, and if 25 young men were sent mainly in Great Britain, with an aggre- from Ireland, he would put them gate income approaching near to $2,000,- through their conrse in the Chicago In- ODD, and upward of 5000 representatives stitute without any charge. in the foreign field, of whom nearly 2000 -Though not a .few Episcopalians have gone ont from Christian lands. have strong convictions against sending These four denominations stand at the " missionaries to Roman Catholic coun- front with respect to the extent of their tries, because they are already under work, though various others, according the jurisdiction of bishops who are in to their numbers and ability, have done the line of the apostolical succession," just as well or even better: the Presbythe Evangelical Ohurchman of Toronto terians, $316,734; the Methodist Epis. does not in the least share such strange copalians, $265,342 ; the Congregationscruples, and makes bold to affirm : "It alists, $218,935; and the Baptists, $213,- is the duty of Protestants to carry the 658. As a manifestation of zeal coupled Gospel to Romanists, who in some coun- with energy and skill, the society first tries-Spain, Mexico, and Brazil, for named reported receipts last year less instance-need it almost as m.ilch as the than those of the entire great Church by heathen." 'only $16.226, a phenomenon strange, if- not serious; and while the Methodist.
-The Presbyterian Synod of Oregon, Church South has been for some years I't its last meeting, adopted an overture struggling with a debt, the women. thereof have maintained a treasury years in the Galesburg, TIl., Congregablessed with a surplus in the bank. tional Church, 12 girls have gone as missionaries to foreign lands. At the The kinds of work undertaken are home of one of these in Tokyo she died." various, with school work most common. In the zenanas of the East women find -How many readers of the MISSIONa boundless :field, one desolate in the ARY REVIEW know that the membership extreme, and have it all to themselves. of the W. C. T. U., including the young Besides, in hospitals and elsewhere, not women's branoh and the ohildren of the far from 100 women are ministering Loyal Temperanoe Legion, has reached abundantly to the bodies and souls of in the United States alone 350,000, their sex. Nearly two thirds of that or that among the great things done it number went from this country. has procured 10,000,000 signatures to petitions for prohibitioll ? It maintains The enginery applied at home is the largest publishing society of women equally peculiar. The money is raised in the world, and is annually issuing by various devices, among which these 130,000,000 pages of printed matter, all are most common : by membership fees, used in pushing its great work of moral with dues paid annually, quarterly, or reform. Then there is also that magni. monthly; by pledges, mite-boxes, col- fioent $1,000,000 " temple" in Chioago, lections at public meetings held for the the quickening centre for all its world. purpose, etc. But perhaps the most wide aotivities ! noteworthy feature is found in the surprising variety and abundance of litera- THE UNITED STATES. ture furnished to diffuse information and kindle interest. Thus there are the -The following figures have been monthly magazines, bearing often names published by the Commissioner of Edu. so happily chosen, and edited with such oation : Number of pupils enrolled last ability and tact; magazines and papers year in the common schools of the oounfor children as well ; mission studies try, 13,203,170, and the average daily running through the months; prayer attendanoe,8,404,228. There were 363,- calendars to give definiteness and point 922 teachers, 122,551 being males and to petitions at the throne of grace, etc. 241,371 females, and the total expendi- In all which surely there is something ture for the support of the publio which the brethren are bound narrowly schools was $148,173,487. The prog. to observe, and also something which ress of education among the oolored they may often wisely imitate. people is presented in the following statistics: Number of pupils, 1,309,251 ; -Mary Allen West, who died not long teachers, male, 13,567 ; female, 10,497. ago in Japan, whither she had gone in behalf of the Woman's Christian Tem- -It may now be taken for granted perance Union, is a woman not soon to that the Utah question, whioh for fifty be forgotten. In the" crusade" against years has been our perplexity and our the saloon of twenty years ago she took shame, may be regarded as settled, a an active part; in the sublime move- thing of the past. After what legisla. ment which soon grew out of it she was tion has accomplished, aided most not long in coming to the front, and for effectually by the vigorous mission years wielded a wide influence as editor work of the churches, it only remains· of the Union Signal. In particular this to continue the teaching and preaching fact is notable : work and hold the region yet longer in territorial condition, and in due season "She graduated from college when polygamy as well as priestly tyranny but seventeen and entered at once upon will live but in memory. The recent her lifework as a teacher. Her influ- amnesty proclamation of the President ence over her pupils was strongly re- was a wille recognition of the existing ligious, and out of a large Sabbath- status. The churches out there numschool class which she taught for many ber 89 with 98 ministers, while there Batavia, TIl., gave to the (colored) theofire 81 schools with 6518 scholars. logical seminary at Atlanta, Ga., now called by his name, the sum of $350,000 -Sooner or later it is the impossible for buildings and endowment, and now, that is certain to happen. Or, in the by the terms of his will, a further sum tooth of the famous historic statement of $750,000 goes to the same institution. to the contrary, the mountain in our These large gifts may well stand with time and land is actually moving toward the Slater fund of $1,000,000, the Hand Mohammed. That is, Rome, after an- fund of $1,500,000, and the Peabody athematizing and fighting our public- fund of $2,000,000, allleEt for the benefit school system time out of mind, has at of the freedmen. length concluded to come to terms with the institution and kindly suffer it to -When a few weeks since Rev. Edsurvive-yes, even to make friends there· win E. Bliss died in Constantinople, with. So the zeitgeist in America is too after forty.nine years of distinguished much even for the Pope. service, a life of far more than ordinary usefuln.ess came to an end. When he -But, speaking of the prophet of entered Turkey in 18!l3 the work was Islam, the telegraph tells us that an just at its beginning, and in all the reo emissary even from far off Manila is markable progress which has since been on his way hither, Koran in hand, and witnessed he bore a prominent part. In in the person of Alexander Russell particular he helped nobly to create a Webb, late United States cOllEul and a Christian literature, and to build up for recent convert to the same, to turn us both sexes a system of schools and col- .all into Mohammedans, since theirs is a leges. HolY fast the fathers are passing loftier faith, and theirs also are purer away! morals. At least 53,000 rupees have been contributed for his .. mission" by -The American Seamen's Friend So· the faithful in Rangoon, Calcutta, and ciety sustained in 1892 sailors' homes, Hyderabad. Bethels, chaplains, missionaries, col- porteurs, and Bible readers (in all 35) -On the 14th of last December the in 32 foreign and domestic seaports. Board of Regents conferred legal au· The whole number of new loan libraries thority upon the International Medical sent to sea by the society, from 1858-·59 Missionary Society to establish in New to April 1st, 1892, was 9761 ; and the York City a misiiionary school of medi- reshipments of the same for the same cine, the first institution of the kind in period were 10,933 ; the total shipments the world. aggregating 20,694. The number of volumes in these libraries was 505,020, -There can scarcely be two opinions and they were accessible, by shipment upon the legislation upon our statute and reshipment, to 369,093 men. Teu books concerning the Chinese. It is an hundred and seven libraries, with 36,409 open violation of treaty pledges, it is an volumes, were placed upon vessels in outrage upon an innocent population, the United States navy, and in naval and was a piece of the merest political hospitals, and were accessible to 115,- demagogism. If retaliation was ever 504 men, and 146 libraries were placed in justifiable, it is now, and from China. stations of the United States Life·Sav- Except that the law seems certain to be ing Service, containing 5467 volumes, an utter failure, and so will but cover accessible to 1168 keepers and surfmen. its originators with confusion. Almost to a man so far the Chinese pay it no -The colored Baptists of the South beed, and to enforce it, to send, them are making an earnest effort to develop all back, would cost some $10,000,000 ! their missionary work in Liberia. Some At any rate, John Chinaman is no fool. six years ago they sent a missionary and his wife to the Congo under au agree- -Some years since Mr. Gammon, of ment of co-operation with the American has a synod in and about Arizona whose Baptist Missionary Union. Within a area is greater than 5 States the size of few months they have been making spe- Pennsylvania. On the roll are 26 mincial effort to arouse interest in their isters, 17 Spanish helpers, and 42 Liberia work, one of their missionaries churches with a membership of 1360. -the Rev. Mr. Johnson-having spoken Several of the churches are Spanish and in many places in this country, and then 1 is Indian. gone to England to secure funds there_ -The Oumberland Presbyterian ex- -The Christian (Disciple) Church claims: "Just think of 170,000 memcontributed for foreign missions last bers and $20,000 given to home misyear $70,321, of which but $1751 were sions last year! Or, in other words, from bequests. In all, 1338 churches we gave eight and one half cents per contributed, from 1468 Sunday-schools member to establish our Lord's cause came offerings to the amount of $21,907, where the Gospel is needed in this land." and from 193 societies of Christian En- And the call goes out for $25,000 in 1893 deaTor, $1830. for foreign missions.
-The fiftieth anniversary of the ar- -From Philadelphia, sent forth by rival of Father Heyer at Guntur, India, the Umted Presbyterian Church on Nowas celebrated in many Lutheran Sun- vember 2d, a party of 7 missionaries day-schools during the year 1892. About sailed en route for Egypt; 2 men with 400 connected with the General Synod their wives and 3 unmarried women. contributed a jubilee offering for foreign Two were returning to their work, and missions amounting to $5,562. To 5 were new to the work. this amount is also to be added several thousand dollars contributed for the -" Liberalism," somehow, does not support of students, numerous helpers appear to be conducive to evangelistic in gospel work, the erection of prayer zeal. For the other day, at a gathering houses, and similar mission work. of Boston Unitarians, by one of their own number it was stated as a,fact that -The M. E. Church, South, began the 15 Congregational churches of the work among the Indians as far back as city of Worcester give more in a year for 1823, and has expended upon them in all missionary purposes than all the 450 upward of $400,000. In the Indian Ter- Unitarian societies in the country. ritory last year they could report 90 missionaries and a membership of over DOMINION OF CANADA. 12,000. This same church has a Mexican mission which embraces three con- -Many years ago there was a refuge ferences, and stretches westward to the for lepers at Tracadia, on an island in Pacific and southward to the State of the mouth of the St. Lawrence. A pa- Michoacan. About 80 native preachers tient who had been confined there made are in service, and Q'Ver 5000 native his escape and sought shelter in a hosmembers are enrolled as communicants. pital in Montreal. Before his death he told one of the sisters the horrible con- -The Presbyterian Church is bestir- dition of this abode. He said they were ring itself to take in hand the matter of fastened up in it, and then left entirely doing its share toward Christianizing to themselves, their food being thrown and Americanizing the millions of Ger- over a high wall, while the ground man immigrants, bearing in mind what within was knee deep with mire and a German once said: "Unless the filth. The Superior applied for leave to Americans take care of the Germans, send some of the sisters to take charge the Germans will take care of the of this place. As soon as she received Americans. " it she called together the sisters under her care, told them the story, and asked -The Presbyterian Church, South, for four volunteers, offering herself to £120,203. The Church of England so. lead them, The entire 30 came forward, cieties raised £539,510 ; joint societies from whom four were chosen, and they of Churchmen and Nonconformists, have changed the abode of horrors into £206,330; Nonconformist societies in a clean, orderly, cheerful Christian England and Wales, £456,348; Scotch home, and have established churches and Irish Presbyterians, £210,306; and and schools, Roman Catholics, £9015.
-The Methodist Church has reIJeived -The Boys' Brigade in the United this ap,Peal from missionaries in China : Kingdom numbers over 1600 officers and " In view of the present settled state of 21,000 boys, making it the largest Christhis great province of Sze.Chuen, with tian organization of boys in the world, its forty to fifty million people, the many Those in charge have practically decid· openings for missionaries, and the im. ed in favor of having an encampment of perative and present need of workers, the brigade at th.e World's Fair, though 25 missionaries are expected, in answer all the details are not as yet settled. to prayE'r, to join us here by the year 1900. This will necessitate the depar. -This gentle reminder from theture from Canada each year of two mar· Propagation Society is always in order ried men and two single men, or one concerning the statement frequently msrried man and three single men, be- made, and which in a sense is also true, ginning with August,1893." And one that the Baptist Society is the oldest of them adds: "Mrs, Hartwell and my. missionary organization in England: self cheerfully offer to receive into our The oldest of all such organizations is home, to board and lodge free, for one the now little known. New England year, two young men, unmarried, who Company, which was founded by act are willing to come to Chen·tu." of the Long Parliament in 1649, and in. corporated by royal charter in 1662. -The Board of French Evangelization The Society for the Propagation of th& of the Presbyterian Church reports for Gospel was fonnded in 1701, and it is 1892 that 36 mission fields with 96 frequently averred that becluse it was preaching stations have been supplied, founded for ", the religious instruction 24 mission schools carried on, and 12 of the king's sul'ljects beyond the seas," colporteurs employed. An ever.increas- it did no missionary work until the ing number of children from Roman early part of the nineteenth century. Catholic homes has been attending the Admitting for the sake of argument that mission schools. In some of these al. to plant the Church in the colonies is most the total attendance is Roman not missionary work, the slightest ac· Catholic. For example, in one ~hool quaintance with the condition of the 14 out of 17 are Roman Catholic ; in .. king's subjects beyond the seas" in another, 15 out of 16; in another, 23 the eighteenth century would prevent out of 28. 'In fact, except in one or two our forgetting that in that category schools, the Roman Catholic attendance were large numbers of heathen for is not less than one third and often more whose conversion the Society labored than one half. from the first. So long ago as 1704 it sent missionaries to the negroes and EUROPE. Indians in what is now the State of New York; in 1712 it extended its work to Great Britain.-Canon Scott Robert. the negroes in the West Indies; in) 749 son has just completed his liwenty-first to Central America, to the Indians on annual summary of British contribu. the Mosquito Coast; in 1752 to the tions to missionary societies for propa- negroes of West Africa ; and in 1778 to gating the Gospel in foreign parts. The the Indians of Canada. total for the year 1891 is £1,421,500, an increase of the sum realized in 1890 of -It was indeed II mysterious providenee when the Roumania was ship- a Protestant church at Madrid has been wrecked off the coast'of Portugal a few consecrated with the consent of Premier weeks since, and several missionaries on Sagasta. The consecration ceremony their journey to take up their sacred had been postponed repeatedly because tasks found a grave in the deep. the approval of the conservative pre- -" I believe in the Salvation Army mier, just succeeded by Sagasta, could because the wealth of wisdom, wit, and not be obtained. "Protests" indeed! work in women has been utilized by Axe we dwelling in the nineteenth cenyour great leaders as never before in the tury or back in the ninth instead?
cause of our Master and Lord. I am a -The Evangelical Church' of Italy Methodist, and my apprenticeship in (Chiesa, Evangelica d'Italia), as the Free the mighty church founded by Susanna Church is now called, in the minutes Wesley's son John, and set to music by of its last biennial convention, held her son Charles, long ago taught me in Florence, reports encouraging prog- that for the hosts of God to go forth ress. Letters addressed to the body without women was like a bird beating by prominent Protestants throughout the air with but a single wing. The Christendom show how this Church has Church has long hobbled on one foot. won universal respect. The relations Your Axmy has succeeded in getting the to the Waldensian Church are cordial, other foot to the' floor and' the swing though the hoped-for union has not of conquest' is the result."-liTances E. been effected. The most serious diffi· Willard. culty is found in the education of can- -Mr. Weir, of Greyfriars, Dumfries, didates for the ministry, for which the in sending to the foreign mission sixteen proper facilities are yet wanting. The shillings, the last earnings of a young last convention was composed of 38 workman who was killed in an accident, delegates, representing 25 churches, and writes: .. The parents said that they 34 groups of circuits and stations.
eould not bear to put the money to any -Herr Frederick Krupp, son and sucordinary use, and that they wished it cessor of the great founder of the Krupp given to missions. It was the money gun, on the occasion of the unveiling found due to him by his employers." of a memorial statue to his late father, -The Free Church calls on the young gave 500,000 marks to a committee to of the 1100 congregations to supply expend in erecting 100 small cottages, £2000 for a hospital at Tiberias upon with gardens, for the use of the most the Sea of Galilee, and so in the very deserving of the workmen in his employ.
region where the Great Heal~ wrought ASIA.
so many wondrous cures ! Turkey.-It is gratifying to learn The Continent.-In France the gov- that Caxton's art is making rapid progernment pays the pastors, not only of ress in Jerusalem. Two weekly news. the Catholic but of the Protestant de- papers, in pure Hebrew-Ha' Or (" The nominations. This rule obtains also in Light") and Hachawazeleth (" The Flowthe colonies, so that even Mohammedan er")-are issued, and both enjoy a good mosques are maintained by the State. circulation. Jerusalem, an annual, held It costs millions of francs. There is a in great repute on the Continent, is also strong disposition to abolish the ar- published there. It is curious to note rangement and have a free Church in a that several of the monasteries in the free State; but Napoleon's concordat Holy Land publish their religious works with the Pope stands in the way. through the Jewish book· pUblishing houses established in Jerusalem, though -In spite of the emphatic protests of s6'veral of the institutions have their the papal nuncio, the Bishop of Madrid own presses and issue Latin and Axabio and thousands of aristocratic Catholics, books for private use.-Jewish World. Persia.-Mizra Abraham is a convert sin," and adds, .. The catechist says from Islam, whose steadfastness and there are not less than 300 others ready Christian zeal in persecution are at publicly to renounce their old faith in present exciting not a little interest in favor of Christianity." All these belong Persia. He was arrested for preaching to the Mangs, one of the lowest of castes Christ. He was beaten and tormented in the city, the basket-makers, the horn- and cast into prison. For three weeks blowers and drum-beaters at marriages, he was in prison in Oroomia, and after- births, and other heathen ceremonies. ward in Tabriz. He persisted in con- fessing Christ. He has won the heart -The Indian Witness reports that the of his jailer, receiving, in consequence, aggregate additions to the Christian liberty to see his friends, read his Bible, community connected with ~he Meth- and speak to his fellow-prisoners. Ten odist Episcopal missions within the out of the 11 criminals in jail he has bounds of the North India Conference won over to Christ. Thousands of Mos- for the year ending October 31st, 1892, lems are having their attention thereby amounted to 14,410 persons, children called to the claims of Christianity. and adults. In this conference there are 42 native pastors who draw their -In Tabriz, when the missionaries support entirely from the people. wanted a school building, the best place they could find was one already occu- -Rev. R. C. Ha;ting8 writes of the pied by a distillery, with ample room churches in the Ceylon Mission that the for more buildings of the same sort. total number is 16, with a membership Mrs. William Thaw, of Pittsburg, gave of over 1500, and that 10 of these pay the money, and they bought it, building all their expenses, including pastor's and all, put up more buildings, turned salary, contributions to benevolent so- the distillery into a dormitory, and that cieties and running expenses. A good is the school to-day! record indeed.
India.-Which is it? Are women so -Adjutant Abdul Aziz, a Mohamme- ridiculously cheap, or are cows so alarm- dan convert to Christianity, now has ingly dear, that Miss Sugden, a returned charge of the social work of the Salva- missionary, can report that" a cow is tion Army at Bombay. worth 100 women"? And, further, she says that men of India claim that only -According to statistical tables pre- three women have ever gone to heaven- pared for the recent Bombay Conference, to wit, our Lord's mother, the mother 53 denominations are carrying on mis- of Mohammed, and oneof the prophet's sionary work in India, besides 5 women's wives. societies of an undenominational char- acter, and 7 isolated missions. In them -The Irish Presbyterian Church re- all are found 808 ordained missionaries, , ports this soUd growth in Kathiawar in 785 ordained natives, 114 foreign and ten years: stations have increased from Eurasian lay preachers, 3336 native lay 15 to 18, ordained missionaries from preachers, 171,214 communicants, and 7 to 12, native agents from 38 to 108, 534,113 adherents (native Christians). communicants from 248 to 389, Chris- The increase in nine years is 123,000 in tian community from 1808 to 2162, and adherents and 62,000 in communicants. the attendance at schools from 1706 to Classified according to ordained and lay 3593. workers, both foreign and native, com- municants and adherents, Madras has -Mr. Wilkie, of the Presbyterian 355; 1319; 99,000 ; 341,000. Bengalhas Church, Canada, reports from Indore 219 ; 781 ; 38,000 ; 108,000. Northwest· that "over 300 people have publicly ern Provinces and Oudh have 92 ; 209; retlOunced Hinduism and profess faith 14,000 ; 30,000. Punjab has 50; 293 ; in Jesus Christ as their Saviour from 6000; 20,000. Bombay has 48; 278·; 9000; 22,000; and Central India has Korea.-The presence of Dr. Allen, 21 ; 170; 2000 ; 9000. of the M. E. Church, in Seoul, in De- China.-There are over 100 medioal cember, 1884, saved the life of Prince missionaries in China, and 56 of them Min Yong Ik; and this resulted in the are women. They reaoh those who establishment of a hospital under Chrisare beyond the reaoh of male missiona. tian auspices and supported by the ries, even though physicians, and touch king. It also prepared the way for the home life as no others oa.n. physicians and teachers as nothing else would have done. The king has pre- -How easy, with suoh a oommon· sented to this hospital a signboard con- sense pla.n, to do much with a little! A taining the name given to it by him, missionary in China says that any which being translated is, " Widespread ohurch society of 60 members, each giv- Relief Hospital, " ing 2 cents per week, could preach yearly, through a native preacher, to 50,000 -A missionary writes that in this persons. He knows of 5 societies who country" woman's work is never done. " have adopted this plan, and working to· " They are expected to keep their husgether provide a floating chapel and dis- bands and sons iu spotless linen, and, pensary, a Christian doctor and 2 native as the men dress completely in white, preachers; and during last November wearing even white leggings, and as and December they preached in 100 Korea abounds in miry clay, the washvillages, and gave medical aid to more ing becomes no mean thing. Moreover, than 1000 persons. when one learns that every article be· fore it is washed must be entirely -" When my soul comes to a body picked to pieces, and after it is ironed on earth again," said the wife of a high remade, the sewing looms into gigantic official one day, " I want to be a dog, proportions. The Korean women have not a woman. A dog can run about as no soap, no tubs, no washboards. The it. chooses. If one has a will as high as clothes are carriod to a mountain the heavens one ca.nnot stir hand or stream and there rubbed on the stones, foot, we are so fettered by our cus- They have no irons, so the pieces of toms." cloth are wound over a sort of rolling.
-In the Fuh-kien province 993 per- pin and patted with a stick-a most sons were baptized last year in the Eng- laborious and tedious process, but one lish Church's missions. Bishop Burdon which gives linen a gloss almost equal confirmed 100 candidates in Hing-hwa, to that of satin. The traveller coming which has never had a resident Euro- into a town far into the night never pean missionary. fails to hear the tick-tack. tick-tack, -In Paotingfu, the capital of Pechili, that announces the woman at her ironthe chief literary man of the province ing."
recently came to one of the missionaries Japan.-The fall term of the Doshisha and gave him about $75 with which to purchase scientific books. So that after at Kyoto opened prosperously with 144 all the hide-bound and conceited Celes- in the preparatory department, 215 in tials do begin to feel the influence of the college department, 56 iu the theothe Western world. logical department, 63 in the scientific, and 16 in the law department, making -The M. E. ChurCh, South, has two 494 in all. Dr. Davis says: "I never main centres of work, the one at Shang- began the school year before with a hai and the other at Soochow, a city of braver or happier heart, or one more at 500,000, the literary focus of the em. rest and peace. "
pire, and to which 20,000 " stUdents" -Mr. John Imai, the first "priest of gather at one time to pass examination the Anglican Church in Japan, in de· for literary degrees. scribing the work done by the various 'Christian bodies, speaks of the Congre- people, and is characterized by a tacigationalists as having the advantage of turn self-reliance which makes him instrong ed"1lcational foundations, the valuable in such enterprises. Presbyterians as successful in winning converts, the Methodists as noticeable ISLANDS OF THE SEA. for forming strong centres and schools, the Roman Catholics for possessing -A few years ago Mrs. Allan, of Glas- 30,000 adherents, and the Greek Church gow, Scotland, a member of the family <the largest body) for its trained native which owns the Allan Line of steamers, clergy. visited Japan, and on her return to Scot. land offered £750 to Rev. R. A. Thom- -Count Inoue, Minister of Home son, a Baptist missionary at Kobe, to Affairs, has given $800 to the Christian begin a mission on the Loochoo Islands. 'university (Doshisha), has erected at Her offer was accepted and the mission Yamaguchi a building for a mission, begun by sending two Japanese evanand has aided several mission schools gelists to Naha, the principal port of for girls. Count Ito, the Prime Minis- Okinawa, the largest of the Loochoo ter, is also a friend and supporter of Islands. Mrs. Allan died last spring, Christian schools. and on the very day of her death the first Loochoo convert was baptized at -Japan also has its Great Northern Naha. Railroad extending some 500 miles from Tokyo to Aomori, a seaport at the north- -It is 20 years since Dr. Mackay, ~rn end of the great island Nippon. missionary of the Canadian Presbyterian Church, began to labor in North For- AFRICA. mosa. The result is in that part of t,he island at this day 2605 baptized Chris- -Bishop Ferguson, of Cape Palmas. tians, 50 native preachers, 2 ordained {lalls especial attention to the fact that pastors, and many other workers. the Cape Palmas tribe of Greboes had raised a sum of money to purchase a This same Dr. Mackay writes that Bible to take the place of their fetiches, "North Formosa has a neat chapel in and remarks: "Such a thing as a memory of China's great evangelist, heathen tribe's giving up its gregrees William C. Burns, and she will soon and taking instead the Bible as a token have one dedicated to the memory of of its acceptance of the Christian re- India's heroic defender, Alexander Duff. ligion. to be henceforth its rule and In June last I received £102 from an guide, has never taken place in this aged Christian lady in Canada. The land before, and it speaks loudly in donor heartily acquiesced in the sugfavor of our work." Comparing 1889 gestion that the latter memorial church with 1892 he finds that the baptisms should be erected, and as she has no dehave increased from 470 to 702, the con- sire for pUblicity her name will not apfirmations from 235 to 281, and the com- pear. " municants from 645 to 896, -Seven Presbyterian churches-Can- -General Dodds, who led the French ada, Free Church, churches of Victoria, forces in Dahomey, is of Irish parent- New South Wales, South Australia, New age, but a native of the French province Zealand, and Tasmania-cumbine to of Senegal, where he has passed the send 18 missionaries to the New Hebgreater part of his life. His first ser- rides. All these are united in a synod vice was in the marine infantry, until in which meets to receive reports, discuss 1890, when he was put in command of matters of business, vow/grants, etc. A all the forces at St. Louis, and organ- meeting w~ not long since held on ized the Dahomey expedition of last Aneityum, at which 41 were present, year, He has great knowledge of the wives and children included.
The Missionary Review of the World — August 1892
FATHER ANGELICO OF POLLINA
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XV. No. S.-Old Series.–AUGUST.–VOL. V. No. S.-New Series.
FATHER ANGELICO OF POLLINA.
BY ARTURO MUSTON, PALERMO, ITALY.
Father Angelico was born in the year 1866 in Pollina, Sicily, a small village containing about 3000 inhabitants, in the province of Palermo and the neighborhood of Cefalu, where the celebrated cathedral built by King Roger in 1145 still attracts admiration for its majestic Norman style and precious mosaics. Though Pollina is said to stand on the ruins of tho ancient and famous ApoUonia, ih is at the present time a poor, dirty place, and its people merely peasants. "Can any good thing come out of Pollina 1"
Giuseppe Collosi-the real name of Father Angelico-is the son of a miller there, and was sent to school, going through the elementary classes in Pollina. Then he helped his father in country work, but, at the age of sixteen, his mother, who is a strong Romanist, superioress of a confraternity, sent him to Castelbruno, under the pretext of pursuing his studies in the Convent of the Capuchins, but with the real intention of making him a monk. Giuseppe felt no attraction to the .monastic life, and begged his parents to let him stay at home. But his mother told him, that if he would not enter an order, his home would be closed against him. On May 8th, 1884, he put on the sacred habit as a novice. This was in open contradiction to the Italian law, which forbids the increase of monastic orders. Nine months after, the chief of police in the place entered the convent with the gendarmes, to ascertain if there were only students boarding there (as the monks said) or real novices. The Fathers tried to evade the questions, but, bemg found out, all the novices were sent out. The Superior, for his false statement and for having no diploma or permission to teach, was fined 500 francs, with five days' imprisonment. Giuseppe, much frightened at first, because he expected to be imprisoned also, felt very happy when he knew he was free to go home. But his mother, fearing that if he once took off the monastic dress he would not put it on again, compelled him to hide himself in the house of ~ friend, who had a son in the same condition. Every week, secretly, the (J.uardian went to confess them j and after two months an order came from the GeneIal in Rome to send these youths to the Convent of Sortino, in the province of Syracuse.
Here began for our young friend the thrilling conflict between his conscience and the monastic rules. He was to be reduced to the condition of a corpse in the hands of his superiors, one of whom, the" Provinciale," was especially stern and severe; he had to learn the hypocritical appearance of piety, and to begin by showing himself humble and submissive. His eyes were always to be down to the ground j for raising them he was immediately punished with the" straccio," which is a band going round the head and covering the eyes. For hours and hours, ~ven when going out, he had to wear it j to speak to a !luperior, even to ask permission to drink a little water, he had to kneel down and kiss the floor, remaining in that position until he was allowed to move.
Although they thus moulded his outward man into a good novice, he felt in his heart, more strongly than ever, a repulsion to lIuch a life. But where was he t6 go? what was he to do ~ Having taken there the" voti semplici," he was sent to the Convent of Gibilmania to study philosophy. A year passed when he was called, according to our civil laws, to go through the various forms of military service. He felt the greatest pleasure in bidding good-by to the convent and dressing himself once more as a man, hoping never again to enter those horrid walls. But his bther being seventy years of age, his son was not permitted, according to Italian law, to enlist. He tried to enter the gendarmes brigade, but his parents prevented him and brollght him back to the convent. Being a clever fellow and studying well, in order to bin-d him down they gave him minor orders (August 21st, 1887), and a year after (September 9th, 1888) he made the solemn profession in Gibilmania, and was received as a regular friar, assuming the name of "Father Angelico." His superiors wanted to confer on him also the higher order of the priesthood, that he might celebrate mass and earn money for the convent. He was then allowed to go home for a little holiday. He tried to have himself transferred to the secular clergy so as not to g@ back to the convent, but an order came for him to start immediately for Catania, under threat of suspension "a divinis" (that is to say, prohibition to celebrate mass, etc.) if he did not obey. He was therefore obliged to leave Pollina, and go to Catania.
In the Convent of Catania began the interesting part of his life, for here doubts began to assail him regarding the various dogmas of the Romish Church. He knew nothing of the Gospel and evangelical religion, yet his own intelligence and common-sense rebelled against the supremacy of the Pope, his infallibility, the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, and he had strong doubts about the power of the priest in transubstantiation and in confession. As he put questions and made objections, they considered him a heretic, and his lecturer and professors reported him to the " Provinciale," who compelled him to remain hours on his knees, repeating the Miserere, and scourging himself with a leather thong called the "dis- ciplina. " It is easy to understand that the flagellation was not an adequate answer to his doubts, and would not dispel them. About that time they made him study ethics, giving him as text-book the celebrated" Speculum Vitre Humanre" (the mirror of human life), by the Spanish bishop, Rodrigo Saurio di Sanchez. It is a guide to the confessor. This scandalous book is the worst teacher of immorality. It is so vile that the lecturer himself did not read the lesson aloud, but said to his pupils, " You will read from such and such a page in your cell, but, to keep the devil from tempting you, you will read it kneeling down!" A new discovery, surely, that it doet! not hurt a ~an to drink poison on his knees, though it would were he standing or sitting !
Our friend was disgusted and shocked. He said openly to his superior that he could never put such questions to those who came to confess to him. He was called "Protestant," and had to recite more Misereres, with tbe scourging. He was known in the convent as an inquirer, and a man of independent mind also. One day a lay friar, Fra Carmelo, secretly took him into his cell, and began to speak of "the Protestant people" who were in Catania; he said he knew the Waldensian minister, an ex-priest, Signor Bellecci, and went on to explain what the Evangelicals believe. He concluded by handing him a Bible, translated by Diodati.
Father Angelico accepted it with eager interest, and read it, comparing it with Martini's translation; he was struck with the untruthfulness of the accusation that Diodati had falsified the text. Although he knew his Latin Bible well, and had read it often, he could find no text which prohibited the reading of it in a spoken language. The reading of Diodati aroused stronger doubts than ever, and not finding the truth in Rome, he would have found it (being led by the Word) in Christ, had not Father Giuseppe, from Nicosia, discovered him and reported him to the Guardian and "Provinciale." For three days he was kept on bread and water, wearing the " libano" (a rope made with a kind of long grass) round his neck, and a crown of thorns on his head. Of conrse, he was more closely watched than ever, and the monks tried to blot out all impression by calumniating the Protestants, and especially Signor Bellecci, upon whose character they poured all the ink of the convent. . The Bible was confiscated, and subsequently burned with special ceremonies in presence of the monks assembled for the occasion. This triumph of the devil was the forerunner of a cruel deception for those hypocritical fanatics.
Father Angelico, although they were very kind to him, was most unhappy. All the kindness of the nuns of a convent in the neighborhood where he was to say mass could not check his disgust; they used to send him quantities of sweetmeats (the sisters in Italian convents are celebrated for their skill in preparing sweets, liqueurs, etc., and they sell an enormous amount of these first-fruits of their piety every year) ; besides, he received presents of beautiful embroidery from the same nuns, who had special sympathy with the Capuchins.
The Guardian had conferred on him the honorable title of " Discreto,"
which means his confidant, and promised that the following winter (1890-91) he should be appointed lecturer on theology in the Seminary of Messina.
All this while Father Angelico desired to visit Signor Bellecci, the Waldensian pastor in Catania; but he was watched (shadowed), and, as opposite Bellecci' 8 dwelling there was a house belonging to the Guardian, Father Spina, he was greatly perplexed how to manage it. One day he decided to go, but was caught and taken to the convent, where he had to undergo severe punishment.
The rules and regulations of the Capuchins allow the monks to go back once a year for a few days to their homa j and on July 27th, 1890, Father Angelico left Catania for Pollina. On the way he stopped in Cefalu, where the bishop, knowing his case, tried to allure him by promising to speak for him that he might be transferred to the secular clergy. He did, in fact, write to Rome, but the answer was in the negative. The bishop, nevertheless, appointed Father Angelico vice-curate in Pollina and kept him there several months in that office, although his Provinciale had suspended him " a divinis !" – Father Angelico's state of mind was most critical. He was more and more dissatisfied with Romanism, having before his eyes the abominable behavior of the priest of Pollina j therefore, although the PlOvinciale promised him a welcome at the convent, and urged him to go back there, while his mother pressed him to resume the monastic life, he felt less inclined than ever to obey them. He had in this manner spent more than four months in Pollina, when he came to the decision to write to Signor Bellecci, since he had always been prevented seeing him. Signor Bellecci, in December last, answered him, giving him direction and encouragement, and advising him to address himself to me, the Waldensian pastor in Palermo. The letters were opened in the post-office of Pollina, and the priests informed of their contents, so that a second stronger suspension fell on the head of Father Angelico on December 23d, 1890.
At length, on January lOth, 1891, Father Angelico called on me in Palermo, asking earnestly to be delivered from his unhappy position. I had an opportunity of speaking to his heart and conscience, and, as I bade him good-by, I insisted on his giving the proofs of his earnestness and sincerity by leaving everything for Christ, and providing for his own living. He took with him some books I gave him to help him in the study of the Holy Scriptures. We continued to write to each other, I doing my best to lead him in the path of righteousness. He tried to get an appointment as a teacher, but Pollina being divided into two parties, and his father belonging to the one which had been defeated in the last election, he could not succeed in obtaining anything. Meantime, he was seized with influenza and laid up for a month, in which he suffered much, because his mother, bigoted and hard-hearted woman, would not nurse him, but constantly reviled him as a heretic, and threatened to turn him out. So, when he began to recover, she refused to light a fire or prepare food in the house as long as he was there. She grossly insulted, and even attempted to beat him. In this extremity, that he might not rebel or cause any more disturbance, he left his home, and immediately his mother had it sprinkled three times with holy water! The poor, ignorant woman declared that her son was possessed by the devil, and was becoming a " Negromante."
Father Angelico came to Palermo, straight to me, last April, declaring his sad Case. An ex· deputy of Levante had offered to help him in opening a shop if only he would have nothing to do with the Protestants, and he was ready to advance 20,000 francs for it. Here, in Palermo, a lawyer, an ex-provincial deputy, promised him that if he would remain a priest, he would guarantee him so many masses. They also tried to speak to him in the name of the archbishop, but his decision was made, and nothing could change him. He courageously came publicly to our meetings, dressed as a. monk, and numbers of priests running after him. A monk of his order stopped him, and tried to take him to the convent, but left him when he had received the answer, "I follow my conscience, and you yours; we will both have to answer before God for it." I felt very much perplexed, however. I had cherished the hope that Father Angelico would find a situation, and then we could have looked after him. But had I a right to arrange beforehand what God in His providence would do 1 Would I be justified in abandoning a sonl who is striving against the darkness and longing for light 1 I put it all before the All-wise and All-powerful One, and stretched out a brotherly hand to Father Angelico. As I noticed from the beginning that he was a clever fellow, gifted with clear intellect and a good memory, I thought that perhaps God could make him useful in His service; and I hope he may be able to take his diploma as a Latin professor, and that he may become a powerful evangelist. With this object in view, my friend and colleague, Signor Bassanelli, and I give him every day a regular course of instruction in evangelical doctrine, in which he shows himself really most intelligent. But, while we feed his soul, heart, and brain, his body also needs food and clothing. Will not some Christian heart join us in this work, which is not charity to a man only, but for the glory of God ~ May the Master Himself choose some co-operator among His disciples!
[The preceding paper is reprinted from A Voice from Italy, in order that our readers may have an opportunity to become acquainted with the life of one who has been led of the Spirit from the darkness of Romanism into the light of the pUfer Gospel of Christ. We hope and believe that it wiII cause many to feel a keener interest in the work which is being carried on in Italy and other Papal lands where efforts are being put forth to dispel the dark clouds of superstition and break the bonds of priest-rule which are upon Papal Europe.-ED.]
BONIFACE, "THE APOSTLE OF GERMANY."
BONIFACE, "THE APOSTLE OF GERMANY." BY REV. HENRY GRACEY, ST. ANDREW'S MANSE, GANANOQUE, CAN.
In an article in THE MISSIONARY REVIEW (August, 1891) a brief account was given of early mission efforts among the Germans. These were con- ducted for the most part by zealous men from Ireland, who by their self- denying labors gave proof of the devotion and piety which in the sixth and seventh centuries characterized the Irish Church. By the methods then in vogue-teaching as best they could, founding monasteries, clearing the forest, and cultivating the soil-these missionaries tried to induce the people to give up their rude and violent life, embrace Christianity instead of idolatry, live in peace one with another, and forsaking th4lir cruelties and vagrant habits, adopt the customs and practices of a higher civiliza- tion.
These mission enterprises were not directly under the control of the Bishop of Rome; nor were the doctrinal views and practices of the mis- sionaries in accord with the great Latin system, which was rapidly extend- ing its influence and control over all branches of the Church, and speedily developing that eentralir.'.ed government destined to play such a prominent part in the affairs of Europe in the succeeding centuries. '
We purpose giving in this article a brief account of the establishment of Roman ecclesiasticism in Germany in the eighth eentury, and of the man who was the agent in bringing this result about, Boniface, the Apostle of Germany, as he has been called; and as we learn the story of this undertaking and compare it with what had been hitherto done, we are impressed with the advantage resulting from organized effort, from effort aiming at some definite end; and of individual effort backed up by powerful sympathy and assistance from the main body of Christianity. And how- ever we may be disposed to question the methods sometimes followed or to dispute the positions sometimes taken, we may yet learn from this story a useful lesson regarding what is necessary to make modern missions suc- cessful-namely, unity of aim and of action among t.he several branches of the Christian Church which are carrying on work in the foreign field; and a strong feeling of sympathy in the whole body at home with the work abroad, which sympathy must show itself in practical support and assistance wherever needed.
Boniface, whose original name was Winnifred or Winfred, was born about A.D. 680 in Kirton, Devonshire, Eng. Very early he showed a . strong leaning toward a monastic life. His father at first opposed this, but finally gave way to his son's eager desire. Young Winfred entered a convent in Exeter, where he received his early clerical education, and where he distinguished himself by his aptitude and diligence. He was noted for prudence and administrative ability to such a d~gree that when still quite young he was chosen by his convent as their agent in difficult cases. He became much interested in mission work, which was then a common ten- dency among devout young men in England and Ireland, anrl. resolved that he would devote himself to the eonvert;ion of the pagans.
In 715, when thirty-five years of age, he set out for Friesland, where he hoped to do something for the ignorant people of that country; but as Radbod the king was then at war with Charles Martel, major dorno of the French palace, the state of the country was so unfavorable that he was compelled to retire without accomplishing anything. He returned to his convent in England, where the monks of his cloister were anxious to make him their abbot; but he declined the office, preferring Bome position demanding greater activity.
Still cherishing the desire to be a missionary, he conceived a plan of procedure which ho thought more likely to be successful than the one he had already tried, or those upon which so many of his fellow-countrymen had carried on their missionary labors hitherto. He accordingly applied ' to his friend, Daniel, Bishop of Winchester, for a letter of introduction to the Pope. Armed with this epistle, he made a pilgrimage to Rome in 718; was introduced to Gregory II.; laid before him his purpose, and solicited his sanction and support.
The Pope readily approved his undertaking, and commissioned him to preach the Gospel to the pagan nations of Germany. He started on his mission, and began work in Thuringia; but he soon found that he could not accomplish much without the support of France, to which a large part of Thuringia was subject. He went accordingly to the French court; had an interview with Charles Martel, who was the practical ruler of France; laid before him his scheme, and Bhowed him the Pope's sanction and commission. What the immediate result of this appeal to Charles Martel was does not appear j but it shows us the determination of Boniface to succeed, and the comprehensive view that he took of the situation. He was a man of res.Qurce. He had the genius to contrive and the resolution to execute. About this time Radbod, King of Friesland, a resolute enemy of Christianity, died, and Boniface at once went back to that field to try again to get a footing there. Willibrord, Bishop of Utrecht, was so favorably impressed with him that he wished to make him his successor. This honor, however, he declined, being strongly of the opinion that it was his mission to carry the Gospel to the Germans. This conviction shaped itself before his mind in the form of a dream, in which he heard a call to go to Germany, and was assured of success in his enterprise. Accordingly, in 722 he went into Hessia, where he was encouraged by the early conversion of two native princes. There he founded a monastery and continued his labors for some time with varying snccess, being hindered a great deal by the prevalence of wars with the neighboriug Saxons.
In 723, in obedience to a call from the Pope, he visited Rome a second time, when Gregory II. consecrated him bishop over the district in which he was laboring; but befl)Tc he was consecrated he was required to, take the oath of allegiance to the Roman See. At the tomb of Peter he made a declaration of the following kind : " I promise thee, the first of the apostles, and thy representative, Pope Gregory II. and his successors, that with God's help I will abide in the unity of the Catholic Church j that I will in no manner agree with anything contrary to the unity of the Catholic Church j and whenever I find that the conduct of the presiding officers of churches contradicts the ancient decrees and ordinances of the fathers, I will have no fellowship or communion with them j but, on the contrary, if I can hinder them I will hinder them, and if not, I will report them faithfully to the Pope."
These latter clauses were designed to check, as far as the influence of .
Boniface could check, the progress of independent missions in Germany, and to bring all under the one central control.
This oath told powerfully upon the organization of the German Church.
Boniface was a man of wonderful integrity, nacrow in his views, but strong in his convictions, and disposed to give a literal interpretation to his instructions. The Pope of Rome never consecrated a man more devoted to his interests or more determined to carry out faithfully what was en- joined upon him. He was just the agent for the time and the place so far as the interests of the Roman See were concerned. The mission work done hitherto among the Germans had not been favorable to the imperialism of Rome. Those Irish missionaries had shown too much independence and too little regard for the peculiar doctrines and practices of the Latin Church. To secure, then, the establishment of the papal power over Europe, it was most necessary that the work of bringing in the pagan tribes should be carried on under Roman auspices and in accordance with Roman methods. To have a rival system spread through Germany was very repugnant to the prevailing sentiments of the Italian Church. Boniface was accordingly bound by the solemnities of an oath to use every means to stamp out this dangeroU!;' leaven, and substitute in its place the ecclesiasti- cism that had taken such deep root in southern and western Europe. The result showed the advantage that organization, system, centralization has in a great enterprise over desultory methods and disjointed machinery; and the method in which this old-time missionary undertaking was carried on has in it a lesson for us in this nineteenth century. If wise plans, judicious management, broad and statesmanlike methods are able to carry the worse cause to a successful issue over the better, surely these same means would redound to the great advantage of the truth and the pure Gospel if we would apply them on its behalf. To-day a missionary spirit pervades the Church as never before. The opportunity is granted her as never before j but the disjointed and sectional method in which the great Protestant family is working puts it at a disadvantage in the great enter- prise. We are overlapping each other, and so wasting men and means.
We are presenting a broken front to the heathen, and so suggesting to thero the idea that we are not sure among ourselves what we believe j land working individually and separately we cannot work upon any wide· reaching plan. The need of our age for success on the foreign field is harmony, co-operation, and a united front before the heathen.
After his consecration in 1723 Boniface returned to his field of labor. His mission was not only to gather in the paganil, but also, and probably chiefly, to bring into obedience to Rome those among the German tribes who had already embraced Christianity. The question was whether a free Christian de-elopment should get a foothold in Germany, or the Roman hierarchy should rule there with a rod of iron as elsewhere. The latter alternative prevailed, and Boniface was the man who by his energy, his devotion to the Pope, his constructive and executive ability, and his unswerving purpose brought about this far-reaching result.
During the lifetime of Charles Martel, Boniface had the assistance which his countenance and protection gave. There is no evidence that he ever employed the authority of the French ruler to compel the people to accept baptism j but he did use it to maintaiu his authority in advancing education, maintaining discipline, and removing idolatry. This latter he made an important point. He suppressed idolatry with a strong hand. The overthrow of pagan rites and the substitution for them of Christian ceremonies were prominent in his method of dealing with pagan peoples. Illustrating his method; the following story is told: At Geismar, in Hessia, there stood a gigantic oak sacred to Thor. It was regarded by the people with feelings of awe, and was a popular rallying-point for idolatrous rites. For a long time it hindered the progress of the Gospel. Boniface determined to bring the matter to a crisis by destroying the oak. So one day, accompanied by several of his associates, he proceeded to the spot with an axe, and began to hew down the sacred tree. The people expected to see him smitten for his temerity, but when no harm came to him, and at length the oak fell, the people became ashamed of their superstition. He ordered the timber of the tree to be used for the erection of a chapel in which to worship God, and so he put an end to that piece of idolatry.
But if he overthrew one kind of superstition and one form of idolatry, he introduced another which developed into practices almost as debasing. When Boniface was consecrated Bishop of Germany he brought with him from Rome a large stock of relics to be used for the promotion of piety among the people. On a later occasion another Pope, Gregory III., sent him a fresh supply when he was created archbishop, so that idolatry was not eradicated wholly; only the grosser forms practised among a rude people were changed for the not less sensuous forms which had received the sanction of the Bishop of Rome.
This method of teacbing the people was in entire harmony with the spirit of that age. Mosheim says, " The whole religion or piety of this and of some subsequent centuries consisted in founding, enriching, embellishing, and enlarging churches and chapels, in hunting after and venerating the relics of holy men, in securing the patronage of saints with God by means of gifts and superstitious rites and ceremonies, in worshipping the images and statues of saints, in performing pilgrimages to holy places, and in other similar practices."
The religious exercises introduced into Germany were in accord with these prevailing views and practices. However, Boniface did not neglect instruction, such as was considered necessary in that age. "That he himself studied the Scriptures may be inferred from the fact that he often imported from England copies of the same, together with expository works, fairly written on account of his weak eyes. There are still extant a few fragments of discourses preached by Boniface, probably after being trans- lated into the langnage of the country." With a view to the instruction of the people he founded monasteries in central spots of the tribes, whence proceeded the culture of the people as well as practical lessons in reclaiming the wilderness. Many monks and nuns from England came over to him when his work had attracted attention and his fame had spread abroad. These he employed as teachers of the people; and they spread among the rude inhabitants of these districts, as far as they could, a knowledge of the various arts and sciences, together with religious instruction. It is apparent that stress was laid on instruction from some of his ordinances; for example, it was directed that no man or woman should stand in the relation of godfather or godmother unless he or she knew by heart the Creed and the Lord's Prayer j that no person should be appointed priest who could not repeat the form of renunciation at baptism, and the confes- sion of sins in the language of the country.
The success of Boniface was very great. He labored with great zeal for the conversion of the people. It is said that up to 739-that is, in about sixteen years-he had baptized nearly one hundred thousand pagan inhabitants of Germany. This was effected, it is said, " by his exertions . and those of Charles Martel." How far the authority a.nd influence of the soldier went in these conversions does not appear; but no doubt the knowledge that he desired and approved the conversion of the people would have not a little effect in making the preacher's appeal successful. Of course where great masses of people are brought into the Church there is much that is superficial j and a great deal depends upon the after dealing with the converts. Boniface exerted himself to destroy the old forms of idolatry, and every monument that spoke to the senses of the old heathen religion. He also labored to give the people some instruction by preaching and by the schools connected with the monasteries.
In 732 Boniface was made archbishop, but without as yet a metropolis. On the death of Raginfred, Bishop of Cologne, in 744, Boniface was anxious to make that the mctropolis. This proposition, however, was not approved; but a little later Boniface was made Archbishop of Mentz. After he was made archbishop the Pope appointed him his legate to visit the Bavarian Church, which had not yet received any permanent organiza- tion. Thh duty he discharged in 739, when he gpent some time in Bavaria, and founded under the papal authority the four bishoprics of Salzburg, Regensburg, Freisingen, and Passau.
During the life of Charles Martel Boniface had received countenance and protection from him that was of great advantage to the missionary laboring among a rude and uncivilized people, who respected might more than right; and in most of his undertakings Martel supported Boniface. Yet the rough warrior had ways of hi~ own that sometimes discouraged the bishop. Boniface forbade the clergy to take any part in war. Martel was in favor of their doing so. The bi~hop, of course, maintained that all Church property was sacred, and could not be diverted to secular uses. The soldier did not hesitate to sequester at will the property of churches and convents. Boniface was eager to crush all independence among Christian teachers within the limits of his jurisdiction, and compel all, from whatever quarter they came, to acknowledge the authority of the Pope as represented by himself, and accept without question Romish doctrines and practices. Martel was not in favor of this. He did not desire the Pope to have such decided preponderance; and hence he would not give 'his consent to violent proceedings against worthy men, whose only fault was some degree of independence in religious views and practices. This disposition on the part of so powerful a friend prevented Boniface from going as fast and as far as he would like in the work of subjugating all to the Pope.
But when Martel died, in 741, his sons, Carloman and Pepin, were far more ready to join with the zealous bishop in his schemes, of reform. Accordingly we find Boniface after this proceeding against certain parties on the ground of heresy. The accounts of these cases that have come down do not enable us to form a very accurate idea of their merits. Of course we have only one side of their case. Boniface carried his point against most of his adversaries; but the hesitation shown by Pope Zacharias in confirming the sentences, and his request that the parties should be sent to Rome for a second hearing, and the fact that one person deposed from the bishopric by Boniface was upon a hearing before Zacharias restored to the office with another see, show that the Bishop of Germany exhibited a zeal that was considered at Rome extreme-that he was mOle devoted to the papacy than the Pope himself. However, great consideration was shown to the views and opinions of Boniface, being very properly regarded as one of the greatest men of that age and one of the most loyal to the Church.
Boniface exerted himself to establish regular provincial synods in the region over which he had control. These synods had been utterly neglected. In the Frankish Church none had been held for a period of eighty years; but with the sanction of Carloman, and indeed at his request, Boniface called a synod, and through it took preventive measures against the lamentable abuses that had crept into the adminbtration of Church affairs. In connection with this Rubject it may be mentioned that" Pope Zacharias had expressly clothed him with full powers to introduce into the Frankish Church a thorough reform in his name. He held in all five synods. In these he caused to be passerllaws whereby the clergy were bound to a mode of life better corresponding to their profession, and forbidden to take any part in war or in the chase on pain of being deposed from office. At these sYllods several persons were tried as teachers of false doctrines, belonging, as may be supposed, to that class whom, in the times of Charles Martel, Boniface had not considered himself strong enough to put down. "
After he had succeeded in getting the affairs of the Church arranged mOi'e to his liking, and having founded bishoprics to meet what he considered the needs of the German Church, he became anxious about a successor to carryon the work. lIe applied to the Pope for liberty to choose a snccessor, which Zacharias at first der-lined to grant, but subsequently he was allowed this privilege; and he selected as the man to occupy his place and carryon his work au Euglishman named Lull, who had been for twenty years trained under his eye and had served as his colleague. Boniface ordained him a bishop, and very earnestly appealed to King Pepin that he might have the royal sanction. His appeal was granted; and now he felt that he had made every provision within his power for the future success of the work he had begun and carried to such a degree of prosperity and promise.
Being now relieved from anxieties about the conduct of his work, he resolved, though seventy-five years old, to set out upon another missionary journey. Friesland, the land of his first mission enterprise, was again his destination. He made arrangements for his burial in Fulda, his favorite monastery, in case he should die in this expedition. With a small retinue, composed partly of clergy and monks and partly of servants, he embarked on a boat by the river Rhine, and landed at the Zllyder Zee. His disciple, Bishop Eodall. joined him in Friesland. They made a pilgrimage through' the country; many received them gladly; they baptized thousands, and founded new churches. Having appointed a certain day for the confirmation of those who had received baptism, all were to meet at a place not far from Dockingen. To this place Boniface with his companions resorted on the day appointed, June 5th, 755 ; but the enemies of Christianity, hearing of this arrangement, resolved to make it a day of mourning instead of a day of rejoicing. They gathered together armed for their murderous wOlk, and coming upon the missionaries, who expected a far different band, they slaughtered most of the company. Boniface thus fell a martyr, and with him his friend and disciple, Bishop Eodau, and most of their companions. So ended the most remarkable career of the eighth century.
In forming an opinion of Boniface we must judge him according to the standard of the age in which he lived. Looking at him as he occupied his place and fufilled his mission, we discover traits of character and capacities for managing men, for organizing crude masses into something like order
THE GREATEST WORK IN THE WORLD
and usefulness, and for exercising discipline, that show him to have been a man of decided ability, a man destined to direct and administer affairs.
Then, as we look at his life work and judge it as a whole, we must con- clude that he was sincere and pious according to the standards of that time. He was a man resolute of purpose, extremely conscientious, pains- taking and self-denying in respect to all duty, and most zealous in main- taining and promoting what he considered the glory of God. He adopted heartily and without reserve the Romish theocratic chureh system; and with all his energy, zeal, and natural ability he tried during his public career to carry that out.
Ris zeal was tempered by prudence. He was not a man to play the hypocrite-to pretend to approve a doctrine or a praetice which in his heart he condemned-yet he could patiently wait for the most suitable time for carrying out his purpoRe. Re never pretended to be a worker of miracles or to the exercise of any supernatural power. He wrought along the lines of ordinary human aetivity. He has been, of course, very highly lauded by his admirers, and very bitterly assailed by the enemies of his reputation. .
Perhaps a fair estimate of this notable man may be given in the words of Dr. Murdock, the translator of Mosheim: "He [Boniface] appears to me to have been one of the most sincere and honest men of his age, though he partook largely in the common faults of his time-an e}.vessive attachment to monkery, and a superstitious regard for the canons of the Church and the externals of religion. With all his imperfections he deserves to be classed with those who followed Christ according to the best light they had, and who did much to advanee true religion among men."
THE GREATEST WORK IN THE WORLD-A PLEA FOR MIR SIONARY ENTERPRISE.
BY JOSEPH BOOTH.
[The writer of this article has a right to be heard, for he has !ltarted for Africa to carry out in person his own convictions.-Eo.] The following statements and suggestions are addressed to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who accept His words as final, who rejoice in Him as their Saviour, and expect shortly to stand before Him as their Judge.
The ,. greatest work in the world" is that marked out by the Lord Jesus Christ to be accomplished by His followers between His ascension and His return-viz., this Gospel of tbe kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations j and then shall the end come (Matt. 24: 14) ; and again more definitely after the resurrection His last words were, " All authority hath been given me in heaven and 011 earth; go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, and 10, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."
We have heard these solemn and definite words so frequently that they have become trite and almost powerless. We do not recognize in them an utterance of the mightiest possible significance to every kindred, tribe, and tongue; compassing a work so large that after eighteen centuries it is far from complete j an utterance, indeed, that may yet have power to rise up in judgment against us.
Gazed at in the light of the great white throne, what do the words mean to present-day Christians ~ Simply this, that if the trust is not yet discharged it is for us, the Christians of this generation, to rise up at once in the strength of the Lord and with loving obedience carry out His great parting command.
Is the work done? No. Eight hundred millions of our fell()w-travellers . to eternity have never heard of Christ or of heaven.
What is being done l Between seven and eight thousand European missionaries are now in the field, and about three million pounds yearly are subscribed for the work.
Can these overtake the work l No j for there still remains eight hundred millions of heathen whom they cannot reach.
Are more laborers willing to go? Yes; ()ver six thousand in America alone are waiting, and probably over several thousand more in Great Britain and her colonies.
Why are they not sent l Because funds are not available, the revenue of almost every society, as shown by the annual reports, being already overtaxed, and some having large deficits.
What is needed to complete the w()Tk and give the " Bread of Life" to all? lR order to give one messenger to every twenty thousand heathen forthwith, forty thousand more workers would be required.
Have the believers in Christ sufficient men and means to send the required numbers ~ Yes; probably so. Then why is it not done? Ah! it is not for us to judge one another. The great day will declare whether we have done our part. Is there any solution of the difficulty? There must be, since Christ has "all power," and He says, "Go," and because He guarantees His presence to the end of time. That we have a right to expect and demand in God's name that every barrier shall give way is manifest from such promises as Isa. 41: 10 ; 45 : 2. 3, 6 ; 54: 2-4; 60; 1-5. There may be many ways of attaining the desired end, but is not one solution found in the principle laid down by Carey (the father of modern missions) a century ago-viz., that each mission station be made self· supporting and self-propagating ~ May not the work of the future need to be done where possible on these lines! Since the work of Carey and his two compeers resulted in their earning over £61,000 and expending the same on mission work in India, planting twenty-six native churches, trallRlating the Bible wholly or in part into thirty-four languages besides supporting themselves in comfort, the prac- ticability and great possibilities of the method is demonstrated. .
That they may not have been ordinary men is probable; bllt who is ordinary that takes full hold of the mighty power at command stored up in the" exceeding great and precious promises," which are all " yea and amen in Christ Jesus, unto the glory of God by us" ?
That great natural gifts, though desirable are not essential, is manifest from such assurances as Luke 10 : 21 j 1 Cor. 1 : 26-28.
Let us review the position for a moment: The work to be done is plain; "the field is the world."
The advance guard of workers are waiting with untold reserves to follow.
God's purpose is plain, " r will give Thee for a Light unto the Gen- tiles, that Thou mayest be My salvation unto the ends of the earth."
The barriers to the Gospel are down or faIling on every hand.
The Christians of this generation have the knowledge, the men, the means, and the responsibility.
The power of God to do the work is at our disposal.
All needed elements are, therefore, at our command to do the work, if we have the will to apply them.
Who will avail themselves of the high calling of God?
Who, with humble thankfulness to Him for being permitted to become co-workers with God in earth's noblest and greatest work, part of His eternal plan (John 3 : 16), the theme of heaven (Luke 15 : 7) and the joy of eternity (Rev. 5 : 9-13), will throw their whole being, body, soul, spirit, experience, and means into this glorious work?
Who will count it higher than earth's highest honor to be the ambas- sador from God to those whom He expressly designs shall hear His message 1 Who is willing to bury their own little will and live only to do the greatwill of God ~ Who is willing to hear the Lord say, " As My Father sent me, even so send I you"? and again, " I will make you fishers of men" 1 and yet again, "Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit" 1 (John 15 : 16.) Who with a holy, heaven-born resolve will determine" that neither things present nor things to come" shall prevent them from taking the part God would have them take in this great work ~ Let us remember that the blood of over fifty ~housand heathen, dying daily without the knowledge of God, will rest upon this generation if we neglect to rise with a mighty purpose to the work He has given us the privilege and responsibility of doing. (Read Provo 24: 11, 12; Ezek.
3 : 18.) Let us look with unaverted gaze at our Lord's searching words, " He that receiveth not My sayings, the word I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day j" again, " Fear not them that kill the body j"
"He that loveth his life shall lose it j and he that loseth his life for My sake shall find it j" again, " Sell all thou hast, and come follow Me j" "-VVhosoever doth not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disr:iple j" agaiu, " :Every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for My name's sake, shall receive an hundred-fold and shall inherit eternal life" (Matt.
19 : 29).
The position of the present-day believer is accnrately expressed in the words of the late Hon. Keith Falconer: "While vast continents are shrouded in almost utter darkness, and hundreds of millions suffer the horrors of heathenism, the burden of proof lies upon you to show that the circumstances in which God has placed you were meant by Him to keep you out of the mission field."
Beware of consulting flesh and blood too much; consult Jesus Christ.
Beware of the wiles of Satan to lull to sleep and apathy.
Beware of the evasive suggestions of our own hearts, since the Word of God declares" the heart is deceitful above all things."
Beware of laying too much stress on education or any human qualifica- tion. Resolve to obey or yield up life in the attempt, and God will open the way to such education as is needed.
Beware of losing the place God would h!we you fill in His great eternal purposes.
Beware of leaning unduly upon earthly props, which may fail you at the critical moment j lean lightly lipon the human, heavily on the Di- vine.
Beware of that false humility which says, " I can do nothing," and forgets that God engages to use" the weak things, and things which are not," " to bring to nought the things which are."
Beware of expecting too much from the wise. the mighty, the noble, or the rich, knowing that they have their special hindrances and tempta- tions.
Beware of finding fault with others or dwelling upon what they might do.
Beware of drinking at human fountains, but take deep draughts at the Fountain-head.
" Quench not the spirit."
Believing that the needed workers will be forthcoming when the require- ments of God are faithfully displayed and calmly considered, how shall the means of support be provided ~ I. As far as may be by the subscriptions of those whose hearts are in the work and sympathize with the method proposed, but cannot from various canses go themselves. n. By planting industrial missions on the prInciple alluded to-v iz., to become" self-supporting and self-propagating." How would such missions affect the problem V Assuming that each worker be helped for a period not exceeding the first two years, in the course of fifty years the same yearly income would put twenty-five times the volume of workers in the field; in the course of a century fifty times the number of workers as compared with the permanently supported laborers.
Doubtless both types, "the sustained and self-sustaining," will be found necessary according to the ground WOl ked and the habits or capacities of the workers.
While" industrial missions" may be harder to plant and permanently consolidate, it must be borne in mind this method opens the door to bring into the work the reserve forces of the rank and file of Christian workers, who are used to the task of toiling at various occupations and handicrafts.
The Apostle Paul, who knew something of the work to be done, approved and adopted this method for the missionary's work of breaking up fallow grol1nd, and continued it during the early stages of church life, as recorded in 2 Thess. 3 : 8, 9 ; 1 Cor. 3 : 11, 12.
Has not the special time come for Christian workingmen to come forward and give their working powers to God and His great redemptive work 1 Farmers, artisans, engineers, miners, mechanics, and tradesmen, who, while supporting themselves, proclaim the Gospel in word and work.
Is not the workingman of the world the great wealth producer 1 Have not the consecrated Christian workingmen of this generation one key in their hands to the great missionary problem, if ready and willing to use it 1 Are they not able under God, and endued with the promised power from on high (" For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all that are afar off"), to rise up in one mighty crusade against heathendom, and so do a mighty work for God and humanity 1 If this be so, does not the onus rest on the Christian workingmen of this generation to make use of the great power and responsibility attached to their position, especially if funds are forthcoming to tide over the initial difficulties for the first two years? It is written, "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof: the world and they that dwell therein." Is this a mere figure of speech, or is it a mighty eternal fact 1 Mr. Spurgeon says this title" ought to put the work of missions on a very cheering footing. " Let us go and take possession in the name of the Lord. Our Saviour said, "The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light." Certain it is that without a command from on high and without the ChIistian's title they take possession of the earth and its fulness, braving all dangers. Psalm 24 : 1 is the Christian's title to do this in the name of the rightful owner.
Take earth's darkest picture, cruel, bleeding, chaotic Africa, with its average of eight to ten thousand victims every day to slave-raiding, tyranny, and cannibalism. What is needed to transform that picture and to develop Africa's vast pastoral, agricultural, and mineral resources, and to rightly apply the earth's fulness God has stored there ~ Is it to be the" children of this world" who, without society aids or a "Go ye,;' will presently take possession, fill their pockets, button them up, degrade the native, .and make the missionary's work the harder 1 Or shall it be what the British and American Christians are able to give and be the better for it-viz.• some thousands of consecrated Chrir,tian workingmen 1 A few Christian workers are resolved to commence work in Africa forthwith on the lines indicated. Two pa~ties have left for the field within the last eight months, with the expectation of more to follow.
Africa is chosen because it presents two special features: First, it is the darkest picture of paganisGl on the earth. Its lawlessness, its tyranny of chiefs, its slavc-raiding, its cannibalism, its never-ending inter-tribal wars, mark it as a most painful picture to the heart of Him " who came to seek and to save them that are lost;" and second, its resources are largely undeveloped and awaiting those who will take possession in God's name and for His work; at the same time training the native to develop his own country and take his rightful place in the universe.
The objects and aims of the mission are as follows, subject to such corrections or amendments as may be found conducive to the work as a whole: (a) To plant industrial mission stations that shall become self-supporting within the first two years.
(b) The first ba!le of operations to be in the territory of the British South African Chartered Company-viz., "on the Zambesi."
(c) To establish a prayer union throughout the British race, if possible, pledged to ask of God daily the speedy evangelization of the heathen throughout the world.
(d) To ask God to raise up an advocate or advocates to itinerate through the churches and Young Men's Christian Associations of Great Britain, America, Canada, and the colonies, solieitingmen and means, and directing particular attention to the recommendation of our Lord, " Sell all thou hast, and come follow Me."
(e) Select and equip parties of two or three families or three to six young men, prepared to work as locality may require or their abilities enable them, at tiiling the ground, food producing, grain growing, irri- gating, seed or fruit growing and exporting, carpentering, blacksmithing, dairy farming, mining, printing, sheep farming, cattle rearing, and espe- cially some light manufacture requiring small capital and suitabJe for native trained workers, easy of transport and export; all work to be combined with preaching and teaching, though all volunteers need not necessarily be speakers.
(I) Candidates to endeavor to become self-supporting from the very first or at the earliest possible moment, and further endeavor to provide funds or products with which to bring other laborers or to plant other stations farther afield.
(g) No missionary to trade or have any private undertaking on his own account; all property and increment to be vested in the mission trustees.
(h) The threefold type of workers-viz., the family type, the youngman-celibate type and the sisterhood type, to be used according to locality and candidates.
(i) Female volunteers not to be expected to become' self-supporting, but to be optional with them.
U) Avail to be taken of the protection afforded by such chartered companies as the British South African and British East African, and grants of land to be sought promptly according to the advantages offered to aid or induce immigration and settlement, due regard being taken to suitableness of locality for Gospel work among the natives.
(k) Aim not only at the conversion of the natives, but at training and educating the young j forming new and industrious habits, taking them on stations to work side by side with white men, that they may realize " One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren." Specially aim at planting a simpJe form of Christian civilization transparent by contrast with paganism.
(l) Train and cultivate native converts' spiritual gifts, and lead to selfreliant action in preaching and planting industrial missions in the " regions beyond."
(m) When stations become supported by voluntary offerings of converts or congregations, the trading, farming, or manufacturing scaffolding to be either dispensed with and realized, transplanted or continued, as may be conducive to the progress of the whole work.
(n) Such churches not tQ become independent of the mission, but to conduct their pastoral work at a moderate cost j the express purpose of the church's exi~tence-viz., the diffusion of the Gospel of Christ among all peoples and throughout the whole earth, to be kept prominently and permanently in the foreground, and all surplus-giving power or working power to be cultivated and directed into that channel.
(0) If suitable men are forthcoming, plant churches on the same basis in the existing towns in South Africa as opportunity occurs.
(p) Keep in regular and sympathetic touch by circular, periodical, or visitation with the churches and Young Men's Christian Associations, as far as opportunity is afforded, throughout Great BJitain, America, Canada, and the colonies, furnishing the latest news from the front throughout the whole mission field, and offering to take suitable workers of proven Chris-
REV. JOHN INGLIS, D.D., OF THE NEW HEBRIDES MISSION
t.ian character with or without means, to be sent either at the Church'lI, the Association's, or the mission's expense, as may be found expedient; the purpose being to promote a healthy circulation from the centre to the circumference, and relieve the congestion in the more developed spheres of Christian labor, thns providing a legitimate outlet for the many onetalent Christians who too often stagnate in the home circle.
(q) The base of operations in each centre of work to be kept strong, and each outgoing branch well supported and fostered from its local centre.
(r) The ultimate object of the mission to be not only the overtaking of the work in Afriea, but the training and equipping of messengers and the providing or earning adequate funds for the completion of the then unfinished work throughout the world; taking first iu order the lands most Buited to the needs of the system, in point of undeveloped resources or abundance of labor, as also the respective needs of the natives.
(8) In the early stages of the mission special care to be taken to secure good climatic and fair commercial, agricultural, or manufacturing conditions, as far as may be consistent with nearness of native population for mission work.
Finally, work as if all depended upon man; pray and trust, knowing all increase must come from God.
THE REV. JOHN INGLIS, D.D., OF THE NEW HEBRIDES MISSION.
BY THE REV. ROBERT STEEL, D.D., SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES.
The martyrs of Eromanga were for a long time the most conspicuous missionaries of the New Hebrides group of islands of the South Pacific. John Williams, who feU there by the clubs of the savage people in 1839, had already achieved his fame as an evangelist in the islands of Eastern Polynesia, and had published his" Missionary Enterprises," which made so great a sensation. Mr. Williams did no more than land on the island of Eromanga when he fella victim to his zeal for advancing the cause of Christ. The brothers Gordon, who were so cruelly killed in 1861 and 1872 respectively, labored for a few years among the barbarous people, whose animosity against white men had been irritated by the raids of the traders in sandal-wood. The Gordons labored amid many difficulties, and gained a few converts. These martyrs were pioneers, and directed the attention of the Christian Church to the New Hebrides; but it WIlS reserved to other mis~ionaries during a life-work of a quarter of a century to evangelize whole islands. Some of these fathers and founders of the Presbyterian mission II<lVP ended their labors. Dr. John Geddie, the first who settled in the g(()UP, in 1848, died in 1872. He wns the missionary of a small church in Nova Scotia. now absorbed in the Presbyterian Church in Canada. He had very great difficulties and many perils, but he had great success. It was said of the far-famed Gregory of Coosarea, that when he went to his diocese he found only seventeen Christians, and when he died there were only seventeen heathtms. When Dr. Geddie died, it fell to the writer to prepare his epitaph, and, adopting the account of Gregory, he had the happiness of recording regarding Dr. Geddie that when he went to his missionary sphere ,. there were no Christians, and when he departed there were no heathens." This simple record is painted on a tablet of wood beside the pulpit of an unarchitectural church at Anelganhot, Aneityum. The writer has been surprised by the echoes of its testimony throughout missionary literature during the past fifteen years, and as a specimen of the magnifying power of tradition, oue of the repetitions of the epitaph stated that it was inscribed in letters of gold upon a marble tablet in a pretty church !
The Rev. John Inglis occupied the other side of the same island where Mr. Geddie labored, and during most of the same epoch. After twontyfive years' faithful labor he had a felicity similar to that of his colleague; and for his epitaph it is proposed to record that "he came to a heathen people in 1852, and left them a Christian church in 1877." The island by that time had the Holy Scriptures printed in their own tongue, and the natives were all capable of reading for themselves the oracles of God.
John Inglis was born at the village of Moniaive, in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, in 1807. This beautiful rural spot was the birthplace of the last martyr of the Covenant in Scotland, James Renwick, and full of memories of the fifty years' struggle for the crown rights of the King of Zion. Mr. Inglis's father died early, and he had to depend upon his own exertions for the support of his mother and himself. He was apprenticed to a mason, and became a proficient at his trade, which proved of eminent service in his after career as a missionary. He was bronght up in piety, and became a decided Christian. He joined the Reformed Presbyterian Church, a small, though a respectable branch of the Church in Scotland. He was in the habit of reading at meal hours and times of leisure, and thus qualified himself for entering the University of Glasgow. He saved money from his work in the summer to pay his college expenses in the winter, as has often been done in Scotland in thc pursuit of knowledge under difficulties. Lord Elcho, when once addressing the miners in East Lothian, referred to two men who had worked in the pit in summer and had gone to the university in winter, until they finished their curriculum. One of these became ultimately a member of the English House of Commons; the other went to America and became the Rev. John ITogg, D.D., a missionary from the United Presbyterian Church at Assioot in Egypt. He and Dr. Inglis, both of whom I visited in their ~pheres of labor, became cultured gentlemen, fit to associate with the best society, both highly esteemed and both successful. Mr. Inglis must have profited much by his college attendance, since his accomplished professor of Greek in Glasgow, Sir Daniel Sandf~rd, employed him for a time at Rothcsay as tutor to his sons.
Mr. Inglis studied theology under the venerable Dr. Andrew Syming- ton, of Paisley, a man of high attainments, and much respected. When at length Mr. Inglis was licensed as a preaoher, he was appointed a mis- sionary to the Maoris of New Zealand, and after his ordination, in 18f3, sailed in 1844 along with a like-minded wife for his distant sphere. The Rev. James Duncan had preceded him two years before, and had commenced missionary operations among the Maoris on the Manawatu River in the , n~rth of Cook's Straits, between seventy and eighty miles from Welling- ton. There were only 700 natives in the district, and missionary work had been thoroughly organized by the Church and Wesleyan Missionary Societies. Meflsrs. Duncan and Inglis, therefore, wrote a joint letter to their committee in Scotland, advising the selection of another heathen field. Considerable delay occurred in correspondence in those days, but at length Mr. Inglis was authorized to proceed to the South Seas, and make inquiries regarding suitable openings for missionary enterprise. Fortunately, through the kindness of Sir George Grey, then Governor of New Zealand. and interested in all that belongs to man, Mr. Inglis was permitted by Captain Erskine, of H. M. S. Havannah, to take a cruise in that ship-of-war throughout Western Polynesia. It was a great opportuuity, and Mr. Inglis made the most of it. He visited the island of Aneityum, in the New Hebrides, where Mr. Geddie had settled, and, after seeing other islands, resolved, if his committee in Scotland approved, to join him, and take up a station among the heathen there. In 1852 Bishop Selwyn offered the Covenanting miRsionary a free passage in his schooner the Border Maid to Aneityum. It was thankfully accepted. The bishop took all their supplies-furniture, goats, pigs, and poultry. He often called in after years, and on one visit laid on the table of the missionary the sum of £103 16s. 4d•• which he had collected from Presbyterians in New Zealand for the benefit of the mission. Mr. and Mrs. Inglis entered upon their work with much wisdom and zeal, pursued it with perseverance, and succeeded in gaining the confidence of the people. Classes for reading and writing were set up, and as soon as persons were taught schools were opened all over the district. The preaching of the Gospel was regularly carried on, translations of Scripture were made, and portions printed; medicine was dispensed; orphan children were cared for; buildings were erected, the natives being taught to help. In due course it pleased God to bless these labors: converts were baptized, communicants were admitted to the Lord's Supper, and the Sabbath was regularly observed. A great moral as well as spiritual change occurred, and the people presented the aspect of a Christianized community. Mr. and Mrs. Inglis were singularly orderly in their habits, taking advantage of the cooler times of the day for work, and thus avoiding as much as possible the danger of attacks of fever and ague so common to foreigners in the New Hebrides. Mr. Inglis was very riagacious in dealing with the natives, and always got reforms and justice between man and man among natives carried out by the authority of the chiefs rather than by his own command. Chiefs, though petty, are in high respect in the New Hebrides, and when anyone of such rank became a native teacher and went to neighboring islands, he was received with as much respect as people in more civilized countries receive persons of rank or wealth.
By 1859 the New Testament was fully rendered into Aneityumese by the two missionaries. Mr. Inglis was sent to carry it through the press in London. He and his wife got a passage in the London Missionary Society's vessel, the John Williams, and after seven months arrived in London. Mr. and Mrs. Inglis paid great attention to the work of correcting the press. The volume was ready in 1862, and they returned with it to the island in 1863. Mr. Geddie then left for Nova Scotia, where he got the Book of Psalms printed. When all the Old Testament was ready for the press, Mr. Geddie hoped to get it printed under his care at Melbourne; but he died in 1872. After revision of the MSS. Mr. Inglis resolved, on his retiring from the mission, to go to London and superintend the print. ing of the work. In 1877 he had completed twenty-five years' labor. Re had baptized 1168, had admitted 644 to communion during his residence, and when he left there were 713 of a population on his side of the island, of whom 354 were communicants. There were 13 elders, 12 deacons, and 28 teachers. The whole population wa!l professedly Christian, and the Christian people had, by gifts of arrowroot grown and prepared by themselves, paid £1000 to the British and Foreign Bible Society for printing the Scriptures in their language. The moral life of the people was, on the whole, very good. Their changed condition and the translation of the Scriptures are the noblest monument of the missionary labors of Mr. and Mrs. Inglis.
Visitors to the mission-house, such as Bishops Selwyn and Patteson, officers of the British Navy, naturalists in pursuit of science, travellers, among whom was the writer, and young missionaries on their fir8t voyage, were astonished to find in a home in t4e cannibal islands an extensive library of varied literature and such intelligent and cultured people as Mr. and Mrs. Inglis, whose manners were so refined, whose conversation was so rich, and whose beautiful life was a commentary on the Gospel of Christ. There was ample accommodation for a large party in that hospitable" house amid the grove of cocoa-palm, banana, and orange-trees, and it was a treat to see the young orphan maids whom Mrs. Inglis had rescued and trained waiting her bidding on the matted floor. Though so far from civilized life, and with mails only once or twice a year, the weekly edition of the Times, with its able articles, Ilnd Chlistian periodicals were regularly read by the mission family. That home and its inmates was an oasis in the barbarous isles of Melanesia.
After his return to Scotland Mr. Inglis received, in 1881, the degree of D.D. from the University of Glasgow. During his retirement, besides his work ill superinteuding the printing of the Old Testament, Dr. Inglis published his Dictionary of the Aneityumese language. He bad collected all the words in use among the natives, and indeed knew more words than any of them; for the natives on the shore have words for objects met there that are unKnown to residents inland, and vice versa. He also edited the abridgment of the" Pilgrim's Progress" prepared by Mrs. Geddie, the Westminster Shorter Catechism translated by himself, and a number of hymns. He also issued two volumes, one in which be narrated in a very pleasing manncr the work of the mission at Aneityum in all its departments, gave a sketch of Mrs. Inglis, who died suddenly in 1885, and sketches of his coJleague and other friends. In the other volume he collected illustrations of the Bible from the natural history and the manners and customs of the New Hebrides, and gave biographies of some of his converts. These volumes, though not so popular as the thrilling autobiography of the Re,. Dr. J. G. Paton, his fellow· missionary, are full of interest and information. He was able for several years to, preach and address meetings f(1r the mission, and to attend the Committee on Foreign Missions of the Free Church of Scotland, of which he was a member. He died in a good old age in July last, at his re~idence in Wigtonshire, and was buried beside his wife in the grave of his fathers in the churchyard of Glencairn. In the funeral sermon preached on the occasion by the Rev. James Goold, who had known him for more than fifty years, it is stated that his fellow-students, on observing the methodical habits and sagacious counsels of Dr. Inglis, had called him a " Christianized Benjamin Franklin." His whole career illustrated the appositeness of the characteristic. He was a total abstainer, and did all he could to advance the temperance reformation. In this he was helped by Mrs. Inglis; and though they never had intoxicating liquors on their table, their hospitalities were none the less and their guests were always happy.
Devout, affable, wise, and practical, he made a model missionary to a barbarous people. Clear in his convictions and firm to his principles, he was always very cautious in his language. When he gave advil!e, as he was often called to do, he took care not to hurt the feelings of others. He was a man of peace and of charity; hence he was highly esteemed by all in the mission, and by all in the parent Church with whom he came into contact. The missionary cause was dear to his heart; tbe natives revered him as a father, and we can imagine that when at last he died " there were not wanting those whom he had taught the way to Paradise, who in white robes thronged to the gate to hail their shepherd home."
A Paris publisher has undertaken to issue a "General Encyclopedia of the History and Science of the Jews." It will fill twelve large volumes, which are it:ltended to present the main facts of Jewish history, and to show the effects of the Jewish race upon the various factors of civilization. sci€llce, literature, commerce, industry, etc It is added that the work wjll not be finished for BOrne time, and one can easily believe this aSSUlance.
IRELAND AND FOREIGN MISSIONS
IRELAND AND FOREIGN MISSIONS.
THE STORY OF Two OLD MINUTE-BoOKS.
BY REV. WILLIAM PARK, D.D., CONVENER OF FOREIGN MISSIONS, BEL· FAST, IRELAND.
The writer has in his possession two curious old manuscript boob which throw light on the beginnings of the foreign mission movement in Ireland. The first bears on its cover in gilt letters the words, " Down Missionary Society." "In the summer of 1812," so the record begins, " Rev. Alexander Waugh, deputed from the London Missionary Society of London, attended the Synods of Ulster and of Ireland (i.e., the Secession Synod) and solicited their countenance and support in propagating the Gospel among the heathen." Both synods responded to Mr. Waugh's appeals. The members of the Presbytery of Down were greatly stirred by them, and after much deliberation they addressed a letter on April 1st, 1813, to the clergy of the then Established Church and of other denominations. In this letter they tell how the London Missionary Socitlty had been working for seventeen years in spreading the Gospel, and that" their happy success in some of the most uncivilized and darkest parts of the earth furnishes rational evidence of Divine approbation." The letter goes on to say that a branch of the Society" was last summer instituted in the city of Dublin," and asks the ministers to whom it was addressed to attend a meeting on the 29th inst. in the parish church of Ballynahinch. It concludes with these wOlds: "The precepts, 'Go and teach all nations,' 'Preach the Gospel to every creature;' the promise, ' Lo, I am with you to the end of the world j' the superiority of Christianity to idolatry and civilization to the degraded state of the savage; the honor of God; and the promotion of the present and future happiness of our fellow. men of every color and clime, will, we trust, urge your attendance at the meeting, and procure your aid to the good cause in which the Christian missionary is embarked."
On July 13th, 1813, "a respectable number of clergy and others met in the parish church of Ballynahinch," and formed the Down Auxiliary Missionary Society. A subscription list was opened, "and a number of gentlemen were pleased to subscribe for this year the sum annexed to their respective names." Then follow subscriptions amounting to £32 10~d. At the end of the first year it was reported that subscriptions, donations, and congregational collections had been received to the amount of £167 178. 8td., and after paying all expenses the treasurer was able to remit to London £160 58. 5d. British money. Among the expenses is mentioned the sum o£ Is. 10d., being the postage of a letter from Josep Hardcastle, Esq. Evidently the days of penny postage were still far off. Meetings of this Down Missionary Society were hcld at stated intervals, two or more in the year, and in various parts of the county, and the proceedings seem to have been always opened with a missionary sermon. Vigorous efforts were made to awaken the interest of ministers and people in the work of mIssions. In a circular letter addressed to ministers on August 2d, 1815, we find these words: " The Society invite and would fondly constrain you, Rev. Sir, to come to their meeting at the time specified, to favor them with your presence and counsel in support of the difficult, the humane, the honorable, and glorious work of extending the Christianity and civilization of the British Empire to the ignorant and wild savages of Africa, to the American Indian, and to the blinded and superstitious pagans of Asia. "
There is an entry in this book which recalls exciting days in the history of missions to India. On August 31st, 1813, we find it recorded that the thanks of the Society are pre-eminently due" to Viscount Castlereagh, our representative in Parliament, for his steady support of the clause introduced by his lordship into the Indian bill in favor of promulgating Christianity in India." It was in that year, as the readers of this REVIEW doubtless remember, that the charter of the East India Company was renewed by the Parliament of England, and the restrictions removed which had hitherto hindered all mis~ion effort in British India. William Wilberforce was one of the leaders in agitating and arguing for this change. .He declared that it was the foulest blot on the moral character of Englishmen, next to the slave trade, "to allow our fellow-subjects in the East Indies to remain, without any effort on our part to cnlighten and reform them, under the grossest, the darkest, and most depraving system of idolatrous superstition that almost ever existed on earth." As the night of the final decision in the House of Commons came on there was much anxiety as to the result throughout all the churches, and much prayer was offered up to God. Wilberforce wrote: " I have heard that many good men were pray· ing for us all night." That night the prayer of the churches-and in their prayers, as the above extract proves, Ulster had its share-was answered and British India was thrown open to the heralds of the Cross.
The last meeting of the Down Missionary Rociety this minute-book records was on October lIth, 1821. It would seem that by this time County Down did not stand alone in its organization and effort for the mISSIOn cause. "The Society agreed for the present not to write a circular, as had been intended, but were of opinion that a preferable expedient would be to have a general meeting in Belfast on the second Tuesday in June, of the missionary societies of Antrim, Armagh, Tyrone, and Down." The object of this meeting was to be, " to make the proceedings and success of the London Mi~sionary Society better known, and to select a number of ministers as itinerants, who should immediately go forth and plead the cause of missions to the heathen through the several counties of the Province of Ulster." The last sentence in the book tells us that this meeting was closed with prayer by Rev. Mr. Cooke, who in after days was known far and near as Rev. Henry Cooke, D.D., LL.D., a man famous in many waYil, and whose statue now stands in one of the most prominent places in Belfast, but known and honored in the churches chiefly as the great defender of orthodox truth again8t Arian error.
That old book with its simple records, written in faded ink, is a voice from the past which must deeply move every Christian heart. It speaks of the great awakening of the Church of God to a long neglected duty, which the opening years of this century saw, and it testifies that in this widespread awakening the Church of Christ in Ireland had a share. We almost seem, as we read it, to see the Spirit of God brooding on the waters, and new life appearing beneath His almighty touch.
The other old book is a record of the early days of the foreign mission of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, in the handwriting of its first con- venn, Rev. James Morgan, D.D., Belfast. In 1840 the two synods already referred to-the Synod of Ulster and the Secession Synod-were lwite-d and became the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. The tide of spiritual life had been steadily rising for many years, and manifested itself not only in this happy union at home, but in the beginning of independent mission work abroad. The year of the union (the jubilee of which was celebrated in an appropriate manner in 1890) was the year of the formation of the General Assembly's foreign mission, and at the first meeting of the Assembly the first two missionaries were set apart for India.
It is recorded in the book how these missionaries were chosen, and the plan adopted then might be still followed with good results. " But where are the missionaries ~ How shall these be had ~ Your directors were instructed to seek for them j and it may be important to say how we proceeded. We had before us a list of all the ministels of the Church, and selected twenty whom we considered to be men suited to the work.
To these we addressed letters suggesting to them the duty of becoming mis- sionaries to the heathen, and desiring to know what might be their own views and feelings upon the subject. Six of the brethren left themselves entirely at our disposal. After the most solemn deliberation and prayer, we made choice of two out of that number, and recommended to the Synod to send them forth." "It will thus be seen that, in selecting our missionaries, we have proceeded on the principle that all the ministers of the Church are the servants of the body, and are bound to labor wherever the Church may think proper to send them. (The italics are mine.) We have selected two of our most approved brethren, men beloved and useful in their parishes, fit for'labor in any locality, and richly endowed with gifts and graces."
Dr. Morgan goes on to tell how the Iponey to send them forth was obtained. "On the day of the appointment of the missionaries there were no funds in readiness to send them forth. We had reckoned that if God gave us men He would soon give us money j and our faith was not exercised in vain. A subscription was set on foot in the Assembly, and the members ccntributed about £500. An appeal was made to the con- gregations in Belfast which produced about £600. Several congregations in the country sent forward contributions of their own accord. Our Seces- sion brethren had a little stock of Ilear £200, which they cast into the common treasury, and thus in two months there were raised about £1500 to commence our missionary enterprise."
Great enthusiasm seems to have been evoked, in Belfast especially, by this opening of foreign mission work. When the night came for the first missionaries to sail, the cabin of the steamer was granted to them and their friends for a special prayer-meeting. The 20th of Acts was read, and prayer was offered to Him who rules the winds and waves, consigning the brethren and their wives to His divine protection. "Never shall I forget that scene," writes one who was present. "I believe there was not one in that cabin during Dr. Cooke's beautiful prayer who did not shed tears; nay, I have heard it said since, by some gentlemen who were there, that they thought before this that there was no earthly circumstance could make them weep, and yet they found they were unable to restrain their tears." "The commencement," writes Dr. Morgan, "of the foreign mission forms an era in the history of the Church which, it is hoped, will hereafter be found to have been the dawn of a bright and glorious day."
Pasted into this old minute-book is a poem, written by a well-known Belfast poet of the time, and adorned with handsome silhouettes of the two missionaries and their wives. Two verses of this poem may be quoted here: " Our fathers heard the heathen's cry, But alas! no helping hand was nigh; Our fathers prayed-and the dawn of day Now brightly shines on their children's way.
At the call of the Church, the nobly brave Smile at the dangers of ocean.wave, That Zion's banners may be unfurled On the shores of a far-off heathen world !"
" Away, away, o'er the deep blue sea, May the winds of heaven propitious be ! Brethren await you on India's strap.d, Ready to greet you with heart and hand : WiIson* will train your hands for war, And the mind of Duff, t like an Eastern star, Shall shine on your path, amidst heathen night, With the splendid blaze of a comet's light…
The difficulties which the first missionaries to Gujarat and KatLiaw<l1" encountered were "ery great. It is curious to note how long the jOl1fney lasted. They sailed from Liverpool on September 4th, 1840, and di,l not arrive in Bombay till February 26th, 1841. It wa3 LaId to get snitable * Dr. Wilson, Bombay. houses, and the miseionaries and their wives had to suffer much privation. The infant child of Dr. Glasgow died the June after they landed, and in August Mr. Kerr, the other of the two missionaries, was suddenly taken away; but, as usual, difficulties and losses only evoked enthusiasm and prayer. "This is an event," wrote the convener to the members of the Church, "that has not been lightly permitted. There is good reason to justify it. Even we can see that many important ends are served by it. How it demonstrates the reality of religion when the fear of death does not deter from its service! Ollr friend might, and no doubt would, have been useful, had he been Rpared, in a lengthened ministry at home; but I have no hesitation in saying he has accomplighed more by his death than lIe could have effected by the longest ministry at home. What benefits he has already conferred on the whole Church, in the example he has set, the spirit he has excited, and the labors he has prompted! Our short mission has already been to our Church as life from the dead. "
The book goes on to record that on January 12th, 1842, foul' missionaries were publicly set apart to the work in India. Two of them with their wives sailed at once from Southampton to Alexandria. It is mentioned that" the directors of the Oriental steamers have kindly granted one passage free to Alexandria;" that a free passage was granted to all of them from Belfast to Liverpool, and that the railway company gave them free passes from Birmingham to London. On May 16th, 1843, came the tidings of the first conversion, that of Abdul Rahman, a Mussulman and a Munshi, who still lives and has been a consistent Christian and most useful worker during all these years. To-day the mission, the story of the beginning of which this old book records, has seven central stations and is opening an eighth in Kathiawar and Gujairat ; the Christian community it has gathered out of heathenism numbers more than 2000 ; it employs above 100 native evangelists and teachers, and it has 3500 scholars in its schools.
There is a sweetness and a fragrance about this old book and the rec" ords it contains. The hand that penned them and led the Church in its early missionary efforts, and which has long since crumbled into dnst, was the hand of a man of God, and a spirit of faith and prayer breathes through every page. The best men in the Church were sought out as the first missionaries, and cheerfully obeyed the call. The difficulties that faced the early workers drove them back on God, and when reported to the Church at home stirred up the people to more prayer and sympathy and generous glvmg. Work thns begun-and it is thus that most of our great missionary enterprises have had their beginning-·must go on and prosper. As Dr. Morgan said in one of his early circulars, " Our little hour will soon be gone, but our work will survive us. When we are cold in the grave, the principles we have disseminated will warm the heart of the living; and then the work will be progressive. Our mission will be the parent of many. " We should honor the self-sacrifice, and energy, and holy zeal of these II)en and women of a past generation, who laid so firmly and so well
PRAYING FOIt MISSIOI'S
the foundations of the great foreign mission enterprise, bhrinking not from the greatness and the difficulty of the task, and the fruit of whose life and labors we are reaping abundantly in the ever-increasing missionary enthusiasm of to-day.
PRAYING FOR MISSIONS.
BY REV. JAMES MUDGE, D.D., CLINTON, MASS.
Whoever has attended a farewell missionary meeting must have been impressed by the earnestness and persistence with which those about to set sail for distant lands begged that much prayer might be offered on their behalf: and whoever, with heart drawn out in this direction, has been a constant attendant at the home churches must have been equally impressed by the strange habitual silence coneerning the matter on the part of both pastors and people. Nothing carries more convincing proof of the little hold this theme has yet secured on the souls of Chri8t's modern disciples than the slight, infrequent mention of it at the throne of grace. Even in so-called "concerts of prayer for missions" it is often extremely difficult to secure two or three genuine supplications kept with some degree of definiteness to the subject in hand.
This is no small defect. It is an appalling fact. It is the fundamental lack. If anything of importance is to be accomplished, if far-reaching results are to be reached, there must be more praying for missions in the closet, in the social gathering, and in the pulpit. Few pastors appreciate how much they might do for missions simplV by the indirect influence of their public prayers at the stated Sabbath services. If this theme is regularly, or at least frequently introduced, not with a mere cursory formal reference, but in earnest, heart-felt petitions, the people who listen and unite with such leadership will insensibly catch its spirit, and their own habits of supplication will be gradually sllaped in the same direction. More can sometimes be accomplished in this manner than by the formal discourses against which it is easier for prejudice to arm itself j and each minister, however small the sphere he seems to be filling, may in this way stretch his arms around the globe, and, like the great founder of Methodism, make the world his parish.
To argue that prayer is a genuine power, and not a mere formality with some retroactive effect, is certainly superfluous here; but a few out of many instances of its mighty results in the particular direction .now under survey may not unfittingly be mentioned to stimul~te our lagging faith. From Dr. A. C. Thompson's "Lectures on Foreign Missions" we cull and condense the following: "Dr. C. H. 'Wheeler, President of Euphrates College at Harpoot, writes; 'I have an abiding conviction that much of the wonderful success of the Harpoot work is due to the supplications of persons in the home field. ' " A missionary of the American Board among the Mahrattas, in India, tells of a wonderful revival that broke out there on the first Monday in January, 1833. He could only account for it on the supposition that the Christian friends in America must be praying for them; and sure enough it turned out that, unknown to him, many bodies of Christians in America had appointed that day as one of fasting and prayer for the heathen world.
" A missionary of the Gossner Society in J ava, Mr. Michaelis, wrote to his brother-in-law at home, the Rev. Gottlob Heinrich, detailing the many and great hindrances to the work. Mr. Heinrich gathered a little company together and made the matter a subject of special supplication. After a while came another letter saying that a revival had broken out among the natives, and, giving the date of the first indication of the change, he asked, , Did you not on that evening pray expressly for my work~' The date proved to be the very one on which the company had gathered. "
More prayer for missions, of the kind that moves the arm that moves the world, there should certainly be. It is well to have a map to pray by, and take up the countries and stations in order. It is especially well to pray for the laborers by name, particularly when anything fresh has been learned concerning them or interest in them has been newly alOused.
As a help to definite supplication and intelligent petitioning. perhaps some who have not given careful study to the matter may welcome the following suggestive subjects: That the missionary may have wisdom, patience, love, and tact in presenting the truth to the ignorant, prejudiced minds of his hearers in the bazaars, villages, and fairs.
That the native preachers may be faithful, zealous, and eminently successful in winning their countrymen to Christ.
That the inquirers may have courage to come out boldly in the open confession of the Saviour, and endure joyfully the spoiling of their goods.
That there may be seen on the part of seekers genuine conviction of sin and. manifest proofs of the Spirit's work.
That the native Christians may be moved by a mighty impulse to bring each one his brother to Jesus, aud may be strengthened so to live that the heathen around may be impressed by the manifest change for the better.
That the Bible, wherever sold or distributed, may be illumined by the Holy Ghost, and be the nucleus for groups of believers.
That those engaged in preparing, printing, and circulating papers, tracts, and other Christian literature may be divinely guided and see much fruit.
That teachers in colleges and schools may be able to lead their students to a love of the truth as it is in Jesus, That God would raise up able evangeli8ts to do for heathen lanus sOlI)ething such a wOlk as Wesley and Whitefield did for England.
That the hearts of kings and others in high places of authority may be touched, and their great influence turned on the side of the Lord.
That the women who go to the Zenanas may be able to arouse an intcrest in the true salvation among those so long debased with frivolous superstitions.
That the hospitals may more than ever be made mighty auxiliaries in breaking down opposition and preparing the way for the Gospel.
That the orphanages may be very tenderly watched over by the God of the fatherless, and may turn out many useful laborers.
That Christian villageR may be examples of everything good to the surrounding towns among which they are set as a city on a hill.
That the Sunday-school agency may be still more wonderfully owned of God in turning the minds and hearts of hundreds of thousands of the children and youth of non-Christian lands to Christ.
That God would send forth labonrs into His harvest. That the vast wealth of the present day, locked up in nominally Christian coffers, might be set free to bless the earth. That young men and women debating the question of a missionary vocation might be led to a right decision. That missionary secretaries and editors may have all the strength and wisdom their important and difficult positions require. That missionaries on sick leave may speedily recover their health 80 as to be able to return to their fields. That missionaries' children, providentially separated from parental supervision, may have special Divine watch-care, and receive training for large usefuluess in mission fields or elsewhere.. That the governments of the earth may be restrained from putting obstacles in the way of mission work, and that the time may speedily come when there shall be perfect liberty of opinion and public worship. That white men may cease to oppress the black and colored races, and in particular some way be found to stay the ravages of rum among the defenceless children of nature. That the slave trade may soon become a thing of the past, and that all the intercourse, commercial or political, of nominal Christians with those of other religions may impress them with the superiority of our faith.
We have been understood by certain leaders of newspaper reports to have spoken against revivals; it is a misunderstanding. A revival" got up" we abhor; a revival brought down by prayer we would welcome as life from the dead. vVe know churches which have died of spasms, and others which lead a sickly life, alternating between hot fits and cold shivers. A perpetual condition of healthy life and growth is far better than da~hes and rushes of heated but transient zc_al.-Spurgeon.
THE MAGIC LANllERN IN 'fHE MONTHLY CONCERT
THE MAGIC LANTERN IN THE MONTIILY CONCERT.
BY REV. JAMES CARTER, WILLIAMSPORT, PA.
What shall be done with the Monthly Concert? is an oft-repeated question. In many churches the mere announcement of the Monthly Concert is sufficient to reduce the mid-week meeting to a chosen few. In very despair, many churches have answered the question by ab(Jli&hing the Concert. In a multitude of churches the time honored institutIOn is maintained by the attendance of the faithful who meet every religious appointment, themselves often weary enough of the monotonoas character of the formal presentation of the encouragements and discouragements, and the usual confusion of indigestible statistics.
Not infrequently the pastor comes in for his share of the blame. Twelve missionary talks a year become in time a source of dread, and are recognized as serious interferences with the too scant time for the regular pulpit preparation. The man who composes two sermons a week most frequently regards the approach of the Monthly Concert with a mild degree of terror. Perhaps it would be better to prepare but one sermon a week and do it thoroughly. That would permit a more careful preparation and wider reading-even now and then such a book as " Mackay of Uganda," or " John G. Paton," or " In Brightest Asia. " The minister in all probability has at some time advised his people to substitute some missionary magazine for the Oentury or the Harper on Sunday afternoons. He in all likelihood would be surprised at the restfulness and stimulation which he would gain by taking his own advice. When his nervous force is at its lowest ebb after the drain of the morning's effort, and he feels possibly some measlfre of discouragemcnt in his own work, the record of what others encounter and overcome, of the marvellous fashion in which the Lord is going before His people in missionary work, will produce unconsciously a spiritual energizing that will send him to his evening pulpit with a muscular soul.
Through all this depression of one department in the Church, another wholly devoted to missionary matters thrives to arlmiration. It is significant that the women of the Presbyterian Church in the North gave last year within $11,000 of the amount of the receipts from the churches in behalf of foreign missions, and actually surpassed the churches by $4000 in gifts for home missions. Other branches of the Church have their own instructive reports. The secret of success is not far to seek : consecrated energy, personal enlistment with definite purpose, general participation in the exercises, persistent and interesting advertising by magazines and leaflets sparkling with womanly concreteness.
The present is an age of advertising; and of all advertising, that which arrests the eye by a picture is the most effective. Foreign missionaries have observed the power of pictnres, and during the last few years have been preaching to vast throngs, held in rapt att/ilntion night by night in some open square, by the wonder of the magic lantern. The Bible story has thus been told to those who otherwise would not have stayed to listen. During my preparation for the ministry I was impressed by the possibili- ties of the stereopticon as a missionary agent in our churches, and as soon as the matter of expense was overcome, introduced it in my own evening meetings, first as an illustrator for the informing of the Sundayschool teachers, and then for the instruction of all in missionary matters. Three years of experiment and experience have been most satisfactory. The results have been phenomenal attendance at Monthly Concerts, increased numbers at the weekly prayer-meetings, advance in missionary interest, enlarged missionary gifts, and stimulation in all departments of beneficence.
Like every good thing, this method may be used to repletion. It may attract throngs, as did the song-services lately so common, and ere long pall upon the taste by very frequency. The observancil of three rules may indefinitely prolong the usefulness of the method: First, the use of the lantern should never be announced. The advertising is best done after the event by those who have enjoyed the reward of faithfulness; and people are unwilling to hear more than twice that they have lost a treat. Second, the lantern should be used with studious irregularity. Rarely is it wise to employ it two months consecutively j only when some knowing ones learn to stay away on the month following an exhibition. Then use it twice in successive months to teach the over-shrewd not to set a bad example to the others. It will not be long before the people will understand that, in order to have the pleasure, they must be regular in attendance. Third, the views should not be too numerous. Twenty will serve better than sixty, for they may be kept longer before the eye, and the explanation be clearer, because less hurried. It is not wise to prolong the exhibition to physical weariness. New things are almost always overdone. If possible a .short service of song and supplication should precede and follow, and the accumulated interest at the close should be utilized for the reception of the missionary offering.
Wisely used; the i;lDtern may be made an educator of no mean powers, introducing the people to lands practically unknown, showing the pitiable need of Christian civilization, displaying the contrast between the Christian and the Christless in heathen lands j but let no one suppose that the lantern can take the place of intelligent study and intimate acquaintance with missionary work. The pastor must expect to devote literary labor to the end that the lectures may interest, and he should be careful to know as much of the mission field as do the ladies of the Missionary Society. Indifferent work here, as elsewhere, wUI issue in swift humiliation. Every pastor who deals faithfully with himself and his people will discover that his preparation for the lantern talks has increased his interest in missionary work, given him ~ firmer grasp upon the great subject, and unexpectedly afforded
THE REFLEX INFLUENCE OF GIVING TO MISSIONS
him much fruitful il1ustr~tion for sermonic uses from sources little employed. At the same time a holy enthusiasm will pervade his church as his people come in touch with the childlike honesty of the far-away Christians, unspoiled of civilized casuistry, and with the simple, unselfish devotion of the foreign missionary. The growth of interest in the work abroad will have its inductive effect upon the work at home, to the invigoration of every department of the Church, the deepening of spiritual life, and the wider enlistment of the members in personal work for the Master. The problem of the Monthly Concert may thus be solved, and the whole organization be quickened in spiritual activity by a faithful and consecrated use of that former toy, the magic lantern.
THE REFLEX INFLUENCE OF GIVING TO MISSIONS.
BY REV. PAUL V. BOMAR, VERSAILLES, KY.
When onr Master said it was more blessed to give than to receive, He meant, if He meant anything-and who can point to a single word of His that is not full of the deepest meaning ~-that the giver received greater blessings than the recipient of the gift j He meant that the reflex influence of giving was more blessed than even the direct influence; He meant that he who gave to missions received greater benefits than those to whom the gift!l were sent j that the greatest work of foreign missions is accom- plished at home and not abroad, in the hearts of Christian men and women who give their money and their lives, more than in the heartii of the heathen to whom the Gospel comes j He meant that the herald of the good tidings had a happier lot than the hearer 6f the tidings. Yes, giving to missions is like mercy, " it is twice blessed, It blesseth him that gives and him that takes,"
and, like mercy, it is "an attribute of God Himself j" and men's love is likest God's when they give not only what they have, but themselves also.
Here, then, is a stupendous truth that the Christian world has scarcely begun to realize, for think what this means. The direct influence of mission work-foreign mission!l, for instance-is far from contemptible j the resnlts attained in the last half of a century have been simply wonderful. The treacherous, thieving Malagasy have become a Christian people; Sierra Leone is now reckoned a Christian state; under the influence of the GOMpel the Sandwich Islanders have forsaken their barbarous and brutal practices, and the cannibal pots have given wily to churches all over the land j the Tierra del Fuegians, pronounced by the great scientist Darwin as little more than beasts, have been converted by the power of God into intelligent beings j the low. caste people of India, having given themselves to God, are gradually rising in the scale of being, and the report is that they are now threatening to supplant the high·caste people; the Empire of Japan is trembling in the balance-doors fast closed a few years ago have been battered down or thrown wide open by the prayers and offerings of God's people. Yes, from nearly every place whither the missionaries have gone there come many reports of mighty good accomplished. We bow in thankfulness before Go, that Sl) much has been done by the power of Jesus' name j but bdieve me, God has done more for us at home than we, with His blessing, for Him abroad j the Christian givers have been more honored in their giving than even the heathen people in their recelVlng. The thousands who gladly and willingly received the Gospel have not received more benefit than the thousands who gladly and willingly gave the GospeL Wonderful was the work that the Apostle Paul was enabled to do in giving the Gospel to the chief palts of Europe and Asia, but not more wonderful than the work that God in the meanwhile did in his own heart, filling him with Divine truths and enabling him to give these truths utterance. Had not Paul given himself to the mission work we would not have had his epistles, for they never could have been written in the quiet of the study. As Paul gave himself to God, God gave Himself to Paul. As he gave out, God filled in; as he e~ptied himself of earthly treasures, God filled him with heavenly riches.
The reason why these truth8 are not clear to us is because many of us Christian people have mistaken the end for which we live. We think it is to get heaven. That's not why you live, that's the reason Christ lived and died-to get heaven for you and in you, and it is worse than foolishness for you to try to do His work over again. You do not live, then, to get heaven, out to give heaven. Getting is not the chief end of the Christian life, but giving. God has ordained it thus for our good because it is more blessed to gi,'e than to receive j and especially is this true of giving to missions, for" if there ever was an altar that sanctified, magnified, and glorified the gift, it is the altar of missions."
Giving is the heart of missions j missions is the heart of Christianity. Christianity is as the palm-tree-it has but one bud, 'and that is the missionary spirit. Destroy tbat bud and Christianity witbers and decays, and he who refuses to give to missions is doing much to destroy the power of that reli[;:on which be professes.
Consider three simple facts: 1. We get to gi'ue. He who gets with any other object in view is very foolish; he is acting in opposition to all the laws that God has revealed to us in nature and elsewhere. The only man who gets to hold and keep is the miser, and he is miserable j and we are all miserable misers just so far as we act with the same end in view. The true man gathers in order to give-for something that he values more than his possession, <;If to Bome one whom he loves more than his money, his wife, children, or his Lord and Master. The sun does not'treasure up its light, but pours it in greatest profusion .upon this and other worlds, proclaiming this law of God: We get to give. The tree does not consume its own fruit, but bears it for others; and as others eat let. them learn the law of getting to give. The flower does not keep its beauty to itself, but adorns and gladdens, sweetly saying to selfish man, I get to give. The very grass that grows so richly upon our hills grows to give joy and strength to man and beast. This old earth in the ages gone by has gradually accumulated great riches, but not for itself, but to give to man as he needs them.
Heaven's sunshine and showers fall upon the earth, and the earth gives of its strength to fruit and flower, and the fruit and flower give themselves to man and beast, and man is to give himself with what he has to God, using his material blessings for his spiritual good. God has given to man that which He values most, His own Son, and that Son says to His disciples: "As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you." The Father sent Him to give Himself for sinful man, and the first step in this selfgiving was a renunciation of all His heavenly possession; even so, if a man would go forth in the spirit of Christ, his first step must be a renunciation of all his earthly goods. "So, therefore, whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple. "
The only use, then, a man has for possessions is to give them. " Freely ye have received, freely give."
2. We get by giving. We give our time aud our energies in order to get that which we value more, money; and giving up this in the right spirit and with true wisdom, we get that which is of most value-our spiritual good, perfect manhood. The invariable law is, Give a less good in order to obtain a greater, and as long as we hold on to the less we cannot by any possible means lay hold of the greater good. The t.ree cannot bear fruit next year if it hold to the fruit of this year; it has given of its life to produce that frui~ (mind you, to produce it, not to possess it), for even that must be given up in order to new life.
In truth, there is nothing in this world that is an end in itself; everything is only a means to something better, everything is but merchandise. Whatever we may get in this world, there is always something better to be had by giving that which we now have. Something better in store for you! Yes, but you cannot have it as long as you hold on so tenaciously to your present good. "The kingdom of heaven," says the Master, "is like unto a merchantman seeking goodly pearls," and when he has found one pearl of great price he gives up all he has to get that pearl. This is ever the Christian spirit, seeking something better, and when that is found surrendering the good to obtain it, for" the good (however good it may be) is the enemy of the best;" and thus it comes to pass that only he who loses his life finds it, only he who renounces all he has becomes in the truest sense Chlist's disciple. The law of life, of growth, then is, Give, give, give. So true it is that we get by giving, that what money we have is not regarded by the Lord as our own, but another's; for, it sl'ems to me, that is what Luke 16 : 13 means: "If ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your olVn ~"
This money, which we call ours, is really a trust fund committed to UR, our real, inalienable possessions are far more valuable; but how shall we get them if we are not faithful here ~ You remember the separation of the judgment-day described by our Lord in the 25th of Matthew. Did you ever think upon the fact that they got the most and the best who gave the best? It was the givers who were the getters; they who withheld the good had the good withholden 'from them.
3. As we give to the Lord we get from the Lord. Giving seems to open a channel by which God's blessings flow in upon us. As we give, it is given unto us.
I do not say we will get of the same kind, although that may be. Glance back over th", history of our own (Baptist) denomination for the past few deeades, and we see as we have given men to missions God has increased our numbers more abundantly; as we have given of onr means God seems to have prospered us; while those who have not given money nor men are gradually hecoming less and less both in numbers and in influence. ,j There is that scattereth and yet increaseth."
r do not say, therefore, that missions is a "boom-town" where you can buy a corner lot for a mere "song," and afterward sell it for one thousalld dollars. I do not say invest a prayer and a penny and the Lord will give you a pound. I do not say it is more blessed to give than to receive because for every dime you give you'll get a dollar, although from a merely commercial point of view missions pay. The mission to the Sandwich Islands is ~aid to have cost $5,000,000, while the trade with this country amounted to $16,000,000 in six years, so that the interest for two years amounted to more than the whole principal.
But the greater blessing consists in the larger man, for in giving he has dethroned selfishness and made his heart a more fit dwelling-place for the Holy Spirit. A man riding along the street dropped a quarter into the outstretched hand of a beggar woman, but as he rode away he began to repent his good deed, saying: "How do I know that the woman is worthy ~ She may take that money and spend it on drink;" and he rode back and asked the woman to return the money; the astonished woman did so, and was more astonished to receive a five-dollar bill. As the man rode away a second time he was heard to murmur: ., There, self, I guess· you wi~h you had kept quiet." I know of no better way to down the selfish man in all of us than hearty, systematic, and prayerful giving to missions.
And, again, the greater blessing consists in the enlar.qed power of the giver for doing good at home; for the farther he canses his light to shine the brighter it is bound to shine at home. Therefore, if you want a revival at home, give to those away from home; if you want sinners saved about you, give to those you have never seell; and as God's blessings come down to accompany the money you have given, it will lift you up nearer Him and sweep those who are near you into His kingdom. For, say what you please, it is not self-interest that moves the people for good, but selfsacrifice. When the unconverted man sees you clinging with death-grip to the money the Master has entrusted to you, he mocks at your religion ; but when he sees you as a faitbful steward give of your means, then he bows before the power of your religion. If I were asked the greatest hindrance to the spread of the Gospel at home, I believe I would say, Not enough given to spread the Gospel abroad.
.. Give thy heart's best treasure, from fair nature learn; Give thy love, and ask not, wait not, a return; And the more thou spendest of thy little store, With II double bounty God will give thee more."
We see, then, that the reflex influence of giving to missions is wonderful for good, that nothing pays like generosity, that" in giving a man receives more than he gives, and the man is in proportion to the worth of the thing given;" but let us not forget that all giving has a reflex influence. What, then, are we to expect as long as we give $900,000,000 a year to the liquor traffic, $600,000,000 to the tobacco traffic, $568,000,000 for jewelry, and $5,000,000, nearly as much as we give to missions, for ostrich plumes ~ But let me not appeal to your selfishness in urging you to be unselfish. Let us away with this calculating of profits. We'll receive no good when we commence calculating how much good we'll get by doing good. The good comes when we lose ourselves in the good work, when we give, not for the sake of the good that will come back to us, but for the 8ake of the Master, because of the love we bear Him. The good comes when the gifts go not alone but are acco~panied by earnest prayers from loving hearts. The message to Cornelius was: "Thy prayer and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God."
" Hands that ope but to receive Empty clolie ; they only live Riohly who richly give.
" He who giving does not crave, Likest is to Him who gave Life itself the loved to save.
" Love that self·forgetful gives Sows surprise of ripened sheaves- Late or soon its own receives."
THE GARMEN'l'S OF CHRIST
THE GARMENTS OF CHRIST.
BY PROFESSOR L. J. BERTRAND, PARIS, FRANCE.
Where are they, at Treves or at Argenteuil1 After long discussions French and German ecclesiastical delegates have decreed that they are at both places. Mutual interests required perhaps that strange solution.
Father Hyacinthe declares that they are nowhere, and accuses those judges and our bishops of deceiving the faithful, of teaching them how to become stupid or hypocritic. Those accusations are so personal and in such plain words, that our political papers print them in large type and even placard them on some walls in Brittany. One says: "The Archbishop of Rennes told me, As bi.~hops we are obliged to say the contrary of what we believe."
I suppose that the high dignitary of the Roman Church meant: " Those relics are a fraud, but as they please and comfort narrow-minded people, revive their faith, attach them more closely to the Church, why should we deprive them of their fetiches? Many places like Treves, Lourdes, N. D. d'Auray receive millions of people who give millions and millions of francs to the Church. Why should we lose so much money ~ Besides," says the Bishop of Poitiers, "we cannot speak against superstition without compromising our situation and offending many priests in our diocese and at Rome. Ordinary preachers alone can express their doubts. "
Father Haycinthe translates thus: "I am obliged to follow my troops, because I am their general."
The former Archbishop of Paris, Darboy: "Brave at horne, cowards in public."
La Bruyere: "Man was born a liar, and all his interests say, Be a liar." It is well known that our Crusaders were very superstitious, and that each of them wanted to bring from the Holy Land relics for his church and others for his family. Indigenes gave them, for cash, all they required -the garments of Jesns Christ when a babe, a boy, and a man, the shroud, the coat, the overcoat. the sandals, the Bible, the tears, the sweat of Jesus Christ, the stone on which fell one of His tears, the socks and some milk of the Holy Virgin, the chalk on which fell a drop, her oil portrait by St. Luke, the gloves and the skull of St. Ann, a finger of St. John, the skeleton of St. Pancras, the four nails and big pieces of the Cross-all perfectly authentic, of course. But now comes a difficulty. We have seven heads of St. Ann, twentyone fingers of St. John, twenty-five portraits of the Virgin by St. Luke, thirty skeletons of St. Pancras, such a heap of nails that a baggage train could • not carry them, such an enormous number of true pieces of the true Gross, that the Bois de Boulogne could scarcely give as much wood. With the stones which received the tear and the chalk on which fell the drop of milk, we might easily build a new Vatican, and with the scattered hones of any saint, we could rebuild the ekeletons of an army of giants. Our priests explain, as they can, that multiplicity and other obscurities. Thus they say that as filings of the true nllils were formerly melted with much iron in each nail, there is something of the eacred nail; that the terra dicta lac virginis was imbibed with the drop of milk, and therefore that thE.' whole was sanctified that the bones being probably taken from the same catacombs, therefore they are ,:orthy of our worship. As for the famous tube containing a few drops of Mary's milk, it is perfectly empty; that is true, but it has white spots, and the tube itself is quite sufficient because of what it formerly contained. I remember that a college friend, a Parisian sceptic, forgot during his holiday trip to bring his fathcr a bottle which he had promised to fill at the source of Lourdes. As he disliked to displease his sick father and to return to Lourdes at his own expense, he bought an old bottle still adorned with the true mercantile label, and filled it, in my presence, at the river Seine. At the sight of the true bottle and the false water of Lourdes the sick man fainted with emotion, then drank with such a full confidence that, to my amazement, he really recovered.
A priest told me that labels had often made miracles, and therefore I am surprised that by the side of collections of stamps we have not collE.'ctions of miraculous labels and miraculous bottles.
Lately the Bishop of Treves and his priests resolved, " that if during the Kulturkampf of Bismarck an exhibition of the garments was impo3sible, the time has come to call the ChIistian world to Treves." Therefore they solemnly opened the casket containinf: the relic which had been hid since ] 844. At this date the most violent polemics led to the formation of " the German Catholic Church," but did not prevent one million pilgrims to worship "the true Holy Coat." German and French communities, together with the priests of Argenteuil, protest against the exhibition, and declare that it is an ecclesiastical and shameful fraud; but the bishop replies that now millions may go to Treves, venerate or worship the garments, because all proofs of authenticity are already obtained.
Mgr. Korum and learned priests have compulsed all the documents of former writers on the subject; many dignitaries and three celebrated archreologues (1) "in the year of Christ 1890 and in the most holy secret" (why secret?) submitted the relic to a scientific and archreologic 8tudy, and now they proclaim that it is authentic and composed of three parts.
1. An envelope of damasked silk, very rich, but so tattered and decayed that even the drawings could scarcely be copied. The background is of a somewhat dark bIlle, but was evidently red or purple. " We declare with certitude that this comes from the fifth or . . . sixth century, ther~fore that at that time people believed in the authenticity of the Coat."
I cannot help remembering that my first schoolmaster spoiled the teachings of my mother and of my pastor with these words: "Voltaire wrote that Crusaders used to stick on their hats shells gathered on the sea-shore of Palestine, that when those of Tours and Paris returned they scattered them in their gardens. Now your ignorant pastor says that the shells of Tours and Paris prove in favor of a deluge, as if science and Voltaire did not declare with certitude that there was never, never a deluge."
Later, as a student, I heard the great s'avant Ste. Claire-Deville say, like Geoffroy St. Hilaire, that Paris and Tours being built on beds of shells of different epochs, we may affirm with certitude that our earth en- dured many deluges. I went away murmuring, " Will not science prove later that my unscientific mother was right when she spoke to me of one deluge ¥"
2. "The Holy Coat has a lining of cotton cloth or linen (doubtful !) of such old ness that we declare it much older than the outside.
3. "The great relic, given by St. Helena to the Church of 'l'reves in 331, and thus protected on both sides, was therefore much venerated at the beginning of our era, and as it is seamless, why should it not be the true Holy Coat of Jesus Christ (why not of Pilatus or Judas~) ~ Scientists object that it is of grayish, yellowish, undefined color, with drawings as old Egyptian stuffs. Weare not afraid of science, and we do not say that it was not made by the Virgin in Egypt for Jesus as a boy or a man, but its length is five and one quarter feet, which proves that Jesus was at least six feet high ; and how a profane coat could do miracles ¥ Is it not well known that Countess Droste·Vischering, when nineteen years old, could walk only with crutches and the help of two servant!> ; that permitted, in 1844, to touch the Holy Coat, she at once threw her crutches down- stairs and walked to a convent, where she now enjoys perfect health ?"
" Nothing of that is known," reply other Catholics. " You say that the Coat was given in 331 by St. Helena, who died in 327, to t.he Church of Treves much before Treves had a church. Figures of birds and fantastic animals were woven in the cloth, and the Jews had a ' holy hor- ror' for them. How is it that your friends alone could see the countess before the miracle and that alone they can see her now 1 How is it that one of the witnesses, the first canon of the cathedral, Wilmoski, repenting in 1876, declared that all was a mere fraud ~ How is it that twenty priests and two thousand witnesses testified the radical cure of another girl at Lourdes, and that now it is well known that the news and the witnesses were all false ~ Why do you invariably refuse to accept official witnesses?, Because fraud is at ;the root of your miracles, and even Catholic papers echo, Fraud ! fraud !"
What becomes of the Argenteuil true Coat? "Learned archreologues"
say that it is composed of four long pieces four and one half feet long and three feet wide, quite insufficient for the garments of a man; but as the relic has always been called cappa, it may have been the coat of Jesus when he went to the Temple, or be the best remnant of the overcoat which soldiers divided into four parts. " The learned archreologues" of Rome, Constantinople, and Moscow lately replied with indignation that all those suppositions are absolutely erroneous, and with perfect certitude they main- tain that their three pieces and the four of Argenteuil together make the seamless Coat which Christ wore at the crucifixion.
How humiliating! Just now Leo XIII. declares that the Holy Coat of Treves has the supremacy, and that Argenteuil, Rome, Constantinople, and Moscow must go to Germany! .
Is it because of that infallible judgment that two thousand Americana "have taken possession of the best rooms of Treves, that fifty thousand Canadians, Irish, English, and Italians, have taken the others~" What I know by our priests is that" Bishop Korum is at his wits' end, because three hundred thouRand Germans and one hundred thousand French an- nounce their visit. Two millions of pilgrims are expected this year at Treves." The archbishop will make an enormous fortune.
For Christians those facts look more distressing than they really are. As Taine says, there are in France thirty-seven millions of people born in the Roman Church, but we have only one million of Catholics and one million of Romanists, not one hundred thousand worshippers of relics. Superstition exists everywhere and among all classes, especially among freethinkers.
When I went to Oran (Algeria), the most irreligious of cities, I found that" believing unbelievers," as Pascal calls them; were too intelligent to believe in their Creator, but could believe, as in the dark Middle Ages, in witchcraft and incantation. I never heard of so many spirit-rappers, ghosts. sorcerers, somnambulists, fortune-tellers. Three well-dressed and intelligent-looking ladies came the very first night to tell me : "Just now the spirit rapped and rapped. Halloe! said we, what is it? 'Go at once to such a honse, in such a street, where a great prophet of mine has arrived.' " , " Well, ladies," said I, ., come to our meeting to-morrow and I will speak on the Holy Spirit."
They" came, and in spite of my discourse, more or less. directed against their supprstition, they published among their friends that the ghost of I do not know what great and holy prophet had taken possession of my own body. Well, Julius Cresar had his Idcs of March, Napoleon 1. his star, Napoleon III. and Gambetta, as· lmperstitious as Hottentots, their regular somnambulist. Our lords, titled ladies, and magistrates of the sceptic eighteenth century swallowed the most stupid stuff of quack St. Germain, emptied their purses before Cagliostro, shivered with terror and horror before the trough of Mesmer, containing only filings of iron and glass; our Minister Maurepas gave Mesmer, dressed in his lilac gown and armed with the conjurer's wand, $70,000 for a German secret which he, of course, never posAessed. Our great authors Ste. Beuve, Th. Gautier, Renan, flew away when they happened to be thirteen at table. Freethinkers, positivists, spiritists, magnetists, laugh loudly at our simple faith
MR. KANAMORI'S NEW BOOK
in an Almighty Ruler, but in secret walk in the dark and enigmatic paths of astrology, necromancy, black art, question augurs, omens, oracles, the flight of birds, the whiz of winds, endure the nightmare in the middle of the day rather than believe in God, because He says: "}{epent, ye poor sinners." I saw lately a French deiBt refusing obstinately to eat of a loaf of hread on which the servant had not made, as in his village, the sign of he cross, and an English Protestant becoming deadly pale because another loaf had fallen upside down.
Never mind all that; the age we live in is one of marvellous evolution, for it rapidly uproots superstition, prejudice, and baubles. As Edgar Quinet said: "Ce qui doit perir, perit. Le grand Dieu marche, marche et entraine avec lui Ie monde moral vers un monde meilleur."
MR. KANAMORI'S .NEW BOOK.
BY REV. F. S. CURTIS, HIROSHIMA, JAPAN.
There has been in Japan no reaction against foreign clothes, liquors, and tobacco, but the feeling against almost everything else foreign has risen high.
Properly the Japanese have begun to see the need of discrimination in their adoption of "things foreign," and in their modifying these things there are some who think that Christianity also must be "japanned," if not materially altered. There are extremists like Mr. Kanamori, who would, in his book, "The Present and Future of Christianity in Japan," " construct a new theology on independent and essentially .Japanese lines."
Mr. Kanamori's views are so radical, there are few, if any, who wonld go as far even among his own colleagues. However, his position seems to me logical and consistent, and since it shows ideas which in a milder form have leavened the whole Japanese Church, I will give you a brief summary of some of the leading thoughts of his book, as found in a review of his work in the Japan Mail of Odober 3d. He begins by sayi!lg that, like ancient Rome, Japan is the meeting ground of all the religious beliefs of the world, and that in the great struggle for existence which is now impending only truth and vitality will prevail j but that trnth, whether in the different denominational channels of Christianity, in Buddhism, Shintoism, or Confucianism, is truth, and that in this great conflict, in obedience to the universal law, that like attracts and unites with like, truth will unite with truth and life with life, and thns will be gradually formed a great religion fit for the twentieth century.
Thus he addresses the Orient: " Thou art poor and depressed. Thou wert left behind thy brother Occident in the race of civilization, but thou needst not grieve j fortune has already turned j thou hast now in thy hands the religions of the wcrld, and it IS III thy power to smelt and recast them into a great new faith. Thou shouldst aspire to become mother of a twentieth-century religion. It is for thee to recompense thy Western brother for his gift of a material civilization by conferring upon him a spiritual civilization. Grieve not, but rejoice and fulfil thy mission."
After considering some of the obetacles that oppose themselves to Christianity in its present form, among which he mentions the incredible stories and incomprehensible doctrines of the Bible, such as redemption and the divinity of Christ, he asserts that the churches are in a whirlwind of doubt and scepticism, and that even many of the Japanese pastors are in a most dangerous state of mind; but this, the author thinks, is only the natural outcome in view of the fact that these pastors learned their theology from orthodox foreign missionaries, and being unable to distinguish the grain from the chaff, were forced to swallow both without discrimination.
The writer then proceeds to discuss the Bible, and gives as his opinion that this book is nothing more than a collection of ancient records of the Jewish race relating to religion. He agrees with the advanced school of biblical students that the Pentateuch was not written by Moses, Psalms and Proverbs not by David or Solomon, and Daniel not by him. As to the New Testament, he questions the authenticity of the Rynpotists, and thinks the Fourth Gospel is not the work of John, etc. For all this, though the Bible is not authentic, and since collected in this manner neither a revelation nor the Word of God, he professes to hold it in special love and veneration as containing the practicat truths of religion, and hopes it will become the comfort and guide of his countrymen.
As to the person of Christ, while Mr. Kanamori believes himself not to be behind any Christian in his love for Christ, he cannot accept the doctrine of His Divine nature. The miracles of the gospels do not prove the divinity of Christ, for if one can accept the Gospel narratives in this regard, Christ is merely proven to be possessed of a power which no other man possessed.
As to the pro(f of prophecy. All prophecies of the Messiah were not fulfilled in Christ. Christ purposely shaped His conduct to accord with the prophecy. Again, the great results of Christ's teachings do not prove Him to be Divine any more than those of Buddha, Mahomet, or Confucius prove the same for them.
As to the perfectness of Christ's nature, a man is not perfect wht'n there are many things which he cannot do or does not know. He was simply a religious teacher of transcendental value, ~ messenger from God, but it is far safer to judge of His character in the light of general historical evidence and in comparison with other great founders of religion than to take the testimony of the apostles and early Christians, who were, perhaps, prevented by the very splendor of His moral glory from forming a fair estimate of His personality.
To accollDt for the peculiar forc() and authority of Christ's words, in tho
THE EMPRESS OF CHINA AND THE MISSIONARIES
chapter following the author dwells upon the extraordinary development of Christ's religious consciousness. By the natural purity and benevolence of His own heart above all other men He felt Himself to be in communion with God. "It was natural and excusable," he says, " in the early Christians to believe Christ to be God, for they were unable to account for His wonderful sayings and actions by any other hypothesis; but men of the present age owe it to the advanced stage of their civilization to make a right use of their reasoning powers so as to form a true estimate of Christ."
In the closing chapter the doctrine of redemption is examined and declared to be incompatible with the love and mercy of Godo The true meaning of salvation is that Christ, by His example, taught men how to commune with God, and thus saved them.
The pamphlet is concluded in the following words: " I regret to say that there are religious people who imitate the retrogressive policy of China. It is my sincere hope that the age of religious perfection may be placed not in the past, but in the future. However grand and noble a personage may appear hereafter in the rdigious field, he cannot but be an imperfect man; consequently it is not an historical personage whom we may accept as our Saviour, but the idealistic Christ embodying the perfection of the human species and symbolizing the communion of God and man." I have no time before the closing of the mail to add any comment other than to ask you that you will beg our churches at home to pray that the Spirit of God may be poured out in great measure upon the Christians here, that such pernicious doctrine may not find lodgement, and that He may lead them into the truth at! it is in Jesus, THE EMPRESS OF CHINA AND THE MISSIONARIES.
Some little time ago the new Empress in Pekin needed a tailor to make part of her wedding trousseau. The one who went happened to be a Christian, and having to be admitted into the presence of her Majesty on account of his work, he took the opportunity to speak for his Master; and being an earnest, warm-hearted man, he told her the GORpel, and then asked her gracious acceptance of a copy of the Chinese New Testamento l'his she was pleased to accept, and read it, seemingly interested in its contents. The tailor seeing this asked if he might bring a friend of his, who was more learned, and could explain it better. The Empress gave him per,mission, and he brought a young Christian gentleman who was studying at the Mission College for a preacher, and he preached very mnch to the satisfaction of his Imperial patroness, who made the remark to the tailor: " You did right to bring your friend. I understand the Christian doctrine much better now. He certa.inly explains it better than you. " We trust that the truth may sink into her heart, and that she may be saved.
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS.
BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
AFRICA.
-A writer in Gentral Af1'ica complains of the lack of missionary zeal in the High Church party of the Church of England, and assigns some causes. He says: " We High Churchmen have to face the simple fact that missionary ardor burns far more brightly among our Evangelical brethren than among ourRelves. To the work accomplished by the latter, as well as by Nonconformists, it is needless to point in detail ; it is before the world's eyes.
" When an appeal is made for workers in East Equatorial Africa, Bishop Tucker receives a crowd of applicants. When a similar appeal is made by the Bishop of Zanzibar, there is no response. Who can help drawing invidious comparisons, or resist asking, if not determining, what is the reason of the contrast ~ " I venture to think, moreover, that the affections of the clergy attach unduly to their material sanctuaries. God forbid that I should undervalue reverence for the place where His honor dwelleth; but it is possible for this right feeling to become a weakness, an indulgence in a religious luxury. There is, I think, a strong tendency to the opinion that the people exist for the Church rather tha:l the Church for the people, and congregations are regarded as ornaments for the fabric-an appropriate decoration of the nave-rather than as the' living stones' for whom the dead ones exist. Hence there is some loat.hness to pass out among the people and proclaim the Gospel apart from the adjuncts of the highest ecclesiastical civilization. Vve get too domesticated in our beautiful material houses of worship, too fastidious of all that is outwardly inadequate to face the exigencies of a life where much that we value in the service of God will have to be forgone. To embrace a missionary vocation means giving up , home comforts' in a double sense-a sense which our Evangelical brethren do not feel, or at least not to the same extent.. .
" If the sacrifice be greater for the High Churchman, is not the reward apportionate ~ Those who have made it will aUest that th" presence of our Lord may be realized more intensely in a palm-leaf chapel or a mud hut than in the very' eorrectest ' of town churches, and that the surrender is but a ' leaving Christ for Christ,' and that in the joy of worship there is a ' manifold more' even in this present world. "
-The Livingstonia Mission of the Free Church of Scotland was founded seventeen years ago, just after the burial of David Livingstone in Westminster Abbey. It was suggested by Rev. Dr. James Stewart, F.R.G.S., of Lovedale, South Africa, who had been Livingstone's companion in exploring the lake. It was organized and has since been led by Rev. Dr. Robert Laws, who has had but one furlough in the seventeen years. It is managed by a suo-committee of eight miniRters and twenty-two members of the Free and United Presbyterian Churches of Scotland. The other missionaries are: Of the Free Church, Rev. J. Kerr Cross, Rev. George Henry, Rev. George Steele, Messrs. Walter A. Elmslie and David H. Fotheringham; of the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa, Rev. Andrew C. Murray. Six of these gentlemen are medical missionaries, three are married-Messrs. Gossip, M'Intyr!', Vlok, Stuart, Thomson, W. Murray, J. and G. Aitken, and Mr. and Mrs. M'Callum. There are 48 native Christians, making a total Chrilltian staff of 65. All the native converts are missionaries. Including the 48, there are 78 native teachers, 3080 scholars, 2422 in attendance at oncc. In one station, in less than one year, Dr. Henry treated 5200 cases-3231 surgical. Arab war and Portuguese aggression have both been compelled to recede, and there is good hope of quieter times.
" The Livingstonia Mission is entering on a new period, even that of the first-fruits of harvest in every sense. Let the Church-that is, every member of it-seek by prayer and sacrifice to prove worthy of the Master who leads, and, in their degree, of the servants whom He has sent, and enableR us still to send, to the front of His army."
-Of the four Moravian brethren dispatched to establish a mission on Lake Nyassa, one, G. Martin, has already been called home. The Unitas Fratrum is publishing very full and interesting journals and letters from the surviving brethren.
-The Rev. G. L. Pilkington, of Uganda, writing in th" /}hurch Missionary Intelligencer, says: "The two facts that impress me most strongly in this country are the smallness of England's efforts for this country and the greatness of what God has been pleased to do in spite of it. Why, if Spurgeon or Moody were to come here they would soon have audiences of immortal souls (faces black, no doubt, if that makes any difference) as large as any they address in England or America, and more receptive" and less hardened, and far more grateful." Gratefulness, as the present writer, from ten years among the West Indian negroes can testify, is peculiarly a negro trait of character.
-The Ohronicle, highly commending Mr. Cust's " Africa Rediviva," nevertheless keenly criticises it in parts. Among other things it says :, " His bitter criticism on the Paris Missionary Society reads like a survival of that unworthy anti-Gallic feeling in which the British were trained a generation or two ago, and is utterly without justification. No more peaceable and loyal occupants of British territory can be found than the agents of the Paris Missionary Society in Basutoland, many of whom are connected by ties of blood or marriage more with England and Scotland than with France, and against whom it is an unjust and unfounded slander to say that they' have meddled with tribal politics in a sense hostile to British interests.' "
-It has heen a matter of surprise that the efforts of Christian missionaries in the barbarous Moslem empire of Morocco have hitherto been so free. It appears, however: from The Christian, that Islam is beginning to move against them. "The Sultan of Morocco has issued orders forbidding intercourse between Moorish women and ladies attached to Christ,ian missions. The workers connected with the North African Mission are specially affected, and having regard to the welfare of inquirers and others, they are prepared to pursue their labors with special circumspection and caution. The Sultan's advisers interpret communications between Moorish and English women as threatening' innovation in the laws,' and' the evil of corrupting religion.' These offences may be visited with the penalty of death in the case of renegades refusing to report in a given time! A definite subject for prayer at the present time is that the Sultan may grant religious liberty to his subjects, so that the Gospel may be proclaimed without imperial hi~dr~~c!3," EAST INDIES.
– " India is a vast continent inhabited by. nearly a fifth of the whole human race or nearly four-fifths of civilized Europe. Indian population is made up of many diverse societies in various degrees of human progres5 and distinguishable from each other by their dress, habits, occupations, and modes of life. But notwithstanding the great differences due to caste prejudices, the vast Indian peoples of the present day may well be dividIXI into two main classes-viz., those who understand English and those who do not. The former class is only a microscopic minority. I doubt whether they number even four per cent of the entire population; but as a class they can easily be distinguished from the masses, since their modes of life, occupations and dress are quite different from those of the great bulk: of the people. This new class of men, instead of returning, after their academical career, to the usual avocations of their parents, and improving them by their superior skill, tact and wisdom; instead of mixing freely with their less enlightened brethren and diffusing knowledge among them, and reforming them step by step, have preferred to remain isolated, and deserve to be called' an association of clerks and penmen.' After half a century of British rule in Il).dia this is the result that has been produced.
"It canno.t, however, be denied that though numerically small the English-knowing section of the Indian people is capable of producing grand results, if while waking to a sense of its power it is awakcned also to a sense of its duty. With such revered names among us as Rajah Ram Mohun Roy, Babu Keshub Chunder Sen, Iswara Chandra Vidya Sagar, no one is justified in saying that English education in India has been wholly barren of great results. These three great Indian heroes must find a foremost place among the men of action and the philanthropists of the world. Since the time of the illustrious Sakya Muni, these are the only three whom India has produced; but these three, in their own lifetime, worked with the accumulated strength of three hundred men. "-A Brahmin, in Harvest Field (Madras).
-The same Brahmin, writing, of course, from his own point of view, goes on to say: "Christian work among Pariahs has been a success; it does not matter much from a social standpoint whether the higher classes of Hindus become converts or not. The social advantages of Christianizing Pariahs are very numerous. On becoming Christians, Pariahs become eligible to study in public schools; they come under the supervision and control of enlightened missionary gentlemen. Their girls also are put to school, and soon' many a Hower born to blush unseen' sends forth a rare fragrance which is widely appreciated. "
-The abbot of the Hindu monastery of Gundicha, says the Juvenile Missionary Herald (English Baptist), a Brahmin, who has quite a passion for collecting Christian books, put them into the hands of two of his disciples. Naturally enough, but apparently without his expecting it, they both became Christians and very efficient ones.
– " Our mode of preaching is necessarily very varied-as varied as are the habits, thoughts, conditions of life of the people to whom we preach. A set discourse, delivered in an unemotional manner, is practically useless. Sympathy with the people, knowledge of their difficulties, acquaintance with the sayings current among them, familiarity with their home life, their social life and religious beliefs are absolutely necessary if we would speak to them effectively. Parables, il1ll~trations, proverbs, and pithy sayings must be freely used in commending to them the truths of the Gospel. The preacher must make everything he says real, living, visible before them. He must become all things to all men. He must feel that he has rich treasures of grace and love in Christ to present to every man, and must present them with all confidence and hope. Hesitaney, reserve, will take away all the spirit from what he says." -Rev. E. LEWIS, in Harvest Field.
– " The day whieh I spent, in company with the native preacher Pakiam, in visiting Pariah villages, has appeared to me one of the most momentous of my life. I wished that many friends of missions could do what I did-creep around in the huts of these mOllt wretched of all the wretched, and gain an insight not only into their outward misery, but into the utter ruinousness of their whole inner being. Such an experience might well rectify many a distorted apprehension and many an unwarranted expectation. "-Dr. GRUNDEMANN, in Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrijt.
-The Church Missionary Intelligencer, in a memorial notice of the eminent native clergyman, William Thomas Satthianadhan, says: "In regard to all th0ge delicate questions which are now and again coming to the front in the misRion field, snch as the relations of missionaries to their converts, and all such questions as might be properly included under the term 'Home Rule,' he showed himself at once in sympathy with his countrymen, and yet fully alive to the unwisdom, not to say absurdity, of the native church thinking it can run alone when it is only beginning to feel its feet. "
– " Last year the English officers and civilians of the Punjab and Sindh contributed $] 3, 500 for the support of mission work. They have seen thl) work of the missionary, and this is their testimony. "-Missionary Reporter (M. E. C., South).
-The Young Men's Christian Association of Madras (whose organ, The Young Men of India, we occa~ionally see) has now a membership of 215, of whom 47 are Christians, 87 Hindus, and 3 Mohammedans, the two latter classes, doubtless, being Associate.
– " When Carey was dying, the Metropolitan Bishop of India, the highest official of the Church of England in India, knelt with bowed head by the pillow of this shoemaker missionary, and asked his blessing, feel. ing that no honor could equal the blessing of this man, whom God had ordained to- be the greatest apostle of modern missions." – Canadian Mis. sionary Link.
MISCELLANEOUS.
-The U. P. Missionary Record for January has an interesting account of the great missionary martyr of the Middle Ages, Raymund Lull. He accomplished little immediately, but his example has always been working since. His words are: "He who loves not lives not; he who loves lives by the life that cannot die."
-The notion that Mohammedan!! are wholly inaccessible to the Gospel begins, as the Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift shows, to give way to facts. The Church Missionary Society has II round thousand baptized converts from Islam; the Rhenish Missionary Society, of its 12,000 converts in Snmatra, has received, we believe, almost one half from the Moham. medans; of 12,000 Javanese Christians, nearly al were gained from Islam.
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
n.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
International Missionary Union. Drake, Rev. D. H., India.
The ninth annual meeting of the In. Dunlap, Rev. E. ·P., Siam. ternational Missionary Union was held at Clifton Springs, N. Y., which has Dale, Miss Annie G., Persia. become its home, through the munifi· cent provision of Dr. Henry Foster, Eddy, Miss Mary Pierson, Syria. who has loved this institution and built them a tabernacle-one of the most Eddy, Miss Julia, " unique and beautiful structures of its Eveleth, Mrs. Fred H.. kind in the world. The first session, Burma. held on Wednesday evening, June 8th, was occupied with the address of wel- Ferguson, Rev. J. C., China. come from Rev. Lewis Bodwell, Chap. lain of the Sanitarium, followed by the Ferguson, Mrs. Mary N., " roll-call, in response to which the indio vidual members stated their field, years Fife, Miss Nellie E., Japan. of service, and made a brief reference to their work. Sixty.five missionaries Folsom, Rev. Arthur, China. responded to this call the first evening. The exercises were conducted by Rev. S. Folsom, Miss Ellen A., India. L. Baldwin, D.D., one of the secretaries of the Methodist Missionary Society. Fuller, Mrs. Jennie, The following missionaries were in Fitch, Rev. G. F., China. attendance on the meetings of the week. They aggregate some fourteen hundred Fulton, Miss Mary H., M.D., years of service on the field. Graybill, Rev. A. T., Mexico.
Gracey, J. T., D.D., India.
Gracey, Mrs. J. T., Hamlin, Cyrus. D.D., Turkey.
Hamlin, Mrs. Mary E., " Harding, ReT. C., India.
Harpster, Rev. J. H., Harpster, Mrs. J. H., Jewett, Lyman. D.D., ,. Jewett, Mrs. Lyman, Jewell, Mrs. C. M., China.
Kennedy. Miss M. J., India.
Kellogg, S. H., D.D., NAME. FIELD. Kellogg, Mrs. S. H., "
Adams, Mrs. S. C., Japan. Lucas, J. J., D.D., Abrahamian, Rev. S. C., Turkey. Andrews, Miss M. E., China. Lore, Mrs., D. D., Argentina. Angelini, Mrs. Arabella, Italy. Baldwin, S. L., D.D., China. Mansell, Henry, D.D., India. Belden, Rev. Wm. H.• Bulgaria. Belden, Mrs. Ellen S., Mansell, Mrs. NancieM., M.D.," Bunn, Miss Zillah A., Bnrma. Mellen, Mrs. L. W., Africa.
McMillan, Rev. J., M.D., Mudge, James, D.D., India.
Miller, Miss L. Ella, Burma..
Bunker, Alonzo, D.D., Nevius, J. L .• D.D., China. Burditt. Rev. J. T., Bushnell, Mrs. Albert. India. Nevius, Mrs. Helen S. C., Calder, James, D.D., Africa. Calder, Rev. Wm. Carey, China. Nichols, Rev. C. A., Burma. Burma. Nichols, Mrs. C. A., Otto way, Miss Annie, Cent. Am.
Carleton, Miss May, M.D., China. Osgood, Mrs. Helen W., China.
CroBs Samnel, Siam. Popoff, Rev. M., Bulgaria.
Cross, Mrs. Samuel, " Popoff, Mrs. M., Cushing, C. W., D.D., Italy. Davis, Rev. J. A., China. Parsons, Mrs. C. J., Turkey.
Plumb, Mrs. N. J., China.
Dowsley, Rev. Andrew,) India and Chi· Perry, Rev. H. T., Turkey.
B.A., l na, Campbel. Perry, Mrs. Mary E., Siam.
Dows!ey, Mrs. Andrew, ford, Ont, ;Can. Po~·ter, Miss Mary H., China. Phillips, Rev. E. G., Assam. Siam, as Journalistic Secretary, whose versatility, ingenuity, and general avail- Phillips, Mrs. E. G, ability throughout the week made him like the eyes in the wheels, when he was Phinney, Miss Hattie, Burma. not some one of the many wheels him- self. He has a high order of organizing Price, Rev. W. I., genius.
Price, Mrs. W. I., " LECTURES.
Ranney, Miss Ruth W., Dr. John Henry Barrows, of Chicago, delivered the first of the set lectures. Richardson, Miss Helen. India. His theme was" The Religious Exhibits and the Religious Congresses of the Roberts, Rev. W. H., Burma. Word's Fair in 1893." it was an elo· quent address, explanatory and argu- Roberts, Mrs. W. H., mentative, mainly aiming at the pres- entation of the ideal of the World's Rolman, Miss Eva L .• Japan. Parliament of Religions. The next morning the Union had a spirited de· Robinson, Rev. J. E., India. bate ou 'his part of the scheme, some stoutly championing it, and others with Rood, Mrs. A. V., Zulularid. equal zeal and intelligent statement condemning it. The general line of Rivenburg. Rev. S. W.• Assam. the arguments on either side were forti- fied by specific information as to the Rivenburg, Mrs. S. W., representative character of the eminent gentlemen from abroad who have been Schneider, Mrs. S. M., Turkey. already named, or of those likely to come. It was thought by these speak- Spencer, Miss M. A.• Japan. ers that no genuine Brahman, Buddhist, or Confucianist could be induced to Sparkes. Miss Fanny. India. take part in such a parliament. Others thought that the outcome of such a Stephens. Rev. W. H.. gathering would be much better and broader than any imaginary form or re- Stephens, Mrs. W. H .• " sult that could be sketched in advance; and that, as it was to be, Christian men Thayer. Rev. C. C.• M.D.• Turkey. might better accept destiny and aid in shaping something that would be of Thayer, Mrs. C. C.• value to mankind. Resolutions and amendments and substitutes found rec- Tracy. Rev. Charles C., ognition, and on some of them the de- cisions could only be announced after a Tyler, Rev. Josiah, Africa. count vote; but it turned out that no final action was reached, other topics Tyler, Miss Susan E., having forced their way to the attention of the meeting, and this not having Wherry, Miss S. M.• India. been taken up again, whether from indis- position to press to an ultimate vote the White, Mrs. W. J., . China. writer cannot say. Certainly a large num· ber will give their individual support Williams, Rev. E. T., to the movement; while the discussion will remain in the minds of those who Willits, Rev. O. W., " were present, as it was a very able one, Wood, Miss Sarah L., Turkey.
Wood, Geo. W., D.D., Wood, Mrs. Geo. W., "
Woodhull, Miss Kate C., M.D., China.
Young, Rev. E. R., 1 North American Young, Mrs. E.R., I Indians.
The summary of the above is as follows: By Societies: A. B. C. F. M., 25; Baptist, 23; Presbyterian, 23 : Metho. dist, 21 ; Lutheran, 2 ; Church of Scotland, 2 ; Reformed Church of America, 1; Woman's Union, 1 ; Disciples, 1 ; Evangelical Church of Italy, 1 ; Christian Alliance, 1 ; Italian Bible Society, 1 ; Independent, 1. Total, 103.
By Fields: Africa, 5; Assam, 4; Bulgaria,4; Burma, 13 ; Central America, 1; China, 22; Hudson Bay, 2; India, 25 ; Italy, 2 ; Japan, 4; Mexico, 1 ; PerSia, 1 ; Siam, 4 ; South America, 1 ; Syria, 2 ; Turkey, 12. Total, 103.
The organization was completed by the addition of Rev. E. P. Dunlap, of The next formal lecture was on " Bul· the Magazine of 'Christian Literature.
garia and the Bulgarians," by Rev. The first was from the pen of Mrs.
Cyrus Hamlin, D.D., founder and ex· Annie Reichardt, the second by Justice President of Robert College, Constanti. Ameer Ali, of Calcutta. .. The Nature nople. It is impossible to summarize of the Crisis in the Missionary Work in and almost as difficult to characterize Turkey," by Rev. William N. Cham.
this Gladstonian lecture by the Mis· bers, D.D., of Erzroom, Turkey, was sionary Gladstone of America. The the theme of another able paper. Rev.
lecturer, in his eighty·second year, Dr. J. M. Allis, of Chili, sent a paper on swept over the past, present, and future .. Work among Romanists." Rev. C.
without losing a fraction of detail or A. Nichols, of Burma, presented and cumbering with over·statement his read a practical paper on •• Lay Mis.
resume of the diplomacy and strategy of sionaries for the Foreign Field." Rev.
this the most diplomatic and strategic J. E. Robinson, of Bombay, read a valu- centre of modern history. We had lit· able essay on ., The Attitude of the Ed· tie wonder that a bishop of a Protes· ucated Classes of India toward Chris· tant church should say, "If Hamlin tianity." Rev. Robert H. Nassau, were a Romanist, that Church would M.D., of the Gaboon, West Africa, sent canonize him as soon as possible after a paper which was read as the opening his death," of the conversation on •• Shall Roman A third lecture was by Rev. J. L. Catholic Priests in Heathen Lands be Nevius, D.D., of Northeast Ohina, on Given Religious or Social Recognition " The Phenomena of Demoniacal Pos· by Protestant Missionaries ?" Dr.
session in the Present Age." The lec. Nassau took a negative position, though turer had bestowed large attention to he recognized certain obligations toward the collection and collation of testi. them as members of a civilized com· mony from many and widely separated munity, in comparison with the claims parts of the East, of alleged or suspected of the native heathen. Another paper cases of possession of the devil. The was furnished by Rev. William K. Eddy, classification of these phenomena was of Syria, on " The Shadeleeyah Sect of made in a strong way, and the lecturer Islam in Syria." Rev. W. H. Roberts, inclined to a belief of the operation of of Burma, presented a paper full of in· Satan, through hypnotic and other abo terest and information on the" Provi· normal conditions of the human mind sion for the Care and Education of and body, It hailed questions when Missionaries Children left in this Coun· the lecturer gave the opportunity to try. " Miss Z. A. .Bunn lind Miss Hat· present them,' tie Phinney, both of Burma, read es· PAPERS. says; the former treated" The Relative The more formal papers of the week Importance of Educational and Evan- were of marked ability. The most gelistic Work," and the latter" Train· elaborate was that of Rev. E. M. Wher. ing Native Bible Workers." Rev. C. C.
ry, D.D., of Chicago, second to no Tracy, of Turkey, treated the lIudience American authority on Mohammedan· to a paper on " Self.Support."
ism, discussing" The StatuR of Moslem SPECIAL SESSIONS. Women according to the Teaching of the Quran." The paper was summarized There were four sessions of promi.
in the absenoe of its author by Rev. Dr. nent interest. One entire evening ses- Kellogg, who proved equal to the task sion was given to the consideration of of condensing what he called already medical missions, and part of the ses- one of the most closely condensed es. sion the following forenoon, both or- says he ever read. It is partially in reo ganized and presided over by C. C.
joinder to two articles which appeared Thayer, M.D., Physician in Superin.
in the Nineteenth (Jentury, reprinted in tendence of the Sanitarium, a medical missionary in Turkey from 1868-73. which he might make a selection, ac- Another, directed and presided over hy cording to the interest sf the hour. Rev. James Mudge, D.D., editor of the Then the other members of the Union Lucknow Witness from 1873-83, was 00- plied them with impromptu questions. cupied with the relation of experiences The compact intelligence given so inof returned missionaries in their efforts terested the Union and the audience, to instruct and stimulate the home that it was subsequently determined to churches on the subject of fOl"eign mis- publish the questions and answers in sions. A change in the demand was pamphlet form. recognized, less of the mere curiosity exhibit, or reference to the customs of the The sessions for consideration of toppeople being desirable, the churches ics of a general interest were made purhaving so generally become intelligent posely conversational rather than in the in these matters, and prepared to form stiff form of debate, that the ladies better judgment of the missionary work might feel the freer to take part thereand results, and the work itself having in. The general outline embraced 8uch developed to an extent which intensi- topics as Governments and Missions; fies the interest in hearing about it. Nominal Christians and Dead Churches; The speech wanted of the returned mis- Immigrants in the United States; Selfsionary ten years ago is no longer in de- Support; Missionaries and Natives of mand. The advantages and difficulties Foreign Fields; Difficulties from Social of the missionary as a speaker on the Conditions of Converts: Training Nahome platform, and how he can make tive Helpers; Education versus Evanhimself most effective, were among the gelization; Work among Moslema, and points presented with advantage. numerous unclassified themes.
The special ladies' meetings, one ex- The platform meetings were well susclusi vely for ladies and one public, tained. Dr. Bunker, of the Baptist were addressed by Mrs. Schneider, for Karen Mission in Burma, thrilled the tllirty years in Turkey; Mrs. Parsons, audience with the recital ~f triumphs for forty-two years in the same coun- of grace and answered prayer within try; Mrs. Jewett, thirty-eight years his mission, like that of which he gave among the Telugus ; Mrs. Angelini, of a brief account in the July number of Italy; Miss Eddy, of Syria; Miss Ran- this REVIEW; Dr. J. J. Lucas charmed ney, of Burma; Mrs. Perry, of Siam. and profited the people with illustra- Mrs. Egerton R. Young, of Hudson's tions of the imminence of God in mis- Bay Indian work, sang in the Cree lan- sion work; Rev. Josiah Tyler, of South guage. and others in Japanese and other Airica, fired with enthusiasm, kindled tongues. by forty years among the Zulus, stirred his hearers with his vigorous recitals; But perhaps the most highly valued Rev. Egerton R. Young-it goes withof these special sessions was one given out the saying-was always the same to the "Dunlap Symposium." This fascinating speaker about the canoe and was a novelty destined to be copied dogsled experiences of missionary life and highly to be commended as a form among the Cree and Saulteaux Indians of missionary meeting where circum- in the far North Land; Rev. A. T. stances render it possible. Some fifteen Graybill, first missionary of the SouthmISSIOnaries, representing as many ern Presbyterian Mission in Mexico, fieldR, were selected to take place in spoke discriminatingly of work among turn on the platform to be "inter- Romanists; Rev. J. Harpster, of the viewed" by Rev. E. P. Dunlap, of Lutheran Church. told of their missions Siam, who suggested and arranged this in Africa and India; Rev. C. Harding, entire session. The parties had previous- of India, unobtrusive, but always sensily placed in the hands of Dr. Dunlap a ble and discriminating, Nevius. Folsom, set of questions about their work from Ferguson, with Willits, Williams, and others of China, with those from other but thirty-three were present at this fields, all contributed to an unllsually meeting. As it may be a matter of high average of platform delineation public interest, we give the following and demonstration with power, while names of those returning: veterans like Dr. Lyman Jewett, whose To Burruo., Rev. Messrs. Roberts and face it is a benediction to behold, graced. Calder and Misses Phinney and Bunn ; the occasion with words which were to Bulgaria, Rev. M. Popoff and wife; like" dew on H·.,rmon." to China, Dr. and Mrs. Nevius, Messrs.
There was the usual Young People's Fitch, Ferguson, and Willio.ms, Dr.
Meeting on Sunday afternoon, and a May Carleton and Dr. Mary Fulton; to rare series of talks on Bulgaria, by Rev. Cree Indians, Rev. E. R. Young; to W. H. Belden and Mrs. Belden, and Italy, Mrs. Angelini; to India, Dr.
Dunlap of Siam and Nichols of Burma, Mansell and wife, Dr. Kellogg and wife, illustrated by stereopticon views; and W. H. Stephens and wife, Rev. Hard- the charming social hour in the Sanita- ing, Mrs. Fuller, and the Misses Fol- rium parlor, known as the President·s som, Wherry, Richardson; to Mexico, reception, for the presentation of the Rev. Mr. Graybill; to Siam, Rev. Boon missionaries to Dr. and Mrs. Foster and Itt; to Turkey, Rev. Mr. Perry and others. wife and Mrs_ Par~ons. When these The Consecration Meeting at 9 o'clock had spoken Rev. Dr. George W. Wood, on Sunday morning, and the truly great formerly of Turkey, addressed them, in sermon at the morning service to a faultless phrase, words of tenderest large throng by Dr. Kellogg, must be sympathy and profound spiritual en- passed with mere mention. couragement, and Dr. Henry Foster, in The morning devotional hour each a prayer so remarkable for its unction day was, as usual, of great spiritual help- and power that all seemed to be in the fulness. One of these sessions was set very presence of God, commended them apart to pray that God would move on to the care of our heavenly Father_ some body or bodies to contribute The scene will live in the hearts as well $30,000, an unprovided balance neces- as in the memory of all who were pres- sary to the commencement of the en- ent, possibly" while life or thought or largement of the Sanitarium buildinga being lasts or immortality endures."
according to plans of Dr. Foster. The We present separately the formulated missionaries caIlle to realize that the action of the body on some great inter- magnanimous donor of half a million ests of the times. Some eminent dele- dollars' worth ot. property, primarily gates from other bodies were by motion for the upbuilding of the health of mis- requested to address the meeting. Mrs_ sionaries, had begun a work which they Ninde, of Minneapolis, Mrs. Hunt and should adopt and carry forward as far Mrs. Woodbridge, of the World's Wom- as in them might lie. Hundreds of an's Christian Temperance Union, were missionaries have been free guests here of the number. The salutations and while under more or less protracted communications of members not able treatment, and the entire institution is tu attend were grateful, and they came given to truetees with this chief intent from seemingly every corner of the globe in its use_ and from eminent men, in Europe as The culmination of interest and pa- well as in America, who are not of this thos and spiritual manifestation was body.
realized in the farewell meeting, held to Nothing could have been more ten- hear a parting word from the mission- der, appreciative, and beautiful than aries present, who anticipate returning the addresses and memorandums made to their foreign fields before another an- at the "Memorial Hour," held for nual meeting. In all there were about members deceased within the year: forty; some had been obliged to leave, Wellington J. White, of China; William Mellen, of Zululand; Naraiyan The following is the text of the me- Sheshadri, of India, and Mrs. Bartlett, morial: of Turkey. .. The International Missionary In responso to the presentation by Union. composed of missionaries of all Mrs. Woodbridge, the Secretary of tbe Christian denominations, and repre- World's Woman's Christian Temper- senting all the great mission fields of ance Union, of the form of petition to the world, assembled in IInnual meeting the several governments of the world at Clifton Springs, N. Y., presents for the suppression of the liquor and herewith its most respectful protest opium traffic, the Union directed the against the reoently enacted Chinese PrAsident and Secretary to sign the en- Exclusion Bill.
dorsement of the same in their name. .. We protest against 'it as unneces- The following officers were elected sary, the whole number of Chinese im- for the ensuing year: migrants having never exceeded 120,.
President, Rev. J. T. Gracey, D.D., 000, and there bEing no probability Rochester, N. Y.; Vice-Presidents, Rev. that any very much larger number Cyrus Hamlin, D.D., Rev. S. L. Bald- would for years come to this country.
win, D.D., Rev. W. H. Bixbee, D.D.; "We protest against it aa unchris- Secretary, Rev. William H. Belden, Clif- tian. We are commanded to deal justly ton Springs, N. Y.; Associate Secretary, with the stranger within our gates.
Mrs. C. C. Thayer, Clifton Springs,N.Y.; This enactment puts them under grave Treasurer, Rev. James Mlldge, D.D., disabilities and subjects them to cruel Clinton, Mass.; Librarian, C. C. Thayer, and unusual penalties. and is, there- i M.D., Clifton Springs, N. Y.; .&ecutive fore, unworthy of a Christian nation.
Oommittee, Rev. J. A. Davis,D.D., Hemp- " We protest against it as a violation stead, N. Y., Rev. M. H.Houston, D.D., of our solemn treaties. The Chinese Rev. C. W. Cushing, D.D., Mrs. O. L. who are here have been guaranteed the George, Rev. E. R. Young. Mrs. Will- same rights as those accorded to the iam H. Belden, Rev. C. A. Nichols. most favored nation. No one would think, for an instant, of requiring Eng- lishmen, Germans, or Frenchmen to go Important Opinions on Current .Affairs, before an Internal Revenue officer and 'J:RE RECENT ANTI-CHINESE LEGISLATION OF take out certificates which they should 'J:RE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT. always have at hand to secure their Resolved, That the following memorial right of being here; and yet this is re- be adopted by this International Mis- quired of the Chinese in flagrant viola- sionary Union, and that a copy of the tion of that provision of the treaty, the same, signed by the President and Sec- advantage of which we always olaim for retary, be forwarded to the President American residents in China.
of the United States Senate, and to the " We further protest against the bill Speaker' of the House of Representa- as being likely to seriously endanger tives, with the request to present it im- the lives and property of missionaries mediately to each of these bodies. and merohants in the Chinese Empire.
Resolved, That a copy of the same be Those who are opposed to the pres- also forwarded by our officers to the ence of foreigners in the Empire are President of the United States, with greatly assisted in their inflammatory the request that htl will use his influ- . appeals aud riotous measures by the ence to have all matters concerning im- declaration that the United States of migration of Chinese to this country America are constantly passing oppres- settled by treaty with the Empire, and sive measures against their people in thus avoid legislation which is cont.rary this land.
to the spirit of Christianity and dis· "Moreover, we call your attention to graceful to the nation. the fact that the Chinese Government has never refused careful consideration MINUTE ON SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE EDU- to all modifications proposed by our Government in the treaties, and that it CATION IN FOREIGN MISSION SCHOOLS. would be perfectly feasible to reach all that is desirable and necessary through We rejoice to learn of the success diplomatic measures,. and there is, which has attended the effort to intro- therefore, no justification of opproosive duce scientific temperance instruction legislation. into the public schools and other edu- cational institutions in the United "We earnestly beseech your honor- States and Canada by means of national able body to immediately institute and State legislation. It is a matter of measures for the repeal of the recently sincere thankfulness that twelve or thirenacted exclusion bill, especially of the teen millions of pupils are under comfeatures which deny the right of bail pulsory educational laws in the United and require registration and certificates States, and encouraging to find that of the Chinese now living here." Canada is so rapidly following this ex- ample. ON THE CRISIS IN MISSIONS IN TURKEY. As a body of Christian missionaries, Resolved, That we claim for American representing many lands and languages, citizens in Turkey the treatment ac- we regard it as obviously desirable that corded to the citizens of the " most fa- the rising generation of new Christians, vored nation," and we ask our Govern- for whose temporal and spiritual weI. ment to secure to them these rights. fare we labor, should in the most effec- tive manner possible be fortified against Resolved, That we have indubitable and protected ·from the ravages of inevidence that the Turkish Government temperance, which undoubtedly are beis systematically pursuing It course in- coming more threatening with each hospitable, unfriendly, and unjust, con- passing year. There are few mission trary to its ancient customs, contrary to fields in which the need of stringent the ,. capitulations" and to all princi- total abstinence requirements among ples of the Hatti Sherif and the Ratti the native Christian community is not Humayun. As by this course Turkey more or less deeply felt. In some fields is placing herself outside the pale of intemperance works serious injuries in civilized nations, we petition our Gov- native churches. Sound temperance ernment to concert with other govern- views, strong convictions, and intelliments the means of defence. gent apprehension of the physical and moral evils connected with intemper- Resolved, That the carrying out of the ance are urgently required all along the present systems of action by the Turk_ line of missionary effort. ish Government will reRult in the restoration of the darkest and most bigoted In order to the attainment of these form of Islam; the interests of Christian most desirable objects, we believe the missions, of civilization, of humanity time has fully come for a definite, sysin Asis and Africa are deeply impli- tematic, and well-matured effort to incated, and Christian governments trcduce scientific temperance instrucshould take note of the danger. tion into the national educational sys- tems and curricula of all mission schools Resolved, That as a body of mission· in foreign lands; some countries are aries gathered from all parts of the specially ripe for such an effort. world and from all denominations of . We are strongly of the opinion that Evangelical Christianity, we express in order to the most satisfactory results, our sympathy with out' tried and be. and to save time, that it would be of leaguered brethren in Turkey, and for great advantage if the several mission their relief we look not only to human boards could find it practicable to cogovernments, but to Him to whom is operate in this matter, and respectively given all power in heaven and earth. request their missionaries to introduce upon the glad assembly at Clifton approved scientific temperance instruc· Springs next June, I should find there tion into the schools under their man· some of the bravest and best toiler!;! of agement as rapidly a8 practicable; and our time, representing both hemispheres we further believe that our tract soci- and well-nigh every land of the globe. eties and boards of publication should The delightfulrueetings at the Thousand afford such helpful co operation in pre- Island Park, Bridgeton, Binghamton, paring and publishing such literature and Clifton Springs are not forgotten, as may be approved by properly consti- and we who were there to enjoy them tuted missionary authorities. should the more willingly contribute to the interest and success of the meetings As far as we have examined the that follow them. primers and more advanced text-books commended by the Scientific Depart- Could I drop down for an hour into ment of the Woman's Christian Tem- Dr. Foster's new missionary hall at the perance Union, we accord our approval Sanitarium, the very first thing I should of the same, and our belief that with say would be about the open doors for sundry minor modifications to adapt reaching childhood in India that we them to particular countries they are are finding on every side. Marvellous, suitable for translation into foreign indeed, is the answer to the patient and vernaculars. prevailing pI'ayers of our fathers, offered up years ago, that these barred and Lastly, we appeal to missionaries in bolted doors might be opened. Childall lands to lend their active personal hood everywhere is intelligent, eager, assistance and co-operation in the direc- inviting, and accessible. More calls tion indicated above, so that before than we can answer are reaching us this century closes every land repre- from all sides. Last week I was asked sented in this conference may rejoice to preside at the annual meeting of an that this class of instruction is perma- Anglo-Talliil Sunday-school near Madnently incorporated in its educational ras. The superintendent read a very system, bright and cheering report, from which I take a few lines: Good Cheer in Work for India's Ohil- dren. " At first this was a school for Tamil Ohristian boys only. . . . A petition BY J. L. PHILLIPS, M.D., SECRETARY OF THE was prE-sented to us by a large number of Hindu boys, requesting that they INDIA SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION. also might be allowed to join the Sun- day-school. They did this knowing The Psalmist prayed, "Show me a very well that nothing be~ides strictly token for good," and so say our friends Christian instruction would be imparted at home, who faithfully pray and watch to them in the school." for the coming of the kingdom in this and other dark lands; and it is but On the rolls of this fine school I found fair that we, who are privileged to be at one hundred and eighty-three names, the front in this campaign for the representing Eurasians, Protestant na· world's evangelization, should keep the tive Christians, Roman Catholics, Mo. great army of the reserve well informed hammedans, Hindus, and out-castes. concerning every step of progress, par- The Hindus are in the majority, sevan ticularly every stroke of success. As of them being Brahmans, who sit beside one of the broadly scattered outlook Christian and pariah boys studying the committee of our beloved International same Bible lessons and singing the Missionary Union, I cannot but keep praises of the same Lord Christ; and in mind my promise to report annually so all over India am I finding ample to the convention. Could I look in opportunities for extending our Sun- day-school system. Our only limitation rOIlo11y is within ourselves, for we can· for planning aggressive effort in behalf not find teachers enough for this glad of the millions of children and youth and growing work. Had we five thou· yet unreached, are doing excellent ser· sand new teachers reporting for duty vice, and the good fruit begins to ap.
next Sabbath morning. I'm sure all pear. With only converted persons for could find ready work in our broad teachers, and these better equipped for field. the work, we hope to see a decided im· Our first effort has been to organize provement in our SundaY·ilchools.
the Sunday.school forces here. With a Then, again, in order to meet the de· view to this I travelled more than four. mand for more teachers we must intro- teen thousand miles in India last year. duce normal clai!ses into our Sunday.
Auxiliary Sunday.school unions have schools, in which the larger pupils been organized in Bengal, Bombay, shall be specially trained for teaching, Puujab, Maflras, Burma, Rajutana, Here, as in America and Europe, our Central Provinces, and the Northwest pupils of fourteen and upward, of both Provinces and Oudh. When Assam, sexes, may begin teaching the little Central India, and Ceylon come into ones. Some of the best teachers we line, as they will soon, we shall have a have now began thUd early, and are strong and, I trust, successful system doing finely. By thus giving them a of Sunday.schools throughout the land. share in the work we hope to keep our R~.ch of these auxiliaries has its own hold on them at an age when so many officers, its own languages to provide Cor, boys and girls slip out of Sunday.
its own population to reach. The secre· schools.
taries of these auxiliary Sunday.school As at home, so here we are beginning unions are true yoke. fellows of differ· to have Sunday.school institutes and ent missions, European and American, conventions. Capital conventions have who are organizing and marshalling the been held in the Punjab at Lahore, in forces in their respective fields. One Madras, in Burma, at Rangoon, and the of these noble helpers of mine is a lady, Northwest Provinces at Allahabad. In Miss Abbott, of the American Marathi these carefully prepared papers on prf!.c, ~IiBBion, Bombay, a missionary's daugh. tical Sunday.school topics are read and ter, hence one of our India's own. discussed. These meetings promote These secretaries are ably supported by delightful Christlan fellowship and co- a strong committee in which every operation, and infuse genuine enthusi· church of denomination working in the asm into our work for the children. In field is represented. Best of all, our connection with these a mass-meeting helpers have "a mind to work," and for the children of all the churches is 80 we hope to "push things," as Grant usually held, addressed by speakers wired Sheridan in war time, you recol. known to love the little' ones and apt to lect. teach them. These meetings, where I have spoken of the need of more we have had hundreds of children to· Sunday.schools, but a sorer need here gether, European and native, have is better Sunday.schools. S()me we have proved a delightful feature of our con· are too poor for propagation. The ventions so far. As yet, however, our stock must be improved, then the shoots Sunday·school conventions do not ap.
will be sturdy and fruitful. To this proach those of America or England in end we are introducing preparatiou size or enthusiasm, but we are full of classes for teachers, both English and hope and getting on.
vernacular. In Calcutta and at several Another token of cheer is that Sun.
other points these weekly classes for day.schoolliterature is receiving atten· studying the lessons, for prayer for Di· tion. Last year the India Sunday. School vine illumination and God's blessing Journal was begun, and has met with a on the work of the Sunday·school, and cordial reception all over India. This is our only English publieation. It is India Sunday-schools the past year, and a monthly of thirty-two pages, and be- we look for many more. The two Octosides editorial articles and communica- ber days {If special prayer in behalf of tions and correspondence from our Sunday-schools throughout the world wide field, it has Notes on the Inter- were well observed in India, and with national Lesson written in India by cheering results. Our teachers are men of different churches. As to ver- coming to realize that their chief businacular pUblications. we are making a ness is to bring their pupils to Christ. good start in several of the trunk lan- With a higher ideal we shall see larger guages of India, in the way of lesson. fruitage. I have heard of Hindu girls leaves, brief notes, etc. Each auxiliary in several Sunday-schools who have in. union is expected to keep an eye to the telligently believed on the Lord Jesus bpecial needs of its own section of the Christ, who pray to Him daily, and field. The membership fund of our openly con fess Him in their dark homes, parent Union will be able to make reading the Bible and refusing to worgrants to the several auxiliaries, we ship idols or bow down to the priests. hope, for pushing on this vernacular Some of these little ones will surely department. The annual membership lead their parents out into the light and fee is one rupee for Europeans and four liberty of the Gospel. Cases have alannas for natives, and we hope to en- ready come under observation in my roll many members from all parts of tours over India, where a child has been India and Ceylon, and America. converted first and then brought father and mother to Christ, and we are to It is occasion for rejoicing that the have many sl1ch. If we reach the chilo scope of the Sunday· school idea is en- dren of this generation, how our work larging in India. I well recollect when will tell upon the next generation, when it was thought that only Christian pu- the children will be men and women! pils could attend Sunday-school. Now we have thousands of boys and girls There are other tokens of good of from Hindu and Mohammedan homes which I cannot speak now. We most in our Sunday. schools, and we might earnestly implore the prayers of all have millions had we the requisite teach- God's people, that great faith may be ing force. Our missionary toilers are granted all toilers in this broad field. coming to see how this line of effort Hindus and Mohammedans have been can supplement every department, edu. saying for years, ., We shall live and cational, evangelistic, literary, and die just as we are, but our children will be medical. The Sunday-school is being Ohristians." This is prophetic, and I regarded as a direct and most promising believe true. We should claim these missionary agency; and we are already millions of bright, beautiful children for introducing the home department here our King. In the name of our Lord we as at home. Our home department should set up our banners everywhere, will provide for teaching the Sunday- covering all India with a network of school lesson in the zenanall, in dispen- Sunday-schools. Let much prayer be saries and hospitals, and to companies offered up in the home churches and of domestic servants in cities and sta· conventions for India's children, now tions. The tea-gardens of Darjeeling so ready for Christian teaching, for already have the Sunday.scliool for the teachers to be raised up in thousands children of their coolies, and new open- here on the field for this great work of ings for this branch of Christian en- winning these sons and daughters of deavor are appearing on every side. paganism to Christ, and for all mission- This enlarged scope is something to ary superintendents v.ho are directing thank God for. this Sunday-school campaign for India's complete and speedy evangelization. There have been conversions in our
EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS
I1I.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
The Student Volunteer Fund. intendent of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society. The sad event took Since the Student Volunteer move- p~ace very suddenly on Sunday night at hIS residence in Edinburgh. Dr. Lowe ment was inaugurated, it has been the was a son of the Manse, his father being a well-known Indf'pendent minister. purpose to furnish the members of that The first event of importance in Dr. Lowe's career occurred in 1861, when he movement with the MISSIONARY REVIEW received his diploma_ During the same year, accompanied by Mrs. Lowe, he OF THE WORLD at a nominal price. In sailed from Gravesend to Travancore to labor there as a missionary, under the order to do this, appeal was made for auspices of the London Missionary So- ciety. During his eight years' residence subscriptions to a distinct fund. The in Travancore Dr. Lowe placed tJ-) Medical Mission on such a sound basis editors of the REVIEW were among the that it has now become an agency of great dimensions, and it i~ acknowlfirst to lead off with subscriptions to edged as perhaps the most valuable aux- iliary to evangelistic work in South that fund. Others followed, with sums India. After his return to this country the directors of the Edinburgh Medical of a variable amount. Some individuals Missionary Society, to whoin his work as a medical missionary was well known have given liberal donations; others offered him the then vacant post of superintendent of their training institusmall sums. Until quite recently these tion. His experience in the foreign field eminently fitted him for such a contributions have enabled us to keep position, and acting upon the unani- mous advice of his friends, he accepted our proposition intact. Just now the the post. Dr. Lowe was a great favorite with the students, of whom many have fund is overdrawn. It is very desirable gone forth and done brilliant service in the missionary cause. Gifted with true indeed that this favor shall continue to eloquence, Dr. Lowe ably pleaded for the advancement and religious improvebe extended to these young men and ment of the great masses of humanity, both at home and abroad. young women whose hearts are moved by the Holy Ghost to this work, that they may be kept constantly in touch with the great missionary movements of the age; and that they may grow in knowledge as well as in zeal. We have esteemed it a work of great importance, and it still remains such.
We do not desire to cut down the list nor to withdraw the offer. There are many persons who will esteem it a priviIege to make a contribution toward this missionary education and training of these davoted prospective mission- aries. We venture to state this muPecrh~ that the situation may be known.
sons desiring to aid in this splendid work may send their contributions di- rect to Funk & Wagnalls Company, 18 and 20 Astor Place, stating that they are for this fund, and the amounts will A Virgin Field in India.
be duly credited on the special account Between east longitude 80' and 82'. 30' and north latitude 17' 30' and 20' kept in this interest. Even small sums lies about 25,000 square miles of coun- try, the home of 600,000 souls, three will aid; but it is desirable that there quarters aborigines and the remainder shall be a quick response on the part of many. J. T. G.
Death of Dr, Lowe, Hindus and a few stray Mohammedans. Four hundred thsusand of the abo- Widespread regret will be felt at thf' rigines are of one original main stock death of the Rev. Dr. John Lowe, Super- or family, speaking one aboriginal Ian goage and having a common religion. able for Lord Salisbury. The whole Yet this people are known by at least four different names in fOllr distinct position, in Europe as well as in Mada- geographical localities. gascar, has been most carefully weighed The aborigines of Central India is there what the Red Indian of America is by Hova statesmen, and the next month here-i.e., the relict of pa~t nations. or so it is more than likely will see the Madagasoar. Government of Madagascar giving notice ANTANANARIVO, April 30, 1892. In consequence of England and to the British Government that the France exchanging Zanzibar and Madagascar, the outlook for British subjects Anglo.MalagaMY Treaty is annulled; in this l'ountry is becoming very gloomy. The Government is determined not to that British subjects, including mispermit France to assume the judiciary control and consular representation of sionaries, are without rights and imforeigners; and so fixed is their resolve, they are considering the advisability of munities in the island, and that the custaking retaliatory measur",sagainst England should she persist in giving France toms on British goods are greatly raised. a free hand in Madagascar affairs. Grave as the prospect is, there is, how- Against this latter step no appeal is posever, no likelihood of the retaliatory measures taking the form of a menace sible to France ; for the French Governto the life and property of Europeans. The Hova are not as generally believed ment do not claim any right to interfere in Europe a horde of savages. It is their civilization, high intelligence, and in any matter affecting the revenues of appreciation of the value of moral pressure which are causing them to de- this country. G. M. H. bate whether England will consider the steps she is taking, if these are shown The following story is told of the Rev. to be taken to be so grievous a wrong Dr. Inglis, of Aneityum, who died a upon a Protestant and progressive na- few months ago. He was asked to make tion of British civilization that political a speech before the General Assembly aggression will be reciprocated commer- of the Free Church of Scotland, and was Cially as well as by fighting to the last told to be brief. He said: should France appeal to arms to enforce her pretensions. The Government of ,. Fathers and brethren, we are told this island continent is also fully aware that missionaries should content themthat retaliatory measures upon British selves with stating facts, and leave the enterprise would be so much to the dis· Church to draw the inference. I wish advantage of the British community to bring three facts to your notice. here thata protest loud and long would assuredly be raised by them against .. First, I place on your table," suittreaties with this country being ignored; ing the action to the word, "the Shorter aud the Malagasy have further taken Catechism translated into the language into account that such an outcry on the of Aneityum. eve of the general election would probably awaken the Nonconformist and Lib- " Second, I place on your table also eral press, and make things uncomfort- • Pilgrim's Progress' translated into the language of Aneityum."
Then taking into his hands a large volume, while he looked longingly on the pages that had cost him years of toil, he laid it on the table and said: " Third, I place on your table the Holy Scriptures, Old and New Testa- ments, translated into the language of Aneityum, and now leave the Church to draw the inference," and sat down amid a storm of applause.
Recent Religious. Riots in the Piroous.
'l'he orthodox priests of the Greek Church have been strongly opposed to the Evangelicals. These Jltter reformers, led by Dr. Kalopathakes, are op- communities. These are from three to posed to the elaborate ritual of the three and a half times stronger than in Greek Church; they deny her exclu- 1871. The number of adherents of the sive right to interpret the Scriptures, Greek Church has fallen very much-a reject the binding authority of tradition, fact which may be ascribed to the great and uphold thll Scriptures as containing diminution in the number of Russia.n the only necessary rules of faith and residents in Germany. A considerable practice. For a long time Dr. Kalopa- increase has been registered in the num- thakes and his followers have had their ber of Buddhists, Brahmins, and Mo- services interrupted. At last he applied hammedans. This is greatly due to the to the police for protection, but only augmented number of Chinese, Japan- three officers were sent, who proved ese, and Turks who come to Germany powerless on the Sunday when the riot for scientific or technical studies.
occurred. The services were conducted The article on " Pseudo-Philanthropy in peace, but as soon as the congrega- in Missions" in our May number should tion began to leave the building the have been accredited to Rev. H. B. Hulmob outside began to stone them, drove bert, of Corea. them back, and soon attacked the church itself. The coolness and bravery The Ohinese Exolusion Bill. of Mrs. Kalopathakes created a diver- sion in her favor, and she and most of Dr. Gracey does not exaggerate when those with her were permitted to de- he says in the July REVIEW that this part unhurt. The building was wreck- bill " has given offence to many mill- ed, Mr. Isaras, the preacher, received a ions of our citizens." A few weeks severe cut in the head, aud Dc. Kalopa- after its passage an indignation meeting thakes was knocked down twice, but was held in Tremont Temple, Boston, was not hurt seriously. such as has not probably occurred since the days of the anti-slavery agitation, just prior to the war. At this meeting The Growth of Religious Life in Ger- the most unsparing condemnation of many. the bill was expressed by all the speak The Statistische Oor'l'espondenz pub- ers, and those who had promoted its lishes somt> interesting figures on the passage were censured by name in a growth of religious life in Germany rising vote, the President of the United since 1871.' For every 1000 members of States not excepted. This gathering religious bodies at that date there were was not called by the friends of mis- in 1880 1099 members of the Evangeli- sions, but by patriotic citizens and cal Church and 1113 Catholics. Five philanthropists, without regal'd to years later the numbers had increased party.
to 1190 and 1164 respectively. In 1890 The recent great Methodist Confer- the Evangelical Church had 1190 and ence at Omaha, we understand, con- the Catholics 1240 members. In the demned the bill in the most emphatic same period for every 1000 persons manner. The Baptists at their Centen without religion in 1871 the develop- nial Convention, in Philadelphia, joined ment had been 4000, 10,955, and 14,355 with their brethren of the South in a -that is to say, there were in Germany public censure of the act, the great as- in 1890 more than fourteen times as sembly in the Academy of Music rising many persons professing no religious to their feet to declare that not only as faith as in 1871. Among the various re- Christians but as voters their condemna- ligious bodies belonging to the Evan- tion must rest upon this act. Consider- gelica.l confession (the Times says) the ing that these two bodies represent at greatest increase has taken place in the least seven millions of Christians, their Presbyterian, Methodist, and Quaker action means much. How needless and wanton an affront Porte set itself to attack missions in to the Christian and patriotic sentiment Turkey, Dr. Goodell summoned his of our country this bill is will appear brethren to the throne of grace, saying, by a single glance ~t the facts. We " The great Sultan of the universe can oopy from the record of the Interior, as ohange all this." And so He can, and given by the Watchman: our first appeal should be to Him ; "During the decade 1850-60 the but as lovers of humanity and pronumber of Chinamen ooming to this oountry was 41,379 ; during the deoade moters of missionll, we are bound to act 1860-70, 68,059; during 1870-80, 122,- 436; and during 1880-90,59,995 The as well as to pray. William Lloyd Gar. falling off for the period 1880-90 was due to the restrictive legislation of rison, a worthy son of a worthy father, 1882. The total number of the Chinese in the United States is less than 200,- calls upon the citizens of Massachusetts 000, or about four tenths of one per cent of the population of the country. to paralyze this anti-Chinese bill as During the last ten years the Chinese population of California has diminished they paralyzed the Fugitive Slave bill, about four and one half per cent." which it so closely resembles. In all The whole number of Chinamen now worthy and Christian ways let us seek in the United States does not equal the to do so, hoping that before the year closes this obnoxious measure will be nullified. A. J. G.
Dangerous Prayers, number of the worst elements of the " I want you to spend fifteen minutes European population who pour into our every day praying for Foreign Mis- country by the emigration of a single sions," said a pastor to some young peo_ year; and yet, speaking from our ple in his congregation. "But beware knowledge of the thousand Chinamen how you pray, for I warn you that it is of Boston, we oan say that they are a very costly experiment. "
among the least offensive and the most " Costly?" they asked in surprise.
industrious and really helpful of any ., Ay, costly," he cried… When Carey olass of foreigners that oome to our began to pray for the conversion of the oity. Why, then, this monstrous legis- world, it cost him himself, and it cost lation against them-pasged with a those who prayed with him very m.ch.
haste that defied all decency, and in Brainerd prayed fo1' the dark skinned such terms as violate the most sacred savages, and after two years of blessed treaty obligations? Why? Everybody work, it cost him his life. Two students knows why. It is another attempt on in Mr. Moody'S Bummer school began the part of our legislators to sell not to pray the Lord of the harvest to send their own, but the nation's birthright forth more servants into his harvest; for a mess of Presidential pottage. and 10! it is going to cost our country The evil effect of their conduot is al- five thousand young men and women ready manifesting itself. In the Sun- who have, in answer to this prayer, day-school of my own ohurch we pledged themselves to the work. Be have one hundred Chinamen. Twenty sure it is a dangerous thing to pray in are members with us. We have no earnest for this work; you will find that worthier, more devoted, and self-deny- you cannot pray and withhold your ing Christians among us than these; labor, or pray and withhold your money; and yet the hoodlums, taking the hint nay, that your very life will no longer from Washington, have renewed their be your own when your prayers begin petty persecution against them, stoning to be answered.
and clubbing them on their passage .. I have often said in my public ad- through the streets. dresses that it is a dangerous thing to What ought the Christians of America pray for a blessing unless you want it.
to do about this bill? They ought cer- What a blessed thing when we are ready tainly to pray. 'Vhen the Sublime to rece,ive!"
1892·1 THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
IV.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
DY lIEV. JAMES GOllDON GRAY, D.D., ROME, ITALY.
Evangelioal Work in Italy in 1891. Wherever, in fact, an interest in evan- gelical truth has sprung up in individ· All who know anything of evangelioal ual cases or in small co.npanies, the work in Italy will readily admit that a most strenuous efforts have been put just estimate of results oan be formed forth to stifle it. The Church of Rome only in view of such oonsiderations as has shown quite recently that it ap· these. The country is still in the proves of Buch a line of action on the throes of a serious financial crisis. ThE' part of its priesthood by putting under question of the hour is as much as eVl'r, its ban the" Life of Christ," wrHten by How oan the deficit in the budget be Ruggero Bonghi, who professes himself met? Strenuous efforts worthy of all one of its attached adherents. Such praise have been made to reduce outlay opposition, no doubt, still influences in many directions; but much more re- many timid minds. Secret sympathizers mains to be done to restore the true with the evangelical movement are slow balance between income and expendi. to reveal themselves, although in not a ture. All classes in the community few cases it happens that such tactics have been more or less affected by this really help rather than hinder the crisis, and most of all those that are spread of the truth. On the whole, most within the reach of evangelical in- however, it may be said that the field of fluenoes. Among the poorer classes an work is thereby largely restricted. A unusual amount of misery has prevailed. third consideration that should be noted The times, therefore, have be()n most is the great amount of indifference to unfavorable .to the sale of Scriptures religion in every form that prevails and the support of evangelical agencies. throughout the land. There is no evi- Both the product of such sales and the dence as yet of an awakened interest in amount of local contributions must be spiritual things, affecting many at a looked at in the light of such facts as time. The results that have been gathare patent to everyone living in Italy. ered are owing to much painstaking, Another circumstance tbat must be persistent effort. The vast ontlying taken into account in estimating results, mass remains unmoved. One here and is the widespread and persistent opposi· there only comes to be reached with tion of the Romish clergy to tbe efforts Gospel influences. The features of the made by evangelical churches to relieve wide field, that has been wasted by a the misery and enlighten the darkness spurious Christianity, are such probain which the people are involved. The blY!ls for the present to warrant only Bible is everywhere denounced by them results of a more or less individual charas a falsified Protestant book. Every acter. Many of the better minds of the one who dares to purchase or peruse it country have bean driven away fron: all is threatened with excommunication. religion bi the error and superstition More cases than usual have been re- that ha'l'e become inseparably mingled ported this year in which portions of it with the only Christianity of which anyhave been tOl'n to fragments or con· thing is known. The wide gulf which sumed to ashes in the public squares. the dominant Church has contrived to Here and there the oolporteurs have place between itself and all other met with rough usage at the instigation churches keeps another large section of of the priests. One reports that he was the community entirely beyond onr repeatedly assailed with showers of reach. The best elements within the stones and ,.ariven out of the town. Church of Rome itself can think of us only as unbelievers to be shunned. In land. 1t is to the credit of all the Pres- view of such facts. the wonder is that byterian churches of the world that they progress of a very distinct character can have not attempted to set up in Italy be reported. any mission of their own. What they have done has been to occupy them- The first place in this estimate for the selves with school work and other agen- past year may be given to the actual ad- cies that indirectly help the whole missions of new members into the vari- movement. ous churches. For the sake of clearness we may range all the leading agencies The additions for the past year may connected with distinct churches under be thus stated: The Presbyterian three heads. This will leave out the Re- churches, 734 ; the Methodist churches, formed Oatholic Church, under the guid- 449 ; the Baptist churches, 143-in all, ance of Count Campello, and the Free 1326. 'rhe promise of additions during Churches (Chiese Libere), which last the current year is not less encouraging, a·re more or less in alliance with the as shown by the number of catechumens. Plymouth Brethren. As we are not in The Waldensian Church numbers 751 in possession of the statistics in these two course of instruction ; the Italian Evancases, we cannot compare them with gelical, 492; the Wesleyan, 219; the those of the others, We need only say American Methodist, 237. The Baptist that the Roformed Catholic Church is churches do not give their figures in this certainly still the weakest, as it is the respect. The whole number under youngest, of the churches that have catechetical instruction, if we allow a allied themsel'ves with the Committee of proportionate number to the Baptist the Evangelical Alliance. Its JqembM'- churches, is thus little short of 2000. ship is still under three hundred, and its work is confined to two diRtricts- The work among the young is the next the valley above Terni and the shores of point of special interest. All the San Remo. The" Chiese Libere" have churches believe in the power and uselost rather than gained ground in recent fulness of the Sunday-school. Here years. The Evangelical churches have again the Presbyterian churches are to come in and absorbed to 'a large extent the front with 4160 scholars between the interest that gathered round those them. The othElrs have some 2000 separate and independent congregations among them. Thus 6000 children apof earnest worshippers which the move- pear to be under Bible instruction each Jllent in its earliest stage developed. Sunday. The churches that have day- Apart from these the whole work of the schools enjoy a great advantage over the Evangelical Church in Italy may be others in being able thereby to secure summarized under three divisions, pupils for their Sunday.school. Three These are the Italian Presbyterian of the churches have among them 4800 churches, embracing the Waldensian pupils in their day-schools. A large and Italian Evangelical churches, the number of Roman Catholic children is latter better known under its former thereby reached not accessible otherand more distinctive name of the Free wise. School work, however, forms s Italian Church. There are the Method- very expensive item among the various ist churches, including the English agencies employed by the churches; Wesleyan and the American Methodist and it is no wonder if several of them Episocpal churches. There is also the have not laid themselves out for it. Union of Baptist Churches, under which The Government schools are generally general heading we have both the Eng. well equipped. The children of the lish and American Baptist churches. churches may have an excellent secular Under the title Presbyterian we do not, education through them in many cases. of course, embrace the work of the Besides, the results of school work have Scotch Presbyteri!l~ C!lUfc4efj i~ tbe to be waited for longer than in almost any other case. Of this I bad fl'ther flo striking illustration in my own eXlleri. more of the others. This branch of ence quite recently. A young man work has been as yet too sparingly tried from Naples came to visit me on be. in Italy. That has arisen, no doubt, in half of one of the Young Men's Asso- some cases from the fear that ground ciations there. He tluned out to be might thereby be given for the charge an old pupil of the sohools oarried on that the churches bny their converts.
in connection with the Presbyterian No such feeling, however, can warrant Church. Twelve years ago he had been the Evangelical churches of the land to in t.he infant class, and now he was not leave the poor around them unCtlred for.
only a member of the Evangelical The example of Him who went about Church, but an active member of the healing and preaching the Gospel of the Young Men's Christian Association. kingdom forcibly appeals to every His family had been also gained, and Church that bears His name. Care has he declared that he was one of anum· only to be taken that in tending the sick ber who had been similarly gathered in all are left free to embrace our teaching through the school. These evangelical or not as they feel disposed. More and schools are thus quickly but surely pre· more are we impressed with the fact paring the fruit for the Church of the that the Italian people have need of the immediate future. Wherever they are beneficial aspects of religion to be pre.
carried on in the right spirit and with a sented to them that their sympathies view til distinct results, their fruit is may be won. Too much has been looked sure and lasting. for as the result of unaided teaching, In this particular branch of work we which has largely been of a controversial are happy to be able to report more character.
hearty co . operation between the 'fhe two most important aids to the churcbes than heretofore. This has work of all the churches in Italy are shown itself in the adoption here in found in the two Bible societies and in Rome of the International series of Sun. the Florence Publications Society. The day school lessons. To that there has agent of the British and Foreign Bible been added a joint competition for Society reports that his sales for the prizes provided by a local elder. Then past year have remarkably increased, there have been general gatherings of not only in small .. portions," !IS in aU the Sunday-school children for com- former years, but in Bibles anJ Testa.
mon religious exercises. ments. The increase has been remark.
The Young Men's Associations con· able, especially in Calabria and the nected with the churches are also draw. Abrnzzi. The colporteurs all over have ing together. Recently a resolution sold between 12,000 and 13,000 copies has been come to in favor of union more than in 1890, and the depots 2000 among them. This cannot but have its more. Never, he says, have such fig.
effect in due time on the churches with ures been reached. The actual sales in which they are connected, and draw Italy for the past year are set down at these more and more together. 153,770; and if the sales of Italian A word or two should be said on the Scriptures outside Italy be added, the various agencies that have sprung up in number cannot be much below 200,000.
connection with the churches. All of The work of the National Bible Society them have their colporteurs or Bible· of Scotland, which is included in the women to a greater or less extent. Some above summary, shows an increase in have industrial schools more or less con- all the items as regards Scriptures.
nected with them. Evening classes lire Altogether that society has sold 13,747 carried on with great zeal in other cases. Scriptures and 6521 religious books.
Medical mission work, which formerly An important point now gained is used to distinguish only one of the that our Italiijn Scriptures, which used churches, has been begun by one or to be printed in London,6re now issuing from the Claudian Press, in Flor. selves. The spirit of self-sacrifice is ence. That press is more fully equipped either too little understood or too rarely tha,n ever before. It has begun not only practised by those that have heen to cover its own expenses, but to pl'O- reached by the movement. More care, vide a considerable sum for the mission. it must be admitted, has been taken of ary branch of the enterprise. And it is late to urge this duty and privilege on the intention of its managers to make it the members of the churches. And cer· compete with the best printing estab- tainly it is no small result that has been lishments in the country. Last year obtained by the Waldensian Church there issued from it of books and tracts, from its 4518 members in the mission 112,300 ; its favorite alm~nac, 35,000 ; field in Italy 85,683 francs, and by the periodicals, 117,080; Scriptures, 296,- Italian Evangelical Church from its 000. All the churches, even those that 1631 members, 22,772 francs, and again have their own printing presses, avail by the American Methodist Church, themsel ves more or less of its periodi. from its 846 members, 9953 francs.
cals and books. Henceforth all of them The other churches do not report their will get from it the Scriptures that figures in this respect. In the most they sell or distribute. The society has notable case, that of the Waldensian among its members representatives of Church, somewhat less than one third the majority of the Evangelical churches, of the expenditure is obtained locally; and is not itself identified with any of in the case of the Italian Evangelical them. Church it is only about one eighth Gratifying as these results are, we feel The other churches are far more de.
that all we have said but very inade. pendent on outside aid than either of quately brings out the actual amount of these two. In view of the extension of work done and the fruit gathered. the work, this shows how urgent is the There are efforts of an individual char- need for developing the spirit of self.
acter that do not appear in this sum- sacrifice among all those that can be mary, which, nevertheless, are covering reached by evangelical influences.
a great amount of ground with personal Efforts, too, will have to be made to and zealous effort. These it would be touch to a far greater extent the better impossible to estimate in so far as reo classes of the community everywhere.
suIts are concerned, but all are con· Something has been done in this reo tributing their share to the slowly rising spect, and the results have encouraged tide of evangelical interest and sympa- greater efforts in that direction. In thy. While the work of the churches this connection the higher class girls'
named constitutes by far the largest part schools in Rome and Naples, with some of the whole effort put forth, these 280 pupils between them, deserve hon- others are contributing toward it in orable mention. Religious services many ways and in different lines. What adapted to that class, are called for.
we feel to be most needed is a closer and The men for conducting them are not heartier co.operation among all the lacking. It is the methods that have to various agencies, that the very most may be sought and wisely pursued.
be made of the large sums spent and What is certain is that there is a dis.
the workers be more wisely distributed tinct limit to outside help. That seems over the country. to be almost reached. The onlyalterna.
One of the weakest points in connec· tive is to get the evangelicals themselves tion with the whole work in Italy lies in within the country to contribute on a the fact that the means for carrying on larger scale to the support and spread such wide.spread and varied work come, of the Gospel. While there are Rigns to a very large extent, from outside the of fruit more or less in all the churches, country. The churches thus far are too the felt need is " power from on high. "
little supported by the Italians them· In connection with this we have satis. faction in reporting that in the Walden- without charge, except where the child's sian valleys special services have been friends can contribute so much, or some held of late with a view to the revival benevolent person undertakes his or her of the Lord's work in the minds and hearts of His people. Too long and too support. The distinctive feature of the often it has been the custom to speak of Home is its evangelical character; for the Church of the valleys as if it were living only on its past, and had become which we have a guarantee in the names unfit for the great work to be done in of the Council in Rome, which includes free united Italy, of which these valleys the Rev. Drs. Prochet, Gordon Gray, form a part. Whatever that Church has been up to the time that those great and Teofilo Gay, who act in concert events were preparing, that ha~e given with a Board of Trustees in New York. Italy a foremost place among tbe nations of Europe, there can be no doubt The institution began its work several as to its missionary activity since. Its 13,500 members in the Mother Church years ago, being founded by a bequest can already count its 4500 members in of the late Dr. Gould, long physician to its mission field. Its pastors and churches in the outside field far out- the American Embassy in Rome, who number those in its valleys. It is at left the sum of $25,000 for this object, the head of all the missionary work in and who desired that the Home should the country. But best of all, the signs of a revived life are showing themselves be a permanent memorial in Rome of in its home parishes. These special his wife, who died there in 1875 .. in services have been much blessed. Others are in course of being arranged. the midst of her labors for the destitnte It encourages one to look for like gath- children of Italy." erings in all the great cities of Italy and among all the churches. Nothing would There is a handsome and commodious sooner bring the results for which we building, which certainly has been dedi· have been long looking and laboring than joint services by the churches for cated to a Christ·like purpose. The prayer and conference about the ever- number of children at present in the present need of •• power from on high." These 1326 additions would then be Home is small, bnt there is accommoda· easily multiplied many times, and tion for a number more if funds are throughout the land there would be forthcoming. heard the joyous songs of the reapers and there would be seen the gathered The children are taken to Divine sersheaves. vice in the Waldensian Church of Rome The Gould Memorial Home, Rome. e"ICery Sunday morning; while in the Home itself they are addressed on Sun- Comparatively few, even of those who have visited Rome, know of the inter· day evenings by friends of various esting Christian work carried on in that evangelical denominations. city among poor children at 18 Via Ma· genta, in the Gould Memorial Home and Let visitorsto Rome bearin mind that, Industrial School. besides classic ruins and public galleries, The inmates, almost all of whom are there are other sights to be visited and orphans, are housed, fed, and taught, as well as trained in some industry, admired in the Italian capital; and of these one is the Gould Memorial Home. It is with much truth that Dr. Gray thus writes, in concluding his report: .. There are no institutions more want- ed in Rome to-day than such as mani- fest the beneficent aspect of evangelical Christianity. The young evangelical churches of the country have been strug- gling for existence in the midst of the greatest difficulties. It is not to be ex· pected that an impression will be made on the minds of Italians generally by simply contrasting the truth of one sys- tem with the error of another. The larger number among them are far more likely to be r€'ached by a manifestation of the true spirit of Christianity in pro- viding for the destitute and the orphan."
.. A VOICE FROM ITALY."
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
Organized Missionary Work a.nd Sta.tistics. Edited by .Rev. D. L. Leonard, Oberlin, ~O.
-The British and Foreign Bible So- and about 300 Christians are connected ciety, the Americlln Bible Society, and with the missions. Their offerings for the National Bible Society of Scotland Christian work for the fiscal year have lately joined hands in Japan amounted to $6,290.40. If funds eould through a United Committee, which has be supplied, a large number of efficient the entire charge of their affairs; and in Chinese Christians could be put in train- China, in connection with the prepara- ing for missionary service in their own tion of the Union Version. The com- land. bined result of this year's work by the three societies may be given thus: -The Roman Catholic Church is mak- ing strenuous efforts in the United Conntry. Income. Circulation. States to win the negro race, and with England, • £217,149 3,926,535 skilful methods, as well as no inconsid- United States, 1,497,637 erable success. Thus an annual collec- Scotland, 103,775 673,862 tion is called for. And on January 1st, 32,436 1891, 21 churches were set apart for the use of colored Catholics, with 34 priests Together, £353,360 6,098,034 in charge. During 1890 baptism 'Was administered to 4883 children and 704 -The total amount received from the adults. From the same report we learn Government for Indian schools during that in 115 schools 8280 children were the last five years by the Methodists has in attendance. Over 20 different sisterbeen $33,345; the Episcopalians, $102,- hoods are in charge of these schools, 000 ; the Friends, $140,000; the Con_ of whom 2 are composed of colored gregationalists, $183,000 ; the Presby- women-the Oblates of Baltimore, and terians, $286,000, and the Roman the Holy Family Sisters of New Orleans. Catholics, $1,989,000. The Methodists There are, moreover, a foundling asy. and Baptists will in the future refuse to lum, 6 orphanages, 3 industrial schools, accept any appropriations from the a guild for servant girls, an academy, public funds. and a home for the aged. The Catholic negroes are put at 152,692. -The statement has a strllnge and ominous sound, that the American -The American Unitarian Associa- Home Missionary Society feels con- tion reports the expenditure last year strained to expend as much in Massa- of $72,998 for work in different sections chusetts, one of the smallest and oldest of the United States, $11,401 for the of the States, as in Washington, one of Japan Mission, $9300 for Southern and the largest and youngest of the States, Indian work. and into which the tide of emigration set last year. -The Reformed (Dutch) Church re- ceived for foreign missions last year -Perhaps no religious sect in this $112,164, an increase of $13,767; not country is more vigorous, considering including a legacy of $12,000 to be addits size, than the Jews. During the last ed to a security fund, gifts to the ten years they have nearly doubled the famine stricken in India amounting to number of their congregations, while $2616, or special gifts to liquidate the the membership has increased from debt. 50,000 to 130,500, and the synagogue property from $3,549,697 to $9,754,257. -The Southern Methodist Church has missions in China and Mexico which -There are now 18 missions of the contain 22 missionaries-20 of them American Missionary Association among the Chinese in California. Sixty. five joined the Church during the last year, with wives-77 native preachers, a total to $1,277,220. The ordinary income for force of 137, and 4421 church members. the past year has not been sufficient to meet the expenses, being only $1,156,- -The Southern Baptist Convention 020. Including spE'cial funds, the gross reports the receipts for 1891 as $114,- expenditure has bE'en $1,256,970, while 326. The amount expended upon each the gross receipts have reached a total, one of the 6 missions is as follows, to- exceeded on only one previous occasion, gether with the number of ohuroh-mem- of $1,346,885, including a legacy of nearbers and of baptisms last year (the last ly $105,000 for extension of work in the in parenthe~es): Africa. $6515, 111 (31) ; society's North American mission. China, $33,425,917 (130) ; Japan, $4386, 25 (16) ; Brazil, $19,386,419 (90) ; Italy, -The Trinitarian Bible Society re- $15,137, 293 (40); Mexico, $28,569, 958 ports a total circulation of 382,362 (127). The total of communicants is Bibles, Testaments, and portions. The 2723, and of baptisms 434. new Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible will probably be completed this year, -Acoording to the thirty-first annual and the issues of Salkinson's Hebrew report, the Presbyterian Church, South, New Testament have reached in 1891 a has 102 missionaries distributed as fol- total of 212,000 copies, chiefly through lows: China, 33; Brazil, 28; Mexico, the agents of the Mildmay Mission to 6 ; the Old Greeks, 4 ; Italy. 2 ; Japan, the Jews. 23; Congo Free State, 49; Cuba, 2. The number of native helpers employed -The British and Foreign Sailors' was 123; native oommunicants, 2702, Society reports an income of $150,365. of whom 391 were received by baptism. Work is done in 87 stations in 8aports, During the year the treasury receipts including institutes, bethels, rests, etc. from all sources were $130,276, being It has 3 floating bethels, 3 steam $17,325 in exoess of any previous year. launches, and 28 sail and row boats.
EUROPE. -When Lady DufIerin began her scheme for the improvement of the Great Britain.-The Church of Eng- physioal condition of women in India, land Zenana Missionary Society, at its seven years ago, it was hardly expected annual meeting, reported an income of that in so short a time such striking re- $179,640, and 22 new missionaries. sults would be achieved. Last year 466,000 women received medical treat- -The Presbyterian Churoh reports ment. The staff now consists of 9 an increase in membership during 1891 women doctors and 31 assistants, and from 65,841 to 66,744; that the Sunday- the number of native and Eurasian schools number 79,697, and that the women under instruction steadily intotal income of the Church was $1,178,- creases. Last year there were 207. The 250., The foreign mission report showed fund has at present an income of £5000 in China 20 ordained European mis- a year, after having erected hospitals sionaries and 10 medical missionaries, and dispensaries at a cost of £120,000. 10 native pastors (supported by their own congregations), ]0 native evange- -The Established Church of Scotland lists, 43 organized congregations with reports for foreign missions for the past 3800 communicants. year a total income of $156,790. The total expenditure was $]57,800, of which -The Church Missionary Society, at $140,800 were for the foreign field. its annual meeting in May, reported These expenditures do not include certhat during the past two years their tain snms transferred from special missionary force has increased in num- funds, such as the Blantyre missionary ber 103, and in spite of this the ordi- fund, East Africa Missions Building nary missionary expenditure has in- fund; there are also the Universities' creased only $21,180, amounting in all Mission fund and the Guild Mission ASIA. fund, which furnish ea.ch an income of a little over $3000. The Jewish Mis- -" There are more missionary socie. sion Committee reports an income of ties represented in India today than in $32,705, which has been expended in any other section of the world. There are Salonica, Smyrna, Alexandria, Constan- more missionaries, more schools, more tinople and B€irfit. churches, more communicants a wider opportunity for every form of Christian Italy.-Tbe object of the Spezia Mis. endeavor, the use of every weapon of sion is to supply "every necessitous Christian warfare, the application of part of Italy and the LIOvant to which every Christian principle." And well we shall be distinctly called by God's may it be so ; for the popUlation num. providence with the Gospel, by means bers 288,000,000', and the idols worof the circulation of the ScriptUl'es, shipped, 330,000,000. Of the women, preaching, and Bible schools." The 40,000,000 are shut up in Zenanas, 23,- twenty-fourth year has been reached, 000,000 are widows, and 79,000 were wid. and the income was £2953 in 1891. ows before they were nine years of age. With numerous sub-stations, 24 stations Only one woman in 800 is under inare occupied by Edward Clarke and struction, and but one Protestant misother missionaries, with 32 native as- sionary is found to 500,000 of the popusistants. The day schools number 8, lation. with over 500 pupils, and the communicants 180. -Among the most interesting enter. prises in India is the Gassner Mission Germauy.-According to a table pre- among the Kols of the province of pared by Pastor Dohler, of Saxony, the Chutia Nagpur. It is a German enter. 17 larger German missionary societies prise, and is manned by 19 missionaries, have in all 4(18 principal stations, 606 7 of whom are married. There are also male and 37 female European agents, 15 ordained native pastors and a large 111 ordained natives, and of other na- numher of other preachers and workers. tive helpers, 2855 male and 731 female; The Kols are among the aboriginal tribes 246,903 converts; 1127 schools, 1607 of India, and are exceedingly degradteachers, and 53,282 scholars. Their ed ; nevertheless, the number of Chriscombined income (in 1890?) was $878,- tians alllong them amounts up to 37,000. GOO, including balances, and in addition $360,860 were collected from the fields. -The Indian Home Mission to the Of the first-named sum, $180,660 was Santals is a Danish organization, which, collected outside of Germany, chiefly however, receives considerable support by the Basle Society and the Moravians. from England; The stations occupied are in Bengal, the head station being at -According to Jewish Intelligence, 135 Ebenezer. There are 6 missionaries Prussian Christians have apostatized to with their wives, 4 Santal pastors, 18 Judaism and 2101 Jews have been con- deaconesses, 80 travelling elders and 5 verted to Christianity since 1875. catechists. Recently there has also been established an Assam colony with 1 mis- Spain binds herself to maintain the sionary, 1 pastor, 9 elders, and 3 cate· worship and ministers of the Roman chists. The baptisms of converts in Catholic religion, and these last control 1891 were 201, and there are now 6300 the schools, such as they are. There baptized members in the community. are enough-30,OOO-or one for every 560 inhabitants; but so inferior that, -The statistics of the India Mission by the last census, it is shown that over of the United Presbyterian Church show 72 per cent of the population were un- 6779 communicants-an increase of 106 able to read or write. over last year. The admissions by pTO- fession have been 592 as against 410 for the preceding year. The Christian many millions in the interior have population has grown from 10,171 in never heard the story of the Gospel. 1890 to 10,830 in 1891, and the number of villages containing Christians has -The Soudan stretches across Afrigrown from 525 in 1890 to 550 in 1891. ca from the Red Sea to the Atlantic, and contains from 60,000,000 to 80,000,000 -The Bishop of Madras is now in the inhabitants. The name Soudan-that is, thirty-first year of his episcopate. This H Blacks"-is given by the light.skinned is the longest record of any bishop in inhabitants of the Sahara to the chain India. It has been his happiness to see of partly civilized kingd oms lying to the the native Christia~s in his diocese in. south of the Great Desert. Their north crease from about 40,000 to 107,000. boundary may be very roughly indicat- ed by a line joining Cape Verde to Khar- -The statistics of the Presbyterian toum, and the southern boondary may missions in Siam and Laos, as recently be said to be about the eighth parallel reported, are as follows: Ordained mis- of north latitude. This gives a vast resionaries, 14 ; medical missionaries, 4 ; gion, 3500 by 500 miles, inhabited mostsingle lady missionaries, 9; native ly by negro nations, nearly all of them preachers, teachers, etc., 54; number calling themselves Moslem, and which of churches, 13 ; communicants, 1113 ; as yet has scarcely been touched with number added last year, 239; boys in the Gospel. boarding-schools, 208 ; girls in boarding-schools, 146; day-school pupils, -The North Africa Mission has 320. opened work in Lower Egypt by send- ing thither recently 5 missionaries, of Turkey.-The present limits of the whom 2 are men. In this portion of Trebizond field, extending some 250 the land of the Nile is found a populamiles along the coast of the Black Sea tion of 4,500,000, mostly Mohammedan, and 60 miles into the interior, embrace and almost wholly without the Gospel. a territory eq011.1 to the three States of There are about 40 towns with from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode 7000 to 40,000 inhabitants, and 500 with Island. In this field there are, in round from 2000 to 7000. numbers, 750,000 souls, 600,000 being Mohammedans, 120,000 Greeks, and -There are 200 baptized Christians 30,000 Armenians. The following table in Uganda in connection with the shows the progress of the work Bince Church Missionary Society, and about the reorganization of the station in 2000 adherents under instruction. The 1882 : Gospel of Matthew has been translated into the native tongue. The arrival of 1882. 1885. 1888. 1891. 100 copies from England was attended with the wildest joy. —— ISLANDS OF THE SEA, Adherents …….. 170 285 585 867 Chnrch-members.. : : : 26 29 84 181 -Among the newer work of the Lon_ Attendants on wor- don Society is that in New Guinea. 810 515 685 There are now 53 stations along the s::'!fru-s::: :::::::::: 100 140 279 412 sontheast coast, a staff of 6 missionaries, 68 over 30 South Sea Island teachers, and Contribntions…••••• $97 $407 $782 $1,245 some 20 New Guineans. More than Scriptnres 80ld for 2000 children are under instruction, and each three years … …. 1,565 1,586 2,187 there are between 400 and 500 church- members. The whole New Testament AFRICA. in the Motu dial~ct has also been put through the press. Within the :first -In 1890 there were reported by 42 missionary societies working in Africa, 781 male and 387 female missionaries, and 101,212 communicants. These missionaries are chiefly laboring in the oountries bordering on the coast, while year a new station on the Kwato Island port, the Rev. G. Short, of Salisbury, has been occupied by 2 missionaries, said that there were now nearly 100 who have also the use of a small sailing missionary societies in Great Britain, boat, which they find very helpful in Europe. Canada, and the United States, going in and out among the islands with 11,388 stations and out-stations, where ships could not go. 4693 male and 3228 female missionaries, 40,083 Christian native workers, and -The New Zealand Census shows 726,883 communicants. Toward tbe 1197 churches and chapels, and 400 Centenary Fund of £100,000, a sum of other buildings used for worship, with £70,000 had been subscribed or promsittings for 278,000, or about one half ised, and at an early date the remainder of the population. The number attend- was anticipated. The special efforls of ing services is 197,000, of whom 40,785 the Sunday-schools had realized over are Presbyterians, 37,252 are Episco. £11,000. Of this £15,000 will be ap. palians, 30,525 Roman Catholics, 27,106 plied to wiping out tbe debt, some to a Wesleyans, and 14,442 belong to the working fund which will make loans Salvation Army. unnecessary, and the greatest portion to extend mission operations. It is es- British Foreign Missions. By Rev. James timated that the new up-river steamer Johnston, Bolton, England. for the Congo Mission will cost £5000. Sunday, October 2d, will be regarded as Zenana Bible and Medical Mission. a missionary centenary in the Baptist -At the thirtieth annual meeting of churches at home and abroad. A pubthis society it was stated that less than lic celebration of the centennial of the a third of a million of girls in India founding will be held on October 4th were educated. The number of mis- and 5th in London. On July 23d acensionaries was 47, with 26 assistants, 149 tenary festival is to take place at the native teachers, and 54 Bible women Crystal Palace. represented by 85 schools and 2554 pupils. A new hospital had been opened For the past year the expenditure has at Lucknow in memory of the late Lady been £74,935 against an income of Kinnaird, foundress and president of £69,125. Seven missionaries had died the society, and a new medical mission during the year. In view of the great had been established in Patna. The mortality on the Congo the quest.ion total number of patients at Lucknow, was raised whether the Committee had Benares, and Patna was 8904, with considered the advisability of transfer. 24,387 visits to dispensaries, while 1931 ring men from Kingston College, Javisits had been paid to the homes of maica. At the annual soiree Mr. Baynes, patients. The current total annual in- commenting on the report, spoke of it come is £16,687. as a second edition of the Acts of the Apostles. They had 800 baptisms in The Baptist Missionary Society.- India, 550 in China, and a large num- At the centennial annual members' ber on the Congo. The native Chrismeeting it was announced that the tian Church was becoming increasingly colonial missionary societies were pre- active, independent, and aggressive. paring to enlarge their own efforts in There was a large addition of Christian commemoration of the centenary of the schools and a great quest for the Bible, society. It was the aim of the Com. thousands having been sold where a few mittee to make every part of their work years ago they would have been deself supporting, but the cost of freight, spised. Many were the cheering signs etc., connected with the Congo Mission of an approaching noble harvest of souls was three times that of the personal in India. The Baptist Zenana Mission, salaries of the missionaries. In mov- which was never more popular, reports ing the adoption of the hundredth re- 52 missionaries and 130 Bible women and Zenana visitors. Ten women were H. Uffman, of the German Mil:lsion, going to India this year, 5 of them old Perulia. Chota Nagpore, who has charge workers and 3 qualified physicians. of 160 inmates in the asylum supported The year's receipts were £7547. In re- by the Mission to Lepers, writing in sponse to an appeal on the twenty-fifth March last, entreats the humane to enanniversary of the society a Bum of £400 able him to open his doors to receive was collected. Dr. Richard Glover another 40 begging for admission. Says preached the Baptist missionary ser- the Rev. G. M. Bullock. of the London mon, and Dr. A. T. Pierson the young Missionary Society, who has 122 inmen's mission sermon, the latter effort mates in the asylum at Almora, in the being oonsidered one of the finest Himalayas; "There have been 20 apmissionary deliveranoes of the year in plicants since January 1st; but I do not Great Britain. feel justified in admitting any till I find how fllr the Church of Christ is willing Wesleyan Foreign Missions-An- to stand by me." In a most touching nual Meetin&;.-Many oiroumstanoes letter (translated from the Hindustani) oombined to make the yearly gathering the native oaretaker of the Almora Asyin Exeter Hall one of exoeptional inter· lum writes; .. Many have come seeking est. The newly appointed seoretary, admission, but have been obliged to go the Rev. F. W. Maodonald, made a most away again. We are grieved to be un_ able statement. General progress mark· able to help them. Some came who ed the society's operations in its princi- could with difficulty move about; with pal mission fields. The reoeipts, while tears they entreated of I1S to give them showing an inorease, did not meet the a place of refuge. One day a man came expenditure by £4000. The veteran who was very helpless. He remained missionary, Dr. Ebenezer Jenkins, late the whole night in the hope of having of India, spoke of the wonderful changes his name entered on the books, and it which had taken plaoe in that empire was hard to send him away in the mornsinoe he first went there in 1856. A ing." Of another institution a lady notable weloome was given to the Rev. missionary asks ; •• Is it to be enlarged? David Hill, who has labored in China You know there are more than 500 for twenty-seven years. He told the lepers in this distriot alone, and the vsst assembly that China was becoming need for further assistanoe is very great. unified, entering into the comity of Oh, dear! such piteous cases as have to Western nations, passing through moral be refused." There are applications and intellectual transformations, and from other places where extra aoo.mwas everywhere more open to the mis- modation is urgently needed, all of sionary vanguards. At the annual mis- which could be met by a gift of £700. sinnarybreakfast meeting the Rev.James Chapman, of Oxford, spoke of the great Uganda.-Not since August last have call which God was at the present time the directors of the Imperial British giving to His Churoh to mission the East Africa Company had direct news world. He instanced the various open- from Captain Lugard. They have the ings to the Gospel, the multiplied faoili- utmost confidence in his strictly imparties, improvement in means of com- tial attitude with regard to the rival namunication, and the remarkable in- tive disputants, and they also state that crease of English – speaking peoples, the Snider rifles which the natives have whose influence extended to every land. obtained have been introduced in spite of their officers' vigilanoe by traders Mission to Lepers in India.-From from the south of the lake, who are Mr. Wellesley C_ Bailey, of Edinburgh. known to have brought large consignthe secretary ancl superintendent, ear- ments of weapons and ammunition to nest appeals are appearing in the Eng- the intedor. Particulars of a reliable lish press for subscriptions. The Rev. character respecting the outbreak of earliest opportunity moving toward Lake hostilities between the Catholics and Tchad, the objective point of their gal- Protestants and the rumored destruc- lant enterprise. The prayers of God's tion of several Catholic stations are not people on their behalf are desired. It yet available. At the same time, it is is definitely announced that Lieutenant useless to disguise the fact that the Mizon, of the French navy, has failed Jesuit priests, who have for several to reach the lake by way of the Niger years been established in Uganda, look and the Binne, and is returning by the with extreme disfavor upon British Congo. The leaders of the last expediprestige. The influence of these mis- tion, M. Crampel and his officers, were sionaries has been persistently used brutally murdered. By the Wadai Musagainst the company's officers. Mwan- sulmans, who are supreme at the south ga, at the date of Captain Lugard's last end of the lake, undying hostility has report, was much more favorably in- been declared to all white men. So far clined toward the British than he had the attempts to reach the Tchad region ever been before. but theking's extreme confirm the views held by Englishmen fickleness of purpose led Captain Lugard on the Niger, that this vast central track to doubt his entire sanity. He was, as of the African continent, the largest rea nominal Catholic, exposed to a good maining unexplored area, may for Bome deal of influence from the priests. The time be closed to Europeans. Its enlatest news, however, proved that his trance during the next few years deconversion was of the most superficial pends mainly upon missionary exertion character, according to which he was and commeroial relations. plotting with the Mohammedans to regain more territory by their assistance Miscellaneous. -AJIairs in Samoa are and to defeat the Christians. in a critical and unsettled condition. The nati ves in the islands lire strongly It sounds strange to hear that Africa supporting Mataafa, and there is danger is not an unsuitable field, in some of another outbreak against the present parts, for using the bicycle. The in- regime. While the Governmeni's funds trepid missionary, Mr. Ashe, of the are exhausted, the natives are two years Church Missionary Society, who started in arrears with their taxes,-On April last year for Ugand~, has, say the latest 14th the first party of North Africa misadvices, nearly reached his destination, sionaries left England for Alexandria; in accomplishing which the bicycle their names are Mr. and Mrs. Summers, which he took out with him was of the formerly of Morocco, Mr. James Smith. greatest helpfulness. He was able to of Liverpool, Miss Ada Watson, and perform almost the entire journey on Miss Van Molen, from Doric Lodge.- his machine; and he found the long By the London Missionary Society, the narrow paths through the country ad- services of Miss M L. Christlieb, daughmirably adapted to its use. His report ter of Dr. Christlieb, of Bonn, and thus is of such an enthusiastic character that granddaughter of Mr. Weitbrecht, the we may in future regard the bicycle an celebrated missionary, have been acalmmlt necessary part of the equipment cepted.-Dr. and Mrs. Laws arrived in for an African traveller. London from Lake Nyassa in March.
The Central Soudan Mission.-Mr. Monthly Bulletin. H. G. Harris and his 6 colleagues are temporarily located in the city of -Dr. Pentecost affirms publicly that Tripoli, whe:re they are zealously de- there are more ordained ministers in voted to itinerancy among the natives, Scotland than there are ordained misand, in thl' mean time, making them- sionaries in all the world. selves familiar with the Hausa and Arabic tongues. They propose at the -The Western Ohristian Advocate is not pleased with the showing made by one of Boston's Methodist churches, fined to Europe, and chiefly to Italy, which pays $5000 for pastoral services Switzerland, and Germany. and gives only $36 for missions. England.-Some 80 versions of the -Dr. SchaufHer calls attention to the Scriptures are used in the Church Mis. fact that while the Congregationalists sionary Society's field. Of these, 59 have many institutions for training men versions, or 80 per cent., come from the for foreign missions, they have not a British and Foreign Bible Society alone. single school for training women mis- The C. M. S. missionaries have been the sionaries. This refers, of course, to sole translators of the whole or portions theological and special training. of the Scriptures into 52 languages, which, in the great majority of in. -There is an Armenian Sunday- stances, would never have seen the light school in Maine which numbers about if it had not been for the kindly inter. twenty, and is held every Sunday after- vention of the Bible Society. noon in the Second Parish vestry, Port. land. Each pupil has a teacher,' and -The Bible stand at the Crystal Paltheir attempts to master the English ace, London, commenced work nearly language result in much animated chat· thirty years ago, and has disposed of ter. more than 12,000,000 Bibles and Testa· ments, and 11,000,000 Scripture cards. -Justice David J. Brewer, of the Su- This distribution includes both sales preme Court, made an address before and gifts. the American Home Missionary Society in Washington recently. He is an active AJrica.-Africa is three times the size worker in the Church, where he has a of Europe; every pound of ivory costs large Bible class. He was born in Syria, one life; for every five pounds one hut where his father was a missionary. has been -burned; for every two tusks a village has been destroyed; for every -The women are arranging for a twenty tusks a district has been de. Congress of Christian Missions in con· stroyed. nection with the World's Fair, in Sep. tember, 1893. The theme of orators -About one fourth of the people of like Lady Henry Somerset and Mrs. Bal. Africa are Mohammedans and nearly lington Booth will he woman's share in three fourths are pagans. There are the world's evangelization, and histori. about 3,500,000 Christians, of whom cal papers and general discussions will nearly one half are Copts and Abyssin. serve to make this factor in the modern ians, and the remainder Roman Cathomissionary movement still more ap. lics and Protestants in about equal pro. parent. portion. The Roman Catholics include the French in Algeria and the Portu- -In view of the establishment at the guese in Angola and Mozambique. The World's Fair of a department for work Protestants include the English and done by women in different parts of the Dutch of the South African colonies. world, the industrial school of the The people in the countries bordering American Lutheran mission at Guntur, on the Mediterranean Sea and in tho India, is planning to send some of the countries immediately south of these work done in that school to the Exposi. are Mohammedan, while the pagans com· tion for sale, the profits to be applied prise the great masses of the negro, to an endowment fund for the school. Kaffir. Hottentot, and Zulu races in Central and South Africa. -Mr. George Muller, of the Bristol Orphanage, has just completed his six. -Next to cannibalism the most terri. teenth missionary tour, having been ab- ble practice in the Congo basin is that sent from home twenty.one months. of human sacrifices on the occasion of Although eighty.six years old, he is in the funeral ceremonies of important good health. This last trip was con. persons. The richer the family of the ness of the people. The Rev. R. H.
deceased person, the more numerous Walker says: "I have lived with them are the victims. Because far up the for more than three months without tributaries slaves can be bought much spending anything. Many other Chris- cheaper than on the Congo, canoe par- . tian chiefs offer to provide all that the ties are sent for hundreds of miles for country will supply to anyone who will the sole purpose of buying victims for go and live with them and teach the human sacrifices. They are blindfold- people. Let this be known in England, ed, bound to a stake in a sitting or and surely some one will offer to come kneeling posture, and a single blow of and help us. What we want is more the skilful executioner's knife decapi. men. The Christians will find them tates them. Though men form the houses and food."
greater number of victims, wives or -The British Admiralty are having female slaves are often strangled and two small gun-boats built for service on thrown into the open grave, or bu::ied Lake Nyasea, to be used in the suppresalive in it. sion of the slave trade in that region.
-Bishop Taylor of Africa receives These boats will be taken in sections up $6000 salary per year. All but $500 of the Zambesi and Shire rivers, and conit he gives to advancing his missionary structed on the borders of the lake.
work in the Dark Continent. -The great caravan of Dr. Fruisch, -Says Bishop Taylor: ,. I spent a who goes to join Emin Pasha at Lake large portion of one afternoon in the Albert, will include two hundred Souschool-room of Sister Luzia at Malange. danese, well armed, and five trained Her school is composed of the advanced elephants. The latter he purchased in pupils, whom she is instructing in the Bombay, paying $5000 each. He is a Bible doctrine and the catechism, with young millionaire, hall travelled in South instrumental and vocal music. I looked Africa and South America, and personon and listened and quietly wept and aUy defrays the enormous expense of thanked God. Six years ago all these- this expedition, which was to start from teacher and pupils-were enveloped in Mombasi early in July.
the densest darkness of barbarous -At a meeting held in London, May heathenism; but now they are 'par- 5th, to welcome Mrs. McKittrick and takers of the divine nature,' and diligent Dr. Harry Guinness from Africa, and students of the Holy Scriptures." bid Godspeed to a party starting for -The Sultan of Morocco has issued Balololand, Dr. Guinness spoke of the special orders forbidding intercourse deadly climate of the Congo, which has between the Moorish women and the worked such ravages among the misladies attached to Christian missions. sionaries, and gave a glowing tribute to This will affect especially the workers the workers there and the success that of the North Africa Society, a large was already crowning their labors. It number of whom are women, and who was reported that the whole number have made a IIpecial effort to reach the startin!! for missionary fields on the women of the country in their homes. Congo, West and South Africa, India, The Sultan's action is supposed to have and South America was 22, and that been taken on the representation of his there are 145 students in the tliree coladvisers to the effect that communica_ leges of the East London Missionary Intions between the Moorish and English stitute preparing for service in different women threatened innovation in the parts of the world.
laws and the corruption of religion. China.-The Rev_ Gilbert Reid, in an -Letters from Uganda, published in essay read before the Shantung Presby- the Church Missionary lntelligencer, speak terian Mission, urged the obligation of very cordially of the affection and kind- doing more than has hitherto been done by Protestant missionaries for the evan· mained through a service which lasted gelization of the upper classes of China. He suggested that the whole constitu. over three hours. Eighty.four persons tion of Chinese society brings home the necessity of not neglecting them. "Rev. were confirmed, and about 300 received arence to all who are above" is so all. pervading in China that decisive results the Holy Communion. – cannot be expected without heeding it. India.-The hospital whioh was erect· -The Chinese Government has been ed in memory of Lady Kinnaird in so favorably impressed with the educa. Lucknow, India, formally opened in tional work the Methodist Missions afe October last, is already in need of en· doing in Pekin that it has promised to largement. The original design does give positions upon the railroads or in not afford sufficient acoommodation to telegraph offices to all graduates, at a the patients, and funds are solicited for fair salary, and the privilege added of an additional wing. keeping the Sabbath. All gradllates from the Medical Department will reo -One of the Cowley Fathers, who ceive appointments in the army or navy. has been carrying on a successful work To give an earnest of what will be done, in the city of Poona, has withdrawn with a physician from the United States was some of his native converts to a small requested for the Cllstoms Service of village to make a new attempt in the Chung King, the very city from which direction of self.sacrificing labor. He the missionaries were expelled in 1886 ; wishes to see whether he cannot give an and bellides granting a handsome salary, impetus to the foundation of a com. it was agreed that he should spend all munity life among the natives of that his spare time in medical missionary oountry. work. -Rev. Mr. Evans writes to the Eng- -This from the annllal report of the lish Baptist Missionary Society of ana· Presbyterian Church of England: "So tive preacher, Michael Baba, who has rapid is the progress made, that the for some years traversed nearly the Chin·chew Church, although it has been whole of India, making known the way enlarged, is now too small for the con- of life. He is not connected with any gregation meeting in it; freqllently society, and receives no pay from any more than 600 persons crowd it to over· denomination. He dresses in the yel. flowing. many having to stand. To low, flowing garb of an Indian ascetic, meet this in some degree, another place for in this attire he has access to all of worship has been opened in the classes of Hindus. He visits the great southern suburb of the city, but still fairs and festivals, preaching a thorough. the crowding is too great. Then the ly evangelioal message. He never asks hospital is too smaU for the patients for help, unless in actual want. pressing for admission; the congrega. tional school too small for the number -A Hindu conversing with a Church of pllpils attending it; and the premo Missionary Society missionary in India, ises where the missionaries reside quite in answer to the question, " Which of inadequate for the accommodation of all our methods do you fear the most ?" our three brethren." he said: ,. We do not greatly fear your schools, for we need not send our chilo -The Rev. Mr. Sowerby writes that dren ; we do not fesr your books, for he never saw such a sight in Chino. as we need not read them; we do not fear was presented at Hankowon Sunday, your preaching, for we need not hear March 13th. wheu Bishop Hare held a it ; but we dread your women and your servioe there. More than a thousand doctors; for your doctors are winning Chinese orowded t111' l;)1lilding and reo our hearts and your women are winning our homes; and when our hearts and our homell are won, what is there left us?" Palestine.-A Young Men's Christian are seeking to penetrate Tibet from the Association has been started in Jerusa- southwest, the China Inland missionlem, one branch of it to reach Anglo- Hebrews and another to work among aries are hoping to secure an entrance on the young men who speak Arabic. the northeast. They have already estab- -The Jerusalem and Jaffa Railroad will soon be ready for travellers. Al- lished themselves at a Bmall Tibetan ready are the three American-built locomotives, Jerusalem, Jaffa and Ramleh, village on the very border. At first it on hand. Outside of the Damascus was impossible to obtain a house to live Gate stands an electric light, a telegraph pole thro",s its shadow upon Jacob's in, but at last a Tibetan landlord was Well, and a steam mill puffs near the ancient well in Nazareth. This means found whose scruples were overcome, the breaking up of the isolation of the towns and villages and the more rapid and they are already established. An spread of enlightening influences from the hitherto almost unknown world. effort was made to drive them out, but Persia.-The Bagdad Jews have pur- the Chinese officials stood by them and chased in the last eight years 258 Hebrew New Testaments and 729 Hebrew copies they remained. of Matthew or Hebrews, besides many copies of the New Testament Scriptures Australia.-After two missionary in Arabic, Turkish, or other languages. meetings in Melbourne recently, a Twet.-A Scottish Universities Mis- hard-working man sent in the titlesion has been established in Sikkim with three missionaries. "Sikkim is a deeds of a farm of 93t acres, worth wedge driven up from India, splitting apart Nepaul toward the west and £500, to be divided between missions Bootan toward the east, and pointing to Lhassa, the holy city, the heart of Tibet. to India and New Guinea. On being Sikkim lies on the threshold of Tibet. It is more, it is the door to Tibet… afterward spoken to about the largeness -A grant of 30,000 rubles has recent- of his gift, he said, " This is how I look ly been made to defray the expenses of another Russian scientific expedition to at it : Supposing I were a boy, and my the Chinese province of Szchuen and the neighboring tablelands of 'ribet. It will father gave me a sovereign, but afterbe under the care of M. Potanin, the well.known explorer, and will cover a ward wanted me to let him have part of period of three years. the money back to help him in some -For nearly forty years agents of the Moravian Mission have been patiently work he was doing, and I gave him a waiting and working to gain an entrance into Tibet. When missionaries do enter, threepenny piece, what sort of a son however, they will find ready for them a Tibetan dictionary and grammar, and should I be ?" a translation of the whole New 'restament and some of the books of the Old -The Moravians claim that their set- Testament. tlements of Ebenezer and Ramahyuck afford a tangible proof that the degrad- -While the Moravian missions at Leh ed "black fellow" can be reclaimed. In Victoria the race is fast dying olit, but in North Queensland there are still vast tracts inhabited by them alone. The Rev. James Ward, his wife, and Mr. Nicholas Hey have been set apart for work among the latter. The Gov- ernment have lent every assistance. A settlement has belln decided upon in the Cape York peninsula, in the extreme north of Queensland.
Hawaii.-Mr. Okabe, who has charge of Christian work among the Japanese in Hawaii, reports 20,000 Japanese as now living at the islands. They com- prise the largest body of foreigners there. Most of them go from Hiroshima or Kumamoto, two of the strongest cen- tres of Buddhism in the empire, but, as they leave their religion with their pos- sessions behind, they prove very sus- ceptible to practical Christian influ- ences. Gospel work is carried on in seven or eight places, with some 116 Christians as the result of three years' effort_
The Missionary Review of the World — June 1891
HUGUENOT FEMALE SEMINARY. WELLINGTON, CAPE COLONY, SOUTH
MISSIONARY REVIEW. OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XIV. No. 6.-0Zd Serie.~.–JUNE.–VOL. IV. No. 6.-New Series.
THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS.-XO. XVIII.
J [EDITORIAL, A. T. P.
THE LIGHT AT THE CAPE OF GOOD ·HOPE.
" IF you want most to serve your race," said Mary Lyon, " go where no one else will go, and do what no one else will do."
We propose to draw· in profile the outline of one of the most wonderful and fascinating stories of modern missions-the narrative of the founding of the Huguenot Seminary at Wellington, Cape Colony.
Wellington, about forty miles from Cape Town, is a gem set in a ring ~f mountains-the Drakenstein and Paarl ranges. It is now more' than two centuries since some three hundred Huguenots, who had fled from France to Holland after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, accepted the invitation of the Dutch East India Company, and settled at the Cape. What the Puritans were to America, these devoted refugees became to the Dark Continent.
·By law Dutch was the language of the colony; and so, in a few generations, the French ceased to be their language, and almost the nationality of these refugees was lost. Early in this century the colony passed into the hands of Great Britain, and the Dutch Reformed churches. already established, became largely supplied with Scotch Presbyterian pastors. .
One of these was Rev. Andrew Murray, who was settled over the congregation at GraafI Reinet. He married a Germano-Huguenot lady, and five of their sons now preach in the colony, while four of their daughters are wives of ministers. The second son, also called Andrew, is the pastor of the church at Wellington, and the now famous author of the most pr«>ciolls devotional books which perhaps during the past half century have been issued from the English press.
This man of God, Andrew Murray, nearly twenty years ago, buried two young children at his African home; and, as Mrs. Murray expressed it, " their hands seemed emptied and ready for some work with which the Lord was waiting to fill them." The bereaved husband and wife went in December, 1872, to the seaside to rest, and there they read together the
THE MIRACLES OF MISSIONS
marvellous life of Mary Lyon. So thrilled were they by that story of heroism, that they sought to obtain everything that could further info}m them of the subsequent history of the Holyoke Seminary and its pupils, and eagerly devoured the story of Fidelia Fiske, the Mary J~yon of Persia.
Just at this time the descendants of those Huguenot refugees living at Wellington were proposing to build some monument or memorial.to their ancestors; and Mr. Murray was strangely and strongly impressed that the best memorial they could rear was just such a school for their daughters. The schools scattered through South Africa were neither such as the mind nor morals of the girls needed; few of them were fitted to train immortal souls for service here or glory hereafter. Every indication of human need and Divine Providence seemed to point to this as the time and place for a new Holyoke. And, after much thought, consultation, and prayer, letters were written to the Massachusetts Holyoke, asking for a graduate to found a similar school at the Cape of Good Hope.
These letters awakened unusual interest at the parent seminary, and were put into the hands of Miss Abbie P. Ferguson, a graduate of the class of 1856, who was at that time conducting a very successful work in New Haven, Conn. Her mind was 80 deeply impressed that God was calling her to Africa, that she could not rest until she had laid herself at the Lord's feet, to go wherever He might lead. She breathed a prayer that, if He was indeed calling her to Wellington, another might be found to share the work; and just then Miss Anna E. Bliss, of the class of 1862, offered herself as a companion in labor. Just at this time, across the Atlantic, special prayer was arising that Jehovah Jireh would provide a teacher, and so once more prayer and its answer joined, in a blessed harmony, man's performance and God's purpose. Before the letter~ reached Wellington, telling of the decision of these teachers, Mr. Murray, with characteristic faith, had sent passage-money to America; and when the news of the decision of Miss Ferguson and Miss Bliss reached the colonists, the open letters were bedewed with the tears of thanksgiving. They had asked one teacher, and God had given two.
Mr. Murray rehearsed the whole story of this marked leading of God, commended the proposed work to the Lord in prayer, and pledges were given on the spot to insure the support of the new school. Though not a rich people, in a few weeks $6,000 had been given by the Wellingtonians alone, one widow giving one sixteenth of the whole amount-all her little patrimony.
Miss Ferguson and her companion sailed for Africa in September, 1873, and arriven at Cape Town in about eight weeks. They found that a large building with grounds had been bought for the school, the life of Mary Lyon had been translated into Dutch, and many young people were ready to enter as pupils into the new Huguenot Seminary, or as teachers, to seek higher fitness for their calling. The seminary was formally opened, January 19th, 1874, anq the large assemblage which that day prayerfully committed the work to the – Lord will never be forgotten. During the first term there were forty Rtudents from fifteen to forty years of age; and the Bible and prayer were from the first the characteristic features of the school life, the first hour of each day being given to instruction in the Holy Word, and a half hour in the day beibg reserved for the quiet of personal communion with God.
The devout and earnest purpose of these teachers was to educate Christian character. God honors those who honor Him. One morning the Scrip~ ture lesson was on the new birth, and before that day had gone thirteen had taken their place on the Lord's side. Even those whom candor compelled to confess that they were unsaved, could not rest content without salvation, and when another meeting was called for those who felt that they were Christ's, everyone in the school came. And after all these years have put the confession to the test, nearly everyone has remained faithful, and not a few have been filling positions of singular usefulness.
Our space will not permit more than an outline of a history now covering nearly a score of yearil. But, as might be expected, the saved became saviours. Children were gathered from the street, and 8 Sunday-school was formed ; through the children access was obtained to their parents; cottage meetings-as many as fourteen, in or near the village-were conducted by the young ladies j the navvies and their families were reached by the same consecrated workers, and Wellington Seminary became a fountain of living waters.
The seminary building became too strait for the growth of the institution, and a new building became a necessity j its corner-stone was laid November 19th, 1874, the two buildings together costing $40,000. Two more teachers were sent for, and Miss Wells and Miss Bailey came from America, Noyember, 1874, and soon after, Miss Spijker, from Holland, to teach Dutch and French.
In July, 1875, the new building was ready for use j the pupils increased from forty to ninety, and the school was divided into two departmentsone preparatory. In December, 1875, Miss Landfear came from New Haven to share the growing burden of work, and still later Miss Brewer, of Stockbridge, Mass. j in 1877, Miss Cummings and Miss Knapp were added to the corps of instructors, and the standard of the school kept rising higher and higher both intellectually and spiritually.
During 1878, stimulated by the reports of the Ten Y-ears' Work of the Woman's Board of Missions in America, the Huguenot Missionary Society was organized, and became speedily the parent of many mission circles. Missionary offerings had been the habit at the weekly devotional meetings, and had been sent to Mrs. Schauffier, in Austria, to Dr. Bernardo and Miss Annie Macpherson in London, and to the Basuto, Natal, and East Indian missions. But now the work took organized form, and before the year closed a member of the school offered herself as a missionary, and subsequently went as their representative to the heathen in the Trans~ vaal. That same year-1878-the first graduating class left the Huguenot Seminary. To trace the after-careers of these four graduates may give some hint of the streams which flow from this fountain. One of the four (Miss Malherbe) was next year a teacher in her Alma Mater, and then took the principlllship of Prospect Seminary at Prretoria in the Transvaal ; Mi~s De Leeuw and Miss Mader started a boardiug-school at Bethlehem, in the Orange Free .State,similar to the Wellington Seminary; and during the first year had five more pupils than Wellington at the corresponding period of its history ; Miss Wilson went to teach in the Rockland Seminary at Cradock. In December, 1879, seven more young ladies received diplomas, and all became teachers. Meanwhile God continued to bestow His grace. and again in 1879 nearly all the inmates of the school became disciples of Christ. These nearly twenty years have been marked by a constant growth. In 1882 there was opened a model school, and a normal department was organized. Rooks, and chemical and philosophical apparatus, a Williston observatory and telescope, etc., were furnished by generous friends; and far and wide the" daughters" of Miss Ferguson and her fellow teachers scattered to diffuse new blessings.
In April, 1880, Miss Ferguson left for rest and change, and visited her native land, returning the next year. And in 1882 another building was erected, to accommodate .about forty more pupils-boarders; and during the same year, as already intimated, another building was opened for a model school for the training of the younger children of the village j and the pupils of the normal class have practice in the art of teaching, and can learn the most approved methods-kindergarten, etc.
The pressure of pupils and too little room made it necessary again to enlarge, and a cottage adjoining the school grounds was purchased. In i885 Miss Cummings, of Strafford, Vermont, one of the teachers, came home for a year's visit, and secured from Mr. Goodnow, of Worcester, a building costing some £3,000. The upper story, to be used as a chapel, will seat five hundred, and the lower floor is devoted to art-room and scientific class-rooms.
Last year the applications were so many it was again necessary to provide more room, and while hesitating whether to build or rent rooms near the seminary, the principal of a girls' school at the PaarL a village some eight miles distant, applied to the trustees to purchase' his building, failing health making it necessary that he and his wife should give up the work. Some of the village people were very anxious the school should come under the influence of the Huguenot Seminary, and after much thought and prayer the purchase was made. This school takes the younger pupils, 'making it a preparatory department, and one of the American teachers superintends it. This gives more room at Wellington for advanced pupils. The schools are called Huguenot Seminary, Paarl, and Huguenot Seminary, Wellington. There are now in the two schools over four hundred pupils. They have the same board of trustees, and are under the same principlll, The expense of buildings and grounds has outrun their income, and they have felt keenly the pressure of debt. But the friends of Christian education in the colony have responded nobly to the call for aid, and at different times Parliament has granted them appropriations amounting to £2,000, so that during the last year they had much rejoicing in Wellington over the accom- plishment of the long-desired freedom from debt. There is some indebted· ness on the Paarl school yet; but Dr: Dale, or Sir Langham Dale, the Superintendent of Education for the colony, gives them encouragement to hope that Government will give them help by and by.
In 1888 Mrs. H. B. Allen, of Meriden, Conn., a sister of Miss Ferguson, sent a circular letter to her sister's classmates asking for help to reduce their indebtedness, it being her sister's" jubilee year," and the two hundredth anniversary of the settlement of the Huguenots in South Africa. They were making a special effort ~o " go free" that year. Mrs. Allen secured about $200 in money, but interest and prayer which were, perhaps, worth more. And then faith was rewarded, for early in 1889 the grant from Government came.
The writer does not know just the number of missionaries who have gone out from the school, but there have been hundreds of .teachers.
Miss Ferguson made a famous journey in 1887-8. In October, 1887, she left the seminary for her year's vacation. The first three months of it she spent in visiting the missionary stations in the Midland and Eastern provinces of the colony, where some of the pupils are located as missionaries and teachers. She returned to Wellington in December, and met two of her pupils from Basutoland, who had just graduated, and returned with them to their home. They are the danghters of French missionaries who are in charge of the Protestant mission of Basutoland. They went by train from Wellington to Kimberley (where the diamond mines are), spent several days with school daughters there. A bullock wagon, drawn by fourteen oxen belonging to the missionaries, was sent from Moujah to meet them. Leaving Kimberley on the 28th of December, they reached Morijah on the lOth of January, outspanning in the heat of the day, and travelling often by moonlight. Two Christian natives, who had long been in the mission family, had charge of the party-Eleazer and Nkloroso.
I have before me the plan of. the journey as Miss Ferguson sent it from Morijah. Here are extracts from her journal: " February 5th at Hermon (Basutoland) ;. February 12th at Mofukas for the baptism of a sister of the old chief Mosesh, over eighty years old, and others. February 19th, Leribe, Mr. Colliard's old station. February 27th, Bethlehem, Orange Free State, with Mrs. Theron, one of our Huguenot teachers. March 3d, Heilbron, Orange Free State, where four of my Huguenot daughters liye. March 8th, Freeport. Orange Free State, the minister and wife from Wellington. March 12th, Potchefstroom, Transvaal, where I have several daughters. Here Mrs. Gonin, wife of the missionary at Saul's Poort, meets me with her bullock wagon, and we go on to Rustenberg, where one of my daughters is in the school. Her father is the principal. March 19th to April 20th, Saul's Poort, Mabie's Kraal, ~nd l1ochuli ; in all these places we have girls who ~re missionaries. The last of April I go to Prretoria (Transvaal), where we have girls teaching j then on to Wakkustroom and Utrecht with Mr. Murray's sister. The last of May to Rorke's Drift, where my friend, the Baroness Posse has a little mission work of her own. June and July I expect to spend in Natal with the American missionaries."
Miss Ferguson was detained by rains and full rivers, so that she did not leave Mochuli (which is half-way between the parallel 24° S. and the tropic of Capricorn, and half-way between meridian 26° and 27° E. just north of the Natwane River, almost in the torrid zone. It is not on the map) until May. Pietermaritzberg, the capital of the Transvaal, was the only place where she spent a night at a hotel. She arrived Saturday night, and her letter to friends had not been received; but she was found on the Sabbath and carried away to the home of Christian friends.
Early in August she sailed from Durban to Port Elizabeth, went to King William's Town, and on up to Graat! Reinet; then to Kimberley again in the interest of the mission work so near her heart, which has resulted in the Mission House, cared for by three of the Huguenot daughters; and back to Wellington the last of September.
Every letter speaks of the marvellous kindness everywhere received, and the wonderful openings for work. We have not spoken of the " Chautauqua circles" that have been formed all through South Africa. Miss Landfear, one of the Huguenot teachers, is the secretary for South Africa, and is introducing a class of reading that it! educating and elevating those who have left school. A circle has been formed among the native boys at Morijah.
If any of our readers will, on the map, follow this remarkable journey of Miss Ferguson through Southern Africa, they will see how many hundreds of miles she went; and let it be remembered tbat only one night in all tbat journey was spent at a hotel; in every other case she was the guest of "her daugbters"-the young ladies wbo had graduated from Wellington and gone into all that dark land to become teachers, missionaries, wives of godly men and ministers of the Gospel, an~ who are thus turning many a " Valley of Desolation" and barren waste of paganism into the Lord's garden! Are we not right in calling Wellington's Huguenot Seminary" the Light at the CapeY" To-day Miss Ferguson has under her care four hundred pupils.
We must add a word as to the progress of education in other parts of the land, which is largely due to the influence of Wellington.
In 1874, the year when the Huguenot Seminary began its work, Rev. J.
Neethling, of Stellenbosch, asked for a teacher from America, on behalf of the school committee, and Miss Gilsou came in response to the call in November of tbe same year. Beforethe year 1875 closed a boarding department was opened ; and the large and flourishing seminary now does for the Lord most excellent and efficient work both in training intellects and educating Christian hearts for the service of the Kingdom.
During 1875 a request for two teachers was sent from Worcester by Rev. William Murray, the minister there, to America. And, as at Wellington, the spirit of faith and prayer anticipated the arrival of the teachers in preparing for the school and sending forward the passage-money. The Misses Smith (two sisters), of Sunderland, Mass., responded. In April, 1876, the the seminary building at Worcester was completed. At the opening, Rev. Andrew Murray spoke on the great need of multiplying such Christian schools in Africa, and it was determined to ask for six more teachers from over the seas.
At the same time. Miss Helen Murray began work at Graaff Reinet, taking charge of the Midland Seminary, with twenty-five boarders and as many day scholars, until Miss Thayer and Miss Ayres arrived six months Jater. A reVival during the first term put the significant seal of God's approval on the work at its very inception, and nearly all the pupils rejoiced in Jesus. In 1876 Miss Lester left Woodstock, Conn., for the Bloemhof Seminary at Stellenbosch, and in April, four years after, was transferred to a similar work in Standerton, in the Transvaal.
During 1877 Messrs. Andrew and Charles Murray visited America, and in answer to their appeal for teachers, thirteen more went to Africa that year, one of whom went eventually to Swellendam. And when, in September, 1877, the Messrs. Murray returned, Rev. George R. Ferguson, brother to the founder of the Huguenot Seminary at Wellington, came with them, to take in charge a new school or institute for training of young men as evangelists and missionaries ; and has since been engaged in that work at Wellington.
When this noble band of workers arrived in 1877 to reinforce the educational mission work in Africa, a feast of rejoicing and thanksgiving filled an " eight days" like the feasts of ancient Israel. The windows were illumined, the flowers hung in festoons or bloomed in bouquets as on an Easter morning, and the Lord was magnified in the praises of His own. One day twenty-seven Americans dined together in the building where, four years before, two teachers began their pioneer work. The teachers at Graaf Reinet, too far away to participate in person, flashed greetings over the electric wires.
After a few days the new teachers began to disperse to Worcester, Graaf Reinet, Stellenbosch, Beaufort West, Swellendam, etc. Miss Clary chose Prretoria, because the work there was most difficult and discouraging; and Miss Ruggles undertook with her the journey to this field fifteen hundred miles beyond Cape Town.
We can follow no further this fascinating story. In 1880 eleven schools had already been established in South Africa under the care of these American teachers; eight in Cape Colony, two in the Transvaal, and one in the Orange Free State. Thirty-eight ladies had, previous to 1881, gone out from America to take charge of this work of education ; and the devoted man of God, Rev Andrew Murray, has generally had the privilege of applying for teachers, while Mrs. H. B. Allen, of Meriden, Conn. (sister of Miss Ferguson), has co-operated in the selection of those who should go.
No words can expr/ilss the blessing which has come through this period of almost twenty years to the whole of Africa through these grand Christian schools. They are building light houses, not at the Cape only, but all through the southern half of the Dark Continent. We doubt whether any work ever done for God has had, from the inception, more signal tokens of His approbation and blessing.
. Those who have visited Graaf Reinet have remarked that it stands close by the" Valley of Desolation," so called from its absolute barrenness and the absence of life. In fact, Graaf Reinet is itself simply a section of that barren waste reclaimed by culture and irrigation. How completely the whole aspect of this. part of the valley has been transfigured may be inferred from the fact that in the garden of Rev. Charles Murray eighty different species or varieties of roses may be ·found in bloom. May thiR not be a precious symbol and type of what the Huguenot Seminary and its companion schools are doing for the wild wastes of the Dark Continent, flashing out rays to illumine the midnight, and sending forth streams to irrigate the barrenness, until where darkness and dearth abounded there shall be a radiance as of a morning without clouds, and a fertility as of an earthly Eden !
" The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them ; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom like the garden of the Lord."
[Apropos of the foregoing, we gladly publish a letter from Rev. George S. Malan, of Montagu, Cape Colony, giving additional information about the work in South Africa.-EDIToR.] The Dutch Reformed Church of the Cape Colony counts upward of 100 congregations, with an aggregate membership of about 90,000 ; the number of souls being about 200,00'0. Our ministers are trained at the Theological College * of our church at Stellenbosch. Some four years ago one of the settled ministers of our church (Rev. Helm) was led by the Lord to give up his congregation in the colony and devote himself to mission work. Our church had already at the time five mission stations outside the borders of the colony. These were each under the superintendence of a resident white missionary, assisted by several lady workers as teachers, and by evangelists (native) for the work among the outlying kraals. To one of these stations, situated in the north of the Transvaal, our brother minister went as assistant to our veteran missionary there, who after nearly twenty * It was fouuded in 1859, and has since then supplied the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa with upward of 120 ministers. years of ,unceasing toil in the mission field, had grown weak and aged in the Master's service.
Our people were never adverse to mission work; and as a whole our church contributed well for the cause.
This was, however, a new departure. A minister giving up his congre- gation to go to the heathen was something unknown before. A new im- pulse seemed to be given in that way to the good cause. More liberal con- tributions followed, and greater interest. This was the result also of a visit to the colony, and of addresses given everywhere by our veteran mis- sionary (Mr. Hofmeyer), who was enabled to leave his work for a short time through the assistance afforded him by Brother Helm.
At the same time, or thereabout, a society was started among the theo!
logical students of the theological college, known as the Students' Mis- sionary Society, with the object of getting contributions for the cause, but most of all to create a love for mission work among the future m~isters of the church. '
Not long after the ministers of the church formed among themselves a Ministers' Missionary Society.' This society has since sent out a~d is now supporting two missionaries in Nyassaland, in the vicinity of the sta- tions of the Scotch church. One of these missionaries is a son of one of the ministers of our ,Church, a young Ulan of ability and promise, who passed through his full theological course here, and after that had a few years' training in medicine, etc., at the Edinburgh University. Last year -especiaI1y through the influence of some American teachers from Mt.
Holyoke, engaged as such at the lIuguenot Seminary, Wellington, a large and flourishing educational institute for young ladies-a Woman's Mis- sionary Society was formed, with several branches throughout the colony, for the purpose specially of sending out and supporting lady helpers to the missionaries at our various mi~sion stations.
Toward the end of last year the session of our Synod took place.
Brother Helm from the Transvaal mission field (Zoutpausberg) was present.
lie earnestly advocated the claims of the Banyai. This tribe of Kaffirs in- habit a very healthy and fertile country north ot' the Transvaal and east of Matabeleland. The king of the latter country, a savage despot, con- siders the Banyai as his slaves, and has hitherto, for obvious reasons, re- fused evangelists the right of settling and laboring there. Attempts made by our church in previous years to send evangelists there proved vain, and even fatal to the life of one of them. But what hath the Lord wrought!
The British Soutb African Chartered Company obtains from the imperial Government a ~harter to settle in and develop those 'regions, especially Mashonaland, which lies more or less in between Matabeleland and Banyai- land. This company goes there with an armed police force, several hun- dreds strong, for the protection of its chartered rights, builds forts, etc., in short, colonizes the country, and in this way forms an effectual barrier for the Banyai against the oppressions and despotism of the Matabele. All at once the Lord has opened Banyailand. Brother Helm had just returned from a visit to that country when he appeared in the Synod. And now the Synod has decided, on his urgent appeals, to send, as soon as possible, three or four more ordained missionaries, men fully trained at the theological college, to occupy the open field-some in Banyailand, and others to stay at Zoutpausberg, and so enable the church to establish there a Training Institute for native evangelists, who by the side of the white mis. sionaries can do the great work waiting for us to be done there. Surely the Lord reigneth among the heathen! His blessed Kingdom must and will come also in those dark regions of South Africa. Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly !
MONTAGU, CAPE COLONY, SOUTH AFRICA, January 26, 1891.
Dr. Arthur Mitchell, of New York, says of the rise and progress of woman's work for woman: "Great was the surprise of the entire Presbyterian Church when the first year the women sent to the Board *27,000, their greater snrprise when the next year it was $67,000, the third year, $87,000, the fourth year, $96,000, increasing the amount each year of the fifteen, except in one instance, until it has reached $250,000." Dr. Mitchell told of a good old doctor of divinity who, being on a committee on missions in the General Assembly, told in the report of what the women had done, gracefully Ilnd kindly giving them all due credit, but adding in humorous fashion, " You know the women are good collectors." "Can it be possible," thought Dr. Mitchell, who sat there listening, "that the good doctor does not know more of the sources from whence these women have their strength. I' They have three never-failing fountains from which to draw. The first, Organization. The work has been done systematically, until nearly all our churches have Woman's Foreign Missionary Societies, and even the children have their mission bands. Second, Information. They are far in advance of the men's Board in the number and character of their publications. They have, among other things, given to the world one of the best books on missions ever written, the " Historical Sketches of Missions." Influenced by Woman's Work, the Board improved the Foreign Missionary, until it seemed to have taken on a new life. Third, is the Sympathy existing between the women at home, who are interested in missions, and the missionaries in the field.
Dr. Smith, of Baltimore, says that he has, closely observed, from its be. ginning, this work of woman for woman, and at the close of fifteen years of trial and triumph, rejoiced to say that woman had found her tl'lle sphere in work for the Master, which leads her to the foot of the cross. The cross has always had a strange attraction for woman. Yes, even that plain wooden cross on Calvary drew all the Marys about it. This society has proved its right to a new name, Esther, the morning star, which shines brightly just hefore the dawning, and ushers in the glorious Sun of Rillhteousness.
TIlEl D1VINE AND SUPERNATUltAL IN FOREIGN MISSIONS
THE DIVINE AND SUPERNATURAL IN FOREIGN MISSIONS.
BY REV. EDWARD STORROW, BRIGHTON, ENGLAND.
IF anywhere we might expect to see Divine and providential manifesta- tions rising toward the supernatural, it is in the spbere of foreign missions, because they, in a pre-eminent degree, seek to honor God, express the mind and purposes of Christ, have their spheres of operation amid perils and dangers. encountered only that error and evil may be overthrown and God have the glory, which is His supreme righ~.
The missionary enterprise bears two features distinctly expressive of the Divine presence and blessing. First, these only can explain the origin, his- tory, and progress of the enterprise. Then there occur in its affairs a series of incidents which more than point at personal and supernatural intervention.
1. God must have put it into the hearts of His servants to form these societies. They are not after the manner of men, since they involve out- lay, trouble, responsibility, yet forbid any of the usual incentives of a return in money, honor, or personal aggrandizement.
2. These enterprises were all begun after much prayer. They not only were born and cradled in an atmosphere of prayer, but have lived in such an atmosphere.
3. There are manifold evidences of Divine interposition and guidance in the manner in which obstacles have been removed, openings made for their efforts, and snitable agencies for the most varied spheres provided.
4. In many instances the agents to begin the work and to nurture it into strength, both at home and abroad, have evidently been called of God and prepared for the spheres they have filled. So was it with Count Zinzendorf, the father and founder of the Christian Knowledge Society j the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel j the Baptist and London Societies j the American Board j the first Danish mission, and Mr. Hudson Taylor's. So was it with the pioneers: Hans Engedi, in Greenland j Zeigenbalg, Plutschan, Schultze, and Schwartz, in South India; Carey, ifarchman, Ward, and Duff, in Bengal ; Mor~ison, in China; Judson, in .Burmah j Moffat, in South Africa, and many others.
5. The manner in which, now for some three generations, this work has been sustained, and with steadily growing liberality, has nothing in the history of human effort to compare with it for disinterestedness, persistence, and widespread self-denial. It has come to pass that after years of detraction, some millions of people, unusually thoughtful and considerate of their expenditllre-most.ly belonging to the lower middle class of society -contribute spontaneously for th~ love of Christ, almost all in small sums. an aggregate amount of two and one half millions a year. (2 Chron. 5: 11-14.) 6. A Divine gnidance and control is surely seen in the direction Of tlJese ·societies. Considering that they h:l'1." had to originate policies; to enter on spheres but little known; to discover the best methods of opera- tion; to meet all manner of difficulties; to conduct their operations in countries most diverse, ·among all classes and conditions of non-Christian 'people, and to disburse annually an aggregate sum which has grown from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, one may marvel at the few great mistakes that have been made, the general good sense and practica- bility of their policies, and the honor and integrity with which their affairs have been conducted. No class of commercial, financial, or national under- takings can show a record as free from stain.
7. Equally noteworthy is the integrity of missionaries. Thousands of them have lived for years away from the rJstraints of civilized society, where the inducements to live loosely, to become mercenary, and to misuse power are strong. But how few have made shipwreck of faith and of a good conscience! Contrast the lives and conduct of missionaries in every quarter of the globe with those of adventurers, travellers, traders, where the two classes come into contact with barbarous or semi-barbarous races!
8. The success of missions. Their results prove them to be of Divine origin and to have the Divine blessing. Here it can only be pointed out, (1) that no doubt it always has been a most arduous task to make anyone a true Christian, or to overthrow the superstitions of any race in favor of Christianity. (2) That considering all the conditions of the stupendous problr-m, the marvel is that missions have been as successful as they are proved to be by the Divine change that has passed over the natures and the lives of hundreds of thousands of heathen people; by the change from heathenism to Christianity on the part of at least four million persons, and by many changes tending toward Christianity in the opinions, sentiments, customs, and condition of many races.
The only adequate explanation of all these facts and phenomena is, that connected with Christianity there is a personal God who interposes in human affairs, a Divine King who rules all things, and is guiding the affairs of the Christian Church (Matt. 28: 18-20; Eph. 1 :.15-23; Col. 1 : 9-20), and a Holy Spirit who potentially affects the thoughts, feelings, opinions, lives, and even moral·and spiritual natures of men (John 16 : 7-15 ; Gal. 5: 13-26; 2 Cor. 2 : 14-17.) Second, these great truths, assumed everywhere in Scripture, embodied in their history and the lives of saintly persons they record, find a plMe in the experience of the sen'ants of God now, and especially of those who have strong and simple faith, and choose their fields of action in heathen lands. (Ps. 35; 91; Mark 16 : 15-20; 2 Tim. 3: 10-13; 2 Cor. 11 : 16-33; 12 : 1-13.) 1. They are singularly preserved from the perils of the sea. The Moravian missionary ship, for instance, has sailed to and from Labrador for 120 years without any serious accident, though the voyage is an unusually precarious one. The case is so exceptional that the experienced Lord Gambier declared that he considered the continued preservation of this ship the most remarkable occurrence in maritime history that had corne to hi8 knowledge. * And this is but a small part of the MOr1lvian testimony. During 158 years, 2300 of their missionaries have sailed to foreign lands, hut only eleven times has shipwreck resulted in the loss of life. Of all the children of missionaries sent home to Europe in charge of friends, not one has per- ished at sea. And so it is with missions generally. A careful investiga- tion of the nautical affairs of any society will show how few missionary vessels have been lost, and how few missionaries or missionary families have perished by shipwreck.
2. Missionaries in some parts of Africa, India, and the Indian Archipelago have to live and travel where deadly reptiles and beasts of prey are numerous, but i.~ there an instance of one of them thus dying?
3. Their protection from violent men is very marked. The escape of five Malagasy refugees to England was a series of providential interventions. Three of them were chiefly sustained for six months in a forest by food brought by a friend a distance of fifty miles. One of them would have been apprehended by soldiers in a house where she was hiding had not the noise made by cr()w~ given warning of their approach. On another occasion she only escaped by lying in a bog with her head concealed in rushes. She was recognized by a slave, who told her master, but he would not believe her. A house in which she was hidden was searched, but she was not found. On their flight to the coast they had to travel by night, often lost their way, had to avoid villages, soldiers, and spies, to be ferried across a river swarming with alligators, where the boatmen were on the watch for fugitives. H~w they escaped was a marvel to their enemies, to themselves, and to their friends. t On one occasion Livingstone had to pass through a dense· forest along a narrow path. In one pIneo the path was obstructed, and men stationed to kill him. A large spear hurlcc1. past almost grazed his back. "As," he writes, "they IJ,re expert with the spear, I don't know how it missed, except that he was too sure of his aim, and the good hand of God was upon me." All his party were allowed to pass a certain place when another spear was thrown at him by an unseen assailant, and it missed him by about a foot in front.
Further on he saw a gigantic tree on fire, but felt no alarm until he saw it .come straight toward him and fall a yard behind him. Had the branches not previously been rotted off, he could scarcely have escaped. "Thus, three times in one day," he says, " was I delivered from impending death.
The first missionaries to the Fegeans were exposed to great perils, for not only were they threatened with death, but stood again and again before mfuriated men, who avowed their purpose to kill them, as repeatedly, and.
* "Brief Account of the Moravian Missionary Ships Employed for Labrador."
t "Madagascar: its Missions aud its Martyrs." without compunction they killed and ate their own people. "On one occa- sion they were told that they too would soon be killed. The king's Bon in a fury came for this purpose, and only with great difficulty was restrained. The peoplo seemed bent on mischief and murder. One night they assem- bled near the house of the missionaries, giving unmistakable signs of their intent. The missionaries and their wives resolved to die praying. But &S they prayed a ringing shout outside announced that the murderous purpose of the multitude was abandoned. * The autobiography of J. G. Paton abounds with providential occur- rences. These are some of them: Some of his converts resolved to visit an inland village much opposed to Christianity. They were told, "If you come you will be killed." They went, nevertheless, unarmed. Many spears were thrown at them. Some they evaded, others they caught or turned aside in an incredible ·manner. The heathen, amazed at these men coming unarmed, and instead of throwing back the spears, still pressing on in a calm and cheerful manner, desisted, perfectly overawed. The chief and all his tribe came into the school of Christ, and, Mr. Paton adds: " There is, perhaps, not an island in these Southern seas, among all those won for Christ, where similar acts of heroism on the part of converts can· not be recited by every missionary to the honor of our poor natives and to the glory of Christ."
For months, almost years, he lived through repeated outbreaks of sav- age hostility. Of one of these occasions he writes: "The inhabitants for miles around united in seeking our destruction, but God put it into strange hearts to save us." " My enemies seldom slackened their hateful designs. against my life, however calmed or baffled for the moment. When natives in large numbers were at my house, a man furiously rushed on me with his axe; but a chief snatched a spade, with which I had been working, and dexterously defended me from instant death. Life in such circumstances led me to cling very near to the Lord Jesus. I knew not for one brief hour when or how attack might be made; and yet with my ~rembling hand clasped in the hand once nailed on Calvary, calmness and peace and resigna- tion reigned in my soul" (Col. 1 : 19).
"A wild chief followed me about for four hours with his loaded mus- ket, and though often direCted against me, God restrained his hand.
" One evening I awoke three times to hear a chief and his men trying to force the door of my houso. God restrained them again; and next – m"orning the report went all round the harbor that those who tried to shoot me were smitten weak with fear, and that' shooting would not do. ' A plan was therefore set on foot to fire the premises and club us if we attempted to escape."
"One day, while toiling away at my house, a war chief, his brother, and a large party of armed men surrounded the plot where I was working.
* "Fege and the Fegeans." By Thomas Williams. They watched. me for some time in silence, and then every man levelled a musket straight at my head."
After a strange, terrible journey in the night through an unknown region, dangerous to strangers, and abounding with enemies, the natives who heard of his escape, exclaimed: "Surely any of us would have been killed. Your Jehovah God alone thus protects you and brings you home. "
On his final flight with a few friends, they lIaw, as far as the eye could reach, the shore covered with armed men, and, overwhelmed with fear, his native friends hopelessly exclaimed: "Missa, it's of no use, we shall all be killed and eaten to-day I" Nowar, a friendly chief, said to Paton: " Misse, sit down and pray to our Jehovah God, for if He does not send deliverance now we are all dead men. " Presently he said: " Missa, Jehovah is hearing. They are all standing still." So it was, though there was nothing whatever to oppose their advance; and presently the host turned and marched back in great silence.
Instances like the following have been by no means rare : Kapaio, a native of one of the New Hebrides, confessed, after he became a Christian, that for many months he was on the watch to take Mr. Geddie's life. He was a strong and powerful man, familiar with violence and bloodshed, and one blow from his club would have caused death. One night, as he was on the watch, Mr. Geddie went out of his house alone and passed close by the bush which concealed Kapaio. Now was the opportunity for which he had long waited. He grasped his club, but he was powerless to strike; a strange sensation came over him, and he could not hurt the man who was entirely in his power, whom he hated and came to kill.
4. The manner in which the temporal wants of missionaries are supplied is remarkable. No class of civilized men going among the uncivili2ed are really so dependent, or have as few material resources as missionaries, and yet in a manner which is extraordinary, their daily wants are met. Is there an instance on record of a missionary or his family dying of want excepting through folly or imprudence 1 And in many cases of exigency supplies have come evidently from God.
Dr. Fisher writes from the Garenganze Mission, South-East Africa, December 8th, 1889 : "Yesterday two circumstances occurred which we cannot doubt, were ordered by our blessed Lord. In the morning our meal bag which supplied us for three weeks was empty. We had told the nati,.es for five days that we wanted meal, but none came. In the afternoon meal was brought by five different women, which was all freshly pounded, the whole just filling our bag. Then six carriers came yesterday wanting their pay. I had no cloth with me, and wanted three different varieties in order to pay them. As it happened, three of the six loads which they brought were bales, and to my surprise each a different kind of cloth, so I was able to pay the men off. I took both these circumstances as the manifest and loving care of the Lord for us. "
S~me of the Moravian missions in the North of Europe and America supply a continuous series of such instances, since they are placed where almost all their supplies must be drawn from other countries, and the sup- plies, though often interrupted, hardly ever fail.
So it is with large numbers of missionaries who cast themselves directly on the providence of God. He honors their trust.
5. God answer8 prayer. Here is an instance: Two years ago the lo()al secretary of a branch of the Gleaner's Union obtained some African curi- osities from the C. M. House t,o exhibit at a Mother's Meeting. She was instructed to forward them next day to a clergyman in a distant town. She sent them off j and the same night, being sleepless, it occurred to her to pray that the clergyman, of whom she only knew the name, might use them effeotively, and that his influence might be instrumental in sending forth some young missionary from his parish. This she did, by the space of two hours j and from that day, every month for two year8, she looked in The Gleaner to see if anyone had been accepted from that town. In a recent number she found, to her intense joy, that the clergyman him8elf was going out! The world would call this a striking coincidence j what do we call it ?
So, when some of the friends of the China Inland Mission, moved by the wants of that great empire, united in definite prayer that the Lord would enable them to lIelid 100 more missionaries, the prayer was heard, and the 100 were sent.
The "Lone Star" Mission among the Telugus was saved from extinction and nurtured into extraordinary success by prayer. When it was very low, a missionary; his wife, and three native helpers on the first day of the year ascended a hill overlooking Ongole. They saw the large town and some fifty villages wholly given to idolatry, and, moved by the sight, each one in turn prayed that God would send a missionary to Ongole. The prayer was heard, though it was not answered for twelve years; but in little more than twelve other years the little church of eight souls had become 12,000 tried converts with a yet greater number of general adherents.
When the church numbered 143 members, they made it a special request, during the week of prayer early in 1869, that God would convert and add to the church during the year 500 souls. The number baptized into the Ongole church was 573, as well as 53 into the neighb,oring church at Nellore. And that was but the beginning of blessing.
At a special missioMry service, Dr. Ryland, And!:,ew Fuller, and others, solemnly agreed to pray for the immediate conversion of J abez, the son of Dr. Carey, then in India. Some time after a letter was received from Dr. Carey, giving details of the time and manner of his son's conversion, from which it appeared that he was converted at the precise time they had united in prayer.
The Rev. James Calvert, * acting on the idea that prayer and effort for 1he conversion of selected individuals would be honored by God, thus • The Life of James Calvert. prayed for the conversion of Thakumbau King of Fege. His prayers were heard, ~nd this greatly tended to bring about the man-ellous spiritual revo- lution witnessed in these il!lands.
6. The evidence is ample of Divine interposition and guidance. For instance, the chief of Fallungia, West Africa, prayed for twenty years for a missionary, and one was found in an unexpected manner. * So Barnabas Shaw was thus directed to his important sphere. He was not all~wed to settle near Cape Town, so he relilolved to seek a sphere in the interior. For a month he travelled on, not knowing whither he went; but as be halted, the chief of Little Namagualand, with four attendants, halted beside him. They were on their way to Cape Town in search of a missionary, now greatly desired by their tribe. They and he thought they saw in this unexpected meeting the finger of God; and Shaw's great success in subsequent years proved that they were not mistaken.
Hundreds of missionaries, looking back on their past careers, have been conscious that they were guided to their scenes of labor by God, and have noted numerous events in their history which neither chance, nor coincidence, nor human aid adequately explain.
So, too, of events. Our belief in a personal God and an overruling Providence justifies us in believing that He sent Carey to India to give so many versions of the Scriptures to the people. That He sent that copy of the Pushtoo Bible to the Afghan, who kept it " from fire and from water" for thirty years, so that when it was resolved to reprint this Serampore version, this copy was the only one that could be found in India; who guided that copy of the Japanese New Testament, floating in one of the harbors of that empire, into lands where it was greatly blessed by God; who sent through shipwreck and heavy loss the ruined merchant to Mr. Ross, of Manchuria, when he was at a loss to find anyone competent to assist him to translate the New Testament into Corean. Surely the God of Israel still guides His people, going before them in a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night.
And He avenges and punishes as well as guides. Listen! In January, 1878, the Day-Spring, the mission ship of the New Hebrides, was wrecked on a coral reef. She was bought at an auction sale by a French slaving company, who managed to get her off the reef, and intended to use her in the Kanaka traffic-a euphemism for South Sea slavery. This filled the missionaries and native converts with horror and alarm, for they knew that, deceived by the name, many simple natives would be allowed on board only to find, instead of a mission vessel, that they were entrapped for the most brutal, unjust, and cruel of purposes, and that revenge would perhaps be taken for the wrong done on the missionaries, as in the case of Bishop Patterson. What could be done 1 Nothing but cry to God, which all the friends of the mission did night and day, not without tears. Listen! The French slavers, anchoring their prize in the * "Remarklble Pl'ovidences, " p. 205. By the Rev. J. R. Phillips. bay, and greatly rejoicing, went on shore to celebrate the event. They drank and feasted and revelled. But that night a mighty storm arose. The old Day-Spring dragged her anchor, and at daybreak she was seen again on the reef, this time with her back broken in two, and forever unfit for service either fair or foul !
Speaking of the Europeans who trade in unrighteousness, Mr. Paton says: " Thousands upon thousands of pounds were made in the sandalwood trade, but it was a trade steeped in blood and indescribable vice. Nor could God's blessing rest on them or their ill-gotten gains. I have scarcelyknown one of the traders who did not come to ruin and poverty.
" The money that came in to the ship-owners was a conspicuous curse. Fools made a mock at sin, thinking that no one cared for these poor savages; but their sin did find them out."
So of the enemies and friends of the worship, as it was called on Tanna, Mr. Paton says: "This Miaki and his followers were a scourge and terror to the whole island of Tanna. They intensely hated Nowar because he would not join in their cruelties. Yet he and Manumauaud, Sirawia, and Taimungo continued to live long after war and death had swept all the others away. The first three lived to be very old men, and to the last they made a profession of being Christians." (Ps. 7 : 8-17 j Ps. 58 j Eccles. 8: 11-13 j Rom. 11 : 2-16 j Rev. 18: 4-8.) THE MISSIONARY CALL.
TUNE: "Still There's More to Follow."
Hark, the bugle call of God ! Down the ages sounding, " Go ye, and proclaim abroad News of grace abounding !"
CHORus.-Tell the news! Tell the news! Let the farthest nation Hear the sound, the world around, Tidings of salvation!
Let the sacred heralds go, Through the vales and mountains j Steady streams of trensure flow From the golden fountains! [CHORUS.
Go to woman, now enslaved [CHORUS. In her household prison, Tell her, you whom Jesus saved, He was dead-is risen J Hosts of God, march round the wall !
While the trumpet's pealing j Satan's mighty towers will fall, God's own power revealing! CHORUS.
A.T. P.
THE PENTECOST ON THE CONGO
THE PENTECOST ON THE CONGO.
BY J. R. MILLER, D.D., PHILADELPHIA.
THE Acts of the Apostles closes like an unfinished book. The truth is, it is an unfinished book, and new chapters are continually being added to it. The wonderful stories of modern missions belong really to the samevolume.
Few narratives of missionary experience in all this century surpass in thrilling interest the account of the work of the past twelve years at Banza Manteke, in Africa. In 1879 the Rev. Henry Richards went from Eng. land to Africa as a missionary of the Livingstone Inland Mission. He established a station at Banza Manteke, one hundred and fifty miles from the mouth of the Congo, and ten miles south of that great river. In its earlier years the mission was transferred to the American Baptist Missionary Union, and now there is a large Baptist church there, in the midst of a great heathen population, upon which it is pouring the light of the Gospel.
Mr. Richards came to this country last year to tell the wonderful story of the Lord's work on the Congo. This story is so full of interest that it is here condensed from the missionary's own accounts into a simple narrative.
Stanley travelled from Zanzibar around the lakes and down the Congo for a thousand days, and though many thousands of people passed before him each day, he did not find one that knew the Lord Jesus Christ. In 1879 two missionaries were sent out to penetrate this trackless region. They succeeded in getting some distance into the country to a place called Palabala. Mr. Richards, with some others, was sent to try to get, if possible, to Stanley Pool. But the difficulties were very great–insurmountable for men of any but intrepid courage and indomitable persistence. At length the missionaries reached Banza Manteke, and being unable to go any farther, they decided to stay there and establish a station. There were many villages near by, and the people were inclined to be friendly.
They had only one tent, and they built a hut of the long grass that grew all about them. There, in . September, 1879, Mr. Richards fonnd himself alone among people who were entirely unknown to him. He knew nothing either of their customs or of their language. He at once began to study the people, tut, not knowing a word of their language, found it very difficult. Some things, however, he soon learned. For one, they all seemed to be thieves. They would take everything on which they could lay their hands. He would look into their faces and accuse them of stealing his things, but they would deny it without the slightest hesitation.
Mr. Richards gives a most interesting description of his experience in learning their language. They had no dictionaries, no grammars, no books, no literature of any kind. No white man had ever learned the language. He took a note-book and determined to write down pbonetically everything he could hear, with the meaning that he supposed belonged to the word. In this way he soon had a number of words, phrases, and sentences, and at once began to use them. Although the people would laugh at his pronunciations and at the way he put his words together, he did not mind it, but persisted in his effort.
Some words he found it very hard to get. He noticed that the affection between the mothers and their children was very strong, and he wished to get the word for mother. At last he thought he had succeeded, but afterward he learned that the word which he supposed meant mother really stood for a full-grown man. He was three months in finding out the word for yesterday.
At length he began to try to get hold of the grammar of the language. He began with the nouns, and sought for the way of forming plurals. He expected to discover some modification at the end of the words, but could not detect any such change. After much experimenting he learned that there were sixteen classes of nouns, with as many modes of forming the plural. In like manner he discovered that there were seventeen different classes of verbs, with very many tenses besides the ordinary present, past, and future, each having its specific form. The shades of meaning in these variations are often very delicate and beautiful.
The language is not, as one would suppose, a mere jargon, but is really very beautiful, euphonious and flowing, with numerous inflections. When one has acquired it it is very easy to preach in it and to translate the Scriptures into it. Says Mr. Richards: "I think if some of our best linguists were to try to form a perfect language, they could not do better than to follow the Congo. It seems to be altogether superior to the people; and there must have been a time when they were in a high state of civilization, from which in some way they have degenerated."
After learning in this patient way enough of the language to use it a little, he" began to try to find out the customs, superstitions, and religiou of the people. He found that they believed in a great Creator, who made all things. He asked them why they did not worship this Nzambi, and they said they did not think He was a good God and they did not thank Him. He did not concern Himself about them j He was too far away. They had little images cut out of wood-some like themselves, with birds' heads, beaks, and claws; others like animals. These are their gods. They trust in them for protection from harm, sickness, death, or misfortune, hut never expect to receive any blessings from them. They arc believers in witchcraft, to which they attribute all evils and misfortunes. They have charms to counteract witchcraft. They have witch-doctors, for whom they send if anyone is sick. 'The doctor comes, and with a great many incantations tries to drive the demon out. Sometimes the doctor points out some person as the witch, and this person then has to take the test by poison. If he ejects it, they say he is innocent i but if it kiJll~ him they say he was ~uilty. The missionary at length began to show them that sickness and death, and all misfortunes, were due not to witchcraft, but to sin. He gave them the Bible account of the creation and the fall. Then he began to try to show them th/!-t God is not only a great Creator, all-powerful, but that He is also kind and loving. They would ask many questions, some of which Mr. Richards found it hard to answer to their satisfaction. He continued, however, for four years, teaching them about the creation, the fall, the flood, and the history of the Israelites, thinking it necessary to give them some idea of the Old Testament before beginning with the New. But the people were just as much heathen at the end of this time as when he first went among them. There was no evidence of any change. They did not feel themselves to be sinners.
About this time Mr. Richards was at home for a season of rest, and while there he spoke to one who had had much experience in mission work, saying he did not see how he could preach a Saviour until the people felt themselves to be sinners. He was advised to go back and preach the law -for it is the law that convinces of sin. So, on reaching Banza Manteke again, the first thing he did was to translate the Ten Commandments, and then he began to read and expound them to the people. They said the com- mandments were very good, and claimed that they had kept them. The most plain and personal applications of the law made no impression on them. So two years more passed with no result; the people were no better than when he first went to them. He began to grow hopeless of any good from preaching among them. He had gained their respect, and they were kind to him, but that was all.
At last, in his discouragement, Mr. Richards began to study the Scrip- tures anew for himself, feeling that there was some mistake in his preacb~ ing. In the early days souls were converted; why not now ~ Had the Gospel lost any of its power ~ If heathen then turned from their idols to serve the living God, why should not these people in Banza Manteke do the same? He studied the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, and began to see his mistake. The commission is not, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Law," but" Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel." .
It was the turning-point in the work of this lonely missionary. He determined to preach the Gospel. Five times in four chapters Peter ac.- cuses the people of the crucifixion of Jesus. Another thing that struck him was that the disciples were bidden to wait until they were clothed with power from on high. He felt that he had not this power. He went again to his work, determined to preach the Gospel, and cry to God for the promised power.
Then he had to decide precisely what the Gospel was. If he preached Jesus and Him crucified, the people would want to know who Jesus was.
He decided to take Luke's gospel, as this seemed the most complete and the most suitable for Gentiles. He began tran~lating ten or twelve verses a day, and then read and expounded them, asking God to bless His qwn Word. At once the people were more interested in the Gospel than they had been when he preached the law. As he went on he was greatly encouraged.
When he came to the sixth chapter of Luke, thirtieth verse, a difficulty arose. The people were notorious beggars. They would ask for anything they saw that pleased their eye-his blanket, his knife, his plate ~and whIm he would say he could not give the things to them, they would reply," You can get more." Here now were the words of the Gospel: "Give to every man that asketh of thee." The missionary was greatly perplexed as to what to do with that verse. He let his helper in translation go away, and went to his room to pray over the matter. The time for the daily serviM was drawing near. What should he do 1 Why not pass over that verse? But his conscience told him that would not be honest dealing with the Scripture. Time for service came j but, instead of advancing he went back to the beginning of the Gospel, reviewing the earlier part. Thus he would gain time for fuller consideration of the text. Still he could not find that it meant anything but just what it said. He consulted a commentary, and it said Jesus was giving general principles, and that we must use com::non sense in interpreting His words. But this did not satisfy the missionary. If we are allowed to interpret oue Scripture in this way, why not others? Leaving the meaning to be decided by " common sense" seemed a very unsafe course.
After a fortnight of prayer and consideration he concluded that our Lord meant just what He said j and he went and read it to the people. He told them that this was a very high standard, and it would probably take him a lifetime to live up to it j but he meant to live what he preached to them. After the address the natives began to ask him for things, and he gave them what they wanted. He wondered whereunto this thing would grow i but he told the Lord he could not see any other meaning in His words. However, the people were evidently deeply impressed by his course. One day he overheard one say: " I got this from the white man." Then another said: "I am going to ask him for such a thing. " But a third said: " No i buy it if you want it." The leaven of grace was working in their hearts. After that they rarely ever asked him for anything.
Mr. Richards then went on translating and expounding Luke's gospel, and the interest continually increased. The climax was reached when he came to the account of the crucifixion of Christ. There was a large congregation the day he read this passage. He reminded the people of the kindness and goodness of Jesus and of His works of mercy, and then pointed to Him nailed upon the cross between two thieves, and said: " Jesus never would have died if we had not been sinners j H was because of your sins and mine that He died." The impression was very deep. It seemed that indeed the Holy Ghost had fallcn~upon the people. He continued preaching. One day, as they were returning from a ser- vice, Lutale, the man who had helped him in translating, began to sing one of the Congo hymns. His face shone with joy, and he said: "I do be- lieve those words; I do believe Jesus has taken away my sin~; I do believe He has saved me." After seven years of toil and weary waiting and suffering here was the first convert at Banza Manteke. At once Lutale began testifying what the Lord had done for him. But the people became his enemies and tried to poison him. He had' to leave his town and live with Mr. Richards for safety. For a time there were no more converts. However, the people were stirred. By and by the king's son became a Christian. Shortly after this another man came wit,h his idols, and placing them on a table, said, savagely, that he wanted to become a Christian. He soon began to preach. So the work went on until ten were converted. These all had to leave their own homes, however, as they were threatened with death. The missionary now shut up his house, and taking these men with him, went from town to town preaching the Gospel. The people were greatly moved, and one after another came over to Christ's side. Two daily meetings were held, and inquirers were numerous. The work continued and was blessed, until all the people immediately around Banza Manteke had abandoned their heathenism. More than one thousand names were enrolled in a book of those who gave ~vidence of real conversion.
Four years have now passed, and Mr. Richards has carefully noted the results of the work. Most of the converts are holding on their way. About three hundred have been baptized. The Church is earnest and spiritual. There has been much persecution, but the Christians have not been intimidated by this. Many examples of earnestness are reported. Materials for a chapel (provided through the liberality of Dr.· Gordon's church in Boston) were brought to a point fifty or sixty miles distant, and the people carried them all the way to Banza Manteke, over rough roads. Some of them went four or five times, each trip requiring a week. In all there were about seven hundred loads, of sixty pounds each, and the whole thapel was thus carried, and without charge.
The people, thieves before, became honest. Liars before, they now became truthful. They have also become industrious and cleanly. The women want to dress better. The men are more energetic and industrious. Witchcraft, poison-giving, and all such heathen practices were put away by those who confessed Christ. Many brought their idols, and at the first baptism they had a bonfire of images, destroying thus every vestige of Idolatry.
This sketch of the work at Banza Manteke, given almost in, the words of Mr. Richards, though greatly condensed, is' sufficiently full to indicate the method pursued and the different stages of progress. The story is of intense interest, and is also full of instruction not only for missionaries in heathen lands, but for Christian workers in any field.
AN AFRICAN DEVIL'S BUSINESS AliD ITS ARAB AGENTS
AN AFRICAN DEVIL'S BUSINESS AND ITS ARAB AGENTS; OR, THE SLAVE TRADE OF THE PRESENT DAY: WHO CARRIES IT ON, WHERE ARE THE SLAVES USED, AND WHAT CAN BE DONE TO STOP THE BUSINESS?
BY FREDERIC PERRY NUBLE, NEWBERRY LIBRARY, CHICAGO, ILL.
I.-THE FIELD AND THE HUNTERS.
Draw a line from Cape Verde to Cape Guardafui. Coast southward along Somauliland until you strike the equator. Run inland to Lake Vic- toria. Prolong an eastern boundary from its south-eastern corner to Lake Nyassa, and down the Shire River. Follow up the Zambesi to its source in Lake Dilolo ; then draw a line to Stanley Pool on the Congo, and fol- low the curve of the Gulf of Guinea, but at an average distance from the sea of about one hundred miles, until we come back to our starting.point in Senegambia. Thus, generaJly speaking, the Sahara, the Indian Ocean, the great lakes, the Zambesi, and the coast lands of the Atlantic constitute the boundaries within which the devil's-business of man-hcnting is pur- sued. With the exception of the Guinea coast and the west half of the Congo State, there is scarcely a recess into which the Arab has not pene- • trated. His hunting-grounds comprise, (1) the independent Soudan, (2) the for-mer Egyptian Soudan, (3) the heart of Central Africa, i.e., between the Congo and the lakes, and the Zambesi countries.
1. First and foremost among slave-stealers stand people from the east coast. These consist of shore tribes called Swahili, of half-caste Arabs, of resident Hindus called Banians, and of Portuguese in Mozambique, or up the Zambesi. Their boundaries of action lie between the Aruwimi, Lakes Albert-Edward and Victoria, Lake Nyassa and Shire River, the Zambesi as far as Victoria Falls, thence to Lake Bangweolo, where only yesterday , the Arabs instigated the Awamba negroes to pursue a most destructive sys- tem of slaving among the inhabitants of its northern and western shores; down the Lualaba-Congo to Nyangwe, whence they swing 100 miles west to Lumami River. Not more than 400 Arabs operate here; but they employ armed negroes in such numbers-Tippu Tib alone being reportfld to have 2000 men in his pay-that perhaps] 0,000 bandits wage war upon the blacks in this section. Until now the Free State post at Stanley Falls, even under Tippu Tib's governorship, kept the Arabs east of that point. But now that Tippu Tib is at Zanzibar, impotent with paralysis, his hotblooded kinsfolk are swarming over the barrier, and are fulfilling the prediction that they must yet be battled with. In March, 1891, seeing that the Free State's forces stop their passage across the Aruwimi, the slaveraiders turned north, reached the Welle, and threatened the Free State's port on that stream. The situation is alarming in the extreme, for the Congo State has no adequate revenue for military purposes, and America has robbed it of the means to secure itself. Its principal stations have
R .A
T SLAVE TRADE MAP OF ocEA EQUATORIAL, REPRINTE 0 FROM "T'HE ARABS IN CENTRAL ArRICA AND ATLAlo<E NYASSA IJ BY J,STEVENSON,F:R.S.E ..
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-Tracl<s ofSlaveCaravan.r and S love-Hunter.r.
["//lPJ~rjP~~e~~;::~ ~r;:;;:z~ -1~~~~~~~~~~·~~~~7~At~-~::~–~-·J~~ti.;(~~~~~~~~~~~<r~~~~ tit", Coast or Districts near it.
AN AFRICAN DEVn!S BUSINESS AND ITS ARAB AGENTS
been Zanzibar, Bagamoyo, Kilwa, and Quilimane (all on the coast), U-nyanyembe, U-jiji, and Kazembe's toward the lakes, with Nyangwe and Stanley Falls on the Congo. The main lines of travel were three: (1) Erom Manyuema via Tanganika Lake, U-jiji, and U-nyanyembe to Bagamoyo, Kilwa, and Zanzibar; (2) from Lakes Bangweolo and Moero, with a branch across Lake Nyassa to Mozambique; (3) from Lake Victoria to coast towns.
2. Next in power for evil come the slavers of the Egyptian Soudan, with Khartum as their centre. This territory comprises the Nile basin of 2,000,000 square miles, reaching from the Blue Nile to Lake Victoria 1500 miles south,and to the Welle River in the northeast quarter of the Congo State. There the Mabdist and the Zanzibaris lock hands. When Baker was appointed governor in 1869, he fuund 15,000 Egyptians, or Turks, engaged in slaving; and the number cannot now be less. Emin's former province of Equatoria and West Abyssinia are their .latest victims- Khartum, Fashoda, Sennaar, Gondokoro, and (formerly) Massowah the depots. The export route is the Nile, or overland through Darfur and Kordofan. In 1873 these fellows annually smuggled 50,000 slaves into Egypt, Tripoli, Arabia, Turkey, Persia, and eyen Turkestan. There are reasons for fearing the number to be as large to-day. The power and organization of the Khartum slavers may be inferred from the fact that during the Brussels Anti-slavery Conference, 200 delegates assembled at Khartum to devise measures for suppressiug Europe and America's rum traffic with Africa. They resolved to girdle Africa with dhows, confiscate every vessel containing liquor, and sell the crews into slavery. May the worst men lose !
3. The third principal source of supply is the native Soudan. This is about 2500 miles long by 500 wide, and forms one vast hunting ground, with Arabs from Morocco, Tripoli, or Kabylia as Nimrods. From Wadai these marauders penetrate to a point among the cannibal Nyams and dwarfs as far south as the Congo. Captives are transported to the market of Kuka, on Lake Tc,had, where about 10,000 are annually bought by Barbary dealers, and marched across the Sahara to the Fezzan, an oasis south of Tripoli. There they are sold to the south and east coasts of the Mediterranean. The sufferings en route have been so dreadful that very many succumb; and travellers unacquainted with the road need only follow the bones lying right and left. From the West Soudan, via Sok6to and Timbuktu, slaves are also sent to Morocco, where almost every town has its market. Throughout Africa nearly all Mohammedan towns arc receiving and distributing centres for the" black beasts." Morocco owns 50,000 slaves, and annually imports about 4000.
4. There are also minor sources; these, however, being less only by contrast. (1) In Congo State a domestic slave trade is fiercely pursued by large, powerful tribes between Stanley Pool and Stanley Falls. In this western half, as in general through the central belt extending from Senegambia to Uganda, the possession of many slaves is indispensable to tho dignity and power of head men, both in this life and after death. Their. decease is the signal for human sacrifices on a huge scale. Near the mouth of the Mobangi-Welle the inhabitants sell their war captives to the cannibals of its upper reaches expressly for food, and the latter even wage wars for the one object of capturing" long pig." (2) In Lunda, between Angola and the southwest of Congo State, Portuguese subjects enslave its people than dose around the sources of Zambesi River. Cameron was, in 18'75, informed that slaves (at least a few) were still exported from the Portuguese west coast. On the east coast the Portuguese (African and European) ship" black ivory" from Mozambique and Sofalaland. In 1880 the British Consul at Mozambique City rated the annual export at 3000 louIs; but an increased demand for ivory afterward gave the business fresh impulse, the two trades being hand and glove. In 1888 a Portuguese officer, reporting from his post in the interior, said of its commerce ,: " The lole trade of this district at present consists in slaves." Thus Portuguese authorities demonstrate that under their flag the slave trade has so increased and strengthened that to-day there is a yearly export of 10,000 slaves to Madagascar and the Comoros. (3) At the Gulf of Aden slaving is very active in Somauliland, where the slaves are bought or stolen from the Gallas inland, from Guragwe, and the Shillooks or Denkas. Abyssinia has many markets; and former Mahdists have swept thousands of its native Christians into slavery in Arabia. (4) Across the continent the natives of French Loanga, the German Cameroons, and Ashantee and Dahomey hunt their fellow-men relentlessly. (5) Uganda seems to link the Soudan and Zanzibar trades, since M'wanga formerly stole and sold 80,000 people each year, while one competent authority rated that export at 180,000 slaves. Central Africa contains 41 slave routes, varying from 100 to 1'000 miles in length; 16 slave-producing areas of less or larger extent, and 6 regions (several larger than Ireland) which have been all but depopulated, if not utterly unpeopled.
H.-THE METHODS.
The methods of slaving involve the commission of every crime. Before 18'70 slaving was generally commerce j to-day it is murder and robbery. Invasion of peaceful communities, not seldom prosperous or semi-civilized, firing villages at midnight, massacring terror-stricken men as they start from sleep to fall amid burning huts into sleep that knows no waking; kidnapping women and children, or holding them as hostages for a ransom of ivory from yet surviving fathers and husbands j and gratifying every instinct of lust and cruelty-all constitute its ways and means.
We wish, however, to scan the inner workings of the system, and must, therefore, concentrate attention upon Zanzibar as being fairly enough typical.
Among its commercial classes, none before 1890 exercised so much influence on the trade of East Africa as did the Banian, who number thousands. The Arabs are nearly all in their debt j and if a trader planned to journey to Uganda or Nyangwe or Nyassa for slaves or ivory, gum-copal or orchilla, he would borrow $5000 at fifty, sixty, or even seventy per cent interest, and purchase goods. At his journey's end they would have more than trebled in purchasing power. Leaving Bagamoyo or Kilwa with a caravan numbering 100, 300, or 500 pcople, our half-caste, who is mer- chant or murderer, as circumstances permit, takes several months to reach U -nyanyembe. In the maritime district kidnapping is seldom attempted, for the natives stand ready to avenge the slightest affront with bloody hands, and to use firearms whenever opportunity presents itself. From U-nyanyembe (Tabora) routes diverge to U-jiji and Uganda. Passing to U -jiji, he might either purchase slaves at its market or push into Manyema, 150 miles beyond Tanganika Lake (so Stanley pronounces and writes). At U-jji 5 dotti of cloth worth $7.50 would purchase a slave worth $30 at Zanzibar, while $6 would purchase ordinary males, whose value at U-nyanyembe would equal $25. Leaving $3500 as capital, this secured 464 slaves who, if surviving the march to Bagamoyo, realized $13,920 there-a net profit of $10,420. Nor is there reason to !luppose that their value in 1890 was less at marine marts, whence they could still be exported; and often the traders did better still, almost always returning with an enormous margin of gain.
Manyema, in 1865 an unknown country to these Arabs, has for twenty years been an El Dorado of ivory. When the first slaver returned in 1867 with a wealth of tusks and with tales of fabulous quantities of the precious article, the beaten tracks of Uganda and of Tanganika's coasts to east and south became comparatively deserted. Nevertheless, in the long band of country extending from Lake Victoria to Zambesi's wave the slaver has since ravaged and ruined so ruthlessly, that many populous, fertile districts have been reduced to deserts, and in every village around the great lakes no woman or child wandering ten minutes away has any likelihood of ever seeing home again. In Manyema firearms made even small parties of Arabs invincible. This helplessness and the ridiculously low price of ivory led to the new era in slaving, to the methods of the present day, and the rise of the Tagamoyos Tippu Tibs, and Ugarrowall.
Ivory cost, in copper wire or in beads, from one half to one and one quarter cents a pound in 1870-its value in Zanzibar being from $50 to $60 the 35 pounds. To-day that amount is worth $105, and is bought with bullets and blood. The new-comers, urged on by greed and ferocity, began the practice of wholesale massacre. They would accumulate tusk upon tusk for years, till great piles were buried beneath their huts. Suddenly they would "one day pick a quarrel, seize herds and goods, and shoot the men, sparing only enough to carry ivory. They fired the village, and the march worse than death had begun. Multitudes perish merely as beasts of burden; but ·for every slave-porter escaping or succumbing, a man is stolen or bought from the nearest tribe. This supplies its losses by seizure from Beighbors, and thus the caravan, even on the road, Cfl'ates a constant circu- lation of human cl1rrency in every local centre traversed. The Arab wreaks a ruin even greater than the annihilation of tribes outright. He keeps the region in a perpetual ferment, pits chief against chief to prevent com- bination, and either makes tools of tribes likely to become dominant, or shatters them by instigating rebellion among their dependants.
It is in the Congo forest that the frightful atrocities of the Arab slavers reach the depths of hellishness. Within an area equal to France and the Iberian peninsula, Tagamoyo, Tippu Tib, and Kilonga.Longa have suc- ce8sively harried, kidnapped, and murdered, till exaggeration by the nar- rator is. sheer impossibility. The sailor was right who said, on seeing slavers, " If the devil don't catch those fellows, we might as well have no devil at all."
November 27th, 1883, when founding establishments in the :Congo State, Stanley met with the Arabs of Nyangwe. He discovered that this horde of banditti-for in reality and without disguise they were nothing else-had started in July, 1882, from a village half way from Nyangwe to Stanley Falls. The ban 1 numbered 300 fighting men armed with flint- locks, double-barrelled percussion guns, and a few breech-loaders; their domestic slaves and the women doubled the numbers. For 11 months they had raided the left bank of the Congo for 100 miles, and as far north as Aruwimi-mouth ; then they had spent 5 'months on Congo's east shore in the same cruel work. This territory comprises 34,570 square miles- exactly 2000 more than Ireland-and had possessed nearly 1,000,000 peo- ple. One hundred and eighteen villages, comprising 43 districts, had , been devastated to gain the scant profit of 2300 women and children, and about 2000 tusks. Stanley calculated that if those 118 towns had only 1000 inhabitants each, the Arabs had a profit of merely two per cent, and that after these captives had undergone the voyage to Nyangwe, camp life, and the pests which miseries breed, there would remain only a scant one per cent on the bloody venture.
Horrible as are these facts from slavery's charnel-house of horrors, they do not begin to be the worst. Five expeditions, each as great as the pres- ent one, had already come and gone with their booty, and had completely weeded the region. If each expedition was as successful as Stanley's acquaintances, the slavers got 5000 people safely to Nyangwe j but 5000 out of 1,000,000 is one half of one per cent, or 5 slaves out of 1000 per- sons-the poorest possible profit. The 2300 slaves had cost 2500 souls shot, and 1300 dying by the way j and at this rate the 5000 slaves surviv- ing at Nyangwe (of the 10,000 originally obtained) had cost 33,000 lives. Each of the very smallest infants Stanley graphically estimates to have cost the life of a father, and perhaps his 3 stout brothers and 3 grown-up daughters': "An entire family of 6 souls has Leen done to death to obtain that small, feeblc, helpless, useless child !"
" What," he asks, " was the cause of all this vast sacrifice of human life, this unspeakable misery? Nothing but the indulgence of an DId Arab's wolfish, bloody, starved, and ravenous instinct&. He wished to obtain slaves to barter profitably with other Arabs. Having weapons—guns and powder-enough, he placed them in the hands of 300 slaves, and de- spatched them to commit murder wholesale, as an English nobleman would put guns in the hands of his guests and permit them to slaughter the game on his estate. If we calculate three quarts of blood to each person who fell during the campaign of murder, this one Arab caused to be shed 2850 gallons of blood-sufficient to fill a tank of 460 cubic feet-quite large enough to drown him and all his kin."
Stanley's pen-picture of this camp is as vivid as if taken by instantaneous photography. "It was surrounded with a fence made 'of the hut-walls of the native town, which lay in ruins outside, square plots of raised tamped earth, with a few uprights alone indicating where it had stood. The banana groves had been levelled, and their stalks employed to form the fence. Within the enclosure was a series of low sheds, many lines deep, extending 100 yards inland from the immediate edge of the bank In length the camp was about 300 yards. At the landing-place were 54 canoes, varying in capacity from 10 to 100 people. The camp is much too densely peopled for comfort. There are rows upon rows of dark nakedness, relieved here and there by the white dresses of the captors. There are lines or groups of naked forms upright, moving listlessly, or standing; naked bodies are stretched under the sheds in all positions; naked legs innumerable are seen in the perspective of prostrate sleepers; there are countless naked children, many mere infants, forms of boyhood and girlhood, and occasionally a drove of absolutely naked old women bending under a basket of fuel or cassava tubers or bananas, who are driven through the moving groups by two or three musketeers. Mostly all are fettered; youths with iron rings round their necks, through which is riven a chain like our boat anchor-chains, securing the captives by twenties. The children over ten are secured by three copper rings, each ringed leg brought together by the central ring. The mothers are secured by shorter chains; around are grouped their respective progeny of infants hiding the cruel iron links that fall in loops or festoons over their mothers' breasts. There is not one adult man captive. Beside the shaded ground so thickly strewn with prostrate and upright bodies lie scattered or heaped in profusion everywhere the relics of the many raids. There is scarcely a square foot of ground not littered with something. All these littering the ground, or in stacks and heaps, with piles of banana and cassava peelings, flour of cassava, and sliced tubers drying, make untidy pictures and details, through which prominently gleam .the eyes of the captives in supreme and utter wretchedness. Every second during which I regard them, the clank of fetters and chains strikes my ear. My eyes catch sight of that continual lifting of the hand to ease the neck in the collar, or as it displays, exposed, a manacle through fl mllscle bein~ irritated b, its wei¥,ht or want of fitnilss. 130lllld or riveted by twenties, they wallow in filth. . Only the old women are t"ken to forage; they dig the cassava and search for the banana, while the guard, with ready musket, watches keenly for the coming of the vengeful native. Not much food can be obtained. What is procured is flung in a heap be- fore each gang, to cause at once an unseemly scramble. Many of the poor things have been fettered for months already, and their bones stand out in bold relief on the attenuated skin which hangs down in wrinkles and puckers. Who can withstand the feeling of pity so powerfully pleaded for by those large eyes and sunken cheeks ~"
As we listen to this eye-witness, it appears unthinkable that wicked- ness can go lower. Yet it is Stanley himself, who from Darkest Africa brought tidingS and tales of deeds of darkness befitting depths beneath the lowest depths of hell. He says: "In 1887 a half-caste Arab slaver and his Manyema banditti launched out on one of the most sanguinary and de- structive careerl, to which even Tippu Tib's and Tagamoyo's offer poor comparison. Toward the Lenda and Ihuru rivers they had levelled every settlement into black ashes, had even vented their rage for destruction on the plantain groves, had split every canoe into pi~ces, had searched every , island, and had penetrated into the darkest recesses whither a slight track ( could be traced, with only one dominating passion, which was to kill as many men and capture as many children and women as craft and cruelty would enable them. However far north or east these people had gone .they had done precisely as we had seen, and had reduced the forest to a howling wilderness. Through all the immense area they had left scarcely a hut standing. Assuming that their ravages had extended east, north, and south 105 miles from Ipoto, we have something like 44,000 square miles. Once we know where the slaving centres are, we may, with a pair of compasses, draw great circles round each, and park off areas of 40,000 square miles into which a half dozen resolute men, aided by their hundreds 'of (negro) bandits have divided three-quarters of the Congo forest for the sole purpose of murder, and of becoming heirs to a few hundred tusks of ivory. • •• There were Manyema headmen responsible to the chiefs for followers and operations entrusted to their charge. At alternate periods each sets out for his own special sub-district. The fighters con- sist of Congoans trained by the Manyema as raiders, as in 1876 Arabs and East Coast natives had trained Manyema. This extraordinary increase in the number of raiders on the Upper Congo is the fruit of the policy of kill~ ing the adults, but preserving the children. The girls are distributed among the Arab, Swahili, and Manyema harems, the boys are trained to carry arms, and are drilled. Grown tall and strong; they are rewarded .with wives from the female servants of the harem, and are admitted as partnera in the bloody ventures. So many shares of the profits are due the great proprietor; a less number becomes the due of the headman, and the remainder is the property of the bandits. . . . At other times all ivory over 35 pounds goes to the chief i that between 35 and 20 pounds belongs to the headman, while young ivory, or scraps or pieces, fall to the lucky finders. This intlpires every man to do his best. The caravan is well manned and armed by the great proprietor, who stays in his harem on the Lualaba. The headmen, inspired by greed, grow ferocious. The bandits fling themselves upon a settlement mercilessly to obtain the largest share of loot.- children, flocks, poultry, and ivory. • •• All this would be clearly beyond' their power if they possessed no powder. Not a mile beyond home would the Arab and his followers dare venture. It is more than probable that if gunpowder were prohibited entry into Africa, there would be a general and quick migration of all Arabs from inner Africa to the sea, as the native chiefs would be immeasurably stro~ger than any combination of Arabs armed with spears. Of ivory there is not a single piece nowadays which has been gained lawfully. Every tusk, piece, and scrap in the possession of an Arab has been steeped and dyed in blood. Every pound has cost a life. For every five pounds a hut has been burned ; for every two tusks' a whole village destroyed; every twenty tusks have been obtained at the price of a district with all its people, villages, and plantations. It is simply incredible that because ivory is required for ornaments or billiards, the rich heart of Africa should be laid waste at this late hour of the nineteenth century, signalized as it has been by so many achievements; incredible that populations, tribes, and nations should be utterly destroyed. Whom, after all, does this bloody seizure of ivory enrich' Only a few dozens of half-castes, who, if due justice were dealt them, would sweat out the remainder of their piratical1ives in the severest penal servitude."
IlL-THE RESULTS.
How many slaves are captured; how many lives lost annually! In Nyassaland and Zambesi, according to Cameron's latest (1889) statements, 525,600 each year become slaves. In the equatorial tableland, from the data furnished by Papal missioners, the figures mount even higher. Thill brings the total of Africans who annually lose freedom at the hand of tho Arab hell hounds between the Soudan and the Zambesi up to 1,050,000. Including the Soudan, from the Atlantic to the Red Sea, Ashanti, Dah6- mey, Loanga, the Cameroons, Lunda, the native slaving on the Congo, Somauliland, and Uganda, it appears certain that the grand total equals at least 2,000,000. It is as if a Georgiaj or Iowa, or Michigan were annually enslaved. The worst of it is, that Christendom has a real though ,indirect responsibility for those astounding figures, because the relaxation of the English blockade, the troubles in the Soudan and on the East coast, the connivance of Portugal, and French bulldozing in Madagascar enabled the slave trade since 1885 to increase fourfold.
Yet this host, moving every twelve months into the house of bondage, does not represent one half of man's inhumanity in the land of death shades. The mortality of the caravans varies from one-half to three- quarters, and even nine~tenths. We wonder that one slave in ten ever reaches his destination, when we hear the accounts of Cameron, Baker, Livingstone, Lavigerie, and Stanley. Lavigerie says: "When all that are captured are hurried off, a series of unspeakable miseries commences. The men who appear strongest, and whose escape is to be feared, have hands and feet so tied that moving becomes torture, and on their necks are placed yokes attaching several together. All day they march ; at night a few handfuls of raw sorgho are distributed ; this is all their food. Next morning they must start again; but fatigue, suffering, and privations have weakened very many. The women and the aged are the first to halt; then, to strike terror into the miserable mass, their conductors, armed with a wooden bar-to economile powder-approach those most exhausted, and deal a terrific blow on the nape of the neck. The victims utter a cry, and fall in convulsions of death. The terrified troop immediately resumes its march. Terror has imbued even the weakest with fresh strength. Each time one breaks down the scene is repeated. At night, on arriving at their halting-place, after the first days of such life, a not less frightful scene awaits them. The traffickers in human flesh know how much their victims can endure. A glance shows who will soon sink from weariness j so, to economize food, they pass behind these wretched beings and fell them with a single blow. The corpses, when not suspended on neighboring trees, remain where they fall, and close to them must their companions eat and sleep as well as they can. In this manner the weary march is continued, sometimes for months. Daily the number diminishes. If, goaded by their cruel sufferings, some attempt to escape or rebel, thl! masters cut them down, and leave them as they lie, attached by yokes. "
Baker shall be our next witness, describing a slave-dhow and its cargo. He ordered one searched, and the captain was astonished that search was considered necessary. Besides crew and soldiers, the skipper averred, there was not a soul on board, while the vessel had only com in the hold, and ivory beneath. "But," says Baker, " she appeared suspiciously full of corn"for a boat homeward bound. There was an awkward smell about the closely-boarded forecaStle that resembled that of unwashed negroes. . . . Abd-el-Kader drew a ramrod from a soldier's rifle and sharply probed that corn. A smothered cry from beneath, and a wriggling among the corn were succeeded by a woolly head, as Abd-el-Kader, having thrust in his long arm, dragged a negress forth. At once the planks boarding forecastle and stern were broken, the corn was removed, and there was a mass of humanity exposed-boys, girls, and women close packed like herrings in a barrel, who, under threats, had remained silent. The mainsail appeared full and heavy in its lower part. Upon unpacking, it yielded a young woman thus sewn up. We discovered about 150 slaves stowed away in a most inconceivably small area. The stench was horrible when they began to move. Many were lD Irons. I ordered the agent and the captain to be put in irons."
Yet the captives and human exports are far and away the slightest sectiOl~ of thf;J sufferers. Every slave, on the average, represents 100 victims. T.he populations blighted by the simoom of slaving number 150,000,000as many as the German and Rm!sian Empires together.
IV.-THE REMEDIES.
1. As the Zanzibar slave trade has so long been sustained by the capital of British Hindoos, England has moral respousibility for that traffic. Now she is mistress of Zanzibar and Pemba, and her East Africa Company controls the coast north, and has brought Uganda under English lordship. 'With Zanzibar as the maritime key of the situation, and with Cairo a future . centre of Saxon government over an area greater than India, England can lock this export traffic into the interior. Moreover, Germany is conquering lands between Zanzibar and the lakes, the Reichstag has forbidden marine export.ation of slaves, and domestic sl~very will be abolished from its African possessions as speedily as circumstances permit.
2. Again, it began to look, last February, as if the Great Powers would fulfil their solemn pledges for the welfare of Africa, which they have shamefully failed t<? live up to. In 1884 they declared the Congo State should not be used for the slave trade, and each. bound itself to employ all means at its disposal to end the traffic and punish the slavers. Had they enforced their prohibitions, the slave trade could not have attained its present proportions. They <leclared that " these regions shall not be used as markets or as routes of transit for the slave trade, no matter of what race j each of these powers binds itself to use all the means at its disposal to put an end to this trade, and to punish all engaged in it." In 1889 they met in Anti-Slavery Conference (It Bru!:lsels, and agreed that the following measures are directly and generally practicable: (1) Tribes concerned in raiding shall be held responsible. (2) Any tribe through whose territory slave caravans pass shall be held to account, and such chiefs or organizers of caravans as have been once convicted of slavetrade offences shall render security on starting from the seaboard. (3) Chiefs ou whose coast slave shipments occur shall be dealt with. (4) The police of the sea is to be maintained by joint European effort, maritime transportation being the point where force and united action can be made most effective. Vessels of 500 tons and under, unless slavers of larger tonnage be hereafter discovered, shall, on the high seas, be subject to supervision and detention. (5) Disarmament of the slaver is nigh. From 20° North to 22° South, and from 100 miles out in each ocean" the sale of firearms to Arabs or natives is prohibited. Arms must be deposited in Government warehouses, taken· out only on permission, and not in sale include the most improved weapons. Stanley has said: "for wholesale massacres of African aborigines there is only one remedy -the solemn combination, of England, Germany, France, Portugal, South Africa, East Africa, and the Congo State against the introduction of powder into any part of the continent, except for the use of their agents j and seizing every tusk of ivory." Now Christian sentiment must compel civilization to redeem itself by grappling immediately with the slaver of the Congo, for the Free State offers the most advantageous means of attacking these Manyuemans and Soudanese in the rear, while Stanley Falls is the West Point of the Upper Congo. The United States itself took part in this Conference, and the refusal of our Federal Senate to ratify the decree of humanity is a damning diegrace to America. How the country that shattered the shackles of 4,000,000 bondmen could shirk its duty and fasten fetters on the black man in Africa, passes comprehension. EYen Holland played the man and shames us.
3. Cardinal Lavigerie has awakened even papal peoples to their duty in suppressing slavery, and proposes to stop man-hunting at its source by the sword. The campaign to realize this object may take place, since several thousand young meu have foluTJteered and are preparing. In the Sahara these youth~ and the Peres Blancs are already proving themselves true knights of labor, as diggers of wells and planters of trees.· It is objected that these crusaders would merely destroy a few slavers and divert the trade to other routes. But Lavigerie's real idea is that every European Power should maintain sufficient military forces wherever in its possessions the black is hunted j but, if finances forbade, he would revive the medireval soldiers of the Church, its Knights of Alcantara, Lazarus, or Malta, adapt them to modern methods and needs, put them under the Pope, and at the call of any government remove them from place to place requiring their services. Small, inexpensive squadrons can achieve great results.
Whether or not we agree with Lavigerie on the means of employing force, it is absolutely certain that force is now an indispensable necessity in suppressing slave-stealing. The case admits no alternative to-day, for Africa is bleeding out her life-blood at every pore: the population is far too scanty, and va~t areas are relapsing into uninhabited wilds, impenetrable to missionary or merchant. The Arabs are bitterly hostile to European influences, mean to practice slaving as their right, wage wanton war against missions, and demonstrate that in Central Africa European and Arab cannot live together. Turkey intends to send Mohammedan missionaries into her African possessions.
What, then, are the warlike measures inevitable against the Arab? Simply this: protection of Arric's dusky, helpless children. This comprises the introduction of armed bodies into the interior as shepherds of the people, continental blockades against caravans, and as police patrol. At their head will be Europeans, in the ranks natives, as militia, or Sepoys, picked men and masters of gun-drill. As on the Congo, so on the East Coast, the Zambesi, the Niger, the Nile and the lakes, lines of military posts or commercial depots three days' journey apart, are opening. These will absolutely forbid slaving, abolish local markets, prevent the transporting of slaves, except domestics duly registered, and sweep away customs or duties levied on slave sales. Swift armed launches are to be put on all navigable waters, with a garrison or tWQ on the high, healthr platealls of ~a<?h llik~ and on the main traffic lines. Such a chain of fortified posts we may soon see from Suakim along the Nile and the lakes to Quilimane. This will cut the roots of the cancer, and constitute bulwarks behind which missions may advance-missions, which alone can work lasting good.
4. When the export over-sea, indispensable to the continuance of Mos- lem slavery, is destroyed, serfage cannot long continue. Closure of ship- ping ports must therefore be effected, though a tremendous 3000 miles task. The status of slavery must be denied further recognition by inter- national law, the traffic be banned as piracy, and the maritime routes be made so utterly unsafe that no Arab will dm'e risk his life.
5. Mohammedan slavery keeps Africo.Arab slaving alive. So the Brussels Conference brought public opinion to bear on Persia and Turkey, the sole independent slave powers there, and deprecated the influence of their domestic bondage. They should persuade the heads of all Mohammedan States to discourage the purchase of negro slaves, and hold Moslem rulers accountable for future slaving infamies. Zanzibar's new sultan has prohibited slave selling, and instituted measures that will steadily wipe out the whole institution. The British Anti.Slavery Society has pledged itself to suppress Mohammedan slavery, and very many facts prove that the prospect for slavery dying out from the Moslem East is better than that possibility of mediooval Christendom.
6. Colonization, commerce, and railroads afford Christianity the underhold in this death grapple. The prejudices of the natives against colonization, never very strong, will yield to fair and judicious treatment.' But tropical Africa cannot be colonized. by " Caucasians," and it may well be in the Divine statesmanship that the American freedman and none other is to save the brother in black and teach him to save himself. Liberia and its noteworthy success, despite every disadvantage, prove negro colonization to be no Utopian scheme, and with regard to the Congo State, Stanley assures us that if " American negroes form the majority of its citizenship, it would, with proper encouragement, make remarkable development, and in time become a great nation. If these civilized blacks are developed morally, their contact with the savages would be happy." Signs are not wanting that among the negroes of our New Soutb not a few consider. African evangelization their race duty; and that the wonder-working Providence of American history anoints them as apostles to Ethiopia. The task would require comparatively few of the 7,000,000 black Americans, for if less than ten per cent return, 500,000 chosen people would, within one century, accomplish the regeneration of tbeir mother country. Such colonies will swiftly develop legitimate commerce and native industries among the fairly active and workable populations.
Commerce strangles slaving by making its profits less tban those of lawful trade, though it needs to be protected by physical force before it can produce its effects. On the Congo commerce checks the slave trade, since Boma and Matadi are drawing the ivory trade of Stanley Falls away from Zanzibar. Grenfell avers that if once the railway, now rapidly building between tidewater and Stanley Pool, is completed, the Arab will find his occupation gone. On the East Coast the African Lakes Company was organized as a lay auxiliary of Nyassa Missions, and accomplished this by buying ivory at higher prices than slavers can pay. It also built Murchison Road round the Shire Cataracts, and Stevenson Road between Lakes Nyassa and Tanganika. These mend the breaks in the water route from Quilimane to Ruanda, and are for humanitarian purposes the most im- portant thoroughfares to Central Africa, as this line cuts the principfll routes to the coast, and several garrisons on it could throttle the slavers in transit. As to Uganda and Masailand, Mackay and Emin have affirmed that a safe road to the coast must unquestionably be opened. The British East Afric:m Company is building a railroad from Mombasa to Lake Vic- toria. The English, at Stanley's request, devote their Stanley fund to placing a steamer on that lake, and Germany is doing the same thing. Emin has established a fortified post on its south shore, after whipping Arab slavers in many encounters. U-nyanyemhe is his central station, but he will found four large commercial stations and several smaller ones on the Tanganika and elsewhere. An ivory tribute will, within three years, repay the expenses-$400,000. That does not appear unreasonable when we remember that since 1885 Tippu Tib has exported $500,000 worth of ivory, and that this includes the cnormous stock just brought to market by his 7000 porters. A Swedish expedition intends to plant stations from Lake Victoria to Tanganika for co-opcration in suppressing ~laving. The Germans will, of course, push roads to the latter lake. The British Company bas effected the emancipation of 5000 slaves since 1888, made compacts against slaving with tribes inhabiting 50,000 square miles, compels Arabs themselves to recognize that no native is to be held in servitude, releases slaves in caravans, and enables domestics to buy their freedom. On the Juba 30,000 runaway slaves recently asked to be taken under its protection. In Uganda, Mwanga pledges himself to assist, in the abolition of slaving. Thus the outlook for the speedy suppression of East African sla1Jing, and the march of Christianity even to the Great Forest, is full of promise.
The greatest efficiency of the iron horse in destroying the slave trade will occur on transcontinental lines bisecting the slave-belt~. A railroad from Congo mouth to Zanzibar, Stanley says, can be eatiily constructed, and would pay from the start. Another, 1000 miles long, runs from Cape Town to Kimberley, and the South African Company, which is to govern all lands between the Orange River and the Tanganika will prolong it to the Zambesi. (A railroad from the South already reaches Yryburgh in Bechuanaland.) The Niger Company controls the Low.er Niger, where it bas suppressed human sacrifines and checked slaving j before 1900 it wm control the independent Soudan as far as the Egyptian Soudan. There .it will be met hy English -agents, either by Anglo-Egyptian officials, who will have recovered. the Khartum country, or by the East African Company from Equatoria itself. Since tltat is their ultimate goal, then we shall see the proposed railway from Monrovia to the Red Sea, a French line from Algeria to Lake Tchad, aud the Nile made, by skilful engineering at its modest cataracts, a broad waterway from the Midland Sea to the inland seas. Such roads will accomplish far more than armies; and if Europe will Europe can within a decade shatter the Arab slave trade to atoms. God grant that the negro who talked with Jephson about railways prove a prophet of good, and" that when the railroad is made, Jesus Christ may go up with it."
James H. Richardson, M.D., of Toronto, writes a letter to the editor, expressing emphatic dissent from the article in the January issue on " Livingstone and Stanley." We perhaps owe it to fairness to quote portions of this letter. Dr. Richardson questions the propriety of coupling these two men as we have done, and thinks the aims, characters, and methods of the two are dissimilar and antagonistic. Dr. Richardson thinks Mr. Stanley has given sanction to practices which humanity and Christianity must deplore, and cites the Emin relief expedition as an instance. We give his words: " Think of the very first step-the investing, of that fiend, Tippu Tib, with the authority and pay of an officer of the Congo Free State in the very heart of the country where he had been pursuing his most nefarious deeds of rapine, plunder, and slavery j and in the appointment recognizing his authority for carrying them on above the Stanley Falls. Think of the contract with this miscreant to furnish 600 slave carriers. Mr. Stanley denied, in his lecture at Montreal, that slave labor was employed; hut his book (' In Darkest Africa,' vol. i1., p. 3) records, ' The utter unruliness of this mob of slaves which had maddened tne officers of the rear column.' In vol. i., p. 26], he describes the la~hings on these poor slaves, and says 'awful oaths of vengeance were uttered for all the indignities they suffered j' on pages 212 and 213 we have the record of the hanging of a , slave of Fayilla,' and the condemnation to death of two other slaves-one the slave of a man in Zanzibar, thc other a slave of an artisan in U-nyanyembe, both of whom must have been brought with the expedition all the way from Zanzibar.
" Think of the 357 rifles and the Maxim gun which poured out a deadly stream of 300 bullets a minute! Think of the invariable practice' of driving the poor natives out of their villages and taking occupation. The very first landing at Yambuya was of this character. Read the account (vol. i., pp. 113, 114) after parleying uusucce~s£ully for an hour, ' for leave to reside in their village,' the signal was given, the whistles wl:lre blown" the, boats were moored to the shore, and the horde of about 700, armed to the teeth, rushed up the bank, ' and when the summit was gained not a villager was in sight.' For ten or eleven months these poor villagers were kept out of their homes; no wonder that two days afterward, when Stanley
43i .A. CRITICISM OF STANLEY
started with his advance force, the poor natives drew themselves up at the entrance to their village to prevent it from being taken possession of, and no wonder they never tried the defence again, as they were mowed down by the bullets from the 357 rifles and the deadly Maxim gun. They seem to have vacated village after village in terror, as if the demon of destruction was let loose on them. See also vol. i., p. 152. On July 10th the expedition occupied one of seven large villages at Gwengwere, out of which' all the population had fled ;' on tho 11 tIl, he writes, ' as we were disappearing from view of Gwengwere, the population was seen scurrying back to their homes, which they had temp'orarily vacated for our convenience. It saved trouble of speech, exerted, possibly, in. useless efforts for peace, i.e., if they had not left peaceably they would have been driven out!
" Think of every village being raided for food, and provisions for ten days carried off without remuneration, and this not once. but every day. It may be said that these robberies, this occupation of their homes, this employment of slave labor, this authority conferred on Tippu Tib, were necessary to the success of the expediti.on ; if so, then the expedition was an unholy one. To do evil that good may come is as wrong in this case as in any other. " Dr. Richardson adds that, in his opinion, the sad story of the rear colJlmn " would not have been written if Stanley had done his duty. In 1'0. t, pp. 337, 338, 362, and 364, it is recorded that after a council on Lake Albert, not having found Emin, they concluded to retrace their steps and to ' hurry' on to find Barttelot and the rear column before it was a , wreck' as 'the only sensible course which was left to them,' and how he abandoned this' only sensible course' and left Barttelot to his fate because the headmen and officers wanted to go back to find Emin, and so lost four months and a half before going to Barttelot's relief. As to the abuse heaped on Barttelot because he did not advance without getting the carriers promised by Tippu Tib, one short sentence (vol. ii., p. 13) settles the question: ' Without Tippu Tib, or one of his nephews, such a column' (as the rear column) 'could not be taken through the broad extents of wilderness ahead.' "
The Australian Ballot System is a striking illustration of the benefits which Christian lands may receive from their efforts in carrying civilization and Christianity to heathen countries. Australia was formerly wholly heathen, but has become a Christian land by colonization and missionary effort. The conditions of life there rendered possible the trial of a system of balloting which it would have been very difficult to experiment with in any country of more established institutions. But after having proved successful in Australia it is now adopted in nearly all the United States to the great satisfaction of every intelligent voter. It pays for Christian countries. to send missionaries and colonists to lift heathen lands out of their ignorance and degradation. Every nation so raised to an enlightened religious condition will have some peculiar contribution to the welfare of the whole world which could come from no other people.-Baptist Missionary Magazine.
MUTUAL RELATIONSHIP AND LAWS OF THE BANTU LANGUAGES
THE MUTUAL RELATIONSHIP AND LAWS OF THE BANTU LANGUAGES, AS SEEN IN THE KIMBUNDU AND ISI- ZULU.
BY REV. l"EWIS·GROUT, WEST BRATTLEBORO, VT.
The elementary grammar of the Mbundu language, by Mr. Heli Cha~ lain, is a very valuable and timely contribution to a better knowledge of that great family of Bantu languages, which is now known to extend all through South Africa, or, in general terms, East and West from ocean to ocean, aud from the Orange River to some five degrees North of the equator. The grammar is pnmarily designed for the missionaries, the natives, and the colonists of Angola and neighboring dist.ricts; and, for this reason, is written in Portuguese, which prevails to a large extent in that field. Otherwise it would seem to have been better had it been written in a language more widely known. The author of the grammar was well qualified for the work he has done, and has done it well. A native of Switzerland, having acquired a knowledge of six or eight languages aside from the French and German which were his mother tongues, he went out some seven or eight years ago to Loanda, in the Portuguese colony on the West Coast of Africa, as linguist of Bishop Taylor's self-supporting mission. Studying the Portuguese Oil his voyage out, he was well fitted for his work among tribes that spoke dialects of which comparatively little was known as yet in other lands, though they are spoken of by Dr. Cust as constituting the lingua franca of all Western Africa. Indeed, Livingstone speaks of a resemblance between this language and that spoken at Tete, on the Zambezi in Eastern Africa; and the inhabitants of Angola have always found the Mbundu language of great service to them in their travels far to the East.
Mr. Chatelain, giving himself to the study and development of the Bantu languages, has prepared a primer and a translation of John's gospel for his mission, a short vocabulary of the Mbamba, and another of the Umbangala. He is now completing a work on the legends and fables of Angola, and several new vocabularies of neighboring dialects. A more extended work is that of a dictiona~y of the Mbundu language, now in preparation, to be enriched by a comparative study of the Swahili of East Africa, of the Kongo on the West Coast, and by the fruits of the labors of the American missionaries in the Benguela district, together with the fruits of German missionary labors in the Herero of Damara-land. Dr. Cust, the learned and able author of "Modern Languages of Africa," a work published in 1883, speaks of the Mbundu as one of the most important in all West Africa; and, having given a sketch of what the Portuguese have done during the last two and one half centuries to master and make this language known, concludes by saying: "It must be admitted that a new grammar of it is still required." But now, a year since, writing an " Introduction" to Mr. Chatelain's" Kimbundu Grammar," he expresses himself as much pleased .that the matter had fallen into the hands of a scholar 80 well qualified to undertake it, and commends the work to the favorable consideration of African scholars. It will help to give some idea of both the Zulu and Mbundu languages, their general character, forms, laws; also Fome idea of the relationship, or points of similarity that prevail throughout the ('ntire family of South African or Bantn language~, of which Dr. Cust finds 168, aside from 55 dialects, if we institute a brief comparison between the Kimbundll of Angola, in the northwest of the field, and the Isizulu of Natal and Zululand, in the southeast-a geographical distance which puts the two languages nearly two thousand miles apart.
One of the minuter points of resemblance is, that both languages make open syllables; that is, each word and syllable ends in a vowel; and, at< a general rule, the accent falls on the penult. Each abounds in certain consonantal combinations, such as mb, mv, ml, mp, nd, ng and nz; but clicks and gutturals are found only in the Zulu. The vowel signs used in writing have in each the Italian value, and the abundance of these makes the flow of pronunciation in each easy and musical. In their radical element many of the words are the same, or nearly the same, and quite the same in respect to the principle and use of the incipient elements or prefixes of words, though in the forms of their several prefixes they generally differ. Thus, nouns: ENGLISH. ZUI,U. MBUNDU.
Person. s. umuntu. S. mutu. Mother. P. atu. Snake. P. abantu. S. mama. Death. P. jimama. s. umame. S. nioka. P. jinioka. P.omame. S. kufua. P. makufua. s. inyoka.
P. izinyoka.
s. ukufa.
P. ukufa.
So in verbs: ZULU. MBUNDU.
ENGLISH. uku tunga. ku tunga. uku luma. ku lumata. to sew. uku shinga. ku shinga. uku beta. ku beta. to bite. uku lima. ku rima. to insult. uku sala. ku sha:la. to beat. to till. to remain.
For" three" we find tutu in both languages; for" five" we find Manu in the Zulu and tunu in Mbundu. In the former uleu lamba means" to hunger," in the latter leu lamba means" to cook."
In each language the nouns are divided into classes according to their prefix or preformative, and according to the way in which the plural is generally made from the singular by some change in the prefix. Zulu nouns are divided, in this way, into eight classes, the last two of which are without distinction as to number; and, in the same way, Mbundu nouns are divided into ten classes. In the former, the prefix u, um, or umu, of the first class, is changed to 0 or aba to form the plural; as um/ana, " boy," abafana, "boys." So, again, ili or i is changed to ama; im or in to izim, izin, orama; isi to izi, izim, or izin; and um or umu (impersonal) to imi ; though nouns of the seventh and eighth classes have the same pre- fix, ubu or uku, in both numbers: thus, ubuso may mean either" face" or " faces." Nouns in uku are of a verbal character, being the same as the verb in the infinitive mode. In the Mbundu the prefix mu, of the first class, is changed to a, to form the plural; as, mutu, " person," aiu, "persong;" m'}', of the second class, is changed to mi, as mulundu, " mQlmtain," milundu, ,-' mountains. " So, again, ki is changed to i; ri to ma; u to mau; lu to malu,. tu to matu,. ku to maku,. ka to iu; and other forms to ji.
IIi both languages alike f'ach class of nouns has a fragmentary or genitive pronoun of a preformative character, which corresponds to the noun's ptefix ; one for the singular, and one for the plural, which, with the genitive particle a, denotes possession, or the relation of a subject to an attribute; thus, in Zulu, ilizwi lom/ana (loa-um/ana), " word of the boy," or " boy's word;" ~baniu benkosi (b-a-inkosi) "people of the king," or "king's people. " So in the Mbundu, muiue ua mutu, " head of man," or " man's head;" mitue ia atu, " heads of men."
In both languageR alike the adjective takes a prefix corresponding to the prefix of the noun with which it agrees; thus, in Zulu, um/ana umkulu, "the boy (is) great;" um/ana omkulu (a-umkulu) , "the boy (which is) great," i.e., "great boy;" abantu bakulu, "people (are) great ;" abantu abakulu, "great people." So in Mbundu; thus, muiu uonene, "great person;" kim~ kionene, "great thing;" ima- ionene, "great things ;" r'ital'i l'ionene, "great stone;" mata;'i monene, "great stones. " So, too, in respect to numerals. In the Zulu we have umuntu omunye, "one person;" abantu ababili, " two persons ;" izinkomo ezintatu, "three cows." In the Mbundu we ha-e mutu umoshi, " one person ;" kima kimoshi, " one thing;" ima itatu, "three things ;" matubia matanu, "five fires."
The grammar of the verb is essentially the same in the Mbundu language as in the Zulu. In the latter the infinitive has the sign uku, " to ;" as uku landa, "to love;" uku bona, "to see;" in the former, ku; as ku zola, "to love ;" ku longa, "to teach;" ku banga, "to make, do." In both languages alike the pronominal subject of the verb in the third person corresponds to the prefix of the noun for which the pronoun stands. Thus, in Zulu (um/ana, "boy") u bona, "he see~;" (aba/ana, "boys"), ba bona, "they see;" (inkomo, "cow"), i bona, " it sees;" (izinkomo, " cows"), zi bona, "they see." In the Mbundu we have (mutu, "person"), u banga, "h~ (or she) makes;" (atu, "persons"), a bar.ga, " they make ;" (kima," thing"), ki banga, " it makes ;" ' (ima, "things"), i banga, "they make." 'For the first, second, and third persons, preient tense, we have: IN ENGLISH. IN liIZULU. IN KIMBUNDU.
S. I love. S. Ngi tanda. S. Ngi zola. thou Iovest. u tanda. u zola. he (or she, etc.) lovt's. u (i, or Ii, etc.), tanda. u (or a, etc.), zola.
P. we love. P. si tanda. P. tu zola. ye love. ni tanda. nu zola. they love. ba. (or zi, etc.), tanda. a (or i, etc.), zola.
In the few following forms we have a comparative view of some of the modes in the two lan~ua~es : IN ENGLISH. IN ISIZULU. IN KIMBUNDU. '
Love, or love thou. tanda, or ma u tande. zola. Love yeo I love, or I do love. tandani. zolenu. I may love. I should love. ngi tanda, or ngi y a tanda. ngi zola.
ngi nga tanda. ngi zole.
nga ngi tanda. ngojo zola.
In the following we have a comparative view of a few tenses.
IN ENGLISH. IN ISIZULU. IN KIMBUNDU.
I love. ngi tanda. ngi zola. I loved. nga tanda. nga zolo. I have loved. ngi tandile. nga zolele. I had loved. ngi be ngi tandile. nga. zolele kia. I shall love. ngi y8 ku tanda. ngondo zola, or nganda ku zola.
IB respect to species of verbs, we find much of likeness between the Zulu and the Mbundu, as also between these and the Hebrew, in what is there called " conjugations." In the former from tanda, ,. love," we get the causative, tandisa, .. cause to love j" the relative, tandela, " love for j" the reciprocal, tandana, "love one another j" the reflective, zitanda, " love self j" the subjective, tandeka, " be lovely or lovable j" also other species. In the Mbundu we have from zola, ,. love," zolesa, " cause to love j" zolela, "love for j" rizola, " love self." We sometimes find two or more species combined j as, in Zulu, the causative and relative, tandisela, "cause to love for j" in Mbundu, zolesela, " cause to love for."
The mutual relationship and laws, or kinds of resemblance and difference that prevail in the great family of Bantu languages are seen, to some extent, in the goodly number of words that are found to be substantially the same in many of its members, though such words are often found in greatly differing forms. "Ve take two words, or, rather, one word in its two numbers, umunt!l, " person," abantu, " persons or people," as a good example of the unity in variety in some of the corresponding words in the cognate lauguages of which we speak. This word consIsts of two elements, one radical, the other preformative, which is also called "prefix." In Zulu the ,root is ntu; the prefix, singular, umu, plural, aba. And, of all the numerous forms which this word may take, whether in root or prefix, doubtlelOs the Zulu, as above, i.e., um'l1ntu, abantu, are alike most original and complete., For these Zulu words we find the corresponding words, in the cognate languages, to be, on the South, in the Kafir, umntu, abant'l ; on the West, in the Sesutu, motu, batu,. in the Sethlapi and Sechuana, mothu, bathu. Going northward and eastward, and coming into the Delagoa region, we find, in the Southern Tekeza, munu, banu or vanu,. in Northern Tekeza, amuno, vano,. coming to the Tete and Sena on the Zambe~ii, we find munttu, vanttu,. in the Quilimane, muntu, antu,. in the Maravi, muntu, wanthu. In the Makua, latitude 15° South, we find muttu, attu. In the Yao, on the eastern bank of Lake Nyassa, we have mundu, vandu or wandu; in Kiswahili, latitude from 5° to 6° South, mtu, watu,. then, in the Kinika, mutu, atu,. in the Kikamba, mundu, andu,. and in the Kisambala and Kipokomo, on the Pokomo, Dana or Tana River, near the equator, we have muntu, wantu.
Passing now to the southwest of the Bantu field, and moving northward along the West Coast of the c'ontinent, we find, in the Otyiherero or Damara language, omundu, ovandu j in the Sindonga, the language of the Ovambo, umtu, oantu,. in the Nano of Benguela, omuno, amana j in the Kimbundu or Angola, mutu, atu,. in the Kongo, omuntu, oantu j in the Benga, as spoken on the Corisco Islands, North of the equator, moto, bato,. and in the Dualla and Isubu or Cameroons language, motu, batu.
From what is already known of the many other Bantu languages, we have every reason to believe that the points of agreement and difference which we have. now passed in review are a good specimen of what prevail among the scores that still remain to he reduced to order in the great inland region that stretches through the interior, from four or five degrees North of the equator to the Orange River on the South.
Of how great advantage this relationship must be to the hosts of missioll9.ries, whose great work it shall yet be to reduce the still unwritten multitude of these Bantu languages each to its own grammatically exact order, and translate the Scriptures into them, it is hardly pOl)sible to give any adequate idea. If the writer, while preparing to go abroad, could have, had the means of getting even such a knowledge of these languages as may be gathered from this article, it would have been of more aid and saving of time to him than he can now tell.
We reprint from the African News a brief article on " The Spelling of African Names," by Heli Chatelain, which is appropriate to follow Mr.
Grout's paper: " Every reader of African publications and student of African maps must have been struck with the orthographic chaos which prevails throughout African nomenclature. The same town, country, people, mountain, or river is designated in different maps and b?oks, sometimes in the same periodical, with a variety of names which, to the uninitiated, present but few or no traces of similarity, much less of identity.
" This lamentable fact is due mainly to two causes: (1) to the hetero-
THE SPELLING OF AFRICAN NAMES
geneous spelling of European languages, from which the information is culled; (2) to the prefixes and suffixes of African languages, whose secret is understood by few African linguists, and even then imperfectly.
" ]. The nature of the first difficulty will be understood at a glance, on comparing the following table, giving the principal European ways of rendering the same sounds : English. Frencli. German. Portuguese. Spani87i. u 00 ou u u e e a e,(! tl x, eh nh Ii 8h eh seh eh nj dj ny gn tach, tj ao au dsch, dj ai, ae ai, ay elt teh all j dj ei ow (as in how) aou i a"i Thus the Magadoxo of the Portuguese becomes Magado~ho in English, and MagadoKcho in German, unless the Arabic form Mukhdishu, with its own national transliterations, be preferred by a traveller or map-maker.
" The British Government and the Royal Geographical Society have recently taken an important step toward bringing some order into the hitherto arbitrary nomenclature, by agreeing on a systcm of geographical speIling and transliteration which shall be followed in all official documents, and is sme to be adopted by the public at large. The value of the letters according to the new system is given on page 466 (October, 1890), of the African News j but one important article was omitted.
" In the names of places belonging to the German, French, or Portuguese spheres of influence, and, in the case of a few old names, the German, French, or Portuguese spellings are to be left unchanged. So, the readers will still be supposed to know all those langllage~, if they want to pronounce correctly. It follows, therefore, that the new spelling will be principally applied to the tranBliteration of native names in eOllntries controlled by England. It may be interesting for many to learn that the system recently made official is simply the one used by Krapf and his colaborers in Ea~t Africa, for the transliteration of Ki-swahili and other East Afril)an languages.
" The United States have just been favored with a Board on Geographic Names, whose duty it is to give the standard, to which all official publications will have to, and the unofficial will choose to, conform. It is much to be desired that our Board will, as far as possible, concur with the decisions of their colleagues across the water.
"2. The second cause of pnzzling spellings, the peculiar construction of African tongues, cannot be as snmmarily dealt with as the first. Only as our knowledge of the hundreds of dialects advance~, can the correct names be settled on, and the only rightful judge on the question is the acknowledged master-linguist of each separate language. Many of the names now generally accepted will have to yield to new ones, because they are not the names used by the natives of the 'place, but those given to travellers or missionarie~ by their native guides or carriers belonging to other tribeft, who adapt all the names they hear to their own national taste. Though quite insufficient for the scientist, a few points will be very useful to the general reader.
" Thus, in most Bantu languages, whose area covers the immense triangle between the Cameroons (now Kamerun), the Kilimanjaro and the Cape of Good Hope, the different prefixes, which puzzle so much the stranger, can easily be learned: Mu- mo- m- * mean man, e.g., Mu-ganda signifies a G"nda-man. Ba- wa- a- ma- t mean mtn. e..q., Ba-gar,da signifies Ganda-men. u- Ki- tlki- si- mean language. e.g., Ki-swaltili signifies Swahili language. Bu- mean country, e.g., Bu-ganda, U-gogo signifies Ganda Oountry, Gogo Oountry.
" When, therefore, an African name occurs, the prefix will tell you whether the name indicates a single man, a people, a country, or a lan- guage, and our table will tell you approximately, in case of doubt, which prefix you have to use. Never use Wa- or Ba- for the country, nor Bu- or U- for the people. Tbough less gross, mistakes are even then unavoid- able, alii a comparison of the prefixes used (1) by the Ba-ganda, and (2) the Ba-sutu will show: .
Man. Men. Country. Languap:e.
(1) Mu-ganda Ba-ganda Bu-ganda Lu-ganda (2) Mu-autu Ba-8utut Le-8utu Se-&utu " In Angola two neighboring nations are distinguished solely by prefixes, which were modified to avoid the confusion. Thus, in the language of Angola proper, ki-mbundu means the language of the a-mbundu (people), while ki-mbundu, applied to a person, signifies a native of Bailundo or Bihe j as to the language of the latter it is called u-mbundu, which is also used to express the negro color and natnre.
" Dr. R. N. Cust. in his excellent' Modern Languages of Africa,' cut the Gordian knot of prefixes and suffixes in Alexandrine fashion by ignoring them completely aud using the bare radical to indicate language. Ignoring them, however, docs not remove the difficulties for a long time j the specialists keep on clinging to their distinctive prefixes. The splendid language map, which accompanies Dr. Cust's book, has passed into the hands of many students of Africa, and has led them to use the radicals, which there designate the languages, for either countries or people.
"A treatise on the subject by a speciaJiRt in each of the few great. families of African languages would be timely and helpful to geograp}:lers and the reading public." ——————– The religion of the people of Syria is usually called by the Government Moslem and non-Moslem. The first includes Orthodox and Persian Moham- medans (Moslems and Metawalies), Druzes, Nusaireeyehs and Ismaileyehs and all Bedawee Arabs. Non-Moslems are Jews, nominal Christians (Or- thodox Greek, Papal Greek, Maronite [Papall, Jacobite, Syrian, Armenian and Latin Papists) and Evangelical Christians. The principal accessions to the church have been from the non-Moslem sects. Work among these is important. It aims to give them a pure Gospel and to remove all ground for the well-merited contempt in which nominal Christians are held by Mos- lems. This has been so far successful that, first, the religion of Evangeli- cal Christiant! is looked upon as a new religion and is respected by the non- Christian sects j second, the old sects are beginning decided reforms in their churches j and, third, the leaven of the Gospel is working in a most interesting and marked manner among the Moslems, giving the confident hope that the day is not far distant when a large number of them may be brought to Christ. Earnest prayer is asked that freedom of conscie'lce may be fully granted to all. – Ohurch at Home and Abroad.
• In nicknamee eometime. KOr and t TIl·.
t The French spell BOrBOuto, the English, ~Or8'ttu, the Germano, BOrBOto. The correct woulq be Ba-eOtO. the accented vowels sounded like u inj'ult, but long. THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA lIY W. A. I'lTANTON, EI'lQ., HAMILTON, :N. Y.
Now that 110 much interest centres in the Dark C0I1tinent; we seek for some comprehensive view of the great people wbo inha;bitjt. We hear· much of individual tribes, but very little of general races. 'Ve :rnow something of the Negro and the Congoese, but very little of the African man, in his diverse life and multitudinous types, from the M:editerranean to Cape Colony. Our view is 1>artial and one-sidlld, rather than complete 'and comprehensive. It will be the purpose of this paper to gather up the results of recent investigation, and present, as far ·as possible; a broad general view of the people of Africa. We will accomplish this be·stby considering, first, the ethnology, and second, the gener:;tl condition of the people j or, in other words, by seeking to discover who -the people are, and what they are.
I. Who are the people of Africa! 'Ve must remember at the outset t~at the population· of Africa is composed of two elements; the native and the foreign.. Thl'! foreign element consists of Europeans, Arabs, Moors, Turks, a~d Jews. With these we will not deal, as they are well known both as to race chamcteristics and general manner of living. We must not, however, classify 'the Arabs and Moors in exactly the same rank with the Europeans or. even the Turks. For the Arabs have been in Africa ever since 300 B. c., and· have thus become almost indigenous, in many cases amalgamating with the native races. But it is not this foreign element, however long it may have cxisted in the land, of which we wish to speak, but of the great undefined and unclassified native population. Any true classification of the people is almost an impossibility. The ethnology of Africa is in the utmost confusion. Every new explorer brings to light great and hitherto unknown races, as well as· establishing new facts in regard to old ones. As the case now stands, in the light of Stanley's most recent discoveries, the native population of Africa consists of six great races-B·erber, Coptic, Nilotic, Negro, Bantu, and Goriepine.. Mr. Stanley, in his most recent work, criticises the term " Bautu" as unscientific, on the ground that it simply means "men j" but, as all the best authorities employ it, and as it has become asseciated by constant use with the race to which it is usually applied, we think it best to retain it. All these six races are allied to a greater or less degree. They all spring from the great Indo-African or Indo-Ethiopic family. They are thus a mixture of the pure African type with the Asiatic. and differ in race characteristics according as the one type or the other predominates. Though thus allied, they present strong race distinctions, and hence deserve a separate classification. 1. The Berber. The Berbers are a race of great antiquity. They are descendants of the primitiv~ ~to{:k of the land. They vary in color from a black to a dark bronze or copper. They have hig~ cheek-bone!!, the nose sometimes flat, like that of the Nf>gro, and sometimes aquiline; lips formed like those of Europeans; eye!! expressive, and hair curled, but not woolly. They are without the slightest trace of what is generally recognized as the negro physiognomy. They are an athletic, strong-featured people, accustomed to hardship and fatigue. Though the various tribes differ much, they are all fine men, tall, straight, and handsome. The home of the Berbers is in North Africa. They extend from Morocco to Egypt, and from tho Mediterranean to the Soudan. The Shuluh of the Atlas district, the Kobyles of Tunis, the Tuaneks of Western and Central Sahara, and the Tibbus of Eastern Sahara all belong to the Berber genus, and speak the Berber language.
2. The Coptic. The Copts are descendants of the an~ient Egyptian… They are a mixed race, their ancestors h!1ving intermarried with Greeks, Nubians, and AbYRsinians. Their complexion is similar to that of the Arab-a brownish yellow; foreheads flat, hair soft and woolly, noses flattened like the Negro's, lips thin and straight, cheek-bones high, beards thin, eyes large, and bent upward like the Chinaman's. They represent all that is left of the proud blood of the Pharaohs. Their home is in Northern Egypt.
3. The Nilotic. There are three main divisions of this race-the Nubians, Abyssinians, and Gollos.
The Nubians are of a reddish brown complexion; their color in some cases approximating a black, but not like the ebony hue of the Negro. They are described as a handsome people, with beautiful features, fine expressive eyes, and of slender and elegant forms. They inhabit Nubia.
The Abys~inians are a IItrong and vigorolls race, of a copper hue, more or less dark, with straight noses, eyes clear yet languishing, hair black and crisp, but not woolly. They are a mixed race, and inhabit Abyssinia.
The Gollos are the strongest tribe of the Nilotic race. They are a large, vigorous, almost bulky people. Their color varies between black and brownish, some of the women being remarkably fair. As to type, they stand between the Negro of Guinea and the Arab or Berber. Their countenances are rounder than those of the Arab, their eyes small, deeply set, but lively. They occupy a large district in East Africa directly South of Abyssinia.
4. The Negro. The general physical characteristics of the Negro are too well known to need description. It is a mistake to suppose all Africans are Negroes. The Negroes form but one of the six great races. Their home is in the Soudan, stretching from Senegambia on the West, to the highlands of Abyssinia on the East. The Mandiogoes are one of the most powerful of Negro races. They inhabit Senegambia, are very numerous, and partially civilized.
The W olofs occupy the region between the Senegal and the Gambia. They are the blackest and handsomest of all Negroes, and are a mild and social pe>ple. Central Soudan is occupied by the FOlllahs. They are one of the most remarkable races in Africa, distinguished for their intelligence and friendliness, are fairly industrious and civilized, and speak a rich and harmonious language. Our knowledge of Negro races is confined, in the main, to those of the coast, who are of the lowest type. Of the vast inland tribes of the Soudan ah:~ost nothing is known. The heart of this great country has scarcely been penetrated, and is now the least known of any part of Mrica.
5. The Bantu. The Bantu race is the most marked and characteristic race in Africa. The Bantu is of a far nobler type than the Negro. Though there are many tribes and nations, they all have the same general characteristics, and belong to one great family.' They are thus described by a recent traveller: "The Bantu is a fine, tall, upright man, with delicately small hands and well-shaped feet, a fine face, high, thin nose, beard and mustache.
" The further you go into the interior the finer the type becomes, and two points about them contrast yery favorably with most of the coast racesnamely, their lighter color, generally a warm chocolate, and their freedom from that offensive smell which is supposed wrongly to characterize most of the Africans. Some of them are perfect Greek statues as regards the splendid development and poise of figure. " They occupy a greater extent of cOllntry than any other one race in Africa, stretching from the SO North of the equator to the Tropic of Capricorn; or by countIies, from the 'Soudan nearly to Cape Colony. Thus nearly the whole Southern half of Africa is the home of the Bantu race.
6. The Goriepine. The Goriepine race is composed of Hottentots, Korannas, and Bushmen. A description of the Hottentot will suffice for all. Where they originated is a mystery. The only people to whom they are thought to bear a resemblance are the Chinese or Malays. Like these they have the broad forehead, the high cheek-bones, the oblique eye. the thin beard, and the dull yellow tint of complexion; but there is a difference in regard to their hair, which grows in small tufts, harsh, and lather wiry, and in the formation of the bones of the pelvis. They are a race of dwarfs, rarely exceeding four feet six inches in height. They are lively, cheerful, good-hnmored, and by no means wanting in intellect.
These six races form the native population of Africa. The entire population, both native and foreign, is variously estimated from 200,000,000 to 350,000,0.00. Mr. Guinness estimates it at 350,000,000. Stanley places it at 250,000,000. A conservative estimate would place it between 250,000,000 and 300,000,000.
II. We ask, in the second place, what is the social and moral condition of this great people 1 As to civilization and social status, Africa may be divided into two .great sections. The division is marked by passing a line froni the mouth of the Senegal Rh-er on the West to Cape Guardafui on the East. The Northern half includes aU the States of the Mediterranean, Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, and the Sahara. The Southern half embraces the Soudan, and Central and Southern Africa; or, as to races in the North, the Berber, Coptic, and Nilotic, in the South the Negro, Bantu, and Goriepine.
The Northern half has the characteristics of the Arabic civilization. The people are largely pastoral and nomadic. They have all the genius of the Arab, both for war and for trade. The Tuoricks and Tibbus of the Sahara are purely nomadic, living by means of predatory incursions and by tribute exacted from passing caravans. The Kabyles of Algiers and Tunis are the most industrious of Berber tribes. They till the land and work the mines in the mountains. The Copts of Egypt are an extremely bigoted people, of a sullen temper, very avaricious,. great dissemblers, ignorant, and faithless. They form the middle class, working chiefly as tradesmen and mechanics. The Abyssinians are, on the whole, barbarous and addicted to the grossest sensual pleasures. Their priests, among whom marriage is common, are but little better than the mass of the people. They are fierce and warlike, and have little regard for human life. In general, we may say of the Norj:.h African people, they are restless and nomadic for the most part, fierce and warlike, yet in some cases peaceable and industrious, proud; haughty, arrogant, energetic, and aggressive; in trade keen and versatile, with a strong native instinct for acquisition; in morals grossly sensual as the Abyssinians, or markedly abstemious as the Tuoricks of the desert or the Nubians of the Nile. In fine, they are characterized by both the virtues and the vices of the Arabic civilization and the Moslem faith. The stamp of the Arab and of Islamism is impressed on every race from the Mediterranean to the Soudan.
The Southern half of Africa is utterly destitute of any civilization worthy of the name. 'fhe people are for the most part in Ii primitive condition, not strictly savages, yet not civilized. As to social status, the people live mostly in independent groups under the command of a chief or king, whose domain may comprise only a few villages, or it may be a large extent of territory. In the Congo valley every village is independent, while in the South is the great Gorongange kingdom of Msidi, who is a most absolute despot, and rules by means of 2000 fusileers. In general the king or chief is tyrant and the people his slaves.
As to intelligence, there is a vast difference in different tribes. The best representatives, perhaps, of intelligence are the Bololo people, in the bend of the Congo. They clear away the tangled growth of t.he forest in their settlements, and sow the fertile soil with maize and mandroca. They are expert in the working and smelting of brass. They understand division of labor, and have divided themselves into farmers, gardeners, smiths, weavers, cabinet-makers, warriors, and speakers. They are intelligent, industrious, and friendly. The streets of their villages are straight and regular, running at right angles. Their houses are large and commodious. Far in the interior, however, we find a different state of things. Professor Drummond gives this description of the people in the Nyassa district: THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA.
" Hidden away in the endless forests, like birds' nests in a wood, in terror of one another, and of their common foe, the slaver, are small native vil- lages ; and here in his virgin simplicity dwells primeval man, without clothes, without civilization, without learning, without religion, the genuine child of nature-thoughtless, careless, and contented. This man is ap- parently quite happy ; he has practically no wants. One stick pointed makes him a spear j two sticks rubbed together make him a fire; fifty sticks tied together make him a house. The bark he peels from them, makes his clothes; the fruits which hang on them make his food."
There is one common characteristic of the Central African people. They are bom traders, and therein lies the hope of a future civilization for Africa. The commercial instinct is all-powerful.· They have actually created among themselves a true currency, though not a money one. " In the management of a bargain," says Stanley, " I should back the Congoese native against Jew or Christian, Parsee or Bonyan, in all the round world. Unsophisticated is the very last term I should ever apply to an African child or man in connection with the knowledge of how to trade. I have seen a child of eight do more tricks of trade in an hour than the cleverest European trader on the Congo could do in a month. Therefore, when I write of a Congo native, whether he is of the Bakongo, Bayanzi, or Bakete tribes, remember to associate with him an almost unconceivable amount of natural shrewdness and power of indomitable and untiring chaffer." As to morals, the picture is not so fair. The degradation is extreme and well- IJigh universal. Polygamy is everywhere practised. In the empire of Kasongo, 'Vest of Lake Tanganyika, the ruler is regarded as the husband of all his female subjects, except his mother. The idea of chastity seems to have been entirely lost. The value of a human life, especially of a slave, is unknown. Mutilation and death are the only punishments in vogue, even for the slightest offences. The slaughter of men, women, and children that accompanies the death of a chief is so revolting as to be almost incredible, had it not been attested by eye-witnesses. Human sac- rifices are common. The walls which surround. the palace of the King of Dahomy, on the West African Coast, are decorated with the heads of war- captives stuck on stakes. Cannibalism is not universal, but is prevalent among the tribes of the Upper Congo and about the Mobangi River, where the paths are marked by rows of human skulls, and the people wear neck- laces of human teeth. We shudder at the very mention of atrocities which ~ are of every-day occurrence among this people. From the dwarfs of the Great Forest of Upper Congo to the half-human inhabitants of the Kolohori Desert, and from the besotted Negro of Old Calabar to the degenerate Hot- tentot of Momagna land, the same blackness of moral degradation prevails with ever-deepening shades. All are not as atrocious or as degraded, but the few faint and s~attered gleams of light only serve to deepen and in- tensify the dense darkness that covers like a pall this truly benighted land. Africa has been likened, from her geographical form, to a woman with a
CONFUCIUS AND CHRIST COMPARED
huge burden on her back. Need I ask what that burden is! It is the crushing weight of a bondage more cruel and relentless than that of the Arab slaver, more deadly and destructive than that of the white man's rum -the bondage of a thousand years of ever-deepening sin.
CONFUCIUS AND CHRIST COMPARED.
In a recent issue of the American Missionary we find the vast difference between the power of the moral teachings of Confucius to affect the conduct, and that of the teachings of Christ, very clearly put by a converted Chinaman, as the following item will show: Hing Sing is a helper in the Chinese mission at Petaluma, Cal. He • reports in a letter to Dr. Pond, the superintendent, an interview with a pagan friend. Though his English is in dialect form, he makes it express very clearly his idea of the universality of the religion of Jesus, and its superiority to that of Confucius.
In the course of the interview his friend had acknowledged that it. was a wrong way to do to smoke and to gamble, and that it wasted money. " But," he said, to quote Hing Sing's own words, " you should not believe Jesus, for we have our own Confucius doctrine, which also taught us to be good. You should not believe Jesus, and should not imitate foreign doctrine.' , I answer him: " Gold have no limit, no matter from what country or nation, but pure and true, so that we call precious, for everybody can use it. Also the Jesus doctrine have no limit, from whateTer nation, but is the true, for we to imitate and believe.
" We loand Jesus was the Son of God, came down to saTe our soul, if we real trust in His name. I found our Confucius, he was virtue and good man. lIe can teach us to be good and honor, but he cannot save our soul. But we found J csus was the Son of God, for lie can give His Spirit to melt our wicked hearts into righteous and faithful and good man; our Confucius only can tell us between good and bad, but not able to melt our evil heart. How many our Chinese people understand our Confucius doctrine! Why should they not imitate and obedience his teaching? Smoke opium, gamble, swear, and other evil things, they know very well that was unrighteous, for why should they not imitate our Confucius what he has done, the good work, and obey his teaching 1 Ah, for he can only indicate to you the way of good, but he cannot inspire your spirit, but Jesus only can! Nothing impossible. When I was not a Christian I was gamble and I was swear, but since I became a Christian, never smoke opium, never gamble or swearing, and many of my friends was the same.
So it was illustrated, Jesus was the Son of God, can give ot His Spirit to inspire our spirit, to turn away from bad to the good."
A. WONDERFUL LIFE·BOAT
A WONDERFUL LIFE·BOAT.
BY CAPTAIN E. C. HORE, F.R.G.B.
If you turn to the map of Africa you will see, toward its centre, several large pieces of water known as the Central African lakes, and, in a central position among them, a long. shaped one called Tanganyika j its surface is 2700 feet above sea-level, and it is hemmed in nearly all round by high land crowned witb forests. Around the shores of that lake twelve different tribes of Africans have their homes j there may be seen market places where hundreds of natives bring their produce, such as mats, baskets, skins, bark cloth, woven cotton cloth, pottery, iron, both as hoes and axes, weapons and wire j copper, botb in pigs and manufactured into bracelets and otber ornaments, sugar-cane, ground nuts, palm oil, salt, honey, and butter, besides goats, fowls, fisb, and corn and vegetables of 'many kinds. , These are spread out for sale in the early morning in the market-places, which become busy scenes of barter and exchange.
For such busy and industrious people the lake forms a ready means of getting about; and much of the produce to be seen in those markets is brought there in canoes. These are wbat are known to us as dugouts– hewn out of solid trunks of trees from the great forests on the lake shores; they are clumsy-looking craft, following rather the model of the hippo- potamus than that of the swan, but strong and safe for all that j and tbe natives are very clever in managing them. These canoes are also largely used for fishing. I have seen more than 200 little canoes at one time out at nigbt catching whitebait. In each canoe a long faggot of dried reeds, witb one end alight and pushed over the bow of the canoe, served to attract the little fish in immense shoals. The fisherman, standing erect in his tiny-craft, and using a large hand-net, literally shovels them in. Tbe fish are then taken on shore, baked quite dry in the hot sun, and made up into little bolster-shaped loads wrapped round with leaves, and thus form,ing portable packages of preserved provisions, which are sent far and wide over the country. Other large canoes, some of them over forty feet long, are engaged in all kinds of trading enterprises between the different countries round the lake, and, especially, in the slave trade between tribe and tribe. For, although these fine people are so enterprising and industrious, there is everything with them that we think of as heathen and savage, the horrible curse of the slave trade having always kept them down, and no light of Christianity brightened their life into liberty and civilization.
But, a few years ago, there appeared on those waters a boat of most strange appearance and character for that remote region.. The Morning Star was her name, coming, let us hope, as the harbinger of the light and glory of a true daylight. She is a boat built of the best modern materials, and of handsome appearance, like a large sea-going life-boat, with three sails and eight oars, and flying at her masthead the peaceful device of the dove and olive branch-the flag of the London Missionary Society, to whom she belongs, and whose missionaries she conveys from place to place with a message of Jove and light to those natives.
And this is how the Morning Star got to 'l'anganyika : I went home from England to Central Africa in 1881 with a survey of Lake Tanganyika, and a report of the kind of vessel necessary for missionary work on that inland s~a. In due time the Good News, auxiliary steam yacht, was placed in hand for that purpose ; but, as it would be some time before she was ready for service, and a large reinforcement of missionaries were starting for Tanganyika, another smaller vessel was required, both for immediate use, 'and, afterward, to complete the efficiency of the boat service on the lake as tender for the Good News, or independently.
For this purpose I designed the Morning Star, 32 feet long and 8 feet beam. She was built from my design, by Forrestt & Sons, of London, in six complete sections, and ele'en smaller pieces, to be jointed together with bolts and nuts, each section and piece separately galvanized, and t:) form, when put together, a strong, sea-going life-boat. Each end section formed a complete air-tight tank, and two intermediate little cabins formed each of two sections, also being water-tight compartments.
To convey these sections overland six small carts or barrows, consisting of light wooden frames exactly to fit the sections, and wrought iron wheels and fittings, were made, also conveniently taken to pieces. All these sections and pieces and their carts, were conveyed in the ordinary way as cargo in a steamer from London to Zanzibar, where the strange enterprise commenced of conveying them overland to the centre of Africa.
From the East Coast of Africa, opposite Zanzibar to Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika, following the windings and zig-zags of the only possible paths, is a distance of 836 miles, without railways, vehicles of any kind, or even beasts of burden. On the heads and shoulders of Africans, or on carts drawn and pushed by them, the Morning Star was conveyed to the lake. Carried over first in small Arab dhows from Zanzibar to the coast (a distance of 25 miles), the sections, and carts, and loads were landed at Saadani, a native settlement or town under the rule of the Sultan of Zanzibar. There the carts were fitted together ,and the sections secured npon them, and, after a great deal of work and preparation (for the boat and its fittings formed part of a large caravan, consisting altogether of over 900 Africans, ten of our missionaries, and all their stores, besides African moneys in the shape of many bale~ of calico and other cloth and barter goods) started on their long journey.
For three and one half months the faithful African porters cut their way through broad belts of jungle, dragged the carts ankle deep through miry swamps, threaded patiently the winding forest tracks, slowly clambered over mountain barriers-often hungry, thirsty, and excessively tired, but never giving in or yielding to others the" honor," as they considered it, of .managing the cart, or carrying the piece of boat which formed their part of the work. In camp. gossiping over the fire at night, they would argue with one another as to how the boat would be put together, and to strangers along the road they would boast that they were ,,'partners" in the enterprise of conveying it to Tanganyika; and this, often, while they were hungry and thirsty by reason of the hard work it had cau~ed them.
At last Ujiji was reached, the carts causing a great sensation there, and great wonderment was expressed at the boat sections. I soon got settled in myoid quarters, and the boat-building was commenced. Day after day she grew in size and beauty as the various parts were joined together, until, all being finished, she was one day launched into the lake, a thing of beauty and strength, and a joy to us for years of work, during which she proved to us safety and comfort and speed.
As the Morning Star was being built, some of myoid boat'll crew (natives of Ujiji), who were. eager to go again with me voyaging on Lake Tanganyika, came, day by day, to look at the new craft; day by day, too, some cloud or doubt seemed to damp their ardor about the coming voyage, until at last, one day, they came along to have a special talk with me, and the difficulty was explained. They had beguu to wonder, and then to doubt as they saw the metal sides of the boat, and had finally determined to tell me that, although they would" go anywhere" and" do anything" for me, they really could not go " to sea in a saucepan." I told them to wait; and while I was preparing to depart from Ujiji and give up our house to its owner, the boat lay quietly afloat at anchor. Several times I took So~lC of these Wajiji sailors off with me to the boat to have a look, and in this way seeing her buoyancy and perfect tightness, they at last became convinced of her seaworthiness.
Our beautiful boat was complete, and her loyal crew ready for work; the new Morning Star shone forth upon the lake, and now, for more than five years (having become well known as the harbinger of peace and goodwill) has been afloat there, welcomed wherever she goes, conveying backward and forward, between our stations, our missionaries and their stores, proving herself to be a stanch and good vessel, and in her life and history fully entitled to the name of " a wonderful life-boat."
There she still remains (together with her larger companion, the steamer Good News, afterward built there) on Lake Tanganyika, 2700 feet above the sea, and 800 miles from the sea-coast, a remarkable evidence of the very practical nature of missionary work in that country, and a means by which our young people may, by contributing to her support, help in giving to Dark Africa the Light of the Gospel.
Any of our readers who wish to study African missions will find, we are sure, great help in Tlte African News, published by T. B. Welch & Son. While this admirable periodical especially reports Bishop William Taylor's work, we have found it full of information, and have taken the liberty to copy a short article in these pages.-EDITOR.
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS.
BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVl'i:R, MASS.
-The Calwer Monatsbliitie1·, referring to David's ordinance, that" as his part is that goeth down to the battle, RO shall his part be that remaineth by the stuff, ,., remarks: "This is the word of a king, and is in force even to this dar. The cause is the Lord's. His are the laborers. His is the result. And He apportions the reward as He will. His truth finds application in a thousand ways. The simple Christian, who imagineR himself so far behind the missionary, and the missionary, who is tempted to imagine himself of special dignity in the kingdom of God, will one day find the Judge using another standard than that of either. Those .who look upon home .missions as an inferior work, and they whose sense of their country's need" makefl them jealous of everyone that is penetrated with the thought that ' the field is the world,' will both find at last that the question is not: ' Where have ye wrought l' but, 'How have ye wrought where ye were called to work~' 'If it is only good, then it is good. ' " Or, as the youthful Malcolm says: ., This, and what needful else That :Jalls upon us by the Grace of grace We will perform in measure, time, and place. "
" Inner missions," says the Monatsbliitter, referring to George Miiller's definition of himself, "are a Handlanger of foreign missions." A hand- Zanger is one who hands the materials which the craftsman uses. In Germany the mutual inosculation of the two interests is even more distinctly evident than here. It is no wonder,. then, that George Miiller has brought with him to England in the most eminent degree the instinct that refuses to separate them either in thought or act.
-The different departments of evangelistic work are corning so rapidly into intercommunication that we are as likely as not to find the fullest account of what is going on near us in some publication at the ends of the earth. This is illustrated by the following paragraph from the Bombay Guardian of November 22d, 1890. Even when it states facts already known, they seem to have a new meaning when they reverberate from hoary India: " We have frequently noted with thankfulness the progress of the McAH Mission in Paris. Now we learn that a large missionary boat, in connection with the mission, is to be anchored in the Seine. Daily services will be conducted in the cabin, which will contain nearly two hundred persons. The authorities have given every facility and protection. The Parisian prefect of police testifies to the good work which the mission is doing. He says: ' Every new McAll station means a reduction of po1ic~ force. Sixty persons now give their whole time to the missions, and froIl). 600 to 700 co-operate. There was an aggregate attendance last year of 1,200,000 persons in the 130 salles in all parts of France. In connection with this we may mention that in a paragraph in our last issue, on page 11, entitled' A Noble Giver,' alluding to this Rubject, the name of the writer-Dr. Pierson–was omitted. There is a holy emulation between the McAll Mission, the Salvation Army, aud the Belleville Mission of Mademoiselle de Broen as to which shall have the largest share in the leavening of the slums of Paris with Christian truth. They form an heroic trio. Things arc greatly altered for the better in Paris since the terrible record of 1871, with its petroleuses and communistic horrors." At least an elect remnant is being saved. The insurgents of 1871, as Mr. Hamerton remarks, should be called communards, not communists. The privileges which they claimed for the Commune, or Municipality of Paris, had no connection with any theories of communism.
-The Heidenbode informs us that the province-or as it is called there -the Presidency of Kedol, the newest field of evangelization in Java, now numbers 1000 professed believers, lately Mohammedans. This has been almost wholly the work of Javanese Christians, who show a remarkable zeal and successfulness in diffusing the Gospel which they have received. Everywhere, however, in the Dutch East Indies, Islam is advancing by natural increase, and by a steady reduction of the heathen populations under its sway. The Netherlands Government, which long directly encouraged the spread of Mohammedanism, is now beginning to be afraid of it, and is looking to its meani of suppressi.ng a very possible Moslem outburst of rebellion.
-The first re-marriage of a widow has taken place in the Pokarna callte of Brahmins.
-The (Jhronicle for November, 1890, speaking of the work ofthe London Missionary Society in Hankow, China, refers to the Hanyang Hill a8 being" so situated as to ghoe anyone who ascends it a bird's-eye view of the whole neighborhood. When our former foreign secretary, Dr. Mullens, came here many years ago, Dr. John took him to this spot as to one of the principal sights of the neighborhood, and he declared that in all his travels in India and elsewhere he had not seen any sight that impressed him more. Not that the view here presented to the eye is one remarkable for the beauty or grandeur of its physical ,scenery. A few low hills, a few lakes in the distance, the' great yellow Yang· tsze-here a mile wide-stretching away as far as the eye can reach in a north-easterly and a south-westerly direction, while from the northwest the tributary Han winds in and out till at last it empties itself here at Hankow (i.e., Hanmouth) into the larger river j these are the chief natural objects to be seen here. But it shows us one of the largest centres of human life and activity in the whole of Asia. To men and women who in any part of the world are carrying on the work of Christ, excellence of outward surroundings must always be estimated with reference to the presence or absence of their fellow-men. The first paradise of which we read was indeed a garden, the garden of the Lord, full of exquisite scenery, and of everything in nature that could delight the eye, but almost entirely devoid of living, sentient, thinking human beings. The last paradise is to be a city-the city of God. The difference is most significant. The Son of God rejoiced in the habitable parts of the earth, and His delights were with the sons of men j and when once His call has been heard by any of His followers to devote their lives and strength to the one work of saving men, then every large hive of human beings, every city-even if only full of fallen, sinful, heathen human,ity, and not, as the New Jerusalem, full of saints redeemed from the earth-must always have a strong attraction and fascination sl1ch as no solitary region, however grand or picturesque its scenery, can ever have." The population of Hankow, on ship and shore, the Rev. Arnold Foster, who writes this, estimates at a million and a quarter, besides the throngs passing and repassing from other provinces.
-The Missions-Blatt of the Moravian Church, for JailUary, gives a New Year's benediction, which, coming from that centre, extends over all that are concerned for the work of the Lord throughout the world: "Th9 Saviour's rich blessing for the New Year. May Himself, the King of HiA Kingdom, greet thee, beloved Church of missions, with the greeting of His peace! May His grace and His truth 'permeate thy ranks anew, and deeply illumine thy innermost heart. Into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, hast thou also been translated through the love of the Father j and thou dost daily experience that He who, born of the line of David after the flesh, has been manifested in power as the Son of God after the Spirit, hallows more and more them that come believil1gly to Him as a people of possession, being now risen from the dead. Be He then in the New Year also, as well the heart of our preaching, as also He for whom we adventure and surrender all that we have-life and limb, goods and blood. For who but He is it that hath redeemed and won us over from all our sins and from the dominion of death, and from whom alone we have received grace and apostleship to establish among all the Gentiles the obedience of faith in His name."
-The Brethren's Church hall decided to take up a new mission in North Queensland, among the aborigines, and another on Lake Nyassa, within the German " sphere of influence. " .
-The Moravian Mission in Greenland consists of 6 stations, in 2 gro~ps, and of 9 missionaries. Under their charge are 1608 persons. The rest of the Greenlanders are cared for by Lutheran brethren of the Church of Denmark.
-The death, by a fall from his horse, of the hereditary High Chief of the Mosquito State-a young man of twenty-live-suggests to the Moravian. brethren that, in the event of the extinction of the reigning family (happily not imminent), this little Protelltant State would be, by treaty with England, absorbed by the Catholic State of Nicaraugua. This, however, is showing itself ftiendly to the brethren, and now allows them to instruct their converts on both sider; of the line.
-The Missionary Record for December, 1880, gives statistics (thoroughly corrected) of the advance of the missionary work of the United Presbyterian Church in Scotland in thirty years. The term" missionary" includes ordained native pastors, Zenana misI'ionaries, and European teachers, but excludes all native evangelists and teachers: Missionaries. Home Contribntions for Foreign Work.
1859…………………….. 30 1840…………………… £3,300 1869….. , ………………. 63 1849…………………….. 12,800 1879…………………… 81 1859…………………….. 16,900 1889 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 1869…………………….. 29,100 1879 ……………………. 32,300 1889……………………… .40,500 No. Native Congregations. Members in Full Communion.
1859 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 1859……………………. 4,552 1869 •……………… ~. " …48 1869 ……………………. 5,740 1.879……….. " ., ……….. 63 1879……………………. 9,187 1889…………………….. 96 1889 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14,899 Native Pastors. Native ContributiollS.
1859……… 1 (Rev. Tiyo Boga.) 1859…………………… £2,090 1869……… 7 1869……………………. 3,020 1879 . . . . . . . . . 12 1879……………………. 6,500 1889. . . . . . . . . 23 1889 …………………….10,470 "The missionary sympathy of the Church has been widening and deepening j the liberality of the Church has been expanding j the lands in which our operations are carried on are being more completely taken possession of in the name of the Master; while a native church in each of those lands is rapidly gathering around itself the love and devotion of the native population, and promises to become, in course of time, so vigorous that it will be able to manage its own affairs, and allow our missionaries to enter into new regions where they may still further extend the blessed work."
What is said here about the Jamaican Church, connected with the United Presbyterian Church, ought to be laid to heart universally: "Our Church in Jamaica is looking forward to such independence, and endeavoring to prepare for it. But this independence ought not to be sought in the near future. It is a distinct advantage, to the cause of Christ in Jamaica that our Church there continues to be in dependent union with a church life ~f wider horizon and riper experience. Its own church life gains through this union, possibly a firmer fibre, but certainly a richer tone and a greater influence upon public opinion. To force our Jamaican Church into a position of independence by any mechanical arrangement would be a mischievous policy. It would mean the undoing of results that have been gained, and might require a reconstruction of the agency at work after an inferior pattern."
The present writer, two of whose former charges have been happily incorporated into the Presbyterian Church of Jamaica, can wish nothing better for them than that the United Presbyterian brethren in Scotland may keep an eye on them for a number of years to come.
-The following paragraph from Central Africa, the organ of the Universities' Mission, gives, in a few lines, the whole African heathenismperhaps the darkest form of heathenism, the most utterly dismal and comfortless in the world: "Only gradually does the deadly atmosphere of heathenism dawn upon one. Lust, as strong, perhaps in some ways stronger than with ourselves, has nothing to check it. There broods oppression on a petty scale, with tragic burnings and poisonings, fear of lions, or sudden night attacks, and murders of a mother or ,near relative who has been half the little world of life-things that leave the child an old man in heart, cut off from our comfortable security."
-The Indian Witness of December 6th, 1890, says ~ ., The death of Sir Rivers Thompson, late Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, calls for a notice from the Christian press of the country. Respected even more than he was loved by all who came within the reach of his personal influence, he has left behind him a reputltion which any Indian civilian may envy. What he was in the dawn of his wider influence he was consistently in its meridian and at its close. An open worshipper of the living God, a friend of all agencies that sought to make Him known to dying men-a Christian in his conscienee, an Englishman to the backbone."
-The Mission Field, the organ of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, says: "Both by countenancing heathenism and by ignoring the missions, Christians in India retard the work. They do it doubtless unintentionally. Then they in some cases eomplete the mischief by depreciating the missions when they come home. It is an unfortunate fact that there is injury to the cause of missions, and to the zeal of the Church at home by those who, by having been in India, claim to be able to speak with authority, while as far as any actual knowledge is concerned, they are as ignorant about missions in India as they were before they left England. They take upon themselves the responsibility of repeating indiscriminate slander on the work of God, although they may be living close to strong evidences of God's grace and power." -The late Daniel Adolf Cracau, of Breslau, left, in 1887, a bequest of about £4,0,000 to the Moravian Church. The custodians of the trust are the German Emperor and the King of Saxony. Half the income is to be used for the conversion of the heathen, half for the ransom of slaves.
-The Moravian brethren, in their Periodical Accounts, cordially echo the wish expressed by the Rev. S. D. Fulton, in this REVIEW, that Protestant missions may soon be established in Nicaraugua, which, they truly say, bids fair to be just such a mission centre as the Apostle Paul • would h,.ve delighted in.
– The following reminds one of the suggestions of Gregory the Great to the Abbot Augustine, when sending him on his mission to con- vert our English forefathers. As Gregory was a man of deep practical in ight, his suggestions are always worth heeding. Speaking of the Melas, or religious fairs of India, the Mission Field says: "It is beginning to be generally felt that it would be well to have Christian Melas. The Mela is, in fact, valued by the great mass of the Hindus and Mohammedans merely as a holiday. It is the only holiday there is for the mass of the people.
Where the Hindu cannot attend one of his own he betakes himself to the Mohammedan, and vice versa. So will it be for the ordinary native Chris- tian. If he have none of his own he will be strongly tempted to attend those of his Hindu or Mohammedan neighbors. Accordingly there is a strong feeling that Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide should be treated as times for Christian Melas, and that the largest and nearest Christian station should be the centre to which the surrounding Christians should resort." The writer remarks that such gatherings may easily be kept free from all leaven of heathenism.
-The charges of " unscriptural optimism" and" unscriptural pessim- ism" are freely bandied back and forth in the Church between Christians.
The Bombay Guardian seems to hit the nail on the head in the following: " Every well.established Christian should be intenRely pessimistic and intensely optimistic. He should be intensely pessimistic of what he or any other man can do of himself, and intensely optimistic of what God can do through any child of His who fully surrenders to Him." .
-Henry Augustus J aeschke, late Moravian missionary iq the Himalayr.s, a lineal descendant of the first Moravian emigrants to Herrnhut, besides German was master of Polish, Danish, Swedish, and was acquainted with English, Hungarian, Bohemian, Latin, Greek, and after going to the East, already knowing Sanscrit, Persian, and Arabic (and doubtless Hebrew), he learned Hindustani, and Urdu, and lastly Thibetan. He was likewise an enthusiastic student of mathematics and natural science, especially of botany. But he obeyed. the call of his Church, to go to the dreary Thibetan regions, as unquestioningly as if he had been an unlearned artisan. "While at Ladak he lived at Stok, near Leh, in the most frugal and primitive fashion. His food consisted of oatmeal and porridge, and the woman of the house faithfully kept for him the egg which her one hen laid every day. From his curiously.shaped bedroom he had to climb to his study by a stair composed of five unequal blocks of stone, and his furniture consisted of a tottering table and a still more defective stool." He had no notion of being too valuable in Europe to be hidden away in the inaccessible uplands of Asia. In other words, he was a true Moravian.
-The Periodical Accounts for September says: "THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD holds on its way with growing interest and power. Dr. Pierson continues his graphic and informing missionary letters from abroad, and we join with many in gratefully acknowledging his manifold labors on behalf of' missions by pen and word of mouth." The editors also express a kind senljle of the value of the extracts from foreign magazines.
-The .Macedonier brings the same accusation against the Dutch Govern- ment that English Christians bring against the British, with the further aggravation, that whereas England is ready to ruin a foreign race with opium for the sake of gain, Holland is destroying her own subjects.. In a notice of a Dutch book on the opium question, it says: "It supplies con- , vincing proof that the Netherlands are every day heaping new guilt upon themselves and murdering, body and soul, the Javanese who are under their jurisdiction. Yet it gathers nothing but facts, and for every statement is careful to give its authority."
-Missionary Lazarus, in the ])ansk .Missions-Blad, gives a pleasant instance of how the seeds of truth blow about in India: "Yesterday afternoon we preached before a Telugu village called Karapet, which we had already visited two or three times. Just as we arrived, the people, who are all lapidaries, came out to bid us welcome. They then begged us to sit down, and began to sing a Christian hymn, ' Come quickly, flinner, come to the Saviour.' The hymn was in Telugu, and many of them sang it well. I asked thelll where they had learned it,. and found that they had picked it out of a tract I had left there, and had set it to one of their own melodies. I then addressed them, and taking advantage of their calling, depicted to them Jesus as the Great Lapidary, who deals with our nature as they deal with rough rubiefl, to cause it to gleam forth in the glory of a pure gladness. Thus we find that the leaves of healing are not spread abroad to no purpose."
-We find in the Bombay Guardian of November 8th, 1890, the most particular account we have seen yet of the happy development of missionary activity among the English Friend@. It says: "Any Church which tries to exist without a missionary spirit will inevitably perish. Aggression is the soul of life. About twenty years ago the Society of Friends awoke to this fact, and in England turned its attention to the lapsed masses at its doors. Now nearly all its meeting-houses have a mission attached, seeking to help the poor in soul and body. Mothers' meetings, clothing clubs, adult and juvenile schools, and other similar agencies, are vigorously prosecuted. A marvellous increase of spiritual life in the Church itself has resulted. Its foreign mission work has likewise developed almost entirely during the past twent.y years. Up to 1875 only 1 missionary was in the field in India, now there are 14. Madagascar has 22 j China, 4 j Syria, 10 j Armenian Turkey, 9 j Zululand, 3. American Friends are also carrying on mission work among. the North American Indians, and in Mexico, Jamaica, Japan, China, Alaska,. and Ramallah in Palestine. Thursday of this week was to be observed at the headquarters of the society in London, as a day of united prayer for missions, including a Bible study on the spirit of missions, and then a survey of the needs of both the foreign and home work." Thousands of the children of this venerable society, now found in other denominations, will rejoice at this sudden outburst of life after long apparent decay. May she renew her youth, and while coming to this greater distinctness of evangelical apprehension and activity. long abide as a witness to essential, over against all the overvaluations of ceremonial, righteousness.
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY BEY. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
The Black Fellows of Australia. colonist said to them: .. The few blacks will ultimately accept the Gospel of a FrnST PAPEB-MOBA.VIAN MISSIONS. crucified Saviour and be blessed there- • by, but the whites will hinder your BY~EV. A. HARTMANN, MOBAVIANTOWN, ONT. work, as they did the mission work of other societies." The first hindrance (Continued from page 217.) arose from the discovery of the gold nelds at Mount Alexander; the gold dig- I. FIRST ATTEMPT AT MISSIO:ti WORK. gers, coming from Adelaide, passing the mission station, damaging them in many Being repeatedly pressed to com- ways., This might have been borne mence mission work among the blacks with, but.the vulgar and disgusting in- of Australia, the Brethren's Church trigues of unprincipled whites greatly (Moravian) sent out two missionaries, hindered the missionaries in their efforts Tl1ger and Spieseke, educated laymen, to attract the natives to the place and to commence the work. In 1850 they to gain their confidence. Then, after arrived at Melbourne. They were very the exhaustion of the gold, many of the kindly received by the Governor, Joseph European immigrants took up land in La Trobe ; and the Bishop of the Angli- the colony, and also about Lake Bogs. can Church, as well as many ministers The missionaries were given to under. of other denominations, met them with stand that if they did not voluntarily true Christian love, and encouraged leave the land (on which they had set- them to do the Lord's work. tled by permission of the Government) steps would be taken to drive them After a long search in the northern away. districts of Victoria for a suitable place, they came at last to Boga Lake, which Meanwhile the missionaries went on had been recommended to them as the in their work, being strengthened by very best place, because it was a favor- another brother (Hansen) sent out in ite resort of the blacks. This Boga January, 1854. They also succeeded in Lake is about 200 miles northwest of gaining the confidence of a number of Melbourne, close to the boundary of the natives: Spieseke wrote: .. We have Victoria and New South Wales, and not not yet enjoyed the happiness of ob- far from the mouth of the Loddon serving the work of grace and of the river, emptying itself into the Murray. Holy Spirit in the hearts of the blaoks. Brethren, have patience with us, and The missionaries went back to Mel- believe with us, for we have reason to bourne, buying all that was necessary to be thankful for what the Lord has done carryon the work, and were permitted for us. When we oonsider how the ene- and authorized by the Government to mies of the Gospel have exerted them- make use of a certain portion of land selves to keep the blacks away from us, facing the lake, to build up a settle- we must confess that it is a wonder we ment. They little thought at the time have so many gathered about us, and that attempts would be made by some notice how they begin to trust us." whites to claim the land they had set- tled on. Much less did they think that We put it down as a fact that the mis- by their attempt to hring the natives sionaries would have succeeded if the under the blessed influence of the Gos. Prince of this world had not been per- pel, they would stir up the hatred and mitted to frighten them away. ill-will of white neighbors. ., There is no space allotted us in your columns to go into detail, and so we Heavy rains, followed by large 1I.00ds, made it impossible for them to arrive at Boga Lake before October 21st, 1851. They commenced their work in fear • and hope, and they experienced what a '< must sum up the diRastrous retreat of the missionaries now bitterly regret the Moravian missionaries very briefly. that they acted upon the impulse of the moment, and thus cut short a work In 1855 a neighboring settler, Imp- which was sure to bear fruit to God's ported by the District Court, claimed to glory, as the sequel will show. have a right to the land granted to the miRsionaries by the Government. Mr. II. Tager, the leader, being in ill health, had no inclination to enter on a legal RENEWAL OF THE MISSION WORK. process, as. he was advised to do. When, therefore, he found that he was For want of space we shall have to not righted after he had lodged his com- make just a mere sketch of the very plaint with the Government, he grew blessed and very successful issue of this impatient, and declared that on July second attempt. The two brethren ap- 1st, 1856, he would dissolve the mis- pointed (Hagenauer and Spieseke) have sion, as the authorities had failed to in every respect justified the confidence support him, and he had no mind to go placed in them by the Church. (Brother to law. A private individual has a right Spieseke was not to blame for leaving to actin this manner, but not a re- .Lake Boga ; he was subordinate, and spor:sible agent of a Mission Cburch did not agree with the move.) On May like the Moravian, for it was a breach 7th, 1858, they landed in Melbourne, of confidence. and were well received by the Gover- nor, Sir Henry Barklay, and numerous We quote the words of the Mission Christian friends. They were directed Board of the Moravian Church as laid to the Wimmera district, as most suitbefore the Christian public: •• It is true able for work aDlong the natives, and, that our mission work in Australia has after much travelling, a site for the for the time come to an end, an occur- establishment of a mission was found rence well calculated to humble us.. on the river Wimmera, not far from the How often, and not without reason, has sheep station Antwerp, belonging to the perseverance of our missionaries Mr. Ellerman, by whom they were reo been lauded when they were laboring ceived with open arms and helped. under various trials and difficulties, Here they obtained a grant of land of and under apparently hopeless pros- three square miles. The place was pects of success. How they kept to called Ebenezer. On January 10th, 1859, their post in a simple faith! Think of after humbly imploring the Lord's blessthe work in Greenland; think of the ing on the undertaking, the two mis- West Indies, where many brethren and sionaries started for the chosen spot, sisters went willingly into the jaws of and commenced clearing. Two natives death, and then think of the work here at first, and more afterward, assisted in in Australia, commenced with much the work, and by this means became aclabor and outlay, and carried on £or a quainted with the brethren. Soon the number of years; think of the giving natives gave the missionaries to underup of this mission, the necessity of stand that a carroboree–a kind of rewhich we are not able to prove. Think ligious dance-would be given in their that the missionaries left their post be- honor, which the missionaries could not fore every hope. was vanished to main- prevent. Mr. Ellerman provided the tain their position ; and then that they workers with food and lodging at his returned home without, and contrary home in Antwerp, twenty.two miles to, the permission of the Board. This distant, till they had built a home for is a painful confession, but we do make themselves. After eight :lays, Hageit before our dear Christian friends, and nauer commenced a school for the bow at the same time before the Lord, young men, and several made pleasing that He may again be gracious unto us progress. The women and girls were and exalt us in due time. We add that not forgotten. Clothing material had benches ; they made bedsteads, and a been provided by friends in Germany, box, etc. The youth Corney joined and Brother Hagenauer, though quite them. When the missionaries gave inexperienced, cut out and directed the them some kitchen utensils they were sewing of the dresses and pants. Later as proud and happy as kings. The rest. some ready-made clothing arrived from of the blacks looked on with astonish- Melbourne, which was a real boon to ment and pleasure, and after a time the missionaries. At the Sunday service sought to follow their example. For a the audience presented a remarkable as- whole year the missionaries had to fight pect. All had washed, and, so to say, against the difficulties which Brose from dressedthemselvegtoo-thatis, one had the heathen rites and dances, and the on a shirt, another a pair of pants, a superstition and degraded habits of the third a coat, and so on. .They had people, with no appearance of life from divided their clothes among themselves, God among them. But at last, in Januso that they might all appear at church. ary, 1860, the light sprung up and chased Amid all the work and anxiety of estab- away th.e darkness in the heart of Peplishing a home in the wilderness, the per (before mentioned), and he became missionaries never lost sight of their a new creature in Christ Jesus, though proper errand. But at first tbe only not without much conflict and many answer to the heavenly message was; slips and falls. One day Brother "Give me something to eat; give me Spieseke showed some Scripture prints; clothes; or, as when old Charley, after among others, one of the flood, and ana long, earnest talk and prayer, which other of our Saviour on His knees in Hagenauer had with him, pointed to agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. A heaven and asked if there were many day or two later Pepper came to him sheep and oxen there. Another time in the evening, saying, .. I want to came Diggy, and asked Spieseke for speak with you about my state. I don't flour. ,. What for?" said Spieseke, .. you know what is the matter with me. I have have done no work." "No," said Diggy, wept over my sins; last night I cried .. but I will go to prayers to-morrow." aloud. Just now I went to the river for The blacks showed a willingness to do water, and I thought, and thought, and all that was required of them. Their thought how our Saviour went that behavior at the meetings surprised night into the garden, and prayed till Spieseke, who knew their restless He sweat drops of blood, and that for habits, and looked upon it as a hopeful me." These words he spoke with much sign for the future. At times the wan- feeling. From that time a great change dering spirit came upon the natives, and was observed in Pepper, and be.came they vanished almQBt to a man. But two evident also to his brethren, for out of of their number (young Bony and Pep- the fulness of his heart he spoke to per) began to understand some of the them of the way of salvation, and of benefits of the coming of the mission- the Saviour whom he had found. His aries, and stayed with them, in spite of joy in God's Word, and his loving and the entreaties of their wandering com- tractable behavior showed that the panions. After the mission house was Spirit of God was at work in his heart. finished and the missionaries took up One Sunday evening, as the missionaries their abode in Ebenezer, these two young were returning from a neighboring stamen expressed a desire to give up their tion, where they had preached, they wandering life and build a house of found Pepper, surrounded by fifty of their own, which they did, with the his people, preaching to them the glad help of the missionaries-building it of tidings of the Gospel. Great was the bark, and finishing it off with I/, brick joy of the missionaries, who begged chimney, as the missionaries had done him to proceed, and afterward thanked their own. Inside were table, stool, or and praised the Lord for His grace thul! bestowed. After a time the request of mony. Even old people and little chil- Pepper to be especially instructed, with dren gave pleasing proofs of their be- a view to baptism, was acceded to, as it lief in and love of the Saviour, and became more and more clear that the many of them are now, we fully believe, work in him was of God. The 12th of rejoicing before the throne of God, .. hav- August, 1860, was the day of his bap. ing washed their robes and made them tism, and also that of the consecration white in the blood of the Lamb." Al- of the small church which had been ready in 1868 the number of converts in erected, and for which a new bell had Ebenezer had reached twenty. But be- been sent from Germany. Rev. Chase fore this time other laborers had arrived took the long journey from Melbourne; -two brides for the .brethren Spieseke from Horsham came friends, and the and Hagenauer, in May, 1861, who found neighboring sheep farmers came to· plenty of work among the women and gether to celebrate the event. That day the sick, besides caring for their own will not soon be forgotten by those who households. In November of the same were present. Pepper received, at his year, Brother Francis came from Engown request, the name Nathaniel. land,and when he left, after two years, Hagenauer says: " We felt that the Brother Hartmann and his wife entered blessing of the Lord was with us on that day." Of Nathaniel's further on the ~or1r, in which they continueCl course we will here say that though a true s!3rvant of Christ, he was Ii very for eight years. weak one; and though at times his light burned brightly, to the joy of his RAMAH-YUCK. teachers, at others he triell their pa· tience and grieved them by inconsisten- In the mean time a new work had been cies, which indeed was scarcely to be commenced in Gippsland by Brother wondered at in one so recently a hea. Ha.genauer at the request of the Presthen. He was the first of a great num- byterian Church of Victoria, who promber of converts who received the Gos- ised to provide the means if the Morapel with joy, and turned with repent- vian Church would send the men. It ance and faith to the Saviour, proving was proposed to name it .. Ramah," to by their lives, and often by their preach- which the natives added" yuck," " our ip.g; theirlove to Christ and the breth- home," thus showing their joy and apren: '~ 'these many names could be preciation. In Ramah-yuck the faithgiven.. Young Bony (baptized Daniel) ful efforts of Brother Hagenauer and was, at his earnest request, accepted as his wife met with success 8.Il in Ebeneassistant to the brethren who went to zer. In 1866 the first convert was bapcommence a mission at Cooper's Creek, tized, and received the name of " James in the interior (of which a hrief men- Matthew," and five months later Tomtion will be made later), but died on the my and Jack. In 1868 the number had ;way thither. Philip and Rebecca were increased to seventeen, and by the end placed in charge of the orphanage at of 1869 had risen to twenty-six. Ebenezer, and were most useful and consistent Christians. Philip also as- But these missions are not remarksisted in preaching, and often accom_ able for numbers, nor for the shining p~nied the missionaries on their evan_ lights among their converts, though, as geliziug tours among the still wander- was said before, some of these put to ing tribes. Dick-a-Dick 'was baptized shame many white Christians by their on what proved his death-bed. His consistency. Moreover, as sad diseases childlike and strong faith rejoiced the -particularly consumption-carried off hearts of the missionaries, and aston- many of their number, and others left ished all who heard his dying testi- the mission station to obtain employ- ment, it is easy to see that the work done was in many cases lost to slght, and, indeed, we shall only know when we see them in glory, how many of thll8e poor lost ones were rescued and saved. mankind, and that some will certainly The schools at both stations reached a be among the multitude surrounding high standard, that in Ramah.yuck the throne of God and the Lamb. having gained the highest marks for fOllr successive years, the only school in All the glory be to His name. Amen. Victoria which could show such results. So much for the general opinion that -The African Times says that a stam. the blacks could not learn. An attempt pede is reported among the" traders on was made to found a mission in the in. the Congo from the right to the left terior, at Cooper's Creek, which was bank of the river, except one Dutch given up on account of cost, and be- house, to escape the impediments and cause Lutheran missionaries had en· taxations of the Free State. The traders tered the same field, probably not know- say that this heavy taxation not only ing that our brethren were already there. applies to liquor, but to land tax, and Spieseke, after faithfully serving in even to canoes and surf-boats, and to the mission at Ebenezer for twenty white and black employes. years, died happily in the midst of his people, and was honored by them in his -Rev. Dr. E. W. BIyden, at a public burial. His place was supplied by dinner tendered him down at Lagos, Brother Kramer and wife, and Brother said, recently, that the Mohammedan Bogish. population of ,Lagos has increased with astounding rapidity during the last The natives are dying out fast, and thirty years. In 1863, Captain Burton the half breeds are not allowed to stay estimated the Moslem population at from on tj:le stations, so there is a fear that 700 to 800. In 1889 Sir Alfred Moloney our work in Victoria will soon be over. put them down at 15,000, and he de- scribes them as " the most orderly, in· But other fields are opening in tellectual, and respectable class of citi. Queensland; the latest news being that zens, composed of all the tribes of three brethren have been appointed by Yoruba. 'l'his is tb e official testimony our Mission Board. The country has borne of this people in all the settlebeen explored by Hagenauer with a view ments. They have spread over the to a speedy commencement of a mission whole of our fatherland north of the to the degraded cannibals of Queens. Equator from the Atlantic to the Red land. If we understand rightly, the Sea, from Lagos to Morocco, and from Presbyterians will supply the funds, Sierra Leone to Egypt." and the Moravian Church the men. Two other missions-one at Lake Con. Release of Mr, Penzot.ti dah, supported by the Church of England. and one at York Peninsula, sup- We have at last the satisfaction of reported by Friends-are carried on by cording the fact, which has already be· Moravian missionaries with much pros- come widely known through the daily perity and success. Lack of time and and weekly newspapers, that the long space forbids our entering into details and wearisome imprisonment of Mr. in regard to the blessed results of this Penzotti in Callao has been terminated mission among the aborigines of Aus- by decree of the Supreme Court of Peru. tralia; but enough has been said to The terms of the decision are not yet show that the Gospel of our Lord Jesus reported; but a telegram, dated Lima, Christ is "the power of God unto sal· April 3d, and addressed to a gentleman vation to everyone that believeth;" to in New York who has taken great inter. show that there is no respect of persons est in the case, announces in a single before Him, but that the Holy Spirit is word that he has been liberated. 1m. " given to all that obey Him;" to show prisoned for more than eight months, that the blacks of Australia are also in- on an accusation presented and urged cluded in the plan of God's salvation of , by a Roman Catholio priest, the Rev. of the terms offered the natives by the Jose M. Castro; charged with the offence Spanish Governor. He says the specifi- of violating the law in holding unauthor- cations of the Governor's trumped-up ized religious services; kept in a dun- charges against him were of three sorts : geon after he had once and again been (1) that I had been harboring the re- adjudged guiltless by the tribunals be- bellious Metalamin chiefs, feasting them fore which his adversary had summoned and buildingthem a house at Kiti. Also, him; denied the privilege of bail; (2) that I had been having meetings shrinking with inexpressible loathing with them and the Kiti king to influ- from the filth and impurity of the cell ence them against the Spanish rule. He in which he spent two hundred and also said, (3) that he had positive proof fifty nights with thirty or forty crim- that I was one of the principal leaders inals ; refusing to listen to the whis- in planning the breastworks at Oua.
pered suggestion that proceedings might And (4) as the mission was responsible be discontinued if he would agree to for the present outbreak of the Metala- leave Peru; constrained to send his min tribe, he did not think that we daughters out of the country, lest with- would be permitted to carryon our out a father's protection they might be_ work much longer.
comlt"victims of a foul consph:acy ; and ever hopeful that his sufferings would -Bishop A. W. Wilson, of the Meth- eventually lead to the promulgation of odist Episcopal Church, South, says religious liberty in Peru-he is now " that the agitation in Japan of the revi- vindicated and set free. Eight months sion treaty has affected foreigners in of imprisonment and the exp~nse of general, and missiona.ries to some ex- defending himself in three courts is tent along with the rest." Missionaries, what the administration of justice in he says, " have to be very careful about Peru awards to an innocent man! One their political positions.
cannot but ask What penalty would "This treaty agitation has raised up an have been in:tlicted upon him if the anti-foreign party, who want the Chris- outer door of the warehouse in which ti:l.n missions conducted only by native he talked to a small company of men Christians. 'I'hey want the natives to about the Gospel of Christ had not been formulate Christian creeds for them- locked, and if admission had been grant- selves. They do not want Christian ed to people without a ticket.-Bible creeds formulated for them by the West- &ciety Record. ern nations. They are fully able "to -Sir Edwin Arnold says, in the Daily understand Christianity and to formu- Telegraph: .. A new Japan is definitely late from the Bible creeds to suit themborn-constitutional, progressive, ener- selves. The idea of a representative getic, resourceful, sure to become great, government, as we have it, is not comand, perhaps, almost again as happy as prehended ; it is not in the mind of the she was of yore. Let the nations of the Japanese people. West receive and welcome as she de· serves this immeasurably ancient em- .. For 2500 years they have taken all pire which thus renews her youth in law from the Mikado, and I doubt not if the fountain cf constitutional liberties the Mikado would to-morrow withdraw and institutions." the Constitution, which gives repre- sentation to the people, the great mass of the people would quietly accept it as -The Daily Pacific Commercial Ad- coming from the source of all law-the vertiser of Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, Mikado. There would probably be a of March 14th, contains along letter from few murders among the student class, Rev. F. E. Rand, written at Ponape, to who would resist it, and there it would friends at Honolulu, giving an account end."
EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS
III.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
Among other Alliances for Prayers for "Even so, come, Lord Jesus (Rev. Missions, we call attention to the xxii: 20). Prayer Alliance, of whi6h Miss Mabel B. Atwater, 334 Lexington Avenue, New " And this Gospel of the kingdom shall York City, is Secretary. It reads as be preached in all the world for a witfollows: ness unto all nations; and then shall the end come (Matt. xxiv: 14). Walch " In the Year of our Lord 1891. Shall and pray." the generation now upon the face of the earth hear the Gospel? Likewise we call attention to the Prayer Union for Arabia and the Ara- "First. It is our Lord's last command bian Mission. Gen. xvii : 18. (Mark 16 : 15). 'Every creature' cannot possibly mean only those on one Aden, Arabia, January 1, 1890. third of the globe. It is our Saviour's will (1 Tim. 2 : 4, 6). The Arabian Mission, begun in an- "Second. This generation will be lost swer to prayer and sustained by conunless they hear the Gospel (Rom. 1 : 20, 21, 28, and Ps. 9 : 17). stant appeals to the Throne of Grace, " Third. If this generation hear the comes to its friends with a New Year's Gospel, IDe must carry it to them, for to us the work has been committed (2 Cor. request. 5 : 19 ; 1 Tim. 1 : 11). On the threshold of Arabia, face to " Fourth. We cannot serve the next generation. Are we with David serving face with the greatness and difficulties our own generation (Acts xiii: 36)? of the work, and deeply conscious of " In the heathen world there are about 1,000,000,000 souls; 30,000,000 a year our own weakness, we ask you, who go into eternity without God. Our Lord said: ' Go ye into all the world have already shown your sympathy for and preach the Gospel to every creature.' Out of 35,000,000 Protes- the cause of Christ in Arabia, to join tant church-members only about 6000 have obeyed this command, one in us in stated, fervent prayer: every 5800. Evangelized, 116,000,000 ; unevangelized, 1,000,000,000. The field 1. That God's promise in regard to is the world. 'Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.' the children of Ishmael may speedily " And whatsoever ye shall ask in My be fulfilled, and that His blessing may name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son (John xiv :13). rest upon every effort put forth to give " Pray ye therefore the Lord of the them the Gospel. I harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest (Matt. ix : 38). 2. That many may be led to choose PRAYER ALLIANCE. for their field of labor this neglected .. , Depending upon the Holy Ghost to portion of the Lord's vineyard. bring it to my remembrance, I pledge myself to pray daily, IN FAITH, for the 3. For a special blessing upon the evangelization of the whole world during the present century; and the speedy missionaries of the Arabian. Mission: coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.' that they may live very close to the Master; that t.heir lives and words may ever point men to Christ; that God may be pleased to use their efforts in bring- ing many of the children of Ishmael unto Himself.
Will you join us in making these ob- jects a special burden of prayer at your Sabbath morning devotions throughout the year?
"The wilderness and the solitary plllce shall be glad for them, the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose."
" He is faithful who hath promised."
.TAMES CANTINE, S. M. ZWEMER. " Speed on, ye heralds, bringing The latest phase of the Uganda revolu- Life to the desert slain ; tion-the flight of Mwanga, his appeal Till in its mighty winging, to the Church he persecuted, the vic- God's Spirit comes to reign. tory of the Christians. the J:eturn of From death to new·begetting, Mwanga, and his re·establishment in God shall the power give; the kingdom surrounded by chiefs and Shall choose them for crown.setting councillors professing the Christian And Ishmael shall live. faith-is a chapter in praise of meekness and mercy. In Uganda to.day the .. So speaks the promise, bringing , meek inherit the earth' and Iorgive. The age of Jubilee ness is proved to be the noblest re- To every home and tenting, venge." From Tadmor to the sea. The dead to life are risen; Goodness is sometimes better than The glory spreads abroad ; greatness. A missionary in India was The desert answers heaven, so feeble mentally that he could not Hosannas to the Lord !" learn the language. After some years -J.G.L. he asked to be recalled, frankly saying that he had not sufficient intellect for The St, Paul of Uganda. the work. A dozen missionaries, how- ever, petitioned his Board not to grant When Stanley urged Christendom to his request, saying that his goodness send missionaries to Mtesa's kingdom,' gave him a wider influence among the Mackay joined a party of eight to found heathen than any other missionary at an industrial mission to the Victoria the station. A convert when asked, Nyanza. In three years he alone sur- " What is it to be a Christian ?" replied, vived. For fourteen years, in jeopardy "It is to be like Mr. –" naming the every hour, he was yet the soul, the good missionary. He was kept in In- hand, the head of this great and model dia. He never preached a sermon; movement. The London Times called but when he died hundreds of heathen him ".The St. Paul of Uganda" : as well as many Christians mourned him and testified to his holy life and char· " He built, cut type, translated, print- acter. ed, engineered, navigated, diploma- tized; he de~ounced crime, preached It causes sorrow to many to learn that .the Gospel, acted as schoolmaster and Mrs. Phraner, wife of Rev. Stanley K. doctor; he befriended Emin Pasha, Phraner, died at Chang Mi Laos, in Junker and Stanley, and strove, alas Northern Siam, one month after their in vain! to save Hannington from the arrival. Mr. Phraner graduated last results of unconscious but heroic folly; spring at Princeton Theological Semi. he controlled the court so far as it could nary, was ordained by the Presbytery of be controlled; protected the brave Westchester, was married, and imme- Christian boys, and, in a word, through diately set out as a missionary to Siam. baptisms of blood and fire, won a He is a son of Rev. Wilson Phraner, church in the wilderness for the dear D.D., for many years pastor at Sing Lord and Master whom he served with Sing, N. Y. an absolutely single eye. No such story of Christian heroism has ever teen told Dr. Storrs, of Brooklyn, the President in our day. The boys of Uganda who of the American Board, referring to died in horrible tortures rather than whiskey in Africa, is said to have used deny their faith will rank with the this terse but telling sentence recently: noblest martyrs of Christian history. ., Every dollar gained in the Congo rum Every line in our Lord's Sermon on the trade ought to burn in the palm of a Mount finds its illustration and con- firmation in this extraordinary history. man who gains it, as if it were a part Proposed Colony on the Bellamy Plan. of the blazing asphalt that makes the pavement of the infernal regions." A ,despatch from Hutchinson, Kan., says: "John Caplieg, of Buffalo, N. Y., Baptist Missionary Centenary in passed through this city, March 26th, on 1892.-Next year the Baptists will cele- his way home from Beaver City, in No. brate the centenary of the formation of MlLn's-LlLnd, where it is proposed to lotheir Missionary Society. It is the old- cate IL co-operative colony to be organest organization of the kind in existence, ized on the Bellamy plan. He said that excluding, of course, the Society for the he expected the colony would be formed Propagation of the Gospel, founded this spring in time to put in crops, if nearly a century previously. William possible. The colony, he thinks, will Carey, of Leicester, Baptist minister, comprise about 500 people to start with, schoolmaster, and shoemaker, first raised and it is to be strictly co-operative." the question of modern missions in 1786. but not until 1792 was the Society Attempts similar to this have been launched. Historic dates and places made from time to time, but the bottom linked with the So.ciety·s inauguration has dropped out of them all Booner or will determine the time and centres of later. The only perfect state is that the forthcoming services. Carey built on Christianity. kindled the flame by a missionary sermon preached on May 31st at Notting- The revival among the Telugus in ham; on October 2d the Society was the last few months has been the notable formed at Kettering; and, on March event of the year. Four thousand con- 20th following, he was ordained for mis- verts in that mission have put on Christ sionary work at Leicester. At the open- in baptism. Upon one Lord's day 1671 ing meeting of the Society £13 28. 6d. was were baptized in a little over six hours, subscribed, which .seems trifling com- two men only at a time administering pared with the current average annual the ordinance. It must have been a income, between seventy and eighty grand sight to witness on the forenoon thousand pounds. The Society has a of that dllY the thousands of thirsty inbright record of labor in the East and quirers, many of whom had travelled West Indies, and latterly, since 1878, miles, sitting upon the ground in the on the Congo, where it employs over broad commons drinking in with rapt twenty mISSIOnaries. A centenary attention every word that fell from Dr. thanksgiving of £100,000 has been Clough's lips, as he expounded from proposed, and the increase of the Soci- the text, ., Come unto Me, all ye that ety's yearly income to £100,000. The labor and are heavy laden, and I will young folks connected with the Baptist give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, chapels and Sunday-schools are invited and learn of Me ; for I am meek and to raise one fourth of the form€r sum. lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest To the 120 missionaries and 306 evan- unto your souls." The words given of gelists at present in the field it is con- the Spirit to the speaker were indeed templated by the Society to send forth .words of eternal life to the hearers, and a hundred additional men and women. brought rest to many souls whose bodies The Baptist Union of New Zealand has were wearied by the long journey to this resolved to hold simultaneous centenary " Bethel" of their souIs. Thirty of Dr. gatherings. Once more I notice that Clough's co-workers assisted him in the "A Frii'md" has sent £1000 to the examination of the candidates for baptreasurer of the Baptist Missionary So- tism, and none were baptized of whose ciety. a similar amount having been conversion they did not find good evisent by the same person at the begin- dences. ning of several recent years. In this Ongole station the revival has been continuous now since 1877, and it may be doubted whether in all mission- sticks, and objects used in their idola- ary history another such case is to be try, and made a great bonfire of them. found. Mr. Mackay says that over 500 houses were cleansed of idolatry in his pres. The Right Heir, e:nce."
When the excellent Christian Schwartz Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins, it may be re- was about to end his long and devoted membered, were to join Mr. Pentecost missionary life in India, he said, in view and assist him in his evangelistic work of all the Lord's goodness to him, "I in India with their singing. In are. make Christ my heir"- and then by his cent letter to the Hartford ReligiCYU8 will made provision as far as his world- Herald a member of the family writes as ly means would go, for carrying on the follows: work of Christ among the heathen after he would be gone. We can think of but " On the 17th of November we reached one addition to this plan: to make Calcutta. Here we stayed until the 1st Christ first of all the partner of our daily of January, 18111, helping Dr. Pentecost toils and profits. in his meetings, and doing a great deal of singing for the missionaries. We We are so crowded with matter of were entertained by Bishop Thoburn, great importance that we omit this the Methodist Bishop of India, and by month any distinct Department of the pastor of the M. E.church there. Monthly Concert. Our readers will not The Methodists are by far the strongest miss this, inasmuch as the whole num- in India of any of the denominations, ber is maiuly given to Africa, and is and they are ce~tainly doing a great and unusually rich in material from various grand work. About Christmas time Dr. valuable sources upon different phases Pentecost decided to turn his attention of the languages, customs, oppressions, to the educated natives, and as they and needs of the Dark Continent. were not appreciative of Christian song, he·advised us to make a tour of the cities Says the Ewminer: "The Rev. Mr. of India, helping the missionaries as Mackay has been in the Island of For- we go. So we left Calcutta, January mosa for a great many years. About ,a 1st, and next day arrived at Benares, dozen years ago he planned to visit a the seat of Hinduism. We sawall their district containing a number of villages vile worship, and the great ruins of bearing the name of Ka-le-oan. Not Buddha's first preaching places.••• being able to go he sent II native preach- We visited Cawnpore, the scene of the er. Mr. Mackay was enabled a few worst atrocities of the mutiny of 1857. weeks ago to visit the region. He Then up to Noradabad, where was being found the people having a wonderfully held the North India Conference. We clear conception of the Gospel and had some fine meetings, and got a peep wearied with their idol worship. They at the executive missionary body. told him that the Mandarin would not let them throw up idolatry, declaring "We have held a song service and that they would be rebels against Chi- sometimes two or three in every city we nese authority if they did so. Mr. have been in except Delhi, where we Mackay saw that official and gained his were not entertained. We ha"e helped consent to let the people do as they in the conferences and in every place liked. 'fhe people held a council, and have sung to large audiences of Euroat once determined to forsake idolatry. peans." Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins planned A temple recently built was turned over to sail for home on February 28th, and to the missionary, and became a Chris- stop in Egypt, Palestine, Italy, Gertian meeting:house. Parties went about many, and England, reaching home by the villages gathering up idols, incense midsummer.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
BY MRS. 1. T. GRACEY.
Woman's Foreign Missionary 22,156 subscribers, a children's paper, Union of Friends in America. Cor- the King's Messenger, is also published, responding Secretary, Eliza C. Arm- with 20,315 subscribers, Boston, Mass. strong, Centre Valley, Ind. A large amount of miscellaneous litera- ture is issued by the society. The consolidation of the various branches of the woman's societies un- Woman's Baptist Foreign Misder one board has been accomplished, sionary Society of the West.-Orwith a department of missionary litera- ganized 1871. Corresponding Secretary, ture, one of junior and juvenile work, Mrs. A. M. Bacon, 3032 South Park another of systematic Christian giving, Avenue, Chicago, TIl. and another of interest and organization. Home report of this society: Number Number of auxiliary societies 224, of circles 1243, number of guilds and with 3376 members, and 2140 members young people's societies 233, mission of children's bands (number of bands not bands 309. The fields occupied are the given). Amount of money received dur- same as those occupied by the society of ing year, $23,164. the East. The same periodicals also are circulated. The board supports 18 missionaries, 8 native evangelists and Bible readers, Foreign work: Twenty-eight mission- 51 children in homes or boarding- aries are supported, 3 of whom are medschools, 7 day schools with 304 pupils. ical; 79 schools, in whole or in part, with an aggregate of 1759 pupils; and 31 Work is carried on or aided in Mexi- native teachers and 49 Bible women co, Japan, India, Syria, China, Indian have also been supported. Territory, and in Alaska. During the year the Carpenter Memo- Friend's Missionary .Advocate is the rial Hospital, at Bassein, has been official organ. This paper has been opened. Receipts for the year, $34,674. owned by Mrs. Esther Tuttle Pritchard since its establishment, in 1886, until Woman's Baptist Foreign Misthe past year, when a centralorganiza- sionary Society of California.-Corretion was effected, she presented the sponding Secretary, Mrs. L. P. Huntspaper to the union. man, 1264 Eleventh Avenue, East Oak- land, Cal. BAPTIST WOMAN'S BOARDS. This society has been organized 16 Woman's Baptist Foreign Mission- years. Previous to 1889 only one misary Society.-Organi~ed 1871. Cor- sionary was supported, who was staresponding Secretary, Mrs. O. W. Gates, tioned on the Congo. Now they sup- Newton Centre, Mass. port 4 missionaries, 2 to Hakkas, of China, 1 at Seudai, Japan, and 1 at The home work of this society is rep- Swatow, China. resented by 1440 circles, or contributing churches, 702 mission bands, and 15,578 Receipts for past year, $2214. No re" members. Amount of money raised for port of home work.
year ending March, 1890, $99,007. Woman's Baptist Missionary So- The society has work among the Bur- ciety of Oregon. -Corresponding Sec- retary, Mrs. Clinton Latourette, Oregon mese, Karens, Shans, Chins, Kachins, City. Eurasians, Telugus ; missions in China, Assam, Japan; Congo Mission, Africa, This society reports 31 circles, with a and Europe. membership of about 500, 7 children's bands, with 220 members, and 11 young Fifty-one missionaries are supported; people's societies, with 345 members. 9 sent past year; 171 schools with 6119 Amount of money raised from October, pupils, and 67 Bible women. 1889 to October, 1890, $1730.
Official organ, the Helping Rand, with One missionary is supported in Now- its Church Board. It helps to support gong, Assam. and contributions made work in Shanghai, China. Has 2 misto support Bible readers in Burma and sionaries-I a physician-and 3 assist. in, China. ant teachers. Has 1 boarding.school with 12 pupils. Work is also carried on Woman's Missionary Union Aux- in Holland in addition to home work. iliary to Southern Baptist Conven- Receipts for year, $3216. tion.-Organized 1888. Corresponding Secretary, Miss Annie W. Armstrong, 10 Christian Woman's Board of Mis- East Fayette Street, Baltimore, Md. sions.-Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. Lois A. White, No. 160 North Delaware Prior to 1888 the Baptist women of Street, Indianapolis, Ind. the South had been working for missions, but without a general organiza- Twenty·nine States report 882 auxtion. Auxiliary societies 1469. iliary societies connected with this bo.ard-156 organized the past year. The society contributes to the work Present number of members 15,086, of the board in Brazil, Japan, China, young people's circles 49, children's Cuba, Italy, Mexico, Africa, besides bands 380. work at home among the Indians and colored people of the South. Official organ,' Missionary Tidings, with 4459 subscribers. A children's The society has a general depot for paper, Little Builders at Work, has a submissionary literature in the city of Bal- scription of. 2000. Amount of money timore, where can possibly be found the raised for the year, $45,166. largest variety of missionary le!,fiets in the country. Literature has been sent The society has work in India, out to 14 States, and over 100,000 Jamaica West Indies, and in Montana leaflets and pamphlets have been dis- in the home field. An orphanage is tributed during the year. supported at Bilaspur, India, with 19 orphans, and a school with 27 pupils, Amount of money raised, $21,398 for and a hospital has been established in foreign missions, and $10,161 for home India. Number of missionaries or formlSSlons. Official organ, the Baptist eign workers not given in report. Basket, Louisville, Ky. Woman's Auxiliary to the Board Free Baptist Woman's Missionary of Missions of the Protestant Epis- Society. – Corresponding Secretary, copal Church.-Corresponding Secre- Mrs. J. A. Lowell, Danville, New Hamp- tary, Miss Julia. C. Emery, 21 Bible shire. House, New York.
The home work of this society is rep- During the past year a junior auxiliary, resented by about 250 auxiliary societies modelled upon the woman's auxiliary, and 57 children's bands. Amount of has been formed, and a paper called the money raised during year, $7694. Peri- Young Ohristian Soldier started. The odical, the Missionary Helper, with 1250 woman's auxiliary has its workers in 51 subscribers. dioceses and nine missionary jurisdic- tions. Besides their domestic missions, The main work of the society is in the auxiliary aids the work in China, India. The principal stations are Mid- Japan, Africa, Mexico, and Alaska. napore and Balasore, where zenana, Six missionaries have been sent to the school, and medical work are success- :field the past year. fully carried on. Twenty teachers, 5 Bible women, 13 male teachers, in all 49 The aggregates are all given for parish persons, have been supported. An Of- ladies' aid work and other mission work phanage at Balasore has 35 children, and combined. It appears that of an aggre 7 day schools with 270 pupils. gate collection of $542,197, about $36, 838 is spent in foreign work. But the Woman's Board of the Seventh- North American Indian work is includ- Day Baptists.-Corresponding Secre- tary, Miss Mary F. Bailey, Milton. Wis.
This society works in connection with ed in domestio missions. It is impos- eties, 437 auxiliaries, 176 mission bands; sible to follow here the classification members in auxiliaries 10,443, members which is made where the home and in bands 4869; total membership 15,- foreign work are in separated societies. 312. Amount of money raised from April, 1889 to April, 1890, $32,117. 'Woman's Foreign Missionary So- ciety of the Reformed Episcopal This board has work among the Ind- Church.-Organized May, 1889. Corre- ians of the Northwest, missions in sponding Secretary, Mrs. William H. China, Formosa, Central India, Island Allen, Philadelphia, Pa. of Trinidad, the New Hebrides, and British Guiana. Foreign statistics not This society, so recently organized, given in report. Periodical, Monthly raised during the year $4077. One mis- Letter Leaflet, with a circulation of 5500. sionary is supported in Cawnpore, India, and another went to Calcutta under the Woman's Foreign Missionary So- auspices of the Woman's Union Mission- ciety of the Presbyterian Church in ary Society. Money has been sent to Canada (Eastern Section}.-Organized Sierra Leone, Africa, to open a training- 1876. Secretary, Mrs. J. T. Thompson, school, and some aid given to Japan. 111 Spring Garden Road, Halifax, N. S.
Oa.nadia.n Societies. This society is represented by 6 Pres- byterian societies, 112 auxiliaries, 5 Woman's Missionary Society of young people's branches, 46 mission the Methodist Church (Canada).- bands. Work is supported in the same Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. E. S. fields as those of Western Division. Strachan, 163 Hughson Street, North Receipts for year $5340. Hamilton, Canada. Woman's Baptist Foreign Mis- This society, territorially, is divided sionary Society of Ontario.-Corre. into 5 branches, viz., Eastern, Western, sponding Secretary, Miss Buchan, 165 Central, Nova Scotia, and New Bruns- Bloor Street, East Toronto, Canada. wick, and Prince Edward Island branches. Number of contributing circles 173, number of bands 81. Money received Home force: Auxiliaries 358, memo for the year $7471. bers 8020, mission bands 153, members 4462. Amount of money received for ,Work is carried on in India at Akidu, year $25,560-an advance of over $3254 Cocanada, Tuni, and Samulcotta. At over preceding year. Cocanada a flourishing boarding·school is supported, with 26 pupils. The society has a prosperous work in Japan, a boarding.school at Tokyo, and Woman's Baptist Foreign Misseveral day schools. Also a large work sionary Society of Eastern Ontario among the French in Canada, and dur- and Quebec.-Corresponding Secretary, ing the year a French institute has been Miss Greene, 478 St. Urbain Street, established in Montreal with 43 pupils. Montreal, Canada.
Theyhave a work also among the Ind- This society has work the same as the ians and Chinese on the Pacific Coast; society in Western Ontario. It has support 18 missionaries, 12 in Japan about 50 circles. Money raised during and 6 at home. Periodical, Missionary year $1530. Other statistics not given Outlook, Toronto. in report.
Woman's Foreign Missionary So- Woman's Auxiliary to Diocesan, ciety of the Presbyterian Church in Domestic, and Foreign Missions of Canada (Western Division). – Or- the Church of England, Diocese of ganized 1876. Foreign Secretary, Mrs. Toronto.-Secretary, Mrs. W. Cum- L. J. Harvie, 80 Bedford Road, Toronto, mings, 321 Markham Street, Toronto, Canada. Canada.
This society has 25 Presbyterian soci- Number of adult branches 51, number of junior branches 17, members 1407. Periodical department in The Canadian Ohnrch Magazine and M'i,Ssion News. The human family living to-day con- Total amount of money raised for sists of about 1,500,0'00.000 individuals. 1890, including value boxes of clothing In Asia there are now approximately to needy missions, $12,236. about 800,000,000, densely crowded; on an average 120 to the square mile. In General Statistics, Europe there are 350,000,000, averaging 100 to the square mile-not so crowd- BY BEV. D. L. LEONARD. ed, but everywhere dense, and at all points over- populated. In Africa there Missionary Ammunition. – Every are 210,000,000. In America, North and pastor ought to see that every pew is South, there are 110,000,000 relatively supplied with the diagram first pub- thinly scattered. In the islands, large lished by the Church Missionary Society and small, probably 10,000,000. The of London, which pictures to the eye at extremes of the white and black are as a glance, and most effectively, the 5 to 3 ; the remaining 700,000,000 interspiritual condition of humankind by mediate brown and tawny. Of the race, means of a rectangle 4 by 6 inches, 500,000,000 are well clothed, that is, printed in various colors, to distinguish wear garments of some kind to cover the principal religions and divisions of their nakedness; 700,000,000 are semithe Christian Church, and divided into clothed, covering inferior parts of the some 1500 squares, each one represent- body; 250,000,000 are practically naked. ing a million souls. Thus the Jews oc- Of the race, 500,000,000 live in houses cupy but 8 squares, the Greek Church partly furnished with the appointments 84 squares, Protestants 125, Roman of civilization; 800,000,000 in huts or Catholics 190, Mohammedans 170, but caves with no furnishing; 260,000,000 the heathen 856, the latter and most have nothing that can be called a home, palpable fact being properly emphasized are barbarous and savage. The range by so many squares in jet black. And is from the topmost round-the Anglothen, to show what slight impression Saxon civilization, which is the highest has been made, what a tremendous task known-down to naked savagery. The remains to be performed after 19 centu- portion of the race lying below the line ries of Christian history, after 100 years of human condition is at the very least of Protestant modern (playing at) mis- three-fifths of the whole-900,000,000. sions, those awful 856 inky squares contain 2-only 2-near the centre that are -The various Protestant churches of snow white-standing, of course, for the Canada sustain 6 missionary societies, handful of converts made from heathen- and contribute to the foreign work an ism. What Christian heart can gaze aggregate of $165,000 annually (of unmoved upon such a lamentable de- which $100,106 is expended through the lineation? Presbyterian Board), have Ill3 missiona- ries in the fiela: and 380 native laborers, Then add to this another set of fig- and have gathered 8172 members into ures, which portray the physical, intel- their churches. lectual, and social status of mankind, and we have a working basis for an –The indications are unmistakable overwhelming appeal for a general and that the Huguenots in France, after sublime outburst of evangelizing faith centuries of extreme depression, and and zeal. And without doubt never after even lad apostasy from faith and were the facts relating to the condition fervor, are at length awakening to new of the race upon the material side set spiritual life. This fact appears espeforth so adequately in such brief space cially in the aggressive work undertaken as in the statement which follows. It to spread a pure gospel both at home has been before the public for some and abroad. They number some 600,000, years, and may therefore be quite famil- and are gathered into about 650 iar to many; and yet it cannot be reviewed and pondered too often: churches, though 30,000 or more are the seat of the IIiission. The work acsCdttered, and destitute of pastors and complished is made palpable in part oy places of worship. They sustain 3 Bible 125 chapels and prayer· houses, 341 consocieties, 3 book and tract societies, gregations, 6367 communicants, 223 many Young Men's Christian Associa- Sunday-schools, with 8151 scholars, and tions, 2 theological seminaries, 2 schools 194 day-schools, with 236 teachers and for evangelists, 4 societies for carrying 4423 scholars. Of these schools 171 are on evangelistic work, and a host of col- primary, 15 are high caste Hindu girls' porteurs. The annual contributions schools, 3 are Mohammedan, 3 boardfor home missions amount to $100,000, ing, and 1 industrial. In addition a and for foreign missions, $80,000. But college was opened in 1885, which now so limited are their resources and so has a teaching force of 19 and 361 stuheavy their burdens, they have sent one dents, and having as its chief object the of their number-Professor L. J. Ber- training of teachers and gospel workers rand-to America to raise here, if pos- of every kind. Money has also been sible, $20,000. raised ($15,000) for a hospital in Guntur.
Methodist Protestant Church.- -The Moravian Church, the pioneer Secretary, Rev. F. T. Tagg, Easton, missionary body in modern times, I!nte. Md. dating Carey and the Baptist Missionary Society by 60 years, with its" home .. Report for eight months ending De- membership of but 21,360, has in its cember 31st, 1890 : missions 30,591 communicants, and 87,263 in its congregations. Ten coun. RECEIPTS. tries are occupied, with 135 stations; 36 men and women were sent out last yelll, Foreign Fund..•..••.••…………• $3,452.12 making 355 Europeans and native as. Children'S Day…………..•……. 5,718.74 sistants in the field, with 1663 other Album F'und . . . . . . . . .• . . . . . . . . .. .. . 142.71 native helpers. In 113 Sunday-schools SpeciaL ……….•………………• 1,319.06 15,362 scholars are taught, and in 235 day-schools 20,629. The receipts for Balance, May 1 …… _. . ••• .. ….•. . 1,250.03 1889 were $100,115, of which upward of $40,000 came from non – Moravian Total. ……•…••…•••.•…….. $11,882.66 sources. Expenditnre•..•..•••…•..••.•.••… 11,371.15 The lal'gest mission is found in the Balance, Dec. 31…….. ..•. ………. $511.51 British and Danish West Indies, with 49 stations and 39,420 in the congrega. This society has 2 stations in Japan; 2 tions. Next come Surinam and Deme- churches, with 205 members; 15 mission· rara, South America, with 27,534 adaries and teacher/!; 3 Sunday.schools, herents, and South Africa, with 13,084. with 350 scholars; a college with 50 stu· Gnadenthal, the oldest station in South dents; an Anglo.Japanese school, with Africa, is to celebrate its centennial an attendance of 152, and a school for next year by the erection of a new women with 90 pupils, in all 292 under church, to cost £2000, of which the peo. instruction. A kindergarten will soon pIe on the spot hope to raise £1500. be opened, and the first native Japanese preacher has been chosen and will -The Syria mission of the Presbysoon be ordained. terian Board, North-especially with its large and thoroughly furnished printing General SynGd of the Lutheran establishment, and its Bible house at Church.-Secretary, Rev. George Scholl, Beirut-is one of the most important in D.D., Baltimore, Md. the entire foreign field. Besides Beirut, stations are maintained at Sidon, Trip- This society has 1 mission in Africa and 1 in India, and sustains in all 13 representatives from America, and 171 native assistants. The India field is in the Madras Presidency, upon the Bay of Bengal, and among the Telugus, covers about 5000 square miles, and contains 1,000,000 of inhabitants. Guntur is ali, Abeih, and Zahleh. This tahle progress has been for nearly fifteen will show how steady and general the years: STATISTICS OF THE SYRIA MISSION.
1876. 1885. 1886. 1887. 1888. 1889.
– – – – — – – – – – – American Missionaries .. _. .. _… . .. . …….. . 28 38 37 34 35 42 Native Laborers . ….. ' ………………….. . 120 Stations and Out-Stations ……………….. . 65 189 179 171 201 201 95 91 96 94 94 Church-Members ……………………….. . 573 1,301 1,440 1,493 1,534 1,615 Added on Profession…. .. . ……………… . 75 130 153 104 63 98 Average Congregations ………………….. . 2,642 3,891 4,293 4,289 4,522 4,640 Sabbath-Schools ••.•.. . ………•••……… 40 S. S. Scholars …………•……………….. 1,540 73 68 66 81 88 Total Schools. . ………… .. . ………… . 80 3,804 3.746 3,732 4,620 4,966 136 121 125 141 142 Total Pupils …………………………… . 3,509 5,665 5,344 5,391 6,299 6,172 This table of statistics, and the one summary covering eighteen others, which follows, though in a condensed while from four, the Free Methodform, are taken from the very valuable ists, the African Methodists, the Bap- American Board Almanac of Missions. tist Convention of the United States, Facts are set forth in detail concerning and the Friends, no report was reten of the principal societies, with a ceived : 'FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETIES OF THE UNITED STATES, 1889-90.
~ .; AMERICAN ~ ~ ci ]"o'" ~. .~'c"~.; LABORERS. '<""3 0 '~" 00 :og.~a SOCIETIES. rn.; ".8 "03 w "~ .:i 0""3,8" .;J .S ""..~- .co $ "03 S ."c 0 ""… ~" ~ 'c:3~ ….:I 'C E,,"~ rn ;:;I I'""< ~ 0 'C … ~" .":: "'C ,,~ 8~ ~ .c p~…. z" -;; 'C 0 Z 0 -<j —— — — —— — —— Meth. Epis.,North 52 :1 159 135 3,018 559 42,632! 5,563 30,049 $282,997 $885,197 Presb. Bd., North. 99 240 336 1,302 320 26,794' 2,753 23,935 Am. Board(Cong ) 96 200 333 2,417 387 36.256 4,554 47,319 lii,494 794,066 762,947 Bapt.. Miss. Union 64 1,382 131 200 1,343 712 81,072 7,099 20,615 54,844 440,788 Meth.Epis., South 4,014 244,176 Ref. Ch. (Dutch).. 18 . i4i 34 "35 97 "in 5,336 552 '4',i56 . fi,D03 117,000 15 26 364 Protestant Epis .. 52 168 74 39 210 38 2,631 264 3,876 5,527 189,183 ~aPt. South. Conv 37 124 33 45 86 62 2.213 409 675 4,681 109,174 resb.Bd.. South. 18 98 37 41 50 31 1,207 360 1,207 4,317 107,627 Unit. Presb Bds. 16 198 26 44 459 391 9,568 1,722 10,687 7,167 100,539 E ili~te:sn ~.t~~~ ~~: 113 151 ~ ~ –.: -.-: ~.495 3,351 –.:,871 ~,187 _278,914 1 Totals . . . . . . . . 580 3,474 1,054 1,296 10,020 2,721 236,187 25,963 174.891 $524,21J $3,977,701 PRINCIPAL FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETIES OF GREAT BRITAIN.
MISSIONARIES. zi ~ "" '" 'C.; " °8 ~.2 – – – – – – Ol SOCIETIES. w~ "03 ~=">= S" ~ "ol~o~~ oJ S Z S 0 03 – "rno );l "I'"< 0 =">-< 0 —– – —— Church Missionary Society. . . . . . . . . .. . …. 315 338 59 4,121 49,016 $1,145,240 Wesleyan Missionary Society. ….. . …. 363 343 6,284 34,086 703,115 Society for Propagation of Gospel ………. 499 2,447 66,593 625,190 London Missionary Society…..••………. 1)33 155 154 5,419 68.805 505,765 Free Church of Scotland…… .. ……… 209 80 35 660 6,620 480,535 Ba{,tist Missionary Society……………… 515 126 986 48.646 , 398,045 Chma Iuland Mission ……. .. ……….. 158 180 180 232 2,839 257,420 United Presbyterian, Scotch …………… 251 491 14,899 202,455 69 25 Established Church, Scotland. .. … … .. 30 17'9 825 156,805 Church of England Zenana MIss. Society .• Gl 113 639 135,000 – – – – Twelve other societies. .. ……………… 348 347 232 3,059 55;752 540,803 — Totals ………….. ……….. …. 3,353 2,167 – – – – —- 798 24,517 '348,081 $5,150,373 The second table of figures on the pre- so heroically founded by the late Mr. ceding page gives certain details con- Mackay before the waves of successive cerning 22 British societies, of which 12 revolutions swept over Uganda. In May are presented only in a summary. But next another mission party depart for the total of receipts is not to be taken as Uganda, under the tried leadership of showing the entire gifts of British Prot- the Rev. R. P. Ashe. 'lile Rev. G. H. estant Christians to foreign missions, for, V. Greaves, and also Dr. G. Wright, have according to Canon Robertson, their con- been appointed to it. "Six or eight more tributions in1889 amounted to $6,056,530. are at least required," says the Church Missionary Society, "in view of the -The Methodist Episcopal Church, wonderful openings for Christian work South, publishes a very complete table of all kinds in Uganda, in Usoga, at the of statistics of its Chinese Mission Con- south of the Victoria Nyanza, not to ference for the year ending September speak of the nearer territories of the 30th, 1890, and showing the results of British East Africa Company." five years' work. Two dist~icts are occupied, and 10 circuits, with 30 mis- Except the Scottish m~ionary camsionaries, male and female, and 6 nati ve paign of the Free Church of Scotland to helpers. Into the churches 345 mem- raise a sum of £20,000 for the fourth bers have been gathered; 22 Sunday- period of five years in the history of the Bchools are sustained, with 742 scholars; glorious Livingstonia Mission, no sim.iand 47 schools of all grades (including lar undertaking can be compared with an Anglo-Chinese college, with 146 stu- the remarkable endeavor of the Church dents), with a total attendance of 100l. Missionary Society to send forth 1000 In the 2 hospitals 2494 patients were missionaries during 1891 into the mis. treated last year. sion field. Partaking of the nature of a missionary revival, it is being achieved Foreign Mission Notes, with almost incomparable enthusi8Rm. Men and means are flowing into the BY REV. JAlIlES JOHNSTON, BOLTON, ENG- treasury of God. LAND. Mr. A. M. Mackay's Father. -The Africa – Bishop Tucker. – Clouds readers of the :MISSIONARY REVIEW in all continue to hang over Uganda. Bishop lands will welcome a glimpse of the Tucker had a rough journey inland, not- father of the late distinguished mission. withstanding the kindness of German ary, which the writer, favored with an officials en route. On reaching the con- intimate friendship, can supply. At fines of his new diocese he was seized the foot of Boniface Downs, east of with fever. By the attacks of this Ventnor, in the Isle of Wight, overlook. dreaded foe two of his ardent fellow ing the wide-stretching blue waters of missionaries were fatally struck down the English Channel, lies the charming at Usambiro. Their loss to the cause is home of this dear old man. It has been greatly regretted. Through the jealousy opened to receive many weary African of the French Roman Catholic mission- traveilers, who have left behind them aries, and the ever-threatening attitude souvenirs of the Dark Continent, or of the Mohammedans on Mwanga's ter· gifts from the gallant Mackay himself. ritory, the bishop finds the situation in From this spot were sent for yearll Uganda exceedingly perplexing. It is newspapers, books, etc., to Alexander not improbable that as soon as an inter- Mackay, who in turn despatched porview has been granted by Mwanga he tions bf them to his friend Emin Pasha, may make a hurried journey to England, in Equatorial Africa, when caravans to take council with the committee as to were.permitted to pass through the inthe future policy. Should the journey tervening hostile countries. The father be made, he will leave a small band of of Mr. Mackay is a native of Thurso, in men in Uganda to re-establish the work Caithness, originally, in all probability, as well as the export of slaves in his of Scandinavian stock, and his mother, territories, to the best of his power. of Banffshire. In his quiet Ventnor The following is the translation of the home, which he occupied on retiring from the Presbyterian ministry in Scot- copy Oll" TREATY: land, he has watched with practical solicitude the course of the missionary " I, Mwanga, King of Buganda, here- enterprise. Though bearing the silvery by declare, in the presence of Dr. Carl locks of age, it is a veritable inspiration Peters and Pere Simeon Lourdel (since to listen to his eloquent utterances on dead), that I prohibit the slave-trade in the redemption of the heathen world Buganda and the territories belonging from the yoke of idolatry. thereto, and that I will do my utmost to prevent the exportation of slaves from As Mr. Stanley promised Dr. Mackay, all countries under my jurisdiction. prior to departing for Africa, in 1887, to bring his son home "safe and "MwANGA, KA13AKA sound," it is not easy to imagine his disappointment when he learned that of Buganda. his long-absent "Alick," declined to leave his post. Greater and irreparable " SIMEON LOURDEL was the blow on the arrival, last year, of the tidings of Mr. Mackay's death. of the AlgerilJn Missions. Of this calamity the doctor has written, under date of February 7th, 1891, to the " CARL PETERS. writer: "The news of my dear son's death at Usambiro gave me a stunning " MENGO, May 16, 1890." blow. It came so unexpectedly that, for a time, I could hardly realize it, es- The arrival of this information, topecially as I half.expected him home gether wUh the adherence of all the some time during the summer. I have, European powers (now that Holland has however, learned to say, 'the will of the consented) to the General Act of the re- Lord be done,' and I have no doubt this cent Brussels Conference, will gi"e a event, like all others, has been wisely strong impetus in every quarter of the ordained by the Divine Disposer." He globe to the anti·slave·trade movement. alludes to the success of his son's memoir written by his sister, of which 8000 More African Missionaries.-Dr. copies have been sold. "Its perusal," George Smith says that he knows noth. he says, ., has led to the self-consecra- ing at all in history which equals the tion of some young men to the Lord, rapidity with which the civilizing, Chrisand to the evangelization of poor be- tianizing organizations had spread over nighted Africa." Mr. Mackay's trans- Africa during these fifty years. Although lation of the Scriptures is being dili- he has spent the greater part of his life in gently completed by three of his most India, where there has been great misintelligent converts and pupils in sionary enterPrise, "still, before Africa, Uganda. India paled. " I understand that the Mo- ravian Mission and the Lutheran Society King Mwanga and Siavery.- in Berlin were in communication with Though one is naturally sceptical of the doctor last January, asking his adany real change in the heathen passion vice and assistance respecting the des· of this African monarch, it is gratifying patch of missionaries to the German to report that Prince Hohenlohe Lan- African territory. It is remarkable to genberg, President of the Deutschen learn that instead of entering their own Kolonial-gesellschaft, writes of Mwan- " sphere of influence" from Bagamoyo, ga's resolve to forbid slave-dealing, they preferred the Scottish route via the Zambesi, the Shire, and Nyassa. Very shortly the Livingstonia Mission pur· pose sending a party of six men, two of whom are medical missionaries, to the north end of Lake Nyassa. The Mora- vians propose to send in their compnny four missionaries for work in Ge.rman territory, and the Lutheran Society will send three, or probably five, by the same that they have a right to cook or sell in missionary expedition. them, and turn them into shambles, or set up open.air theatres on the sideways. A Congo Missionary Heroine.- They cannot endure the institutiou of a Friends of the Congo Missions will re- pound. Dogs, donkeys, and troops of gret to hear that Mrs. Percy Comber, goats from time immemorial wandered who only went out in May last year, and where they pleased. Who was the worse was married to Mr. Comber in the for their liberty? The dogs never went August following, has fallen a victim to mad; they were the auxiliaries of the the malarious climate. Great sympathy hymns in devouring corpses scarcely cov- is expressed for her suddenly bereaved ered with earth. Why trouble about the husband. The name of Comber will be registration of births, deaths, and mar_ always honorably associated with Afri- riages ? Tunis, nevertheless, is making can missions and African exploration. steady headway in the path of progress. Their martyr roll on African soil in- cludes the names of Dr. Sidney Com- In this unevangelized region seven ber, Thomas Comber; Mrs. Hay, her missionaries of the North Africa M'tssion sister, Mrs. Thomas J. Comber, and are laboring. The darkness of the land now, Mrs. Percy Comber. By these, is appalling. Tunis is spiritually dead. truly heroic breath has been offered for Alcohol is the chief foe of the mission Africa's perishing millions on the Con- workers. Mohammedan insobriety is go watershed. notorious. A missionary writes of the Regency: " The longer I live in Tunis, The Niger Troubles.-A long doc- the more I see and hear of its awful ument has been issued by the Commit· wickedness, and the burden of souls is tee of the Church Missionary Society, very real to us. " It is pleasant to learn appointed to inquire into the charges that the Roman Catholic Italians in made by the English secretary on the Tunis are moved with the simplicity of west coast of Africa against the native the Gospel. mIssIOnaries. Briefly summarized, the report practically acquits of guiltiness Uzbek Turki Gospel Translations. the principal native clergy whom the -Thanks to the enterprise of the Brit· Rev. F. N. Eden took upon himself to ish and Foreign Bible Society, a part suspend, yet in two instances his de. of one of the most important biblical cision is confirmed. An English Church translations undertaken of late years, dignitary will possibly embark for the consisting of the four Gospels, is now Niger on a mission of reconciliation. passing through the press. It is esti- To the credit of the society, it should mated that Uzbek is the' language of be known that, promptly and exhaus· nearly 2,250,000 people scattered over tively, it invariably deals with the diffi· Russia ;r;. Asia, Bokhara, Afghanistan, culties whieh arise on its fields of labor. Khokhano, and Khiva, and is spoken by almost all the agricultural population of Tunis.-Of this J!'rench Protectorate these territories. The language is hard in North Africa, with a population of to acquire, as it is spoken in an exceed- 2,000,000 souls, the great majority of ingly rapid, shrill utterance. The transwhom are Mohammedans, a book of lation, reported to be quite worthy of considerable interest has just been pub- the society's repute for scholarly acculished, entitled" La Politique FranQaise racy, was commenced in 1884, by M. en Tunisie," whose author hides his Ostroumoff, a learned Russian gentle. identity under the signature of P. H. X. man who had lived many years in Cen- He speaks of the administrative diffi. tral Asia. His rendering has been most culties of the French resident as being caretully revised and, where advisable, very trying. The Tunisians like their amended by Dr. Radloff, Professor Sale. picturesque, old·world ways, and aro man~, Dr. Sauerwein, and M. Amischanot to be meddled with. Their idea is sisantz. that the streets belong to everyone, and Jewish Colonization in Palestine.- Government circles cause serious mis· "Yeax by year," remaxks Lieutenant· givings regarding the nation's welfare. Colonel Goldsmid, "the state of the Thus fax French influence has not raised Jews all over the world is becoming less the moral standard. The habits of life satisfactory instead of better. As the and non·Christian principles of Frenchresult of the persecutions in Russia and men are unmistakably introducing a Roumania Jewish colonies are being false civilization. In developing the refounded everywhere. They are even in sources of Madagascar, or promoting an initiatory stage in South America, commercial enterprise and colonization, and may likely be commenced in Cen- the French are utterly unfitted. The tral Africa. These schemes, Mr. Gold- export and import trade is nearly all smid thinks, are only deferring the evil done by English and American traders. day. He holds firmly that the Jewish Religiously, the work continues to prosquestion will never be settled until there per. In face of the disappointments is a Jewish state in the Holy Land. with respect to the action of the Govern- " In some countries," he says, " we are ment, the missionaries maintain a pow. persecuted. In others we are barely erful hold on the native communities. tolerated. I am not at all surprised at The London Missionary Society and the this. What other race with 80 glorious Society of Friends sta,nd on almosj; sima history as ours would tamely sit down ilar platforms, and attempt much in comand see the land of their ancestors in mon. It is regretted that the advanced the hands of a foreigner? Italy has re- sacerdotal teachings of the agents of the gained Rome, why should we not regain Society for the Propagation of the Gos. Palestine, instead of being contented to pel prevent co-operation with this body. remain tolerated by the peoples among Despite the energy of Roman Catholic whom we live ?" missionaries and their numbers, they are singularly weak and unable to gather Madagascar.-Political affairs are congregations. taking an erratic course on the island. The determined attitude of the more India-" Age of Consent" Bill.-Naenlightened and patriotic Malagassies tive papers are full of letters and distoward the French Protectorate, to cussions relating to the proposed measwhich I referred in the January issue of ure for raising" marriage consent" from the MISSIONARY REVIEW, is being neu- the age of ten to twelve. The bill is in tralized by the Malagasy Court. Either committee, and should reappear before by adroit negutiations, or intrigue, the the Legislat.ive Council next March, French are already on growingly cordial meanwhile, local goveTnments are colterms with the Government. The Eng- lecting native opinion in all parts of the lish adviser, the Protestant missiona. country. By the Mohammedans exries, and other tried counsellors, are to- pressing themselves favorable and, to day set aside for the French, while the a laxge extent, the Brahmo-Somaj, there queen, the prime minister, and the . is great anticipation of eventual sucladies·in-waiting affect French customs, cess. Orthodox Hindus in Upper· and and eagerly show their regard for the Western India are apparently unconofficials of the French Republic. As a cerned. The National Congress is neucorrespondent says: "The French rep- tral, according to its resolution not to resentative has but to go ahead cau- agitate on social questions. From Bengal tiouslyand circumspectly to obtain for comes the most pronounced opposition, his country all she can possibly wish though it is generally believed the meas· for." What the future will bring re- ure will be carried when it is universally mains to be seen. At present the coun- known that the bill does not interfere try, administratively, is in a lamentable with religious customs, or form a pre-. condition. .The increasing selfishness, Iude to corresponding acts of legislation. despotism, and lax morality noticed in
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 — February 1890
PROTESTANT MISSIONS A Ht:NDRED YEARS AGO AND NOW
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XIII. No.2.-01d Series.–FEBRUARY.–VoL. III. No. 2.-New Series.
I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS. PROTESTANT MISSIONS A HUNDRED YEARS AGO AND NOW RESPO:NSIBILITY AXD ENCOURAGEMENT. BY REV. JAMES JOHNSTON, F. S. S., LONDOX, E:NGLAXD.
In our pamphlet, "A Century of Protestant .Missions," we fixed ou the year 1786 as the period of their commencement, and. we have seen no reason to alter that date as a fair approximation. Foul' of the greatest missionary societies ill the world can trace their 'origin to within a few months, if not to that very year; not in the formal organization of their outward framework, but to what is the true birth of missions, the union of spirit for prayer on behalf of the heathen, and the earnest desire for their conversion by the preaching of the Gospel. Not only the fathers of the Baptist Missions, but the founders of the Church Missionary Society, and the London Missionary Society, had their spiritual birth at that time; and the Rev. Dr. Coke was sent out to found missions among the heathen in our colonies in the West Indies that year by vVesley and his fellow laborers.
Missions, like their ~Iaster, are born f!'Om above. . Born of the Spirit, and that was the period of the Epiphany of the missionary spirit, which is ever latent in the Christian Church, though it may long lie dormant, and even seem to die. .
It has often been in my heart to follow up that pamphlet, "Century of Protestant Missions," which was of set purpose written to arrest thought on the great work which still remains to be done in the vast unoccupied fields of the heathen world, by another, showing the means for a much greater work in the future, and the encouragements to prosecute it with new vigor and hope. "A CentUl'y of Christian Progress," which came ont in an ill complete form, owing to the pressure of other duties, was confined to oue aspect of the subject; and the limited time at my disposal will ollly allow me now to put together a few facts, which may, with God's blessing, stimulate aud strengthen the Churches of Christ; in the words of Carey, "to attempt great things for God, and to expect great thing~ from God." I.-THE lI11SSlON ~'IELn.
Let us glance at that field, which" is the world." The first thing that strikes us is the great increase of our knowledge of the world and its inhabitants. A hundted years ago the vast regions of heathenism were comparatively a blank to the minds of most Christians. Of the hundreds of millions in China, we knew little beyond the meagre inf()rmation to be gathered f!"Om the journals of The Polos, and of Roman Catholic Missions, and from a few traders on the coast, ignorant of the language of the people. Vast tracts of India were untrodden by the feet of our countrymen, whose almost sole concerns were trade and conquest. Africa was a terra incognito beyond a few miles from Egypt and the Cape, except for a few bold but imperfect explorations up the Nile and the Niger. Our maps of the interior were either a blank or a blunder-deserts and plains, wbere lakes and rivers, a~d mountains ha,'e been discovered, with a teeming population and fertile soil.
This vast increase of our knowledge acts ill a two-fold way on the Christian Church. First, it excites interest in, and sympathy for, the poor and the perishing; and second, it awak.ens a sense of responsibility for those with whom we seem by our knowledge to be brought into personal relations. The qnestion, ""Vho is my neighbor?" acquires a new meaning and a wider scope. Our fellow man who has fallen among thieves, is now found by the Samaritan spiI"it in the Church, not on the way down from Jerusalem to the neighboring city, Jericho; he is found wounded by sin".and robbed of his Divine inheritance by the idolatries of heathenism and the deceptions of the false prophet in all lands.
This feeling of sympathy and sense of responsibility are greatly intensified by the facilities for eagy and rapid communication with all parts of the world. It makes us realize that we are now in that period of prophetic history, when "many shall run to alll~ fro, and knowledge shall be increased." The whole world is now at our door. It is only a few weeks easy travel by land or sea to reach the most distant parts. By post and telegraph we know daily what takes place in the most remote regions. ';Ve seem to hear the sounds of sorrow and woe in the dark places of the earth, and to feel the anxious beating of the hearts of the thousand millions of the world's inhabitants wh'o are ignorant of God and of His Christ.
n.-THE OPENINGS IN THE MISSION FIELD.
If we compare the world a hundred years ago with what it is now, the calls to work and sense of responsibility will be intensified a thousand fold. When our Protestant missions began China was hermetically sealed. It was death to preach the Gospel in Japan. India was closed against all missionaries; even our own countryman, Carey, had to seek shelter on a little plot of ground owned by a foreign power. South America was tabooed by the Church of Rome. T~e difficulties experienced by African travelers were enough to deter the most adventurous, and Asia Minor was inaccessible, while Mohammeda.nism stood in its pride and independence.
These countries from which the missionary was thus excluded were peopled by the highest and most advanced races outside the pale Qf the Christian Church. Almost the only peoples accessible to the missionary were the inferior and debased races, inhabiting the soft and enervating islands of the South Seas, or the freezing latitudes of the Polar regions; races living under conditions inimical to a high development, and, in most instances, races which were dying out under the double pressure of native vices and the evils attendant on modern «ivilization. Along with these, missionaries had access to certain tribes of Africa, on their native soil, or transplanted to America and· the 'Vest India Islands, under the degrading influence of slavery.
These were not the races whom the wisdom of man would have selected, and but for the overruling providence of God shutting up the new energies of the awakened Church to the degenerate and apparently hopeless specimens of the human family, they would proba.bly have been thought beneath or beyond the reach of the Gospel remedy. That such beings have not only been delivered .from idolatry by the simple prea'ching of the Gospel, but made to shine with the beauty of holiness, giving all the evidences of a nature regenerated by the spirit of God, and abounding in the fruits of righteousness; the strongest proof of the Divine origin and power of Christianity on the one hand, and the clearest demonstration of the disinterested character and aim of Protestant missions on the other. There was nothing to be gained by the churches from conquests over such as these, save the blessing of the Lord on those who obey His commands, and thus enjoy His favor.
But now the whole world is open to missionary enterprise; we can not even name the countries which have been thrown open. It would occupy too much of your space. There is only one isolated little nook from which missionaries are absolutely shut out-the one exception which confirms the rule, and, if we mistake not, even that one exception is likely soon to cease to be one. By her insults to Britain's power and attacks on British interests, Thibet is preparing the way for the overthrow of her clerical exclusiveness.
There is one feature of the great change which has come over the world during this last century, for which the Church is not sufficiently grateful; of which, in fact, no one seems to take note, viz.: that among the nations of the earth thet'e is not one Kingdom ruled over by an independent idolatrous Ruler. The small States in India, under Hindu Rulers, are no exception. They are all under British dominion or influence. EYen .Assam, Tonquin, Corea, and such like powers, are directly uuder the influence or control of the Briti~h, French or Chinese governments; and even the last is monotheistic in its national worship. Thibet, the one apparent exception~ is under Chinese protection. The tribes under the yoke of naked savages we do not reckon among the nations and kingdoms of the world. This overthrow of idolatrous rulers is not the work of Christian missions; but it has been chiefly brought about by Christian powers~ and is surely a part of the Di vine purpose for preparing the way of the Lord. 'l'hat the rulers of all civilized or semi-civilized nations- ill fact, all nations with anything corresponding to or resembling civil government-are monotheists, is well fitted to encourage the mission- ary spirit, and the hopes of the Church. He who has put down the idolatrous power will fulfill His prophetic word, «the idols he will utterly abolish."
HL-THE ENLARGElIIENT AND INCREASED RESOl7RCES OF THE CHURCH.
The altered position of the church in relation to the heathen world, is a cheering fact, and should be a powerful factor in the future. A hundred years ago the numbers of professing Christians of all the three great sections of the Christian Church, were less than 200 millions, now they are over 430 millions; and of this great increase in a hundred years, by far the larger share falls to the Pro- testant Church. vVhile the Roman Catholic and Greek churches only doubled their numbers, the Protestants multiplied nearly foul' fold.
The numbers, as given in our" Century of Christian Progress," stand thus: 1886, Increase 4 fold. less than 2 fold', 1786, 137,000,000 205,000,000 2 fold, Protestants. ' …..•…. 37,700,000 89,000,000 Roman Catholics …… 117,000,000 Greek Church, … , …. 46,000,000 200,700,000 431,000,000 In our brochure, "A Century of Protestant Missions," we called attention to the fact, that while Protestant missions had gathered three millions into the fold of Christ ill a hundred years, the heathen hall increased, by the ordinary birth rate, by 200 millions, in the same time. But if we take the entire increase in the nominally Christian population, which was in the same period 230 millions, we alter most materially the relative numbers, and find that the Christian is rapidly overtaking the heathen and :Mohammedan popUlation of the world. . In 1786 the entire population of the world was probably about ·1,000 millions, of which profesl'ling Christians were 200 millions, forming 20 per cent. of the whole, and 25 per cent. of the 800 millions of heathens and Mohammedans. In other words, the Christians were 1 in 4 of the heathen and Mohammedans. In 1886 the population of the world was estimated at 1450 millions, but the Christians of all ~enominations had risen to 430 millions, that is, 43 per cent. of the 1000 millions of the heathens and Mohammedans, or about as 1 in 2, .or more nearly 1.02!-.
If we take only the Protestant population at the two period,s, the relative change is more striking still. In 1786 the 37 millions of Protestants were to the 960 millions of heathen and Mohammedan population only 4 per cent., or as 1 in 26. In 1886 the 137 millions were to the 1313 millions, 10 per cent., or as very nearly 1 in 10. But the gain is not only in numbers; in learning and science, in wealth and power the gain is greater fat·.
Take this rapid and great increase in the nnmbers and resources .of the church in connection with the opening up of the whole world to evangelistic enterprise, and have we not a clear instruction of the ~esign of God? The one condition, without the other, would have had little significance. If the world had been open, but the church poor and weak and few in numbers, there might have been an excuse for indolence, although the memory of Pentecost and the little company in the upper room, might have inspit'ed even a feeble few to sttempt great things in the name of a risen Redeemer. If the church had been large and strong, but the world closed, she might have taken it as a plea for attempting little. But when we see an open world, .easy of access, and a church so prosperous and powerful, there is not the shadow of an excuse for idleness. There is every encouragement, snd the loudest call to a supreme effort for the evangelization of the world. The heathen are calling, God is commanding His people to srise in His might, and to take possession of all nations, in His name. It is at her peril that the church of Christ neglects the call of Provi- (lence, which is the voice of God.
IV.-FACILITIES FOR lIUSSION WORK NOW, AXD A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
The advantages for a new crusade are inconceivably greater in .our day, as compared with what they were in the days of our fatherR. Then the work was new and untried. The few specimens of work (lone were not models of wisdom, or examples of success. Some were .of value as a wal'l1ing, rather than encouragement. Everything was new and strange, all had to be built up-the very foundations had to be dug. Can we wonder that mistakes were made? It would haye been a miracle if they had not. The condition of the savage tribes smong whom they began was so entirely different from anything in bome experience, we can only wonder at the co.)urage, and faith, and wisdom, of the early founders of our missions.
The tools with which they were to work had to be invented and nlade. Languages had not only to be leal'l1ed, they had to be fashioned and clothed in the forms of written speech. The fleeting sounds from the lips of savages had to be coined into visible words, snd construed in harmony with the strange usage8 of people innocent of grammatical rules. Dictionaries had to be made out of the crude materials of these hitherto unformed tongues, requiring the greatest nicety of ear, and the utmost accuracy in reducing sound to its equivalent in words; and last, but not least, the translation of the Word of God had to be made unto these newly formed languages, and fickle and restless savages had to be taught to read the sacred page.
The amount of this kind of work that has been accomplished is. almost incalculable and incredible. All this is clear gain, which does not need to be repeated in these languages, which now number probably 400, in all parts of the habitable globe. New missionaries, going to these nations and tribes, find their work in acquiring the language of the people comparativaly easy-a clear gain to the church in time and money and men; making spiritual results, under God, more easy and rapid.
Compare also the present with the past in respect of the numberof laborers with which we start this new era in missionary effort. Our fathers had to begin with a mere handf~l of laborers, untrained and inexperienced, with no knowledge of the habits and customs and modes of thought of the various peoples among whom they werll to· work. They had no native helpers or preachers to assist them in theirwork. Everything was against them. The possibility of the preach· ing of the Gospel saving and sanctifying such depraved natures as· those of cannibals, was an untried problem. The natural way would have been, like the first Moravian missionaries, to prepare them by education and civilization for the Gospel message. But, with a sublime faith in the Divine commission to preach the Gospel to ever.1f creature, they went forth with no weapons of modern science or learning, but with the sword of the Spirit, and with that they fought and conquered.
Now, how different are the conditions in the mission field, with 7,00(} European and American missionaries at work, half the number ordained ministers, and nearly all of them educated men and women, acquainted with something like 400 languages, or distinct dialects. But what is a greater advantage than these for aggressive work, ~re the native evangelists, now making little short of 30,000, and of these, nearly 3,000 are educated native pastors, placed over congregations of their countrymen. Greater than even these advantages, arc the three million of converts, two-thirds of whom are either active or passive witnesses for Christ iu the midst of their heathen countrymen -lights, all the more conspicuous from the darkness which surrounds them.
Take in connection with these advantages in the mission fields of the world, the vast increase in the number and resources of missionary societies at home, with the augmented means, their more complete organization, their knowledge and experience of the methods.
DR. PIERSON'S JIlISSIONARY CRUSADE IN SCOTLAND
which have heen lllostowned of God for the conversion of the heathen, their closer touch with the churches, the increase of missionary spirit in England and America, the great wealth in the hands of Christian men, the favorable disposition of most of the ruling powers of the world,-and we have a condition of matters such as could not have been dreamed of a hundred ycars ago, and which lays an immeasurably greater responsibility on the Christian conscience and on the churches of Christ; while they are fitted to put doubt and unbelief to shame, and to inspire the greatest courage and hope in the breast of missionaries abroad, and Christians at home. Surely God is speaking loudly to all, to seize the present opportunity, and make a supreme effort for an advance along the whole line.
We close with a word of wal'lling. There is a danger of trusting to the great increase of knowledge, and numbers, and wealth, and :power. We do well to remember the words, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." We have enough to h-Jmble us in looking to our sinful neglect in the past, when we tr.ink of the generations of men we have allowed to go down to the grave in darkness, while we had the light. We have enough to Bol.emnize us, when we look to the work which lies before us in the future; not only the one thousand millions of heathen and Mohammedans, Christless and hopeless, but the hundreds of millions of the Greek and Roman Catholic churches, corrupting the truth of God and dishonoring the Lord who bought them. Let our attitude be that of humble, earnest, prayerful effort, and devout, hopeful expectancy, trusting "in the living God who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."
DR. PIERSON'S MISSIONARY CRUSADE IN SCOTLAND.
[It is known to most of our readers, that in compliance with the earnest request of the leading friends of missions in Scotland, our Associate has gone there to complete the work he began after the rising of the London Conference on Missions in 1888. We give below the first of a series of letters on his mission and its results, which will appear in successive numbers ·of the REVIEW. If all of them shall possess the extraordinary interest of the first, they will surely be read with heartfelt interest and gratitude to God. We invoke the prayers of our readers in behalf of Dr. Pierson in this mission of love, for such it is, May the reflex influence of this mighty wave of missionary interest on the other side of the ocean reach our shores, and mark a new era in the history of the cause among us !-J. lI1. S.] Jfy Dear Dr. Sherwood: EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, Nov. 27, 1889.
There was no need of coming to Scotland to " kindle the flame of a Missionary Revival," as the brethren of the Committee were pleased to suggest. It is quite obvious to me that a revival of missions is already in progess, and that all I can hope to do will be to feed ancl fan a flame already burning.
The good ship Etruria had a very rough passage, through a very "choppy" sea. 'Ve were rolled to and fro, and tossed up and down, and found it quite har.} to keep ollr.~elvei> in 0111' berths at night ,or maintain our standing, or even our sitting, on deck by day. N evertheless we landed at Liverpool quay at about 7 o'clock on Saturday evening, November 16th. The brethren came to meet and greet Ufl, and bid us " Welcome in the name of the Lord," and cheered us as a similar embassy comforted Paul at the "Three Taverns." There is no disposition either in England or Scotland to allow our sojourn to be one of idle lounging or pleasure seeking. Ve found arrangements made at Liverpool for a series of meetings, beginning with one on the very night of our arrival. In fact, no time could be spared even to attend to "customs," and so leaving our kind host with }frs. Pierson to look after the luggage, I was hurried off in a cab to Gordon Hall, where a large and select company of the Christians of Liverpool were gathered to offer a cordial welcome. Canon Burbidge was in the chair, and the familial' face of ~lr. Reginald Radcliffe beamed close at his side. At this meeting I made a brief address on the "Present Aspect of }fissions," and was greatly cheered by observing a very manifest spirit of prayer prevailing. This was my first impression, and that impression has been constantly emphasized and intensified during these eleven days.
As I intimated, my sojourn on this side of the water is not likely to suffer by lack of employment. I left Liverpool for Edinburgh on Wednesday morning, November 20, having already held in that city seven meetings, closing with a grand and enthusiastic gathering in great George Street Chapel, which will hold easily two thousand people. The attendance at all these meetings evinced an intelligent and hearty sympathy with the }fissionary cause, and furnished an auspicious forecast and foretaste of the gratifications in store. In Edinburgh, on the night of OUI' arrival, a marvellous assembly convened in the Hall of the Church of Scotland, Principal Cairns in the ohair. Rev. Dr. Lowe, Chairman of the Committee, having direction of the meetings, remarked to me that no more significant gathering had ever met in Edinburgh. The various denominations, which have been divided by conscientious differences of opinion, and have sometimes waged wars, not without much bitterness, came together with a profound and sincere sympathy, to further the common cause of a world's Evangelization. }fen that had met in the arena of theological and ecclesiastical controversy, and engaged in fierce conflict, came into that Hall on a common footing of cordial good will, rallying around a humble advocate of world·wide missions, forgetful of all past issues and minor differences in the one absorbing object-giving the gospel to tMs generation.
The Chairman was Dr. Cairns, a very proper man about whom to gather; It has been said of him that "no man carries under his hat, through all Scotland, a bigger brain." Eminent as a preacher, a writer, a teacher, an ecclesiastic, he is eyen more conspicuous as a. Christian. His charity is pre-eminent, and in the atmosphere of its gentle glow, the ice of antagonism and apathy may well mdt away. The students made a sort of cartoon, not long since, in which they represented "Principal Cairns' introduction to the Devil." He is made to say to his Satanic Majesty, that he has "heard very unfavor- able reports touching his moral character," but that he has "no doubt these reports are very much exaggerated, and that on furthel' acquaintance they will be able to get on together very well." The jest, as Horace intimates, hides behind a laugh a serious truth; for the dear Doctor is always looking for and hoping for the best from everybody.
The object of this first meeting was to express a hearty welcome from all the bodies represented, and to assure me of the most cordial co-operation in the purpose of this Mission Tour of the (;hurches. The welcome was given with all the enthusiasm of true Scotchmen. These people are not so easily moved as some, but when they do move it is with great momentum. Meeting after meeting followed, the details of which space does not allow m.e to give; suffiJe it to say, that, as in Liverpool, they have followed each other in quick succession, on Thursday in the great Synod Hall, on Friday in the Free Assemhly Hall, mainly for )Vomen, on Saturday morning in Moncrieff Hall, fO!' the students, when even the standing room was all in demand; then after two sermons on Missions, the Sabbath evening found me confronting an immense audience at the U. P. Synod Hall, where the most marked movement of the Spirit of God which I have ever witnessed in such a gathering, subdued and melted all hearts. My subject that night was" Individual Responsibility with reference to Missions," and as the duty and privilege of individual giving', and especially prctyill[J, was urged, and the grand promises to prayerful souls were arrayed before us, a sudden hush fell upon the whole assembly; there was a. painful silence, and many bowed in tears before God. As fOI' the speaker, it was with him as with Daniel, when, in his vision beside the Hiddekel, "there remained no strength in him." (Daniel, x :8.) The sense of the divine presence was positively overwhelmillg; no man could produce such an impression; it was manifestly of God, and all felt it to be the gateway of Heaven.
Such a meeting has but one explanation. Ever since it was known that this Mission Tour of the Churches was determined on, and that arrangements were definitely made, there has been an unusual spirit of prayer. Those who on their hearts bear the precious interests of God's kingdom, in this land of Martyrs and Missionaries, began praying in secret and praying in little circles, for a mighty manifestation of God's presence and power. Instead of looking to any man, there has been a disposition to fix the eye of faith and prayer on God alone, and those that honor Him, He will hOllOI'. Of all the meetings I have ever attended, I remember not one in which God more plainly set all human instruments aside, to speak for Himself in the language that has no human speech as its expression and can be heard only by ears open to the still small voice. Some persons were so moved that they had to leave the hall. When the meeting adjourned all left in silence, and since then, token after token of the blessing keeps coming to our knowledge. The next day we received a note in a lady's hand, enclosing the money which would buy "one pail' of four-button kids," in response to an appeal which I made to Christian women to forego luxuries for the Lord's sake, and turn the money to His treasury. The same day brought a half sovereign, the expression of like self-denial; and a letter, enclosing two pounds, ten shillings, the proceeds of a bracelet, sold for the I"ord's sake. These are but a few signs of God's presence and of a coming harvest of missions. Every day brings increasing encouragement. "Ye can only praise God, and give glory to Him.
With Sabbath evening's meeting the series of gatherings in Edinburgh closed for the present, fifteen meetings in all since the Etruri(t anchored in the Mersey River, eight days before. 'Yith Monday we began, accompanied by Mrs. Edge, recently returned from Canton, China, and Rev. Henry'Rice, on a furlough from: Madras, India, to visit cities and towns in the neighborhood of this Scotch Athenl'l. On Monday we held two meetings in Leith, on Tuesday in Peebles and bnerleithen, and to-day in Dalkeith. The afternoon meetings are principally for the women, and the evening assemblies, held in the largest available places, are crowded to overflowing. 'Ve were told yesterday that meetings so large have not been known even in times of great political excitement. Surely God is marching on, and a new departure in missions is at hand.
'Ve cannot bring this letter to a close without remarking upon the grand men and women who in this great Scotch metropolis are arrayed on the side of Christian faith and Christian Missions. 'Ye seem to be back in the times of old when there were "giants on the earth in those days." Think Qf a series of meetings in the interest of }Iissiom~, held day after day, with such men as Principals Cairns and Rainy, and Sir 'Villiam Muir, in the chair; when such men as Rev. Dr. Andrew 'l'hompson, George Smith,LL.D., Dr. 'Velsh, Professors Laidlaw, Blaikie and I.indsay, and 'l'homas Smith, D.D.; Reverends 'Vm. Balfour, tVm Stevenson, 'Vm. Robertson, John McMartrie, Dr. Norman McLeod and Dr. Alison; Duncan McLarew, Esq., and John, Smith, Esq., Professors Calderwood and Johnstone and A. R. Simpson, M.D.; with Reverends W m. Grant and R. Craig, and I . ord Kinnaird, from I"ondon, Principal Simon, Mrs. ,Jane .Millel', representing the Friends, and a host of others, came together to OffCl' the right hand of fellowship in behalf of all branches of the Presbyterian Church, the Baptist~, Episcopalian~, Friends, etc. The Committee having in charge the details of my Tour of the Churches have made singularly complete and satisfactory arrange- ments. They have secured one or two 1'Iissionairies, now at home from their fields, to accompany me. Mrs. Edge is a ready and accomplished speaker and gives vivid glimpses of Chinese home life and sociallif~, showing the marked influence of the gospel in modifying and transforming especially the women and girls of the Celestial Empire. Rev. Henry Rice is one of the most fluent, intelligent and strik~ ing speakers on Missions that it has been my good fortune to hear. He touches with rare skill the salient points of Missions, and gives both picturesque and impressive views of East Indian religions and customs. His book, recently published, on " Native Life in India," printed by the London Religious Tract Society, compresses into a brief Rpace an immense amount of interesting and instructive matter. He is full of missionary zeal, and zeal according to knowledge. It is with not a little gratification that we add such a man to our REVIEW list of Editorial Correspondents, and announce a series of articles as ab.out to appear in these pages from his instructive and attractive pen.
The details of these meetings we have given to some degree, because these pages will be read not only in Great Britain and the United States and Canada, but in far off lands where Christ's Godly messengers are telling the old, old story. Such a movement at the great centers of Christendom will be felt at the outermost bounds, as a mighty heart throb pulses warm life blood to the extremities of the body. And we bid all missionaries in God's name, "Be of Good Cheer." There is a revival of missiollary knowledge and zeal at home, and it means blessing abroad. The key note struck at the opening meeting was" the gospel to be published through all the world in this generation," and this thought seems to be taking possession of the most earnest, prayerful and consecrated men and women on both sides of the sea. God has given us a thousand facilities unknown to our ancestors. lIe has thrown open the doors to the nations and challenged us to enter in and possess the land. "Vhat are we waiting for? AU things are now ready. A united movement all along the lines-more men and women to the front, and the Church of God backing them up with more money and prayer and sympathy; more Godly parents giving their children to God and to Missions from the cradle; morc enterprise for God, pushing the conquests of the cr08S as we push seculal' and scientific endeavor for objects infinitely less i~portant – who can tell what glorious and speedy results may follow a true awakening of the Church of God to the duty and privilege of proclaiming the gospPl to every creature!
THE CHARITIES OF GERMANY
THE CHARITIES OJ!' GERMANY.
BY REV. A. n. BRADFORD, D.D, ~rO~TGLAIR, X. J.
[We offer no apology for embracing "C'harities" in the gospel of Missionary work. The mission of the Master did not overlook them-nay, specially honored them. The Church of Christ has ever been foremost in this work, The true Missionary will find work to do wherever the poor, the suffering, the unfortunate and criminal classes are found, and they are found in great numbers in, Christian lands as well as in heathen. We are sure this paper will be read with ini!erest,-J, M. S.] I Christianity has been called "the romance of the poor." What- ever controversies have marked the history of the Church, and how- ever deeply stained its pages may be with tears and blood, from the first its progress may be traced in the development of charities. It created charity. Paganism had no place for the aged, the infirm, for children without friends. It peopled its schools of gladiators and houses of prostitution from those who, in our time, are beautifully called "the children of the public." Charities are the necessary fruit of Christianity. ,'rhe world has not yet grasped the significance of the incamation-God entering into human conditions to save the outcast and the sinful. 'Vherever Christ has been preached, instantly there have arisen institutions whose object has been the amelioration of human suffering. Philanthropy and Chl·ist.ianity are inseparable.
Lecky, in his History of European Morals, says: "The high conception which has been formed of the sanctity of human life, the protection of infancy, the elevation and final emancipation of the slaveclasses, the suppression of barbarous games, the creation of a vast and multifarious organization of chllxity, the education of the imagination by the Christian type, constitute together a movement of philanthropy which has never been paralleled or approached in the Pagan world." * One form of Christianity devotes its energies to making conver- sions; another form seeks by Christian nurture to place around the children of the poor and vicious such conditions as shall make the new life a second and better nature.
Dr. Channing, in an eloquent passage, says: " Society has hitherto employed its energies chiefly to punish crime. It is infinitely more important to prevent it. And this I say not for the sake of those alone on whom the criminal preys. I do not think only or chiefly of those who suffer from crime. I plead also, and plead more, for those who perpetrate it. In moments of clear, calm thought, I feel more for the wrongdoer than for him who is wronged. In a case of theft, incomparably the most wretched man is he who steals, not he who is robbed. What I want is not merely that society shall protect itself against crime, but that it shall do all that it can to preserve its exposed members from crime. It ought not to breed monsters in its own bosom. If it will not use its prosperity to save the ignorant and the poor from the blackest vice, then it must suffer, and deserves to suffer, from crime. If the child be left to grow up in utter ignorance of duty, of its Maker, of its relations to society, in an atmosphere of profaneness and intemperance, and in practice of falsehood and fraud, let not the community complain of its crime. It has quietly looked on and seen him, year after year • '.,1. II, p,lUO, arming himself against its order and peace; and who is most to blame when at last he deals the guilty blow?"
The conception of Christianity which recognizes in it a gospel for the whole life of man, for man physical as well as spiritual-this gospel of a healthful environment as well as of free forgiveness-is day by day coming into fnIler recognition.
The subject of Charity in Germany is too large for one paper, and. therefore this is chiefly limited to those forms of philanthropy which are known as "Child-saving." 'rhe one exception is that universal chai'ity at Kaiserswerth which could not, with propriety, be classified in any department of philanthropic work but seems rather to embrace them all.
The work of child-saving was begun in Germany in 1695, by August Hermann Franke, in the city of Halle. Franke was a German minister and teacher, and Professor in the University of Halle. "He commenced with a capital of three dollars and a half. ,Vhen he received it, he said: 'With this I must do a great work.'" Halle is a beautiful city of about 70,000 inhabitants, ill N orthel'l1 Germany. It is best known as the seat of one of the largest German Universities. It has always been a center of evangelical theology. It must be rememc bered, however, that that term is more inclusive ill Germany than in America. The University has been a favorite with American students, especially in its theological department. Halle is distinguished not only for its institutions of learning, but equally for its orphan asylums, which Ol'iginated as fullows: It was the custom for beggars, on certain days, to seek alms at private houses. Not satisfied with merely giving them bread for their bodies, Franke began to catechise them, both the old and the young. He discovered among them such utter ignorance of religion that he began to think of providing a school for them. "He opened a little school in his study; in less than a year he found the place too small. He was pained, however, to see that the children's home-life destroyed what his school had builded up. He therefore formed the idea of taking the entire training of a few children upon himself. A house was purchased for this school; twelve were received into it. The next year a new house was purchased."
Rapidly the institution grew. There was no capital, and yet the work flomished. Faith and prayer were his capital. Franke himself said: "From week to week, from month to month, has the Lord crumbled to me, even as one crumbles the bread to little chickens." A Home for Unmarried Women followed the Orphan Asylum; then a Home for Widows. Around these centers schools were founded in which students of the University became teachers. One curious means of help was devised by an eminent physician who gave the institutions the receipts for some very valuable remedies. The sale of the medicines added greatly to the revenue of the charities. They were widely sold in Germany, and even in America and Africa. Another auxiliary enterprise was the Orphan House Book Establishment, conducted by a man named Elers, who put his income at the disposal of the Orphan House, and was content to receive clothing and food. The work among the orphans and the poor at home was followed by Missionary and Bible work in Germany and foreign lands.
There is little about the managem'ent of these charities to distinguish them from others. Dormitories, laundries, school rooms, and play grounds are everywhere the same. The difference between institutions of this kind is chiefly in the system. The congregate and the cottage systems both have their advocates. The Asylums at Halle belong to the former class. His friend Elers once asked Franke as to who had taught him this work. His reply was, "My mother's love." The secret of his marvellous career is in that answer. When King Frederick William first saw the Orphan House, 1713, and was conducted through the book-stores and the warehouses, he was amazed; and he asked Elers how much he got out of all tIllS r " Your Majesty," replied Elers, "only just what you see." Then the King clapped Franke upon the shoulder and said, "Now I see how he accomplishes so much. I have no such servants."
The establishment still remains, and its influence is boundless. The buildings are a quarter of a rile in length, and six stories high, built around an oblong court-yard. In the court-yard is a bronze statue of Franke, by Rauch. In the Asylum are sheltered about 500 children, while schools, a labratory, a printing office, and many charitable associations find a home under its hospitable roofs. If Franke had been a soldier and displayed such courage and zeal, his country would have built him a splendid monument in the capital. If he had been a Romanist, he would have been enrolled among the saints. He was both a soldier and a saint, but he needs no monument and no canonization, for his works do follow him.
The ancient city of Erfurt is picturesque and quaint. It is chiefly celebrated because of its connection with the history of Luther. There he was a monk and a professor. There he had that terrible inward conflict which ended with his discovery of the Bible in the library of his monastery. In that old church he preached. There are still the cells in which he lived and worked. '1'he very place where he found the Bible is still in good preservation. If you would find that old church and monastery ask almost anybody for the "Martinstift." The monastery has been born again. It is now a school, and a home for poor children taken from the streets and prisons. The principle of management is not different from that of other institutions of the kind, and the advantages offered are not so numerous as in some other homes. As in the asylums at Halle, the congregate system is in uSe. Two things especially distinguish this home and school. First, it is not only for children from the street, but from the prisons also. A prison with children in it is a school where criminals are trained. This was clearly recognized by Rector Charles Reinthaler, who founded the Martinstift in 1819. The second fact which distinguishes this institution is that it is the noblest monument to Luther in all Germany. Germany honors Luther as Scotland honors Bruce; His figure in the attitude of a preacher, or a doctor of philosophy, is at Eisenach, at Eisleben. at Erfurt, at Wittenberg; but this home for the homeless, which is nobler than any bronze, is his most appropriate memorial; for it is an unfailing benediction to those who are as desolate as he was in Eisenach, where Frau von Cotta was charmed by the sweetness of his voice, and divided with him her living.
Vienna is, in many respects, the most beautiful, and I think in all respects, the most corrupt capital in EUI·ope. Its buildings surpass even those of Paris. St. Stepheu's is hardly inferior to Notre Dame, and the Votive Church is, in its way, quite as wonderful as La Made- leine. The University buildings are the most splendid for the.purpose in the world.
Two facts conspire to make "child-saving" especially imperative and especially difficult in Vienna. It is imperative because of the vast number of illegitimate, and consequently neglect.ed children. There are about 50,000 women in Vienna licensed to lives of shame, and, perhaps, as many more who are not licensed but whose lives are equally illicit. The number of homeless children where such moral conditions prevail is always large; and to care for them without increasing vice or diminishing the con- sciousness of responsibility on the part of those who bear children, is always difficult. The difficulty is increased by the poverty of the lower classes. There are rumors of dynamite conspiracies in Vienna. They were to have been expected. People who are oppressed, as the poor are there, . will sometimes break their chains and rebel. Women who work all day on buildings, doing what we call hod-carrying, get 40 cents; masons get 75 cents a day. Women who make shirts get 75 cents a dozen. Farm-laborers are cared for, and get from ten to twenty cents a day for doing what, in this country, in harvest time, a man would get $4 for doing. Meat costs about the same there as in New York, but meat is not for the poor. Nowhere in the world is woman's labor so poorly paid. Women in the postoffice and telegraph departments get from $5 to $7.50 a month, and "find themselves." They never have a home furnished with their work; that favor is only for men, and rarely for them. On the other hand, there are numerous day-nurseries, or creches, provided by the government, where the children of the poor may be placed while the parents are at work. Crime and suffering are compulsory where such wage~ are paid.· When pe0ple thus treated learn their power, the existing social order always trembles. That time has already come in Vienna.
Seeking what was being done in that city of splendor and infamy to relieve or to prevent pauperism and crime, I was directed to the Waisenhaus, a Roman Catholic institution, under the direction of " The Brothers of Christian Love." This, in its equipment, is the most complete institution of the kind I have ever seen. It is supported by its endowments. The congregate system is in. use. It has four dormitories, and provides a home for three hundred and sixty boys. After the uniform excellence of the appointments, that which especially distinguishes the institution are the facilities afforded for education. For instance, in the musical department I counted six pianos and three organs, in as many rooms. In other rooms were other instruments. The Museum of Natural History, one of the best equipped in the city and filling a;n immense space, is in daily use. The wash rooms are as interesting as the school rooms. Each boy has his towel and his box: of toilet articles, and the neatness and order are perfect. The older boys rise at five, and those younger a half-hour later. Their study-hour is from quarter before six to quarter before seven. A very large proportion of these boys are waifs. They have no idea of any other home. No motives of love inspire them. The poorest learn trades, and the higher class prepare to be clerks or to enter the army. The fact that they do not know their parentage does not indicate that their parentage is unknown; on the other hand, it is often known, and it is no contradiction to speak of waifs of "higher" and" lower" classes. The order and advantages of the institution were well nigh perfect. The Brothers were exceedingly courteous, and yet there was something about them which was positively repellant. I left the place feeling that it was not good to be there. "The Brothers of Christian Love" are evidently affected by the moral atmosphere around them. The Superior, for instance, spoke of woman, and of unfortunate children, lightly and flippantly. He seemed to have no profound appreciation of the misery he was seeking to relieve. I may do him injustice. Individuals often receive the censure which belongs to the social order. The Waisenhaus is a wonderful institution, but splendor of equipment and perfection of organization can never compensate for the absence of moral earnestness. Thus one of the most splendid charities in Europe made on me the impression of being simply a great machine for providing for illegitimate children. "The Brothers of Christian Love" may be the noblest and most self-sacrificing of men, but the environment of corrupt social life seems to have affected their ways of looking at things. if not· their characters and principles of work. It could hardly be otherwise.
The location of Hamburg is as beautitul as are the buildings of Vienna, and its residences, especially around the Alster Binnen, are worthy of this location. It is the commercial center of Germany, to that Empire what Glasgow and Liverpool are to Great Britain. A few miles out of Hamburg, at Horn, is the Rauhe Haus, which divides with Kaiserswerth the glory of being the most prominent charitable institution in the nation. It consists of a series of buildings around a small park. Each house is a home by itself. The dor- mitories and school rooms have nothing peculiar about them. "Vhat especially impressed me there was the attention given to industrial training, and to the religious nurture of the children. There is a ~ystem of mutual education going on all the time. The teachers, ", Brothers" they are called, who have charge, a,re preparing for other work. They are to be city missionaries and are serving their apprenticeship with children from the lowest and vilest city wards. A man who knows a street boy knows a city's darker side. The boys are training the men and the men are trainiJlg the boys. The " Brothers" remain, I think, for three years.
Three characteristics distinguish the Rauhe Haus. It is a congeries of families, each with its 110me and home-life; it provides industrial education of a very thorough kind; and is a place for the training of city missionaries as well as outcast children. It has it higher department called the Pensionate, where those fitted for it receive the same instruction as in the best German Gymnasia. This institution was founded by Dr. John Henry Wichern and his mother, in November, 18;:13. Dr. Wines says: "The fundamental idea of the Rauhe Haus is that of the famil:y, and it is the mother of all those child-sa,ing institutions, of which the number is continually increasing, that have since been organized on the family plan." Perhaps the finest example of the perfection to which this plan may be carried, is the village of Girls' Homes, at lIford, Essex, neal' London, which is a part of the wonderful sPl'ie~ of charities founded by Dr. Bernardo. There are thirty beautiful brick houses built around a small park, each with its own "Mother," and family from the London slums. But the Rauhe Haus antedated Dr. Bernardo's Homes by at least forty years.
Some one asked Dr. ",Yichern how he was able to produce such wonderful changes in the conduct of children under his care. His reply reveals the secret of his success: "By the word of God and music." The religious training of the children is given the first place. Everything is made bright and beautiful. When possible, each child has its own flower bed; flowers help in the work of educa-. tion. Dr. Wichern once said that "the man who cannot play and enter into the plays of chhhood with his whole heart, is unfit to be an assistant in a child-saving institution." I cannot better describe the spirit of this institution than by quoting words spoken at a public meeting held in Hamburg prior to its opening, by Syndic Sieveking. He said: " The children's institution was not to be a workhouse, nor an orphanage, nor a place of punishment, nor a house of correction; but an institution that allied itself to the family, to the gospel, to the forgiveness of sins, to the first and last thought, that is to the essential nature and work of Christianity." * It is impossible even to mention all the names of the distinguished workers in the field of Charity in Germany. Pestalozzi, the founder of the Kindergarten, did a noble work, but in it the religious element was lackin£,. "At the age of eighty he saw for the first time what he had been striving for for his whole life, when, in 1826, he visited the institution of the venerable Zell'er at Beuggen. When the children of that institution presented him with a beautiful wreath, as they sang one of their sweet hymns, Pestolozzi said.to Zeller: 'This is what I wanted to accomplish.' His mistake was that, in his school at Stanz, there was no place for religious instruction." t In these child-saving institutions in the German Empire, there are' fewer girls than boys. Some of these Homes are managed by the State, and children are sent to .them as punishment; but these must not be confounded with what is done by individuals. There were about three hundred and sixty of the institutions in 1880. Wurtemburg leads all the German States in this work.
" The Deaconess Institution of Rhenish",Yestphalia," at Kaiserswerth, is the most remarkable charity in.Germany, if not in the world. On a dismal day in August I visited Kaiserswerth. The ride from Cologne by train is about one hour to Calcum, and then about a halfhOllr by carriage. The country around is flat and damp, like most of • Wines' State Prisons and Child·Saving Institutions, p. 74. t Wines' Child-SaVIng Institution, p. GOO. that along the lower Rhine. We were set down at the post-office, and then sought the institutions. We could find little besides; they make the town. There is a famous Roman Catholic church, but it attracts little attention. But first, how did we come to be interested in Kaiserswerth? By reading the lives of Elizabeth Fry, Agnes Jones, and Florence Nightingale. Elizabeth Fry unconsciously inspired its ol'lgm. Florence Nightingale and Agnes Jones both resided there and received the instruction and studied the examples which were to stimulate their lives of heroism and sacrifice. A young German pas- tor, Fliedner by name, was settled in Kaiserswerth about fifty years ago. A period of financial depression compelled him to seek foreign help for the continuance of his work. He went to England. He met Elizabeth Fry who was in the midst of her career in the London prisons. From her words and example, Fliedner was moved to go home and attempt the same work. Soon after his return a degraded woman, named Minna, a discharged prisoner, came to him for help.
There was no room in his own house, but there was a little summer- house adjoining. He gave her a home in that, where she could be under the watchful eye of his wife. Soon another homeless and abandoned woman came to him. She, too, was sheltered in the sum- mer-house. There was no place for them to sleep except an attic in the same building, to which they climbed by a ladder. When they reached this place of rest the ladder was removed. That was the beginning of the Deaconess Institution at Kaiserswerth. Now it contains the following departments of philanthropic work: The Mother-house and Hospital where the deaconesses chiefly reside; the Penitentiary where women discharged frolll prison find a home until they can get a new start for a better life; the Training College for teachers, with an infant school; the Orphanage; the Lunatic Asylum for women; the House of Evening Rest for deaconesses no ionger able to work; Paul Gerhard's Home for women, chiefly invalids; a school f()r the training of deaconesses; a school for girls; numerous hospitals, etc., etc.
The exterior of the buildings is severely plain and simple. Many of them are connected. The halls are apparently endless. All is quiet, cleanly and cheerful. In one room children are taught; in another, babies are tended; in another, the sick are nursed; in another, girls just out of prison are trained to industrious and virtuous habits; in another, surgical operations are performed; another is a chapel; another is a parlor for old women; all around are little bed-rooms; and in all is the appearance of a charming and beautiful home. Our guide through these institutions was Sister Charlotte Drude, a tall, gaunt, angular, but exceedingly attractive German woman who has been long in the Sisterhood. Her hospitality and enthusiasm were boundless, and her love for philanthropic work an inspiration. The present Director at Kaiserswerth is Julius Disselhoff, a son-in-law of the founder; and a son, a second Pastor Fliedner, is the chaplain.
Kaiserswerth has literally reached around the world. It is now fifty years old. The Training-school for Nurses, at Salem, near Rati- gen; an Orphanage at Altdorf; a Boarding-school at Heldern; the :Martha'sJIome at Berlin, with infant and elementary school attached; the :Martha's home at Dusseldorf, with infant school; the Home for Prisoners, and the Asylum at Brandenburg; the Convalescent Home for Deaconesses and Children at ""Vallbaum, are all owned by the same society and managed and served by these Sisters. Outside <>f Germany, there is the Talitha-cumi Hospital and School at J erusalem; the School and Orphanage at Smyrna; the Hospital at Alexandria in Egypt; the Orphanage and Boarding-school at Beyroot, in Syria; a Boarding-school in Florence; and minor stations in almost all lands. The Deaconess work of modern times was begun at Kaiserswerth. It has increased marvellously. In 1880 there were fifty-three Central Deaconess institutions, with more than forty-eight hundred Deaconesses working in more than fifteen hundred different places. They were like angels on German battle fields. They nurse, and they preach; they bind wounds, and tell "the old, old. story." For both <>ffices they are trained. No vows are taken. At the consecration to the office, the new Deaconess _promises to be true to her calling, and to live in the fear of God and according to His holy Word. They nurse over 50,000 patients annually, and consequently preach Christ to at least the same number. Theyare the most persuasive preachers, for their message goes to hearts already opened by gratitude. They can leave when they choose, to go to their friends, to marry, to do what they will. Few choose to return to society. Those who wish to become Sisters pass through a course of preparation extending over five years, under the direction of those with whom they are later to be associated. They can be sent anywhere, but may decline any service. N one do decline. They realize that their place is in the midst of the world's suffering, and they covet the hardest posts, like soldiers in battle.
The rooms for the Deaconesses are plain, but comfortable. One into which we were shown was decorated with flowers for a Sister who was, in a few hours, expected home from work in a foreign land. She was worn out and sick, and was coming home to rest; and it was a place as sweet and inviting for one weary with anxiety and labor as the most exacting could desire. The Sisters receive no pay fOJ: anything they do. Their only reward is the consciousness of serving Christ and humanity. They are cared for while they live, and buried when they die; God takes care of the rest. Some belong to the nobility, some to the middle classes, some to the poor, and all to the Kingdom of God.
This Deaconess institution has started others like it in different parts of the world, and thus its work is both direct and indirect. In England and the United States similar Sisterhoods are already in operation, and the sphere of woman's work in the amelioration of human ills is without discernible limit. The seed sown by Pastor Fliedner has grown beyond his most sanguine dreams. Incidentally he came in contact with Florence Nightingale and Agnes Jones. The
THE JUBILEE OF THE NEW HEBRIDES MISSION
former has revolutionized the war-hospitals of England and all the colonies, and effected sanitary reforms wherever the English armies have gone. The latter, in a few short years of service in the Liverpool workhouse hospital, effected reforms among workhouse hospitals hardly less remarkable in their way than those of her more illustrioU'S sister. The influence of these women is felt in almost all institutions for child-saving and for the alleviation of pain, and the reform of criminals in Great Britain and America. The mustard seed which Fliedner planted is already a great tree whose branches reach into all lands.
No attempt has been made in this paper to compare the methods of charity in Germany with those among English-speaking people. In many respects they are radically different, but in more respects alike. It is enough to say that charity is the expression of love, and love is not limited by social or racial distinctions. Its forms of manifestations are everywhere the same, and so charity employs substantially the same methods and works toward the same ends among all people.
THE JUBILEE OF THE NEW HEBRIDES MISSION.
BY REV. ROBERT STEEL, D.D., SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WAI~ES.
In November, 1839, fifty years ago, the" Apostle of Polynesia'~ -John Williams-gave his life in an eNdeavor to pioneer the gospel of Jesus Christ in the islands of the New Hebrides. He had heard of the savage cannibals of Eromanga, and of the many atrocities committed by them; but as he knew the effects of Christianity on some of the Polynesian isla-nds, he was anxious to extend its blessings .to other groups. He had awakened an immense interest in South Sea Missions by his visit to England and by the publication of his "Missionary Enterprises." No book of its class ever created so great a sensation. The Archbishop of Canterbury, after perusing it, declared that it read like a new chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Peers and Peeresses not only read it, but sent their donations to aid the work of evangelization in Polynesia. The press reviewed it with favor. In a few years 40,000 copies were sold. John 'Villiams became the hero of the hour, and many sympathizing friends breathed their benedictions as he sailed away on his new mission for the extension of the gospel among the isles of the Pacific. It was not long after his return to the scenes of his triumphs in Raratonga and Samoa that he set his heart on a visit to the New Hebrides. It had been one of his philanthropic utterances: "It is our duty to visit surrounding islands. For my own part, I cannot content myself within the limits of a single reef." He, therefore, took twelve native teach('rs as pioneers and sailed in the Oamden, under Captain Morgan, for the New Hebrides in 1839. As the vessel neared the group he was all anxiety as to whether the savages would receive him in a friendly spirit, and allow the landing of a few of the teachers to prepare the way of the Lord. The first island of the grOtlp at which the vessel touched was Futuna, a huge rock which rises up 2,000 feet above the sea. The natives there were friendly, but there was not opportunity for making arrangements to locate teachers. It was otherwise at Tanna. The harbor of Port Resolution was a safe anchorage, and had been visited by European traders. The chief promised protection to the Samoan teachers, and three were left. To Mr. Williams this was a notable event. lIe wrote of it in his journal thus: "This is a memorable day, a day which willbe transmitted to posterity, and the record of the events which have this day transpired will exist after those who have taken part in them have retired into the shades of oblivion."
He little thought that the very next day would be rendered still more memorable, not indeed by the landing of teachers, but by his own martyr death at Eromanga, on the 20th of November, 1839. He landed, along with Mr. Harris, a young man sailing in the Camden, and seriously thinking of giving himself to missionary work. CaptainMorgan and Mr. Cunningham also landed. All seemed pleasant at first, and the party proceeded inland along the banks of the river at Dillon's Bay. Suddenly a shout was heard. The natives became hostile, and it was necessary to seek safety in the boats. Captain Morgan and Mr. Cunningham were nearest to the shore and got into their boat. Mr. Harris was struck and fell into the river. Mr. 'Vil- Iiams was clubbed just as he reached the bay. No help could be given, and their friends in the boat saw the natives spear and kill both Williams and Harris. Arrows flew around the boat, and the men had to pull for their lives. The bodies of the martyr pioneers were dragged into the bush by the infuriated cannibals for their horrid feast. When the vessel reached Samoa great sorrow was awakened by the heavy·tidings of the death of John ·Williams. From island to island the wailing cry arose, "Aue Williamu! Aue Tawa!-Ala~, Williams! Alas, our Father I"
But as of old, "the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the <lhurch." It was at once resolved by the mission brethren in Samoa that another effort should be made to place Christian teachers on blood-stained Eromanga. The Rev. T. Heath offered to lead the forlorn hope on the condition that if he also fell, another man should take the colors. He succeeded in his effort, and in 1840, six months after the death of 'Villiams, two Christian Samoan teachers were landed. A veteran survivor of that eventful period, the Rev. A. ,Yo Murray, author of the "Martyrs of Polynesia," "The Bible in the Pacific," and other works on missionR, visited the island in 1841, when Mrs. Williams was on boanl the mission vessel on her way to England and saw the scene of her devoted husband's death in the cause he loved. The teachers were fOl:nd alive, but they had a tale of living martyrdom to relate, and had experienced so many sufferings and hardships that they had to be removed. In England, after the sad intelligence of the death of the heroic vVilliams, it was also resolved by the directors of the London ~lissionary Society to· endeavor to plant the standard of the Cross at once as near as possible to the spot where the apostolic pioneer had fallen. Two young missionaries, with their brave wives, were forthcoming, ready to take their lives in their hands and go on the perilous enterprise. Messrs. Nisbet and Turner reached Tanna in June, 1842, and got what seemed a hopeful reception from the chiefs and natives of Port Resolution. "But," Dr. Turner says, "we had not been twenty-four hours on shore until we found that we were among a set of notorious thieves, perfect Spartans in the trade, and like the ancient code of Lycurgus, the crime seemed to be not the stealing, but the being found out." For seven dreary months the little mission party tried all their arts of conciliation in vain. Difficulties increased, and their lives were in imminent danger. At last, in dead of night, they had to seek safety in an open boat, but they were driven back. It was a critical condition for them to occupy; but providentially a trading vessel called the next day, and they got a passage to Samoa, where for many years they rendered fruitful service to the work of missions, and in the closing years of their residence trained many native teachers ana pastors and aided the work of translation and revised translations of Scripture, till thcy carried through the press an edition of the whole Bible with references in the language of Samoa. The London Missionary Society'S vessel from year to year sailed through the New Hebrides group, and the deputies on board, as Mr. Murray minutely testifies, watched for opportunities of locating teachers on several islands. Much is due to the brave enterprise of these devoted brethren in connection with the New Hebrides .Mission, and it becomes us, as we recall the work of fifty years ago, to record the fact that it was the London Missionary Society that pioneered the gospel to these islands where, in subsequent years, the Presbyterian missionaries had their trials and triumphs. It was their vessel that conveyed the first Presbyterian missionary. It was one of their missionaries that stayed with him during his first year. By their deputies he was visited and cheered from time to time. The Jubilee honors and rejoicings of the mission mu~t, therefore, be shared by that great society.
The first resident missionary on the New Hebrides was a Presbyterian-the Rev. John Geddie. He was a native of Banff, in Scotland, but had been taken in his infancy to Nova Scotia, where he became, in course of time, a student for the ministry. He was licensed to preach when he was only twenty-two years of age, and was ordained as a pastor at Cavendish, in Prince Edward Island, within a year thereafter. He was connected with a church compara- tively small and poor, and unable to afford more than a scanty income, often much in arrear', to its ministers, yet he had the courage to pro- pose that a Foreign Mission should be adopted. It is recorded that when he made known his views" there was not a man in the church who thought it practicable. Many looked upon it as utterly chimeri- cal, and were ready to pour contempt upon it as folly, while even his f~iends received the proposal with a smile of incredulity." The Church had in all only thirty congregations in the Provinces, and most were poor and str·uggling. Mr. Geddie, however, persevered, and in the course of a few years, carried his motion in the Synod. Vhen the proposal to seek a missionary was made, it was carried only by a majority of one! The attention of the Board was directed toward the islands where John Villiams laid down his life, and at length it was agreed that New Caledonia should be the field of their mission. That island had been named by MI'. Villiams to the Secession Church in Scotland as a sphere that might be occupied by their agents. Mr. Geddie belonged to that branch of the Presbyterian Church in Nova Scotia. He offered himself to the work~ and was accepted. He knew how little could be expected in the way of support; but he was not to be daunted. After visiting all the congregations of the Synod, and endeavoring to excite a prayerful and liberal. interest in the mission, he stw.died medicine for a time. In November, 1846, he sailed along with his wife and family. He was detained at Boston for two months before he found a vessel sailing for the Pacific, and even then the port to which a passage could be got was Honolulu, in the Sandwich Islands, far from the contemplated sphere in the South Seas. Six dreary months were spent in rounding Cape Horn ere they reached Honolulu, and seven weeks passed before a passage could be got to Samoa. Mr. Geddie had, however, an opportunity of seeing the working of the IIawaian Mission, and afterwards that of Samoa. Vhen he reached the latter place, he found that no opportunity could be got to reach New Caledonia 01' the Loyalty Islands for six or seven months, when the mission vessel John TVilliams wottld call. Besides, there then seemed no opening in these islands, as the energetic Bishop of New Zealand (Dr. Selwyn) had expressed a wish to conduct missionary work there. One of the islands of the New Hebrides afforded a single gleam of hope, and Mr. Geddie, with the advice of brethren at Samoa, agreerl to undertake a mission there. The venerable MI'. Murray, who still sllrvives, was a chief adviser and helper of Mr. Geddie during this period. It was proposed that one of the Samoan missionaries should accompany Mr. Geddie for a year, and the Rev. Mr. Bullen was chosen to do so, but amidst preparation for the expedition Mr. Bullen died. The Rev. T. Powell at the last moment offered to go with Mr. Geddie, and they left in July, 1848., They reached the most southerly island of the New Hebrides-Aneit- yum-where some native teachers had been settled, but what was the surprise of the mission party to find eight Roman Catholic priests and eight lay brothers already established in the island! The mission vessel then cruised throughout the group, calling at the stations where native teachers had be~n left. It was hoped that Mr. Geddie might find a home on the island of Fate. An awful tragedy had, however, taken place there the previous year when the British Sovereign had been wrecked. The crew were all saved with one exception. The natives appeared at first to treat them kindly, but it was only to allay suspicion. The whole of the survivors, twenty-one in number, each being placed between two savages in a march, on a given signal were brutally massacred, and their bodies, divided among the villages, were cooked and eaten by the cannibal people. It was selfevident that a missionary could not at that time be safely settled in that quarter. The mission vessel returned to the South, and Mr. and Mrs. Geddie, with an assistant, found an opening at Aneityum, where they settled under the protection of the chief at the harbor. The Rev. 'r. Powell remained with them for a year. The Roman Catho- lic priests and brothers left soon after and never returned. The Geddies had to pass through a hard and trying expet:ience in dealing with a people so low and savage. Their property was stolen, their hollse threatened with fire, and their very lives imperilled. Meantime the horrid custom of strangling widows on the death of their husbands continued. Inter-tribal fighting was chronic, and people wel'e afraid to go from one side of the island to the other for fear of being killed, cooked and eaten. There was little to encourage the mission party. They were, however, cheered by a friendly visit of Bishop Selwyn, who remained a fortnight on the island, and traveled on foot with Mr. Geddie to see as much of native life as he could. He kindly offered the use of a cottage at Auckland to Mr. or 1'lrs. Geddie should they need a change for a few months to recruit their health. On his voyage in 1852 the Bishop conveyed the Rev. John Inglis and his wife, with all their furniture, house and luggage, to Aneityum. Mr. Inglis was a minister of the Reformed or Covenanting Church in Scotland, and it was a pleasing circumstance that an Anglican prelate thus aided the Covenanter. Bishop Selwyn ever after kept up this friendly relation, and also introduced Bishop Patterson to these brethren. He even asked Presbyterians in·New Zealand to contribute, and on one occasion brought over £100 to Messrs. Geddie and Inglis.
By the time Mr. Inglis had settled on the opposite side of the island, the tide had turned in favor of Christianity at ~fr. Geddie's station. Fifteen had been baptized, and the I.ord's Supper had been observed on the visit of the London Missionary Society's deputation that year iu the John Williams. The two missionaries occupied different sides of the island, but labored with equal zeal and great cordiality. They preached, taught in school,., translated Scriptures, composed, and Mr. Geddie printed a class-book, built premiseA, and exercised an influence for good all over the island. Young people were all taught to read and write, congregations were organized with elders and deacons, fifty day-schools established, and over 2,000 persons admitted into the visible Church by baptism. The whole people were evangelized. It was a marvellous change in a degraded and cannibal people. At length the whole Scriptures were translated, and first the New, and ultimately the Old, Testament were printed by the British and Foreign Bible Society in London, but paid for by the contributions of arrowroot from the Christian converts. After a visit to Nova Scotia in 1863, where he got the translation of the Book of Psalms printed, Mr. Geddie returned with the honorary degree of D.D., from the Queen's University in Canada, to resume his labors. But he had to retire in 1872, prematurely aged by his toils and exposures. He died at Geelong in the end of that year, leaving a widow, one son and four daughters. Two of the latter were married to missionaries on the New Hebrides. He was a noble, self-denying pieneer, and led many into the fold of Christ. He had a happy way of dealing with the natives, and was also very handy in work. It was my privilege, by the kindness of a few friends, to place a wooden tablet to his memory on the wall of the stone church he had erected at Anelgauhat, Aneityum. The record of his labors, inscribed on it in the native language, concludes with these words, " ,Vhen he landed here in 1848, there were no Christians, and when he left here in 1872, there were no heathens." Since first published, this inscription has gone round the world, increasing in value, as it was retold, until the latest account makes the tablet marble and the letters gold!
Mr. Inglis continued at his station till 1877, and then retired to carry the Old Testament through the Press in London. He also published his translation of the Shorter Catechism and Mr. Geddie's abridged translation of the first part of the" Pilgrim's Progress," and some hymnl'l. He added a Dictionary of Aneityumese. He received the honorary degree of D.D. from the University of Glasgow, and in a green.old age still served the mission both by speech and by books in Scotland. His patient toil, his wise management, his clear style of instruction, and his benevolent life, aided by his late excellent wife, did much for the Christianity of Aneityum. It is meet that both Dr. Geddie and Dr. Inglis should be held in grateful remembrance for their successful efforts in bringing a whole island of cannibal people into the peaceful fold of the Good Shepherd. Ainidst a decreasing population the cause of Christ has flourished on the island, and the contributions ot
"TO EVERY CREATURE."
arrowroot from the Christian church at Aneityum nearly supported their resident minister-the Rev. J. H. Lawrie. 'fhis church was the first of the Papuan race embraced within the visible kingdom of God, and it became the pioneer of others among the thirty islands of the New Hebrides.
"TO EVERY CREATURE."
BY REV. J. HUDSO"Y TAYLOR, OF THE CHINA I"YLAND MISSION.
We are nearing the close of another year, and of an important decade in the history of Missions. In our own Mission the last ten years have been specially important; at their commencement the pioneering journeys of ~fr. (now Dr.) Cameron and others of our brethren were not yet completed; woman's work in inland China was barely com- menced, and not at all in the western provinces; during this period the number of our stations and out-stations has been about doubled, and the number of missionary workers more than trebled, for in the year 1880 we had but 91 missionaries, including wives, while now it considerably exceeds 300. This decade has witnessed the out-going of the 80 missionaries whom God gave us in response to our prayers for the 70, and in the following year of 40 others, among whom were the well-known Cambridge band; many prophesied the early return of the members of this band, but we are thankful to know that they are all engaged in diligent service in inland China, and that each one has been blessed and made a blessing.
Then we have to praise God for the 100 missionaries given us in 1887, and for the more than fifty who followed them last year, including the first American party. 'Ve rejoice in first fruits gathered in many of the more recent stations, and that over 1,000 were added to our native churches by baptism during the years 1887 and 1888, with continued additions during the current year. 'Vhile some converts have undoubtedly been received prematurely, causing subsequent trial and disappointment (a result which the experiencc of the oldest missionary cannot always avert), a large proportion are showing by the fruit of the Spirit that they have really been born of God. For the 80 little missionary churches now connected with the C. 1. M., we give to God unfeigned thanks, as also for all those gathered in other districts by His honored servants, the missionaries of the various European and American societies.
When we turn, however, from the total number of Protestant communicants-under 40,000-to think of the population of China, the contrast is appalling; double, treble this number to include adherents, and suppose each adherent to be a centre of light to ten of his countrymen, and you reach but 1,000,000 of China's vast population. The Master's words are" to every creature;" how far we are from fulfilling them! In 1877 thc Confercnce of Missionaries assembled in Shanghai appealed to the Christian Church to evangelize China in the present generation, and many hoped it would be accomplished within the present century. More than half the time before the close of the century has passed, and not one-hundreth part of the people have been reached, y~t this generation is the last of sixty since our Saviour gave the command, which, as Dr. Pierson has well pointed out, has laid the responsibility on the church of each successive generation to give the gospel to each individual living in its own period.
How are we going to treat the Lord Jesus Christ in reference to this command? Shall we definitely drop the title Lord as applied to Him, and take the ground that we are quite willing to recognize Him as our Saviour Jesus, so far as the eternal penalty of sin is concerned, but are not prepared to recognize ourselves as bought with a price, or Him as having any claim to our unquestioning obedience? Shall we say that we are our own masters, willing to recognize something as His due, who bought us with His blood, provided He do not ask too much; our lives, our loved ones, our possessions are our own, not His; we will give Him what we think fit, and obey any of His commands that do not demand too great a sacrifice? To be taken to heaven by Jesus Christ we are more than willing, but we will not have this Man to reign over us.
The heart of every true Christian will unhesitatingly reject this proposition when so formulated, but have not countless lives in each generation been lived as though" it were a proper ground to take? How few of the Lord's people have recognized the truth that Christ is either Lord of all, or is not Lord at all! If we can judge God's Word instead of being judged by the "Word; if we can give to God as much or as little as we like, tlien we are lords, and He the indebted one, to be grateful for our dole, obliged by our compliance with His wishes; if, on the other hand, He is Lord, let us treat Him as such. "Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" "If ye love Me keep My commandments." Thank God, an increasing number of His children are truly seeking to crown Him Lord of all, and are searching the Scriptures daily that they may know His will, in order to do it, praying continually, "Teach me, 0 Lord, the way of thy statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end."
To all such the Master's command, "To every creature," will come with great power; knowing it to be His will that every living human being shall be evangelized, everything that prayer and effort can do towards its accomplishment will be felt to be a privilege as well as a duty; each will ask himself, "What wilt Thou have me to do?" Will not the very youngest believers pray and give, and interest their young companions? and what mighty power there is in the simple, trustful faith of a little child who believes in Jesus! Will not those who are older recognize the probability of their being personally called to missionary labor and make definite preparation for it, that if pcrmitted a share in this holy enterprise they may be the better fitted? Shall it not become a holy ambition to all who have health and youth to court the Master's approval and tread in His steps, in seeking to save a lost world? and shall not Christian parents encourage their enthusiasm, feeling that they have nothing too precious for their Lord who gave himself for them?
There is no impossibility in our Master's command. Were the Government of England to determine on the conquest of a distant land, they would think it a small matter to land 10,000 troops in any part of the world's circumference; and the Church of God to-day could easily, within the next five years, effect the evangelization of everyone of China's millions. No very great effort was needed in America to secure the signature of over 3,000 college students to a pledge that if God opened the way they would devote themselves to missionary enterprise. Were the enthusiasm and devotion of all our churches aroused, and not merely that of a few individuals, more than that number of effective workers might easily be found on each side of the Atlantic for China alone. But no such numbers are needed in order that every man, woman, and child in China should hear the gospel once, at least. If, in addition to the workers now in the field, one thousand whole-hearted evangelists, male, and female, were set free and kept free fur this special work, they might reach the whole number of China's millions before the e::rd of the year 1895, and this allowing two years of the five for study of the language and preparation for the work. Estimating the population of China as we do at 250,000,000, there will be about 50,000,000 of families; if fifty families were reached daily for one thousand days by each of the one thousand evangelists, every creature in China could be reached in three years' time, leaving the evangelists two or three Sundays for rest each month. If it be said that unexpected hindrances would be sure to arise, it should be noted that this calculation takes no account of the help to be given by the one thousand missionary workers now in China, mainly devoted to pastoral work, to shepherding and feeding the converts; and it takes no account of the help to be given by native Christians, which would, of course, be immense and invaluable. Shall a work which one thousand workers might accomplish in three years of steady work, after two years of preparation, be thought of as chimerical, and beyond the resources of the Christian Church?
But is it reasonable to suppose that a missionary evangelist could reach on an average fifty families a day, and this all over China? In reply we may draw attention to the fact that a large proportion of thc Chinese live in courts or quadrangles containing from four to ten families each; were five the average, then to take the gospel to ten such courts would accomplish the necessary task. And this would llOt nee<1 to be uone unaided, for each missionary evangelist would easily secure the companionship of one 01' more .native Christians as helpers. There are, it is true, a few (though but a few) parts of China where the people are so hostile that we can scarcely' call them now open to this kind of effort; but it must not be forgotten that the Opener, who still holds the key of David, has given His word of promise to be with such workers "all the days." And no such effort could be made without an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church universal, which would include the native Christian churches of China, and make the tens of thousands of native Christians, apart from the foreigner, a mighty power for the evangelization of their .own people. God gives his Holy Spirit to them that obey Him. Even if the churches were unwilling to take it up, are there not 500 Christian workers in Europe who might go out at their own charges and do this grand work? But shall we suppose that the Episcopalians of England, and the Presbyterians of Scotland and Ireland, have. not each among them 100 men and women fit for this glorious enterprise? that the Methodists of the United Kingdom could not provide another 100, and that Congregationalist and Baptist churches could not each supply a similar contingent? VlTe may feel well assured that the United States of America and Canada would not be behind, and thus the 1,000 evangelists might easily be forthcoming.
How shall a project like this be translated from proposition into practice? First, by earnest, believing prayer; this was our Saviour's plan, and it has been left on record for our guidance: "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He will send fOl·th laborers into His haryest." 'Vhen we sought for the C. 1. M. the 70 and the 100 in prayer, and accepted them in faith, we received them in due course from His mighty, loving hand.
Then, if there is to be the fullest blessing, there must be the united simultaneous action of the whole body of believers; it is by "the effectual working in the measure of every part" of the members of the whole Body that its growth and building up are to be effected.
Third, There must be intelligent co-operation and such division and sub-division of the field that one part have not an undue share of workers while other parts are neglected.
Fourth, There must be Christly giving on the part of individuals and churches of their real treasures to the Lord for His service, and Christly service by those who go forth in His name. By Christly giving and service, we do not mean that which is done for Christ's sake merely, but that which is done after Christ's pattern. His service began with emptying Himself, involved toil and suffering all along the line, and enrled only with the perfect accomplishment of the object for which lIe came iuto the world.
THE CREDULITY OF SKEPTICISM
Fifth, There is no time to lose, for if we commence at once, millions of those now living in China will have passed away before the message can reach them.
Will each of our readers join us in prayer that God will send out 1,000 evangelists for China very speedily, and personally ask Him the question: "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" Let us not forget that to preach the gospel to every creature, is not a mere human project, but a divine command.
THE CREDULITY OF SKEPTICISM.
BY F. F. ELLINWOOD, D.D., NEW YORK.
The credulity of unbelief has become proverbial. There are instances which would be amusing if the subjects were less serious, and their treatment less bitter. Almost as a rule the wildest and most preposterous theories are held by men and women who have made shipwreck of faith. They above all others are ready for a seven-fold possession.
A remarkable instance of excess of faith was brought to myatten- tion not long since, in a book entitled" The Bible in India." Looking on the title page for the authorship, I at once recognized the familiar llame of Louis J acolliot, an intense French infidel whom Professor Max Muller had mercilessly ridiculed in his lecture on "False Analogies." The book was published by a well-known firm in New York, and has doubtless given great comfort to many a foe to Christianity_ M. J acolliot, while acting as a judge in the Courts at Chandel' N agore in the Madras Presidency, warmly embraced the idea that all the religions of Western nations had been derived from India, and that a little searching would find the sources of the Old and New Testaments in the Sanskrit manuscripts. He gave his leisure hours to Sanskrit. He found pundits who were even more ready to promote his purpose than he had imagined. They produced manuscripts, he translated, and the bonanza which he had struck well nigh turned his head. He had not learned, as had others who had preceded him, that a two-fold appeal to the race pride and the cupidity of the impecunious pundits would bring forth Sanskrit treasures of any desired variety or extent.
The essential history, the ritual, and many of the important prophecies of the Old Testament, were found in a Hindu mould, and the god Krishna, 01', as Jacolliot spelled it for greater effect, "Christna," was clearly foretold. New Testament parallels in abundance were also produced, and the mercurial Frenchman was in ecstacies. He could not satisfy his enthusiasm with a plain statement of results; he must work off his overpowering emotion by the following apostrophe to India: "Soil of ancient India, cradle of humanity, hail! Hail, venerable and efficient nurse whom centuries of brutal invasions have not yet buried under the dust of oblivion! Hail, fatherland of faith, of love, of poetry, and of science! May we hail a revival of thy past in onrWesternfutnre. I have dwelt midst the depths of yonr mysterious forests, seeking to comprehend the language of your lofty natnre, and the evening airs that murmured midst the foliage of banyans and tamarinds whispered to my spirit these three magic words: Zeus, Jehovah, Brahma! ..• "
"How often have I heard on the evening air, hoarse moans, wailing complaint that seemed to rise from desert marshes, sombre pathways, rivers' banks, or woody shades, etc.! Was it the voice of the past returning to weep o'er a lost civilization and an extinguished grandeur ? Was it the expiring groan of Sepoys mowed down pele mele by grape, with their wives and, children, after the revolt, by some red-jackets who thus revenged their own pain? "
. . . " Then it was that I sought to lift the obscuring veil from the past, and backward trace the origin of this dying people, who, without energy for either hatred or affection, without enth~iasm for either virtue or vice, seem to personate an actor doomed to act out his part before an audience of statues. How glorious the epoch that then presented itself to my study and comprehension. I made tradition speak from the temple's recess, I inquired of monuments and ruins, I questioned the Vedas, whose pages count their existence by thousands of years, and whence inquiring youth imbibed the science of life long before Thebes of the hundred gates or Babylon the Great had traced out their foundations . . . "
"And then did India appear to me in all the living power of her originality -I traced her progress in the expansion of her enlightenment over the world- I saw her giving her laws, her customs, her morals and her religion to Egypt, to Persia, to Greece and to Rome. I saw Djenimyand Veda-Vyasa precede Socrates and Plato-and Christna, the son of the Virgin Devanagny (in Sanskrit created by God), precede the son of the Virgin of Bethlehem."
J acolliot's theory applies to the Greek and Latin classics as well as to the Old and New Testament Scriptures. The civilization of Egypt has also been borrowed from" the fatherland of faith, of love, of poetry and of science." The Justinian Pandects of Rome were traced to the Laws of Manu, and all the best institutions known in Europe were shown to be parts and parcels of the one great heirloom.
The facile adaptation of derivative names was enough to astonish the most learned philologists. They are generally thankful for slight analogies between European and Sanskrit roots, but no sooner had J acolliot's pundits been made acquainted with the renowned names of the Greek classics, and furnished with some historic clew, than they brought forward original Sanskrit counterparts whose verbal resemblances and whose meanings were startling.
Hercules was derived from Hara-Kala, Rhadamanthus from Rhada manta, Andromeda from Andha ra meda, Centaur from Kentura, Minerva from Mana rava, J upitel' from Zupitri, Pythagoras from Pittia-guru, and Pl'otagoras from Prataguru. Otber nations of Europe had been favored with vocabularies, and had dared to make only the slightest possible changes. Odin came from Yodin, Swede from Suyoda, Scandinavian from Scanda-nava, Celts from Kallata, Gauls from Galota, Baltic from Bala-taka. Philologists have found in true Sanskrit abundant resemblances to roots of European languages. Each branch of the race developed many changes, but that one of them furnished names to order for all the others is a unique hypothesis. It is to be regretted in the interest of the theory that the resemblances had not been toned down to fainter lines; the average credulity of readers is ovel·taxed; the clever work is over- done.
After witnessing the completeness of this linguistic performance no one will be surprised to know that the leading New Testament in- cidents are reproduced almost entire. 'Vhat is known as the" Krishna Cult" is worked to the greatest advantage. Nothing of originality is left to the Christ of Judea.
Among the demigods of the Hindu mythology Krishna figured as a good-natured and rollicking Bacchus. Nothing is known of him in the earlier Sanskrit literature, but in the epic known as the :Mahab- harata and in the Vishnu Pm'ana he appears· as an incarnation of Vishnu. After the rise of Buddhism, Hinduism had discovered its lack of a more sympathetic being than had yet appeared-a god among men who should unite with the powers of deity something like the Buddha's sympathy and pity.
Around Krishna, therefore, there grew up an increasing interest- not that he furnished an ethical model, for his history corresponded very nearly with that of the lascivious satyrs of the Roman mythology, but because he was warmly and sympathetically human. The Krishna Cult was not fully developed until the early centuries of the Christian era, and it pl'Oceeded along two lines. In its popular aspects it kept pace with the growing corruptions which appeared in the Tantras, and were illustrated in the immoral orgies of Siva worship. The festivals in honor of Krishna were, and to a very recent date have continued to be, occasions of unspeakable vice.
The other line of development was theoretical; Krishna was treated as a Divine Counsellor and friend in the Bhagayad Gita, whichthough embracing older materials-was probably composed about the fil'st or second century of our era, and the Bhagavad Gita has, in its. high ethics, often been compared to the New Testament, though falling far enough below a parallel. But the legends by which Jacolliot matches "Christna's" life with leading incidents in the life of Jesus were partly the growth of those later centuries in which Hinduism was brought in contact with Christianity in Southern India, and partly the probable work of our author's own subsidized pundits. Even if the scholarly criticism of Max :Muller had not befaJIen this unfortunate author, the Frenchiness and pruriency with which he clot{led the story of Adam and Eve (" Adima and Heva") ill the Garden, as well as the general extravagance of his statements, would have aroused suspicion. The learned Oxford scholar seems to have felt that some sort of apology was necessary for treating with seriousness so absurd a case of pedantry, and he found it in the fact that so much credence was given to the book. But he proceeds to say that" many of the words which M. J acolliot quotes as Sanskrit are not Sanskrit at all, others never have the meaning which he assigns to them, and as to the pas- sages which he assigns to the Vedas, they are not from any old Sanskrit writer, they simply beloJig to the last half of the Nineteenth Oen- tury." lIe regards them as "simple in:ventions of some slightly mischievous Brahman who took advantage of the zeal and credulity of his employer." And he adds" that such is the interest, or rather the feverish curiosity, excited by anything that bears on the ancient religion, that J acolliot's book has produced a very wide and very deep impression. .In fact, 'if anytldng were wanting to show that a general knowledge of the history of ancient religions ought to form Ct part of our education, it was tlie panic created by tlds book."
But there had been earlier instances in which zealous opponents of Christianity had sought and found the evidence which they desired to prove that Christianity was a plagiarism upon the Sanskrit literature of the Hindus. Voltaire was carried away with enthusiasm when some one presented to him a copy of a portion of the Veda which corresponded in a remarkable degree with the teachings of the Bible. No time was lost in turning this new evidence against Christianity to the best possible account.
But after a time it appeared that an overzealous Jesuit missionary, thinking that the end would sanctify the means, had written certain Sanskrit texts designed to convince the Hindus that the Bible and the Vedas were to a large extent in harmony. This very immoral and fallacious project, however, proved most futile, and the only result was to dupe the arch infidel, Voltaire.
Some years ago Lieutenant "Wilford, who had read Sir ·William Jones' theory that Greek mythology was largely borrowed from that of India (a theory which Sir William finally abandoned), conceived the idea of tracing the teachings of Christianity from the same source. He proceeded to persuade the Brahmans that a thorough search among their ancient records would disclose not only the Greek mythology, but the Old Testament history. He was persistent against their reserve and reticence. He related to them the principal events of the Old Testament record, and at the same time promised ample rewards for their labor. At last the pundits yielded. They resolved that what he so eagerly sought should be supplied. 'faking his stories from the Pentateuch, they adapted them to the Sanskrit style, and brought forth astonishing results. Even Sir ·William Jones was COI1vinced, and congratulated Lieutenant vVilford on his success. The story of Noah was reproduced with a truly Indian picturesqueness. But when at last it was found that a forgery had been committed, that upon leaves which had been inserted in the ancient manuscripts the pundits, under pressure, had rendered in correct Sanskrit all that thev had heard about Adam and Abraham, Lieutenant Wilford did n;t hesitate to confess publicly that he had been imposed upon; yet, as Professor Max Muller says in his account of this matter, the mischief had in the meantime been done. Lieutenant vVilford's Essays had been read all over Europe; they retained their place in the volumes of the" Asiatic Society," and to the present day some of his state· ments and theories continue to be quoted authoritatively by writers on ancient religions.
Speaking further of J acolliot, Max Muller says" he has no doubt found out by this time that he has been imposed upon, and if so he ought to foilow the example of Colonel Wilford, and publicly state what has happened. Even then I doubt not that his statements will continue to be quoted for a long time, and that Adima and Heva (supposed Sanskrit for Adam and Eve), thus brought to life again, will make their appearance in many a book and many a lecture room."
The whole theory of those who would make India <, the source of all faith and love anu poetry and science," rests upon an erroneous assumption as to the antiquity of Illdian chronology. Sir VilIiam Jones was among the first to fall 11I1~ler this errol', and all his dates have been rectified by the consensus of later scholarship. As for the position assumed by Jacolliot, that Egypt b01'ro"ed her faith from India, it need only be said that the chronology and the monotheistic faith of Egypt can be traced from a period at least several hundred years earlier than any well esta.blished date of Indian history. There is ]]0 certain evidence that either the Yedas or any national records were committed to writing much earlier than 300, B. C., and it can only be a matter of conjecture that Europe or Palestine possessed any extended knowledge of India before the invasion of Alexander and the revelations concerning her institutions which were made by IVlegasthenes, the ambassador of Seleucos, his successor.
It may be said, with great propriety, that Christians,' as well as skeptics, have sometimes been very sanguine and even credulous in regard to those phases of heathen faiths which seemed favorable to their views. Max Muller mentions some instances among the earlier Jesuit Missionaries in China. 'l'here were certainly some serious mistakes of the kind on the part of the early Spanish Padres, who fancied that they found many elements of their faith in the traditions of the Aztecs of Mexico. Within our own generation illusive hopes were very generally entertained in regard to the Christian tendencies of the Brahma Somaj in India, and especially the remarkable utterances of Cheshub Chunder Sen. But no such elaborate theories as those of J acolliot have been built upon these fond hopes, which were "too
THE MORAVIAN MISSION ON THE KUSKOKWIM
good to be true." The persistency and intensity of such illusions can be found in full force only in the minds of those who are too wise and cautious to believe the Christian revelation. Any misrepresentation of missionary enterprises, or of the truth which missionaries teach, has always a charmed vitality.
A malicious story which I found more than a dozen years ago in Japan in relation to the building of a Missionary chapel, has been refuted at least a hundred times only to spring up with fresh life again and again. The scene at first was laid in Japan and concerned the Reformed Mission in Yokohama, but I have since seen it re· produced in new dress, located in Shanghai, and published with great particularity as an incident in the American Episcopal Mission of that city. Two years ago my attention was called to an ar~icle in a sporting paper in New York, entitled "Outing." There I found the same old story with the scene laid in Chefou, and given with all the gusto of some ignorant and conceited globe-trotter who had probably either I forgotten where he had heard the story, or where it belonged, or who had located it where he was more familiar with the ground or could present it with the most picturesque effect. The story, though false to the core, is annually heard by hundreds of Pacific steamer passengers who receive it as a clear, straightforward record of truth and verity.
THE MORAVIAN MISSION ON THE KUSKOKWIM.
BY REV. PAUL DE SCHWEINIT.
A lady missionary, returning from China, says: "One does not to have to be a hero any more in order to be a missionary; one goes forth prepared endure all things heroically, and finds that friends at home have so thought of and cared for every want that there is scarcely any call for heroism at the station." That is as it should be. Those who remain behind by " the stuff" should bountifully supply every need of those fighting at the front. But there are fields of labor, which, even in this day of easy and rapid communication and transportation, and in spite of the warm love of Christian friends at home, remain heroic in every sense of the word. Let the following simple historic narrative of one of the newest of the missions undertaken by the Moravian brethren witness to that. Missionary heroism is still extant among these pioneers of modern missions.
In the winter of 1884 Dr. Sheldon Jackson, of the Presbyterian Church, appeared in Bethlehem, Pa., to plead for a missionary to the Eskimos of Northwestern Alaska. He presented the oouse to the Moravians in this wise: That these Eskimos were so degraded, so debased; that the conditions of missionary labor among them were so severe, so dreary, so cheerless; that these forlorn people were literally so God-forsaken, that he could find no one who was willing to carry the 116 THE MORAVIAN lIIISSION ON THE KUSKOKWDI. [Feb.
gospel message to them in their inhospitable regionR, where they dwelt in unspeakable degradation. 'As a last reso~·t he came to the Moravians. No man cared for the souls of these degraded heathen savages-would they have mercy upon them? That was an appeal which the Church that had sought out the Hottentots of Africa, and the Innuits of Greenland and LabradOl', could not resist. Five of the students who were to graduate from the Theological Seminary that year expressed their willingness to go. Two were afterwards chosen.
First an exploratory tour was undertaken by a veteran missionary, accompanied by one student. They found, as is usual in such northern climates, the Eskimos living o~ly in small groups here and there, scattered over a wide stretch of country. The description of their degrada~ion had not been exaggerated in the slightest degree. Filthy and disgusting in their habits, to an extent that forbids description in public print; their morality at such a low ebb that they may practically be said to have none; parents willingly making prostitutes of their daughters from nine or ten years on, ruthlessly taking their daughter from one man and giving her to another, if they thought they could make more by it; the related crimes of killing off helpless aJ;ld old people and unwelcome infants being considered the incontestable right of the persons otherwise responsible for their support; and so on through the revolting catalogue. Their form of religion was so low that it could scarcely be dignified with the name. Priests they had none-only "sachemR," i. e., medicine men. They live principally on fish, of which, in the short summer, a sufficient quantity must be caught to last through the dreary winter. However, they met the missionaries in a friendly manner, and the latter felt justified in selecting a site on the Kuskokwim river for a mission station.
Now that it has become fashionable to run summer excursions to Alaska, it no longer seems so out of the world; but these excursions run only to Sitka. Few have any clear idea of the extent of the territory. Roughly speaking, Alaska is as large as all the Northern lakes east of the Mississippi; and the Moravian mission station on the Kuskokwim is as far from Sitka as Baltimore, Md., is from Minneapolis, Minn. There are no means of communication with the station, except once a year, and then only through the kindness of the Alaska Commercial Company. When once there the missionaries are absolutely separated from all civilization, from all help, from all supplies, for a whole year. Everything must be taken along, as nothing but fish and some game can be procured there.
Nothing daunted by this report, the little band of missionaries prepared to start. On account of the low moral condition of the people, and the unfortunate relations existing between the few white traders and the natives, in order to avoid all possible suspicion of evil, as well as for many higher and nobler reasons, it was absolutely necessary for the missionaries to go out married. They were all young people-the men just a year out of the seminary-and all leaving the refinements of civilization for a desolate country, where they would first have to build a house with their own hands before they would have where to lay their heads. The ordination service of these two devoted young men was impressive beyond description. Their names are worthy of record: The Rev. "William H. Weinland and his wife, Caroline Yost; the Rev. John H. Kilbuck and his wife, Edith Romig. The former had been on the exploratory tour. The latter is a full-blooded Delaware Indian, the son of a chieftain. He had received a full course collegiate and theological education. He is probably the first Indian ordained by the Moravian Church. Now he, as a representative of the Church which had reclaimed his people from heathenism, in turn went forth as an apostle to a much more for- saken and degraded people. There is a true apostolical succession! "He had served one year among his own people in Canada in the ab- ,sence of the regular missionary upon the exploratory tour mentioned before. His wife is an American, who married him in the genuine old- time Moravian spirit, being filled with an unquenchable zeal to serve the Lord in this forsaken corner of the earth. One lay brother, Hans Torgessen, leaving his family behind, accompanied them, in order to help them in building a house.
June 19, 1885, the little band reached the Kuskokwim. Battling their way up the river in a violent storm, Hans Torgessen fell overboard and was lost! A year must elapse before help could reach them, yet strong in the strength of Christ these young men, fresh from college though they were, girded themselves to erect a house, and with their young wives prepared to face the unknown horrors of an Arctic winter, ill provided, on account of the loss of time caused by this accident, both in provisions and in shelter, for its hardships. 'rhe Church at home waited the outcome in dread suspen,se-a year. Then came the heroic message: 'Ve are, thank God, alive; and we will·remain. Send us help and we will start a second station! The history of that and succeeding winters was full of thrilling incidents -lack of space alone forbids their narration. There was no wood at hand, the woodland beginning far inland, and laborious journeys up the river had to be undertaken ~o gain fuel as well as !ogs for building purposes.
In 1887 a second station was begun at Nushagak, and in 1888 an assistant sent to the Kuskokwim, but the two stations afforded little companionship to each other, as nearly 200 miles of almost impassable ~ountry lie between them. That on the Kuskokwim has been christened Bethel; that near Nushagak, Carmel.
In spite of tremendous obstacles missionary work was at once begun. Of course, in order to gain the adults, the language had first to be learned, but for the children a school was at once opened. Only the history of the station on the Kuskokwim can be followed. The missionaries were not in a populous country, as China, Japan or India; the children had to be laboriously sought from village to village, and the only way to teach them was to keep them at the Mission House. That meant to board them, to clothe them. The task thus set the noble wives of the missionaries can scarcely be appreciated by us dwelling amid the conveniences of civilization. All were thus brought into constant personal contact with the most disgusting features of the most degraded heathenism. The work, however, went bravely on.
But, alas! the vessel which brought the new missionaries to Carmel, to the consternation of the Church at Home, was compelled to bring Mi~sionary Weinland and his family back to the States, completely broken down in health. (He has since undertaken a mission among the Indians of Southern California, in the San Jacinto Valley, made famous by H. H.'s "Ramona.") The Kilbucks heroically resolved to remain alone and hold the post until re-enforcements came, or death called them away-Mrs. Kilbuck the only white woman in that desolate region among degraded heathen.
The next year brought electrifying news. Scarcely two years had the missionary been there, and he could but imperfectly stammer forth the message of the cross in that uucouth language of the North, when its stolid people awoke, and the bleak and desolate land began to blossom with the fruits born of such self-consecration. The simple yet wonderfully impressive Moravian Christmas, and especially the Passion Week services, made a deep impression on the natives. From far and near they gathered, besought the missionary to come to their villages too; that they would build chapels for him; that they "wanted a share of the blood of Jesus to take away their bad" (sins). In Greenland the Moravians labored five years before they made a single convert. When Karjarnak was baptized the hard-tried missionary sent the message home: "Sie wollen nem "-they want to be saved now. And when this historic message was sent from bleak Alaska, after two years' labor, the Church was thrilled with holy joy. The appeal sounded forth for re-enforcements, for aid for the noble woman, who, alone of her kind, was battling for the Lord in the stronghold of Satan in the North. Eighteen responded-four single sisters, three single brethren, one widower and five married couplessome of the latter volunteering to leave their children behind. But before the chosen ones could be sent, a terrible winter had to intervene. Mrs. Kilbuck became sick. It was evident that she would have to go back to the States, or an experienced nurse be sent to her. Think of the dreary months of waiting! This noble couple resolved to separate. The wife would travel as soon as spring broke to the
TRANSLATIOlS FROM FOREIGl :lIISSIONARY :lIAliAZDIES
States, with the children. The husband would not forsake the post, but labor Oil alone. Heroism has not died out, and the Moravians are still the gens eterna! This resolution had to be, if possible, communicated to the church. They heard of Lord Lonsdale coming down from the Arctic regions, and in the midst of winter Missionary Kilbuck had to start out to meet him. Seventy-three days elapsed before his return to his sick wife, left alone with the assistant. Terrific storms, temperature 59° below zero, tell the story. He was given up for lost. His noble wife resolved then, if the Lord gave her strength, to remain herself alone with Assistant "Veber at the post! But her husband, miraculously preserved, returned, the message brought by Lord Lonsdale reached the States in time. But there was no time for a new call for volunteers. Aid had to be sent at once. A person of experience was required. The heroine was found. The official item, without any ostentation, simply announced in Moravian style: "Sister Bachman has received and accepted the appointment to Bethel, Alaska, for one year"-that was all. But those who knew, knew that that meant that the wife of the presiding bishop of the church had been willing to leave her husband and family to serve the Lord among the Alaskan Eskimos!
The re-enforcements are now there. The last message proclaims Mrs. Kilbuck's recovery. With characteristic Moravian caution, only 22 converts have been actually admitted to church membership, but the awakening still continues. Another year must elapse before new information can be received.-So ends this narrative. It has been simply told. Lack of space forbids dwelling on single acts of heroism. All that must be read between the lines. But it shows that Mi8sionary heroism has not yet gone out of date; that there is no nation so degraded that the Lord cannot find some who will go as His apostles; and where His word is proclaimed, there it never returns void unto Him!
TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN MISSIONARY MAGAZINES.
BY REV. CHARLES C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS.
More and more it impresses itself on the minds of missionaries, how much less competent they are than the native helpers to reach the inmost minds and hearts of the heathen. These words of a native preacher give us a glimpse of this: "Agreeably to our missionary duty, we go so often as opportunity offers into the various villages and houses and preach Jesus Christ, the crucified. But the manner of preaching, as it is used in the ordinary congregations, does not please the Hindus. They are not accustomed to listen attentively to a continuous and somewhat lengthy discourse. Therefore, it is hard to obtain an auditory for such a sermon. And if any means are resorted to of enforcing attention, they endeavor to disturb the preacher by all sorts of objections. .At such times they all talk in a body, to no intelligible effect. Therefore, it is very useful to proclaim the gospel with intervals of hymns and psalms, sung to native melodies. All Hindus are delighted with such songs, even when they do not understand their purport. For the Hindus hold noth- ing so high as song. So often, therefore, as we go out to preach to the heathen, we first sing to the accompaniment of violin, cymbals, kettle-drum, and other musical instruments, hymns of our native composition, and thereupon we preach." It seems that in the Madura district the native helpers of the Leipsic mission go through the heathen villages three days in every week, preaching three times every day, relieving each other in turn. The presence of a white missionary, however, they say is a great additional attraction. "On one occa- sion, when a great idol feast was in progress, and we had {;:ome into the neigh- borhood with music and song, there appeared the priest of the pagoda with his son. They not only urged the nume;ous company of hearers to be seated and listen quietly, but made us sit in the veranda before the pagoda for three hours, sitting themselves as hearers. Finally the priest despatched his son to perform the ceremonies before the idol, and said: 'All that we do is only for our belly's sake. We know that all that you say is true, and that your Veda (the Bible) shows the way of salvation. Come back here every year, and teach the true religion.' As a farewell honor he offered all of us the usual tribute of betel and areca nut." .
-The Berichte of the Rhenish Missionary Society remarks, in speaking of the first Christian Chinese family at Bandjermasin, Borneo, of whom it gives a very interesting picture taken from a photograph: "The first Christian family in a church to-be newly established is of great significance. Even in the Acts we find names of the tlrst families tbat received baptism. So long as only men and youths become believers at a station among the heathen, the Church has no thoroughly constituted existence.. There is lacking to it its nerve, the family with its family worship, Christian training with prayer, in brief, Christian domestic life. "
-A Missionary of the Rhenish Society in Southwestern Africa, remarking that under the influence of Christianity the natives and half-breeds are becoming weaned from their nomadic ways, and are settling into more steady labor on their stations (aided of late by providential affluence of rains), adds: "That Christianity brings also earthly blessing is plain to be seen in the case of our Church, especially with those who have learned not only 'Thou shalt hallow the Sabbath day,' but also, 'Six days shalt thou labor.' He who learns this with us may assuredly hope for earthly blessing also."
-In view of the terrible increase of necromancy inour own country, thefollowing words of Missionary Fehr, of the Rhenish Society, on the Island of Nias, SJimatra, have more than a far-off interest: "The fact that, in all the sicknesses and distresses prevailing among us, no one of our Christians has allowed himself to be misled into sorcery and sacrificing, is a cause of thankfulness to the grace and protection of God. In such times of trial the thoughts and hearts of men are wont to be revealed, and it then appears whether or not the faith of Christ has already struck abiding root in them. And in truth it does require an energy of faith and no common confidence in God, for people who have grown up in heathenism and idolatry, when they see their nearest and dearest at death's door, to remain steadfast, and to refrain from resorting to any forbidden means of help. Herr Fehr says: "When people pass over from heathenism to Christianity they commonly suppose that the good God must now be especially gracious to them and bless them, because, they say, he is surely stronger than our idols. And how glad the missionary would often be, if, to such young beginners, especially in cases of sickness, the Lord would give experience of his especial help and kindness, that in this way, too, they might experience and learn that the Lord is the true Helper. But in many cases the Lord does the very opposite of this, that no one may flatter himself with false hopes, and thereby be misled into crooked ways. Here in Lololofaoso, for instance, there was a leading family, which, after long gainsaying, had tlnally inclined to Christianity, and had begun to visit the public worship. Soon after, however, their little son was taken sick, and, in spite of all medicine and all our prayers, died. Almost at the same time the child's grandfather was attacked by a very long and painful eye-trouble, so- that he was almost beside himself for pain. Under these circumstances the confidence of the family in the cause of Christianity suffered a great shock, yet thus far they have continned nniuterruptedly faithful in coming to church. How earnestly, in such cases, one is tempted to wish that he had the apostolic gift of healing."
-It is sometimes said that in Greenland the Danish Lutherans and Mora- vians have haptized the last heathen Esquimaux. This, 1 believe, is true as to the natives of the West Coast. But lately the natives of the East Coast have been coming across to the Moravian brethren. This inaccessible region was once far milder in climate, and was, as we know, the seat of a flourshing Danish colony, from which Eric the Red, or his son (1 am not sure which), is said to have come down along the shore of New England. But some 600 years ago a sudden lowering of the temperature took place; long piles of icebergs began to line the coast; the last bishop of the colony consecrated at Trondhjern, in Norway, set out for his diocese, but ~either he nor his people were ever heard of again. Whether these Eastlanders that are resorting to the Moravians are a mixed race of Eskimos (Esquimaux) and these old Northmen, or pure Esquimaux, 1 do not know. It is said that a European has lately made his way across Greenland from east to west. If so, we shall know more about the region so long mysteriously secluded. Missionary A. Riegel, in t¥ CalweJ' Missionsblatt of June, 1889, writes: "Having been able in my last report to give account of 6 newly baptized Eastlanders, this letter will report 50 additional baptisms of heathen. The first family dwelt very quietly among us, and we took a good deal of satisfaction in them, although they were little enough advanced in Christian knowledge. The man had a boat, indeed, but got little by it, so that the family was none too rich, especially as in the winter the man fell sick. The sickness increased till spring, and then the Lord took hhn to Himself. He felt disquieted in view of his family, but was glad to go home. The countrymen of this man, who had returned to the East Coast, kept their word and came back. In September they came to this station and made ready for living here by putting up three houses; expressing the desire to become Christians, they received catechetical teaching, and at Easter were baptized.
'Unhappily they were very sick and wretched, and several died; nor did they earn any too much, for there were fewer seals and birds than usual. As this naturally implied a scarcity of winter provisions, it came sometimes very near to famine with them. Since Mayall the people, the newly baptized among them, are at the summer-grounds, that is, the seaward islands; yet unhappily we only hear of a very scanty take of seals. This raises forebodings for the coming winter, yet the Lord may secure them an ample autumn fishery. How these neophytes will develop' spiritually, remains to be seen. We cannot expect that all will turn out to be of the best quality.
" You believe that there must come a time when the Greenlanders can maintain their churches and their Christianity without European pastors, even though under European oversight, 'and with European money.' If you had added this last, 1 too should not doubt of the possibility. That the Greenlanders will themselves voluntarily meet the costs of their churches and schools, only he can believe who does not know the Greenlanders. But it will be practicable to maintain paid catechists, upper and lower, at the different settlements, to work under Europear. direction. 1 believe that is the aim of the Danish Mission, because they can secure hardly any pastors or missionaries for Greenland. "
There we see Christiauity struggling to live, chiefly because the race that professes it is struggling to live. -Primitive, uncivilized natures, in whom self-control has never been devel- oped, are subject to very extraordinary mental affections, which, it is true, are sufficiently common among ourselves. In Amalienstein, South Africa, there lately died. aged 71, a cripple, Elizabeth Klaasse, doubtless a Kaffir or a Hottentot, who, in consequence of a church quarrel, in which she had taken part, had sunk into melancholy, and for nearly twenty years had only jumped along like an ape, muttering unintelligibly, and repelling all pastoral attention, until finally Missionary Schmidt succeeded in inducing her to pray with him, and to come to church once more. Thenceforth she was never seen sitting in the church otherwise than with a radiant face; "she followed the preaching as a bird of prey does his quarry, nodding in smiling assent to all that was said."
-Missionary Bieger, writing in the Mededeelingen of the Dutch Missionary Society, gives, in a single sentence, a powerful impression of the deadness of soul engendered by Mohammedanism, which knows absolutely nothing of inward spiritual experience, takes absolutely no account of it. Herr Biger has labored in Java, where the people are almost all Mohammedan, but has lately gone to the little island of Savoe, where they are or have been heathen. He remarks: "What I have not seen in Java in fourteen years, I have seen here in four months-a tear; the genuine witness of the fertilization of the sinner's heart by the seed of the gospel.·'
-Christianity in the East Indian Islands has the greatest prevalence in the Minahassa, the northermnost of the three eastward stretching arms of the island of Celebes. Heathenism being largely overcome, at least in various districts of the Minahassa, of course the number of adult baptisms will be apt to diminish. In 1887 there were in the Minahassa: Adult baptisms, 476; infant baptisms, 5,021; communicants received, 1,182; school children, 7,240; Christians on the Island of Savpe, 3,783.
-M. Duvoisin, of the French Basuto Mission, speaking of finding himself overwhelmed, in addition to all his evangelical cares, with the labor of building, says: "I have already passed through trials of many sorts, but there is one of which I had not yet had experience, that of feeling one's self overwhelmed on all sides, and of finding one's self anew, day after day, in presence of a task for which one is not made, and from which, on the other hand, he cannot withdraw himself. But I have found that this also is good. I have understood better than hitherto this word of St. Paul, • Cast down, but not destroyed,' and I begin to realize the fact that when the Lord invites us to cast all our cares on him, he doubtless means all, the task of building not excepted."
-The extensive awakening among the pagans of the Basuto country has declined, although not until after large additions to the churches. M. Duvoisin remarks: "The outward circumstances were only too favorable. In the Lexuto–as elsewhere, I imagine-temporal and spiritual blessings are a little like the two buckets of a well. Now the late harvest has been most abundant, there is in the country a great number of mabele; that is, for the pagans, numerous and riotous gatherings around great pots of yoala, gatherings which, too often, take place on the Sunday; and for Christians, leting, that is, mild ale, at discretion. Unhappily these latter have not yet learned to use all things as not abusing them." "Yet, if there is in our churches a current of evil which draws away more than one, others again yield to the attraction which draws them to the feet of the Saviour, and these latter, I will believe, are the more numerous."
-" The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty."
OUR VOLUNTEER MISSIONARY STUDENTS
This is painfully illustrated in the description given by M. Louis Jalla of the Barotses, the heathen dwellers on the banks of the Zambezi. "These people are children in many respects, but they are true savages, cruel, ferocious, even in every direction. Their pleasure lies in witnessing suffering. It is very hard to bring our boys to kill a hen before plucking it. How jolly it would be, said some men one day, if we could flay an ox all alive! When a man is condemned to death, they do not give themselves the trouble to kill him. They only half strangle him, fixing their nails in his throat, and then conduct him to an islet in the river, leaving him to die there of hunger."
Yet these same people, who are very fond of receiving visits, are, at home, polite and affable. The women also, at least those of the higher ranks, making an ambition of keeping their houses neat and in good order. They esteem themselves much honored by receiving visits from the missionaries, who seem to be slowly, but surely, weaving a network of Christian influences around them, in a dreary, unwholesome region, one of the most ill-provided in the world with the means of enjoying even common comforts.
-Our French Protestant brethren have a mission in the French possession of Senegambia. The following, by M. Escandre, is a lively description of the }fohammedan negroes, the chief part of the population of the town of Saint Louis: "A new comer recognizes them at once; you see them pass in the streets, furnished with enormous rosaries, which they are telling in a very absent-minded manner. Then, women, babies at the breast, all are loaded with gre-grees (amulets), enclosing fragments of the Koran, which, it appears, possess marvellous properties. Then, when the hour of prayer is called at the corners of the streets, on the square, and chiefly along the river, you perceive files of natives bending to the ground, like a thicket of reeds before a breeze. Take care not to enter one of their shops at this hour, for, in the very middle of your purchases, you would see the merchant leaving his business in the lurch and begin his interminable genuflexions, your objurgations not being of the slightest avail. You needs must summon up your best patience, or walk off, until his salaam is at an end. The other evening, from my balcony, I noticed a woman making ready for these exercises, and stationed myself to observe her. You would scarcely believe it if I should tell you that having had the curiosity to count on my fingers the number of times that she kissed the ground, I arrived at the respectable figure of thirty-one. Her salaam had lasted twenty minutes by the watch! She must have been, doubtless, a great sinner, some penitent Magdalen, or possibly she had terrible arrears to wipe off, for you are aware that the Koran authorizes such adjustments."
OUR VOLUNTEER MISSIONARY STUDENTS.
" Upon the young men of this generation God lays a responsibility never before known." Who are the responsible young men of this generation? They are to be found in our educational institutions, and they represent a host. Two million young men will graduate from our schools and colleges in this generation, and, surely, we ought to be able to give one per cent. of this number to Foreign Missions, which would mean the "evangelization of the world." It does not seem possible that there could be 20,000 young men "willing and desirous, God permitting, to be foreign missionaries;" but the fact is, if the number increases as it has since this movement was inaugurated, it will not be long ere the pitiful cry that is coming from across the seas from the millions in darkness and death, will be heard by thousands of our best educated young men and ,,·omen. The number of ,olunteers up to the Northfield meeting was 3,847, of whom at least 1,000 are young women. Since that time, through the aggressive efforts of leading volunteers, the number has increased 500 more. Volunteers may now be found in nearly every country in the world; 195 have already sailed for the foreign fields. These 195 volunteers settled as follows: 29 in Japan, 28 in India, 12 or 13 in Africa, 46 in China, being distributed in 21 different fields, and representing 25 different organizations. Forty-nine institutions in the United States and 5 in Canada are contributing , to send out or support their representatives, pledging last year between $26,000 and $28,000, of which amount all but about $3,000 was pledged by students.
A remarkable fact, to be especially noted by those who are wont to criticise the movement in thinking that it is opposed to our Missionary Boards, is that, with the exception of five or six institutions, which are State institutions, and hence undenominational, all the money has been sent to the several Boards, and the missionary sent out is connected with the Board representing the church of which he is a member.
This, in general, is a bird eye's view of what is being accomplished by the movement. In particular, the work of Mr. R. E. Speer, the present traveling secretary of the movement, is very interesting and profitable. He has been speaking since Sept. 4 in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and is now about to enter upon an active campaign in Ohio. During that time over 500 volunteered, and about $4,000 were pledged either to the support of some alumnus in the field, or to swell the funds for the Young Men's Christian Association building that is to be erec- ted in Tokio, Japan. Up to November 9, Mr. Speer had visited 27 colleges, 7 city associations, 17 churches, besides attending 5 State conventions. Among the colleges visited were 5 State universities and 4 normal schools, where the religious life is very low. In spite of this drawback, in these 9 institutions there were 65 new volunteers, an average of 7. At a normal school at Fort Scott, Kansas, there were 15 volunteers and $364 pledged, and at the State Normal School of Missouri, they intend to raise $500 for the Tokio building, three college professors have volunteered, and the Secretary of the St. Paul Young Men's Christian Association, who has a burning desire to.go to the Soudan, when he told his wife of .his intention, she answered, "Go! I'll go with you." A missionary of the Presbyterian Sunday School Union volun- teered, giving this as his reason: "The fact that the heathen could not get the gospel now even if they wanted it, was enough to call him fron: a field, needy, to be sure, but where the people could have the gospel whenever they wanted it." A lady physician, whose daughter had already volunteered, offered her services at a young woman's convention in Nebraska. Can any more beautiful sight be imagined than to see mother and daughter ready to leave home and friends for the sake of their dying heathen sister! At the Kansas young women's convention, the whole delegation, consisting of 36, vol- unteered before they returned home. St. Paul had so many volunteers, 26, that they intend to put some of their business enterprise into missions, by sending a Golony to the Soudan, and one gentleman showed a determination to have his representative in the field by signing the following paper: "I am willing and desirous, God permitting, to support a missionary from St. Paul." Minneapolis, St. Paul's great rival, has raised a large sum for the Tokio Young Men's Christian Association building. At a meeting in Iowa, an incident occurred which may affect not a few Christian parents. Mr. Speer was teil- ing the story of how an old l.o.linister appealed to an audience to make a per- sonal consecration of themseh-es to missions. When he finished speaking his
GENERAL ~IISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
own daughter came forward and knelt before him, but raising her the old man said: "I did not mean you, my daughter." The next day, after relating this in(:ident, an old gray haired man came to Mr. Speer, and said: "You have hit me. My daughter wished to go out from the Methodist Board. and they wanted her, but my wife and I held her back," and then he added signifi- cantly: "We have not felt so well as before." How many parents there may be who are thwarting the will of God and are saying in their hearts, "vVe have not felt so well as before."
It will no doubt be interesting, now that so many volunteers are in the field, to hear what they think of the battle while they are at the front.
Mr. F. W. Brown, a volunteer from Hillsdale College, Michigan, writes from India, while on a mission boat on the Byturney river, near Orissa. He says: "How goes the work? Here I am in this hot ]jed of idolatry. We feel that we are on the eve of a big break here, and are looking for it soon. The Lord hasten it on. I went to Puri to the Ratti Jutra; I saw enough to tire my soul. They stoned us while preaching. I have the stone that a wall opposite me kept from hitting me on the head." Mr. S. R. Gulick writes from Japan calling for 34 volunteers to go out under the A. B. C. T. M. He says the movement is an inspiration to the soldiers in the front, and they are looking b~ R~R n.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
ACrica.-Mr. Stanley has emerged in his path, and which to the average on the western shore of the Indian man would have seemed insurmount- Ocean from his marvelous mid-Afri- able. True, he is as yet his own hiscan march, the most successful ex- toriographer, but there is no reason to plorer in the world. It would be diffi- doubt a narrative the very simplicity cult to imagine a narrative more and modesty of which gives it the wonderful or fascinating than that of stamp of tJ,"uth, and in which the his journey from the Aruwimi to the humblest of his followers is made to Albert Nyanza, through a forest larger share in heroism with himself. There than France, and through the matted is no attempt at advertisement. "Nothundergrowths of which the starved ing happened," he writes in his acand dwindling column crept at the count of the march from the Albert rate of less than three miles a day. Nyanza to the coast, "save a fight or That awful itinerary, filled with fever two with theWanyoro," though on that and fighting and hideous sufferings, march he discovered that the Muta continued for more than five months Nize was the source of the White Nile, before the hundred and more thin a discovery which other men would skeletons emerged into the plain re- have deemed glory enough for a life gion; and with food and plenty about time. And yet there is a full apprethem, began to take heart and hope. ciation of the horrors of the journey, But more fighting awaited them, with and of the importance of its results, the dreary counter-march back to the as well as the expression of a reverent Aruwimi, disappointment and waiting and unfaltering faith in God, who had and horrors on end, consuming nearly led him on his way, and turned what a year more, until, in February last, seemed defeats into success. No other the explorer met Emin and forced his explorer has endured and overcome reluctant consent to be relieved. Dur- so much, adding to his own burdens ing all this time Mr. Stanley never lost responsibility for others and for rehope or changed his tone, or permit- sults, and yet has so steadily grown in ted himself for a moment to be over- himself and in the estimation of the come by the new obstacles that rose world. Great cities vie for the honor of entertaining him, and nations, with the journalistic reporter who went to find Livingstone at Ujiji in 1872, and African possessions to develop, are the wise, hardy, heroic, broad-minded and indomitable rescuer of Emin bidding for the assistance of the boy Pasha and discoverer of the heart of Africa, is far greater than usuaUy befrom the Welsh poor-house. For he longs to human life. Few men so distinctly find their mission, or reis pre-eminently a man of action, ceive such enhancement of personal power and character from rendering with a genius for the government of the service to which they are called. We may well enter his name in the barbarous peoples, and it is on the list of providential men, like Colum- bus, William the Silent, Washington organization and government and de- and Livingstone, raised up for a i7eat purpose and divinely guided till their velopment of the black races that the work is done. It is not the least strik- ing part of our first messages from world must rely if anything is to be this man, as he emerges again into the light of 'blessed civilization,' accomplished in Africa. But while that he recognizes the divine' hand in the thrilling experiences and delivermankind will not withhold its meed of ances of these three memorable years. And it is an eminent sign of the place praise from Mr. Stanley, there is a he has won in the popular judgment that the secular press, no less than the darker side to his success-the fact religious press, takes note of this de- vout acknowledgment and justifies it. that in its first great contest with the "For the moment the withdrawal of Arab for control of the Dark Conti- Emin Pasha leaves the vast and popu- lous territory of the Soudan stripped nent, Europe has suffered defeat. of every civilizing, restraining and uplifting influence from without, and The gallant explorer has survived the opens the way for the Moslem faith and the accursed slave trade to revive march through the tangled forests of and flourish in that imperial domain without let or hindrance. But this the Aruwimi, but the darkness of situation cannot long continue. Stan- ley's exploit has powerfully drawn night has closed in behind him, and the thoughts and interests of the civ- ilized world to this great center; and of aU that Europe has won in the past it is next to impossible that some one of the great powers should not assume ten years, nothing remains but Egypt, the responsibility of giving order and stable government and protection to the scattered stations on the Congo, the native tribes, and access for for- eign commerce and missions, throughand a few points on the shores of the out this splendid country. It will be thought an intolerable thing that the Indian Ocean. Wadelai, Darfour and path thus first broken by this intrepid explorer should be closed up as soon Khartoum are garrisoned by Arab as it has been opened, and one of the richest and most populous parts of the armies, as are the Central Soudan States; and encouraged by their recent successes, they are bent on the con- quest of Abyssinia, and the re-conquest of Egypt. The tide will turn, of course, for Africa will not be aban- doned to barbarism, but more vigor and means will have to be put into the task, and the fact brought home that civilization can march only where there are highways.-The In- terior. I -" Stanley and Africa."-Dr. Jud- son Smith, in the Oongregationalist, writes most intelligently on this sub- ject. We have space for only his closing words: "What results may we expect from this great expedition? It is too soon to ascertain all the facts, or to draw aU the inferences. Without doubt this brilliant and heroic exploit will distinctly add to Stanley"s steadily rising repute as a man, a philanthro- pist, a scientific explorer, and a mili- tary leader. The contrast between whole continent left to fall back again the Arabs were up in arms. The into primeval barbarism, or the deadly blockade of the coast maintained by blight of Mohammedanism and the Germany infuriates the rebels because infamous slave traffic which it fosters. it stops their traffic, and they will, it The challenge to the Christian world is feared, massacre all the missionaries to enter this fair domain, and fill it on whom they can lay hands.
with the Christian faith and the benefi- Missionary interests have become cent institutions which flourish wher- very extensive in East Africa. The ever that faith holds sway, is as bold Church Missionary Society and the'
and inspiriting as we can well con- Universities Mission, of the Church of ceive. England; the Established and the "Almost the last word which we Free Church, of Scotland; the London have from Stanley declares his convic- Missionary Society, the United Meth- tion that the mantle of Livingstone has odist Free Churches, and the Church fallen upon him, and his purpose to of Rome, all have missions on the devote his life to the exploration of coast or in the interior. The Church Africa. We would fain believe that Missionary Society has two distinct above this man's thought presides the lines of missions-one with its basis same divine purpose which controlled at Mombasa, in the English Sphere of his predecessor's life and shapes the Influence, with eight stations, some fortunes of the nations and the ages, of which are on or near the coast and and that through all his varied and some in the interior. One is in the heroic efforts that which was the in- neighborhood of Mount Kilimanjaro.
spiring aim of Livingston's marvelous The second line of stations is that career-the evangelization of Africa- which stretches from Zanzibar to shall be hastened apace. May the. Uganda. There are nine stations in Church of Christ, in all lands, give this line. The Universities Mission heed to the solemn and imperative has twelve stations, one ~ Zanzibar, call of the hour, and see to it. that four in the Usambara country north along the track which has thus been of Zanzibar, four on or near the River broken the light and freedom and Rovuma, and three on the east shore heavenly hope, which are the one of Lake Nyassa. The two Scottish priceless treasure of history and civil- Churches have the Free Church five ization, shall press in with resistless stations on Lake Nyassa, the Estab- power to scatter the darkness and lished Church one on Lake Shirwa, at redeem the nations !" the south of Lake Nyassa. The route -Missionary Interests in East to this region is by the Zambesi and Africa.-The massacre of German Shire rivers. The London Society missionaries at Dar-es-Salam, on the goes further west than any of the East African Coast below Zanzibar, other societies, and plants two sta- has been followed by the massacre of tions on Lake Tanganyika. The an English missionary named Brooks, United Methodist Free Churches have with sixteen of his followers, at Saad- two missions in the Mombasa region, ani, a point nearly opposite Zanzibar. and one in Gallaland. Three German These massacres, committed by the Protestant Societies have five stations Arabs and natives under their control, -three in gaIIiland, one in Zanzibar in the rising against the Germans, and one in Dar-es-Salam, where one were not unexpected. The course of of the massacres took place. It is the the Germans, who had no experience Berlin Society which maintains the with African Arabs or natives, was last two stations. These are all the Pro- such as to provoke hostility. They testant missions between Wito and the established their commercial enter- Rovuma River; but there are German prise last August, and in a few weeks and French Roman Catholic stations. In all, there are 13 missions-six congregation also was urged to estab- British, four Germans, and three lish a fellowship meeting for the study French. One society, the Church of Scripture on Sabbath morning. A Missionary, alone has spent $500,000 proposal to visit every household in in the last 30 years in East Africa.- South Formosa was well received.
Tlw Independent. • With. a view to its being carried into China.-One of the most success- effect, it was resolved that each ful of the Chinese Missions is that con- preacher on his return to his station 'ducted by the Canada Presbyterians should make out a list of the towns and the English Presbyterians in the and villages in the neighborhood; that Island of Formosa. Mr. Mackay, of the preachers should bring these lists the Canadian Mission, has been from to the next meeting of preachers in the first as one of the people, and has May, so that the field may be divided taken a wife from among them. He out among the various churches. The is a man of apostolic devotion and subject of self support was most ear- simplicity, and has wrought a great nestly discussed, and a determined work among the Formosans. The effort to increase the number of self- English Presbyterians occupy a dif- supporting churches was agreed to.
ferent part of the island, that to the To this end the church where the con- south. They, too, have made large ference met agreed to help out a use of native talent in the spreading neighboring church at Kio-a-thau by of the gospel. Recently they held a contributing what it lacked. After conference of preachers and office- the conference, when the preacher bearers, all the preachers except one for that station returned to his work, being present. They were examined he told his people that it had been carefully, and good reports are given arranged that for the four months.
of them. In the conference these they were short they were to look, native preachers spoke earnestly in not to the home church, but to the favor of self-supporting churches, and church in Taiwanfoo. This caused stated that they would rather receive them to reconsider the matter-it their salary from the native brethren seemed a shame to get money from a than from the Missionary Board. neighboring congregation; and they Though the money comes to them sent back WOl'd that they would not more promptly from the Board it need the money, that they would be often subjects them to the taunt, responsible for the whole twelve " You preach the foreigner'S doctrine months themselves. This released the because you eat his rice. " Each church at Taiwanfoo, and it gave the church represented in the conference help it had offered to Kio-a-thau to sent a dollar toward the expenses. another struggling congregation.
The missionaries gave a dollar each -Uneasiness at Pekin.-We learn for the preachers, and the balance, from Pekin that there is a feeling one dollar, was contributed by the there of great uneasiness as to the sta- church where the conference met. bility of things in China, The young The conference agreed to recommend Emperor and Empress are believed to each congregation to follow the ex- be unlucky, as there has been nothing ample of one station, where the but disaster since their accession.
worshippers are classified as readers There is no loyalty in China in our and non-readers, and one of the for- sense of the word, and there are great mer told.off to teach one of the latter. fears that troubles will arise from the In this connection the importance of general distress inevitable in this com- a large-type Romanized New Testa- ing winter; and if there were any man ment was mentioned, for which ar- of eminence who saw any advantage rangements are being made. Each to be gained from raising a rebellion it would go haru with the present dy- hope that this mission would be auded nasty. The misfortunes which have happened since the present Emperor's to the other missions carried on by the accession have revived the discontent that was felt at the irregularity of his Reformed Church. Owing to its large succession, which found its expres- sion at the time, as will be remem- and growing indebtedness, however, bered, in the suicide of one of the Cen- sors. We would earnestly echo the the Board of the Church felt com- remarks of our New Chwang COlTe- spondent, and impress upon the naval pelled to decline to assume this new authorities that no treaty port in the empire ought to be left without a man- responsibility, while at the same tllle of-war this winter. There is no special antipathy to foreigners; but expressing a great interest in it. their safety may easily be involved in some tumult that has arisen from Hence the present character of this causes entirely unconnected with their presence.-North China Herald. miSSIOn. The funds for its support Egypt.-The Rev. James Cantine, are contributed upon a syndicate plan.
the first missionary of the recently or- The mission has found a number of ganized Arabian Mission, sailed on the City of Rome last month. He will warm friends and supporters in vari- . spend the winter in Syria carrying on his Arabic studies. In early spring he ous denominations, and the work is will be joined by Mr. S. lf. Zwemer, of the Theological Seminary, New progressing in a very encouraging Brunswick, N. J. The two will then proceed to their field of work-South- manner. J. G. L. western Arabia-in connection with Keith-Falconer Mission of the Free Eng-Iand.-Letter from Bishop Church of Scotland. The chief object of this mission is to do pioneer work, Taylor.-" I have just arrived from and especially (i. e., not exclusively but equally) in behalf of lIoslems and the Congo. My principal business, on slaves. The brief history of the Keith- Falconer Mission shows alike the great a hasty trip, to return to West Africa need and great encouragement for undertaking this work at once and in a few weeks, is to complete ar- carrying it forward vigorously. This mission is for the present, at least, in- rangements with the builder of our dependent, in the sense that it looks for its support to any without refer- steamer to send a master builder from ence to denominational adherence. This was not the prefelTed way of his yard to put her together and see founding anu carrying on the mission, but it was the way to which the found- her afloat as quickly as possible. Hap- ers were shut up if the work designed and desired was to be accomplished. pily, delays are not always failures, It was hoped that this mission would be founded by and under the charge but often essel1tial conditions to ulti- of the Reformed Church. The action of the last General Synod led many to mate success. I believe it will be so in regard to our unexpected delays with the steamer.
" The teaching force of all the facts in the case brings us clearly to the conclusion that the planting of mis- sions extensively in the great and populous countries of the upper Kassai and Sankura, requires that we have a chain of missions, and a transport agency and facilities, extending from the sea to the centre of the Con-· tinent, giving us, by the way, a neglected, densel}: populated region, belonging to the Congo State, on the north side of Lower Congo,100 by 250 miles in extent. The older mis- sions are working on the south bide of the Congo, so that we shall in no way encroach upon them. So, as a part of these foundation alTange.ments on the Lower Congo, essential success on the Upper Congo waterways, "'e find that our steamer is needed, by twenty to one, more on the Lowpr Congo than upon the Upper. We shall build her at Vivi, to carry mission- tricts they come after, but often asso- ciate with the mayor, the doctor and aries and mission goods from ship'il the priest. The Sta,te considers them to be of such importance that it frees side at Banana 100 miles up the river them from military service, pays their salary, and at the age of sixty grants to Vivi. them pensions. The number has be- come so large that some have asked if "In connection with this we will the work of the Normal schools should not be suspended. At this time, when build a steel launch, to be propelled the enemies of the Republic try to underrate the services she has renby oars and sails, to carry up river dered to France, I feel it a duty to vindicate the good work she has done. ' cargoes through the middle passage Her efforts to raise popular education have not only been great, but very of Congo, 88 miles, from Isangila to successful. "
Manyanga. When this is developed, India.-A Hindu Lady Reformer. -During Bishop Thoburn's recent then we shall require a small steamer visit to Bombay he caned on the Pan- dita Ramabai at her own home. This for the Kassai and the Sankura. vVe lady's name is almost a household word in England and America; her needed such a boat in 1886, when we devotion to the women of her country is well known. He thus describes his had a force waiting at Stanley Pool, visit: "I found her busy, but not care- worn, in the midst of her various who would have met Dr. Summers, projects for elevating her race, and especially those of her own sex. One who entered by the Angola route, of her cardinal ideas is that the status of Indian women must be raised to at Luluaburg, but we could not on the level of true womanhood. Her little daughter was in the room, and any of the five little steamers on the I asked her name. ' I can her Mano- ram,' she replied. 'The birth of a Upper Congo, about the time of his daughter is considered a great ca- lamity in India, and so I named her arrival, get a passage for one mission- " Heart's-delight " as a protest against the bad notion.' The Pandita is giving ary. Now there are a dozen little special attention to temperance re- form, and I was only too glad to steamers on those waters. and we can promise her whatever assistance I might be able to render her in her get passage to take up a successor to good work. She is I;>eginning to real- ize that her work will encounter diffidear Dr. Summers and others also, culties in its progress, but thus far she shows no sign of discouragement. to keep our promise to the Bashalange Her chief enterprise, that of founding a home for Indian widows, has not people and other nations beyond, till yet passed beyond the experimental stage, but she seems satisfied with the we can complete arrangements below, success thus far achieved."-The Har- ~'est Field. as aforesaId, for planting of missions in those far interior countries on a broad scale. WM. TAYLOR."
France.-Rev. J. C. Bracq says: "The public 8chooois of France have never before approached their present state of thoroughness and efficiency.
It i8 to the credit of the Republic that she has made greater efforts in that direction than in any other. She has increased her war budget only two- thirds, while that of popular educa- tion has risen from 24 millions of francs to 130 millions. The teachers have better preparation in the Normal schools, larger salaries, better houses to live in, while their school buildings form a pleasant contrast with those of the past. They have also large as- sociations for mutual improvement and for the defence of their interests that could not have existed under former governments. Their social position is equal to that of teachers in the United States. While they are much respected in cities, in rural <1i5-
MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE FROM ALL PARTS
South America.-The Ameri- fact that during the past ten years 264,542 copies have been circulated, can Bible Society reports that Bible of which 90,484 belong to the first distribution was fifty per cent. larger half of the decade, and 174,038 to the last year hi South America than in last half. These figures are exclusive any former year. The number of of the work of the Valparaiso (Chili) Bibles, New Testaments or parts dis- Bible Society, which sold during the posed of by sale or gift (mainly the year 4,563 copies, and during its exformer) was 51,862. That this large istence of 28 years has distributed increase was not the result of mere 54,417 copies in the Republic of Chili. spasmodic effort is evident from the I1I.-MISSIONARY CORRESPONDENCE FROM ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD-FIELD.
Brazil. candidates for the Gospel ministry. To the churches of this Presbytery were added during SAO PAULO, Oct. 17, 1889. the last year 133 infants by baptism and 187 DEAR DR. PrERSON: Knowing you to be an on profession. Permission was granted to ardent friend of foreign missions, I take the organize two new churches. The reports of liberty of sending you an item of news. all the pastors were very cheering; each one reporting fields much too large for one man During the late sessions of the Presbytery to occnpy. of Sao Paulo, its licentiate, Senior Benedicta Ferraz de Campos, was examined for ordina- This Presbytery, in harmony with the Standtion. His final examinations and sermon gave ing Committee on Home Missions of the evidence of 'Very fine talent. His knowledge Synod, is seeking for means to sustain and in Greek was especially noteworthy. A very teach a class of eleven young men, married large congregation assembled on a Monday and single, for a year, in purely Biblical innight to witness the ordination, when the struction, and then send them out to occupy pastorof the church, Rev. E. Carlos Pereira, the many places where the good seed of the preached the sermon, and Rev. Carvaihosa Word has been planted and is bearing fruit. gave the charge to the candidate. Both sermon and charge were especially appropriate Yours truly, to the occasion, but the crowning act was the . J. B. KALa.
final setting apart of the candidate by the Ohina. laying on of the hands of the Presbytery. By invitation of the Presbytery, the repre- [Do not fail to read this letter from sentatives of other Presbyteries and of the a remote corner of this vast empire. Methodist and Episcopalian Churches, were -EDS.J invited to take part; so that upon the head of SINING, &AusUH PROVINCE, N. W. CHINA., the young candidate were laid the hands of Sept. 24, 1889.
different representatives of the Christian DEAR EDITORS: Your April number of THE Church. 'Twas a beautiful sight and one MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLn contained which made a solemn impression upon all: an article on "The China Inland lIiission, " by that union of sympathy and brotherly love, ( Prof. Hulbert)in which are a few statements which could lay aside all differences and ..nite which require some modification.
in so solemn an act. The candidate was very He says:" Wben I say the work is compre- deeply affected. We certainly have reason to hensive, I give no idea of the vast area covered believe that" the laying on of hands" in this by the Inland lIIission. Its laborers may be case brought with it the blessing of the pres- found from the borders of the Mongolian desert ence of the Holy Spirit. Wbat an inspiration and the boundary line of Siberia on the north, our newly ordained brother has received! to the banks of the Bramapootra river and "May the Holy Spirit ever bless his ministry." the valleys of the Himalayas on the south; The two young men, Messrs. Morris and Kin- from the Pacific ocean on the east to the solineg, sent ant from the seminary at Alexan- borders of Tnrkestan and the unknown pIa· dria, Va., are winning for themselves and the teau of Thibet on the west." Mr. Stevens, of church they represent golden opinions. They this Mission, is located at Bhamo, on the banks expect to accompany the newly ordained min- of the Irriwady, in Burma. 1111'. Geo. Parker ister, Mr. Benedicto, to his field of lahor, and has recently returned from a journey across there study the langnage, after which they the desert of Shamo to Hami, Urumtsi, and expect to choose for themseh-es a good wide Iti, making only a few weeks' stay there, and field of labor, of which there are many. then returning to Lanetes. He also visited The Presbytery of Sao Paulo recei,ed three KokomoI' with a Russian exploring party. With others he crossed the border and entered into Turkestan, as far as Kashgal' and Yark, Jllongolia for a few days, from Ninghia amI and a fourth to Kokonor and Tsaidami. It Rweihaachenj, in N. Kausuh and N. Slausi. matters not which side of the Atlantic you live, come and be spent for Jesus, and take pleas- Possibly the Mission may be contemplating ure in ,', necessities" for Him. Sell all you further extension. But at the present I be- have, if needs be, to pay your passage out lieve I am right in saying that, with the above here, and what you haven't got ask God for, exception, the work of the Inland Mission is and tell his people. Get one of these places entirely confined to the provinces of China right down into your heart, find out every properl I suppose it takes as long to get to scrap of informa(,!on you can about it, wrestle Sining as to any place in China-four or five in prayer for it night and day, aud the proba- months' journey from the coast. Coming here bility is that every obstacle now in your way we crossed no excessively dangerous moun- will be removed, and you'll be out, where your tains, and no burning deserts. I have not heart has been already, before many months heard of any brethren of this Mission who had have passed. That is something like the way I came to China, and now am being drawn to· any experiences very much out of the com- Thibet. mon, though we settle often in teeming cities. I have not heard of any member of the Mission For Thibet, lIIongolia and Turkestan, the attaching himself to Nomadic tribes of Chinese language would be almost an essen- Mongol Tartars, living in miserable tents, and tial, for they are a part of the Chinese em- roving from place to place, with no fixed home, pire. The Turkestan party might commence no familiar fireside, but wandering over the in the Mohammedan towns of this province Tartar plains at the will of wild chieftains, or (Kausuh), getting their Chinese education as the scantiness of pasturage for flocks de- while picking up useful hints for Mohamme- mands. dan work. 'Ve have Turks, called Salah, within four days of Siuing. A knowledge of There are members of the Mission on the Arabic would be useful. Persian is more use- Chinese border of Kokonor, and let us pray ful in Turkestan. Mongol could, I fancy, God that before long Christianity may be easily be picked up here. knocking at the doors of Slamaistic faith; but though in many cases the Slamas are friendly For Thibet, at present, the Indian door and and kind, I have never heard of any workers Sychnan are closed to us. To work Thibet any- of the Mission having had the opportunityoffer- way, will require much prayer; the Chinese ed to them, by Thibetan officials, of entering are very suspicious of us; but this Kausuh the country of the grand Slama quietly amI border appears the most open, Passports without danger of molestation. lIfr. Gilmour. would be required for all these, and we must of the London MiSSion, is pioneering in Eastern pray hard that that difficulty may be removed. Mongolia; haven't you got a score of young Don't let us mind about fixed salaries. Get fellows wishing to join him? Then the Mora- the money to bring you out, and then look to vian Mission at Leh, and a Bible agent at God for the rest. 3Iarried or single, come Iskutsk in S. Siberia. With these exceptions, along. £100 per man should bring you from am I not right in saying the whole of Thibet, England to this corner of the empire, and Mongolia, Turkestan and Siberia are without give you a bit in hand. Look all the difficula Protestant missionary. "There remaineth ties well in the face, and then make up your yet very much land to be possessed; let us go mind. If you can't trust God, don't come. up at once and possess it, for we are well able, because the Lord of Hosts goeth forth with Yours, in the Lord's service. our armies." We haven't got to wait for orders to go forward; they were given more than CECIL POLHILL TURNER. 1800 years ago. When acting in obedience to Him, t~e power of God, the Holy OPENING OF WORK IN KIRIN. Ghost, is upon us, and then there is no room Our work gradually grew and people begun for failure. You will probably receive this to see we had not come to do them harm, but letter as the new year opens. Suppose all who good, One little boy, whose parents were read it pray for at least 20 workers each for dead, had for some time been troubled with Thibet, Mongolia, and Turkestan-in all 60- sore eyes. He spent nearly all his spare before the close of 1890. Let us ask for men money (3s. or so), a great deal for him, upon full of the Holy Ghost; men willing to rough native doctors. to no avail. By God's blessing it for Jesus; men who don't mind being cold, on our treatment, he was soon made all right. hungry and wet, and robbed, and, if need be. He, of course, could not k""p the good news to <i¥ing, because death brings glory. himself, but published it abroad, and soon Dear brother, who reads these lines, come great numbers came thronging to us to have out and join our band. Then let us go two by their eyes cured. We were very closely two through Thibet, to Slaosa, and on to watched by government officials in every Rashmir; along the high-road through Kausuh thing we did. Soon their favorable report to Hami, Urumtsi, Iti; another lot branching brought us invitations from Mandarins and off to the north to Kobats, Uliasutai; It third gentlemen of all ranks. Thus did God open up our way befon' 1)S. 'Ve then sought and gained an interview with July 9. -At evening service the church and one of the chief magistrates, and through yard were so full the pulpit was placeq in the him got permission of the Governor·General open door that all might hear. The Lord to come and establish a Mission and hospital. helped while preaching from "What shall I do to be saved?" All who were seriously After spending a few days longer looking thinking about their souls were asked to raise out for a suitable house, which, however, we hands; nearly 100 responded. did not find, we again returned to Monkden. Thus, through the Divine blessing, the way July 10. – A meeting for men only, but about seems clear for our going up, perhaps early 200 women came begging to stay; talked next year, and establishing ourselves in this about "Saving faith:' Two young men, large city of Kirin, the capital of the northern doubters for two years, de<'ided to serve and province of Manchuvia. confess Christ.
A RESIDENT MISSIONARY. July ll.-A mother's meeting; 400 present; many remained for inquiry meeting; over 20 Turkey. took part; earnest prayers in Turkish, Arme· nian and English, offered with tears of re- THE GREAT REVIVAL AT AlNTAB. pentance, reminded us of "Pentecostal Days. " I too could not keep back tears of joy; 35 [So remarkable a work deserves the arose, giving themselves to Christ. "Not unto fullest information. Although we us, not unto us, 0 Lord, but to thy name give have given some account of it already, glory." P. M.-Another woman's meeting. To we are quite sure our readers will be my surprise the church and yard were full; greatly interested in this detailed 1,600 to 2,000 present, most of whom were record of it, taken from the diary of Gregorians; 8 Mohammedans-a large gather. Rev. H. G. Jenanyan, of "St. Paul's ing; pulpit moved to the door so all could Institute," Tarsus, who took an active hear. part in the revival. We are indebted to his wife for this graphic view of the July 12.-The Holy Spirit's work among inmemorable scenes.-EDs.] dividuals is wonderful. Thus I am taught W/Ult and how to preach. Henceforth our serv, Aintab, July 2.-Having an urgent invita· ices will be union in the First Church, which tion from the pastor of the Third Church, the holds 2,000 to 2,500. The women's side is smallest one, with a congregation of about smaller, but to-night they filled their own and 200, to hold special service, this evening I one-third of the men's. " Not by might, nor preached my first sermon; only 150 present. by power." 'Text, "To think of latter end." July H.-At morning, in the Third Church, July 3.-Preached to about 300, one half of two new Sunday-school classes organized. whom were Gregorian Armenians. All listen- Church members promised to visit two by two oed attentively to, "Son, give me thine heart,~' the neighboring houses. Evening service in ~nd the Lord gave the words to speak; hoping the First Church. From 300 to 400 could not for great results, I pray and believe. enter the full house, but crowded near win- dows and doors. "Almost persuaded" was July 5. -This evening preached from, "Thy my subject; asked those who would like to sins are forgiven." God gave a blessing to have a prayer meeting to remain; only a few -over 500 present. My heart is rejoicing. An hundred left, but their places were at once inquiry meeting, 22 decided for Christ; 15 filled by the waiting throng outside. In this backsliders returned to the Lord; an infidel meeting over 100 rose deciding for Christian youth is earnestly seeking the light. life. This was the largest congregation to which I ever preached. I better realize the July 7, Sabbath. -Morning preached from power of simple gospel preaching. "Christ our pattern;" over 1,000 present; church full; hundreds in the yard. Evening July 15.-Much time is occupied with callservice in First Church; 1,600 present, one-third ing, conversation, preparation and preaching. of whom were Gregorians. "Jesus" was the Morning scrvice for women in Second Church: theme, and the eagerness with which they lis- 60 remained for inquiry, most of whom gave tened was an inspiration to me. "O! Lord, good proof of conversion. Afternoon met bless, encourage, and fill me with thy Holy with Christian Endeavor Society, giving a Spirit." Bible reading, "Christ our example. " These are good workers among the women, and their July 8.-Went to church one hour before numbers are now doubled. The following day service-was surprised to find both men and I preached in the First Church to a full house; women's side filled with women coming early 30 arose for prayer. to find room, thus crowding ant the men. At once began preaching; dismissed the meeting July 1/.-Morning held a service in the Grethat the women might go and the men come gorian house in the city suburbs; over 300 in; but most of them kept their seats on the present; every corner full; a few Protestants, :IIoor; the men were obliged to stay in the yard several Mohammedans. Afterward called on while I preached a second sermon for all. two palsied women confined to their beds for The need, desire and interest is wonderful. years. Among those who called. one man July 26.-Rev. T. D. Christie, of Marash, said: "I have done all known wickedness, hearing of this revival, came to help us. We been in prison three times-one Sunday I are very glad, for there is great need, and he heard you preach, since then I am surprised has large experience, and is very valuable in at the change in me; can't tell what and such work. Ever since the Adana revival, where I am-never prayed before, now pray- where we were together, I have greatly ening always; would like to tell others of this joyed working with him. He will give much change but fear they will not believe, but will of his time to personal work among new contry and show them by my life." Evening verts and inquirers. A large gathering in the meeting with young people; two pastors and First Church, Mr. Christie taking part; 45 exone college professor took part-it was a pressed desire for salvation. To-day a youn", season of great blessing. man came to a missionary, returning several small articles stolen at a fire eight months July 19.-Many young people come for per- ago. He confessed his sin with tears, saying sonal conversation-three boys and two girls he could not rest till his conscience was clear, earnestly pleading to be taken in our Tarsus he having recently given his heart to Christ. school. Thus far 17 applications from this city, and if we only had accommodations it July 28, Sabbath.-Morning attended First would be a grand thing to give a Christian Church Sunday-school; found 26 children had education to these young converts, who could decided for Christ; their tearful confessions be the means of blessing to their people. and simple faith was such that I went to the " My Lord, thou knowest and seest the need, adults, related the fact, while Pastor Mardagive opportunity as thou givest desire, grant ros earnestly spoke on "Where art thou ?". enlargement and blessing to St. Paul's Insti- The meeting was very solemn and blessed;' tute, take away all obstacles for its progress." many hard hearts were melted. Afternoon Evening meeting, where the three pastors Mr. Christie and I preached; at the close' took part. Their faith has been greatly nearly 500 remained for a testimony meeting; strengthened by seeing what the Lord has 28 took part, giving interesting accounts of done in our midst. their conversion. All hearts are grateful for such an outpouring of the Holy I::lpirit. July 21, Sabbath.-After Sunday-school and a good prayer meeting, a woman came, say- July 29.-By invitation, went to an Armeing, "Here are three Mohammedan women who nian meeting; was permitted to speak some would like you to talk and pray with them." words of truth, to which all listened atten-' I gladly responded, going to where they sat, tively; 5 priests expressed interest. Afterlith faces veiled; knelt down and prayed. noon 22 children and 14 young men came to I Evening, large meeting in First Church, more inquire the way of salvation. Missionaries, Gregorians came than ever before. Previously and native pastors are working heartily and they besought their priests to invite me to in full sympathy. preach in their church, but a few wealthy members objecting, the people came to our July 30 to Aug. 3.-These days have been church to hear the tl"".1th. This has been a especially devoted to church examination. day lonj:( to be remembered for its fullness of Preached only once; in the three churches 267.' blessing. came forward. So many interesting facts and testimonies, I cannot begin to write them. July 22.-Women's meeting. Holy Spirit, at Enemies are reconciled, notOrious crinlinaIs the close of sermon. asked all who wanted to converted, drunkards reclaimed, parents re-' come to Christ to arise; 22 responded, one of joicing over wandering children, whole famiwhom, 80 years old, was a great opposer to lies coming together to unite with the visible the truth, but now her groans and tears melt church. Said Pastor Mardaros: "I have been many hearts. Afternoon, 11 callers, compan- here thirteen years, and can it be possible ions in wickedness, now Christ's followers. that this great blessing has come to this city, Said they: "A month ago if anyone would even on Aintab!" "Yea, this is the Lord's tell us of such a change we would not believe, doing and wonderful in our eyes." now we tell others but they believe not." Aug. 4, Sabbath.-This is the crowning day July 24.-Children's meeting; 500 present. of the revival. At morning, by invitation, Theme, "Christ and the children;" 150 re- went to Episcopal Church; small congregamained for inquiry meeting; many prayed, tion; large building; unfinished for lack of confessing their sins. We hope all these are money. I preached, •. Fear not, little lIock." accepted by·the dear Saviour. Union service at noon; large attendance. I preached to those who will to-day join tl,e July 25.-Missionaries and natives urge me church, .. Lovest thou me?" (We all felt the to remain that these services may close with Holy Spirit's personal presence.) The reply a communion season and accept new converts. on hundreds of faces was, "Thou knowest that We all hope for a grand harvest. Evening I love thee. " After the sermon those who will service for new converts; 400 present. The unite with the church arose, 248, a large band prayers and testimonials were very interest- ready to serve Christ. They all repeated ing: over 25 took part, even 4 women ventured together after me the three verses beginning, to pray. "Who can separate us from the love of for inquiry, most of whom found salvation.
Christ1" Any who were seeking Christ were Among the new converts are several who invited to remain after service; 140 respondAd lately mocked at religious things.
-22 by words and 83 by rising expressed Aug. 21.-Temperance day; I preached their new decision; among them were 20 from, "We will not drink wine." Reading a children, whose deep conviction was very few passages at the close, asked- those who, Dlanifest. Evening there was communion in like the Rechabites, would promise thus, to the three churches-new members accepted; express it publicly. Over 1,000 arose. What an former members more hmnble and grateful. encouraging sight. Next day, in the Women's It was a day of holy consecration for us all. meeting, Mr. Christie preached; 45 remained Aug. 5 to n.-The work is so interesting, for inquiry; many blessed prayers and con- the plea so urgent, we have decided to remain fessions. During these two weeks 365 came two weeks longer. This week I preached five for church admiSSion, far more than we, in times to full congregations; many new con- our weak faith, expected. The Lord is work- verts-one a noted gambler, another an infi- ing mightily.
del, whose public confession was touching to Aug. 25, Sabbath.-Union service at noon for many. I visited 20 houses with Pastor Gara- missionary cause. After preaching I asked bed. The pastors have decided to have the people, as a slight token of gratitude to another comnlunion soon. This gives me God, to organize a Missionary Society and hope that Vartina Bajis's (a good mother in support some preachers in needy cities. Mr.
Israel,90 years old,) expectation will be ful- Christie also spoke encouraging words. All filled. One day in church she said, "I am responded well; a committee was organized, a praying for 500 new converts." A good brother collection taken amounting to 2.400 piastres said, "You are expecting too many, mother.~' ($95); during this week the gift of 600 piastres "I have prayed for them, and they are sure to to Third Church poor pastor, 1,400 piastres come. " I quoted, "According to thy faith be debt to First Church pastor; and this contri- it unto thee." bution is, for these poor people, about the Aug. 12 to 17.-Examinations for church ad- same as $5,000 in Ami'rica. Can we ask a mission; a new children's society (Zion'8Mes- better proof of revival work?
sengers) organize(!; their work is to visit Evening communion in each church; 286 houses each morning and hold half-hour new members accepted, hearts glad, families prayer-meetings with the children; they also happy, and the day blessed, to be long, long collect money to purchase Bibles for needy remembered..
Sunday-school classes. This week I preached During this revivai 534 new members were four times and gave a Bible reading; 31; newly added to the three churches on confession of decided for Christ. Now I am preaching on faith, while many are secret followers, not the various dnties of church members. The quite ready to come out now. Such an addi- evening of the 13th the theme was, "Seek tion to the awakened churches will no doubt the peace of Jerusalem." At the close, asked prove a great power and advance Christ's all who would vow anew to fulfill their church kingdom in Aintab and vicinity. "So then duties, to rise. All members solemnly respon- neither is he thatplanteth anything, neither he ded, a sight that gladdened our hearts. We that watereth, but God that gi11eth increase."
hope, after this, the weekly meetings, which, The two following days I preached to many before the revival, were attended by from 10 hundreds.
to 20, will be crowded, and instead of a few, The sermOD, Aug. 27, "Go forward," was scores will take part in the blessed prayer- my last charge. I did not tell the people of meetings as they do now. A deacon said, "I our departure, that we might leave quietly.
have complaints to make against you preach- Next day we left Aintab for a season of rest ers; before this I could pray ten minute. and among the mountains near Marash. I am speak as long as I wanted in prayer-meeting, glad Mr. Christie could remain and carry on not taking anyone's time, but now so many are the good work. The pastors are working ear- ready and waiting to take part, I cannot find nestly, and we hope and pray that a greater even one minute to thank God for all he has bleSSing is still in store for Aintab. "0 Lord, done." carryon Thy work; visit the needy, hungry Aug. 18, Sabbath.-Two more new Sunday- churches, and glorify Thy almighty name."
school classes organized in the Third Church. TARSUS, Nov. 12, 1889.
Our teacher of St. Paul's Institute has been much blessed in his efforts to work among WORLD'S CO)l'VENTIO)I' ON MISSIONS IN young people. He preached weekly in a Gre- 1892.
gorian Society of 200 young men; his visits LETTER FROM REV. WM. 11. M'CAUGHEY, PHILA.
and conversation brought many into these DEAR DR. PIERSON: With regard toa World's new Sunday-school classes and the church. Convention on Missions in 1892, there is a Union service at noon. I preached to a full movement on foot looking in this direction.
house. The following day after the sermon, In the Central Presbytery of Philadelphia Rev.
H Now is the day of salvation," 250 remained R. D. Harper moved that a committee of five
I~TER~ATlO~AL DEPARTMENT
be appointed to confer witll a committee of return you to your native land. I am, yours the Baptist brethren on this subject. The committee was appointed, and I have the honor truly, W. H. MCCAUGHEY. to be one of the five. The first meeting was held early in October. The Baptist brethren Rev. L. S. Tugwell, of the Spanish and were Russell·H. Conwell, D. D., Geo. C. Bord- Portuguese Church Aid Society, writes us to man, D.D., and John Peddie, D.D. Dr. Harper say: "You will be glad to hear that we are was made chairman and Dr. Conwell secre- receiving enconraging reports of the work in tary; and these were empowered to call a meet· Spain and Portngal from the Rev. H. E. Noyes, ing of representative men of differentdenomi- the editor of Light and Truth, who is now just nations. Such a meeting has been called to concluding a visit to our brethren of the meet at the Baptist Rooms Nov. 11th. Per- Spanish and Portuguese Reformed Churches. haps this is all known to you, but if not, I He has been greatly cheered by all he has know it will be a real pleasure for you to hear seen, and his highest expectations have been it. The plan, as projected, is on a large scale. Calling, as it does, for special buildings, it exceeded. One of the most hopeful features will require a great deal of expense and hard in this movement is the self-denying zeal, earwork; yet, with you, I feel that it would be nest devotion, and patient perseverance of the one of the grandest movements of the century. pastors, evangelists and teachers in their ardu- With an earnest prayer that God may bless ous but blessed work for the Master." your work while abroad, and in his own time [Dr. Gracey, in sending us this item, says: "Tugwell deserves encouragement, for he has had a long, hard pull. All the work of this society originated with him. "-J. M. S.] IV.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
Our Relations with Latin America. It affords more miles of navigation than all The meeting of the Representatives the rivers of Europe combined, and more than the Mississippi with its several tributaries. of the Republics of the Three The tide from the Atlantic reaches two hun- dred and sixty miles up the stream, and ocean Americas-North, Central and South -in our national capital, forces to ships of twenty-four feet draught can find the front questions about the duty water enough the year round at a distance of which new conditions promise to a thousand miles from its mouth. Vessels impose on the Protestantism of of from sixteen to twenty feet draught can go 'twenty-seven hundred miles into the interior the United States toward the fifty of the Continent, and a comparatively small ,millions of people in Spanish America amount of money-a mere fraction of the -a population numerically about sum that has been spent upon the Mississippi- equal to our own j just below our will furnish a path for a four thousand ton horizon, Latin America contains vessel from New York or Liverpool to the very heart of Brazil, by way of Buenos Ayres. "
some three thousand natives of the The vast resources of these Southern United States and about ten millions Republics are certain to tempt Euro- of European subjects, the nucleus of pean immigration as well as com- the forces which are to make a new merce. The Italian Government sends world out of the " New World " Co- a steamer every month from Genoa to lumbus revealed four centuries since; Montevideo and Buenos Ayres, and for the Americas are being re-dis- another to Valparaiso, Chili. There covered. are five French lines of steamships If the reader has doubt of that, let connecting Marseilles, France, with him try a geographical study of South ports of Brazil, Uruguay and the America, and test whether he has Argentine Republic; and a line from realized its physical conditions. We Havre to the North and East Coast of venture to assign one lesson as a sam- South America. There are German ple, taken from a government docu- steamers running from Hamburg to ment: the West Coast of South America as " The Rio de la Plata, or the River Plate, as far as Guatemala. Belgium has a it is commonly known, offers a more extensive semi-monthly steamship service to system of unobstructed navigation than any Brazil and Argentina. The Pacific river in the world, and, with the exception of Steam Navigation Company has rethe Amazon, pours more water into the ocean. cently latmched four magnificent artificial land transportation, present steamers for England's South Ameri- and prospective. A railway from can trade, t,vo of them being larger Boston to Buenos Ayres seems vision- and faster than any hitherto in that ary perhaps; but it is worth fixing commerce, being of 6,500 horse power our thought on. Within three years and 6,000 tons capacity. past railroads have been actually built, and routes surveyed, for at least Of course, the concomitant of all one-third of the distance between this is an influx of Europeans into Buenos Ayres and Bogota-one-third, South America and Central America. and that the hardest one-third to con- The Argentine Government pays the struct, has been actually completed pasmga of the immigrant, keeps him or is constructing. for days after arrival, and forward:; him atgovernment expense by steamer There are two lines built, and two or train to the farms of the interior, lines for which concessions have been gives him land and seed, and six dol- granted, which, with shorter ones allars a month for the first year. This ready in operation, leave but about Republic received more European im- 2,000 miles of road to be constructed migrants in the first six months of to make the chain complete. That is last year than in twelve months of the no such task as was our Pacific Railprevious year. The Mexican Govern- road. The Republics along the line ment pays the steamship companies are anxious for its construction, and sixty dollars per head for each immi- are ready to guarantee five to seven grant landed in the next five years, per cent. on the capital invested. Some and an average of forty-five dollars five distinct routes are proposed for each for the succeeding ten years. this inter-continental railway, one of which leaves 3,252 miles to be built, These facts, and vastly more of the another 2,616, and two others, roundsame genus, plainly indicate that the ly, 2,000 miles. The route which immediate future is to bring new con- leaves the least mileage to be conditions to us on the south. It seems structed runs from Buenos Ayres to just as plain that America is to be Jujuy, thence to Bogota, and about evangelized by Americans. Protestant 1,000 miles are now operated. The Europe evidences little interest in the lines would pass throughout its whole spiritualizing of these newly-rising length through countries teeming people, and we have been laggard and with the most valuable articles of half-nerved in what we have done. commerce. These are the EI Dorado It is not an easy thmg to kindle enthu- regions of the ancients. "Stripped siasm about Protestant work in South of all poetry," says the Report of the American fields, though we do warm United States Government, "immense up a little more readily of late to work mines and deposits of precious metals in the Republic of Mexico. If the do exist in Bolivia, though too remote contact of steamer and rail accounts from highway and habitation now to for this it may not be long till we have be explored." largely similar conditions with the more southern States. The Director of the United States 1tfint said that under favorable cir- "Ve cannot enter into the political cumstances Chili, Bolivia and Peru question of the duty of the govern- might add fifty million ounces of silment to improve our ocean highway ver to the world's stock annually. conditions to South America; but, " Every spade that turns the clod rethat aside, the overland communica- veals the silver" in the basin of the tions are, prophetically at least, in Cerro Pasco in Peru. The region sight. At the risk of dropping some through which this proposed road of our readers at this point, we ven- would pass, when the other twoture to present something about the thirds are completed, yields even now, When a body as representative as apart from gold and emeralds and that sends out a manifesto, it should, diamonds, six hundred million dol- at least, secure the attention of the lars' worth of commerce annually. Christian public. It deals with some of the more recent criticisms on Mis- With the celebration in 1892 of the sions, and we may assume it, therefour hundredth anniversary of the fore, to be of wider interest than the discovery of this continent, we will circle of patrons of those specific be face to face with problems of pro- missions. They first emphasize the foundest importance in reference to fact that India is not one, but many this Western Continent. Whether we countries, with many languages and are to have a World's Missionary Con- an extensive literature, but partially ference at that time does not yet ap- explored. Omitting Moslems, the bulk pear, but that the Protestants of North of the population about Madras as a America ought to face calmly at that center are non-Brahmanical. But time the question whether the Ameri- Brahmans have grafted the Hindu cas are to be evangelical, we do ear- caste system on to Dravidian ancient nestly believe. It is sad to think of tribal systems. After describing modthe multitude to the south of us, weary ern Hinduism (the indescribable) they and sick with Popery and Jesuitism say that with the people about them to the edge of revolt against all truth, all thought is contemporary, presentand certainly against all ecclesiasti- ing an epitome of all thought, ancient cisms. This four hundredth anni- and modern, that of the West with versary ought to see the broadest and that of India 2,000 years ago. The best minds of Protestantism ready old social order has been infracted, with great schemes for the religious and hence disturbance and disintegrauplifting of those Republics, whether tion, and a social freedom without by missionary or merchant, by teacher, internal standard. Altogether they mechanic or farmer. A great upris- are in the midst of intricate condiing might be inspired, and a move- tions, and feel called to every possible ment organized for aggressive work. sacrifice. They then name the forms Hundreds of Protestant mechanics, of missionary agency which they Use. we are assured, can find a field where they may make a good living and find They venture to defend such of opportunity to help evangelize those these measures as have been recently lands. A council of eminent leaders and widely criticised. They say of should prepare for at least an Ameri- Higher Education that "the withcan Missionary Conference in 1892. drawal from the mission field of this agency, which, after all, absorbs but a Missionaries Answer the Oritics on small fraction of our numerical Mission Economy. strength, would leave a blank, for the filling up of which no hostile critic The Missionaries of the several Pro- has yet made any practical suggestestant churches in Madras, India, tion." have sent out "An Open Letter to the Churches," which is signed by four Referring to the question of Missionmissionaries of the Church of Eng- ary Economies, they say the salaries of land Society, four of the London So- European Missionaries have not been ciety, six: of the Englis~ Wesleyan, six questioned in India, and they think of the Free Church of Scotland, three them fairly reasonable, no class of Enof the Church of Scotland, one Ameri- glishmen, not even artisans, receivcan Baptist, two American Methodist, ing so small allowances as Missiontwo Danish Lutheran, nine represent- aries. ing'the Madras Christian College, and one the Bible Society-38 in all. • The Salvation Army has been much lauded as illustrating greater pOSSIble economy in the conduct of Missionary opportunity to acquire language in so work. They say the results of the brief a period. The number has been Salvation Army labors are not tabu- terribly reduced, and the wear and lated, and hence a true verdict cannot tear of their way of living is largely be hoped for; but in their part of In- responsible for this. Their very plan dia the Army has not been successful. of operations increases health and life It has swelled its ranks from converts risk, and affords no corresponding in- of other churches, many of whom crease in efficiency, have returned to their old fold. It has They refer next to the Roman Cath- only labored where other Missions olic priest as a missionary model.
had planted themselves. They have The rate of increase for these missions found it easier to appeal to Christians has for twenty-five years been lower than to Hindus for support, and have than that of the Protestant missions.
diverted funds from other Christian The Protestant Church is not ready work-only the merest fraction of to insist that all its missionaries shall their support has ever come from non- be celibates. In<Ea has had enough Christians. The Army has carefully of asceticism according to prescribed avoided districts where no missionary Hindu rules, unless it should appear work is done by others. in the form of a great Hindu reformer.
Nor have the agents of the Army To Hindus generally, Western men g-ot into greater sympathy than others will not appear to be real ascetics, but with the natives. The text of the manufactured and spurious. More- letter on the matter of Europeans over, there is nothing Hindus corre- adopting native dress runs as follows: sponding to the Christian home, in .. For at least two cellturies. the Englishman which woman fills her place of honor, has been a familiar figure In India; to this gen· and where unity and affection dwell eration he ill! now almost as familiar as the Mus- together. Nothing is more necessary Bulman. To HinduB, his dress seems to be even and instructive to Hindus than the attractive. While no Hindu dreams of adopt· exhibition of that family life which is ing the Mussulman costume, thousands of Hin.
dus are now adopting the English dress. It is the rich fruit of Christian faith. Of impossible, therefore, that what is familiar and course, the other phase of an economiattractive can at the same time be specially reo cal agency implies that cheaper men, pellant. All who know anything of human na· men of less intellectual furnishing, ture will agree, that not by a particular dress, but by intelligence and true sympathy do we even of less moral endowment, may find access to the hearts of men. Soul must be used, that the standard of the mistouch soul, and eating curry and rice with one's sionary force might be lowered. Refingers and weaJ.ing long hair are poor substi. ferring to this, the open letter says: tutes for a. knowledge of the language and "Outer conditions will adjust themthoughts of Hindns."
But, after all, can there not be a selves and will never hinder mission- cheaper agency employed with ad- ary work if the agents supplied by the vantage in the mission field? That is churches are what they should be, l't current question. Multitudes of and here we earnestly plead that the thoughtful friends of missions are standard of attainment and efficiency asking that question. Does not the be maintained among all Europeans Salvation Army prove that? This who come to India as agents. If it be " open letter" replies that the cost of lowered, nothing can be gained, but its European agents in India has never . much may be lost. Imperfectly been made known. The number of equipped Europeans can only take a deaths among them is exceptionally place as the rivals of imperfectly large. The number disabled by sick- equipped native agents, than whom ness is very great, as compared with they will be more costly, and-less other missions. The average stay in effective."
India is very brief. They have little They say they need a class of native agents more highly trained than any lem by living as the Chillese live, eating their they yet have had. They appeal for food as they cook it, sleeping on their k'ang men to reach the thousands of Hindus beds. and very closely imitating their mode of who have been educated in schools life; but a part of these, at least, having decided and colleges, more or less acquainted that nothing is gained by such a life, and that with Christianity, and who have im- health and fitness for service are endangered bibed some of its moral thought, but thereby, have returned to a more Western man- 'who have not found the path to true Der of living. Simplicity is not imitation. We light. They wish, too, for some few are not Chinese, and no amount of imitation men of learned leisure to produce will make the people think we are." a Christian literature in the vernacular. "Year by year," they say, "the The other writer discusses the quesreading public increases, as does the tion of lower-salaried, and thus a less demand for Christian literature; but expensive, even if a less furnished miswe cannot give them the best, as we sionary agency. He does not think ought." that the nllssionary who uses the smallest amount of money is there- They say it has been matter of re- fore the cheapest agency. gret to them" that the criticism rece~ly bestowed on Indian missions so .. Commercially, the investment that brings in much has referred only to details of the largest proportionate returns-the largest secondary importance, and so little to percent.-is the cheapest_ So financially, and the essentials of the missionary prob- every other way, the missionary that accomlem." plishes the largest amount of efficient results is, as a rule, the cheapest. By' efficient results' They close their "open letter" say- is meant living, active, self-propagating ing: "The progress of Christianity is churches, a wise and earnest native ministry,etc. that of 'the truth as it is in Jesus,' The missionary that accomplishes nothing is breaking the spell of an antiquity not only expensive, but a •dead capital,' though which overawes, and scattering a he were to use only 100 Mexicans a year J while manifold error which has long bewil- one using 5,000 in successful work may be the dered men. And because we know cheapest." that here in India the battle is the Lord's, we rejoice in the certainty He affirms that sbtistics prove that that the victory is His also. And all the man or the Society that works flesh shall see the salvation of God." with least proportionate expenditure, reaches the least proportionate results, And now we have two other per- and that nine-tenths of the efficient resons discussing these features of mis- sults in China have been from Missionsionary economies in China whose aries who live comfortably, from their views are set forth in The Chinese own national standard of comfort. Recorder, the first we give being a There is little economy in a merely strong advocate for the simplest possi- numerical increase of missionaries. A ble style of living for missionaries, so few well-trained, suitably cared for, as to destroy the impression that mis- able to create and direct a native force, sionaries are lovers of good living, and are cheaper than many of the cheaper so as to avoid a style of living so far sort trying to do the work themselves. beyond the reach of the people as to It is on the line of this power to create arouse their cupidity rather than fur- the middle man, the efficient native nish them an example. But even tIllS force, that, he says, "comparatively a advocate of simplicity says: very small number of the number of foreign workers now in China have .. Living <u rimply as the average teacher or accomplished very nearly all the efmerchant, does not mean that we live as they ficient results so far. It is a notorious do. The former is practicable; the latter is im- fact that several of the smaller practicable, and, therefore, unwise. Some very societies have done some of the best earnest men have endeavored to solve this prob- and largest work."
He fortifies this position by quoting from Rev. John Ross, of Manchuria, speaking at the London Conference: "Let all the missionary societies manned, but is now in the same position as pick out, not as many men as they can find, but pick out a few, choice in Loando, awaiting good workers to man it. all respects, spiritually, mentally, in- tellectually, physically-let there be a Nhangupp<po.-From Dondo we .. take it few choice men, let these train the natives, and the natives will do the afoot" fifty·one miles over l1i1ls, monntains and work. It seems to me that this is the only way you can get the work vales, by the old caravan trail of the ages, to properly done." Nhanguepepo Mission station. Our property Bishop Taylor's Industrial Missions. there is worth about $6,000. It was deSigned Bishop William Taylor sent an ex- tended report of his work in Liberia, to be 8. receiving station, in which our new- and also in Angola, and in the Congo country. We condense the latter por- comers might be acclimatized, taught native tion of it, as this mission has attracted a good deal of attention and been the languages, and prepared for advauce work. subject of considerable criticism: Under the superintendency of Brother Withey Mamby.-Two days above Congo mouth we land at lIIayumbo, and proceed in boats seven- a great preparatory work has been done at this teen miles up an inland lake to Mamby, where Mi.s Martha Kah is stationed. When we settled station. It has, however, become specially a there it was in the bounds of the" Free State of Congo," but later the published decrees of the training school for native agency under the Berlin Conference putit under the wing of the French government. The French authorities leadership of one young mau of our first have recognized and registered our native title to 100 acres of good land, and are not unfriendly party from America, Karl Rudolph. We to US by any means; but .. by law" forbid us to teach any languag6 but French. Good has already have an organized Methodist Episcopal been done at Mamby, and is being done. Ow· ing to this disability, we have proposed to aban· Church at this station, composed of thirteen con- don it, but Martha Kah is entirely unwilling to leave, and as it is our only footing in French verted native men and boys. The work of each territory, and as they hold a vast region, peo- pled by numerous nations of African heathens, day is distributed; two of our boys called" pas· we have thought it best to hold on to Mamby. tors" have the care of about 100 head of cattle Loanda.-Passing the mouth of the Oongo River, we proceed by steamer over 300 mUes to belonging to the mission. Several boys are the beautiful land·locked harbor of St. Paul de Loanda. The Portuguese town bearing that taught to yoke and work oxen in sled or plow; name has many massive buildings. includillg churches in ruins, dating back over 300 years. several boys bave learned to be stone-masous,. It has an estimated population of 5,000, a few hundred of whom are Portuguese (one English and when I was there last were engaged in house of business), the rest being Negroes. From the beginning we have had adequate self· building a stone wall around the cattle" cor· supporting resources in Lo..nd.. from the Portu- guese patronage of our schools, and have now, ral." One boy is trained to business in the lit· but at present we lack the teaching corps requis· .; ite. tIe store. .
Dondo.-From Leanda we proceed by steamer Pungo Andongo.-Pnngo Andongo Station has oisixty miles" south by sea, and cross the bar into the mouth of the Ooanzo River, as large a8 the cro.sed the lines of sustentation and of abso- Hudson, and ascend 180 miles to Dondo, at the head of steamboat navigation. Dondo is a noted lute self-support, and is making money to open trading center, and has a population of about 5,000, mostly Negroes. We had a good property new statious in the regions beyond. in Dondo worth about $5,000. Its school work and machine shop were self-supporting when Malange.-An onward march of sixty·two miles brings us to Malange, a town of probably 2,000 population, and noted for its merchandise. Our people there are Samuel J. Mead, P. E ,"his wife, Ardella, retined, well educated, and a tine musician, at the head of our school work.
Willie Mead, head of the mechanical depart-.
ment; his wife is especially engaged in teach iug missionaries. Robert Shield, a young mis~ sionary from Ireland, who was brougl1t up at home for a. merchant, runs a small mission store at Malange, preaches in the Kimbunda, and has a growing circuit extending among the villages of the surrounding country. Uur na- tive Church, organized at Malange at the time of my visit, had" the number of twentY'one, all probationers, of course, but baptized and saved. Our property at Malange is worth prob- ably i6,~00. Samuel J. Mead has charge of a big farm, and making it pay. Brother fillie trained four native men to run two pit-saws, and in the last year or two has turned out $1,500 worth of lumber, which sells for cash at the saw·pits. These meu are also preachers, and preach several times each week in the Por~ tuguese language. In labor, money. and build· ing material, they have recently completed a new two-story mission house and other mission improveonents, amounting to an aggregate cost of $1,200, without any help from home.
LulU<.lburg.-From Malauge a tramp of 1,000 miles northeast will bring Us to Luluaburg, in the Bashalange ·country. discovered by Dr. Pogge and Lieut. Weismann in 1883. Th-: ..tot yet built a mission bouse in Pluky. Miss Governor-General of the independent State of McNeal teaches school in a native bonse in the Congo, at my request, gave to Dr. Summers. midst of the town, and preacbes on Sabbath one of our men from Malange. permission to days under tbe sbade of a bread-fruit tree.
found " station for our mission at Lnluabul'g. Her scbool house is crowded, and sbe has six of which he did, and built a couple of houses bel' boys and three girls converted to God, wbo on, it, and was making good progress when be testify for Jesus in bel' meetings, and belp her became worn out by disease and died. I bope in bersonl-saving work. Probable value $800, 80011 to send a suceeSBor to dear Dr. Summers. in land. Miss Barbara Miller assists her tem- Kimpoko.-From Luluaburg a week of foot porarily, but her specialties are kindergarten traveling northwest will bring us to Lueba, at and mllsic, awaiting tbe opening of the tbe junction of the Lulua and Kassai rivers. academy.
Tbence, in a little steamer descending tbe G'araway.-Twenty miles nortbwest of Cape Kassai river about 800 miles, we sweep through Palmas. Miss Agnes McAllister is in cbarge of U Qua mouth·· into the Congo, descending tbe station, and Miss Clara Binkley bas special wbicb 70 miles we will tie up at Kimpoko, near cbarge of tbe educational department, botb the northeast angle of Stanley Pool. We. working togetber as missionaries. Aunt Rachel, opened this station in 1886, designed as a way a Liberian widow woman, runs the farm and station for our transportation to tbe countries produces indigenous food enougb to feed two or of the Upper Kassai. At Kimpoko we made an tbree stations. This is a station of great irrigating ditch a mile long, drawing from a promise. Probable value, $1,200.
bold mountain creek an abundant supply of Matumba.-One hundred miles by steamer water to insure good crops at all seasons. We down tbe Congo to Banana brings us within an have there about ten acres ,under cultivation, hour and a half by cars of our mission station and grow in profusion all tbe indigenous food at Matumba. Miss Mary Kildare, a superior that we can ll.I!e. Brotber Burr, who is our pre- teacher, linguist and missionary, is our sole oc- siding elder at Kimpoko, writes that Kimpoko cupant of the station at Matumba. I bougbt of has been nearly self-sustaining from the be- the government nearly ten acres of good ground ginning, but entirely 80 since the beginning of there for nearly $120, baving previously bought this year. They are building a new mission- the native title. We bave a comfortable little bouse this dry season, about 15×80. In tbis bouse of galvanized iron, 22×24 feet, set on pil- work they may require a little help-a rew bales lars six feet above ground. Tbe bouse is divi- of clotb from borne. At a low e,timate our ded into two rooms, 12 x 12 feet, and a ver- property in Kimpoko is worth at least $1,000. anda 12×124 feet, enclosed by balu.trading and Manyanga.-From Kimpoko we go by oars or a gate, and is used for schoolroom. She bas steamer twenty miles to the lower end of Stan- now a scbool of twenty scholars. Sbe does her ley Pool at LefYjJoldville. Thence by foot 100 preacbing mostly in the villages; tbe bouse is miles to South Manyanga (which is called the in an enclosure of nearly an acre~ surrounded Nortb Bank route; by the Soutb route we walk by a bigh fence with strong gate wbich is locked from Leopoldville 231 miles to Matadi or Lower up at 9 P. 111. daily. Itook her recently a box of Congo), Liberian coffee seed, which she has in a nursery Isangila.-From Manyanga we go by a launcb growingbeautifully, and sbe bas a fruit orchard of three or four tons capacity, propelled by oars coming on.
and sails and currents, 88 miles to Isangila. We Our property at Matumba is wortb $1,000.
bave bad a station at IsangiJa for over two years, We, two years ago, started three stations be- on which we bave built good native houses, but tween Vivi and Isangila-Vumtomby Vivi, Sadi bad not bougbt the site of the Government till Kabanza, and Matamba. We built pretty good my last visit to the land office at Barna. The houses at a total cost of $30, not counting our site, containing 7Yz acres. cost us nea.rly $80. A labor.
good garden spot. Ollr bretbren dug a yam Since tbat, Brother Reed and wife and from their garden in Isangila when I was tbere Brotber Bullikist, very good people, sent out by a few weeks ago, which weighed twenty-two Dr. Simpson, of New York, have opened a pounds-more wholesome and delicious if pos- station nearly midway between Vnmtomby sible than Irisb potatoes. Our paying industry Vivi and Sadi Kabanz.., so when we get ready tbere will be in the transport line of business. to go out to found new stations, we sball prefer, instead of resummg work at those vacated, to • As our Vivi Station is at tbe higbest point of small steamer naVigation, so Isangila. is the go into the more populous regions of the inte· lowest point of the middle passage of the Congo rior. The Congo State bas a strip of country from Isangila. eighty-eight miles to Manyanga. densely populated, 100 miles from the north Our site at Isa.ngila_with improvemeuts 19 worth bank of tbe Congo, and extending from Banana $300. 250 miles to Manyanga, all unoccupied and open Pluky.-Across Hoffman river, from Cape to U~. except a few new stations near the Congo.
Palmae, is the beginning of our h.ru Coast line So God is opening a vast field for us 011 the of stations. Miss Lizzie McNeal is the mission- Lower Congo as well as on the Upper Congo ary. Though two years in the station, we have and Kassai. Death of lIfissionaries.-The list of writer that those societies who print eminent dead has been lengthened of full and succinct accounts of their late by the addition of missionary work in a variety of forms, and keep- names. ing the same 'steadily available to outsiders as well as their own sup- Mrs. SarahB. Lansing, wife of Rev. porters, become most fully established Julian Lansing, who for the past in the public confidence, and ulti- thirty years has faithfully labored as mately command the fullest support. a missionary in connection with the It is quite curious to watch the filter- United Presbyterian Mission of Egypt, ing process which goes on from these has deceased. She was born in 1820. prints, larger or smaller, through the She was a sister of the Rev. Dr. Dales, press and public assembly. of Philadelphia, Corresponding Secretary of the United Presbyterian Board -Now that the Christian world is of Foreign Missions. In her mission depressed, if not discouraged, by the work she has suffered many hard- entire collapse of England's policy in ships, and at one time, while at the Soudan for the suppression of the Damascus with her husband, had to slave trade, by extension of the Kheflee for life under persecution. dive's jurisdiction from Khartoum to the Central lakes, it is with peculiar Rev. C. W. De Heer, of long service interest and some fresh hope that we in the Gaboon Mission of the Presby- learn that the Sultan of Zanzibar has terian Church, died at Clifton Springs, published a decree that after Novem- N.Y. ber 1, 1889, all slaves entering his dominions shall be declared free; and The Methodists of India have been that after January 1,1890, all children sorely stricken of late in the succes- born of slaves in his dominion shall sive loss by death of Dr. McCoy, of Cal- also be free. A single generation will cutta; Rev. Mr. Gray, of Singapore, thus see the end of slavery in this and also Mrs. Rudisill, Mrs. Winter greatest of slave centres. The Arabs and Mrs. Hopkins. in Zanzibar do not seem to have waked up to the effect of these two edicts on The Church of England mourns the slave trade. the death while she rejoices in the life of Bishop Sargent. He was sev- -At the meeting of the Anti-Slavery enty-four years of age, and furnished Conference in Brussels the Belgian another illustration of missionary King said he felt hopeful in regard to longevity, he having served fifty-four the steps now being taken for the supyears in India. He went to Madras pression of the slave trade, though when barely twenty years of age, and he had little hope that domestic slavery entered the society's service. He has would be done away with for many served in the Episcopacy for twelve years to come. Perhaps not, but the years. On the celebration of his foreign market for slaves can be cut jubilee in the mission he addressed off, and if the foreign market for ivory 1,400 of a Christian community, of were cut off a large motive power of whom sixty were native clergy. the slaver would be destroyed. But, after all, there is a long, tedious task -The General Assembly of the ahead of the humanitarianism and United Presbyterian Church haf' for- Christian evangelism of Europe and mally requested Rev. Andrew Watson, America in uplifting this Dark Con- D. D., to prepare a history c f < their tinent. But it can be done, It must Egyptian Mission to be publishea by be done, and it will be done. It is their Board of Publication. This is being done. to be commended, and the example should be imitated by all societies -The Free Church of Scotland sends whose work is at all historic, even if out a leaflet appealing to the children it be small. A close observation of the subject for years has shown the
ThE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
to aid the Sheikh-Othman slave refuge. Woman's Board. There are five This is the present headquarters of the native helpers in this mission. Keith-Falconer Mission to Arab Muslims. It is a large native village about -A missionary in Korea, writing to ten miles north of Aden, with a fluc- us recently, says: "I hope I have tuating population. The children in convinced you that we have great enthis refuge now number sixty, thirty- couragements in regard to the work, eight boys and twenty-two girls. They notwithstanding all you may have were dragged over three hundred heard to the contrary. The work has miles to the African harbor called not stopped; it cannot stop. Even Tajora, whence they were being taken were we all to leave Korea to-day I in dhows to Arabia to be sold as believe it would still go forward, and slaves, but were captured by a British eternity show grand results from the gun-boat and taken to Aden, and the seed-sowing already done. Just now Government asked the missionaries to the obstacles do seem somewhat fortake charge of them. What is known midable. I want you to pray the obas "The Arabian Mission" of this stacles down, or pray us above them. country, of which Prof. J. G. Lansing, We read in the Book that there is a of New Brunswick, N. J., is an active 'faith which subdued kingdoms.' projector, has decided to co-operate That is the kind we want brought to with this mission at Sheikh-Othman. bear on Korea."
-The Friends Mission at Ramsallah, -We gave a full account in former Palestine, ten miles north of Jerusa- numbers of the Patna case, as it is lem, founded by members of the called; that of Luchnion, the Hindu Friends' Society in England, has re- girl who fled to Miss Abraham to escently been transferred to the New cape the bondage of a so-called mar- England Yearly Meeting, and is now riage, but which in fact was a sale of known as the" Eli and Sybil Jones her person to a life of shame. The Mission. " The General Board and Calcutta Missionary Conference petithe Woman's Society of that yearly tioned the Government of India to remeeting co-operate in this work. verse the decision of the magistrate There is a Friends' Church at Ram- remanding her to this ignominious sallah, and twenty-five to thirty ap- bondage. The Government replies plicants for membership are now that it is unable to disturb the finding awaiting admission. There are five of the Courts in the case, as it was schools, two in the village for boys supported by the testimony. The and two for girls, also a training home High Court acknowledges the wrong just opened, with about eighteen done, but cannot see any "possible jimpils. There are three lady mission- measures that are practicable to undo aries, all of whom sailed from New that wrong." This is a most humili- York since June. Two of these ladies, ating confession for a strongChristian the assistant physician and the teacher Government to make in the premof English, are in the employ of the ises, and the matter ought not to rest here.
V.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY REV. F. F. ELLI1'WOOD, D.D.
The Religions of Ohina. the hills; every store and shop has its In one sense there is no country so little altar with burning incense to the full of religions as China. The gods god of good luck; every house is built and shrines are, if possible, more with reference to geomantic influence; ubiquitous than in India. Gods of the " fung shuay" is consulted in all mat- river, gods of the trees, gods of the tel'S of life; the whole land teems with hearth, gods of the kitchen, gods of the emblems of polytheism. First is TA01TIS!.1. Nevertheless, the Taouist priests have To this system the above named remained as a power in China. The in- liuperstitions chiefly belong. Its tellectual classes would disclaim any founder, Laotze, lived about 500 years confidence in them, and there are few B. C., and was already a public of the laity of any rank who would call teacher when Confucius was born. themselves distinctively Taouists, yet But Laotze's system, which was all classes, high and low, resort to these rationalistic and highly mystical, was professional necromancers on special above the comprehension of the people. occasions, and particularly when in Its ethical standards were pure and trouble. lIen claiming to be Confu- lofty, but cold and censorious. It had cianists are Taouists by turns, and no element of sympathy. Its philos- many costly Taouist temples have ophy was impracticable, as compared been built by the gifts of the wealthy with the precepts of Confucius, and in extremis. Much is given also by its discouraged and disgusted author way of financial ventures, as the god of died at length a voluntary exile in a wealth falls into the Taouist category.
remote western province. Laotze was The whole Joss business belongs to a true philosopher, propounding orig- this system, and it constitutes a large inal theories, while Confucius had lit- element in the practical religion of the tle originalty, but was a skillful com- Chinese wherever they are found.
piler of the ancient observances and CONFUCIANISM.
traditions. No uninspired teacher has " Quong fu tze" was a cotemporary ever taught a more exalted system of of Laotze, though several years private, social and political ethics younger. Attracted by the fame of than Laotze, but his transcendental- the great philosopher, he went to hear ism had little power with the people, him. Bnt there was little sympathy and the virtues which he commended between them. Confucius seemed to were disproportionally of a negative the older and morbidly critical Laotze kind. He feared the effect of general as only an ambitious and conceited education as fostering conceit, and young pedant. On the other hand, civilization as leading to corruption. one visit to the old philosopher seems His only god was reason (Taou), and to have sufficed for his young rival.
the mystical and pantheistic character Confucius gaye his attention to the with which he invested it-its imma- ancient records and traditions, and, nence and indwelling as an efficient winnowing out the abundant chaff, force in all things animate and inani- presented what he considered the mate-opened the way for the count- wholesome wheat. The Ancient less superstitions which now bear the 81100 King he rednced from 3,000mon- Taouist name and fill the land. His ographs to about 350. Unfortunately, successors fell far short of his sublime in his strong leaning toward Agnos- philosophy and his moral purity, and ticism, he is believed to have ruled out only preserved his mysticism as a most of the passages which related to basis for every species of jugglery and the worship of the Supreme Being.
imposture. The all-prevailing " Taou" 'Vhat he sought to establish was a took the form of spirits dwelling in purely ethical system bounded by the Ih'agons, in men and lower animals, confines of the present life. He ig- and even in trees. Certain uncanny nored all that related to the unseen animals are especially regarded as world or to the hereafter. Beginning embodiments of spirits. It peopled with the domestic and social relations, t118 land with elves and hobgoblins. he endeavored to build up society as As a disembodied essence it also ap- a pyramid, with the King or Emperor peared in the vague influence known as the head. The State was his uni- as " fung shnay." verse. In reply to some questions about the unseen world he said: eties of Buddhism. The most popular " We do not know life, how can we form of Buddhist worship is that paid know death." He magnified the re- to Quanyin, the " Goddess of Mercy." spect due to parents and to all ances- She is supposed by Beal to be identical tors, and .that came to be the only with the Avolokitesvara of Northern real worship of strict Confucianists. India and Thibet. Avolokitesvara is His ethics were out of true proportion. a later mythical personage of whom The rights of the father and the hus- Gautama knew nothing. He is a livband were exaggerated even to tyran- ing god, and therefore able to hear ny, if not to the power of life and prayer, while the Buddha is extinct. death. Woman, as woman, was not He is a Bodisat (one who will become duly honored. Only as a mother, or an incarnate Buddha at a future time). the mother of a husband, did she re- When Fahieu, the Chinese pilgrim ceive respect. As such she might even who visited India at an early day, was bea tyrant. overtaken bya stormat seaheprayed to Avolokitesvara for real help: prayers That Confucianism is a mastBrly offered to Buddha are only expected to piece of statesmanship, that it solidifies produce reflex influence on one's own the whole fabric of authority and uni- heart and promote self help. fies all the forces of the home and the social bond, none will deny, but it In China this Bodisat is worshipped is not a religion. Its ethical stand- under the conception of a virgin ards are for the most part high, and princess who won Nirvana, but postall history represents its author as a poned it, and still lives in one of the virtuous exemplar as well as teacher. heavens to bless suffering humanity. This worship is wholly alien to primi- Confucius found his country dis- tive Buddhism, but it is more sympatracted by social and political dis- thetic and seems better adapted to orders, and he confidently offercd his human necessities. i services to various provincial princes as a governmental adviser. His suc- There is also in China a popular cess was not great in this attempt, Buddhist worship of Amitabba, anand he was obliged to be content with other Bodisat, ·.,yho presides over a gathering about him a multitude of real heaven beyond the setting sun. disciples, to whom he taught that The chief hope of the masses is not ethical system which, since his death Nirvana, but a re-birth into one of the and through all subsequent ages, has heavens, or at least into a higher and exerted so vast an influence. more favorable earthly state. The number of those who may be regarded Confucianism is the controlling sys- as distinctiv'ely Buddhists in China is tem of China. small, beyond the limits of the mon- astic orders. Those who are at times BUDDHISM. Buddhists, and who cherish some Bud- dhist hope for the life to come, are This system was introduced from mostly concerned in this life with the India early in the Christian era. countless popular superstitions of Through successive centuries Chinese Taouism. They may frequently be scholars and religionists went to India found consulting' the Taouist jugglers to study its teachings on its own soil. or in the joss houses offering paper The type of Buddhism introduced into money to the god of wealth. China was chiefly that of the Mahayana, known as the Northern Bud- All the religions of China are overdhism, and which was already depart- lapped and blended together, and we ing from the atheism of Gautama and must remind those apologists who are promulgating various theistic doc- anxious to swell the comparative forces trines. of the non-Christian religions, that it China is now said to be the theatre of more than a dozen different variis not good arithmetic to set down the is so much easier to reiterate than to whole population of China to each of investigate and learn the truth. the three systems. Other doubts are raised of a pre- THE PRIMEVAL FAITH OF CHINA. cisely opposite nature.. "Are not the noble Confucian ethics all sufficient A presentation of the religions of for China?" "The Chinese are astute, China would not be complete without reflective, proud of their country and at least a brief reference to that im- their creed, why not let them alone ?" pressive imperial worship which is Thus, from the extreme position that paid by the Emperor in the Temple of all effort in their behalf is bootless, Heaven in Peking. The subject is owing to their depravity, we are carworthy of an extended paper, but there ried to the opposite and contradictory is only space to say that it is believed, assertion that it is gratuitous, as they with apparently good reason, to be a have a philosophy of their own which l'elic of that primeval worship which we could scarcely hope to improve. was rendered to the true God. The Then there is the still further question prevalence of polytheism has not whether it be possible to change the wholly eradicated the conception of religion of a nation so populous and so One self-existent and ever-living God, vast, and whether with all our effort the Creator and upholder of all things. and sacrifice, the total result is not The offering of a whole burnt offering ridiculously inadequate. Yet notonce a year by the chief ruler, as the withstanding all this variety of dark King of Salem was once the " priest of prophesying, China is, perhaps, the the Most High God," seems indeed a most important mission field of the relic of something of which we would world to-day, and lays a larger degladly know more. Drs. Martin and mand than any other upon the faith Legge, two of China's foremost for- and effort of the Christian Church, eign scholars, do not hesitate to regard andespeciallyof the American Church. it as an obscure perpetuation of the primitive worship of Jehovah. Alas! First. In common with the other that it is an imperial monopoly, fm' Mongolian nations, China presents a even the common people often seek very significant claim by its geosomething iligherthantheir basesuper- graphical position. As the Missionstitions. The sailors of the Fukhien ary Churches of Europe look eastward Province, when overtaken by a storm, toward these Mongolian races, they make offerings to the gods of the sea, find a twofold barrier in their way. but when that does not avail, they Russia on the north and the Mohamthrow them all away and pray to the medan powers on the south rise up Supreme God of the Heavens. like mountain ranges to shut them off. An oyerland propaganda seems im- CHINA AS A MISSION FIELD. possible. Russia is quite as impenetra- ble to western Christianity as the EYer since the publication of Mr. Turkish Empire, while farther south, Pumpelly's " Across Asia and Ameri- even to the southern point of Arabia, ca," his example has repeatedly been Mohammedan fanaticism raises its followed in the cheap assertion that formidable barriers. India might find no Chinaman is ever really converted access from the south, but the Himto Christianity. He is too material- alayas rise between. Burmah may i"tic to appreciate spiritual truth, it is one day open a passage, but Burmah said, or he is too crafty to be credited itself is dark. The highway of salvain any profession he may make, or he tion to China is by the sea, and it is is too stolid to be aroused from his straight across the Pacific that our Confucianphilosophy. It is hard to re- path lies open. Yokohama and San fute false utterances of this kind when Francisco -are now separated by less once they have gained currency. It than thirteen days. As in all the lands men and women of a higher past, so now the indications of Provi- type than I met in China, of a finer dence all point westward, and our spiritual experience, of a higher spir- American people, with their wealth itual tone, or of a nobler spiritual life, and intelligence and Christian in- and I may say with conviction that fluence are in the van, or should be, there are in the native churches in of this great movement for the con- China not only the elements of stabil- quest of the Mongolian races. ity, but that steadfast and irresistible Second. The character of the revolution which will carryover the Chinese presents a special argument whole empire to the new faith."
for a forward movement. Like the Rev. Jolm L. Nevius, D.D., who Anglo-Saxons, they are aggressive and has spent over thirty-five years in cosmopolitan. Their industry and China, declares that he has nowhere enterprise reach out over the world. found a higher type of manhood than They are found, whenever permitted is presented by the native Christians to enter, in all North and South Amer- of Shantung, and he has given many ica, in the island groups of the Pacific, proofs of their Christian fortitude.
in Australia, in New Zealand, in Sin- Nowhere in our generation are there gapore and the Straits of 1I1alacca. more striking instances of the genu- They are everywhere remarkable for ineness and self-help of Christian con- their thrift, and in spite of all the hin- verts than in China, considering their drances that can be interposed, this great poverty. In large portions of wonderful race is sure of great future the Shantung Province churches are influence in the world. No other na- almost entirelyself-supporting, though tion is so industrious, so frugal, and, poor to a degree which Americans considering its age, so well preserved cannot realize. As a rule, they have and so likely to continue in power provided their own places of worship.
and influence. Instances such as these are given: Just now China is awakening to a Of a Taouist priest in a country vil- new sense of its latent possibilities and lage, who, on becoming a Christian pressing to the forefront of the great convert, at once began to preach to empires. Moreover, in spite of all that his neighbors without salary, and is said of the deceitfulness of the China- he gave not only his time and man, it may safely be said that the men 'labor, but the principal part of his of no other race are more fully trusted house for a chapel; of a poor man in whatever industry they undertake. who, out of his narrow means, recent- No others are so law-abiding and ly gave a cottage for a school and peaceful as citizens, and that even chapel; of a woman who, though the without the privilege of citizenship. only believer in her village, persevered In places of trust they rival the Jap- till she had secured a Christian school, anese even in Japan. The thrifty in- which grew into a church; of a little dustries of Singapore, and Malaysia, congregation which, upon its organi- and the Sandwich Islands, are largely zation as a church, subscribed upon in their han,p.s. the spot the whole salary of their pas- I Third. The Chinese will compare tor for a year; of an intelligent widow favorably with any other race in their who left her home and went to Peking capacity for strong and controlling to learn more of the gospel, that she Christian faith. This point has been might teach her neighbors. ,Could all abundantly attested. The late Fleming similar annals of the Church in China Stevenson, who had visited the mis- be gathered together they would form sion fields of China in person, gave a large and interesting volume.
the following testimony: Fourth. The numericalresultswhich " I have found nowhere in Christian have been gained in the Protestant missions of China within the last Thibet and its Religion. few years are certainly remarkable, Perhaps in no country has Buddhism and only excelled, perhaps, by those of become so intrenched, no where else Japan. Two years since it was stated has it so monopolized all thought and at the annual meeting of the Ameri- aspiration, or so molded and concan Board that in a single decade trolled the people, as in Thibet. At the number of converts in the dif- the time of its introduction from India ferent missions of China had increased by way of Kashmere-it had scarcely from 13,000 to 32,000, and this ill spite gained a footing before the seventh of bitter persecution on the part of century-the system of Gautama had relatives and friends, and notwith- undergone important changes. It had standing the prejudice created by the drifted from the atheistic position of wrongs and outrages committed by the early Buddhists of India and Cey- lon and had adopted a vague and fan- Christian nations. II tastic theism, at the same time that it had received various admixtures of Fifth. There is great hope for China devil worship and sorcery. It had and great encouragement for mission- developed a trinity of supernatural perary labor in the new order of things sonages, who were destined to become which is fast placing her abreast with future Buddhas, though not until Vestern nations. The railroad and after various incarnations for particuthe telegraph line have come to stay, lar service~ on earth. This proved a national defences are in progress, min- convenient doctrine for the priestly eral wealth will be developed, and magnates of Thibet. It encouraged education is to be encouraged in all the claim now set up, that two of these practical Sciences. The late Viceroy beings are incarnate in the Grand of Canton, in a memorial to the Gov- Lama at Lhassa and the Puntsheu ernment, asking royal sanction for a Lama at Kroshis Lunpo. railroad from Peking to Hankow, The Thibetan King Srong Tsan said: "For China to return to the iso- Gampo, who introduced Buddhism lation of her past is a hopeless task. 622, A. D., was the first to be wor- It only remains for her to assimilate so shipped as a divine incarnation. In much of modern progress as will enable 822, A. D., the second son of the last her to outwit her astute Western com- King of Thibet instituted a bitter perpetitors." He adds: "I was myseff. secution against the Buddhists, and opposed to the introduction of rail- they were mostly driven from the ways at first, but when I came to country. Civil disorders followed till Shanghai and saw the progress possi- the Buddhist missionaries, Atisha and ble, I could not deny the sight of the Brom Ston, regained the best ground eye." The imperial permission has and restored prosperity to the Buddhist been given for building this road, and order. But what proved still more if the conservatists have burned the important to the stability of the sys- Temple at Peking in the hope of scar- tem was the fact that for ages there ing the Government with the supposed has been an alliance between Thibet displeasure of heaven at these innova- and the Empire of China. In the tions, they are too late. The shadow thirteenth century, A. D., Kublai on the dial of the nineteenth century Kahn, grandson of Jenghiz Kahn, is too far advanced. China is open to made the Lama at Lhassa " Tributary the gospel now; it may not be so when Sovereign of the Country and Head she becomes strong enough to dictate of the Buddhist Church," and as a rethe terms of her treaties. She may turn he was officially crowned by the copy the exclusion laws of Christian Lama as sovereign oyer the vast Mon- America. She may rule out British gol E,mpire. Kublai Khan thus be- Christianity with British opium. It is the full hour of opportunity. came a convert to Buddhism, and the practice of polyandry. The Lamas are Lama of Thibet became high priest held in great reverence, and some of or spiritual head over all Buddhists of them are high-minded and good men.
the vast empire including China and As each Lama at death is supposed Mongolia. The Lama was simply an to enter into a new-born infant, whose ecclesiastic invested with these spe- identity great pains are taken to estab- cial powers. The seat of government lish, a long regency must in each case was, and still is a Buddhist monastery intervene, and this is filled by some -the Emperor of China being the real honored monk. The infant when ruler. found is addressed as if, he had just About 1390 Tsoongkapa, the Luther died and risen again. The following of Thibet, came forward as a reformer. is an illustration: He purged out the base alloy of Sakt- In 1774 WalTenHastings, Governor- ism (the worship of Siva and his wives) General of India, sent an ambassador and the low superstitions which had to Thibet. On his arrival, the Lama grown as parasites on a corrupt Bud- to whom he bore messages had died, dhism, founded many monasteries, but he addressed the newly-born suc- and reformed the observances of the cessor as the identical Lama, express- monks and nuns. His influence so ing the Governor-General's sorrow at weakened the supremacy of the Dalai his recent death, and his joy that he (Grand) Lama that, by Imperial edict, had again returned to fill the world his jurisdiction was divided with the with hope.
Pautsheu Lama. Both of these, as Time, that has wrought changes above stated, are incarnations of the and revolutions in the other nations of Divine Bodisatvas. the world, has brought little chang'e Lamaism might, therefore, be called to Thibet, and now in our day systems a sort of theocracy, subject to the of error like Esoteric Buddhism and Imperial Government of China. Ec- Theosophy, desiring to secure the very clesiasticismcontrols and characterizes highest authority for their wild as- everything. The great monasteries sumptions, are deriving that authority are the leading institutions, and their from the Mahatmas or monks of Thi- monks and nuns number thousands. bet. It is contended that there, by The inhospitable character of the long continued meditation and great country and the lack of encourage- bodily mortification, they have ac- ment for industrial pursuits seem to quired the power to discern the favor monastic life. thoughts of others, and that they are An astonishingly large proportion conversant with all that transpires in of the people of both sexes are buried distant planets. It is favorable to in these religious houses. An observ- these extravagant theories that Thibet ing traveler long ago remarked that is so far off, so high up, so snow-coy- this withdrawal of so many able- ered, so unknown. It would seem to bodied men from active pursuits is be one of the most difficult strongholds compensated by the fact that no army from which to dislodge a hoary system is necessary for defence, and there is of error. Buddhism in Japan is worn too great a torpor in both the people lightly by government and people.
and the spirit of their institutions to Buddhism in China is only a guest of think of conquest. There is little soil the nation, though having strong fol- to cultivate and no market for manu- lowing among the lower classes. The factures, and why not spend much of more intelligent resort to it only in the national strength in meditating on time of trouble. Buddhism in Siam the law of Buddha? is regnant and strongly entrenched, Population is kept down not only but not so deeply seated as to exclude by monasticism, but also by the s~range a liberal spirit. Siam is an open and,
EDITORIAL NOTES OX CURRENT TOPICS
so far, a welcoming mission-field. But Some encouragement has been met Thibet has little contact with the na- with by the faithful and self-denying tions, and is not touched by the spirit missionaries, and though the fruits of the age. Yet even Thibet has not are meagre tJ:1ey have no thought of been despaired of as a mission-field. retreat. They have translated por- tions of the Scriptures into Thibetan, The Moravians, whose province it and at two stations they have printing has been to enter inhospitable fields presses at work in mUltiplying copies which no others were likely to choose, for the use of the people. Rev. A. C. established a mission in the lofty Thompson, D.D., in his admirable mountain town of Keyelang in 1856. book on "Moravian Missions," says, They experienced great difficulty in very justly: "Seldom have Moravian reaching their chosen field, and when laborers had a severer trial of their settled at last they found themselves faith and patience than amid these at the great height of 10,000 feet strongholds of Buddhism. But in that above the sea. Dark skies, almost dreary , Dwelling of Snow,' near the perpetual snow, except in narrow headwaters of the Indus, the Sutlej valleys, scanty vegetation and general and the Ganges, they have enkindled gloominess and sterility are thenatural a beacon light; they are occupying characteristics of the country. The advanced posts and preparing a base pessimism of the Buddhist faith seems for movements into Thibet proper, and well suited to the general environ- into China from the west." ment.
VI.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
The Need of Oaution. last, wholly an individual work of faith, looking for support to no other In view of censure, already noted in orgauization, nor to any system of these columns, as rather freely applied solicitation of funds, public or private. in a certain quarter to a work of evan- It seems, therefore, to be in no proper gelization among the Jews which has, sense the "mission" of any other enjoyed the confidence of the Christian body, to which a' detailed account of ministry and people of all denomina- proceedings would be due; nor yet in tions in this city for a number of such a sense a child of the Christian years past, we have availed ourselves public at large as to invite an account of information from a disinterested of that sort, which might be thought source in which we have confidence, to savor rather of uncalled-for ostento the following effect: tation than of duty, precisely as it would in the case of a~y other of our The Hebrew Christian Church in city churches. Nevertheless, all con- St. Mark's Place, of which the Rev. tributions have been publicly acknowl- Jacob Freshman is pastor and founder, edged in detail, and the general dishas been organized about eight years, position of them explained in the during which it has steadily grown Annual of the church and in the quarup from the feeblest of beginnings to terly issues of The Hebrew Christian. an effective centre of evangelization, Contributions have thus been classed not only in this but in other cities of in three kinds: (1) All collections and this country, in Paris, and even in donations, not expressly otherwise Jerusalem itself. Although enjoying d3signated, have been devoted to the advice and sympathy of other church and missionary expenses, exchurches, through an invited Commit- clusive of the support of the pastor; tee of leading pastors and laymen of (2) such donations only as have been the several denominations, who have never ceased their fraternal interest ,expressly designated for personal use in its affairs, it has been, from first to have been appropriated to the necessi- tions towards reducing the mortgage ties of the pastor, leaving him wholly to a small encumbrance. J. M. S. dependent on the providential response to faith, without salary or visible We rejoice to see that Senator Mormeans of support, and subject at times to severe trials; (3) contributions des- gan, of Alabama, has introduced a ignated for the building fund, which are at once turned over to the bus- bill instructing the Committee on Fortees of the church property, for the extinguishment of the debt thereon. eign Relations to ascertain and repOlt To these may be added a fourth fund, now closed, 'which was confidentially the best methods for increasing trade contributed for Mr. Freshman's recent missionary journey to Jerusalem, re- and commerce between the Congo sulting in the establishment of a branch mission in that city under the Free State and the United States, and charge of a Hebrew Christian convert, supported by the little church in St. the obstacles, if there are any, in the Mark's Place and its friends. Further, concerning the accounts: to the trus- way of such trade and commerce and tees, who are men of well-known and high Christian standing, and also to other intercourse. The resolution is the distinguished clergymen and laymen who constitute the advisory com- timely, in view of the statement that mittee, full' and systematic book accounts are understood to be ahvays the United States did not formallyacopen, including the detailed expenditures to which invidious reference cept the conclusions of the Berlin has been made; and auditing committees have made actual examinations Conference, and therefore holds no and published reports thereon. It i~ possible that self-appointed investiga- political or civil rights for its people tors (perhaps unconsciously prompted through the malice of a certain crafty in tile Congo Free State. One of the Jewish Sanballat, or Gashmu) may have failed to obtain a search warrant avowed objects of Senator Morgan is which it would be impertinent to ask. It is well known that the Jewish per- to secure those rights; another is to secutor referred to has exerted himself persistently to undermine Mr. encourage the wealthy and enterpris- Freshman's work, not only by scurrilous articles in the savory columns ing negroes of this country to emigrate of the Truth Seeker, but also by cunning communications to the leading to the Congo Free State, and engage friends of the work, and to editors of religious newspapers, one of whom in trade or in such other beneficial enhas perhaps been induced to listen, in ignorance of the character and mo- terprises as may be open before them. tives of the man. In the interest of commerce and mis- The cost of the church property has been about $25,000, of which $15,000 sions, and especially of the future of have been paid, and substantial prog- the colored race, we hope CongreH>'I , ress has been made by recent subscrip- will rise to the dignity of such a sub- ject, and by prompt and enlightened action afford evidence that it under- stands and appreciates the significance of Africa's present condition, the result of a series of marvelous proyidential interpositions. We cannot but regard the opening up of the Dark Con- tinent by a brilliant succession of heroic explorations and the extension of European gm'ernments over im- mense areas of territory, and the in- troduction of railroads, enterpriHf', commerce and Christian civilization, as shedding light on the" Negro Prob- lem" among us. We earnestly hope that our Government will take a wise and active part in the matter of the Congo Free State, and in all otlwr feasible ways for the benefit of Africa. J. 11. S.
Facts from Mission Fields.
The year 1889 is the fiftieth anni- versary of the martyrdom of John "Villiams. who fell on Erromanga. relating to their own missions, which It is a very remarkable and significant we give from month to month. Its fact that his murderer's youngest son plan of sending out monthly a letter is to-day, as a professing disciple, ad- giving in condensed form the latest dressing crowds in Sydney, New South news from their various fields, is an Wales; and his oldest son, now past admirable one, and we wish other so- 60 years, has asked to be instructed in cieties would follow the example. It the way of salvation, and is now being is, in fact, an advance sheet of fresh taught by the missionaries on Erro- and important news, and the facts are manga the way of life! What hath eagerly caught up by busy editors and God wrought! Truly the "field is given to the public. J. M. S.
the world, and the good seed are the " The American Board Almanac of children of the kingdom /" John Missions" for 1890 is a thing of beauty Williams died and was buried as God's as well as utility. It is crowded with seed, and here is a part of the visible matters of interest and information harvest. respecting missions. It is sent by mail Hayti presents in its past history for 10 cents a copy, $1.00 a dozen, $6 and present condition one of the worst a hundred. Send orders to C. E.
types of paganism. Cannibalism of Sweet, 1 Somerset St., Boston. See our the worst kind prevails. Not simply advertising sheet in January number are human beings eaten, not only are for fuller account. J. M. S.
those who are devoured captives or prisoners taken in war or by violence Our associate, Dr. Pierson, is meet- ing with great success in London and forcannibal purposes, butfamily feasts Scotland. Enthusiastic crowds, fill- ing the largest churches and halls in are held where those who partake ac- Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, and wherever he goes, flock to hear his tually eat the flesh of a member of the addresses. He has averaged two or more addresses a day, we believe, family / Children are devoured as a since he landed at Liverpool. In his last letter he says: " Every day is filled delicacy by their own mothers, who with engagements to the 1st of May, and even June if I will consent to reassert and justify their right thus to ap- main." The interest is intense. All ranks and classes and denominations propriate the fruit of their own womb. are engaged in the work, and impor- tant results must flow from it. This is under no pressure of hunger or J. M. S. want. .It is simply a proof of the fact that the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cmelty. An attempt was made by a governor of Hayti to suppress the atrocity by exe- cuting those engaged in such a canni- bal feast, but he was driven from the throne and compelled to take refuge in the neighboring island of Jamaica, the condition of which, under the in- [We have received a letter from an fluence of a pure gospel, is a sufficient aged minister of Christ, in the course of which occur the following signifi- . refutation of the charge that missions cant words.-EDs.] are a failure. These two islands, side " My attention has for forty years been fixed upon those professors of religion who may be by side, are a standing monument of called •average Christians.' They compose a very large part of the Church, and questions the respective influences of the gospel like these have often arisen: Are they Chris- tians? Are they a help or a hindrance to th" and paganism, even when a nominal cause of Christ? Ought not special efforts to be made to reach them for their own sake and Christianity like Romanism touches for the sake of the cause of Christ?
its awful death shade. A. T. P. "I was not a little surprised some time ago to find in Dr. Geikie's • Hours with the Bible" We desire here to express our indebtedness to the Baptist Missionary Union for various missionary items the following very strong endorsement of this sionary MassConvootion of the Northclass (p. 317): ' No career could have been west," under the auspices of the Methmore uneventful than Isaac's, but it showed at odist Episcopal Church, to meet at least that a path of modest retirement may Clear Lake Park in July of this year: honor God as much as one of more prominent "Rev. A. T. Pierson, D. D.: action. Our Lord's authority is vouchsafed for his having passed from earth to heaven at ,, Your suggestion some time ago his death.' It seems to me that there is great that the Church should gather toerror just at this point through all branches of gether an Exposition of 'the Results of the Church. I have no recollection of seeing Missions from all parts of the world, anything published bearing upon it except in and the suggestion of the Spirit of a volume of discourses by Dr. Skinner, en· Missions that at the next World's titled 'Religion of the Bible,' issued about Fair would be a good place for the the time I left the Union Seminary in 1841. In display of such an exposition, ought the first discourse, on 'Spiritual Religion,' he to be acted on, and that without dequotes Dr. John Mason Good as saying, on his lay. Three years would be short death-bed, 'I have taken what unfortunately enough time to gather and arrange the generality of Christians too much take-I the materials. We are 'about to gather have taken the middle walk of Christianity.' the material for a Missionary Museum The discourse which follows is a description of on an extensive scale at Clear Lake, spiritual religion, not of the 'middle walk.' Iowa, for use in our Annual Conven- It seems to me an appeal to average Christians tions. I think that our Missionary urging them to consider the nature and re: Secretaries could be interested in the sults of their religion; might be made that matter and all materials gathered would have a great awakening effect. Just could be used at the World's Fair, and here is one of the chief reasons why the cause then be dispersed to our different Misof missions is not more flourishing: average sionary Centers for continued and Christians regard missions as something which perpetual use. You ought to be able may be passed by without endangering their from your central position to interest standing in the Church or their final salvation. all the Missionary Boards. I would It seems to me, judging from the fullness and like to be informed of the prospect, pungency of your writings on missions, that and would be glad to assist. We could this whole subject must have passed through interest all our missionaries. Let me your mind. An article of yours in the' New hear of the prospect." York Observer' of July 25, entitled' First the Kingdom, 'bears in that direction and encour- A subscriber congratulates the ages me in asking you to put before the Church, editors upon their success during the in the form which seems best to you, an appeal past year, and says: to average Christians. You have the eye and ear of the Church, and can make yourself " You have given us a magnificent heard as few others can. Will you not try i11" magazine. I hope you will be pros- perous and successful in the coming We feel such sympathy with the year. If you would place before us above, that we purpose in due time to for Monthly Concert in tabulated form, the complete missionary forces prepare for these pages an appeal to in the respectiye fields presented, you the average Christian. It is the great would give what is greatly needed. body of the Church that need arous- What the more progressive friends of ing, and that, so far, are doing next to missions desire is not simply their respective denominational forces, sucnothing for missions. Out of a con- cesses, cost, etc., but with their own gregation that numbers from 4,000 to that of all other societies-' the u'orld 5,000, it has been found, by actual in- rather than the society view of the vestigation, that only 386 are known to work." contribute anything regularly to the support of the Gospel! How large then We think our brother scarcely ap- must be the proportion in all Christendom who have no active interest, by gifts or even by prayers, in the great mission work of the world!
We have received the following suggestion from Rev. S. P. Marsh, of Iowa, Corresponding Secretary of the "Mispreciates the imnl>nse labor he would earth," they ,"vould exclaim: "What lay upon our overtaxed shoulders hath God wrought!" That first con- when he asks each month a complete tribution of £13, 2s. and 6d. has showing of each field treated. More- grown to between two arid three mil- over, one entire department of this lions of pounds a year. That cottage REVIEW is given up to the exhibit of is, we understand, still to be seen.
just such facts, so far and so fast as The English Baptists ought to buy it we are able to gather reliable figures. and make it a missionary museum Vould it be wise to encumber our where the relics of idolatry and super- pages with such repetitions? By a stition might be preserved as a witness little careful search in these pages any of what God has wrought. A. T. P.
pastor may collate on anyone field all the figures at our disposal. A. T. P. Asceticism in Missions."
The crisis of missions is evidently [Our editorial correspondent and translator of our foreign magazines upon us, and this seems to be the grow- sends us the following, which also ex- presses our own jUdgment.-J. M. S.] ing conviction in every part of the " I am glad to see Dr. Ellinwood's field. A missionary who has labored sound and healthful paper on Asceti- cism in Missions in the January RE- 26 years in India says: "India is now VIEW. There seems to be setting in a craze for this. But, at home or abroad, ready for our work, and if this crisis asceticism for asceticism's sake is neither Protestant nor Evangelical. is not met by the Church at least two For a definite end, individual or social, it may, like everything else, or three generations will pass before be sometimes eminently serviceable, but to set it up in a vague way as an equal opportunity can be offered." a model to strike people with admira- tion, is really nothing but a particular From Brazil the word comes: "This fashion of " striking an attitude." It is the beginning of all the wretched land is ready; thousands would accept uneasiness and trickery of self-salva- the gospel if they only had preachers."
One writes concerning China: "A thousand missionaries are worth more now than ten thousand ten years from now. As for Japan, it is melted and waiting for moulding. What shall the mould be: Christianity or infidel- ity?" A.T.P.
1892 ought to be kept as a great an- tion.
niversary, and Kettering ought to be " It is a wonder that those who are the place of pilgrimage. disposed to think that it is a source of When we think of foreign missions strength in Roman Catholic Inissions we must not forget that, strictly speak- do not consider that their mission- ing, they are the outcome of the aries are unmarried, not because they present century. It was in 1792 that are missionaries, but only because twelve Baptist ministers met in the they are priests. And as to asceti- little cottage of Widow Wallis, at cism generally, the Jesuits-the mis- Kettering, and formed the first En- sionary order by pre-eminence in that glish society proper for" propagating Church-are, for Roman Catholics, al- the gospel among the heathen." most the least disposed to asceticism Since then what marvelous Iniracles for its own sake. They are ready to have been wrought! What gigantic undergo any amount of privation in strides taken by this magnificent the way of their work, but are very movement! If these twelve men little given to affecting it where it is could come back to-day and see how not providentially imposed. Sim- the little "mustard seed" has de- plicity of living is a Christian and a ,eloped till it has become a mighty missionary obligation. But an affec- tree ., whose branches co,er the tation of luxury and an affecta-
1:;6 QROAXIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS
tion of squalor are the two opposite producing, he yet adtls: "To the great evils which the Christian and the mis- laboring, toiling mass of the Indian sionary ought to avoid, although people there could be no more benefi- doubtless he ought to incline rather to cent influence than the daily coming bareness than to sumptuousness. Dr. in and going out among th~m of a Ellinwood's article is just the right Christian missionary and his wife thing. CHARLES C. STARBUCK. and children. To millions of their " Andover, Mass." Indian fellow-subjects the missionary We add a word on the subject from family was the great daily object Sir William Hunter, who is constantly lesson of the Christian life. But referred to as the highest authority on besides these millions there were hun- civil and political matters in India. dreds of thousands of men of a cul- In a recent address before the British ture which demanded another method Baptist Missionary Society he defines of attack." "This certainly," says " Asceticism" as "merely a life of the Missionary Herald, from which quiet self-denial." He speaks of it as we get this testimony, "is a weighty one of the methods to be employed, testimony, and it commends itself to and by no means the sole method. all who hold the doctrine set forth by 'While he bears solemn witness to the Paul, • I am become all things to all ,aluable results which the celibate men that I might by all means save luission brotherhoods in India were some.' " T. M. S.
VII.-ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK AND STATISTICS. * Woman's Missionary Societies of Oanada. general society. They have a successful work in India-schools and Bible women-but no I. Woman's Foreign Missionary So- ciety Presbyterian Church in Can- statistics are at hand. Income for the year, ada. $5,000. WESTERN DIVISION. Ill. Woman's Baptist Missionary So- Secretary, Mrs. Shortreed, 218 Ontario St., Toronto, Canada. ciety of Ontario and Quebec.
Periodical: Monthly Letter Leaflet, Toronto. Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. H. H. Fields-The New Hebrides; Trinidad, Brit· ish Guiana, West Coast; China, Honan; For· Humphrey, Toronto. mosa; Central India, and Indians of Canada. Ho-me Force-Presbyterial societies, 25; aux- We are obliged to use last year's annual re- iliaries, 4m'; mission bands, 156. Income for port, as that for 1889 is not issued at the time the year, $80,000. we write, and as the society is organized into EASTERN DIVISION. provincial divisions it is not quite easy to pre- Mrs. Burns. President, Halifax, N. S. sent a summary of their work in our brief This division has 9() auxiliaries, 35 mission space. bands, and 4,000 members, and income for the year $6,000. During the year two Presbyterial Field.-The stations in India occupied by societies have been formed and six auxiliaries organized. Fields the same as Western Di- this society are Cocanada, Samulcotta and vision. Tuni. . II. Woman's Baptist Missionary Union of Maritime Provinces. IV. Woman's Missionary Society of the Methodist Church, Canada. Corresponding Secretary, lIIrs. John March, St. Johns, N. B. Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. E. S. Strachan, 113 Hughson St., Hamilton, Onto This society occupies the same fields as the This society is divided into five branches. [* The Home Work of the M. E. C. in our There are 800 auxiliaries, with 7,173 annual and 39Q life members, and 123 mission bands, January number, page 76, second column, 20th with 3,511 members. Income for the past line from top to 32d line, inclusive, got mis- year, $22,806; an increase of $8,285. placed in the make-up, and connected with that of M. E. C. South, whose Home force was This society has work among the Indians, already stated. Please connect it with the the French, the Chinese in America, and previous Society, No. XII.-EDs.J Japan. Four ladies were sent to Japan this past year. They have a very successful board- ing school at Tokio, with 150 boarders. A new school has been opened at Kofu.
Publication department in the missionary Outlook. V. Woman's Auxiliary to the Board N. ,V. Periodical: OurSistersinOtherLands of Diocesan, Domestic and Foreign Missions, Church of England. 14 Paternoster Row, London. '
The headquarters of this auxiliary is To- Fields and Force- China, Swatow, For. ronto. They collect about $15,000, and have a departmeut in the Canadian Church Magazine mo~a, Amoy, the Haka Country, Singapore, and Mission News. No report of distinct work. IndIa, Rampore, Bauleah. No summary of European Woman's Missionary Sooieties, statistics is available. They conduct board- I. Indian Female Normal School and Instruction Society. ing, day and Sunday· schools, and hospital 2 Adelphi Ten'ace, London, W. C. Periodi- work. Income, $3,755. cal: The Indian Female Evangelist; quarterly. V. Central Committee and Church Woman's Association of the Scot- Fields and Force.-Bombay Presidency, 13 stations: Madras, 2; Northwest Provinces, tish Episcopal Church. 9; Orissa, 1; Punjaub, 1. Missionaries and assistants, 63; native teachers and Bible women, ~onvener, Miss H. Mackenzie, 28 Nelson St., 175; Zenanas visited, 1,353. Eight years ago Edmburgh. Office of ASSOCiation, 122 George the mission staff numbered 106, now 238; St., Edinburgh. Periodical: The Jllission then there "rere 26 schools, now 66. Then, Chronicle. total under instruction 1,296; now 4,150. Medical treatment in 1888 given to 9,338 Fields-South Africa and India. That in patients. In 1881 the income was $34,710. In Africa was begun in 1873. and lies in Indepen- 1888 it was $67,885. dent Kaffraria, a district about as large as Scotland; that of India is at Chamba, a dis· II. Ladies' Society for Female Edu- tant part of the diocese of Calcutta. The pres· cation in India and South Africa. ent number of members co·operating with the (Free Church of Scotland.) committee is 3,080, and the annual subscrip- tion amounts to $1,925. Offices of Free Church, Edinburgh. Periodical: Woman's Work in Heathen Lands; qnar· VI. Ladies' Association for the Christerly. J. and R. Pro'lane, Paisley, Edinbnrgh. tian Education of Jewish Females (Church of Scotland). Fields and Force.-India and Africa. In India five principal stations, includiug Cal- Secretary, Miss Tawse, 11 Royal Terrace, cutta, are in Bengal; Western Indian ineIudes Edinburgh. the stations Bombay, Poona, Berar, and Jalno. ~ladras and Nagpore are centres with Fields-They support schools in Smyrna, a variety of work. Africa includes Kafraria Salonica, Alexandria, Constantinople and Beywith Lovedale and other stations, Transkel rout,with missionary ladies at each place, and and NataL a total of 16 assistant teachers.
The grand total of missionaries is 34, of VII. The London Bible and Domeswhich 13 are in Africa; native Christian agents tic Female Mission. number 181; total, 215. The pupils count 6,738, of ,vhich 1,758 are in Africa. Income, Office, 2 Adelphi Terrace, Strand, London, $44,065. W. C. Periodical: Bible Women and Nurses. Cassel & Co., London and New York. III. Church of England Zenana Mis- sionary Society. Besides a large and most noble missionary work in the poorest parts of London, carried Office, 9 SaJisburySquare, London, Periodi· on through Bible women and Bible women cal: India's Women (bi-monthly); Daybreak nurses, this Society operates on some foreign (for young people, quarterly). JaB. Nisbet & fields, but we have no data of that part of its Co., 21 Berners St., London, ·W. work.
Fields and F01'ces-India, China, Japan. VIII. British Syrian Mission Schools Missionaries 105; assistants 57; Bible women and Bible Work. 139; native teachers 368. Over 7,000 children in scbools. Medical work also is carried on. Corresponding Secretary, Bliss Poulton, 18 This year the Society has commenced work in Homefield Road, Wimbledon, London. Peri· Ceylon for the first time. Income 1881, $68,200; odical: Daughters of Syria. Seeley & Co., 1888, $138,265. Essex St., Strand, London IV. Women's Missionary Associa- Tbe mission originated to relieve the con- tion of the Presbyterian Church of dition of the 20,000 widows and daughters of England. the Maronites and Greeks, whose husbands and fathers were massacred by the Drnzes in President of General Committee, I<lrs. H. 111. 1860. The work has been extended and ar· Matheson, Heathlands, Hampstead, London, rests general attention, Fields and Force-It operates at Beyrout, Damascus, Hasbeiya, Mount Lebanon, Code- Syria and Tyre. The Jllount Lebanon depart· ment has 7 stations, making the total of sta· tions 12; foreign workers 21; native workers 120; adherents 920; schools 29; scholars 2,779. The income is $1,120 IX. Ladies' Auxiliary of the Wes- ants, 30; native Bihle women, 55: native school leyan Methodist Missionary So- teachers, 59; boarding and day schools for ciety. girls, 50. They have a normal school for training Bible women at Calcutta, also one at President and Treasurer, Mrs. Lidgett, 69 Delhi. Income, $31, .55. Shooters Hill Road, Blackheath, London, S. E. Issnes quarterly papers. XIII. Church of Scotland Ladies' Association for Foreign Missions, Fields and Force-Europe, Spain, and Italy, India, Ceylqn, China, Africa, South and West. including Zenana Work. It supports 86 missionary workers. The annual report has no su=aries, hence it is Periodical: News of Female Missions. R. difficult to properly present this work. They and R. Clark, agents, Edinburgh. report checkerd success in India. At Negapatam, India, the members of the Hindu Tract Fields and Force-India, Calcutta, Madras, Society have been lecturing and distributing Poona (Zenana mission, orphanage, female tracts, warning their fellows against Christian medical mission), Darjeeling, Sialkott, Chamschools, with only too painful success. ba; Africa, Blantyre. Missionaries appointed in Scotland, 15; in India, 11; native agents, Their income has slightly fallen off this year, 6; male, 76; female, 82; non-Christian, 24; being $38,140, and they close the year with a scholars, 2,522; Zenanas visited, 59; houses small debt. regularly visited, 200; patients at Poona dis- pensary, 2,526. Income, $33,450; the largest in X. Ladies' Committee of the London its history. Missionary Society. XIV. Zenana Mission of the Irish Office, 14 Biornfield St., London Wall, Lon- Misswnary Society_ don. Periodical: Quarterly News of Woman's Work. John Snow & Co., London. We have only the local report of the mission in Gujerat and Kattiawar with the Zenana Field. and Force-China, India, and Mada- Mission before us. It appears from this that gascar. Lady missionaries, 36; wives of there are two missionary ladies engaged in missionaries, 45; schools, 148; pupils, 7,507; educational and Zenana work at Surat, and native teachers,l38; Zenana agents, 114; Ze- one in medical work; als02 assistants and 6 nana pupils, 2,982. Income, $28,760. native Christian agents, and 15 non-Christian teachers. At Borsad there are two mission' XI. Ladies' Association for the Pro- aries. At Ahmedabad there are others; also motion of Female Education (So- a medical mission, and 8 native Christian ciety for the Propagation of the agents, with 9 non-Christian teachers. Anand Gospel). and Broach also appear as stations.
Office, 19 Delahay St., Westminster, Lon· XV. Miss Walker – Arnot's Tabitha don, S. W. Periodical: The Grain of Mustard Mission at Jaffa. Seed Gardner, Darton & Co., 2 Paternoster Building. Hon. Secretary, Miss E. Walker-Arnott, 24 St. Bernard's Crescent, London. Fields-India, following the lines of the Dioceses of the Church of England, including that This simple organization has been in existof Rangoon, Japan, Tokio and Kobe; Mada- ence 25 years. The field is designated in the gascar, four principal stations; South Africa, corporate title, which we give above. The following the lines of the five Episcopal dio- boarding school numbers 60 residents, of whom ceses; Capetown, Zululand, etc., India. Mis- 12 were Javesses, and the day schools 100 sionaries, 45; native teachers, 85; Japan mis- pupils. The receipts last year were $4,825. sionaries, 3; native teachers, 2; Madagascar missionaries, 6; native teachers, 14; South XVI. Helping Hands Zenana Asso- Africa missionaries, 7; native teachers. 4. ciation (Young Ladies)_ Total missionaries, 61; native teachers, 105. It speaks well for the ladies of England, that Office, 42 B. Fulham Road, London, S. W. of these, 12 are honorary missionaries. Publication: It utilizes India's Jewels for pub- lication of its correspondents. XII Ladies' Association for the Support of Zenana Work and Bible The society co-operates with the Indian Fe· Women in India,-Baptist_ male Normal School and Instruction Society at Jaunpore, Benares and Lucknow; "ith the Mrs. Angus, Honorable Secretary. The Col- Church Missionary Society at Brindabun: with lege, Regents Park, London. Periodical: Our the 'Church of England Zenana Mission at Am- Indian Sisters; quarterly. Elliot Stock, 62 ritzar, and with the Ladies' Association of Paternoster Row, London. the S. P. G., and the London ~1issionary Society at Belgaum. The distinct branch, Fields and Force-Stations in India, at prin- known as the Nurse's Missionary Association, cipal cities, 18; lady Zenana visitors, 42; assist- trains as nurses those who wish to assist mis- sions abroad.
1890.J PROGRESS OF MISSIO.TS-lIIO.TTHLY BLLLETIN
VIII.-PROGRESS OF MISSIONS: MONTHLY BULLETIN.
Afrlca.-The Niger Mission. Rev. W. -A general conference of Chinese mission- Allan, of West Africa, thus summarizes the aries will meet at Shanghai May 7, 1890, and vast changes that have taken place since the continue for ten days. Rev. J. R. Goddard, of Gospel was first preached at Bonny, in Africa: Ningpo, is the secretary.
.. The worship of the iguana is overthrown, -The totals of missions in China are: 39 the priest is a regular attendant at the house societies, 526 male missionaries and 597 of God, and the iguana itself converted into an women; total, 1,123 miSsionaries; 162 native article of food. The Juju temple, which a few ordained helpers, 1,278 unordained, 34,555 comyears ago was decorated with twenty thou- municants in the churches, and 14,817 pupils sand skulls of murdered victims, I found rot- in schools; $44,173 were contributed by the tingawayin ruin and decay. Ipassedthrough churches the past year, and the net increase the grove which was formerly the receptacle in membership was 2,295.
of so many murdered infants, and I found it France.-The Statistics of France for had become the regular highway from the 1888 contain some sad facts respecting family town to the church, and that the priest was life. Compared with 1887 the decrease in mar- now a baptized Christian. I went ashore and riages was 212, while there were 6,360 less than addressed 885 worshippers, including the in 1886. There were 1,702 more divorces than .. king, the three former heathen priests, chiefs, in 1887, and 1,758 more than in 1886; the total and a multitude of slaves, and was thankful number waS 4,708. The decrease in the num- to ascertain that the work of conversion was ber of births since 1887 was 16,794. Since still going on; for. in addition to 648 persons 1884 there has been an annual decrease in already baptized, of whom 265 are communi- births. In 1884 there were 937,758 births ; in cants, there are over 700 at Bonny alone who. 1888, the number was 882,637. In illegitimate are now under instruction. " – Missionary births there is, however, an increase. In 1881 Herald. they were 7.5 per cent.; in 1888, 8.5. In the -In Northern Africa has lately been dis- Seine department 25 per cent. of the births covered a river that has worn a bed through were illegitimate. The official report states the rock 300 feet deep, and then makes a per- that if it were not for the illegitimate births pendicular leap 650 feet, while all around are there would actually be a decrease in the deep, yawning chasms and gigantic peaks. population of France.
-The pupils o{the Huguenot Seminary at -Miss Grant Brown, who with two other ladies lately made a mission tour in Corsica, Wellington, South Africa, have formed the Huguenot Missionary Society, which sends out reports that wherever they traveled they held from its ranks missionaries to labor among the daily meetings which were thronged by people heathen in Africa. The lady principal, Miss eager to learn the truth. The work met with Ferguson, and the other teachers, are all much opposition from the priests; but the earnest' Christians, and seek to lead all the civil authorities were generally friendly, and pupils to Christ. in several villages the mayors offered the use – The Moravians have projected a mission of rooms. In one village three men volun· teered to stand every Sunday in the market on the Victoria Nyanza, but have been unable place, and read the Gospel to their countryto establish it by the lack of funds. Just be- men. There is no Protestant church on the fore the opening of lheir General Synod this island. year news was brought that a legacy of be· tween $25,000 and 30,000 had fallen to the Germany.-According to the Statisti- Church, and it is probable that the work will cal Year Book of Germany for 1889, the latest speedily be carried forward, as the men are data on the religious status of the country are ready. these: 29,369,847 Evangelicals, 16,785,734 Catholics, 125,673 other Christians, 563,172 Deymah. -A Mission School is to be established by Rev. E. W. Kelly, of lVlandalay, Jews, 11,278 confessors of other religions or on the very spot where Dr. Adoniram Judson, professing no religion at all. The Evangelicals the first missionary from America, suffered include Lutherans, Reformed and the United the cruel imprisonment at Oungpenla. Church, .:. e., the union formed in 1817 in Prus- Chlna.-Rev. J. W. Stevenson writes sia and sorne other States between the two from Shanghai: "I am happy to report 27 Protestant confessions; the Catholics include 'baptisms this week, viz., 12 at Gan-ren, 7 at Roman Catholics, Greek Catholics and old Nan-k'ang, by Mr. McCarthy; 3 at Chau-kia· Catholics; the other Christians represented k'eo, by Mr. Coulthart; and 5 at Ning-hai- are United Brethren, Baptists, Mennonites, chau, by Mr. Judd. Mr. McCarthy baptized in Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists.
all during his tour in Kiang-si 66 persons, and Quakers, Irvingites, German Catholics, Free he reports quite a number of inquirers. At Religionists and Dissenters. In 1871 the pro· Chau-kia-k'eo a great fire has devastated the portions were these: 25,581,685 Evangelicals, place, and 3,000 families are said to be burnt 14,869,292 Catholics, 82,158 other Christians, out of house and home." 512,153 Jews, 17,156 of other or no religion. The most noteworthy features of these figures pany did everything possible to keep mission- is that while the Evangelicals and the Catho- aries out of India; now the British East African lics have grown in equal proportions, the Company has invited the Church Missionary number of " other" Christians has increased Society to place missionaries at all the stations in much larger proportion. This is evidence of the company as fast as they are opened. sufficient that the propaganda made by the various denominations of England and Ameri- Italy.-Ten thousand Italian priests cain Germany has not been unsuccessful. This have secretly signed a petition to the govern- is one of the factors that is slowly but evi- ment praying for protection against the tyr- dently surely at work toward the disestablish- annyof the Vatican. They have been prom- ment of the Protestant Church of the land of ised assistance by several deputies, who will Luther. plead their cause in Parliament.
-The Sixty-sixth Annual Report of the Japan.-It is said that there are more Berlin Society for the Promotion of Christian- than 1,000 pnpils in a single, rapidly-growing ity amongst the Jews shows than two mission- Sunday-school in Okayanla, Japan. aries and one colportenr are employed by the Society, and that its income during the year -Results oCa Japanese Earthquake, Ac- 1888 amounted to 25,593 marks 42 pfennigs cording to the official return of the damage (about £1,279), which, with a balance of caused by the recent earthqnake at Kumamo- 46,34i marks 54 pfennigs from 1887, made the to, in Southem Japan, the loss in that pre- total receipts of the year 71,925 marks 1 pfen- fecture alo!le-an area ronghly equal to that nig. The expenditure was 41,219 marks 46 of a medium-sized English county – was as pfennigs, leaving a balance of 30,705 marks 55 follows: 234 houses completely ruined; 239 • pfennings in hand. Pastor Hausig, a former partially destroyed; 19 persons killed, and 58 missionary of the London Soci8ty, is secretary injured; at 893 places there were fissures in of the Berlin Society. the ground; roads were destroyed iu 137 places; forests injured at 17; building lots and – The Gustavus Adolphus Society, to carry cultivated land at 3,336 places, and embank- the gospel into Catholic countries, last year ments at 45 places; 24 bridges were entirely received $230,000, 01' $5,600,000 since 1832. The destroyed and 41 damaged, and the water in society has had 1,444 applications for aid from 138 wells became muddy and unfit for con- Roman Catholic countries. sumption.
Indla.-Perhaps one ofthe most notable Korea_A traveler in Korea writes: testimonies to the success of miSSionary labor "Buddha 'worship, as conducted among Koin India and other countries was made during reans, is a species of idol-worship. Diviners the recent Baptist Union Conference at Bir- walk the streets in the persons of blind men mingham, when Sir W. Hunter, before a gath- lTUh long staffs, W]lO anllounce their pl'esenee ering of 4,000 people, gave his experience of with a peculiar professional cry. Demonmissionary work. He simply dealt with the worship prevails in various superstitious pracnlatter as, to use his own term., "' a secular tices, to ward off disease and other ills of life." man and a layman," and in doing so pointed out that during the ten years from 1871 to 1881 Russia. – Twelve hundred converts the Christian popnlation of India had increased 64 per cent. as compared with the 11 have been baptized in the Baptist Mission in per cent. increase of the general popnlation, Russia in the past two years. The lliission is and that the Indian native Protestant Chris- principally among the German colonists in tians had now grown up into a native Protest- South Russia. There is also a snccessful misant Church, with their own pastors, number- sion in Ronmania and Bulgaria. ing 576, and their own native lay preachers, 2,756 in number. "Missionary work," he 8weden.-The minutes of tile Swedish added, "is one of the greatest and best works Augustana Synod gives 291 ministers, 582 conat present going on in India; it has been rich gregations, 425 church edifices and 191 parsonin results in the past, and is fraught with in- ages, valued at $2,503,304; 74,2,'J4 commnnicalcnlable blessings for the future." cants, 5,935 baptisms, 3,263 confirmations, 288 parochial teachers, and 11,506 pupils. Synodi· -The Mission College at Ahmednugar has cal treasury, $1,526.44; education, $16,414.4f; won for itself such a high place among the home missions, $15,901.63; foreign mission" govemment officials that they have increased $6,60•.39; orphan homes, church extensioll, their grant-in-aid nearly fourfold for a term etc., $27,749_54; congregational expense", of five years. The school for girls nnder the $511,986.40; total, $580,823.58. charge of the Misses Bissell, in their fine new. building, is a busy hive or Christian instruc- -Baptist progress in Sweden is one of the tion, full of hope and cheer. Five new village most remarkable religious movements of the churches have been organized during the year present time. Revivals are constant. In in the vicinity of Ahmednugar, Mr. Robert twenty years the nnmber of church members Hume.being specially active in mission work has advanced from 7,900 to 32,308. The bapin these rural districts." tisms in 1888 were 2,390.
-Seventy years ago the East India Com- -Swltzerland has 1,162 Sunday·schouls, with 5,459 teachers, and 84,000 scholars. Sweden has 3,340 Sunday-schools, -with 15,000 teachers and 220,000 scholars. Austria' has 140 Sunday-schools, with 312 teachers and 4,51!) scholars.